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Discussions have been on-going for some time now, but anytime this week, Warid Telecom, one of Uganda’s mobile phone companies, could become a new entity after entering a “partnership” with Essar Group.

Infact a source knowledgeable with the discussions said the deal between the two could have already been sealed by Friday last week although the two companies have remained silent on the deal.
“The deal is so advanced that senior managers of both companies are visiting Uganda next week (today) and will be visiting various African countries including Ethiopia and DRC looking for potential business opportunities,” the source said.

The visitors expected from India and Pakistan will tour various installations of Warid on the continent, speak to government officials and to familiarise with the business environment.

The partnership, according to the source, will involve an “an equity infusion” - a two-way acquisition of shares into both companies but it is not yet clear how the infusion will be shared.

Warid Telecom boss Zulqarnain Javaid did not deny the reports but was non committal.
“We want to grow in Africa, we have three licenses, and they have only one so it only makes business sense to work together. It is a genuine partnership because we want to increase our foot prints across the continent,” he said.
Details of the terms of the partnership are not yet clear however the deal will, according to reports, be overseen by Standard Chartered Bank.

Warid Telecom, owned by Dubai-based Dhabi Group, made a $250 million investment entry into Uganda in February 2008. Today, it boasts of 1.2 million customers and has become a major player in the Ugandan market.
Through its Warid Telecom subsidiary, the Dhabi Group owns mobile networks in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Congo, Uganda and Cote d’Ivoire.

A business partnership between Warid and Essar will increase their business footprint on the continent edging up competition against well established telecom entities like Kuwaiti’s Zain and South African-based MTN both of which have a greater chunk of the telecom market on the continent.

Essar’s telecom unit built one of India’s largest mobile networks, which it now owns in a joint venture with the Vodafone Group of the UK.

“Both companies have built, launched and operated telecom networks in emerging markets and the partnership is intended to capitalize on shared opportunities,” according to a press statement issued by Warid Telecom Uganda quoted by Reuters.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/business/Warid_Essar_Group_partnership_imminent_88705.shtml

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Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, a mobile phone manufacturer had announced the launching of the S9110, a cutting-edge watchphone featuring a full touch screen. The watchphone-basically a wrist-watch comprised of all the features of a cellular phone and Samsung had once again proved its prowess in the market.

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Pakistani incumbent operator PTCL will no longer have the upper hand in the broadband market. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) put an end to the operator’s monopoly on internet bandwidth by announcing in May 2009, that both internet service providers (ISPs) and DSL operators were free to purchase bandwidth other than PTCL. Until then, alternative operators were restricted to procuring internet bandwidth from the incumbent alone, settling a two-year long dispute.

Demand for broadband has doubled over 2008. The total number of subscribers reached 267,180, up from 127,000, but still only reflecting a penetration rate of 0.2%. Cost remains the single largest barrier to growth. Greater competition in the bandwidth sector should bring overall tariffs down. On average broadband prices stand at US$16, twice that charged in India. In addition, the cost of PCs/laptops is a further burden, meaning that for the most part, the internet is accessed in educational institutions, organisations and internet cafes.

DSL remains the most widely available broadband platform, accounting for 59% of the total. This relies on fixed-line infrastructure, itself poor in availability, particularly where it is needed most, in remote and rural areas. Around two-thirds of Pakistanis live in rural areas. To this end, operators are now investing heavily into developing WiMAX technology, which can offer broadband services wirelessly. WiMAX is now the second most widely accessed form of broadband technology after DSL, having beaten Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC).

Our expectations of the broadband market have been altered. We estimate a total of 627,000 at the end of 2009, accounting for 0.4% of the population. By 2013, we forecast 12%, with a total subscriber base of 21.3mn.

The fixed-line market on the other hand noted a significant decline in 2008, down by 12.8% to reach a total of 6.074mn. Fixed-line is quickly being neglected in favour of mobile services. This is due to their increasing affordability, while also offering better network coverage thanks to aggressive investments.

Again we have revised our forecasts for fixed-line and forecast that by the end of 2009, penetration rates will have reached 3.8% and falling to 2.8% by 2013.

Meanwhile, our extended sections on fixed-line and broadband have meant that our market analysis of the mobile sector remains unchanged, but will be given a full update in our Q409 report.

http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=10882&catid=547

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s cellular companies are short of the capability or mechanism to “either filter or monitor” all the SMS and email traffic, as the number of messages crosses millions on a daily basis.

