MVNOs FRiENDi and Majan to launch in Oman early 2009

The first mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) for the Middle East will launch in Oman in early 2009, the company CEOs confirmed today.

MVNO CEO Panel: Mikkel Vinter of FRiENDi Mobile, Faisal Al Bannai of Axiom Telecom, Abdul Hameed Al Sunaid of i2 and Niklas Nielsen of Majan Telecom, with conference chairman Zoran Vasiljev, director of telecom practice at Arthur D. Little.

Speaking as part of an MVNO panel at the Telecoms World conference in Dubai, FRiENDi Mobile’s Mikkel Vinter and Majan Telcom’s Niklas Nielsen stated they were preparing their service rollouts.

Connect Arabia – the local company which will operate under the FRiENDi banner, and Majan Telecom, which will launch under the brand Renna, were two of five successful bidders to obtain Class 2 licenses in the sultanate in July. A sixth licence was awarded in October to an unidentified company.

The licences allow FRiENDi and Majan to purchase bulk minutes from Oman’s two incumbent mobile operators, repackage them and then sell them to the end-user.

FRiENDi and Majan will piggyback off Omantel’s network. The Omani operator’s CEO Mohammed Al Wohaibi previously told Comm. it will announce agreements with MVNOs by the end of the year, while Ross Cormack, CEO of the country’s second mobile operator Nawras stated that no agreements had been made with resellers.

Also on the panel was Faisal Al Bannai, the CEO of Dubai-based Axiom Telecom, one of the largest authorised distributor and retailer of mobile phones in the Middle East in both branded and partner outlets.

Al Bannai stated that while his company has not acquired a reseller license yet, it is pursuing opportunities in India, where in July Axiom formed a 50/50 joint venture with the leading reseller in the world’s second largest market, Pantaloon Retail.

Axiom will soon have 500 points of presence across India and is banking on its combination of strong brand presence and distribution outlets. It is also considering opportunities in other countries where it has a footprint such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt.

Abdul Hameed Al Sunaid, the chief executive of i2, another leading mobile retailer in the Middle East, stated his company has an MVNO licence in Jordan but is yet to reach an agreement with an existing operator.