Earlier this month, we published a pretty interesting story about Etisalat introducing a service that would permit Indian expatriates to send money home using their mobile phone.

The service was to be launched sometime this month, according to Essa al Haddad, the group chief marketing officer for Etisalat.

Well, the month is almost over, so I called Etisalat for an update. Tens of thousands of Indian expatriates were likely holding their breath in anticipation for the services launch.

What I found it that the company's mobile remittance service will be delayed for two more weeks as officials tie up loose ends and get everything ready for launch, an Etisalat spokesman told me.

So, currency exchange houses will have a short reprieve on losing in on their lucrative US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) remittance business.

As well they should. It doesn't take a genius to realise that sending money over a mobile device is infinitely more efficient that going personally to UAE Exchange and handing over your cold, hard cash. Wouldn't it be better to just top up your mobile balance, punch in a few numbers and - voila! - instant money transfer?

Indeed, that future will be here in a couple of weeks. Watch this space for more when the mobile remittance service launches.

Are mobile operators getting into the iPhone app game? You can bet there's an app like that. 

Yes, it appears that Etisalat is taking the iPhone app world quite seriously with a new free application targeting golf enthusiasts who will be taking in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship next week.

I haven't seen it available on the iTunes App Store yet, but I'm sure that users will be able to get real time data, player profiles and course information, just like the company promises in its press release.

The operator has already got one iPhone app in the can, a Yellow Pages app that aids with finding addresses and phone numbers. Unfortunately, the only reviews for the current version of the app suggest that it crashes quite a bit, so caveat emptor.

The key thing here is that it is quite rare for telecom companies to develop iPhone apps, leaving the bulk of work to the software developers of the world. But operators are increasingly becoming more involved in the content side of the business and this announcement is definitely a sign of things to come.

A quick check on iTunes reveals that Etisalat appears to be the only Middle Eastern operator making iPhone apps, but that could soon change. We'll have more on this story at a later date.

And yes, an apology for the cheesiness of the first line there. I couldn't help myself.

More details from Etisalat after the jump. 

Earlier this week, it appeared that Etisalat was one of the operators in the running to buy a stake in Nigeria's state-owned telecommunications company, Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (Nitel).

But now, according to a report in the Nigerian newspaper BusinessDay, the involvement of the UAE's largest telecommunications company may not be happening after all.

The newspaper is claiming that there is a number of operators involved in the bidding for Nitel that may be opting to leave the sale process since the government has not been as transparent as once hoped.

"How do you describe the entrance of a new bidder to a transaction that has almost drawn to a close...I would not be surprised if this is one of the reasons why Etisalat pulled out because its representatives did not attend the pre-bid conference last week", the newspaper quoted one unnamed source who was close to the bidding companies.

Adding to the bidders' frustration is the claim that Nitel is refusing to led anyone inspect their facilities and that there appears to not be any audited account of the company's financials, the newspaper said.

As the newspaper succinctly puts it: "This, bidders told BusinessDay, will likely affect participation because they have no information about what they are buying."

We've put in a call to Etisalat to get some sort of update in their Nigerian plans and will update this story in the coming days.

Shuaa Capital, the UAE's largest investment bank, released its 2010 vision plan today, chockful of handy financial information in a tidy PDF file.

In the report, the company detailed its outlook for the UAE's telecommunications sector, briefly analysing how Etisalat and du performed in 2009 and offered its estimates for how both companies should fare in the future.

It also notably offered a quick, top 10 list of predictions it expects to happen in the UAE telecom sector. While it may not have the same pizazz as a late night television show, it is still an interesting read.

Check out Shuaa's predictions and some thoughts on them after the jump.

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.