The number of mobile subscriptions in the Middle East (see note) will cross the 250-million mark during 2012, reaching 271.27 million at end-2012 and rising to 352 million at end-2016, according to forecasts by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Additionally, the average mobile penetration rate for the Middle East will cross the 100% mark in 2012: It will rise from 97.72% at end-2011 to 107.09% at end-2012, exceeding the mobile penetration rate in North America (US/Canada) for the first time. (The mobile penetration rate in North America at end-2012 will be 102.77%.)
Iran will continue to be the biggest mobile market in the Middle East by subscriptions with   82.91 million subscriptions forecast for end-2011, rising to 122.13 million at end-2016.

Saudi Arabia has the next biggest mobile market in the region by subscriptions, with a 50.8 million active mobile subscriptions forecast for end-2011, rising to 71.32 million at end-2016.

Despite the take-up of smartphones and, to a lesser degree, mobile broadband in some parts of the Middle East, data services only account for a relatively small proportion of mobile revenues in the region overall. Data accounted for 13% of mobile revenues in the Middle East in 2Q11; the lowest percentage for any major world region other than Africa.

But this low figure also points to the growth potential for data in the region. Iraq and Iran, both of which are substantial markets, have yet to introduce 3G networks, for example.
In the UAE, smartphone penetration is already high and will continue to rise further: The smartphone penetration rate in the UAE is forecast to be 47.23% at end-2011 and to rise to 70.35% at end-2016, according to Informa.

In Saudi Arabia, the smartphone penetration rate is forecast to rise from 25.01% at end-2011 to 48.63% at end-2016.
But the rates of smartphone penetration will be lower in some other markets in the region. In Jordan, for example, the smartphone penetration rate is forecast to be 2.2% at end-2011, rising to 17.98% at end-2016.
While some countries in the region do not yet have 3G services, all three of Saudi Arabia’s mobile operators have unveiled LTE services. Etisalat is also poised to launch LTE in the UAE.
However, it will take some time for LTE to gain momentum. LTE subscriptions in the Middle East will number only 1.94 million at end-2013 but will reach 15 million at end-2016, according to forecasts by Informa.
Fixed-broadband subscriptions are also set to grow strongly in the region: The number of fixed-broadband subscriptions in the Middle East will rise from 6.51 million at end-2011 to 11.6 million at end-2016.
The report categorize Middle East as: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Yemen.

More info about the research can be found here.

According to sources in Egypt, Mobile service is offline in Tahrir square in Cairo Egypt, the square is witnessing a new revolt against the military rule in Egypt with around 1 million people demonstrating.

We do not know if it was switched off intentionally by mobile operators -after a request from the government in Egypt – or not. Vodafone one of the mobile telecom operators in Egypt says over Twitter that the service is running and the outage might be due huge traffic.

In the first version of the Egyptian revolution in January this year , one of Husni Mubarak tactics -which did not save him- was to switch mobile network off.

#image credit.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) Group announced its investment in a new Venture Capital Fund which specializes in start up, small, and medium sized companies operating in the field of telecommunications and IT in the Saudi market as well as other international markets.
STC Group will invest an initial amount of $50 million that is self financed making it the only investor in the fund at this stage. Other local and international companies will be invited to invest in this fun at a later stage.

Eng Saud bin Majed Al Daweesh, STC Group CEO said that his Fund targets the local market and invests in local Saudi expertise in the field of IT and telecommunications in addition to other markets in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the United States.

The fund had been set up in an agreement with venture capital firm Iris Capital.

This is good news for Saudi tech startup community as startup based seed and early stage funding is still nascent. We hope to see more funds like this in Saudi Arabia and the region.



Google has launched recently gmail SMS chat  in many Arab and some African and Asian countries with a number of mobile operators.



SMS with Gmail enables users to send free text messages (SMS) to  their friends directly from their Gmail accounts.
if the user’s contact replies, the text message response will appear as a reply in Chat.  just like gmail chat gtalk.

Sending and receiving a message from Gmail to any phone is free.

When replying with an SMS from phone to Gmail, you will be charged a regular SMS rate by your mobile provider.



Google has partnered with a number of operators in the region to bring the service here is the list of Arab, African and Asian mobile operators that are supported:

 ( Syria and Sudan are not on the list due to US government sanctions.)

