A bond prospectus issued by Etisalat has revealed an unusual debt problem with its subsidiary in Tanzania.

The bond prospectus was sent to investors as Etisalat is looking to raise funds to finance its US$5.6 billion acquisition of a 53 per cent stake in Maroc Telecom. As is usual with these documents, it lists any known risk factors that could affect the company.

Here it was revealed that an unidentified bank has issued a demand against Zanzibar Telecom for the repayment of a US$96 million bank loan after the local mobile network defaulted on payments.

Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel) has been struggling for some time against Vodacom and Airtel, and saw its customer base shrink last year, despite operating in a growing market with untapped potential customers.

"Zantel is currently in non-payment default under a bilateral bank facility," the bond prospectus stated, without elaborating on the details. It did warn though that "unless this default is remedied, the lender may take enforcement action against Zantel".

It is thought that Zanzibar Telecom is losing money. Although Etisalat does not break out the numbers in its financial statements, the clue is that the mobile network was left off the list of profitable operations.

Etisalat owns a 65 per cent stake in Zanzibar Telecom, with the rest evenly split between the government and another investor, Meeco International.

It ended last year with just 1.8 million customers, down sharply on the 3.1 million a year earlier. A SIM card registration push was blamed for most of the decline, although the shrinkage was lower at the rival networks.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE reported that as of May 18, 2014, 55,555 mobile numbers were successfully transferred out of the 190,185 mobile number porting requests received by telecom operators since the official launch of the mobile number portability (MNP) service in December 2013. The implementation process of the service has thus reached 30 per cent.

134,222 applications have been rejected, including applications that have been re-submitted more than once by the same owner of the mobile number. The reasons for rejection were identified under the service instructions that are available with service providers and focus on the mismatch of subscribers’ names with the applicants’ names, or non-completion of transfer request numbers.

Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has secured a US$15 million senior secured facility, with the cross-border agreement covering operations in Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and South Africa.

The Shariah-compliant financing was secured from the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME,) the largest Islamic bank in Europe, as part of a Murabaha agreement. The closing and initial drawdown has already been successfully concluded.

Ooredoo today announced that it has reached the milestone of more than three million customers in Qatar – the highest number ever recorded by the company.

The total customer base includes mobile, fixed line, broadband, entertainment and business solution customers, and the company has seen surging growth across all areas in 2014, driven by Ooredoo’s expanding portfolio of services and the on-going dynamism of Qatar’s economy.

Mobile service growth has been particularly strong, with Ooredoo now supporting more than 2.5 million mobile customers in Qatar. Ooredoo has successfully grown its base of post-paid customers over the past year, as Shahry has emerged as the fastest-growing mobile service in the country.

One of the most important factors driving the growth of Ooredoo’s customer base has been the rising use of data across business and customers throughout Qatar. Ooredoo is the data market leader in the leader, with 26 per cent year-on-year data revenue growth and 80 per cent mobile broadband penetration at the end of 2013.

Ooredoo passed the milestone of more than 100,000 fibre customers at the end of 2013. Ooredoo’s investment in Fibre will continue throughout 2014.

Huawei has seen the number of smartphones it sold jump 123 per cent in the big five European markets over the past year, and now holds three per cent share, securing a five per cent holding in both the German and Spanish markets.

Wiko, which also saw triple digit growth across Europe, holds an eight per cent share in France and is pushing ahead with expansion across untapped parts of Europe.

The UK market has not yet experienced the same levels of fragmentation as its European counterparts, but with Wiko set to make a push in the UK this year it will be interesting to see if it follows suit.

In China, local vendor Xiaomi outsold Samsung for the second time in April. Its budget Xiaomi RedMi was the top selling smartphone in China – the world’s largest smartphone market. Some 41 per cent of consumers who bought the Xiaomi RedMi were first time smartphone buyers, while 23 per cent were captured from Samsung by churning consumers.

OS shares across Europe have stabilised with Android holding its position as the number one operating system in Europe, with a 72.4 per cent share of the market. It is followed by Apple with a 17.5 per cent share, while in third place; Windows’ European market share stands at 8.4 per cent. In the UK, Android holds 58.2 per cent of the market and iOS 30.2 per cent, while Windows accounts for 9.5 per cent.