Nokia Siemens Networks today announced its change of name to become Nokia Solutions and Networks and is now known as NSN. The new name reflects NSN’s change of ownership following Nokia’s acquisition of Siemens’ entire 50 per cent stake, which was announced on July 1, 2013, and completed today. NSN is wholly owned by Nokia and will continue to be consolidated by Nokia. As announced by Nokia, Rajeev Suri will continue as CEO and the NSN executive board will remain unchanged as a result of the transaction. Unveiling the new name, NSN renewed its commitment to driving leadership in the mobile broadband sector and to operating as a more independent entity.

When announcing the transaction, Nokia stated its intention to “continue to strengthen the company as a more independent entity”. NSN, therefore, sees continuity and stability as major goals in the change of ownership, and is committed to pressing on with its strategy.

NSN’s goal remains to develop profitable businesses with customers worldwide, deploying the ever-growing possibilities of universal connectivity and content.

An attempt by South Africa’s dominant landline operator to return to the mobile telecom market is looking increasingly like a short-term failure as the division is continuing to "bleed money".

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Telkom’s CEO, Sipho Maseko said that the company is reviewing the future of its mobile subsidiary, 8ta, recently rebranded as Telkom Mobile.

Maseko said that Telkom is looking at the "intensity" of the capital expenditure and operation needs of the mobile company.

The mobile network has around 4.1 million subscribers – but only 1.5 million of those were active revenue generating customers.

There had been recent talks between the third mobile network, Cell C and Telkom about a possible merger of the mobile divisions, although some commentators noted that would turn two smallish loss-making networks into one middle-sized loss-making network.

The smaller two networks also struggle to compete in voice call market due to the mobile termination rates that favour the two larger networks. It had been noted that 8ta could turn into a mobile data operator instead, using its significant radio spectrum assets.

Cell C claims to have signed up over a million new customers in the month of June, although the company also lost over 650,000 customers at the same time.

In a statement, Cell C’s CEO Alan Knott-Craig said he was pleased to hit the sign-up landmark despite churn remaining high.

"I am exceptionally proud and excited to announce that for the first time in the history of Cell C we have connected more than one million customers in one month," Knott-Craig said.

"Last night we broke through the million gross connection barrier bringing our total customer base to over 11.7 million."

Although they added over a million new customers, the net figure after deducting losses came in at 338,000.

Last month, Cell C’s majority shareholder, Oger Telecom agreed to pump US$350 million into the company, with further funding expected next year.

Batelco reported that its first half profits fell by 22 per cent to BD27 million (US$81.8 million) due to the acquisition and related financing of its acquisition of the Island Units (Dhiraagu, Channel Islands & Isle of Man, South Atlantic and Diego Garcia) from Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC).

The group’s revenue for the period rose by 10 per cent to BD170.7 million.

At the end of the six month period, 50 per cent of revenues and 48 per cent of EBITDA was attributable to operations outside of Bahrain.

The group subscriber base was up by 24 per cent at 8.6 million.

Bharti Airtel reported its first-fiscal quarter financials to June 30 and saw revenues rise by 9.9 per cent as its core Indian market stabilised after a couple of years of shrinkage.

Consolidated revenues at Rs202.64 billion (US$3.3 billion) grew by 9.2 per cent, over the corresponding period last year, led by 10.9 per cent growth in Indian mobile revenues, 34 per cent in Digital TV, 17.9 per cent in B2B and 37.1 per cent in South Asia.

Reported International revenues comprising of Africa and South Asia operations grew by 4.6 per cent year-on-year in local currency terms.

However, the company still posted its 14th consecutive quarter of declining profits. Net profits came in at Rs6.89 billion, down 9.6 per cent from Rs 7.62 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

The operator’s consolidated customer base reached 275 million at the end of June, up five per cent year-on-year.