Afghanistan
: Afghan Wireless Communication Company



Algeria
: Nedjma


Angola
: Unite


Bahrain
: Viva, 
Zain


Cameroon
: MTN
, Orange


Congo, Democratic Republic
: Vodacom


Côte d’Ivoire: 
Orange


Ghana
 Airtel, 
Tigo

Guinea
: Orange


Indonesia
:Indosat
, Telkomsel
, Tri


Iraq: 
Zain


”Israel
:” orange
, Pelephone


Jordan
: Zain


Kazakhstan: 
Kcell


Kenya
: Airtel
, orange
, Safaricom,
Yu

Kuwait:
Wataniya, 
Zain

Liberia
: Cellcom


Malawi: 
L Airtel, 
TNM


Malaysia
: DiGi


Maldives
: Dhiraagu
, Wataniya


Mozambique
: Vodacom


Nigeria
: Glo
, Starcomms


Palestinian Territories
: Jawwal
, Wataniya Mobile


Philippines
: Globe
, SMART
, Sun Cellular


Saudi Arabia: 
Mobily, 
STC
, Zain


Senegal
: orange
, Tigo


Sierra Leone
: Comium


Sri Lanka
: Dialog,
 Etisalat, 
Mobitel


Tanzania
:Vodacom
,Tigo


Thailand
: dtac, 
True Move


Tunisia
: Tunisiana


Uganda
: Orange, 
MTN
, Uganda Telecom


United States: 
All operators


Uzbekistan: 
Ucell


Zambia
: Airtel
, MTN
, Zamtel





Telecom research agency BuddeComm has launched its Africa – Fixed and Wireless Broadband and Internet Markets and Forecasts report.
It says that “Large parts of Africa gained access to international fibre bandwidth for the first time via submarine cables in 2009 and 2010. In other parts of the continent, additional fibre systems have brought competition to a previously monopolised market. More cables are expected to go online in 2011 and 2012. This has led to massive investments into terrestrial fibre backbone infrastructure to take the new bandwidth to population centres in the interior and across borders into landlocked countries.
Africa’s Internet and broadband sector is set to benefit the most from these developments. Wholesale prices for Internet bandwidth have come down by as much as 90% from previous levels based on satellite access, and the cost savings are slowly being passed on to the retail level as well. Broadband is rapidly replacing dial-up as the preferred access method, and this process is already virtually completed in the continent’s more developed markets.
Most African countries now have commercial DSL services, but their growth is limited by the poor geographical reach of the fixed-line networks. Improvements in Internet access have therefore been mostly confined to the capital cities so far. However, the rapid spread of mobile data and third-generation (3G) broadband services is changing this, with the mobile networks bringing Internet access to many areas outside of the main cities for the first time.
Many fixed-line incumbents have reacted by rolling out fixed-wireless access networks to expand their geographical reach. The technology of choice has been CDMA-2000 which supports broadband data rates with an upgrade to EV-DO standard. WiMAX technology, however, offers higher data rates and has gained ground in Africa with well over 100 networks already in operation. And also traditional copper fixed lines and DSL have seen a renaissance in some markets on the back of an increasing demand for broadband access.”

Top ten African Internet market penetration rates – early-2011
Country and Market penetration
Morocco
49%
Seychelles
41%
Tunisia
37%
Cape Verde
30%
Nigeria
28%
Egypt
27%
Mauritius
25%
Kenya
21%
Senegal
16%
Libya
14%
(Source: BuddeComm based on ITU data)

Full report can be found here.

Egypt’s Ministry of communications and information technology  (MCIT) has released ICT indicators in brief for February of 2011. The report says that there are 71.46 million Mobile subscribers in January growing at 1.13 % from previous month with annual growth at 27.95% while Mobile penetration rate is at 91.32 %.

As for the Internet the report says that there are 23.51 millions internet users in January growing at 2.12% from previous month and growing 39.61% annually. Internet penetration rate in January was 30.05% from the population growing at 8.14% annually. While the Proportion of households using the internet from home was 32.76% growing at 7.25% annually.

Another interesting point from the report is that the number of Internet Mobile subscribers is a growing trend: as in January 11.32% of Mobile subscribers use Internet via mobile handsets that is around 8.09 million mobile internet users, ADSL subscribers are 1429.40 thousand.

As for the number of ICT companies ( Information and communications technology companies) the number is 3972 companies in January growing around 1% over the previous month and 13.49% over the previous year, these companies employed 205.28 thousand people and have issues capital of 44870.5 Million Egyptian Pounds.

To get the full report you can view the embed below:

Intel Corporation made its first acquisition in the Arab world, today it announced through its standalone business entity Intel Mobile Communications, that it has acquired most of the assets of SySDSoft, a privately held software company based in Cairo and hired approximately 100 of the company’s electrical engineers and computer scientists. SySDSoft designs IP based solutions in the software stack and physical layer domain, and RF/analog circuits embedded in mobile platforms. Its product portfolio covers technologies such as WiMAX, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wireless USB, and LTE.

This news is great for Egypt post-revolution and to the Arab world, as now more and more investors see  the exit window for their hight tech investments open again. Lets not forget Yahoo Maktoob deal that brought excitement and was like an energizer to the Internet industry.   Hope next time we break news at AC it will be an IPO for an Arab startup.

Here is the full press release from Intel, we do not know how much the acquisition was for:

Intel Acquires Egypt-based SySDSoftCAIRO, Egypt and SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 14, 2011 – Intel Corporation, through its standalone business entity Intel Mobile Communications, today announced that it has acquired most of the assets of SySDSoft, a privately held software company based in Cairo and hired approximately 100 of the company’s electrical engineers and computer scientists. SySDSoft designs state-of-the-art IP solutions in the software stack and physical layer domain, and RF/analog circuits embedded in mobile platforms.“The acquisition of engineering and design talent from an Egypt-based company in the field of cutting-edge wireless and communication technology is the first of its kind for Intel in the Middle East,” said Arvind Sodhani, president, Intel Capital and executive vice president, Intel. “The acquisition shows Intel’s continued long-term strategic commitment to the region and its appreciation of its young, growing talent pool.”SySDSoft’s solutions enhance Intel Mobile Communications’ existing multi-communications portfolio, specifically accelerating its 4G LTE efforts with the addition of leading software development and design capabilities. Intel Mobile Communications is an integral part of Intel’s strategy to accelerate always-connected computing platforms founded on energy-efficient performance, Internet connectivity and security, and spanning a variety of device and market segments, including laptops, cars, smart phones, tablets and TVs.“As we enter an era of multi-communication broadband solutions, Intel’s products and technologies will be important to our vision of billions of connected devices,” said Dr. Hermann Eul, president of Intel Mobile Communications. “Intel is making the necessary investments to further enhance its existing world-class wireless product portfolio and to offer the most reliable platforms to our customers that will work seamlessly across a range of global networks. The acquisition supports this strategy and we believe that SySDSoft’s proven and experienced engineering team, combined with Intel Mobile Communications’ existing wireless strength, positions us well for continued growth in LTE.”

