Uninor, Telenor’s venture in India, has added 1.2 million subscribers within its first month of operation. While the company has spectrum to roll out mobile services in 21 of India’s 22 telecommunications circles, the first stage of its launch began in eight circles.

Uninor operates out of 11 regional offices and in less than one year has recruited more than 1800 employees

Services were launched on December 3 in Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, followed by the Orissa circle on December 22.

"We are building on our launch – scaling up our network and our distribution. We will continue to focus on customer experience and compete for every new subscriber. In a competitive market it will never be easy, but we have a long term ambition and we have made a positive start," stated Stein-Erik Vellan, managing director of Uninor. "Considering that our subscribers currently come from only eight circles, of which one was launched towards the end of the month, these numbers are encouraging," he added.

Uninor launched its services with two price plans – a base plan called talklonger@29p designed for customers who make longer calls and a subscription plan called callmore@29p for those who call more often.

Egypt’s telecom regulator today postponed the bid deadline for two cable, voice and Internet licences from yesterday, January 12, to a new date of March 15.

"The authority’s decision on this matter came in response to the request of more than 50 per cent of the companies that bought the bid documents for the two licences," Amr Badawi, head of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority told Egyptian press.

Analysts believe the licences’ limitation in geographical scope and range of services does not pose much of a competitive threat to state-dominated Telecom Egypt’s fixed-line monopoly.

Less than a month after being fined OMR100,000 (US$260,000) by Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) over a complaint by Injaz International Telecom Company that it had refused to conclude an agreement to provide resale services, network operator Nawras has concluded an agreement with Injaz.

Injaz becomes the fifth licensed reseller in Oman behind Friendi Mobile, Renna, Mazoon and Samatel, with three of the licensees currently operational. Amongst them they count fewer than 300,000 mobile subscribers, representing a market share of around 10 per cent. Friendi Mobile and Renna utilise Oman Mobile’s network in order to offer their respective services, while the other three resellers purchase capacity from Nawras.

“Competition is going to be very tough and I doubt that all five resellers will succeed,” commented a telecom insider in Oman. “The resellers that launched first will be anticipating a challenging 2010 with all the new players entering the market.”

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) announced Ghassan Hasbani has been appointed CEO of its international operations, as part of the group’s new organisational structure.

Hasbani is well-known within in the regional telecom sphere through his role at management consulting firm Booz & Company’s Middle East Communications and Technology practice. He frequently published papers on the industry and is a regular commentator at conferences and events.

"We are pleased to announce this appointment, which will further strengthen the focus on our international operations as a growing global operator," stated Saud Al Daweesh, STC’s group CEO. "Our new group organisational structure underscores our commitment to strengthen and develop our international assets, while providing the right focus on our home market."

STC has expanded internationally in the past two years through a series of acquisitions and licences covering Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Turkey, South Africa, Kuwait and Bahrain. The group today serves more than 70 million subscribers around the world.

Hasbani has previously held several positions within the industry in the UK with Cable & Wireless and Nortel Networks, and spent the past ten years operating within the Middle East region. His global experience also includes markets such as Europe, South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

"I am looking forward to being part of the STC leadership team during this important phase of the company’s development on the global arena," commented Hasbani. "The priority is to ensure that all operations work together in harmony and collectively drive the creation of value for individual companies as well as the group".

Zain has extended its mobile banking footprint across Africa, with the launch of Zap services in Niger and Sierra Leone, as well as a full commercial pilot taking place in Malawi. This move follows the launch of services in February 2009 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, where more than 10 million people have already used the service.

Using Zain’s continental reach, Zap’s mobile commerce facilities are now accessible to more than 150 million people in six countries, making the Bahrain-based operator the largest mobile commerce service provider in the world based on geographic coverage, enabled customers and service functionalities.

Subscribers can use their Zap-enabled mobile phone to withdraw cash or pay for goods or services such as school fees and utility bills, to send and receive money between people, to access funds and manage their bank accounts, as well as top-up their own or somebody else’s airtime.

This expansion comes in direct competition with fellow heavyweight in Africa, MTN, which announced its MobileMoney service one month after Zap’s initial launch in March 2009, claiming the largest deployment of mobile wallet services at the time. The deal was worth US$9.7 million and aimed to enable more than 80 million MTN subscribers across 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East to access mobile banking services.

However, according to MTN’s website, almost one year later services have only been rolled out in Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda.