Archives : May 2009

MEA: fast growth for mobile broadband expected

published on 2009/05/22 by George Malim

Africa and the Middle East are set to lead global mobile broadband subscriber growth by 2012, according to analyst firm Pyramid Research. Given the current low level of penetration that's perhaps not the greatest surprise and African markets have some of the greatest headroom for growth with mobile data revenue in the region accounting for just 3% of the world's total. That compares unfavourably to all telecoms revenues from the region, which come to about 10% of the global total. Mobile broadband is enjoying strong growth all over the world as the technology becomes more widely deployed. Informa......

Operator profits stabilise as recession continues

published on 2009/05/08 by Stewart Baines

Gulf telecom operators are bouncing back from the decline in growth experienced at the end of 2008. A spate of results reports has seen most operators report either stabilisation of profits or an increase as the market settles in to the global financial crisis. Qtel in Qatar has reported profits of QR604.4m (US£166m) for the first quarter, up on profits of QR446m (US$122m) on the previous quarter. However, that figure is still down on the third quarter of 2008, which was before the crisis began to bite. Batelco in Bahrain has also reported an improvement. First quarter profits were......

Operator profits stabilise as recession continues

published on 2009/05/08 by Stewart Baines

Gulf telecom operators are bouncing back from the decline in growth experienced at the end of 2008. A spate of results reports has seen most operators report either stabilisation of profits or an increase as the market settles in to the global financial crisis. Qtel in Qatar has reported profits of QR604.4m (US£166m) for the first quarter, up on profits of QR446m (US$122m) on the previous quarter. However, that figure is still down on the third quarter of 2008, which was before the crisis began to bite. Batelco in Bahrain has also reported an improvement. First quarter profits were......

Consumer apps in the workplace: much worse than expected

published on 2009/05/08 by Stewart Baines

Are more employees using consumer apps at work than we first thought? Recent research concludes that almost half of all bandwidth within corporate environments is being used by personal applications such as YouTube and peer-to-peer file sharing. In fact, security start-up Palo Alto Networks reports that an average of six peer-to-peer applications were found in 92% of organizations it polled in a recent survey.It warns that enterprises are losing their grip and, aside from the bandwidth costs involved, far greater damage may be done to the security of organizations. Only last month, the rabidly popular Facebook, fell victim to a......

WiMAX operators come to market bringing broadband access

published on 2009/05/05 by Stewart Baines

Deployment of WiMAX connectivity is ramping up across the region to the extent that by the end of last month services were commercially available via eleven operators in six countries. Algeria has led the region with service available since July 2005 from Smart Link Communication. In the intervening four years WiMAX service has come to Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia and several other Arab countries have started testing services, according to a report from Arab Advisors Group. However, challenges remain. "There are still no detailed regulations specific to WiMAX in some Arab countries," says Jawad Abbassi, founder and......