Update: RIM replied to our question whether its agreement with TRA offers UAE authorities ways to monitor the service in the country, with the following statement:

RIM cannot discuss the details of confidential regulatory matters that occur in specific countries, but RIM confirms that it continues to approach lawful access matters internationally within the framework of core principles that were publicly communicated by RIM on August 12 -

As our sources close to 3 regional Telecom companies revealed in August that UAE will reach a deal with RIM the owner of Blackberry to continue the service, Today telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) of United Arab Emirates announced officially that BlackBerry (BB) services will not be discounted and wont be banned on the 11th of October. In August a decision by TRA was made to ban BlackBerry Messenger, Blackberry E-mail and Blackberry Web-Browsing Services making the device ineffective was made due to what TRA called security concerns. In his part, Dubai Chief Police called the ban due to “Israeli” & US Spying On The Country. Saudi Arabia followed UAE’s step and announced plans to ban the service but revoked the decision as our sources said that authorities in KSA will have some hand in “monitoring” BB services. TRA statement (Arabic) said that all BlackBerry services are not in compliance with Telecom regulations in UAE. Which most probably is a confirmation to our sources leak that now UAE authorities have access and can monitor BB beams in UAE.

Venture Capital firm Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), has announced three new investments in Lebanese-based companies: Pin-Pay SAL, iLevel SAL, and Multilane SAL. MEVP says the The funding will assist the companies in pursuing regional growth and extending their product offerings. The companies MEVP’s investmented are as follows:

• Pin-Pay SAL: Network-agnostic wireless payment operators, using platform where customers use a java based application to make and receive payment via their mobile phone directly into their bank accounts. Its goal is to transform the mobile handset into a payment tool. The app only works right now with lebaneas operator Alfa.

• iLevel SAL: Calls its self “The first shopper marketing agency in the Middle East”, helping sales outlet to optimize the shopping experience of their customers. Shopper marketing is the discipline of influencing the shopper at the point of decision through various marketing techniques.  iLevel provides turnkey in-store marketing solutions through research, consultancy and design.

• Multilane SAL: An innovative technology firm focused on designing and developing instruments for testing and characterizing optical communication equipment and optical infrastructure equipment.

Sukar a private shopping club that offers on a weekly bases from well known brands at discount rates up to 70% has started offering delivery to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. It was available before only in UAE. Sukar was launched end of last April.

Jabbar group is the majority owner of Sukar, the other e-commerce company that Jabbar owns is Souq.com like ebay but for  the Arab world ( an auction site) has announced partnership with Mobily a Mobile operator in Saudi Arabia. Now Mobily users can use Mobily loyalty program points called “Neqatai” and redeem them in buying goods on the auction site.. Souq.com is available in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and UAE.

Jabbar’s e-commerce quest did not stop in 2 companies, as the growing success of Dubai Based group buying startup GoNabit has led Jabbar to announce its own copycat called cobbone.

GoNabit managed to get the backing of Bayt ( a leading Middle East e-jobs site) as a majority share holder. Both Bayt and Jabbar share the same investor, NewYork based Tiger Global Management.

Updated: ArabCrunch sources who are close to the 3 telecom operators in Saudi Arabia confirmed just now the deal has been made between RIM and Saudi Arabia, BlackBerry service to continue in the kingdom. Official Announcement most likely tomorrow, UAE to follow.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabia’s BlackBerry (BB) ban went into effect, but users reported that the device services are still up and running. While UAE’s BB ban will take effect next October.

ArabCrunch sources close to Saudi Arabia 3 mobile operators told us the deal has been reached between RIM the mother company of BlackBerry and authorities in both Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, the deal will allow BlackBerry services to continue in both countries while giving authorities some hand in “monitoring.”

AC’s sources said that RIM will continue to claim “no access” is provided and the key issue  for RIM was in giving access to authorities in these countries without a court order. AC sources added that today or tomorrow an official announcement will be made.

Today Alrabiyia news station along with others reported that Saudi Arabia Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) and 3 mobile operators in the kingdom: STC, Mobily and Zain has reached an agreement with RIM the mother company of BlackBerry, where content being transformed across BB devices can be monitored by the local authorities.

Saudi arabia, UAE and India has expressed before security concerns about BlackBerry services namely its encrypted email service. India said that BlackBerry was used in the last year in bombay attacks by the prepeptuaters.

Alarabiya said that local servers installed by RIM is being tested in Saudi Arabia, there are around 700,000 BB users in Saudi Arabia. Our sources however could not confirm that but said “certain setup will be made.”

We have contacted RIM before but they said they have nothing to say and we will contact them now for more information.

At her end US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recognized there is a “right to free use and access” that could be infringed by countries banning BlackBerrys. “We are taking time to consult and analyse the full the range of interests and issues at stake, because we know that there is a legitimate security concern,”

Her government has a semi-secret government contractor that calls itself Project Vigilant which monitors the traffic of 12 regional Internet service providers and hands much of that information to federal agencies.

At ArabCrunch we were vigilant of Clinton’s Internet “freedom speech” on January this year where she cited China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt among countries that censored the Internet or harassed bloggers!, she said  ”We stand for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas,” At the same day her government ordered sourceforge to deny free open source to around 120 million human beings in Syria, Sudan, Iran, N. Korea & Cuba, a direct contradiction to the open source philosophy of No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups and No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor.

Following UAE’s decision to ban BlackBerry Messenger, email and web browsing, Etisalat the #1 telecom and mobile operator in United Arab Emirates  (UAE) and is owned by the government,  announced an alternative replacement offer to blackberry (BB) subscribers on or before 31 July 2010.

The offer located at Etisalat BlackBerry Alternative webpage offers free minutes, SMS and data package to current BB subscribers with 12 month contract, along with free phones one of the following:

iPhone, Nokia E72, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini, Nokia E66, Sony Ericsson Vivaz Nokia N900, Nokia N97, Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro, Sony Ericsson Satio,Samsung Wave, Samsung Galaxy S.

