Etisalat is reported to have topped the bidding for the third mobile licence in Iran. The concession will be ratified upon confirmation from Iran’s communications minister.

  The UAE-based company is reported to have beaten consortia fronted by Omantel and an unspecified Malaysian company, to win the licence.

Etisalat is believed to hold a 49 per cent stake in the winning consortium, the remainder being held by Iranian Tamin Telecom. The country’s second mobile operator MTN Irancell has a similar shareholder structure, with the South Africa operator MTN holding a 49 per cent share in the mobile operator and the remainder being held by the Iranian government.

Tender documents for the licence went on sale on September 6, though details of when the process officially closed and what the licence terms and conditions were remained murky. Earlier advice from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) noted that the new licence would include access to 3G spectrum for an exclusive period.

The third entrant will compete with the state-backed Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI), which operates both a fixed-line and mobile network. The second operator is MTN Irancell. Mobile penetration in Iran stood at over 50 per cent end-June, with TCI serving 24.6 million subscribers and MTN Irancell having been able to garner 11.6 millions customers at that time, having launched commercially late in 2006. Thus MTN Irancell enjoyed a market share in excess of 30 per cent.

For the quarter to end-September, MTN reported that subscriber numbers in Iran had risen 13 per cent to 13.14 million.

While the new entrant is only expected to come to market in the second half of 2009, the incumbents look determined to continue building their own business strategies in order to remain relevant in the market. MTN Irancell has been extremely successful so far in capturing market share within two years of operation. This success has been partly attributed to an aggressive ‘buy one, get one free’ campaign, competitive SIM pricing, strong branding and promotional tariff plans.

The gloves are off in Qatar, with incumbent Qtel offering customers free landline connections and three months free rental. This development comes as Vodafone Qatar prepares to launch mobile services in Q109 and fixed-line services later in the year.

Qtel is ramping up the defense of its landline market before the launch of Vodafone, with savings of QAR299 (US$82) available for new landline customers.

Qtel’s promotion follows a string of heavily discounted mobile and fixed offers, and network improvements in the past few months. These include Qtel doubling mobile broadband speeds, offering a free WiFi router for all ADSL connections, upgrading its HSDPA network, and providing the cheapest broadband prices found in the Gulf.

Qtel customers have until the end of February to take advantage of the current promotion, with savings of QAR299 (US$82) on offer. A free connection will save customers QAR200, while three free months of line rental is worth QAR99. This is in addition to free local landline calls.

There are approximately 250,000 landlines in Qatar at present, representing a penetration rate of 30 per cent.

Parties interested in participating in India’s long-anticipated 3G auction have two weeks until entries close on January 5, 2009, with the auction scheduled to commence on January 16.

The reserve price for 3G licences in metro and category A circles will be set at INR 1.6 billion (US$34 million)

The country’s auction for WiMAX will also take place two days following the sale of the 3G licences. Continue reading →

Beleaguered telecoms vendor Nortel continues to fight for its survival, and is currently in the process of reviewing its stock market listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), given its depressed stock price.

The NYSE requires stocks to generally trade above US$1.00, and Nortel’s stock price has failed to do this for more than 30 consecutive days. The vendor’s current NYSE stock price is US$0.31 

In an email to Nortel staff seen by Comm., Ronald Alepian, Nortel’s vice president of corporate communications confirmed late last week that on December 10 the vendor had received notice from the NYSE that Nortel’s stock had fallen below the continued listing standards.

“In other words, the average closing price has been under US$1.00 for 30 consecutive trading days and we need to either remedy this or face the possibility of being delisted,” Alepian explained. “This is a technical trigger, and is not associated to any other news stories…Legal and finance teams are reviewing options, which could include a stock consolidation, similar to what we did in 2006. No decisions have been made and the NYSE does give us six months to work this through – we will take our time and do what is right,” he added.

Nortel stated that it would notify the NYSE within the required ten business day period that it intends to cure the deficiency.  If the average closing price does not sufficiently improve, Nortel may consider presenting a proposal to its shareholders for a consolidation of its outstanding common shares at its annual meeting planned for spring 2009. 

Last week Comm. reported how in the quarter ending September 30, Nortel endured its largest quarterly loss in seven years amounting to US$3.413 billion, from a loss of US$113 million in the previous quarter and a profit of US$27 million a year ago.

At the time of going to press on December 17, Nortel’s share price on the NYSE stood at US$0.31.

Alepian attempted to end his correspondence to rattled Nortel staff on a positive note. “I’m not blind to the challenges we are facing and the obstacles to growth, but I am also conscious of people’s ability to pool their resources, set their targets on clear goals and reach them. We’ve seen it time and time again across Nortel.”

Zain announced today the commencement of commercial services in Ghana with the launch of a 3.5G network. Zain Ghana will offer its customers high-speed Internet access and for the first time in the country, the ability to make video-calls and use rich multimedia content including sending video clips and music. Today marks the launch in Accra, the country’s capital city, and with over US$420 million invested in network infrastructure, Zain will be rolling out the network rapidly across the country.

Zain Africa CEO, Chris Gabriel offers a hand selling some of the first Zain SIMs in Ghana

The launch in Ghana brings the number of countries in which Zain’s ‘One Network’ roaming service operates to 17.  At launch, Zain customers in Ghana can access the One Network service when travelling to Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda with plans to be fully operational in all other ‘One Network’ countries by the end of the year.

Prior to the today’s launch, Zain Ghana undertook a pre-registration campaign allowing aspiring customers to be the first recipients of a Zain mobile number. The operation is supported by call centres that are open twenty four hours, seven days a week and offer service in English and two of the most widely spoken local languages in West Africa – Akan and Hausa.

Ghana’s incumbent mobile operators are Kasapa, MTN, One Touch (Ghana Telecom/Vodafone) and Tigo (Millicom Ghana). Western Telecom Systems (Westel), which already operates a fixed facility, is yet to launch a mobile telephone network, months after it received the country’s fifth such licence. Nigeria’s Globacom was also awarded a mobile licence earlier this year, ahead of Warid Telecom.

According to figures from the Mobile World database, the country only had 7.6 million subscribers at the end of 2007, representing a mobile penetration rate of approximately 33 per cent.