Etisalat bids for Libya

Etisalat has offered $825 million for the right to operate Libya's third mobile licence as the United Arab Emirates' biggest phone company seeks to expand abroad, reports Bloomberg.

The mobile, fixed-line and Internet services provider aims to invest in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa where “the penetration rate is below 50% on average,” says Jamal Al Jarwan, CEO for Etisalat's international investments.

The company aims to boost the contribution of international units to 30% of total sales over the next two years. Etisalat, which is evaluating investment in Morocco, Algeria and Syria, wants to raise international sales in the long term to more than 40% of revenue.

The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship is offering African female Bachelor's, Master's and PhD students a chance to win EUR7 000 (R76 500) for their studies, states UgPulse.com.

According to Google, the scholarship is aimed at encouraging women to excel in computing and technology, and become active role models.

Those hoping to benefit from this Google Scholarship must be studying computer science, computer engineering, informatics, or a closely related technical field.

In the mobile operators' race to capture the still largely untapped WiMax market, global analyst firm Ovum reveals the major challenges are price and coverage issues, says PC World.

"Two thirds of the 300-plus WiMax networks globally are in the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Latin America," says Angel Dobardziev, practice leader, Ovum.

Dobardziev explained that the equipment cost of WiMax is still largely more expensive than DSL and HSPA. Ovum predicts that WiMax will remain a niche technology in all markets, accounting for less than 5% of 1.5 billion fixed and mobile broadband connections by 2014.