Resultantly, the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) would launch an investigation into the matter only if it receives a complaint by any citizen, as each and every SMS or email cannot be monitored.

“No sir, we don’t have the required mechanism in place, both hardware and software, that can monitor and then filter out SMS traffic,” an official of a leading cellular company informed APP on Wednesday.

However, the official said that the company could track all voice and data traffic of GSM network, but that would require extra features to be added in the systems, which are not in place at this point in time. “This would require millions of dollars to be pumped into the system,” he remarked.

When contacted, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) official was also empathetic to the cellular company official’s version regarding monitoring of emails.

“The websites that contain inappropriate content can be taken down by requesting the respective host. However, tracking millions of emails is not an easy job and needs technical assistance as well as human resource,” added the official.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=189404

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ISLAMABAD: Telenor Pakistan Chief Executive Officer Jon Eddy Abdullah has said there are possibilities of mergers in the cellular industry in future.

In an interview with The News, Abdullah said Pakistan had the lowest call rates in the world and a continuous reduction in charges, as seen in the past, to attract customers was no more viable for the future as the industry had already hit rock bottom.

“This means that in the long term, having five operators in a market with intense competition and low prices may not remain feasible anymore. This can result in anything from mergers and acquisitions to dropping out of the market,” he added.

Answering a question about deteriorating law and order situation in the country and other factors impacting growth of the sector, he said high inflation eventually reduced usage of mobile services among consumers and pushed up the cost for the operators. Overall, it negatively impacted the demand and supply and hence growth.

“Though inflationary pressure eases around the globe and especially in our region, Pakistan still faces a high double-digit inflation,” he added.

“Largely, the overall law and order situation limits network expansion, restricts upgrading and maintenance of sites, increases security-related expenses and dampens investor confidence,” he said and added as networks in Pakistan grew at a tremendous rate, growth would certainly speed up if security conditions further improved.

When asked about the recent taxation measures taken by the government in the budget, he said general sales tax (GST) had been brought down to 19.5 per cent from 21 per cent, though the industry had demanded 16 per cent tax like the one on other services.

SIM activation tax had been slashed by 50 per cent, bringing it to Rs250, but the industry had asked for its complete withdrawal.

Regulatory duty on handsets has been eliminated, while customs duty has been brought down to Rs250, meaning that a total of Rs250 will be applied as taxes on the import of each handset.

“Although we consider these tax measures positive, we feel that there is more to be done. We are all aware of the impact of high tax rates on the industry, which depress growth in subscriber numbers, divert investments and ultimately discourage mobile usage.

“We also understand that when this industry flourishes, it helps the economy by attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), contributing heavily to the national exchequer, generating employment and increasing productivity of almost every sector. Therefore, it is imperative that the taxation structure for the mobile industry is rationalised further.”

When asked whether the taxation measures were pro-growth or anti-growth for the industry, he said tax reduction was obviously a pro-growth measure. The rapid increase in penetration over the last few years was made possible to a large extent by subsidisation of activation tax by the cellular operators.

The 50 per cent reduction in activation tax will free up funds, which can be invested in capacity enhancement and network expansion.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=189421

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According to sources, Telenor group is interested to sell its shares in Pakistan and is holding talks with the China Mobile.

Though both the operators have denied any such development, sources said that negotiations were being held secretly at the group level.

Though Telenor, a Norwegian company, has a subscriber-base of 20 million or so in Pakistan, it has been deliberating to sell its management shares since long because of ‘security issues’.

The Telenor group has already focused on India for investment, as it recently sought to buy about 67 per cent shares of Unitech Wireless and telecom arm of Unitech Ltd in India.

The Indian market is experiencing a major growth in mobile penetration and currently it stands at 27 per cent with a total population of about 1.2 billion.

There has been a lot of potential in the market and the global operators see it a best place for future market.

China Mobile’s first international business venture, Zong, currently has over six million subscribers.

Before the merger talks with the Telenor group, the China Mobile had offered to buy the management shares of Warid Telecom Pakistan.

However, deal could not materialise owing to price issue.

Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong (CM-Pak) have reportedly conveyed to the PTA that there was a room for only ‘four’ players.

A PTA official said there were chances that by 2010, the country may have four operators.