We do not know what iPhone model will be provided.

There are around 500,000 BlackBerry subscribers in UAE. The BB ban will take effect on the 11th of October.

After Yahoo acquired  Maktoob last year, many of Maktoob group companies were merged under one independent brand called Jabbar. Somehow similar precedence happened with Orascom Telecom’s LinkDotNet 150 million USD buyout to Mobinil, but at a larger scale.

Orascom Telecom which is one of the largest tech and telecom groups in the Arab world, has been facing legal disputes with France Telecom as the 2 are biggest shareholders of Egyptian Mobile operator Cairo-based Egyptian Co., which operates under the brand Mobinil.

So on July 3rd 2010 Mobinil agreed to pay 130 Million USD to  acquire the ISP unit of Orascom’s LINKDotNet SAE and Link Egypt SAE as part of an agreement that settled the legal dispute between Orascom and France Telecom SA.

However,  the non-ISP business unites were not part of the deal, so OTVENTURES was born as a new addition to the Orascom Telecom group.

The birth of OTVentures was announced on July 6th but overlooked by the mainsteam media, so here is quick profile of the new company which seems to be the largest indigenous Arab Internet play in terms of reach:

- OTVentures CEO is Hanan Abdel Meguid who is former CEO of Link Development.

- OTVentures says it hires 700 team members operating across over 17 countries.

The holding companies:

LinkOnlLine:

Founded  in 2002, now one of the largest, if not the largest Arab Internet company with the following Portals:

MSN Arabia:

MSN Arabia is the result of LinkOnLine partnership writhe Microsoft, MSN Arabia is available in English and Arabic. It covers Windows live services and the MSN Arabia Portal.

MSN arabia portal offers wide range of content such as: news, business and financial guides, technology, health, fitness and diet tips, entertainment games, and celebrity gossip games. The site is also integrated with other LinkOnLine products such as Otlob.

MSN Arabia uses MS bing as the default search engine after it abandoned LinkOnLine’s own search Engine Onkush. As a Portal MSN Arabia main competitor is Yahoo Maktoob and as Bing is available in Arabic, Google is the main search competitor. However Aljazeera and other news and vertical sites might also be considered as competitors.

Masraway:

One the most popular Arabic portal geared towards egyptians, Masrway offers a wide array of content and services:

News, Classified, Jokes, Video sharing, Games (single and Multi player ), SMS ( 1-Egyptian and Saudi user subscribe can get news at the of cost 4 EP per month, 2- online paid service to send SMS to other mobile phones), TV Guide, E-Gov Services (links to e-gov services) Jobs ( integrated with Linkonline careermdieast job portal), Women channel, Thanaweya Amma ( high school results), Anti Women Harassment ( good job ), Music, Travel, Food Delivery (via LinkOnLine’s otolb) Ketabat ( user generated Arabic content and news -citizen journalism), greeting cards, Hosting and Domains and webmail.

Yallakora:

In operations since 2002 providing Arabic English, news and content for football leagues in the Arab region especially in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Tunisia & Morocco and most of the European and other regional tournaments in the world. The site also offers an Arabic fantasy Football competition and iPhone app.

YallaKora key competitors are: kooora.com, Filgoal (from Sarmady a Vodafone company in Egypt), Goal.com and Yahoo Maktoob Sports. Yallakora English version still has Onkush as a default search engine, seems the developing team forgot to add bing instead.
MSN Maghreb:

MSN Maghreb is a French version of MSN Arabia targeting French speaking users in countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

Mazika:

Arabic Music Portal offering legal Music Audio and Video streaming and Islamic Nasheed with the option to buy via “Credit Card”, the site also provides online Audio & Video streaming and celebrity news.

On the entertainment front Saramady Vodafone company has Filfan a portal with content related to Music and cinema.

On Mobile, Nokia X6 Comes with Music offers free Music download for one year.

Otlob:

An online food ordering site through which orders can be placed to many restaurants in Egypt, UAE, KSA and Bahrin. And otlobmall.com a mall shopping site.

Yallabina:

Entertainment and city guide for Cairo, covering major events, concerts, and cultural events.

CareerMideast:

Job recruitment site for the Arab world, according to the about page the site has 500,000 CVs which is 25% of Bayt’s claimed CVs  number. Careermideast currently offering free job posting for employers.

LinkonLine ID: is linkdotnet single login to all its sites.

El3ab:

Online bilingual gaming offering  flash based single player & multiplayer games. The site says they will add Game Reviews Channel for reviewing the newest games worldwide. And a Fan Shop, for buying different elements “which will enhance gaming experience on el3ab.” The site offers traditional Middle Eastern games such Tarneeb and chess.

Other regional players in the Arab Gaming include: Tahdi from Jabbar, Tarneeb.com, kammelna popular baloot game from Saudi based remal IT and Wizard productions ( merged with Go3Media, it has recently received funding from Ossama Fiyad former Data Chief Office Yahoo and Chairman of D1G and Oasis 500.) and Yallagamescafe.

Baraca Arabia:

News and content for FC Barcelona Arabic fans.

Shofha:

The first Arabic legal video service, or the HULU of the Arab world. Shofha is made possible with strategic partnership with Rotana the leading Arabic entertainment company. The site offers users to: buy: download and view for a life time, renting: download and view for 48 hours and online streaming. Payment is via credit card or Linkdotnet cards.

Shofha uses unforunityly Microsoft’s Silverlight platform instead of HTML 5.

Yahoo Maktoob on the other hand has formed recently a partnership with Rotana to use and stream Rotana’s wide range of multimedia content, including music, videos, movies, concerts, TV channels and radio, through its upcoming Video Network channel for the Arabic speaking world.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Tala who owns Rotana is planning to launch a new Arabic television news channel in partnership with the Fox network. The Prince  is also an investor in Rubert Murdoch’s News Corp who in his part made recently a $70m investment for 9.1% of Rotana.

