Africa & Middle East Telecom weekly news

December 20th to December 27th 2007

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST:
VSNL intends USD 250 million TGN-Eurasia cable system 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO:
Tellumat to supply GSM community payphones to Vodacom 

GHANA:
Ghana Telecom to repay Alcatel-Lucent’s EUR 34 million debt 

IRAN:
Telecom shares sale date not yet finalised 

ISRAEL:
Alvarion grabs its first Tier 1 carrier deal for mobile WiMAX equipment
Bezeq likely to end contract with Nortel
Gilat concludes deployment of first phase of satellite backhaul solution for Vivo
Lawsuit filed against Israeli cellular phone companies
Partner Communications to enter into equipment deal with Ericsson
Ronit Kan holds Bezeq responsible for Hot Cable Systems Media service breakdown 

KENYA:
France Telecom appoints new members to Telkom board
Safaricom in favour of government’s plans to float IPO 

NAMIBIA:
VAT to be applicable on pre-paid airtime 

NIGERIA:
Globacom rolls out 3G services
Global equipment vendors eye Siemens’ contracts in Nigeria
Inactive GSM lines increase month-on-month 

QATAR:
Qtel customers complain of delay in Internet connection 

SOUTH AFRICA:
Multichoice Africa to launch Mobile TV services
Neotel reveals future strategy
‘No credit’ not a problem anymore with Vodacom 

TANZANIA:
TCRA announces reduction in interconnection charges 

TUNISIA:
Tunisie Telecom selects Telecom Italia Sparkle’s IP transit service 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Etisalat expands call capacity in Holy cities
Etisalat pulls out of second Qatar fixed-line licence bid; considers Lebanon bid instead