Telecoms & ITC

Qtel reaches 1.8 million mobile customers in Qatar

Qtel announced that it had achieved a record high of more than 1.8 million mobile customers in Qatar. This rapid accumulation of new customers up from 1.5 million announced in November 2008 was achieved in spite of the global economic downturn, reflecting both the underlying strength of Qatars economy and Qtels ongoing success in developing new products and services that exceed its customers expectations.

Kuwaiti telecom giant rings up record profits

Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co (Zain) unveiled record profits for last year as its customer base ballooned by more than 50 percent. However, the "challenging environment" meant profit grew only 0.5 percent from 2007, edging up to 322 million dinars (1.11 billion dollars) compared to 320.45 million dinars (1.1 billion dollars) the previous year. Revenues climbed 22 percent to 7.44 billion dollars from 6.1 billion dollars in the prior 12 months, the company said. Zain said its customer base swelled from 40 million subscribers at the end of 2007 to 63.5 million in 22 countries a year later.

Batelco closes in on Africa buy, sees flat profit

Bahrain Telecommunications Co (Batelco) plans to make an acquisition in Africa within six months, its chief executive said, and could spend almost $2 billion. CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos said in an interview that he expects 2009 profit to remain at last year's level, as higher profit in Bahrain is offset by investment costs for its new Indian operation. "There are three opportunities we are working on in Africa, they are all existing operators, and ... we are giving ourselves a time frame of six months to make sure we are getting the right opportunity for Batelco," Kaliaropoulos said on Monday.

Telecom Egypt Q4 net profit falls 28 pct

Telecom Egypt, the Arab country's fixed-line monopoly, said its fourth-quarter net profit fell 28 percent as the company was hit by the economic slowdown. Net profit fell to 831 million Egyptian pounds ($147.5 million), in the mid-range of analysts' forecasts, in the final quarter. For the whole year, net profit rose 10 percent to 2.79 billion Egyptian pounds, narrowly missing forecasts. Chairman Akil Beshir said the company was hit by a slowdown in the broader economy caused by the global financial crisis. "Egypt is no exception. The Egyptian economy is under pressure and we expect these challenges to continue in 2009," Beshir said in an interview.