Omani mobile reseller Mazoon Mobile began offering services as the country’s third mobile reseller behind Friendi Mobile and Renna at the end of November, having announced inking a deal with Nawras to utilise the network operator’s infrastructure. Friendi Mobile and Renna services are hosted on Oman Mobile’s network.

Friendi Mobile was the first to launch commercially at the end of April, and has since gone on to garner close to 150,000 subscribers. Renna, which launched less than a month after Friendi counts around 100,000 users, translating to a combined mobile market share of 7-8 per cent.

Given the presence of two existing resellers in Oman, as well as a further sub-brand launched by Friendi in collaboration with a local Omani radio station, it is hard to see where Mazoon is likely to pick subscribers up from.

“The point is we will need to differentiate,” commented Mohamed Al Hashili, CEO of Mazoon Mobile recently. “There is already a lot of activity in the market and we need to build a relationship with customers that they do not already have with any of our competitors,” he added without offering any specific examples.

Another concern Mazoon is likely to face is the fact that projected ARPU levels at the initial two resellers are understood to be lower than initially anticipated, resulting in the requirement for more subscribers to need to be added to their services in order for the operations to break even.

“While we have been surprised and delighted by the number of subscribers we have been able to add since launch, I will say that we are slightly behind or just on par on ARPU levels,” Niklas Nielsen, CEO of Renna’s parent company Majan Telecom said. “Despite this, we shall become cash flow positive by next year.”

Independent consultants have estimated that it now takes the addition of 170,000-200,000 subscribers in order for a reseller in Oman to become profitable, when that figure had originally been estimated at around 100,000. To compound matters further, it is understood that Nawras is required by the regulator to licence one more reseller, a development that is expected imminently.

Orange Jordan is reported to have asked the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), for an extension on the launch of its 3G network, originally expected to take place in February. The company’s CFO Rasian Diranieh is reported to have said he did not expect the network to be launched in the first quarter of the year because of delays in receiving the requisite frequencies.

The TRC has dismissed Orange’s claims, saying that 3G frequencies in all areas where Orange planned to launch have been released.

Orange Jordan was granted a 12-month exclusivity period commencing on the day of commercial launch, with commercial launch having to be a maximum six months after the telco submitted its bid for the 3G licence. As this was done mid-August, the expectation was that Orange would look to commercialise service by the middle of February 2010.

No bid bond was instituted, which is typically linked to the requirement to meet a launch date, though a real commercial penalty may exist should Orange not meet its February launch schedule. The exclusivity period is set to commence counting down from the middle of February 2010 whether the operator launches or not. That is to say, should it launch later, it would face a shorter period of exclusivity in which to establish its 3G offerings.

Palestine’s second mobile operator, Wataniya Palestine has added more than 70,000 subscribers since launching commercial services at the end of October, according to Qtel Group CEO, Nasser Marafih.

“The market traction is good and we expect further growth to be strong,” Marafih told Comm. in a wide-ranging interview. Qtel Group is the parent company of Wataniya.

The incumbent operator in Palestine is Jawwal and according to the Mobile World subscriber database, the operator is estimated to have just over one million subscribers. Within the Palestinian Territories though, some 1.7 million mobile phones are in use and this is due to the Israeli networks “leaking” over the borders and providing service to Palestinians.

Wataniya Palestine is 40 per cent owned by Wataniya International. Thirty per cent will be offered to the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and 30 per cent is owned by the general public through an IPO.

The operator began commercial operations with 40,000 users who had registered during a promotional campaign launched in September.

Qtel Group and Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) have announced a long term collaboration to create a mobile innovation ecosystem for the Middle East and North Africa region. This association combines Qtel Group’s position and regional footprint in 17 markets, with the facilities and services for mobile technology that QSTP provides.

With a shared vision to create a bigger mobile industry for the region, the partnership offers new opportunities for the regional developers’ community to come together, and to establish links with their peers outside the region.

It also aims to develop relevant and localised mobile innovations in several areas, such as healthcare, education, banking and other vertical industries. Furthermore, the collaboration will also attract new talent, businesses, skills, and technologies into Qatar.

The Qtel and QSTP collaboration is positioning itself to boost the industry in the region by promoting the development of new mobile applications to drive consumer uptake of more advanced mobile services and local mobile content in the future.

Alan Horne’s three-year tenure as the director general of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), Bahrain has ended, and Horne has said he is in the process of assessing other opportunities, some of which exist in the region. Horne has been in the telecommunications industry for more than 30 years. He started his career with British Telecom moving on to Phillips and Mitel Telecom. He founded InterConnect Communications in 1984 and grew the company into an internationally renowned consultancy advising on all matters in telecommunications regulation.

In 2001 Horne sold the company to Telcordia Technologies of the US. He has advised boards of operators in such matters as preparation for liberalisation and privatisation; enterprises on benefiting through the use of new competitive services and technologies; and governments on establishing independent regulators.

Horne’s responsibilities as director general are now being handled by the chairman of the TRA, Mohammed Ahmed Al Amer.