Mobily will start leasing its mobile phone network to MVNO Lebara in the first quarter, according to Karl Michael Henneking, Mobily’s chief corporate strategy officer.

The winning bidders – Lebara, Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa (VMMEA), and Axiom – were announced last June, and have yet to receive their licences from the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

"We expect Lebara to launch services in the first quarter of 2014. The CITC is supposed to issue the licences at the end of January," Henneking said.

STC has teamed up with VMMEA, and Zain Saudi with Gulf retailer Axiom.

Saudi Arabia’s mobile penetration is around 185 per cent, which suggests the MVNOs will have to be at their optimum in order to carve out a profitable market share.

"Not all MVNOs will be successful," Henneking predicted.

He said some Lebara customers would use its services as their sole mobile account but that a larger share would sign up to Lebara as a second, back-up service.

In addition to the revenue and fees they pay to the host telecom companies, the MVNOs will also pay a licence fee of SAR 5 million (US$1.3 million) and 15 percent of their revenues to the regulator.

Global Telecom Holding (GTH) announced that Philip Tohmé, chief technology officer of VimpelCom has been appointed to the position of CEO of Orascom Telecom Algerie (Djezzy).

Vincenzo Nesci will continue his role in Algeria as OTA’s chairman.

Tohmé has held different positions within the VimpelCom group, where he has acquired unique operational experience and has proven leadership and organisational management qualities.

He was CTO of VimpelCom from 2011, and the CTO of GTH in 2010. Tohmé held the positions of CTO of Wind Italy from 2006, COO of OTA from 2003, prior to which he was the technical director of MobiNil in Egypt.

Prior to joining GTH, Tohmé worked in several technical positions and was part of the launch of two mobile operators: Cellis in Lebanon and Orange in Romania.

Nokia announced its fourth-quarter financial results as it prepares to sell off its handsets business, confirming that revenues declined by 21 per cent to €3.48 billion (US$4.7 billion).

The company posted a net loss for the quarter of €25 million (US$33.9 million), compared to a profit of €193 million a year ago.

NSN, the network infrastructure division that will form the bulk of Nokia going forward saw its fourth-quarter revenues decline by 22 per cent to €3.1 billion, split roughly equally between equipment sales and managed services.

The company said that some of the decline was due to asset disposals, but that it would have still seen a drop in sales of 15 per cent without that factor.

The company saw declines in all markets, except China where there was a slight increase.

The handsets division, already described as a discontinued operation by the company saw further declines. Nokia shipped fewer basic mobile phones, although it says it saw a rise in smartphone sales, without elaborating on the actual numbers.

The company’s mapping division’s external net sales grew to €225 million, an increase of 10 per cent year-on-year.

Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia chairman and interim CEO commented on the company’s progress: "The fourth quarter of 2013 was a watershed moment in Nokia’s history. Having received overwhelmingly strong support from our shareholders at our extraordinary general meeting in November for the sale of our phones business to Microsoft, we are diligently working towards defining Nokia’s future direction."

Zamtel has launched its LTE service in Kitwe, and also opened a walk-in 4G Live Experiential Centre at its offices in the Zambia city.

The network infrastructure was supplied by Huawei.

The launch comes shortly after rival network; MTN was the first to offer LTE services in the country.

MTN’s 4G network currently covers Lusaka, Kitwe, Ndola and Livingstone.

Bharti Airtel could be looking at selling its towers in both Nigeria and Bangladesh according to various reports.

Airtel owns around 5,000 towers in Nigeria, which have been valued at approximately US$500 – US$550 million.

Sources say that tower companies including Helios Tower and IHS are already preparing bids for the tower assets.

A sale is expected as soon as March and could be the start of a continent-wide plan to sell towers, which could raise as much as US$2 billion for the company.

Airtel is also said to be in talks to sell its towers operations in Bangladesh in a move that could raise around US$200 million for the company. The company is understood to have around 4,000 towers in the country.