MyAdhan Blog

Link: UAE: New mobile TV licensing under way

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) on Tuesday said it will start consultation process on the licensing of the broadcast of mobile television in the UAE. Currently a similar type of service is available through 3G streaming. However, this new mobile TV service is provided through a different technology and will enable the public to enjoy a wider selection of channels at better quality. The TRA has carried out a detailed study of the licensing criteria and procedures to be followed to enable the success of the service in the UAE. The consultation process is scheduled to start on Wednesday. Interested parties are invited to submit their comments to the TRA.

Link: Qatar Telecom to provide Zakat donations by SMS

Follow up: SMS service boosts Zakat payments

The Zakat Fund is currently implementing a new initiative called ‘Zakat SMS Project’. The project aims to enable donors to make donations to Zakat Fund using SMS. This service is being provided by Qatar Telecom (Qtel) free of cost and the donation amount is collected without any deduction for the benefit of the poor and the needy. The initiative is meant to encourage more donations since SMS is widely used whether for business or personal communication. The Zakat Fund has previously achieved success in handling similar services on various occasions, earning substantial revenues. The donation amount for each fund under Zakat Fund is only QR10 and donation codes have been provided for each. The donation codes are: Zakat (Obligatory donation) - Z, Sadaqa Jariya (Continuous Sadaqa) - G, Sadaqa (Unconditional Sadaqa) - M, Preventive Donation - B, Widows Relief Fund - R, Medical Treatment Aid - E, Students Scholarship Fund - T, Orphans Sponsorship Fund - I, Poor Family Support - F, Eid Clothing Pack (seasonal) - K and Eftaar Programme (seasonal) -S. To make a donation, a donor just has to send an SMS message to the number 2438 followed by the donation code. For instance, to donate to the Widows Relief Fund, type the donation code R and send it to 2438. The sender will receive a message thanking him for donating the amount and acknowledging that the operation has been completed successfully.

Link: UAE: Take a taxi and pay via SMS

Abu Dhabi residents will soon be able to pay their taxi fare by sending an SMS from their mobile phones thanks to a new e-payment system introduced by a prominent taxi company. The system called “Q-cash” will be operational by the end of August or September this year, the company told Gulf News on Tuesday. “Passengers will no longer need to carry loose change with them to pay taxi fares,” it said. The system will avoid complaints that taxi drivers do not return loose change to passengers, it added. Eventually, all taxis in the emirate may have the SMS payment system, TransAD, the Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars in Abu Dhabi said on Tuesday. We are seriously considering introducing the system for all taxis, said Khalid Saleh Al Rashedi, General Manager of TransAD at a press conference. To pay a taxi fare by SMS passengers will be able to open a “Q-cash account” by purchasing a “Q-cash card” from a taxi or from one of our merchants (petrol stations or supermarkets), Hadi Tahboub, Chief Executive officer of Al Qudra Holding Transport Sector which runs Q-link taxis, told Gulf News. “After a taxi ride, you can follow the instructions on the card to pay the fare by SMS. You can type the taxi number and fare, and send an SMS to a given number. A confirmation message will be sent to the customer’s mobile phone and to the electronic device in the taxi which will print the receipt,” said the CEO. “The confirmation message will mention the balance amount in your ‘Q-cash account,” he added. The service is free, he added. Bank account holders will have the option to purchase or recharge the ‘Q-cash card’ through their bank accounts, said Irene Trifyllis, Business Development Manager of the company. The company has made an arrangement with a telecom provider and a prominent bank to operate the system, said Dimitrios Ladas, SMS Project Manager. Later customers may be able to use the ‘Q-cash card’ to purchase more product, he said. “It may become a popular E-payment card,” he added.

