MyAdhan Blog

Link: Bahrain: Batelco 643,000 mobile users

Batelco says it had 643,000 mobile phone subscribers at the end of June 2007, and 58,000 broadband internet users. The telco posted a 10.2% increase in half-yearly profit to $138.7m, while revenues rose 25%. The board has recommended a cash dividend of 20 fils per share.

Link: Iranian linguistic centre wants Farsi term for SMS

Tehran - An Iranian linguistic centre has called for the use of a Farsi term for mobile-phone text-messaging, or SMS, the Fars news agency reported Wednesday. The Farhangestan, the country’s linguistic watchdog centre responsible for presenting genuine Persian vocabulary, has approved the Farsi term payamak (little message) for SMS, Fars reported.

Payam means message and -ak is a diminutive ending in Farsi.

Link: Malaysia: Citibank goes for mobile bills

KUALA LUMPUR: Citibank Bhd expects to attract 500,000 users for its newly launched mobile payment service in the next two years.

Tapping on the growing popularity of cellular phones, the Citibank Mobile Bill Payment allows its credit card customers to pay their bills via short message service (SMS).

At the launch of the service yesterday, the banking group’s head of consumer e-business Roy Heong said the bank was mainly targeting its existing one million credit card customers.

Link: Sudan’s Mobitel urges no more mobile licences

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese mobile company Mobitel urged the government on Sunday not to issue a further mobile phone licence, saying a new competitor might force it to reconsider a $690 million expansion plan.

Khaled Muhtadi, chief executive of Mobitel, wholly owned by Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. (MTC), told Reuters he had received reports that the country’s telecoms regulator was preparing to issue another nationwide licence in the next 12 months.

“If we are going to get competition from yet another mobile operator then that limits our appetite in terms of spreading aggressively as we are,” Muhtadi said. “We have shared our concerns with them. We have informed them could backfire.”

Sudan’s mobile telecoms market grown greatly since a 2005 north-south peace deal ended Africa’s longest civil war.

i2, Dubai’s mobile provider has launched a state of the art wireless cybercafé and flagship digital store, at BurJuman.

“Customers, for instance, can place their orders via mobile phones provided on each table. They may also enjoy access to mobile services, free internet connection, as well as up-to-the-minute news and information on mobile devic3″.

Link: Kuwait to offer third mobile licence

Mobile operators are looking at expanding in Kuwait after the Gulf state announced plans for an auction of a third mobile phone licence. The Kuwait Investment Authority has invited foreign telecoms operators to register for the licence before an auction in the autumn.

The sale comes amid a scramble for Middle East telecoms assets, with operators offering billions of dollars to gain a foothold in areas with low mobile penetration and low competition.

Link: Saudi Arabia: Mobily extends mobile promotion

Mobily has extended its ‘favourite number’ promotion to weekday calls as well as weekends. Under the scheme, subscribers get a discount on international calls made to nominated numbers. The promotion ends on 3 August 2007.

Link: Malaysia: SMS scam artists still at it: Beware, be smart

PETALING JAYA: Maxis has advised the public not to respond to SMSes informing subscribers that they had won a cash cheque from the telco.

A Maxis spokesperson reminded the public to ignore SMSes that carried foreign or unusual short codes.

A concerned reader had informed The Star of receiving an SMS that named the mobile service operator.

Link: Dubai: Now, you can SMS money back home

For thousands of expat workers in the UAE, the long wait and serpentine queues at exchange houses to remit money home will soon be an ordeal of the past.

With a new SMS technology, they will now be able to send and receive money instantly around the world, provided they have a ‘salary card’ issued by a leading UAE bank.

In a pioneering effort to provide financial services across the UAE to a category of ‘underserved and unbanked people,’ mostly low income workers, Emirates Bank is introducing this card, which can be used to remit funds, and pay local and international bill by SMS.

Link: Saudi telco seeks world’s largest Islamic loan

Saudi Arabia’s third mobile phone operator is negotiating the world’s largest Islamic loan to raise $3.7 billion in the next three weeks to help pay for its licence, the group said on Monday.