GulfSutra: Middle East Telecom Report; Zain IPO; UAE-Censorship; Omantel Buys Pak Telco

AMEinfo has a series of articles on telecom in the Middle East, and two interesting pieces of information from a survey conducted by them: like in India, the non-voice segment is dominated by peer-to-peer SMS. However, the next most used feature (well, SMS is a service) is Bluetooth. Mobile Internet is used more than text alerts/downloads, and this might have something to do with the handsets in that market. Also, a majority of the consumers are spending around $150 per month on their mobile bill (charts here). There’s a series of articles that you may go through here, or a download compilation of the articles in a pdf format here (via Wireless Duniya). There’s also a conference in Abu Dhabi: “Connect: Strategic Telecoms Summit”, on the sidelines of the MECOM Expo, from 25-29 May 2008. Onwards to the key news, then:

Across the region
Middle East is a growing market for global broadcasting industries
Make money with TextTv in Middle East
Latest Killer Mobile Apps and those that failed to ignite in Middle East
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Zain public issue oversubscribed 269%
Mobily’s founders plan to sell 100 million shares
Mobily’s HSDPA Deployment
NSN Reseller Agreement Brings Airwide Mobile Apps to du, UAE
UAE
UAE censor targets Facebook, Myspace …also Twitter
Regulator Warns Etisalat and Du against offering services below cost
Cisco Announces Plan To Invest Up To US$1.59 Bln In UAE Over Five Years – Update
UAE leads e-commerce penetration among Arab states
IP video solutions co Optelecom-NKF opens office in Dubai
Kuwait
Vodafone eyeing stake in Kuwait’s Zain: paper
Wataniya Telecom Appoints Hamza Taqi As Managing Director
Wataniya Telecom Beats forecast with $78mn Q4 profit
Zain seeks full Iraq mobile coverage

News from Bahrain, Egypt, Oman, Qatar and Jordan in the extended text

Bahrain
Telco Nuetel Appoints CEO
Batelco Launches Video Conference Calls
Batelco eyes 20% more stake in JV with Jordan
Bahrain: Internet blog seeks to bridge ‘cultural gap’
Oman
Omantel to introduce VoIP
Omantel Buys Pakistan’s Telco Worldcall For $193 Million
Nawras’ 3G+ Services
Egypt
One year in prison for Egyptian blogger
Etisalat Misr to expand its mobile network in Egypt
Egypt’s Orascom Telecom in talks for $2.5 bln loan -sources
Egypt’s Mobinil in deal for 2.2 bln Eg pound loan
Qatar
— Eight companies register for Qatar’s second fixed line license: Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T), BT (NYSE: BT), Eutelia, PCCW: Arabianbusiness.com and Guardian
New Deadline For Fixed License
Jordan
Zain and TootCorp launch social networking service through the new youth website ‘Watwet’
Orange Launches WiFi Livebox; Triple Play Next

P.s.: Please do give feedback/suggestions – nikhil AT contentsutra DOT com

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