MyAdhan Blog

Link: Middle East, India Suffer Internet, Phone Disruption

Other Links:
Another undersea Internet cable damaged in Mideast
Third undersea cable cut in Middle East

India and countries across the Middle East experienced slow Internet connections and disruption to international calls to the U.S. and Europe after two submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean Sea were cut yesterday. Repairs to the break, which may have been caused by a ship’s anchor near Alexandria, northern Egypt, will start on Feb. 4, a spokesman for Flag Telecom Group Ltd., which operates one of the cables, said by phone from Mumbai today. Customers are being provided with alternatives through other cables, he said. The cable breaks have cut capacity by more than half for some Web access and telephones companies in the affected regions. They carry 70 percent of voice traffic to the West, according to Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the biggest mobile-phone company in the Middle East and North Africa. Stock trading in Egypt and phone calls from as far away as the U.S. have been disrupted. `Everyone is trying to absorb the shock, and is trying to deal with it” by using alternatives, said Joseph Metry, network supervisor at Orascom Telecom. The two cables are 400 meters (1,312 feet) apart and the second is operated by SEA-ME-WE-4, according to Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co., which is United Arab Emirates’ second-biggest mobile-phone company and is known as du.

Link: Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Stop SMS Contest

Another Link: Maxis to refund SMS contest participants

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will not hesitate to take enforcement action for any short message service (SMS)-based contest that breaches licence conditions under the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA). In a statement today, the commission said it was constantly monitoring the services provided by licensees. Referring to a complaint on the SMS contest launched by Maxis Communications Bhd in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebrations which was reported in the Weekend Mail on Jan 26, MCMC said it had investigated the matter. “MCMC was informed by Maxis that the promotional SMS in conjunction with the Chinese New Year was discontinued starting Jan 21 and that Maxis will refund the money collected to all 21,222 participants of the contest by February 2008,” the commission said. MCMC said it was also investigating if there had been any violation of licence conditions, the CMA or the General Consumer Code for not sufficiently providing pricing information in the promotional material. Meanwhile, Maxis said the contest in question was a planned Chinese New Year campaign activity by an external content provider. The contest was scheduled to run from Jan 1 to 31 and offered 10 prizes to winners. “The terms and conditions for the contest were approved by Maxis while the content provider executed the contest on our behalf,” Maxis said in a statement. “An SMS promotion of the contest was sent out by our content partner to Maxis customers who, in the past, have subscribed to similar content services,” it said. Maxis said this was a free message and the SMS broadcast complied with the operator guidelines developed with the MCMC. “However, the subsequent contest-related SMS broadcast was wrongly charged to customers,” the company said. “As soon as Maxis was made aware of the charges to customers, we immediately instructed the content provider to comply with the Maxis-approved conditions of the contest.” Maxis said that it had suspended the shortcode and all promotions related to the contest.

Link: Saudi Arabia: Mobily offers package for women

Another Link: Mobily launches new services for women patrons

Mobily has launched Najma, a new package tailored to the needs of women. “Najma is an innovative tailor-made package designed to satisfy the communication needs of women,” said David Murphy, Mobily’s chief marketing officer. Najma is the result of months of research into the specific needs of women, we have built a very attractive price plan and some excellent additional services to satisfy those needs,” Murphy added. Calls to other Mobily subscribers and landlines are 20 halala a minute from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am and increase to 30 halala a minute for the remainder of the day.
Calls to other mobile networks are set at a flat rate of 30 halala. Monthly subscription charges are SR40. The innovative call charge comes with a bouquet of services tailored for female subscribers, along with a month of free live TV feeds, access to six mobile content bundles: Beauty and Style, Nutrition, Family, Entertainment, Islam, and a comprehensive bundle that includes all six content bundles. The package also provides interactive services, such as weight-to-height ratio checks. All the subscriber has to do is send an SMS message containing her height and weight. Almost immediately, she will get an answer on whether her weight is appropriate to her height, he said. There is also a service for keeping tabs on a child’s preventive vaccinations. The subscriber receives periodical messages that remind her that her child’s vaccination is due. Furthermore, new subscribers get 200 free points in the ‘Neqaty’ program, once they activate their line, he said. These points can then be converted into one of Mobily’s services or traded for actual products or services at any of Mobily’s Neqaty partners. Women wishing to subscriber to Najma can visit any of Mobily’s women only branches (Al Jawhara branches) in Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar and Dammam.