Arab Finance:

Arab Finance Provides online trading for the Egyptian stock market, financial news, tools and analysis. It also has “Isharet el Borsa” desktop app offering real time stock quotes info, charts and other technical info.

Arab Finance also has free iPhone application for the Egyptian Stock market, providing real-time access to the Egyptian Stock Market.

Other indepandant players in the Stock segment include the following:
-Awarmer: from Suadi based Remal IT offers online trading for the Saudi Stock Market.

-Argaam: UAE based Gulf-focused financial news portal.

-Saudi Based N2V’s Mubasher.info offers comprehensive financial news and analysis tools for Saudi Stock Exchange, Dubai Financial Market, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Egyptian Stock Exchange, Amman Stock Exchange, Kuwait Stock Exchange, Muscat Securities Market, Doha Securities Market, Bahrain Stock Exchange, and Palestine Securities Exchange

-From National Technology Group the mother company of N2V, Mubasher Trade offers trading for Egyptian stock market and UAE stocks. And Mubasher NET for retail investors, offering market data desktop app.

-From Jordan Tickerchart: Stock analysis software for Arab  stock exchanges.

Link Data Center:

Offers a range of hosting solutions for enterprise and small and mid size business, notably: Managed Dedicated Hosting ,which offers firewalls and load-balancing devices. However we do not know which environment is supported, like the different Linux distributions, as all Otvenutres is based on Microsoft .NET technologies.

The other regional Data center we know of in the region is Bahrain based Kulacom data center in Jordan

Link Development

Is one of the largest  regional ISV, software developer and out-sourcing companies in the region. Link Development is a key regional partner to Microsoft and its products such as MS Dynamics. Link Development most notable in-house developed product is: Tempo, an Enterprise 2.0 product which is based on Microsoft Sharepoint, offering corporate blogging, employees profile, document sharing, forums, HR forums and so on.

Link Development competitors are widespread from other Microsoft ISVs to small website development companies to Oracle and its partners to open source software that offer free alternative to MS products such as Sharepoint and Dynamics.

ARPU +:

Launched in October 2003, specialized in providing Value Added Services (VAS) and platform solution in the Mobile in the telecom field. Competitors are  in many of the verticals  the company operates in. This include: Eskandenia and Globitel from Jordan and info2cell.

ConnectAds:

Is the online adverting arm of O2Ventures, it represents many sites of o2ventures and is the official representative of Facebook in the Arab world.

Other advertising networks in the Arab world include: Sarmady, iKoo which resulted from Jabbar buying e-marketing MENA and N2V’s Net Advantage . More regional online advertising companies can be found here.

If we missed anything please let us know.

Hesham Khalipha Senior Marekting Manager For The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ArabSat) one of the leading communications satellite operator in the Arab World, said today during ArabAdvisors’s Arab 7th Media and Telecom Convergence Conference  that ArabSat is launching new Satellite Internet service in quarter one of next year.

Arabsat coverage design utilizes Ka-band technology will cover the Arab peninsula, Levant and Afghanestan in face of this project, Hesham said they will have 3 gatways to cover several spots most propably in Amman, Jordan, serving Levant, Damam and Judha in Suadi Arabia.

When asked during his presentation at the conference why ArabSat want to cover Afghanistan, Hisham said there are many Arabs there that we want to serve.

ArabSat new service will offer 512Kbp and 8 MP connection speed, which is not a great speed in today’s connected world. Hisham told ArabCurnch “Since this is a product directed to consumers; the limit is not in the satellite design, we can provide mentioned speeds ( up to 100 Mps), however, existing satellite modems from equipments  manufacturers currently supports only maximum of 10Mb. With the promise of this increasing to 25 in the coming two years.”

According to him the service is geared towards 2-4% of the population in mobile ruler areas that are under served by traditional operators, as it is not feasible for them to reach.

To use the service end user need a small satellite terminal constituted of 60cm dish with transceiver and a satellite modem. The dish will have an audi mechanism to self install it and point it to the satellite.

As for pricing Hisham said that The service level agreement (SLAs) offering will be similar or very close to the existing prices in the covered local markets covered by the service.

For some it is a sad day, for others it is a new endeavor, today Indian conglomerate Bharti has officially closed its deal with Kuwait based  Telecom operator Zain, with its acquisition of all Zain’s mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa for an valuation of USD10.7 billion. Zain’s African covered 15 countries with a total customer base of over 42 million.

With this deal Zain is no longer the crown jowl of  the Arab Telecom Industry.

What represents new threats and opportunity to mobile operators, a new study from Juniper Research has found that Mobile VoIP services will develop significantly faster in developed markets due to the direct correlation between 3G roll outs and the take up of mobile VoIP. This is the case even though mVoIP traffic volumes may eventually be higher in developing markets due in part to the calling patterns of migrant workers, according to the study Mobile Voice Strategies: mVoIP Opportunities & Business Models, 2010-2015.

“By 2012 we expect significant uptake of mobile VoIP in its various different flavours”, says Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research. “By that date mobile VoIP will be available over both 3G and WiFi networks. We also anticipate that several more traditional operators will have joined 3UK and Verizon in the US and developed relationships with mobile VoIP players such as Skype,” he says.

Further findings include:

· Alliances between mobile VoIP players and traditional operators may provide the best option for today’s incumbent operators to address the advent of mobile VoIP.

· Revenues from the circuit switched voice market will continue to diminish over the next five years, although this will not accelerate.

· A high percentage of Mobile VoIP carried over applications will be via WiFi networks, bypassing operators’ networks altogether. Such traffic will result in some lost revenues, amounting to around $5bn by 2015.