Link: Vodafone Led Team Pays $2.1 Billion for Qatar License

Vodafone Group Plc, the world’s biggest mobile-phone company, and its local partner will pay 7.72 billion riyals ($2.1 billion) for Qatar’s second wireless license as Vodafone expands in emerging markets. Vodafone and the Qatar Foundation will start the service in the first quarter of 2009 and must sell a 40 percent stake in the venture to the Qatari public by December, the Supreme Council of Information & Communication Technology said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. Mark Pursey, a Vodafone spokesman, said the company’s contribution will be 200 million pounds ($396 million). Vodafone, based in Newbury, England, has expanded in emerging markets in the past two years with purchases in Turkey and India to make up for slower growth in Europe. In Qatar, owner of the world’s largest natural gas field, the group will compete with former monopoly Qatar Telecom QSC in a country of about 900,000 people and a gross domestic product per capita of $75,900, more than double that of the European Union. `$2.1 billion is fair value by Gulf standards to compete against the region’s last monopoly,” Andrawes Snobar, an analyst at Arab Advisors Group in Jordan, said in a phone interview today. “Although Qatar’s penetration rate is already above 100 percent, they should be able to win share from Qatar Telecom.” Saudi Telecom won Kuwait’s third mobile-phone license in November with a bid of $908 million. Zain led a group that won Saudi Arabia’s third mobile-phone license with a $6.1 billion offer in March 2007.

Link: UAE: du enriches Mobile TV with exciting new channels and flexible tariff plan options

du, the integrated telecom operator in the UAE, unveiled today a newly enriched Mobile TV service to subscribers across the country. The revamped offer provides new exciting channels including customised international, Asian and Bollywood music TV channels and extends flexibility of choice with multiple subscription options. Apart from the introduction of new channels, du’s enhanced Mobile TV service also introduces a new dimension to rich media entertainment on your mobile with the launch of ‘Pay per view’ service on your mobile for the first time in the UAE. This revamped offer will allow subscribers to select and view from a selection of episodes and video clips. Additionally, du subscribers will have the exclusive privilege of watching popular Freej episodes from Season 1 and 2 directly on their mobile phones. Osman Sultan, CEO, du, said: ‘The enhanced Mobile TV testifies to du’s commitment to combining communication services with flexibility and competitiveness. Our unique new Mobile TV service offers customers the freedom to access 21 TV channels, stream videos, music and the popular Freej episodes anytime on their 3G mobile phones.’ ‘Customers now have more flexible tariff plan options, where they can either subscribe to all channels or just a single channel of choice. To top it up, we have also introduced new TV channels as part of the package, such as Al Arabiya, MBC, Dubai TV, Sama Dubai, Rotana, Kairali, Zee TV, ABS CBN Channel 3 amongst other customized channels to meet the demands of the Western, Asian and Arab subscribers,’ Sultan added. The customized channels range between various genres, from entertainment and news to business and drama. Customers can pay a fixed monthly fee of AED80 and have access to all 21 channels. With flexible tariff plan options, customers can choose to view one channel for a month or have access to all 21 channels for one day for AED10 only. List of channels on Mobile TV: Al Arabiya, Dubai TV, Sama Dubai, MBC, du Asian Music, du Cartoons, du Music, Rotana Khaleejiah, Rotana Moussica, Mazzika, Spacetoon, Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English, BBC World, Zee News, Zee TV, Kairali, ARY, Geo TV, ABS CBN Channel 3, Channel i.

Link: UAE: Virtual mobile ‘no threat’ say etisalat and du

The top executives of the two telecommunication providers in the United Arab Emirates say they have nothing to fear from the introduction of competition from new mobile operators in the future. The chairman of etisalat and the chief executive of du were speaking on the sidelines of the Middle East Communications Exhibition and Conference (MECOM 2008) which was officially opened yesterday at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre by HE Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority and CEO of Mubadala Development Company. Both were responding to questions about Mobile Virtual Network Operators, which provide services to their customers over the existing infrastructure of licensed operators. They have dramatically changed the telecom landscape in Europe, the US and parts of Asia, bringing down the cost of calls. The head of the UAE Telecommunications Authority, also speaking on the sidelines of MECOM yesterday, said it was premature to discuss their immediate introduction but mobile virtual network operations would be examined ‘down the road.’ Their introduction into the UAE would be seen as ‘an opportunity and not a threat’ by Mohammad Hassan Omran, Chairman of etisalat. ‘I think it will happen with all the alliances and partnerships taking place and there will not always be the need for new networks to be established – we can provide them,’ he said. Asked if etisalat would consider becoming a virtual operator in overseas markets, he added: ‘I would love to.’ Osman Sultan, CEO of du, agreed mobile virtual networks were ‘not a threat in a mature market’ such as the UAE and it was ‘natural that these things should happen.’ With 6,500,000 customers, etisalat is the UAE’s biggest telecom provider and is expanding dramatically internationally with ventures and partnerships in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Du, with two million customers, is concentrating on the domestic market. Mohamed N. Al Ghanim, Director General of the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, said it was premature to discuss the early entry of virtual mobile operators.

