Distimo and the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) have issued a report on Apple’s App Store in Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The two organisations have concluded that the most popular applications are priced higher in the emerging markets than in the USA, where games are more popular...

CBOSS Corporation has deployed a comprehensive convergent integrated solution, CBOSSconvergence³, in Palestine. With the new solution, Wataniya Mobile, which is new to Palestine, was able to deploy an intelligent IT infrastructure and provide high-quality communications and Internet access to its users...

Zain Bahrain has showcased the MENA region’s first LTE call, achieving a download data speed of 70 Mb/s. In a trial to demonstrate its LTE readiness, Zain Bahrain “proved its preparedness and commitment” to mass-scale deployment of this advanced technology just six months after announcing the Middle East’s first LTE contract with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)...

Mobile telephony and data in fourteen Middle Eastern countries has just been by Research and Markets in its Middle Eastern Mobile Voice and Operators Market report. Higher penetration rates and consequent lower ARPU constitute a key finding.

This year is set to become a significant one for Middle East telecoms. Specific areas of interest will be broadband investment, clarification of regulations and cloud computing...

Recovery from global recession through 2010 will allow  growth to return to EMEA, including the market for hardcopy peripherals. The prediction for this sector is made by IDC and forecasts CAGR of 7.6% for EMEA for 2010-2014...

A new collaboration between Selevision and Irdeto will grow customer bases and increase RoI for television content providers and advertisers in the Middle East.

A new report from Arab Advisors Group analyses and ranks 20 fixed-service operators in 15 Arab countries. Key performers are to be found in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Twenty fixed-line operators in 15 Arab countries served 27.8 million fixed-line subscriptions by end-September 2009, down 4.6% from 29.2 million at year end 2008...

Andrew Solutions has unveiled a multi-operator coverage and capacity solution in Istanbul’s SG Airport. The Distributed Antenna System (DAS) will allow Vodafone, Turkcell and AVEA to provide 2G and 3G services to users throughout the airport...

Fujairah in the UAE will host a landing station for Gulf Bridge International, the first privately owned Middle Eastern submarine cable operator. Partnering GBI will be local telecom service provider du...

Jordan is to benefit from an MVNO supplied to Friendi Group by Sysmsoft, which specialises in real-time mobile data, charging and messaging solutions. Friendi’s Jordanian launch follows its Omani deployment, believed to be the first MVNO in the Middle East...

Reportlinker has announces their new market research report on the Saudi Arabian telecoms market. Looking towards 2014, Reportlinker is confident of major growth in the Saudi 3G sector...

In an important first for the Iraqi market, Asiacell – the largest private Iraqi company and the first and only mobile telecommunications company to provide coverage for all of Iraq – has announced a major strategic partnership with AMWAL, a consortium of Iraqi banks...

Qtel International has concluded a major framework agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks to support its long-term development strategy across international markets...

Zain has announced that its new CEO, effective from Sunday, February 14^th, will be Mr Nabil Bin Salama. The appointment, made by the Board of Directors of Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC, follows the sudden resignation of former Chief Executive Mr Saad Al Barrak...

Turkcell customers will soon benefit from immediate mobile content synchronisation and backup services, following the operator’s purchase of over 1000 UME-36 devices from CelleBrite, a provider of phone synchronisation and management systems...

The second stage in Vodafone’s fixed-line strategy for Qatar has been delayed until 2011 or even 2012. Building the fixed-line infrastructure is one reason offered for the delay by Vodafone, which won its first licence in 2008...

The world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai, now offers broadband Internet at what is believed to be the fastest speed in the Middle East. Two companies, Etisalat and du, have enabled the connection...

3G is accelerating the growth in Internet usage in Turkey, according to research conducted by Turkcell. The Turkish company carried out its survey last month among its modem subscribers...

US$45.5 is the price now on offer from France Telecom for a single share in Mobinil, the Egyptian operator owned jointly by France Telecom and Orascom Telecom. Mobinil’s future has recently been the subject of several complex legal and financial developments...

 Maroc Telecom’s market share is set to continue its decline, sinking to 46.7% by 2013. This prediction is made in Research and Markets’ new report, which also forecasts 35 million mobile subscriptions in Morocco by the same date...

Zain’s One Network has gained its 2nd member, Egypt. In the Arab World alone, 27 million customers in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Sudan can now enjoy a single telecoms market...

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, uses his experience of the emerging markets to explain how marketing techniques are geared towards both avoiding offence and building up customer relations...

Major operators in 15 Middle East markets come under the scrutiny of a new analysis from Reportlinker. The countries’ telecoms infrastructure and fixed-voice sector are described and ranked in order of tele-density...

A collaboration between German satellite provider Satlynx and Middle East satellite operator Arabsat will provide the Central Bank of Iraq with a new, fully redundant satellite network that will provide the foundations of an extensive communications platform...

Arab Bank Jordan is enhancing the quality of its support for mobile messaging operations by introducing Derdack’s message master software. Enterprise-wide deployment has been rolled out across Jordan, UAE, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Morocco...

Wataniya Palestine has launched its new mobile network in the Palestine territories, despite the fact that the spectrum allocation agreed for the network has not been fully released by Israel...

Cisco and Openet are providing their services to Turkcell to ensure flexible charging for Turkcell’s General Packet Radio Service mobile data network. The solution has been deployed to ensure scalability as data use grows...

Omani citizens have been activating Gemalto’s ePurse application in their current e-ID cards. Many government-oriented functions can be carried out in what Gemalto is claiming to be a world first...

Customers of Zain will soon enjoy improved voice, data and multimedia services with the Middle East region’s first Long Term Evolution technology. The upgrade, by Nokia Siemens Networks, is described as a showcase for all Zain Group operations...

News that Telecom Egypt is to offer triple play services over a new fibre-optic cable network is one of several indicators that Egypt is a market undergoing a major transition - in the right direction. Analysis by Michael Schwartz.