More info in the mobile voice report.

Zain Jordan a branch of one of the largest mobile operators in the world has announced launching Ibda3 program; Ibda3 an incubator program for youth between 18 to 25 years old.

Zain’s website says that the program provides “highly combined business development processes, tools & specialists, teamed up to nurture and support the early stages of new and small innovative telecom related ideas and transform them into successful business models. ”

The Selection process goes into stages:?”Stage 1: Reviewing the application and selecting the candidates upon the criteria ?Stage 2: The candidates will be presenting their innovative ideas to the committee ?Stage 3: Selecting the most innovative ideas ?Stage 4: (Pre-incubation): Preparation stage; this stage will provide the selected ideas with the proper business guidelines, training, research and analysis. ?Stage 5 (Incubation): Project development phase ?Stage 6: Establish a company and launch to market.”

The program application deadline is May 11, 2010 with more info on Zain’s website. Though the website does not reveal any specifics if the program will provide funding, space, or just labs and mentorship.

I tried to call Zain just now, but it seems working hours has ended, however I emailed Zain’s CEO Dr. Abdul Malik Jaber requesting more info.

It took about one month since our last speculation about Orange Jordan launch date of the first 3G network in Jordan. But, today Orange 3.5G up and running and covering initially west Amman, Irbid and Zarqa. Mobile 3Gs comes inline with Orange late launch of iPhone 3Gs around 2 weeks ago.

To me and people who live in Jordan, even though the whole 3G rollup is late, this news is very exciting as the network speed is up to 7.2 Mbps and you can use it on your laptop or Mobile.
Orange Mobile 3G+ data plan starts with 19.90 Jordanian Dinners (JDs), with unlimited Internet and voice minutes to Orange mobile and fixed number. however Orange notes in its website”when exceeding the fair usage policy of 2GB,data consumption will be charged per MB at 4p/MB (local use only) .”The other 2 options for monlhty offers are:
* Mobile 3G+ X Large:
mobile data (internet) unlimited 1 voice minutes to all Orange mobile and Orange fixed numbers 1500 voice minutes to all other local networks 300 SMS unlimited 2 monthly fee 39.90
*Mobile 3G+ Unlimited:
mobile data (internet) unlimited 1 voice minutes to all Orange mobile and Orange fixed numbers unlimited 3 voice minutes to all other local networks unlimited 4 SMS unlimited 2 monthly fee 79.90.

As for pay as you go mobile offer 1GB  costs around 14.99 Jds.

Even though Orange’s mobile offer seems ok, its internet offer is not  feasible enough for me to switch my slow “Orange” ADSL to Orange 3g+ internet plan for laptops as its starts with 9.9 JDs for 1GB monthly data bundle, 1p/MB excess of bundle rate with a USB dongle price at 45 Jds.

Orange will have a monopoly for one year in Jordan over 3G, in which after that other operators can enter the market.

#Image by: cogdogblog

In a move to counter Google’s Free navigation applications, Nokia just announced that starting March 2010, new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps www.nokia.com/maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, and that turn-by-turn voice guidance will be free for 74 countries in 46 languages.

The new version will also include traffic information for over 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for over 180 countries.   The nice thing about Ovi maps is that they come preloaded to your Nokia device saving you time and cost of downloading map data over the cloud.

Here is a video of Ovi maps on N900:




On Twitter, Orange CEO Majd Shweikeh tweeted last week that iPhone3GS will be available within few weeks which is expected to be officially available with Orange Jordan launch of the first 3G network in Jordan.

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ArabCrunch called Majd to get her clarification but she said that 3G network and iPhone3Gs will be launched before the end Q1 2010! She said that Orange already has iPhone3GS in their warehouses, but did not start mass selling them.

However, our sources confirmed that orange sold a number of iPhone3GS devices through its stores.

As everyone knows Mobile devices are becoming more like computers, take a look at iPhone 3GS, Droid and N900.

Today, with new smart mobiles you can do everything you do on a PC as processing and memory speed are going up. However, it is not really everything, because the screen is small which limits the interaction between you, the mobile and its apps. That is why PCs until today remain the choice for heavy duty work: coding, designing, game playing, multi media, word processing, etc.

Enter Light Blue Optics (LBO) a UK startup that will change all of that, the 15$ million VC backed startup will launch on the 6th of January 2009 2010 at Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the “Light Touch” mobile projector device (pico projector) modules which are Holographic Laser-based, and allow the user to touch the projected image to provide user input, according to Picoprojector-info.

Meaning, LBO’s pico projector will enable you to have a wide screen of your mobile anywhere at anytime. On a wall and down onto a table, making it easier for people on the move to share, supporting WVGA-QVGA . Not just allowing you to see a wide screen of your device, BUT to use that widescreen the same way you use your touch mobile. Meaning you can use a projected style visual keyboard to type, (solving the small keyboard problem with mobiles and cutting the need to buy and carry an external keyboard.)

Not just that, you can open close, rearrange stuff in the projector using your finger tips on the “space” (Not the cloud) to move stuff, which also ends the need for a mouse. And kills whiteboards for group meetings and collaboration. Also it ends the need for tablet PC, like Apple’s upcoming iSlate.

Moreover, why would you need a TV screen? Just use LBO pico projector point it to anywhere and start enjoying your Theater at anytime.

According to LBO’s website, its proprietary holographic laser projection technology can also be used in other applications: the car dashboard “steering laser light exactly to where it is needed, creating very bright, energy-efficient displays.” for example warning you of new obstacles, accidents, etc. Mixx that to augmented reality and enter SCI FI today.

Whether LBO demo at 6th of Jan will deliver its promise, Holographic Laser-based pico-projectors will bring the end of PC and TV. Sun Microsystems came with a vision in the late 80s: the Network is the Computer, Today it is not just The Mobile is the Music player, Mobile is The Computer and your portable cable TV not just a supplement to your PC.