Link: Jordan: 400 executives confirm attendance at the region’s premiere Conference on Media and Telecoms Convergence

400 executives confirm attendance at the region’s premiere Conference on Media and Telecoms Convergence. Arab Advisors Group’s Fifth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference 2008 will be held on June 2&3 2008 in Amman - Jordan. To cope with the strong demand, the organizers have increased the conference maximum capacity to 450 delegates. The Fifth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference, set to take place in Amman on the 2nd and 3rd of June Under the patronage of HE Jordan’s Minister of ICT Eng. Bassem Al Rousan, has been met with strong interest from regional and global companies. 400 senior delegates have already registered to attend the conference representing over 135 regional and global operators, vendors, government agencies, banks, and professional services companies from over 21 countries around the world. To meet the strong demand, the organizers have taken steps to increase the maximum capacity to 450 delegates. “The strong interest in attending this year’s conference and the wide array of sponsoring and exhibiting companies is a clear demonstration of how the entire area of telecom and media convergence is a real world issue, challenge and opportunity for media companies, regional telcos and governments alike,” said Arab Advisors Group’s Founder and General Manager Jawad Jalal Abbassi. Thirty nine senior and visionary speakers from a diverse array of telecom and media operators and vendors, will share their experiences and visions. The speakers come from Zain Group, Paltel, Jawwal, ESKADENIA Software, GLOBITEL, QUALCOMM, SIGNAL Communications - PRIMUSTEL, Ericsson, Orange, Greenpacket Networks, Optimiza, Batelco, DU, NileSat, Rotana Digital Entertainment, BBC, Oger Telecom, Waseela, Friendi, Nokia, HITS Telecom, Telekom Malaysia, Cyberia, MBC, Nawras, Al Ghad Newspaper, Info2cell.com, wi-tribe, Cisco, Oliver Wyman, Xpress, Tech Mahindra, Rapid TV news and Spot On PR. “The Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference has gone from strength to strength each year over since the first annual conference was held back in 2004. We have worked to increase the maximum capacity for the conference to 450 delegates to be able to accommodate the strong interest and still maintain an optimal networking atmosphere between all delegates” said Abbassi.

Link: UAE: du Exceeds Two Million Customer Mark

Related Link: du exceeds the 2million customer mark in 15 months

du, the integrated telecommunication operator in the UAE has announced that it has exceeded the two million customer mark. This milestone according to the company has been achieved within 15 months from the launch of its mobile services. Osman Sultan, the CEO of du said, “This is an important milestone for us, these figures are evidence that du played fully its role in bringing real competition to the UAE telecommunication market. I would like to thank each and every one of our 2 million customers for their valuable trust; and our main focus in the future is to continue providing more innovative services to them, this milestone would have not been possible without the dedication of the du family; starting with the Chairman and members of the board of directors, and of course the 1900 employees.” Farid Faraidooni, the EVP - Commercial at du said, “This achievement has spurred us on to greater heights. Our customers, both enterprise and consumer, can look forward to more innovative products and services from du, which will increase their convenience and comfort. We will also be expanding our retail network across the UAE to be more accessible to our customers.” In line with its policy to pioneer best practices and bring greater transparency into the market starting from the first quarter of 2008, du has begun to announce the number of active subscribers, as defined by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). Under the TRA’s definition, any mobile customer who has made a call, or sent an SMS or MMS, or received a call within the last 90 days is considered an “active subscriber”. Sultan clarified, “We are committed to reporting the number of active subscribers as we did in our Q1 2008 financial results release and we will continue to do on quarterly basis.”

