The UAE became one of the highest telecom penetration markets in the world as the mobile subscribers in the country reached 10 million, a figure that has doubled in the past four years, the telecom regulator said.

The number represents an unprecedented mobile penetration rate of over 200 per cent, placing the country as one of the highest penetration markets in the world, the regulator said. Results from the 2005 census showed that the population was 4.1 million and next census will be held in April next year.

Increase in mobile penetration rates is a trend that is also seen in the Middle East market recently despite the economic crisis. The region represents one of the world’s fastest growing mobile subscription markets with a 47 per cent year-over-year increase in 2008.

Mobile penetration in Arab countries reached 56 per cent at the end of 2008; figures across Gulf Cooperation Council countries remain much higher as the nature of the market is subject to maturity and introduction of new technologies. It is expected that the Middle East and North Africa telecommunications market is set to continue to grow in 2010, albeit at a slower pace while the telecom landscape is becoming more competitive.

Source: Khaleej Times

Mobile markets across regions are intensely competitive and some of them have reached saturation in terms of penetration of addressable markets.With tumbling voice tariffs contributing to declining Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) rates, mobile operators are actively pushing for growth of the non-voice value-added services (VAS) market. Despite the economic uncertainties, the mobile services market in South Asian and Middle East countries continues to sustain a growth path, especially in countries such as India.

The key trends in this market have been noted. Presently, mobile voice revenues constitute the largest chunk of mobile operator’s revenues, relegating mobile data revenues to a miniscule percentage. However, the mobile operators have realized that in order to curb depleting ARPUs, they would need to widen their focus on increasing data revenues. In the case of Messaging, the popularity of Peer to Application (P2A) SMS, where mobile subscribers respond to an application such as voting through SMS for a TV program, is on the rise. In terms of Premium Content – Mobile Entertainment segment, it remains the most significant form of mobile VAS across the South Asia and Middle East geographies.

According to Lavanya Palani Batcha, Industry Analyst, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, “With many markets almost reaching saturation point or having surpassed saturation in terms of mobile subscriptions penetration, telecom service providers are in need to bolster the ARPUs; and mobile VAS has the potential to alleviate this issue of declining ARPUs.”

The regional trend in different countries is equally interesting. India is the fastest growing mobile market in South Asia with good potential for growth amongst the rural population. The mobile VAS market is set to grow at a strong CAGR of 16.6 percent from 2008 to 2015.

Saudi Arabian mobile market has a high mobile penetration. However, the country still witnesses steady year-on-year growth in this sector. VAS market is expected to exhibit CAGR of 10.6 percent between 2008 and 2015.

Sri Lanka has a relatively moderate mobile user penetration of 42.4 percent; hence there is good potential for growth. 3G services such as Video SMS, Dial and Watch TV have been introduced.

UAE has one of the highest mobile subscription penetrations in the South Asia and Middle East region. Both mobile operators, Etisalat and Du, increasing their focus on revenue streams from VAS and mobile TV and mobile internet, have strong potential. Mobile VAS market estimated CAGR of 11.9 percent between 2008 and 2015.

The Egyptian mobile market still possesses a sizeable under-penetrated addressable market, thereby providing avenues for growth. Relatively strong CAGR of 14.1 percent is estimated for the mobile VAS market in Egypt between 2008 and 2015.

Pakistan’s mobile market is robust with intense price wars amongst the local and foreign mobile operators. Estimated mobile VAS market CAGR is 16.8 percent between 2008 and 2015.

The mobile VAS market in South Asia and Middle East is anticipated to exhibit strong to moderate growth owing to untapped potential for VAS in these regions, 3G networks proliferation, and a saturation of revenues, and adoption of plain vanilla mobile voice services. The market is also expected to witness the emergence of stronger mobile VAS content providers/aggregators with the ability to grasp better revenue shares from the mobile operators.

For further information on this study, contact Amrita Nandi/ Nimisha Iyer, Corporate Communications, at amritan@frost.com / niyer@frost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state, and country. Upon receipt of the above information, a virtual brochure of the report will be sent to you by e-mail.

Kuwait’s mobile phone newcomer Viva is thought to have exceeded expectations on subscribers during its first year in operation, a new report has said.

The Gulf state’s mobile telecoms market grew by 12 percent in the first half of this year, with the arrival late in 2008 of Saudi Telecom’s Kuwait unit seen as one of the biggest factors behind the growth, Business Monitor International added.

The research house said that since Viva’s launch in December, it had grabbed about 10 percent of the country’s mobile market from the two more established players Zain and Wataniya, a unit of Qatar’s Qtel.

“Growth in the first half of 2009 was significantly higher than at any time in the previous year,” BMI’s report said, adding: “One of the biggest factors behind the upsurge in Kuwaiti mobile customer growth has been the launch of commercial services by Saudi Telecom’s Kuwaiti mobile business Viva.”

The report added that although Viva’s CEO previously stated that its goal was to attract 300,000 subscribers within its first year of operations, the operator already appears to have exceeded this target.