Link: Vodafone keen to invest in telecom sector in Bangladesh

Vodafone Group Plc, the world’s leading mobile telecom company, has expressed keen interest to invest in the mobile phone sector in Bangladesh and has sent a delegation to the country to investigate possibilities. Headed by Gavin Darby, chief executive officer of Vodafone America, Africa, China and India, a team from the company is presently in Dhaka. The visit follows a recent letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in which the UK-based telecom giant said: “We are eager to visit Bangladesh to explore the potential of investing in the telecommunication sector.”

Link: Iran Telecom Chief: SMS dates & times traceable

Although many 1st Operator mobile phone subscribers complain about the way their SMS charges are calculated and the figures appearing on their bills, Iran Telecom chief says the date & time of each SMS message transmitted is traceable. Saaber Feizi, in conversation with MOBNA, said it is not possible, normally, to trace transmitted SMS phone numbers, but subscribers could ask for the number of their transmitted SMS messages. He indicated the subscribers could go to Telecom service bureaus and ask for the time, date and the number of their transmitted SMS messages. He said, however, that to obtain phone numbers of SMS messages requires permission from the Judiciary.

Link: Kuwait: Zain’s customer base swells 56% to 42 million in 2007

Mobile Telecommunications Co (Zain), the third-largest Arab telecom operator by market value, posted its second straight quarterly profit growth in the fourth quarter as it added new users across the region. Kuwait-based Zain posted a 3.9 percent rise in profit to KD 85.33 million ($312.7 million) in the three months to Dec 31, compared with KD 82.14 million a year earlier, Reuters calculated from full-year data the company released. The quarterly profit beat one of two analyst forecasts in a Reuters survey last month of KD 96.91 million and KD 79.60 million. Zain, which has revised its 2006 profits, made KD 320.45 million or 172 fils per share in 2007, up 8.6 percent from 2006, the company said in a statement carried by state news agency KUNA. Growth in the full year was driven by a 29.3 percent rise in revenue to KD 1.68 billion as total subscribers in the Middle East and Africa hit almost 40 million, it said. Zain had more than 36 million customers on Sept 30, indicating a net addition of about 4 million in the three-month period. The company said it was proposing a 2007 cash dividend of 90 fils per share and a bonus share issue of one free share for every two held by investors.Zain said last month it would raise its capital by 75 percent by selling shares to existing investors, aiming to raise around $4.4 billion to finance expansion overseas as competition grows in its home market. Zain, which operates in about 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa, has been seeking investment opportunities abroad to counter tough competition at home, where Saudi Telecom Co won a bid to set up a third mobile phone firm. It also competes with National Mobile Telecommunications Co (Wataniya) at home. Zain had reported a decline in profit in the second quarter for the first time in at least two years because of tougher competition in African nations such as Sudan. Zain recorded consolidated revenues of $5.91 billion (KD 1.677 billion) for 2007, an increase of 32 percent compared to 2006. The consolidated EBITDA increased by 25 percent compared to last year and reached $2.56 billion (KD 725.34 million). Zain also announced a milestone consolidated net income of $1.130 million (KD 320.45 million) as compared to $1.015 million (KD 294.98 million) in 2006 an increase of 11 percent. Earnings per share stood at $0.61 (172 fils) as against $0.55 (159 fils) in the prior year period, an upsurge of 11 percent.

