The rules governing India’s upcoming 2G auctions are unlikely to be finalised in time for an August 31 deadline, India’s Department of Telecom’s Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) has warned.

In a meeting last week, the IMG said that the failure of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to reach agreement on whether to back controversial plans for high base prices for spectrum – and how operators should continue to pay for existing spectrum – has delayed the process.

According to a Business Standard report, the IMG says that an auctioneer can be selected only after the final guidelines were issued, adding the selected auctioneer would require adequate time for designing the auction, owing to its complexity.

The process is complicated further still by the fact that the EGoM currently lacks a senior minister to lead the body with the power to make decisions. The original incumbent, former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, resigned from the cabinet to contest the presidential elections, while his successor – agriculture minister Sharad Pawar – quit as head of the EGoM after just three days.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a base price for a nationwide licence at INR36.22 billion (US$689.6 million) – over ten times higher than the prices set in a 2008 auction for the same airwaves.

Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys will step down from the company at the end of August 2012 and will be succeeded by former Vodacom SA MD Shameel Joosub. Uys will stay on at Vodacom until the end of March 2013 in order to assist in the handover process.

Uys has spent almost 20 years at Vodacom, including four as CEO, a position he took up in 2008. He took over from Vodacom’s first CEO, Alan Knott Craig, who moved to Cell C earlier this year after a brief retirement.

In a statement, Uys said: “I have had a fantastic two decades with Vodacom and will cherish many happy memories. I’m hugely proud of our people: together, we have created a powerful and trusted brand at the centre of our customers’ daily lives. It’s now time for change, and I will leave Vodacom confident that the business will prosper under Shameel’s leadership.”

Joosub is currently the CEO of Vodafone Spain. He was previously MD of Vodacom SA and a director of the Vodacom board between 2000 and 2010 before moving to Spain. He will take up his new position on September 1.

Uys will join the management team of Stellenbosch-based investment firm Remgro in April 2013 on a full-time basis, also joining the company’s board of directors.

Remgro, which emerged from Rembrandt — the tobacco and industrial conglomerate founded by Anton Rupert — was, through VenFin, one of the early investors in Vodacom. It sold its stake in the mobile operator to the UK’s Vodafone in 2006.

It continues to be a significant investor in the technology sector, with stakes in Seacom, Dimension Data subsidiary Britehouse, Dark Fibre Africa investor Community Investment Ventures, and Chinese advertising network VisionChina.

Eissa Al Suwaidi has been appointed chairman of Etisalat Group, and in addition to his new appointment, Al Suwaidi serves as an executive director at Abu Dhabi Investment Council. He is also a director of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for Distribution, International Petroleum Investment Company, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development and Emirates Investment Authority. He also serves as the chairman of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

Eissa Al Suwaidi has been appointed chairman of Etisalat Group

Six new board members have also been appointed to the Etisalat board. The new appointees are Abdullah Salem Al Dhaheri, Mubarak Rashid Al Mansouri, Shoaib Mir Hashim Khoory, Abdullah Mohammad Saeed Ghobash, Essa Abdulfattah Kazim and Mohammad Hadi Ahmad Abdulla Al Hussaini.

Etisalat is 60.03 per cent-owned by the Emirates Investment Authority, which is owned by the UAE government, and the chairman and government board representatives are directly appointed by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi by federal decree.

Research In Motion (RIM) reported that in the three months to June 2, 2012, the company reported a loss of US$518 million, compared with a prior-year profit of US$695 million, on revenue of US$2.81 billion, down from US$4.91 billion.

During the period, the company shipped 7.8 million smartphones and 260,000 tablets. This compares with 13.2 million smartphones and 500,000 tablets in the same quarter in fiscal 2012.

Providing something of a positive, the company said that the overall BlackBerry subscriber base continued to grow, with increases in all regions except for North America.
Internationally, revenue fell during the period, reflecting price pressure due to competition, and sales of its aging device line – a refresh is currently underway.

The handset manufacturer also stated that its first BlackBerry 10 (BB10) device will now not be available until the first quarter of 2013, saying that the integration of key features into BB10 has been “more time consuming than anticipated,” pushing back the launch from late 2012.

RIM also confirmed its anticipated job cuts, although the size of the cull – around 5,000 staff from a workforce of 16,500 – was larger than many expected.

Thorsten Heins, president and CEO of RIM, said that “I am not satisfied with these results and continue to work aggressively with all areas of the organisation and the board to implement meaningful changes to address the challenges, including a thoughtful realignment of resources and honing focus within the company on areas that have the greatest opportunities.”

Moving forward, the company plans to “streamline the BlackBerry smartphone product portfolio to offer a fewer number of devices in the market at any given time.” By streamlining its range, it will reduce R&D costs, increase economies of scale, reduce marketing and sales complexity, and “provide a distinct offer for each targeted market segment.”

Heins noted that the company’s long-anticipated LTE PlayBooks “are in the final stages of testing with certain carrier partners, and we expect to launch these in the near future.”
The company also warned it is anticipating an operating loss in the second quarter of fiscal 2013, as it continues to develop BB10 against a backdrop of falling BlackBerry 7 sales. It also noted “pressure to reduce RIM’s monthly infrastructure asset fees.”

The Iraqi regulator has fined two of the country’s three mobile operators for failing to meet last year’s deadline for listing on the local stock exchange, reports Reuters.

According to Ahmed Alomary, commissioner of Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC), Asiacell has been fined US$8,500 per day going back to September 1, 2011 (about US$2.55 million to date), while third-placed Korek Telecom has been fined US$2,500 per day. The decision on whether to fine market-leader Zain, which has also yet to list, is apparently still under discussion.

Alomary told Reuters that the fines have been approved by CMC and the two operators will be informed today.

The three firms acquired 15-year licences for US$1.25 billion each in 2007. Under the terms of the licences, all three were required to list on the Iraq Stock Exchange by August 2011 though none have done so, believing the relatively new exchange was ill-equipped to handle the IPOs.

According to the latest Wireless Intelligence data, Asiacell – majority owned by Qtel – had 9.4 million mobile connections in Q1, giving it a 37 per cent market share, behind market-leader Zain (50 per cent) and ahead of third-placed Korek Telecom (13 per cent), a France Telecom affiliate.