The wonderfully-named Nigerian newspaper The Punch (not related to the British publisher of witty cartoons and wartime propaganda) has reported that Etisalat, along with a bunch of other telcos, has entered the race to privatise Nitel, the troubled Nigerian state telecom company.

It has been a difficult privatisation process for Nitel, which was sold to private investors back in 2006. That sale was cancelled by the government after it said the buyers didn't do enough to improve the network. In August 2009, the government set itself a 60-day period to finish the privatisation, that one clearly whooshed by like a Douglas Adams deadline.

Nitel is a fairly marginal business in itself, but this story is part of something bigger: Africa has way too many telecom networks, and consolidation is the name of the game going forward. The continent's mobile market has boomed in the last decade, leading to plenty of operators with deep pockets, looking for an acquisition. But few have pockets as deep as Etisalat.

Finding a mobile in the Middle East that operates Google's Android back end may be hard to come by. But that may change once Arabic is fully supported by the operating system.

Ah, the Googlephone. It was only a few years ago when enterprising journalists actually dreamed of the possibility that the search engine giant could come up with its own mobile device. Not only has it created the Android operating system, but it launched its own mobile phone, the Nexus One, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

Needless to say, the Nexus One is one of the most popular gadgets around. Say what you want about the iPhone, marrying the engineering know-how of Google with the latest in mobile hardware designed by Qualcomm (a recent partner with Abu Dhabi's Globalfoundries) and HTC.

But you can't get it in the UAE. Despite the fact that this country has one of the highest usages of smartphones in the world, neither Etisalat or du nor an electronic retailer have come out with an announcement if and when the Nexus One will be commercially available.

Find out where you can (kinda) get the Nexus One in the UAE after the jump.

Mobile number portability (MNP) is one of those telecommunications offerings that seem to be available everywhere in the world but the Middle East. Having your phone number tied to you instead of a SIM card is a concept that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has been talking about introducing but not yet delivering to the UAE.

Once the MNP switch is turned on, one would expect both Etisalat and du would see a healthy amount of customers leaving each respective operator for the other. Mobile phone rates would likely decrease while the operator's would introduce promotions at a feverish pace to reduce subscriber churn. Personally, it would also really make my job a lot more fun writing about all of these developments.

The last we've heard about MNP coming to the UAE was this October 2009 article in our sister newspaper, Al Itthad (Gulf News link) where the TRA said it is likely to become operational sometime ... around now (or the early part of 2010).

I recently had a chance to speak to some high-level executives from Etisalat and du to get an update on where launching the MNP service is at, which you can find after the jump.

The management consultancy Booz & Company have put out a short summary of what they think will be the big trends of the telecom sector in 2010. The trends are not surprising: talk of emerging markets, apps and services being more important than basic voice calls, demand for ubiquitous internet, etc.

So while there is nothing revolutionary here, it's  worth a quick read if you want to feel briefed on the major talking points for the industry going forward. You never know when the conversation at a trendy dinner party will shift to the topic of operational efficiencies - now that the era of mass greenfield growth is over, how should telcos maintain bottom line growth? When that beautiful person to your right at a trendy restaurant asks the question, you need to have an anwer.

Read on, your membership of the in crowd and polite society may depend on it...

The Khaleej Times have a piece today saying that a new licensing system to allow internet-based phone calls is just around the corner, according to a statement from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

Internet calling has been banned and/or regulated out of existence in the UAE since 2006, because the TRA consider it to be a competitor to traditional telecom networks, and therefore requiring a UAE telecom license to be legal. How do you get one of those licenses? Well, the TRA is working on a new licensing system. And it has been since 2006.

Here is a short collection of quotes from TRA management on the introduction of internet calling services in the UAE:

Things that made it worth waking up this morning:

- Apple's long-rumoured tablet computer, a device destined to save humanity from imminent collapse, will be launched at the end of January and available in stores in March, according to this Wall Street Journal report. It will come with a 10-11 inch screen, which makes it closer to a small laptop than a giant iPhone, the story says, citing people briefed on the matter. A $1000 price point is floated, which also puts it pretty much in the laptop space - but cheaper than the Dh12,000 steel apple, seen to the left, on sale at Dubai's Burlesque Boutique. Oh, and Engadget have a great review of the new Google Nexus One phone.

- Also in the WSJ, an interesting interview with Sameer Nath, the head of Citigroup's mergers and acquitions business in India. He says the country's telecom sector is ripe for serious consolidation, with dozens of national and regional operators. Etisalat, trying to grow a network from scratch and sitting on billions of dollars of cash and a sovereign-quality credit rating, should be a major player in consolidation there in the coming years.

- Booz & Co have put out a new report on the future of tech-empowered marketing campaigns. "Consider a situation where, during a business trip, with a dead battery, a phone charger left at home and a big client calling in two hours, you visit your mobile operator's nearest retail outlet to buy a new charger. Expecting to finish this quickly, you emerge 20 minutes later with a complete travel kit, including a spare charger, a battery, and a three-month trial subscription to the mobile company's basic e-mail and Internet service package." Nightmare? Utopian future of our dreams? We report, you decide, click here to download a brief of the report.

(Photo by Amy Leang / The National)

What are the world's best tech venture capitalists thinking about in 2010? The New York Times has a great piece asking - and answering, somewhat - that question. It is well worth a read.

Here's a clue: the 2600 year old stone tablet shown to the left has at least one, probably two, possibly three, things in common with what is predicted to be the hottest tech trend of 2010.

Excitement is building around a possible tablet computer from Apple - OK, forget excitement and be honest: if you aren't anxiously pacing the room waiting for the Apple tablet, you're a crazy person.

On top the huddled nerd masses awaiting Apple's new slate, there will be some interesting new products out this year using Google's open operating systems. All will be targeting the space for an internet machine that is larger than a phone and smaller than a laptop.

Also getting a mention: bringing dotcom-style efficiency and loveliness to the horribly clunky world of corporate IT, and services that manage the vast streams of data people are now producing. Green technology also makes it, but unfortunately for greenies, gets used as an example of an over-hyped technology space that VCs are backing away from.

The whole piece is well worth a read. We'll be asking some of the Middle East's sharpest technical minds a similar set of questions in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for the answers.

(Pic courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum)