Etisalat yet to get an IDEA about Indian Telecom Market

There are lot of speculations in market about UAE telecom major Etisalat's India plans. Some says, like Telenor, it is planning to quit the Indian market while others say that it  plans to invest in India's Idea Cellular. Still others are talking about Etisalat striking a deal with India's Reliance Communications this year. While asserting that it is keeping its options open regarding investment in the fast-growing Indian telecom market, Etisalat is not responding to other speculations. It seems Etisalat is yet to get an IDEA on how to succeed in Indian Telecom Market

Etisalat already has a presence in the Indian market as Etilsalat DB Telecom India Pvt Ltd, which was earlier known as Swan Telecom. On June 3, Etisalat Chairman Mohammed Omran revealed that the telecom firm was evaluating several Indian telecom firms for a possible stake acquisition, but had not reached a final decision.  Etisalat is also waiting for the issuance of tender requirements by the Syrian government that will enable it to bid for Syria's third mobile license.

Beyond MTN & Zain - Bharti, BSNL & MTNL have opportunity in Egypt

Egypt will offer two licenses to provide telecommunications services for upscale suburbs outside the capital, including fixed lines. The is move expected to bring in $1 billion worth of investments over the next five years. The licenses will be granted to a pair of consortia to operate so-called "triple-play" services that group internet, cable TV and phone services within such communities springing up around Cairo and elsewhere in the country.

The move marks the first potential crack in the state-owned Telecom Egypt's total monopoly over fixed line communications, though for now the services are only for within these communities.
The companies will not be required to submit an upfront payment, but the licenses would be based on a revenue sharing program in which the government would get 8 percent of the proceeds of operations within these compounds. Telecom Egypt would still operate in these communities, including fixed line services.

It is said that the bids are due on Jan. 12 and the decisions would be made in the second half of 2010. The communities affected are those which house between 50 to 5,000 units, while larger communities would be served by Telecom Egypt.

The move by the government comes as the country has been grappling with the fallout from the economic meltdown. While Egypt has fared better than many other nations, with officials projecting economic growth of over 5 percent for the fiscal year ending next June, it has still struggled with slumping foreign investment as the world's worst economic recession in decades has prompted investors to tighten their purse strings.

Over the last few years, Cairo has been expanding and its developers have invested billions of dollars in new housing communities in the desert catering to upper- and middle-income Egyptians.
The government's move also indicates a shift in the responsibility for providing infrastructure from the state to private developers.

Opportunity bells are ringing for Indian Telcos like Bharti, BSNL & MTNL who are desperate to invest abroad.

Zain and the art of network expansion

I like this company's approach. If there is an opportunity, grab it.
Zain (formerly known as MTC) is a leading emerging markets player in the field of mobile telecommunications. The company was established in 1983 in Kuwait. It has grown exponentially becoming the 4th largest telecommunications company in the world in terms of geographic presence with a footprint in 22 countries spread across the Middle East and the African continent.
As of 8 September 2007, Zain became the company’s new corporate master brand name. Currently, the company is present in 7 Middle Eastern (inclusive of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and 15 sub-Saharan African countries (inclusive of the recent Ghana licence acquisition on October 22, 2007) with over 15,000 employees and 44 million active individual and business customers. The company operates under the Zain brand name in Kuwait, Sudan, Jordan, Iraq and Bahrain. In Lebanon the company operates as mtc-touch. The company plans to commence operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the first half of 2008 under the Zain brand.
In Africa, Zain operates under the Celtel brand (www.celtel.com) currently in 14 sub-Saharan African countries namely: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Celtel is the most successful pan-African mobile network, offering telecommunications services to more people in Africa than any other network. The addition of Ghana will expand Celtel’s presence to 15 countries.
The company had a market capitalization of over USD 26 billion on 1 January, 2008.

