Africa & Middle East Telecom weekly news

16th of August to 23rd of August 2007

ALGERIA:
LACOM plans to close Algerian operations
Portugal Telecom shows interest in Algerie Telecom stake 

BAHRAIN:
Batelco trade union organises for higher wages
TRA director proposes adoption of number portability 

EGYPT:
Telecom Egypt posts 4 percent decline in 1H 2007 profits 

GHANA:
Celtel to acquire 80 percent stake in Westel 

IRAQ:
Asiacell to spend USD 300 million in Iraq for network upgrade
Iraq names winners of mobile phone licences
MTC Atheer to expand network
OT plans Iraqna sale; Refuses to raise offer for Raya acquisition 

KENYA:
AccessKenya signs interconnection agreement with Safaricom
Kenya reduces minimum local shareholding in telcos to 20 percent 

KUWAIT:
Kuwait government declares pre-qualifiers to bid for the
mobile phone company stake 

NAMIBIA:
Namibian government seeks measures to reduce telecom costs 

NIGERIA:
NITEL obtains additional bandwidth for NGN 63 million from SAT-3
Transcorp to improve NITEL, M-TEL operations 

QATAR:
Qtel rolls out Hala SMS roaming service 

RWANDA:
Rwanda to sell 70 percent stake in Rwandatel 

SAUDI ARABIA:
Mobily launches new pre-paid package 

SENEGAL:
Senegal to auction third mobile operator licence 

SIERRA LEONE:
Celtel to launch mobile Internet services 

SOUTH AFRICA:
Telkom, BCX go against Competition Commission’s decision 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
du collaborates with Nokia to offer mobile e-mail solution
Etisalat launches new mobile data USB modem 

ZIMBABWE:
Telecel Zimbabwe gets temporary relief; restarts operations