On the other hand, increased sales coming from handset items and the corporate segment may pressure margins for Mobily.

For Zain, on the one hand its financial outlook has improved post its balance sheet restructuring due to lower interest payments.

remains significantly behind STC and Mobily in terms of market share and available products, and the top-line performance has been muted in the past several quarters, holding back the pace of its recovery.

Data accounted for 27 percent of Mobily's full-year revenue, up from 22 percent in 2011

No.3 mobile company, an affiliate of Kuwait's Zain, made a net loss of 443 million riyals ($118.1 million) in the three months to Dec. 31. This compares with a net loss of 461 million riyals in the prior-year period.

Quarterly gross profit was 739 million riyals, up from 691 million riyals a year ago.Loss from operations widened by 23 percent to 262 million riyals, compared with 213 million riyals for the same quarter last year.

Of the nearly $90bn expected to be spent on ICT infrastructure in the Kingdom by 2012, $67b is projected to be spent on telecommunications.

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has posted impressive numbers – both in subscribers and profits – and 2009 was no exception

Mobily’s services revenues rose 21 percent to reach SR13.06bn ($3.48bn) versus SR10.79bn ($2.88bn) the previous year.

Batelco, has become the first telco in the country to launch an LTE servic

Swedish vendor, Ericsson. Batelco launched the service on the 1.8 Ghz spectrum.

We have been working very proactively and Batelco has been an excellent partner to really anticipate the market here.

These companies, in which Ooredoo already has a controlling interest, include brands such as Qtel in Qatar, Indosat in Indonesia, Wataniya in Kuwait, Nawras in Oman, Tunisiana in Tunisia, and Nedjma in Algeria.

Zain has announced that it will join forces with China based kit maker Huawei

Zain prides itself for being the only telecommunications company in Kuwait that offers its customers various telecommunication solutions while providing the best mobile services experience in town.

Huawei to launch the first joint innovation centre

LTE networks enable the fastest speeds commercially available for mobile networks, accommodating multimedia applications such as video conferencing, high-definition content transmission and high-speed video downloads from social networks.

Etisalat has signed an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent to ensure the operator's service rollout is as fast as possible. "Etisalat Lanka already offers the fastest mobile broadband experience in Sri Lanka and through LTE will bring broadband connectivity across the country

The mobile broadband infrastructure expertise Alcatel-Lucent brings in, assures Etisalat to deliver revolutionary 4G LTE services to our customers.  We at Etisalat strive to provide services that are fast, safe and meaningful to our customers and society."

4G service fast enough to download a movie in just two and a half minutes,

UAE telecommunications firm plans to charge subscribers Dh555 (US$151) a month for the speedy mobile-data service, which is currently available through a USB modem.

which offers speeds of 100 megabits per second

UAE telecoms firm Du has said it's dropping plans to expand into Saudi Arabia because it would need to find a partner, Reuters has reported. The Dubai-based firm did not meet the criteria to bid for one of three mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licences for sale in Saudi Arabia, said Du chief executive, Osman Sultan. "We wouldn't qualify directly [and] going there through some kind of partnership would make the financial equation less interesting," Sultan told reporters. "I don't see us going into regional expansion at least in the coming two years in the traditional way, which is new licences.

Nawras, has signed two additional bilateral revolving credit facility agreements totalling OMR 20 million ($51.9m) with three-year tenure, for capital expenditure and working capital purposes

Nawras signed a financing agreement worth $182 million with a five-year tenure

With a high mobile penetration rate of around 170%, we expect mobile subscriber growth rate in Qatar to mirror expected population growth rate of around 3.7% per annum going forward

3m mark this year, with the country counting a total population of 1.9m people

Consumers in Qatar can now retain their existing mobile phone number when switching service providers, increasing the competition between incumbent Qtel and Vodafone Qatar.

market segmentation to identify and meet the differing needs of our customers, successfully launching a number of market-leading propositions to address the diverse value and service capability requirements of our prepaid, postpaid and enterprise customers

received US$700m in finance during 2012, allowing it to invest US$468m in the network and IT

Additional support from Zain Group ensured the Saudi operator improved its financial performance and results, which led to a reduction in its net loss by 9% year-on-year in 2012

highlighted challenges in Sudan, which saw its currency fall by 55% against the US dollar during 2012

Etisalat Group posted a net profit before royalty of AED 13.2 billion ($3.59bn) for 2012, a rise of 27% year-on-year, while revenues reached AED 32.9 billion, up 2% compared to 2011.

Etisalat saw revenues decline by 1% in its home market of the UAE, to AED 22.7 billion for the year.

The data and internet segment generated revenues of AED 8 billion, contributing to 34% of Etisalat's total UAE revenue.

company's investments in national broadband network infrastructure had spurred data revenue growth of 20%

Quarterly staff costs climbed 17.5 per cent to Dh1.25 billion compared with a year ago, etisalat said in a statement

Etisalat, which dropped plans to buy a controlling stake in Kuwait's Zain earlier this year, posted second-quarter revenue of Dh7.93 billion, down from Dh8.05 billion a year earlier

especially in the post-paid segment,

10 per cent in 2011 due to slackening mobile phone operations but earnings will likely rebound in the next three years

netted nearly Dh 7.63 billion in 2010 and the income is expected to have shrank to about Dh6.8 billion in 2011

Etisalat’s net income is projected to rebound to Dh7.34 billion in 2012 and Dh7.68 billon in 2013 before it peaks at nearly Dheight billion in 2014, the report said.

Second-ranked operator du concluded trials on its 4G LTE network in October 2012; in the same monthEtisalat launched its first 4G LTE Mobile WiFi device. .

October 2012, the regulator, TRA, announced that it was extending the deadline granted to subscribersto register their mobile phones. Originally set to expire on October 16, 2012, the regulator has givenunregistered phone users in the first phase of registrations an additional three months to submit theirdetails.

Competition in the market is limited as there are only two mobile phone operators in the country, with thegovernment owning shares in both of them. In October 2012, the regulator confirmed that there are noplans to for a third operator to launch services. Fixed-line services continue to post single digit growth,although we forecast that this will taper off during the course of our forecast period, while broadband isanother strong growth area.