Vodafone Group reported a loss for the first half of 2012, as a result of a nearly GBP6 billion (U$9.75 billion) charge related to its Spanish and Italian businesses.

In a statement, Vittorio Colao, Group CEO, said: “We have continued to make progress on our strategic priorities over the last six months, with good growth in data and emerging markets in particular”.

For the half year, the company reported a loss of GBP1.89 billion, compared with a prior-year profit of GBP6.64 billion, on revenue of GBP21.78 billion, down 7.4 per cent from GBP23.52 billion.

Service revenue was GBP20.16 billion, down 7.9 per cent.

The company recorded impairment charges of GBP5.9 billion for Spain and Italy, as a result of “challenging market conditions and changes to discount rates”.

Service revenue for Northern and Central Europe fell 2 per cent to GBP9.05 billion, and for Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific it decreased 5.1 per cent to GBP6.05 billion.

High spots included strong service revenue growth in Turkey, as a result of continued expansion of the contract customer base, strong growth in data revenue, strong growth in incoming traffic, and an increase in enterprise revenue.

India also saw solid growth, due to an increase in the customer base, increased usage, and an increase in charges for outgoing calls. Vodacom performed well, mainly driven by growth in Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.

The company noted that revenue from non-voice services and emerging markets has increased to 65 per cent in the first half fiscal of 2013 from 56 per cent in H1 2011, “reducing our dependence on voice revenue in mature markets”.

For the rest of the financial year, Vodafone expects the environment to be “similar” to that seen in the first half.

Amr El-Leithy, Alcatel-Lucent’s Head of Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Azerbaijan region talks to Comm. about the mobile broadband revolution taking place across the region; the likely winners from it; and what strategies service operators may look to adopt in order to better monetise the opportunities

Amr El-Leithy is Alcatel-Lucent’s Head of Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Azerbaijan

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Bharti Airtel today announced the appointment of Segun Ogunsanya as the chief executive officer of Airtel Networks Ltd, Nigeria (Airtel Nigeria).

Ogunsanya, who will be responsible for defining and delivering the business strategy and providing overall leadership for Airtel Nigeria, will report to Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint MD, Bharti Airtel. The appointment is effective November 26, 2012. 

He takes over from Rajan Swaroop, who has led operations at Airtel Nigeria for the past two years. Swaroop will be appointed as non-executive director on the board of Airtel Nigeria following the completion of the transition process and will continue to work closely with the Airtel Nigeria leadership team.

Ogunsanya brings with him over 24 years of industry experience across multiple geographies, organisations and diverse sectors such as Coca Cola, banking and Arthur Anderson. His last assignment was with The Coca-Cola Company, where he started his career in finance and gradually transitioned into senior leadership roles with the various bottling operations of The Coca-Cola Company across diverse markets and countries in Africa. In his last stint, as the MD and CEO of Nigerian Bottling Company, he was responsible for over US$1 billion revenue operations.

A chartered accountant, Ogunsanya holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University of Ife, Nigeria.

Alcatel-Lucent announced another loss-making quarter, which Ben Verwaayen, its CEO, said was "impacted by overall carrier spending dynamics and product mix, especially in Wireless".

He said that the company is making "good progress" with its restructure efforts, with cost savings of €450 million (US$593 million) since the beginning of the year, and the company is continuing with its plan to cut 5,500 jobs.

Verwaayen also said that the company is taking action to strengthen its balance sheet, stating that "we are reviewing a variety of options, which we will communicate when appropriate".

For the third quarter, Alcatel-Lucent reported a net loss of €146 million, compared with a prior-year profit of €194 million, on revenue of €3.6 billion, down from €3.7 billion.

Sales in its Wireless business were €837 million, down 18.9 per cent from €1.03 billion.

The company said the Wireless unit "faced another difficult year-over-year comparison", which, when combined with overall cautious spending from service providers, led to declines in most technologies, and especially in legacy equipment.

It said its LTE business showed stability, driven by continued investment in the US, despite a strong Q3 last year. It announced a "major contract win", being named as a supplier for the largest share of China Mobile’s TD-LTE trial network rollout.

It also said that US operator Sprint picked its LightRadio Metro Cells to deliver mobile broadband services to high-traffic areas such as entertainment venues, transport hubs and campuses.

Virgin Mobile is in talks with Russian mobile operators over a possible MVNO launch, Richard Branson has told Reuters.

Speaking at an event in Moscow, the Virgin boss said that the firm was prepared to invest up to US$1 billion in a Russian mobile venture.

“[The MVNO model] has worked really well in other countries and we think it will work well in Russia,” Branson said. “We use their networks, and they use our brand.”

But he hinted that the venture could hinge on the group’s airline, Virgin Atlantic, securing London-Moscow flight slots, a request that was recently refused.

According to reports last month, Virgin Mobile is looking to raise around US$100 million from investors to fund an expansion into as many as six new markets.

The firm has MVNOs up-and-running in nine countries, and has launched in two new markets already this year: Chile and Poland.