More about LBO technology can be found on their  PDF files on their website and on this slideshare doc:

#Thanks to @zsafwan for the tip.

According to a recent Arab Advisors Group Mobile Handsets Retail Tracking Reports, Pakistan is the largest mobile handsets market of the four countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya).

In terms of handset models, the research has also revealed that Nokia is the market leader in Iraq with varying performance depending on region and with serious competition from fake Chinese brands and other brands. In Libya, Nokia remains the market leader with noticeable and serious competition by Samsung, the traditional Korean competitor. Nokia is also the number one selling brand in the Pakistani market.

Nokia’s leadership in the Mobile market in the Arab world was also confirmed by Opera’s State of the Mobile 07- 2009 report. (Note that for iPhone users, Safari is the default browser for most users and iPhone remains officially unavailable in Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.)
Arab Advisors Group report does not specify which type of mobiles are the most popular, entry level or smart phones, We also do not know if Arab Advisor Group counts US and other occupying forces in Afghanistan and Iraq in their report,(As  there are hundred of thousands of foreign soldiers making from 2,000 USD to 30,000 USD a month) But my guessing, is that entry level  phones are the most popular among indigenous population in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan because of high level of unemployment and low GDP rates, even though the first country sits on a sea of oil!

#photo by barnoid.

Mapping, GPS and Navigation devices are a very useful tool for any person, while the west and USA in general has more advanced solutions in this area than what is available in the Arab world. There has been local and International attempts to solve this issue.

On the web, google has done a good job in few Arab countries namely Dubai but its awesome Google Maps Navigation is only available for Motorola’s come-back mobile Droid. NDrive a Portuguese mobile developerlaunched last October navigation applications for the iPhone, for United Arab Emirates (UAE) , Saudi Arabia Morocco and Egypt, using TeleAtlas the same company that provides maps to Google Maps and Competes with Nokia’s Navteq.

From the region, Ayna the Lebanese company launched this year “Ayna Maps“that are also available via a number of mobile devices but unfortunately Ayna maps need internet connection to work, and since Mobile Internet connection is still costly Ayna maps is not an idle solution. In Jordan, Inside Jo from Jordan, developed an online map along with its own low cost GPS device that unfortunately did not get authorized by the authorities in Jordan!

Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition, The Affordable GPS Phone:

Nokia on the other hand, has went ahead faster than anyone, introducing mapping solution online via its Ovi maps and on its Mobile devices (From High End to Mid level). To push into mid and low market (the developing world), Recently Nokia unveiled the latest device in the company’s range focused on mapping and navigation, the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition. The new arrival is GPS enabled and pre-loaded with Nokia Maps, making it the most affordable GPS device in Nokia’s broad portfolio.
Relevant maps are included on the device to save cost and make sure that just because you don’t have an Internet connection, your device isn’t rendered useless, an essential element for mobile mapping in order to be used in mobile handsets by the main stream users since Mobile internet connections are pricey.

Nokia 2710 will be available in the second quarter of 2010 estimated to cost, before taxes and subsidies, EU 110.

Nokia 2710: has a GPRS handset, a 2.2-inch screen, 2-megapixel camera and enough storage for 1,000 phonebook entries. It also sports Ovi Mail and Instant Messaging and it’ll keep the tunes turning with an MP3 player and FM radio. It also has a 3.5mm AV connector. The device will go for up to 18 days between charges in standby mode and will give up to four hours and 20 minutes talk time.

Nokia Adds Jordan to Ovi Maps:

After Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, In the mapping and navigation availability, Nokia recently added Jordan to its Ovi Maps application. Adding rich local content and local maps that can be used directly on users mobile device turning them into a navigation systems.

“Having Ovi Maps on their device gives our consumers a new sense of their surroundings, with the possibility to discover new places and share them with their friends using SMS, MMS or Bluetooth.”said Bruce Howe, Head of Marketing Nokia Levant.

Ovi Maps application for your Nokia device is enhanced through additional features and services: high resolution satellite and terrain maps, rotation, tilting, night view and fly-overs and fly-throughs. Nokia’s Jordan Ovi maps was available during the month of November.

Walk from one place to another using WALK, the pedestrian navigation with routing optimized for those on foot, providing better orientation in a city or outdoors.

Or use DRIVE, the navigation takes you from A to B with visual turn-by-turn guidance. It helps you to locate yourself by giving information about the surrounding buildings, roundabouts and streets and in newer handsets points the direction in which you are walking using the handset’s built in compass for orientation.

Ovi Maps uses vector maps are provided by Navteq, which was acquired by Nokia in end of 2007. The map data of Jordan, is offered free of charge and includes detailed Road coverage of 28,621 Km covering 100 municipalities, including street names and street directions.

By this, Nokia has 100 percent of the total road network of Jordan covered including all the major highways connecting Jordan’s major cities. It also has 13.500 Points of Interests including hotels, restaurants, places of worship, shopping malls, petrol stations and many others.

Maps can be downloaded free of charge over the air directly to selected devices or by using the Nokia Map Loader on a PC. however since my Nokia 5800 died and I am currenlty testing now N900 which Ovi Maps is not supported on it yet, I could not test the new maps in Jordan. (See the video I recorded last month for a preview of Ovi maps in Dubai on N900.)

In addition, Nokia also launched a crowed sourced “Get to good things“website to Jordanian consumers, so that they can add their personal POI’s from Jordan and share with the world.

Ovi Maps for mobile is enhanced through additional features and services, such as:

• Better maps with hi-res satellite and terrain maps.
• Enriched Global POI information by Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities.
• Global Weather service with 24h and 5-day forecasts.
• Walk from a place to another – easy to use pedestrian navigation with routing optimized for pedestrians for better orientation in a city or anywhere outdoors.
• Drive with enhanced safety car navigation with enhanced safety features.

