Zain

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For other uses, see Zain (disambiguation).
Zain Group
Type Public
Founded 1983 as MTC[1]
Headquarters Flag of Kuwait Kuwait
Area served 21 countries in Middle East and Africa[2]
Key people Dr.Saad Al Barrak, CEO
Mr.Asa'ad Al Banwan, Non-Executive Chairman
Mr.Haitham Al Khaled, CEO M.E.
Mr. Moeiz Daya, CEO Africa
Mr.Khaled AlHajiri, CTO
Mr.Mohammad Rafi, CIO
Mr. Tony Tasca, CHRO[3]
Industry Telecommunications
Products Mobile Telecommunications
Broadband and internet
Revenue ▲ 5,91 Billion USD (2007)[4]
Net income ▲ 1,130 Billion USD (2007)[4]
Employees 15,000 (2007)[5]
Website www.zain.com

Zain Group ( formerly MTC ) is Multinational Corporation specializing in Mobile Telecommunications. Its area of operations include the seven countries in the Middle East, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan ,and in Lebanon as mtc touch, and in 14 sub-Saharan countries in Africa as Celtel : Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Contents

[edit] Worldwide Presence

Zain operate in 21 countries 7 Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan African countries with over 13,000 employees providing a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 32.145 million active individual and business customers as of June 30, 2007

[edit] Zain Bahrain

see http://bh.zain.com

[edit] Zain Kuwait

see http://kw.zain.com

[edit] Zain Iraq

Formerly MTC Atheer, see Zain Iraq

[edit] Zain Jordan

Zain Jordan (formerly known as Fastlink ) is the largest Mobile Telecommunications Company and one of the best known brands in Jordan founded in 1994. In 2003 the operation joined the Zain Group (then MTC) in a deal 423.9 Million USD that was at the time the single largest acquisition in the Middle East and the largest private sector investment in Jordan. Fastlink (now Zain Jordan) had 1,700 cell sites offering GSM/GPRS coverage to 99.9% of the populated areas in Jordan

Fact Box (as at June 30, 2007)

Establishment date: 1994

Staff: 1,100 employees

Active Customers: 1.941 million

Market share: 47%

Roaming: International Voice roaming agreements with 288 operators on 6 continents GPRS and MMS roaming in 64 countries with 121 operators

Milestones

June 2007 First Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) system in the region,

February 2007 Start of deployment of Fiber Optic Transmission Technology.

January 2006 Established its ISP arm, Fastlink Data

Feb 2005 Introduced 2.75 G (EDGE) technology

October 2005 Offered international gateway services directly through Company’s network

January 2003 MTC acquired 91.6% of Fastlink in 2003, in the largest single acquisition in the Middle East and the largest private sector investment in Jordan at the time.

July 2002 Introduced the MMS for the first time in the Arab World.

Jan 2002 Introduced the 2.5G GPRS technology

September 1995 Established as the first mobile phone operator in Jordan


Awards

February 2007 First to introduce the BlackBerry service in 2007, for which it was awarded Research in Motion's (RIM) International Award of Excellence, the only company in the Middle East to receive this honor January 2006 Won the regional telecom magazine CommsMEA’s award in the category “Best New Non-voice Service” for its BLOG service, which provides an online interactive forum where users can set up their own Blogs and publish articles and thoughts by using the web, MMS and SMS

For more information visit: www.jo.zain.com


[edit] MTC Touch, Lebanon

see mtc touch


[edit] Zain Saudi Arabia

http://www.sa.zain.com


[edit] Zain Sudan

see Zain Sudan

and see also http://www.sd.zain.com

[edit] Celtel

is a telecommunications company operating in several African countries and is a subsidiary of Mobile Telecommunications Company, or "MTC" in short. It was founded by Sudanese-born Mo Ibrahim.

[edit] History

Originally known as "MSI Cellular Investments", the company began operating in 1998. In January 2004, the company name was changed to "Celtel International". In April 2005 the company was acquired by and became a subsidiary of the Mobile Telecommunications Company. Celtel now spans over 15 countries in Africa with over $750 million in investments.

Celtel operates in the following countries:

It currently has 20 million subscribers -[2]

[edit] One Network

In September 2006 Celtel launched "One Network", the world's first borderless network across East Africa. One Network enables its subscribers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to roam free between these countries, thereby scrapping roaming charges, making calls at local rates, receiving incoming calls free of charge, and recharging with local top up cards. This was a World's First.

In June 2007 Celtel's One Network that covers Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda has been extended to Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Congo. The One Network will automatically activate upon crossing the geographical border into one of the six countries with no prior registration or sign-up fee. Celtel says it is moving towards a seamless network in all 15 African countries in which it operates. -[3]

In June 2007, Celtel International announced plans to add three more Celtel country networks to its "One Network". The additional countries are Malawi, Sudan (where it operates under the Mobitel brand), and Zambia. This further expansion would bring the coverage of One Network to nine of the 15 African countries in which Celtel operates. -[4]

In September 2007 Celtel's Parent Company MTC Group adopted a new name Zain(Arabic for ‘beautiful, good and wonderful) unifying it's different brands in 21 Countries. [5]. In Africa the Zain Group will continue to trade under the Celtel brand.[6]

