Service providers continue to look to ways to increase revenues that are waning, though for the meantime it appears the more they invest in infrastructure, the less incremental revenue is being driven. Batelco Bahrain’s CEO, Rashid Abdulla, makes the point

Bahrain Batelco CEO, Rashid Abdulla, believes operators need to differentiate the services being offered, and then charge a premium for certain ones

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Motorola Solutions announced that its fourth-quarter revenues rose by six per cent to reach US$2.44 billion while net profits jumped to US$336 million from US$184 million a year ago.

Full-year revenues were also up by six per cent to US$8.7 billion. For the full year, government sales were up 12 per cent and Enterprise sales declined five per cent. These results include revenue for Psion, which was acquired on October 1, 2012.

“We strengthened our product portfolio, expanded operating margins, generated US$1.1 billion in operating cash and returned US$2.7 billion in capital to our shareholders,” said Greg Brown, chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions.

For Q4, government segment sales were US$1.7 billion, up 10 per cent from a year-ago. Operating earnings were US$346 million, compared to US$226 million a year ago.

Enterprise segment sales were down by three per cent to US$733 million. Excluding Psion, sales would have been down 12 per cent. Operating earnings were US$77 million, compared to US$50 million a year ago.

Motorola Solutions’ outlook for the first quarter of 2013 is for revenue growth of 4 – 5 per cent year-on-year. For the full-year 2013, the company expects revenue growth of approximately 5 – 5.5 per cent compared with 2012.

Kenya’s Essar Telecom – which trades as Yu – says that it will skip 3G services and jump directly to building an LTE network.

That is once it has secured the necessary investment funding from its shareholders though. The company is 20 per cent owned by local businessmen Peter Kibiriti and Jos Konzolo, and 80 per cent by India’s Essar Group.

Country manager Madhur Taneja told local media that it is too late to start investing in 3G infrastructure when the rest of the world is moving to 4G.

"If 3G will only be here for a short while, we would rather skip the generation and put our money where the future is."

Yu is the last mobile network in the country offering just GSM services.

Nawras has signed a new financing agreement worth OMR 70 million (US$182 million) with a five-year tenure, for capital expenditure and working capital requirements. The consortium for new financing consists of DBS Bank, HSBC Oman, Mizuho Corporate Bank, and Qatar National Bank. The facility agent for this financing is Qatar National Bank.

Nawras has commenced turbocharging of its network in order to increase speed, capacity and provide wider coverage to give customers a more rewarding experience. The programme includes increased 3G+ capacity offering doubled speeds and greater coverage, launching 4G LTE services as well as a new network footprint. This programme of future proofing the network shall be partially financed by this new facility.

Saudi Telecom (STC) has posted a sharp fall in its fourth-quarter profits as the company was negatively impacted by write-downs of overseas subsidiaries and a one-off tax charge.

The company posted a net profit for the quarter that was down by 80 per cent to SAR468 million (US$124 million), compared to SAR2.28 billion (US$608 million) a year ago.

The company took one-time write downs of SAR641 million on its investments in South Africa’s Cell C and India’s Aircel. The company was also hit by a SAR544 million charge for deferred taxes at Aircel.

Excluding the write-downs, profits would have risen by 10 per cent.

For the full year, the company reported revenues rose by 6.7 per cent to SAR59.4 billion, while net profits fell by 4.9 per cent to SR7.35 billion.