The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has received four bids from foreign companies for a 75 per cent stake in fixed line incumbent Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel). State-held Zamtel also owns mobile operator Cell-Z and Internet service provider Zamtel Online.

Originally eight companies expressed interest, however only India’s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Unitel of Angola and Libya-based LAP Greencom submitted offers before the deadline on December 23, 2009. A consortium between Russia’s Vimpelcom and the telecom arm of the Alfa Group, Altimo, sent a bid which reportedly arrived at ZDA’s offices five minutes after the tender closed. ZDA confirmed on January 1 that Altimo’s non-binding offer had been accepted.

The four offers are now being evaluated by the ZDA and Zamtel’s board, with an announcement due on January 11, over which companies will move forward in the privatisation process. A final due diligence will be conducted before a successful bidder is selected.

The other four companies short-listed in the process but which did not submit bids were South Africa’s Telkom, state-owned Indian operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Portugal Telecom and a consortium between Egypt-based Orascom Telecom and subsidiary Telecel Globe.

Zamtel is the third-placed mobile operator in Zambia, counting around 200,000 subscribers at the beginning of 2009. It competes with Zain and MTN in mobile services.

Bangladesh’s telecoms regulator has announced it will auction at least four blocks of 3G spectrum later this year, in an effort to attract billions of dollars of investment. The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said the 3G licensing guidelines would be finished by June 2010.

The regulator will also open up its international telecommunications gateway to the private sector, which would allow operators for the first time to lay underwater cables and connect terrestrial lines with India.

The announcement follows Indian giant Bharti Airtel receiving the green light to purchase 70 per cent of Warid Bangladesh for US$300 million. Unconfirmed sources say that UK’s Vodafone has approached the commission for a 3G licence.

Grameenphone leads the Bangladeshi market with 23 million subscribers and a market share of 45 per cent, followed by Orascom’s Banglalink with 25.7 per cent, Axiata with 17.54 per cent, Warid with 5.78 per cent, PBTL (Citycell) with 3.9 per cent, and finally Teletalk Bangladesh with 2.1 per cent market share.

The combined subscribers reach 52 million, equating to a mobile penetration rate of roughly 35 per cent. Analysts estimate the number of subscribers will exceed 100 million by 2015.

India’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel has received the approval from Bangladesh’s telecom authority to acquire a 70 per cent stake of Abu Dhabi Group’s Warid Telecom for US$300 million, making it the first Indian operator to enter the Bangladeshi market.

National telecom law states that 5.5 per cent of the sale price, US$16.5 million, must go to the regulator, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Warid has 30 days to submit a schedule of Bharti’s initial investment plan to the commission.

The sale by the Abu Dhabi Group’s stake appears to be part of a wider strategy to offload its offshore telecom investments. In November, the UAE-based company announced India’s Essar Group would acquire a 51 per cent stake in certain telecom operations in Africa. Essar Group was reported to be paying around US$150 million for stakes in Warid Telecom Uganda and Warid Telecom Congo. The enterprise valuation of the Uganda and Congo operations collectively was estimated at US$318 million.

Warid owns an additional investment in Pakistan, a joint venture with Singapore’s SingTel, and has not announced any plans to reduce its equity in this market. A statement on Warid Pakistan’s website posted late last year, denies media speculation over a possible merger with an unnamed entity.

Warid is the fourth largest mobile operator in Bangladesh, counting 2.92 million subscribers at the end of November 2009. It launched its operation in the South Asian market as the sixth operator in 2007, and has since invested US$600 million in growing its business. The service provider currently competes with Grameenphone, a Bangladesh-Norway joint venture, Egypt-based Banglalink, Malaysia-Japan joint venture Aktel, Bangladesh-Singapore joint venture Citycell and state-owned Teletalk.

Bharti Airtel provides telecom services within all of India’s 22 licensed circles, as well as in Sri Lanka. As of end-Q309, the operator served more than 113.43 million subscribers.

Low mobile penetration levels, competitive pricing and steady economic growth has enabled Bangladesh to grow from an overall mobile subscriber base of 200,000 in 2001, to 50.5 million as of end-November 2009. However, analysts predict price-warring between operators could fuel the number of customers to top 100 million by 2015.

Etisalat is reported to be withholding around US$1 billion in payments to the Pakistan government over a dispute relating to its 2006 purchase of a 26 per cent stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTCL). The dispute is reported to be over the ownership of several properties in Pakistan that were part of the deal.

According to the terms of the agreement, Etisalat was due to pay US$1.4 billion within one month after the signing of the deal and the remaining amount of US$1.2 billion was to be paid in equal instalments over four and a half years, with one instalment every six months. The National newspaper reported that around US$1 billion of those payments are now up to a year overdue.

“Transfer of land is part of the contract. It says if it doesn’t happen we can stop the payments,” Etisalat’s chairman, Mohammed Omran told the newspaper. Omran declined to confirm the number of properties in dispute. “We have estimates but we don’t want to discuss specific numbers outside for contractual reasons,” he said. “I can tell you the properties are in main cities and very valuable.”

PTCL’s mobile subsidiary, Ufone ended Q3 2009 with around 19.1 million subscribers, representing a market share of around 20 per cent.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Oman has fined Nawras OMR100,000 (US$260,000) over a complaint by Injaz International Telecom Company that Nawras had refused to conclude an agreement to provide resale service in accordance with the terms of the licence and the regulations of the TRA.

The TRA, after reviewing the facts, decided to impose the fine to be paid within one week from the decision. The regulator has also given Nawras 15 working days to conclude the resale agreement with Injaz under a plan presented to the TRA.

In its complaint to the TRA, Injaz asked it to call on Nawras to observe and keep to the licence issued to it and to sign an agreement in accordance with the requirements of the licence relating to the regulatory framework in force.

Injaz has also asked the TRA to address Nawras to apply solutions for the smart network that hosts Injaz to be able to launch its services. Nawras already has reseller agreements in place with service providers Mazoon and Samatel. The latter reseller is scheduled to launch services during the first quarter of next year.