Palestine Telecommunications (PalTel) announced that its first-half revenues were essentially flat, up by 0.3 per cent to reach US$258 million.

Net income fell to US$58 million, compared with US$67 million a year ago. The decline is mainly attributable to the devaluation of the Israeli shekel and as a direct result of the company’s decision to postpone the 50 per cent tax exemption for two years in response to a request by the government in order to alleviate the public financial crisis.

Another factor is the new income tax bracket of 20 per cent imposed this year by the government compared to 7.5 per cent the year before. As a result of the fiscal crisis in the public sector, the tax authorities in Palestine have declared a new tax scheme raising the corporate tax rate from 15 per cent to 20 per cent starting January 2012.

Mobile subscribers grew by 7.8 per cent to stand at 2.61 million at the end of H112 compared with 2.42 million at the end of 2011, and grew by 12.9 per cent compared with the end of H111 where the total number of subscribers numbered 2.31 million. 89.9 per cent of subscribers at the end of June 2012 were prepaid with the remaining 10.1 per cent being comprised of post-paid users.

Motorola Mobility is to slash 20 per cent of its workforce as its new parent Google seeks to refocus the handset-maker on fewer markets and a slimmed down product portfolio.

Some 4,000 jobs will be cut in total – a third in the US – while a third of its 94 offices worldwide will be closed. Google closed its US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola in May, a deal motivated in large part by Google’s desire to take over Motorola’s rich portfolio of wireless patents.

Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s new chief executive (installed by Google), confirmed the restructuring plans in an interview with the New York Times.

He said that the vendor also planned to cut the number of devices Motorola makes from the 27 it launched last year to just a few high end models.

“We’re excited about the smartphone business,” said Woodside. “The Google business is built on a wired model, and as the world moves to a pretty much completely wireless model over time, it’s really going to be important for Google to understand everything about the mobile consumer.”

Motorola Mobility lost US$233 million in its first six weeks under Google, according to Google’s latest quarterly results.

South Africa’s MTN is considering selling off up to half of its towers networks following successful sales in other countries where it has operations. The company owns around 6,000 towers in South Africa.

The sale would be a move to improve the efficiency of its capital structure, company’s MD, Karel Pienaar told Tech Central.

"The reality is, if you look at the infrastructure on the ground, it’s not our core focus, so we don’t leverage it to the extent that perhaps we could," Pienaar said, adding that a sale would only be of the passive elements of the network. However, a sale of active components has not been ruled out in the future.

The company has already sold its towers in Ghana and Uganda.

Virgin Mobile South Africa is set to confirm the appointment of a new CEO on August 15, Friendi Group CEO Mikkel Vinter has confirmed to Comm.

In June, Virgin Mobile South Africa and Friendi Group announced an agreement whereby the two groups would merge their regional telecom operations to create a combined entity to be called Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa (VMMEA), which would be led by Vinter. At the time of the announcement it was also confirmed that Virgin Mobile South Africa CEO, Steve Bailey would be stepping down and that a “highly experienced candidate” had been identified to take over the running of the company.

Virgin Mobile South Africa has a staff compliment of around 250, with a subscriber base estimated at approximately 400,000. The MVNO currently operates at a loss.

India’s Unitech has secured a court order blocking the mobile network, Uninor from selling its assets prior to the network’s expected closure next month.

The network is a 67/33 joint venture between Telenor and Unitech, and the two companies are in dispute over its future.

The Company Law Board has upheld a challenge by Unitech against the sale of network assets. Uninor said that it would appeal the ruling.

Uninor had invited bids for network assets, which it was looking to sell before the network closure in anticipation of securing higher valuations. Telenor had said that it would make an offer if no other bidders emerged.

If Telenor did buy the network infrastructure, it was seen as a precursor to re-entering the market following the forthcoming re-sale of the cancelled GSM licenses.