Zain cleans up

Zain Group has won the Best Overall Operator in Africa and Middle East at the annual CommsMEA Awards 2008, states TMC Net.

Organisers of the awards say Zain merited the award for leading the trend of mobile communications in the Middle East and Africa.

The award also recognises Zain's rapid transition from a single mobile operator in Kuwait with 600 000 customers in 2002, to a major telecom conglomerate in the Middle East and Africa serving over 56 million customers in 22 countries.

Econet subscribers in Zimbabwe were unable to phone or top up their accounts after the cellular service provider switched them to the new foreign currency payment regime, reports All Africa ICT.

Subscribers to other networks face the same fate; service providers NetOne and Telecel are also charging in US dollars after they were granted foreign currency licences by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe under the Foliwars programme.

On 2 January, Econet subscribers on the Buddie, Libertie and Business Partna packages briefly accessed the mobile phone services during lunchtime before these were abruptly terminated.

Rwandatel has managed to bag more than 120 000 subscribers in three weeks of its operation since migrating to the use of GSM technology, says All Africa.

Rwanda's oldest telecoms company embraced 2G, 3G and GSM technology early this month, after its acquisition by LAP Green networks, a subsidiary of Libyan African Portfolio.

Rwandatel's CEO Patrick Kariningufu says this figure reflects the level of the active subscribers Rwandatel had as of 21 December 2008.