Africa & Middle East Telecom weekly news

January 10th to January 17th 2008

CONGO BRAZZAVILLE:
Warid Telecom commences services in Congo 

EGYPT:
MTN in talks with OTH to acquire stake in Mobinil 

GHANA:
Celtel to commence operations soon
Vodacom denies making fresh offer for GT stake 

ISRAEL:
012 Smile.Communications, Intel and Alvarion to jointly work on WiMAX project
Alvarion, Bridgewater Systems offer WiMAX solutions to MSTelcom 

JORDAN:
ACT Limited contracts Airspan for nationwide WiMAX deployment 

KENYA:
Celtel reduces call and SMS tariffs
Essar buys 49 percent stake in Econet Wireless
Safaricom IPO still on the cards 

KUWAIT:
Zain introduces new Internet router 

MAURITIUS:
Emtel worried about lack of new mobile phone numbers 

NIGERIA:
MTN promises improved services in 2008
Ovia-owned Visafone acquires Bourdex Telecom
Transcorp to revive M-Tel services within six months 

QATAR:
Qtel unveils BlackBerry service 

SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi Telecom eyes stake in Oger Telecom 

SOUTH AFRICA:
Vodacom reduces rates for 3 GB packages
Vodacom to launch WiMAX soon 

UGANDA:
Warid makes its debut 

ZIMBABWE:
Econet awaits POTRAZ approval for 3G launch
Econet to invest in export companies