Telecom Operators

Ooredoo announced results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2016.

Ooredoo and Arab Satellite Communication Organization (Arabsat) have signed a major strategic partnership agreement that will see the two leading companies work together to develop new satellite services for customers.

VIVA announced the financial results for the first quarter of 2016.

Mahindra Comviva announced its VAS business management partnership with du. As part of the multi-year deal, Mahindra Comviva is among the companies managing du's end-to-end VAS (value added services) business for premium services offering such as SMS alerts, WAP services, mobile Contest, Mobile Games, OTT app aggregation, etc.

Following the excellent performance during 2015, Zain Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) announced significant improvements in its financial results for the first quarter of 2016 ending March 31, 2016.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) announces that it has commercially launched VoLTE service. The new VoLTE service enables STC customers to make voice calls, solely using 4G-LTE network. VoLTE service will enable customers to make HD voice calls with faster call-setup times. It will also allow customers to simultaneously make voice calls while browsing the internet using the 4G-LTE network.

ICT providers Injazat Data Systems and du have joined forces to host the first GCC Business Innovation Summit, bringing leading global technology and security experts to Abu Dhabi to help firms find smarter, practical ways of facing up to immediate challenges in the local market. Drawing on the latest innovations in technology, attendees will be shown viable solutions for optimizing their organization to tackle the pressures of reduced budgets, security risks and threats from disruptive technologies.

In 2015, UAE telecom operator du announced that it had successfully trialed a new connection technology that could offer download speeds of up to 1 gigabyte per second by means of a simple LED light bulb - a process called Light Fidelity (LiFi). The successful LiFi trial was only possible thanks to du's partnership with Zero.1, a Dubai-based company with ambitions to bring LiFi technology to the UAE. Due to the success of the LiFi trial with du, Zero.1 recently announced that it had officially launched Light Fidelity in Dubai.

Saudi Telecom Company announced its preliminary financial results for the period ending at 31 March, 2016. Domestically, the 1st quarter witnessed revenue growth of 2.9% from domestic operations compared to same period last year. During the 1st quarter, FTTH customer base increased 39.5% compared to the same period last year, and 10.4% compared to the immediate previous quarter. In addition, fixed broadband customer base increased 17.5% compared to the same period last year, and 2.3% compared to the previous quarter.

Integrated Telecom Company (ITC) participated in the 9th edition of the Saudi Travel and Tourism Investment Market (STTIM 2016). The forum was entitled "Tourism for Sustainable Economic Development" was organized by Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage at Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, from March 27 to April 1, 2016.