Page 72 - SAMENA Trends - January-February 2023

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

PTCL Reportedly Preparing Bid for Telenor

Pakistan Telecommunication Compa- Norwegian-owned mobile firm Telenor Pa- citing unnamed official sources. PTCL
ny Limited (PTCL) is looking to take over kistan, according to local daily The News, – which is majority state-owned but con-
trolled by minority stakeholder e& (formerly
Etisalat Group) of the UAE – was said to
be preparing a bid of between USD800 mil-
lion and USD1.2 billion for the cellco, with
e& expected to provide guarantees to raise
commercial loans for the purchase. Ac-
cording to the sources, Telenor’s manage-
ment have asked for payment to be made
in US dollars. PTCL’s mobile subsidiary Pa-
kistan Telecommunications Mobile Limited
(PTML) – which operates under the Ufone
brand name – is the smallest of Pakistan’s
four national mobile providers in terms of
subscription market share, with 23.5 mil-
lion active subscriptions at the end of Sep-
tember 2022, or 12.1% of the total market.
Telenor, meanwhile, claimed second place
with 49.2 million subscriptions, or 25.3% of
the market, at that date.

The Council of Arab Ministers of Telecommunications and Information

Technology Adopts the Arab Digital Agenda 2023-2033

The Council of Arab Ministers of
Telecommunications and Information
Technology adopted the Arab Digital
Agenda 2023-2033 at its 26th meeting in
Cairo. This document was prepared within
the framework of a joint project between
ESCWA and the League of Arab States
(LAS) to produce, develop and implement
the Arab information and communication
(ICT) Strategy, in partnership with different
stakeholders. The Arab Digital Agenda is
a framework for the period 2023-2033,
that ensures countries can benefit from
digital technology and use it to achieve
sustainable development.

The 2Africa submarine cable landed in Yanbu

The 2Africa submarine cable has landed in in the country, in Duba, shortly. Upon com- Europe and Asia. Portions of 2Africa are ex-
Yanbu (Saudi Arabia), following a landing pletion, the 47,000km 2Africa submarine pected to enter commercial service by the
in Jeddah earlier this month. The system is network is deemed to be the longest in the end of 2023, delivering a design capacity of
now expected to complete its third landing world, connecting 46 locations in Africa, up to 180Tbps on key parts of the system.

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