BMI predicted that by the end of the year, it saw that mobile phone penetration in Kuwait reaching 122 percent, up from 110 percent in mid-2009.

“Continued growth over and above 100 percent reflects the prevalence of multiple SIM owners in the country’s mobile market. Our forecast also accounts for a certain number of inactive prepaid users within the sector,” the report added.

Source : Arabian Business

Some shoppers will be able to pay for retail purchases next year with their mobile phone after a deal struck between Etisalat and Emirates NBD.

The partnership between the region’s largest bank in terms of assets and the largest telco will allow Emirates NBD Visa cardholders to purchase goods and services simply by using their mobile phones.

The partnership also includes Gemalto, a world leader in digital security and Visa, will allow payment by waving the NFC-enabled phone in front of the payment terminal eliminating the need for the traditional swiping of payment cards.

Source: Arabian Business

Mobile TV Middle East,
15th & 16th November 2009,
Jumeirah Beach, Hotel
Dubai

WirelessDuniya.com Media partner at Mobile TV Middle East, 15th & 16th November 2009, Jumeirah Beach, Hotel Dubai. Check out the event its going to be a top event.

Mobile TV Middle East will bring together key thought-leaders from across the sector to demonstrate how to capitalise on this opportunity and how to take Mobile TV forward into 2010.

Now in its third year, and co-located with the IPTV World Forum Middle East & Africa event, Mobile TV Middle East 2009 will focus on the specific regional challenges and opportunities being faced by Companies working within this fast-paced market.

The 2009 programme brings keynote speakers from major operators, device brands, content publishers and regulators to establish how Mobile TV can continue to move forward and generate a sustainable andlong term revenue stream for the ecosystem.

Covering a Host of Region Specific and Global Challenges Being Faced by Mobile TV Professionals Today – Topics Include:

* Identifying profitable and sustainable business models
* Understanding how to manage and overcome network capacity constraints
* Assess how to improve customer experience through technology
* Examine how Mobile TV is being approached by broadcasters and operators
* Negotiate revenue share agreements and stay abreast of digital rights and legal constraints
* Consider the opportunities provided by mobile advertising and user generated content
* Analyse the Mobile TV customer and examine segment content consumption
* Create simplified packages and pricing options to tempt customers

GETMO Arabia (a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Media Company and Arvato Mobile), has signed a strategic partnership agreement with leading Middle East and African mobile telecommunications company Zain to deliver a unique 360 degree managed games portal for single and multiplayer games to Zain customers. The portal will be available to Zain subscribers online and via mobile phones across Zain’s 24 territories in the Middle East and Africa.

The portal features are :

§ It is built in a dynamic way; games on the web are updated simultaneously with the mobile portal

§ Multi Player Games supported

§ Multiple languages: English, Arabic, French

§ Territory specific currency § Territory specific content

§ User Ratings

Zain customers will now have access to cutting-edge games services and top notch games publishers from Getmo Arabia’s long standing relationships with the industry’s biggest names. The service will feature games from some of the leading international & local games publishers via the Zain Create WAP and web portals in three major languages (Arabic, English and French).The multiplayer gaming portal will launch under the umbrella of Zain Create, which already includes music and video content. Gamers will be able to log on to the portal via a web interface or mobile phone to purchase and play games (or continue one they started earlier). It will be available from Zain’s 24 operators in territories such as GCC, Levant and Africa, reaching over 70 million Zain customers.

Etisalat’s Mobile phone Subscriber base reaches 7.44 million and internet subscriber base reaches 1.27 million in the UAE at the end of September 2009

Fixed line users numbered 1.31 million.

Source : Arabian Business

Nokia announced its app development competition for Arabic application calling it -Bil3arabi (which means “in Arabic”) contest, in a bid to draw developers to submit Arabic and other relevant apps to its Ovi Store, a smart move to bring pioneering local and relevant apps to the Arab world on Nokia devices, which would put Nokia in a leading position before its mobile competitors specially the iPhone. As the Mobile OS apps game of today is no different than the PC app OS game of the 80s, the Mobile OS that draws more developers would emerge as a winner.

Though Bil3arabi is a smart move by Nokia, it had a major shortfall: it was not open to individuals and students!! But now Nokia corrected its mistake with an announcement that it is now allowing additional submissions for its Arabic-language mobile applications competition, Calling All Innovators – Bil3arabi, by welcoming individuals as well as companies, and accepting direct submissions from those developers whose apps can not currently be uploaded to Ovi Store!!!

Nokia is also giving developers more time, by extending the deadline to 15 November 2009

Source : Arab Crunch

ArabCrunch has reported the launch of Yahoo!Maktoob’s first application for the iPhone called “Maktoob Dictionary.”

Maktoob Dictionary is a text translation app from English to Arabic and vice versa, it has around 160,000 Arabic and English words and phrases and enables you to bookmark words.

Source : ArabCrunch