According to a document released by the Syrian Ministry of Communication and Technology, the finalists companies competing to nab the license for the third mobile operator in Syria are:

• Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (UAE)
• France Telecom (France)
• Qatar Telecom QSC (Qatar)
• Saudi Telecom company (KSA)
• Turkcell (Turkey)

After being qualified,  the companies will start submitting their proposals on the 12th of December.

Third mobile operator, we are waiting for you 🙂

UPDATE: UAE Etisalat quit the bidding, they’re uncool with the regulations. Source.

One of the two Mobile networks in Syria, SyriaTel, is about to release a new service called “My Backup”.

The service let you backup your mobile by first installing a software from the company (a .sis file some program) and then it uploads all kinds of data from the mobile like the SMS, MMS, Contacts, Calendar, and folders to be stored online, where you can manage them.

I heard the service will be like a subscription, there is a 3 months plan, 6 months, and a year subscription. The one year subscription costs 350 S.P (~$8). Without GPRS costs probably.

This service is especially useful when you lose your mobile or when it gets stolen, so then you can restore your mobile data.

I see this as a really cool feature and great advance in services provided by the SyriaTel.

There is a service which I’ve been using for a while to back up my mobile and it is Mobile Network independent, which is ZYB. The only thing I miss with ZYB is that it doesn’t backup MMS, SMS, nor special folders.

There are some strong rumors saying that Zain a big telecommunication company is about to buy SyriaTel one of the two mobile networks in Syira.

It looks like the company is becoming a major telecommunication player in the area serving customers in 22 country in the Middle East and Africa with a net income around $820 million dollars a year!

The rumors can be true since we saw that the company did recently buy a mobile network company called Fastlink in Jordan, and the MTC company which is originally in Kuwait but also has branches in Iraq, Yaman, Sudan, Bahrain, Lebanon, and other branches in ~14 country. So it seems to be a natural move if they did really buy the SyriaTel network.

From what I heard they offer great modern services. There is this cool feature which let you make International call with the fees of a local call! Of course only if both parties have a Zain phone number.

Personally I hope this rumor is true.