In direct competition to Orange Jordan and Wataniya Palestine’s strategic agreement signed last week, Zain Jordan has announced a partnership with Paltel which will allow the Palestinian operator to become a member of Zain’s extensive ‘One Network’ roaming service.

Zain Group CEO Al Barrak (centre) says Zain Jordan and Paltel are already acting in accord, as though a merger has been successfully completed

Orange and Wataniya created an alliance on January 19 which would see their customers on both sides of the Jordanian and Palestinian border call, receive and roam for only 12 piastres/85 agoras (US$0.17) per minute. Approximately 2.1 million subscribers would be able to take advantage of this strategic agreement.

In comparison, the Zain/Paltel deal will initially enable more than four million subscribers in both countries to pay local rates when roaming between Jordan and Palestine. Paltel’s mobile service Jawwal will join the network on February 1, with a view to its connection being expanded to all 22 other Zain One Network countries across the Middle East and Africa in the near future.

In addition Zain has revived its hopes of concluding its previously failed merger deal with Paltel by the end of 2010.

“We are now dealing as one company irrespective of ownership and as if we are two companies with one ownership until the merger is completed,” Zain CEO Saad al-Barrak stated.

In May 2009, Zain Group and Paltel signed an agreement for a cashless share-for-share exchange, which would have seen Zain take a majority interest in Paltel with an equity shareholding of 56.53 per cent, in exchange for Paltel owning 100 per cent of Zain Jordan. However, in November, the companies announced the planned merger was not ratified due to not receiving the required government approvals to complete the deal.

Togo Cellulaire (Togocel) today awarded a EUR 22 million (US$31 million) contract to Alcatel-Lucent to expand the mobile operator’s current GSM capacity and build the first 3G wireless broadband network in the West African nation. The new network will be deployed by end-2010, and will enable Togocel to offer advanced mobile broadband services.

Alcatel-Lucent will implement a full end-to-end turnkey solution including its converged radio access network (RAN) and transport solution based on 3G/HSPA technologies. The France-based vendor will also provide network planning, radio design and operation and maintenance optimisation.

Togocel was inaugurated in 1998 and is a subsidiary of Togo Telecom, the state-owned operator. With more than 1.6 million subscribers, 99 per cent of which are prepaid, it holds the lion share of the market with 75 per cent of subscribers, ahead of its only competitor Telecel Togo.

Zain Saudi Arabia said it is in discussions with creditors over missing some financial commitments last year, connected with a two-year US$2.5 billion Islamic loan. Zain CEO Saad Al Barrak stated the unmet commitment was not debt repayment, but related to performance ratios the mobile operator was expected to deliver to banks.

The company said its lenders pardoned it under the condition they agree to a financial plan for 2010.

According to a statement on the Saudi bourse website, Zain Saudi Arabia said its capacity "to ensure a timely delivery on commitments and to continue in its business, hinges on the firm’s ability to ensure adequate funds on time and also on its success in discussing and changing some of the commitments for the four quarters to end-December, 2010".

The kingdom’s third mobile operator, which currently holds an 18 per cent market share 15 months on from launching its operations, paid a massive US$6.1 billion for its 25-year licence in 2007.

The operator reduced its net loss by 29.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to SAR 657 million (US$175 million). Quarterly revenues more than doubled from the previous quarter to SAR 895 million. Its annual net loss for 2009 came to SAR 3.1 billion, 36 per cent larger than the SAR 2.28 billion loss in 2008.

Orange Jordan and recently-launched mobile operator Wataniya Palestine, have signed a strategic agreement that will allow their customers to call, receive and roam between Jordan and Palestine for only 12 piasters/85 agoras (US$0.17) per minute.

The two companies had been in talks over the deal for the past two years. Wataniya received its licence in September 2006 but was delayed in launching its operations earlier than last year because of challenges in receiving its required spectrum.

“The agreement is an alliance with lucrative economic return for all the parties involved and represents a high level of cooperation between the two operators, capitalising on the experience and close ties between the two closely related markets,” Orange Jordan CEO Nayla Khawam said in a statement.

Wataniya started operations at the end of October 2009 and has already accumulated 120,000 subscribers, and is aiming for 400,000 by the end of 2010. Orange Mobile has a customer base of more than two million.

The Palestinian operator is 40 per cent owned by Wataniya International, a subsidiary of  Qtel Group, with 30 per cent held by the Palestine Investment Fund and a further 30 per cent owned by the general public through an IPO.

This deal comes after the failure of Zain Jordan and Paltel to ratify a merger deal. In May, Zain Group and Paltel signed an agreement for a share-for-share exchange, which would have seen Zain take a majority interest in Paltel with an equity shareholding of 56.53 per cent, in exchange for Paltel owning 100 per cent of Zain Jordan. However, the companies did not receive the required government approvals to complete the deal and confirmed in late November that the planned merger would not eventuate.

Related stories:

Wataniya Palestine counts 70,000 subs after a month of activity

Zain/Paltel deal scuppered

Vodafone Qatar announced an operating loss of QAR 495.6 million (US$137 million) for the nine-months ending December 2009, owing to an increase in operational costs.

Revenues rose in Q409 to QAR 178 million, up from QAR 36 million the previous quarter, based mainly on a surge in customer numbers. The operator ended 2009 with 353,580 subscribers, more than double the number during the quarter ending September. Vodafone’s subscribers represent 22 per cent of the population, but a market share of 14 per cent due to market saturation. The company’s long-term plan targets 700,00 subscribers by end-2012 and 1,618,000 by end-2018.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter was QAR 171 (US$47).

In December Vodafone’s network achieved 100 per cent coverage of the country, meeting the final obligation imposed by ictQATAR as part of the mobile license. In the last quarter of the financial year, ending March 2010, it will continue its progress in converting temporary cell sites to permanent ones.

Customers made heavy use of international calling promotions in the third quarter, making over 70 million minutes of international calls during November. The operator’s ongoing promotion of up to 300MB of free mobile Internet per month also prompted over 40 percent of Vodafone’s customers to make active use of this service, one of the highest concentrations in the Vodafone Group globally.

In the upcoming quarter the company plans to release BlackBerry and mobile broadband, followed by Vodafone Money Transfer, a mobile cash service, later in the year subject to regulatory approval. Other focuses for the mobile operator include more innovation with its payment and billing systems, complex enterprise solutions and the development of its fixed-line business.

The operator broke the Middle East’s last monopoly by winning the bid for the country’s second mobile licence for US$2.12 billion in 2007. It switched on its networks in March 2009, however, a full commercial launch did not take place until July.