Huawei today unveiled its Agile Switch S12700; a networking product that is ready to accommodate the future mode of Software-Defined-Networking (SDN) that allows networks to be easily built and programmed for businesses to make faster decisions on a software-based infrastructure that is more flexible than ever before.

The product launch was hosted during GITEX Technology Week. Huawei has brought about a new generation of switching technologies that are smarter, and more agile for switches to be easily programmed to accommodate virtually all network needs for all levels of business today and in the future.

The launch of Huawei’s Agile Switch S12700 brings a host of business benefits, allowing decisions not only to be made automatically and quickly, but also frees up network resources so that decision makers are able to focus on their core business. The Agile Switch series is designed to prepare itself for the SDN era, which will assist end-users with addressing the future challenges of network development and convergence.

The unveiling of Huawei’s Agile S12700 switch series in the Middle East comes at a time where the industry is witnessing the convergence of data centres, wireless and wide area network (WAN) technology.

Huawei’s Agile S12700 switch series uses a fully programmable switching architecture to allow even faster and more network customization, ready to make a swift move to the future of SDN. Featuring automatic network deployment and management applications, the S12700 supports end-to-end security collaboration with the flexibility of enabling fast-changing services.

Millicom announced that its third quarter revenue had increased by 7.6per cent to US$1.29 billion. This would have reached 10 per cent were it not for the negative impact of regulatory measures.

Group EBITDA came in at US$459 million with an underlying margin of 38.6 per cent, in line with the company’s expectations and guidance.

The company added a further one million new data users in Q3, bringing the penetration of mobile data within the mobile customer base to over 18 per cent. In the year-to-date around 5.7 per cent of the customer base gained access to data services.

Across its mobile networks, the Millicom added close to 1.5 million net new mobile users.

Commenting on the results, Millicom’s president and CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht said: "This quarter’s strong growth highlights the continuing opportunity in Africa and Latin America. Combined with the shift to data, progress in mobile financial services and the launch of new media services almost weekly, we are on track to deliver the transformation of the company into a digital lifestyle provider."

China’s Lenovo is rumoured to be eying a takeover bid for BlackBerry. The rumours first emerged earlier this year, but now that BlackBerry is formally up for sale, Lenovo is said to be actively considering a bid.

Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal said that Lenovo has signed a non-disclosure agreement with BlackBerry allowing it access to the company’s accounts.

Lenovo already owns a smartphone business of its own, and could consider merging the two operations to strip out costs – or retain its own Chinese focused division and use BlackBerry brand to expand its market as it did with the IBM laptop deal in the past.

Both companies declined to comment on the report.

BlackBerry has already agreed to an in-principle deal to be bought out by a consortium of private equity groups in a US$4.7 billion deal, but that agreement allows it to consider alternative bids.

An offer from Lenovo would be subject to regulatory checks, and the Canadian government has been more cautious in recent months about foreign takeover bids for local firms. However, the government did indicate earlier this year that it would not step in to save the ailing smartphone manufacturer.

TeliaSonera reported a slight decline in Q313 revenues, although net profit was higher.

The telco saw revenues fall by 1.8 per cent to SEK25.38 billion (US$3.9 billion) during the quarter.

Net profits rose though by 15.1 per cent to SEK4.6 billion as operating costs fell by 5.4 per cent.

The decline in revenues was put down to the difficult economic environment in the company’s markets and lower regulated mobile termination rates.

TeliaSonera ended the quarter with 207 million customers, up on the 201.7 million a year ago.

Free cash flow increased to SEK7.31 billion, mainly explained by dividends from MegaFon net of taxes of SEK1.94 billion and positive changes in working capital.

Johan Dennelind, president and CEO commented that, "My initial observations as new CEO are that TeliaSonera has a solid asset base with a diversified product portfolio, attractive footprint, strong brands and competent people. The mix of mature and emerging markets gives us a robust foundation."

He warned though that "in recent years our position has weakened in too many of our markets and it is essential to strengthen our competitiveness going forward."

Apple’s attempt to attract more budget-conscious customers with its cheaper 5C smartphone appears to be facing some difficulty as the company has reportedly cut production orders for the cheaper model.

Apple has asked one of its largest suppliers to increase production of the top-tier 5S, which went on sale at the same time, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Other sources told Reuters that Apple has told manufacturers it will reduce orders for the 5C smartphone in the final three months of the year.

Reports suggest that orders have been reduced by around a quarter.

Apple has long been seen as a premium brand, and its move to widen its customer base had been expected. However, the 5C was not significantly cheaper than the flagship 5S smartphone.

The slight price difference appears to have left Apple struggling to persuade customers to buy a visually cheaper product that offered a significant decline in cachet, without saving a lot of money.