[edit] Milestones

Date Event
1983 MTC established as the first mobile telecom company in the region
1986 Introduced ETACS in Kuwait
1994 Introduced GSM in Kuwait. One of the 1st to do so in the region
1999 Among the 1st to introduce prepaid services in the region
2000 Kuwait mobile market opened up to competition
2001 Government of Kuwait reduces stake from 49% to 25%
September 2002 Branding agreement with Vodafone in Kuwait- operation branded as MTC-Vodafone
January 2003 Acquired 91.5% of Fastlink- Jordan’s leading mobile operator for US$424 million taking total holding to 96.5%
April 2003 Awarded 2nd GSM license in Bahrain- operation branded as MTC Vodafone
December 2003 Awarded one of three GSM licenses in Iraq –operation branded as MTC Atheer
December 2003 Bahrain operation 1st to launch 3G nationwide in the region
April 2004 Awarded management agreement for one of Lebanon’s mobile operations - operation branded as MTC Touch
March 2005 Entered into agreement to acquire Celtel Africa for US$3.36 billion
May 2005 Acquisition of 85% of Celtel shares for US$2.84 billion completed
November 16, 2005 MTC completes 100% capital increase through rights issue raising $2.3 billion to fund future expansion
December 13, 2005 MTC subsidiary Celtel acquires Madacom, an operator based in Madagascar with over 200,000 customers
February 6, 2006 MTC subsidiary Celtel acquires the remaining 61% of Mobitel in Sudan from Sudatel in deal valued $1.332 billion, thus taking ownership to 100%
February 15, 2006 MTC launches a first of its kind research report “Socio-Economic Impact of Mobile Phones in the Arab World”
May 21, 2006 MTC first in the region to launch 3.5G (HSDPA) commercially in Bahrain
May 31, 2006 MTC subsidiary Celtel acquires a controlling stake of 65% in Vmobile, one of Nigeria’s leading mobile telecom operators with over 5 million customers for US$1.005 billion
June 30, 2006 MTC Group of companies half-year consolidated revenues reach KD 501.32 million (USD 1.72 billion) for the 6 months ended June 30, 2006, an increase of 121% over the same period in 2005 and consolidated net income of KD 254.06 million (USD 871.55 million), an increase of 55% compared to the same period last year.
July 27, 2006 MTC signs the general syndication agreement for a US$ 4 billion credit facility that will be used to fund MTC’s future acquisitions and general corporate needs
Sept 27, 2006 MTC subsidiary Celtel International, the leading pan-African mobile telecommunications operator launched One Network, the first ever borderless mobile network in the world allowing customers to move freely across geographic borders without roaming call surcharges and without having to pay to receive incoming calls.
Oct 21, 2006 MTC market capitalization exceeds USD $15 billion
December 13, 2006 MTC raises USD$1.2 billion in Murahaba facility from 29 leading international financial institutions
December 31, 2006 MTC Group of companies full-year consolidated revenues reach KD 1.21 billion (USD 4.167 billion) for the 12 months ended December 31, 2006, an increase of 109% over the same period in 2005 and consolidated net income of KD 305.3.06 million (USD 1.051 Billion), an increase of 65% compared to the same period last year.
January 30, 2007 MTC launches ACE -an implementation strategy to realize the target of the 3x3x3 vision. ACE seeks to extract superior value from existing assets through three main thrusts: Accelerating the growth in Africa; Consolidating the existing assets; and Expanding into adjacent markets. Through implementation of the ACE strategy, MTC’s new goals by the year 2011 are to attain a US$ 6 Billion EBITDA exceeding 70 million customers and to become one of the top ten leading telecom companies in the world by market capitalization.
March 24, 2007 The MTC-led consortium announces that it has been successful in making the highest bid for the third mobile telecommunications licence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“KSA”) having bid SAR·22.91 billion (US$6.109 billion). The award of the licence is subject to approval from the KSA’s Council of Ministers. This licence will give MTC a presence in the largest market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (“GCC”) in terms of population and the largest economy in the Middle East and Africa, reinforcing MTC’s position as a leading emerging markets operator.
March 25, 2007 MTC's market capitalization exceeds USD$20 billion, AGM approves a one for two stock dividend (1:2) plus a 100 fils cash dividend.
June 30, 2007 MTC Group of companies half-year consolidated revenues reach US$2.77 billion and net revenues of US$515 million. MTC’s market capitalization exceeds US$30 billion.
July 7, 2007 MTC Consortium’s official notification to establish 3rd mobile operator in KSA
August 17, 2007 MTC Atheer secures 15-year nationwide Iraq mobile licence for US$1.25 billion.
September 8, 2007 MTC Group's master-brand and four operations in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Sudan rebrand to Zain
December 1, 2007 MTC-Atheer in Iraq Acquired Iraqna (leading mobile operator in Iraq) for US$1.2 billion from Orascom telecoms holding. Zain's market share in Iraq is figured up to 72% (7 million subscribers). The new combined mobile network is renamed Zain Iraq (zain IQ on mobiles), and the two older networks (Iraqna and Atheer) disappear

[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Milestones Zain.com
  2. ^ Worldwide Presence Zain.com
  3. ^ Zain Management Zain.com
  4. ^ a b Financial Highlights For December 31, 2006 Zain.com
  5. ^ Overview Zain.com

[edit] External links