Link: Bangladesh: 10 Grameenphone senior officals sued for VoIP involvement

The telecoms watchdog has filed a case against 10 former and in service high officials including two former CEOs at the country’s top mobile phone operator Grameenphone, accusing their involvement in illegal international call termination or VoIP. Grameenphone, AccessTel, a local internet service provider, and Malaysia-based international call carrier DiGi Telecommunications are also on the accused list. Bangladesh Tele-communication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) filed the case at Gulshan police station on January 16. According to the FIR, the accused former Grameenphone officials are Erik Aas and Ola Ree, chief executive officers, Thor Randhaug, technical director, Yogesh Sanjeev Malik, chief technical officer, and Mehboob Chowdhury, director, sales and marketing. The sitting accused Grameen officials are Khalid Hasan, director (regulatory and corporate affairs), Md Shafiqul Islam, chief technical officer, Kafil HS Muyeed, director (new business), Md Arif Al Islam, director finance, and Espen Wiig Warendroph, head of revenue assurance. The two former CEOs left the company in December 2004 and January 2007 respectively. In the FIR, the telecoms regulatory body said these three companies and individuals were involved in providing international call termination facility or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) “As the case is under investigation, we’ll not comment on this. We’re fully cooperating with the investigators in this regard,” a GP spokesperson told The Daily Star yesterday over phone. The January 16 case is a follow-up of an 8-day long RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) raid starting from December 6, 2007 on the GP head office at Gulshan. The raid found huge equipment of illegal VoIP. During the raid the RAB officials claimed that they had evidences that GP provided VoIP equipment to AccessTel to run illegal call termination business. The law enforcers found four circuits of E1 technology that connected the GP line with the AccessTel’s. The DiGi Telecommunications has been accused as it has a bilateral deal with the GP to terminate the latter’s international call. Norway- based Telenor, the major stakeholder of Grameenphone, is also a shareholder of Digi Telecommunication.

Link: Major Mobile Syndicated Study results reveal customer attitudes towards mobile operators in Jordan, UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Maktoob Research, the full-service online research unit of Maktoob.com, has revealed important results from a comprehensive ‘Mobile Syndicated Study’ that was conducted in November 2007.The online study canvassed the opinions of 4618 cellular subscribers of various nationalities, aged 18 and above, across four countries with 1182 respondents from Jordan, 1163 from KSA, 1009 from the UAE and 1264 from Egypt. The objectives in conducting the Mobile Syndicated Study were to obtain insights into the psychographics of mobile users, perception of mobile users with regard to brand visibility and brand personality of telecom operators, satisfaction levels with mobile services and mobile value added services, influences on choice of mobile operators, mobile spending trends, churn trends and mobile handset preferences. ‘We set out on a similar study in May last year to determine what residents in the Middle East truly felt about the telecom services offered to them’, said Tamara Deprez, Director of Maktoob Research. ‘While we have covered a few key areas from the previous survey, we have also sought to explore many different and equally important areas this time that will prove indispensable in helping telecom operators and mobile companies understand and respond to the needs and concerns of their customers.’

Among the key findings of the survey are:

• Jordan’s Umniah (77%), Egypt’s Vodafone (76%), KSA’s Mobily (73%) and UAE’s Etisalat (52%) have once again beat competitors to become the highest scorers in overall customer satisfaction in their own countries. The previous study had recorded satisfaction ratings of 75%, 74% and 70% for Umniah, Vodafone and Mobily, respectively.
• Zain/Fastlink (80%) claims highest brand recognition in Jordan followed by Orange/Mobilecom (75%).
• Mobily (65%), Vodafone (59%) and Etisalat (79%) have the highest brand recognition in KSA, Egypt and UAE respectively. Of these, Mobily is not the primary operator in KSA.
• A majority of mobile users showed very positive feedback when asked whether they would be interested in using one mobile handset with 2 sim-card slots (68% Jordan, 75% Egypt, 60% KSA and 64% UAE).
• A growing percentage of respondents across the region use the mobile to browse the internet (18% Jordan, 24% Egypt, 35% KSA and 24% UAE).
• The best telecom operator logos were adjudged to be; Jordan - the Zain logo (31%), Egypt - Vodafone logo (32%), KSA - Al Jawal logo (43%) and the UAE - Etisalat logo (62%).
• 69% of mobile users in Jordan, 63% in Egypt, 72% in KSA and 72% in UAE might be willing to change their current mobile operators. However, this decision will be based primarily on competitive pricing (most cited reason across all 4 countries).
• The predominant reasons for users not willing to change their current operators, if given the choice were; best customer care (Jordan), best network coverage (Egypt and UAE) and overall satisfaction and see no reason to change (KSA).
• If given the choice to keep their mobile numbers and move to a different telecom operator, 34% KSA respondents chose Mobily, 40% Egyptian mobile users chose Etisalat Misr and 34% respondents in UAE chose Du. 30% mobile users in Jordan chose Umniah, 15% chose Orange/MobileCom, 10% chose Zain, 17% said that they did not know, while 27% said that they were satisfied with their current operators and didn’t want to move.
• Nokia is predominantly the most preferred mobile phone manufacturer (overall 79%). It is followed by Sony Ericsson (overall 7.5%), Samsung (overall 3.85%) and Motorola (overall 3%).
• An overwhelming majority of respondents in all four countries were not comfortable with the idea of watching live television on their mobiles (Jordan 78%, Egypt 88%, KSA 82% and UAE 58%)
• Conversely, a majority of mobile users showed interest to receiving advertisements on their mobiles (Egypt 52%, KSA 57% and UAE 57%). 49% of Jordanian respondents were open to mobile advertising.

‘Customers have begun to continuously expect more for less on an ongoing basis’, said Ahmad Al-Assad, Regional Research Manager of Maktoob Research. ‘They expect more mobile features, a significant increase in the quality of service accompanied by competitive pricing. In cases where expectations haven’t been met, customers might select the next best telecom operator.’ The Mobile Syndicated Study reports, which offer the most comprehensive research data on the region’s mobile industry.

Link: Etisalat to offer VoIP services in UAE

The Chief Operating Officer at Etisalat, the UAE’s leading telecommunication services provider, said that the company is technically ready to provide the Voice Over the Internet (VoIP) services, pending the regulators approval, Gulf News reported. The COO pointed out that Etisalat’s mobile penetration rate in the UAE has touched 150 percent with more than 6.3 million subscribers by mid-December, a remarkable growth with the existence of a second player. The company, as well as the government, denied any plans of opening up for foreign investments or any new issues.

Link: Pakistan: Phone number digits to be increased from 7 to 8

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to increase the numbering digits from seven to eight for both the fixed line and mobile segment to meet the growing numbering needs of the telecom sector in the country and create additional resources for the emerging services. PTA Chairman Shahzada Alam Malik told Daily Times here on Saturday that the Authority has decided to revisit the numbering resources as the liberalisation of telecommunication sector in Pakistan has resulted in rapid growth of conventional services besides induction of the new ones, he said. Revisiting the numbering resources would help resolve the problem of frequent allocation of network access codes to various mobile operators, to meet the needs arising out of phenomenal growth in the cellular mobile sector and create more capacity in the numbering plan, to facilitate service providers, to expand their customer base without going into the hassle of introducing new access codes. He said the decision would help make the dialing plan more customers-friendly i.e. one access code for one operator and to prepare the capacity for next 10 years and more, both for the mobile and fixed line markets, he added. The PTA Chairman said that the implementation process for the migration of mobile numbers from 7 to 8 digits spans over four stages. In the first stage Public Notice/ Awareness Campaign would be started, in the second stage Parallel Operation would start followed by the stage three announcements and finally the sterilisation.