What's latest? Well Zain in Saudi Arabia had granted Nokia Siemens Networks a new greenfield contract that includes multi-year managed services, network operations and maintenance services.
The USD 935 million turnkey contract includes a full turnkey 2G and 3G mobile network, network planning, implementation, project management, systems integration, logistics management, multi-vendor maintenance, field services and network optimization for the base station sites.
Under the terms of the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will provide to Zain in Saudi Arabia 2G and 3G mobile network technologies, including HSDPA and HSUPA, based on the latest base station design and distributed architecture for both radio access and core networks according to the 3GPP release 4 standard.
The compact Flexi base station design enables the customer to save significantly on capital and operational expenditure and allows for a fast rollout. With the distributed architecture of its mobile softswitch and multimedia gateway, Nokia Siemens Networks is able to offer Zain in Saudi Arabia a cost optimized core network solution with a fast rollout to enable new advanced services for subscribers.

Saudi Telecom Co. makes back door entry into Indian Telecom market

In a deal that gives it indirect entrance into the high-growth Indian Telecom market, Saudi Arabia's largest carrier Saudi Telecom Co. has bought a 25-percent piece of Malaysia's Maxis Communications for $3 billion.
As a result of this purchase, Saudi Telecom Co. will own 18.5 percent of GSM carrier Aircel, which is 74-percent owned by Aircel. Aircel provides services in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and the North-East. It has a subscriber base of 5.5 million.
Saudi Telecom reportedly had been considering India for some time, this purchase is the first major investment outside Saudi Arabia for the government-owned carrier. "
Officials in the Middle Eastern country apparently have the same concerns over a national telco having ties with foreign carriers, but it looks like those concerns weren't enough to kill the deal. The deal may raise eyebrows of security concerns in India. I will be posting the developments on the blog

Saudi telecom to buy 25% of Maxis Communications

Saudi Telecom Co, the largest phone company in Saudi Arabia, bought 25 per cent of Malaysia's biggest mobile-phone operator Maxis Communications Bhd to reach out to more subscribers. Saudi Telecom paid 11.4 billion riyals ($3 billion) for the acquisition, its first major foreign purchase, the company said on Tuesday in a statement posted on the Saudi stock market Web site. The deal will give the company access to a market of 1.4 billion people. “The transaction will be financed through borrowing and self-financing,” the state-controlled company said. Phone companies in Persian Gulf monarchies are expanding as domestic markets mature and demand increases. Saudi Telecom competes with Etihad Etisalat in Saudi Arabia. A third mobile-phone company, Saudi Mobile Telecommunications Co, will enter the market next year.



Saudi Telecom was looking at markets in the Middle East and Asia, and this purchase makes sense because both markets share the same culture, and Maxis services a huge population in Malaysia, India and soon Singapore. The transaction would value Maxis at about $12 billion. Maxis is controlled by T Ananda Krishnan, Malaysia's second-richest man.



I was thinking why the Indian companies are not aggressively moving into the South East Asian, Middle Eastern and African markets. They are rather agreesively fighting for the telecom space within India, in the process cutting each others margins heavily. The rates of telecom services in India are too low and the companies should start looking out of India, instead of chopping each others profits within India.

Saudi Arabia's Cellular operator 'Hits' planning to create a pan-African network!

Saudi Arabia cellular carrier Hits has set up an African subsidiary funded with $1 billion and chartered to attempt to create a pan-Africa company operating across eight countries by 2012.
The new unit - Hits Africa - starts out life with a controlling stake in Liberian mobile operator Liberiacel, to soon be renamed Hits Liberia; Hits bought the Liberia property in March. The company reportedly is on the verge of receiving licenses in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, and it says it is seeking more in at least four other countries, reportedly including Nigeria, Niger, Burundi and Ethiopia. Hits' goal is said to be to create the "first African converged player" with between 4 million and 6 million subscribers within five years.
The new African unit of Hits reportedly already has put together the team it expects to use to build its African empire. That group starts with China's Huawei, which apparently will provide the wireless network hardware. Others chosen include Devoe Team, a French company specializing in technical project management solutions; project management company MCM of Singapore; and telecom legal consultant Squire Sanders.