Link: ’Discover Etisalat’ at MECOM 2008 Telecom provider set to participate in a big way at the premier event

Related Link: Etisalat Launches Promotions at MECOM 08

Etisalat announced today that it will have a major presence in the Second Middle East Communications conference - MECOM2008 - set to take place from May 26 to 28 in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. The region’s foremost telecommunication services provider is Platinum Sponsor of MEOCM2008 and will be participating in the event under the theme ’Discover Etisalat’. Currently the leader among Arab communications companies in terms of financial capital and the 14th among global operators, Etisalat will occupy the biggest wing in Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), the MECOM2008 venue, showcasing its diverse services and products as well as its multi-dimensional growth for visitors. With its constantly expanding portfolio of services and increasing investments in overseas markets, Etisalat is well-positioned to be a major draw at the conference attended by key players, decision-makers and strategists in the region’s telecommunications sector. Etisalat will bring its various units and departments including individual services and SMB (Small and Medium Business) Solutions, Enterprise Solutions, Etisalat Academy, Ebtikar Smartcard Solutions, eVision, and Etisalat Customer Service Center to MECOM2008. Mr. Essa Al Haddad, Chief Marketing Officer, Etisalat said: “MECOM2008 is a very important stop for Etisalat in our services domain. It is an excellent opportunity to display our new services, techniques, solutions and applications for our customers and get their feedbacks so that we can improve our offering to meet their expectations. ” He also added that” Etisalat today is a key player in the telecom value chain in the region. With our end-to-end capabilities, we are in a unique position - where not only do we enable businesses to capitalize on the advances in telco technologies but also provide our services to other telco operators and companies as well’. MECOM2008 will give visitors a chance to discover the added value and innovative applications that Etisalat provides in mobile and fixed lined services, satellite and cable services, smart card technologies, Customer care operations, Employee training and more. Etisalat will also facilitate networking between regional telecommunications companies, manufacturers and contractors at MECOM2008.” “The telecommunication sector in the Middle East, particularly in the GCC region, is witnessing exponential growth and spending on telecommunications and information technology in the Middle East and Africa is set to go past 40 billion dollars this year. The share of Gulf countries in this will be about 23 %. Etisalat has been anticipating this growth and has evolved into the foremost Arab telecommunications provider in time. We are now aiming to be among the top ten international companies and to this end we are investing in 16 countries in Asia and Africa. This will see our subscriber base going up to 63 million,” Al Haddad added. Al Haddad also invited all participants in MECOM2008 to visit its Wing D10 in ADNEC hall number 3-4 to know more about Etisalat and its services.

Link: Saudi Mobily sees 40% jump in market share

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Saudi Arabia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, said on Saturday it expects its market share to rise above 40 per cent in 2008 despite the arrival of a third operator. The company had 11.1 million customers at the end of 2007, giving it a market share of 39 per cent, chief executive officer Khaled Al Kaf told reporters. ‘We expect this market share to exceed 40 per cent in 2008,’ he said. Mobily, which started operations in May 2005, competes with incumbent Saudi Telecom Company, the largest Arab telecom firm by market value, for mobile phone users in the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter and home to 25 million people. Zain Saudi Arabia, an affiliate of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain), plans to start operations next month after selling shares to the public in the first quarter. Mobily plans to focus on developing the post-paid customer base, Kaf said. ‘About 25 per cent of our 2007 revenues was from post-paid clients and the remainder from pre-paid clients,’ he said. Mobily also expects the first net income from Bayanat al-Oula by the end of next year, he told Reuters on the sidelines of the news conference marking the start of Mobily’s fourth year of operations. Mobily agreed in September to buy 99.9 per cent of the data provider company for SR1.5 billion ($400 million). ‘Bayanat will start operating a WiMax wireless Internet network this year,’ he said. A 40 per cent increase of Mobily’s capital will be completed within two months, Kaf said. Chairman Abdulaziz Al-Sughayir told shareholders in March that the capital hike would be completed in May. Mobily made a first-quarter net profit of 326 million riyals, a 30 per cent rise from the year-earlier period, still the smallest gain in quarterly profit since the firm started operations. Mobile phone penetration in the largest Arab economy probably exceeds 100 per cent. Saudi mobile phone operators may be generating SR55 billion in revenue in 2010, 38 per cent more than 2006, the kingdom’s telecom ministry Mohammed bin Jamil al-Mullah said last year. Mobily’s stock has fallen almost 24 per cent this year, underperforming the index, which is down about 13 percent. Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) owns 26.25 per cent in Mobily, having sold an 8.74 per cent stake in the firm at 55 riyals per share this year.