MyAdhan Blog

Link: Emirates Telecommunication Eyes Controlling Stake in Oman Telecommunications

Dubai-based Emirates Telecommunication Corp., the third-largest Arab telecommunications company, said it is interested in buying a controlling stake in state-controlled Oman Telecommunications Co., also known as Omantel. News of the possible interest from Emirates Telecom, more generally referred to as Etisalat, sent Omantel’s stock up 10%, to a 21-month high, Reuters reported. “Are we interested? I say yes,” Jamal al-Jarwan, chief executive of Etisalat International Investments, told Reuters. “Oman is a growth market, and there are synergies for us in the Middle East.” In 2005, Omantel lost a large portion of its market share and customer base to rival Nawras. On Oct. 3, the Omani government said it would cut revenue royalties and shuffle management to prepare for a long-term investor such as Etisalat to step in. Since then, Omantel’s stock has gained 31%.

Link: Saudi Arabia: Bogus SMS Contest Organisers Net Millions

The organizers of a bogus telephone Ramadan competition that asked people to use a SR10 per minute telephone line are estimated to have illegally earned SR150 million over the blessed month, Al-Madinah newspaper reported. People were contacted by SMS text messages asking them to participate in the competition and win a SR1 million prize. It is estimated that 1 million calls were processed by the STC. Each call lasted between 10 and 15 minutes, and cost SR10 per minute. The organizers are estimated to have earned between SR100 and SR150 million. Victims also included Saudi Telecom Company (STC) employees.

Link: New SMS Scam Targets Bruneians

Mobile phone owners in the country who have received messages saying that they have won a windfall via SMS are advised to ignore and delete them right away. According to Yahoo users, such scams have earlier surfaced in other countries whereby mobile phone owners were asked to write to a Yahoo e-mail address to claim their prizes. “Yahoo did publish a statement informing the users that it has never started a Yahoo Lottery and all the messages are fake and must be deleted as soon as they reach the handphones.

Link: Malaysia: Stolen mobile phones to be disabled in new move

All stolen or missing handphones will be deactivated and can no longer be used even with new SIM cards by December. This is when the mobile phone service operators introduce a new service to curb mobile phone theft, which has escalated to an alarming level. Last year alone, statistics showed that some 100,000 handphones were reported lost but the authorities said the real figure could be much higher.

IslamChannel recently launched a brand new show dedicated to find the best Mosque in the United Kingdom, Model Mosque. Each week two Mosques will battle it out and qualify for each heat which will lead to a two mosque final at the final at the Global Peace and Unity 2007.

MyAdhan will provide the SMS text message voting platform to allow viewers the ability to vote for their Mosque to help progress it to the final. MyAdhan is excited to be working with such an exciting ground-breaking programme which is raising the standards of Mosques up and down the country.

“Model Mosque is a national competition to find the best mosque in the UK. The ultimate aims of the show are to improve standards within UK mosques and to share best practice amongst mosques. The show has nothing to do with the size, layout or architecture of a mosque. It has everything to do with the services the mosque provides for its local community and how well the mosque manages relations with the local host community”.

IslamChannel Model Mosque Website

Link: Oman: Etisalat seeks Omantel stake

Etisalat has confirmed that it would be interested in buying a stake in Omantel, reported Reuters. Last week, our sister publication Meed revealed the Omani government, which holds 70% of the telco operator, could sell at least 19% of Omantel very shortly. Jamal Al Jarwan, CEO of Etisalat International Investments, said ‘Are we interested? I say yes’ when questioned by the news agency about a possible bid.

Link: Pakistan: 1.3 billion SMSs say ‘Eid Mubarak’

Another Link: Pakistan: Over 1bn Eid SMS greetings recorded

Pakistani mobile-phone users have sent almost 1.3 billion short messages (SMSs) to their near and dear ones this Eid. According to a conservative estimate, Pakistani mobile-phone users availed the SMS service to greet their loved ones on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, sources in the sector revealed. SMS is a cost effective way to greet people on any special occasion and according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), till the month of August there were 68,004,091 million mobile-phone users all over Pakistan who have used this service.

Blog Link: The foiled Omani telecommunication industry

Things are getting a bit turbulent in the telecommunications sector here in Oman, things like how well the service is becoming and how bad each competitor needs a good section of the pie. And this time it’s not just about one of the companies in the leading branded mobile technology. But it’s more of how well the two of them (Nawras; Oman Mobile) are both handling their customer share and the services they provide them with. Oman Mobile has always had it’s issues ever since I can remember, things like service, accuracy, compensation for lost service, try outs, and most of all prices were always hideous (at least in my opinion). Nawras sort of cleared up the picture through its clarification of service list against price, better customer service but are still lacking - as Muscati would say - the innovative edge to lure the present mobile customer from one network to another…

Link: UAE: Etisalat third quarter profit rises by 15pc

Etisalat, the third-largest Arab phone company, increased third-quarter profit by 15 per cent, as it added more subscribers in the United Arab Emirates. Nine-month net income advanced to Dh5.5 billion ($272 million) and sales rose 30 per cent to Dh15.3 billion, Etisalat said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. This equates to third-quarter net income of Dh1.8 billion up from Dh1.5 billion a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data. The result was lower than HC Brokerage’s estimate of a 24 per cent increase for the quarter. Etisalat has 6.2 million mobile-phone subscribers in the United Arab Emirates, giving it a penetration rate of 147 per cent, the company said.

Link: UAE answers envirofone call mobile phone recycling initiative collects 100,000 phones at Eid al Fitr

The UAE public has stepped up and answered a call from EnviroFone by recycling 100,000 old or broken mobile phones in time for Eid al Fitr. The enormous collection of mobile handsets have been deposited in drop boxes across the Emirates but the target to receive 250,000 recycled phones by the end of the year is still to be achieved. If each phone collected was placed one on top of the other, the tower of handsets would reach around 10,000m, almost 20 times that of the current height of the Burj Dubai and more than 100m higher than Mount Everest. Laid flat on the ground, the phones would stretch for 10km, just one kilometer short of the length of The Crescent which circles The Palm Jumeirah.