CAIRO: Sudan's largest telecommunications operator, MTN Sudan said on Tuesday that it hoped to boost subscribers by the end of the year by 50 percent in order to offset recently introduced government taxes. According to a company statement by Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Ziaullah Siddiqui, MTN Sudan wants to increase its market share by the end of the year to as much as 35 percent, up 8 percent from the previous year. The company estimates it will have 9 million subscribers through the end of 2011, and revenue of $5.7 million, compared with $4.4 million in September 2011, he said. “Sudan is a fast-growing market and we look forward to further strengthening our position” by introducing new technologies, Siddiqui said. Sudan's mobile-phone market has grown from 25,000 subscribers at the end of 2000 to 21.6 million people registered with MTN Sudan, Kuwait-based Zain (ZAIN)'s unit Zain Sudan, the country's biggest operator, and state-owned Sudan Telecom Co. (SUDATEL), according to TeleGeography. Mobile-phone penetration in the country was about 50 percent in mid-2011, leaving “plenty of room for growth,” TeleGeography said in a report last month. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/0jxvK Tags: Mobile Phone, MTN, Telecom, Users Section: Sudan, Tech
