North Korea’s nascent mobile operator, and the country’s first private player, is reported to have added 20,000 subscribers, having launched at the end of last year. The customers are reported to include foreigners allowed to work in the country.

Last year, Orascom Telecom, which owns 75 per cent of the mobile network joint venture through its CHEO Technology subsidiary, said that it expected to sign up an initial 100,000 subscribers within the first few months of commercial launch.

Network coverage, which includes 3G, has been extended beyond Pyongyang and now reported to include the main road running up to the northern city of Hyangsan. National coverage is expected by 2012.

The remaining 25 per cent of the network operator is owned by the state owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation.

Mobile communications were only introduced into North Korea in 2003, but their use was initially restricted to government officials.

Axiom Telecom, today confirmed it is to open 135 new retail outlets in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, predominantly in India and Saudi Arabia, pushing its total number of retail outlets in the region past the 900 mark.

The significant expansion is in line with the company’s growth strategy, which prioritises development in core markets.

Faisal Al Bannai once harboured ambitions to launch a regional MVNO

Axiom has also confirmed its operations in Egypt will shift focus and resources towards high growth opportunities within the telecoms sector with its strategic partner Etisalat. Axiom will continue to provide after-sales service to its customers with a two-year warranty through service centres in Shobra and Alexandria.

Company CEO, Faisal Al Bannai, has said that the next 12 months will see appreciable consolidation across the region’s mobile phone sector. He believes this will provide further market share opportunities for Axiom, which has strong cash flow.

“We want to be the market leader in every country in which we operate. Our strategy is to be the best, not to be present in every country for the sake of market representation,” Al Bannai said.

The announcement of the expansion in its network is an impressive bounce-back from last July when it made several senior and junior staff redundant. Prior to that wave of redundancies Axiom counted 1,700 employees across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, London, Egypt and India.

Africa’s largest mobile operator MTN Group has re-shuffled its key management in its African subsidiaries, the with company’s president and CEO, Phuthuma Nhleko, saying the appointments will go a long way towards helping MTN to achieve its vision of being the leading telecoms player in emerging markets.

Themba Khumalo, the current CEO of MTN Rwanda is to take over as the new CEO of MTN Uganda. Previously Khumalo was an executive at MTN South Africa before his appointment as CEO of MTN Swaziland.

Khaled Mikkawi, former CEO of the MTN operation in Liberia, will become the CEO of MTN Rwanda. Mikkawi was with Investcom for nine years before the company was acquired by MTN in 2006.

Erik van Veen, the current COO of MTN Uganda, is the new CEO of MTN Zambia.

MTN Guinea Bissau CEO, Frans Joubert, has been appointed CEO of MTN’s operation in Liberia. Anthony Masozera, the current CFO for MTN Rwanda, will become the new CEO of MTN Guinea Bissau, while Wim Vanhelleputte has been appointed CEO of MTN Côte d’Ivoire. Vanhelleputte joined MTN from another mobile operator where he served as CEO.

Qatar’s telecoms regulator, ictQATAR has amended the licence awarded to Vodafone, granting the licensee an additional six months to achieve national coverage requirements. Under the terms of its original licence Vodafone Qatar was required to achieve 98 per cent population coverage and launch full services by March 1, 2009. The revised terms require 98 per cent coverage by September 1, 2009 and the commercial launch of services by July 1, 2009.

ictQATAR says that it took the decision to amend the licence due to the unforeseen delays experienced by Vodafone Qatar in agreeing interconnection with Qtel as well as site sharing arrangements. Only last month did Vodafone enter a tower sharing deal with Qtel and confirm an interconnect agreement.

“Despite the fact that Vodafone Qatar has not met the initial target dates set out in its licence, ictQATAR is satisfied with the progress that has been made on network development and interconnection with Qtel, and looks forward to the launch of competitive telecommunications service in Qatar in the near future,” commented Hessa Al-Jaber, ictQATAR secretary general

Following the licence term amendments, ictQATAR decided not to cash the performance bonds it holds against Vodafone Qatar’s coverage obligations amounting to QAR 110 million (US$30 million). ictQATAR plans to continue to hold these performance bonds as security to ensure the revised coverage obligations are met.

Research In Motion (RIM) reported results for the three months and fiscal year ended February 28, 2009, showing revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 was US$3.46 billion, up 24.5 per cent from the previous quarter and up 84 per cent year-on-year.

The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 83 per cent for devices, 12 per cent for service, 2 per cent for software and 3 per cent for other revenue. Revenue for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2009 was US$11.07 billion, up 84 per cent year-on-year. RIM shipped approximately 7.8 million devices in the fourth quarter and approximately 26 million devices during fiscal 2009.

Looking ahead into fiscal 2010, Balsillie sees exceptional opportunities for RIM and its partners to leverage the investments and success of the past year to continue growing market share and profitability

Approximately 3.9 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was approximately 25 million.

“RIM experienced an extraordinary year in fiscal 2009, shipping our 50 millionth BlackBerry smartphone and generating US$11 billion in revenue. Looking ahead into fiscal 2010, we see exceptional opportunities for RIM and its partners to leverage the investments and success of the past year to continue growing market share and profitability,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM.

Net income for the quarter was US$518.3 million, compared with net income of US$396.3 million in the prior quarter and net income of US$412.5 million in the same quarter last year. For the fiscal year 2009, net income was US$1.89 billion, up 46.3 per cent over fiscal 2008.

Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 ending May 30, 2009 is expected to be in the range of US$3.3-US$3.5 billion. Gross margin for Q1 is expected to be approximately 43-44 per cent. Net subscriber account additions in the first quarter are expected to be between 3.7 – 3.9 million.