You can see Nokia’s Ovi Maps in action in dubai running on Nokia’s best and most powerful device to date -N900, via the below video presented by Nokia’s project manager during Nokia’s N Age Tour in Dubai lats month (Note: i will be posting in Arabic and English N 900 video review soon on ArabCrunch ):




(The video is a presentation of Nokia N900 by a Nokia Project Manager in Dubai. and I was asking him questions during the presentation. N900 has 4 desktop screens and Mac “Exposse” like view for multi view of all open applications.

N900 is a powerful mobile and considered Nokia’s top of the line:

N 900 Operating system is Maemo which is built using Linux, It has 600 Mhz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 1GB of app memory, 3D Graphics accelerator with OpenGL ES 2.0 support. Built in memory 32 GB, 3.5 G and WLAN, GSM GPRS and EDGE, Integrated GPS, 800 x 480 touch-screen, Hard QWERTY keyboard, G MP cam, Dual LED flash, 800 x 480 resolution video. Maemo Browser based on Mozilla.)

Another Investemnt round made recently in the tech sector in Arabia as Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment subsidiary, announced yesterday an investment in NeuString, a UAE-based telecommunications analyst software company. With this investment Intel Capital total investment in Arab based companies this year, totals to six, from Jordan: Jeeran and ShooFeeTV and from UAE, Conservus International FZ-LLC, Pulse Technologies FZ-LLC, Vertex Animation Studio FZ-LLC.

The funding from Intel Capital will assist NeuString in pursuing regional growth and development plans in addition to extending the company’s product offerings. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
NeuString is a billing software company dedicated to delivering predictive analytics solutions and consulting services to mobile network operators to help them achieve greater financial performance. With offices in the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Russia, and Ukraine, NeuString has experienced teams who have been active in the telecommunications industry for more than two decades.

(via The National.)

After many days of hard work, after over a year of full time dedication to help startups and techies like you, today AC reached a major milestone: ArabCrunch.NET First Online Social Platform in the Arab World focused on Startups & The Technology Industry. With this announcement, the social platform, was what you the passionate startup and tech community wanted AC to develop for you  and as I mentioned back on April that AC will do it! when I wrote about the ecosystem that we need to have in order to help grow the tech industry in this region and turn our economies into knowledge based economy. Today Our promise is delivered, Here is the ecosystem in one place

ArabCrunch.NET, Helping The Arab World Innovate

ArabCrunch Group Extends Technological Reach with First Social Network in the Arab World focused on the technology industry

Amman, Jordan and Silicon Valley, CA – Tuesday, November 10, 2009 – ArabCrunch Group announced today closing a round of funding and the launch of ArabCrunch.NET, the first social network dedicated to creating an environment that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and mentorship for Arab entrepreneurs throughout the world. ArabCrunch.NET offers a dynamic platform for collaboration amongst the various stakeholders within the technological ecosystem from Berkeley to Bahrain.

The launch came during a press conference held by Arab Crunch in cooperation with Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship at the headquarters of the Royal Scientific Society.

“ArabCrunch.NET will facilitate knowledge transfer and enable veterans from Silicon Valley to work with and mentor young talent from the MENA region,” said Bassel Yassine Ojjeh, a former Senior Vice President of Yahoo!, Inc. USA, a serial entrepreneur and Board Member of ArabCrunch Group, who led the round of funding. “We’ve built ArabCrunch.NET to fuel innovation, create a knowledge based society and an environment for job creation in the region that will serve high tech professionals throughout the 22 Arab countries and the western hemisphere.”

“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to be the first dedicated group that focuses on accelerating the innovation cycle both here in Amman and throughout the Arab world,” said Gaith Saqer, Founder of ArabCrunch Group. “Ever since we launched ArabCrunch.com in 2008, we have been committed to finding the most compelling technological innovations that impact the Arab world – this next chapter allows us to help foster collaboration on a scale never seen before in our region. We have built a social platform that connects participants and helps them find crucial resources, build strategic partnerships and promote services.”

Since it’s unveiling in 2008, ArabCrunch.com has grown to one of the most widely read technology blogs in the Arab world with over 30,000 monthly visits. Founded on the principle of “professional blogging,” ArabCrunch.com has become the primary source of information about the latest technological advancements relevant to the Arabic world. An Arabic version based on “citizen journalism” was launched last month and has met with great success.

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About ArabCrunch Group:
ArabCrunch Group’s mission is to inform, impact, inspire and create an Arab centric technology ecosystem that delivers information, and connects Arab entrepreneurs both in the region and throughout the world via its properties, ArabCrunch.com, ArabCrunch.NET and ArabCrunch.com/ar. About

Arab Crunch.NET:

The mission of ArabCrunch.NET is to help accelerate entrepreneurship and technology innovation in the Arab world by delivering an online social platform that connects participants of the technology ecosystem.
ArabCrunch.NET is the first online social platform dedicated to connect and support technology companies, entrepreneurs, techies, scientists, academia and investors in the Arab world. ArabCrunch.NET is a project from ArabCrunch, the publisher of arabcrunch.com and ArabCrunch Arabic Edition.

About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship:
The QRCE is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in October 2004 and is now a complement of El Hassan Science City. The center’s mission is to support economic development through offering a package of services to promote excellence and market technology. The centre particularly targets college students, researchers, inventors and initiators to enhance and build their personal capacities. QRCE offers this group consultation and works to develop their sense of excellence and initiative through a set of programs including Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Excellence Competition, Technology Commercialization Program, Connect Jordan and Princess Sumaya University for Technology’s Entrepreneurship Society (DART).