A new report by the Arab Advisors Group shows that by the end of 2009, 29 operators across 13 Arab countries offered 3G/3.5G mobile services. Additionally, more operators are expected to commercially launch in 2010 including Orange Jordan, Tunisie Orange Telecom and Wataniya Mobile in Palestine.

The most popular third generation services offered were mobile Internet, followed by video calling and mobile TV.  Arab Advisors senior research analyst Danya Nusseir, stated that all operators offered mobile Internet, 22 operators offered video calling, while mobile TV is offered by 13 operators.

Nusseir added that by the end of last year, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen were the Arab countries without commercial 3G/3.5G services.

Vodafone will deploy the hugely-successful M-PESA mobile banking service in South Africa, the operator has announced.

The M-PESA service was developed by Vodafone and has already been deployed by Safaricom in Kenya – where it has become a flagship model for m-commerce services, Vodafone in Tanzania and Roshan in Afghanistan. More than 11 million subscribers already use the M-PESA mobile money service.

The operator plans to serve the approximately 26 million people in South Africa without official bank accounts. Currently roughly 60 per cent of residents use formal bank accounts, whereas the mobile penetration rate among the adult population is more than 94 per cent.

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Paying the piper – mobile-assisted banking

Iraqi mobile operator Asiacell, part of the Qtel group, has signed a strategic agreement with a consortium of banks called Amwal to offer mobile money services in Iraq.

Under the terms of the agreement, Asiacell will be the first mobile company in the country to provide advanced commercial banking and transaction services accessed via mobile phones. Prepaid customers will be able to use their handsets to directly purchase airtime, buy goods and services from registered merchants, check their bank account balances, and make mobile-to-mobile and bank account-to-bank account money transfers.

All transactions will be linked directly with subscribers’ bank accounts at Amwal member banks, using a highly-secure, reliable transaction system.

Asiacell provides network coverage for all of the country’s provinces and serves more than seven million subscribers. It is the largest private Iraqi company.

The Qtel Group has announced its intentions to launch mobile money services throughout its international operations, covering a regional footprint of 17 countries across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, and serving a subscriber base of more than 53 million customers.

Qtel’s mobile money proposition includes secure international mobile remittance, mobile payment and mobile recharge facilities. The group hopes to capitalise on the millions of dollars remitted from the Gulf region to Asian countries ever year by expatriate workers.

"There is a significant community of under-banked and unbanked segments in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, and mobile money services will play an increasingly important role in addressing their needs,” commented group chief executive Nasser Marafih.

“With our presence across this region, and strong connectivity with key remittance markets such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, we are confident that the Qtel Group can play a key role in delivering mobile money services in a compelling and cost-effective manner,” he added.

Research from leading group Gartner suggests that more than three billion of the world’s adult population will be able to transact electronically via mobile or other Internet-based technology by 2014. India is one of the world’s biggest recipients of remittances, alongside China, with the total value of remittances reaching about US$50 billion by 2008. The total value of remittances to the Philippines was a record-setting US$16.4 billion in the same year.

Other operators already providing or intending to launch m-commerce services in the region include Zain, MTN, Safaricom, Etisalat, Viva and Vodafone.

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately-owned submarine cable operator and Du have signed an agreement whereby the UAE operator will be the landing party for GBI’s new submarine cable through Du’s newly built Fujairah Cable Landing Station.

Scheduled to launch in 2011 and designed to operate for up to 25 years, the GBI cable system will connect all the countries of the Gulf region with each other and provide onward connectivity to Europe and Asia.

The cable system has a capacity of up to five terabits per second on certain cable sections, allowing the system to meet the rapid growth in demand that has been forecast for traffic originating and terminating in the Gulf.

Other partners of the GBI Cable System include the Iraqi Telecom and Post Company, Vodafone Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s Integrated Telecom Company (ITC).