Editorial

The robustness and growth of the telecom sector in the Middle East and Africa are clearly remarkable even in countries with low penetration. Despite the fact that Iraq telecommunication lacks a proper infrastructure, which has been tampered by war, Kalimat Telecom has recently successfully launched the first Iraq’s National 3.5 G Telecom Network, which promises to take Iraq into the most modern era of telecom. Mr. Wilson Varghese, CEO and President of Kalimat Telecom, talked to Telecom Review about their future plans in taking the Iraqi Telecom sector to the next level.

On the regional level, the telecoms industry is continuing its liberalization and consolidation. After several delays due to political instability, the road towards the liberalization of the Lebanese telecom sector has resumed. In this issue, we discussed with the Lebanese TRA their liberalization vision and the basic differences with OGERO, the leading telecommunications provider in Lebanon, which caused tensions lately. In the UAE, population growth should be the key driver for the telecoms sector over the next few years – according to a study conducted by Al Mal Capital under the title: “Initial Coverage of UAE Telecoms Sector”. Take a look at the executive summary of this study, which forecasts the UAE Mobile, Internet and fixed market growth.

In the battle of the technologies and standards, we bring you an executive portfolio that dresses the basic differences between CDMA 2000 and WCDMA. Some analysts say that WCDMA will be the dominant 3G technology in the long term although CDMA 2000 Global Subscribers are forecast to grow. Check these two standards as perceived by two of the leading CDMA vendors, Huawei and Qualcomm.

As for the latest industry trends, applications like mobile shopping are gaining hold in the market and the mobile phone is becoming many people’s primary communications tool. This issue brings you all the potentials and challenges of mobile shopping. Now more than ever, operators are looking for new applications and trends to generate more revenues.