The number of cell-phone users in Pakistan has reached over 90 million. Though Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) shows declining trend over the last few years, aggressive marketing and expansion of network has enabled mobile operators to grab more subscribers on their networks.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/business/13+china+mobile+telenor+holding+talks+for+merger-za-11

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Dell extends strong outreach in the consumer computer market with the launch of new notebooks. The new highly expressive and personalized product line combines aesthetics and technology into a fresh approach to high definition mobile lifestyles.

Running on Intel technology, Dell’s latest laptop lines bring a diverse range of specifications to suit the requirements of a wide variety of customer segments. The new Dell laptop series combine sleek designs, striking visual color elements and personalization options with features such as standard built-in webcam, slot load drives and ready mobile broadband. Dell strongly advises its customers to buy genuine Dell products and insist on a warranty card at the time of purchase.

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New Finance and Banking report provides detailed analysis of the Finance and Banking market

In Q209 BMI is making a number of changes which we hope will substantially improve the impact and value of our reports on the commercial banking sectors of various countries.

Since we introduced the commercial banking reports in mid-2004, we have sought to generate insights by collecting and combining information from a number of sources. We have collated data pertinent to entire commercial banking sectors that has been published by central banks, regulators and/or trade associations, as well as basic information concerning individual market participants. We have also considered BMI’s current views on the economic outlook for the country in question. Many aspects have been – and continue to be – brought together in a systematic way through our proprietary Commercial Bank Business Environment Ratings (CBBER), which facilitate cross-country comparisons. The key changes in Q209 and what they mean for readers are as follows: Comprehensively Upgraded Database We have now incorporated as much data as we can for 2008. We have also considered the size of total bank assets, client loans, capital and client deposits in relation to the overall economy, as well as in absolute terms. We have calculated figures in local currency terms, US dollar terms and euro terms. We have extended our forecast horizon out to 2013. We have also improved the coverage of historical data in this report. Our complete dataset is available for download from BMI’s website.

Concise Analysis Of The Sector The structural strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of commercial banking do not usually change much from quarter-to-quarter. Nevertheless, they need to be explained in some clarity – even if only to provide a context for the rest of the report. We have re-examined and (in most cases) substantially extended the SWOT analysis. Much more than previously, the SWOT analysis represents an ‘at a glance’ overview of what really matters for the overall commercial banking sector.

Broader And Deeper International Context For a very long time before the global financial crisis reached a critical phase in mid-September 2008, commercial banking was inherently international in nature. In other words, it was a rare commercial banking sector indeed that was totally isolated from cross-border influences. However, as a result of the crisis, international influences have become even more important than before. In response to this, we have extended the range of countries whose commercial banking sectors we consider each quarter by 11 – Bahrain, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, the UK, the US and Vietnam are now analysed. Our reports also include new Global and Regional Outlooks.

Deeper Economic Analysis We include more extensive coverage of BMI’s views of the economic outlook for each country. We also include a section that deals with monetary and exchange rate policy.

Clearer Identification Of Protagonists We now look more closely at the mandates of central banks, regulators and trade associations.

Clearer Definition Of The Commercial Banking Universe We now include a specific definition of the universe of commercial banks in each country. In most cases, we also include a comprehensive list of identifiable institutions. (The main exception to this is the US, where we confine the list to the 50 largest banks in terms of deposits.) By defining the commercial banking universe, and listing a much greater number of institutions that are active in each country, we hope that our reports are of much greater value to other researchers.

New Company Profiles In Q209, we have sought to include 10 brief profiles of leading banks in each of the countries that we cover. We will add additional profiles in coming months. Wherever possible, we have tried to quantify the total assets, client loans, bond portfolio, client deposits and capital of each institution. Eventually, it should be possible for us to profile most – or indeed all – of the banks that are active in the countries that we follow.

Naturally, we will continue to improve the structure and content of the reports over time. The extended Commercial Banking SWOT Analysis below summarises what we see as the key issues in this report.

http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=10278&catid=318

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PTCL just announced Azaadi offer for its valued customers. If you buy a broadband connection from July 16 to August 14 then your name is included in the lucky draw and you have a chance to win Rs. 10 lacks or laptops.

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KARACHI: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is ready to celebrate summer with the same zeal and aplomb as ever with its eco friendly and energy efficient air-conditioners. A training programme was organised at the DWP warehouse to equip employees for better after sales service. Country Manager Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Pakistan, Steve Han said, “Samsung will continue innovating and changing to better serve its customers. staff report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20095\23\story_23-5-2009_pg10_3

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