Africa & Middle East Telecom weekly news

Marsh 20th to Marsh 27th 2008

AFRICA:
Celtel International to deploy Connectiva’s ONEREViEW solution
Larrouturou heads-up FT's international management

BAHRAIN:
Batelco inks 3G deal with People Infocom; deploys Windows Server 2008

EGYPT:
France Telecom shows interest in Egypt’s second fixed-line licence

GHANA:
Ghana Telecom to offer IPTV service

ISRAEL:
012 Smile.Communications seeks permission to offer mobile services
Cellcom preparing for mobile TV launch

JORDAN:
Umniah launches ‘Muhafathati’ line in Jordan’s four governorates

KENYA:
CCK decides not to regulate interconnection charges
Econet preparing for June launch
M-Pesa signs up Housing Finance for M-Pesa service

KUWAIT:
Wataniya improves customer satisfaction with collect call service

MADAGASCAR:
Orange Madagascar inks contract with Greenlight Wireless

MOZAMBIQUE:
mCel signs Ericsson for Redback

NIGERIA:
Federal Government begins NITEL/Mtel privatisation process
MTN, Celtel to pay compensation to subscribers

QATAR:
Qtel board approves capital restructuring
Vodafone to float IPO in Qatar

SAUDI ARABIA:
Etihad Atheeb signs 3 contracts with Motorola, ZTE and Wipro; to invest USD 333 million
Mobily plans to invest INR 700 million in Indian subsidiary
Zain to launch Saudi Arabian operations from June 2008

SOUTH AFRICA:
MTN plans to acquire telecom companies in SEA; to invest USD 3.80 billion for improving networks
Telkom launches new Metro LAN service
Vodafone extends proposal to acquire stake in MTN?

TURKEY:
MTN Cyprus customers to enjoy 3.5G benefits

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
du introduces off-peak tariffs on Saturdays
Etisalat to pay cash dividend of 35 percent
Tecom enters into a Wi-Fi deployment deal with du

ZIMBABWE:
Telecel introduces new airtime transfer service