Google announced the completion of the delayed purchase of Motorola Mobility, and replaced the CEO.

Sanjay Jha has stepped down from his role as CEO and has been replaced by long-time Google employee, Dennis Woodside with immediate effect.

At the beginning of May Jha said Google was “continuing to work closely with the authorities in China for approval on the acquisition,” given the US$12.5 billion deal was being held up by extended scrutiny in China.

Google did not explain the reasons for the switch-over at the top, although it had been rumoured earlier this year that Woodside would take over the top job. He oversaw the takeover of the company from Google’s end.

Former Qualcomm executive Sanjay Jha joined Motorola Mobility in 2008.

Vodafone Qatar grew its customer numbers by 11 per cent over the year to each 837,233 at the end of March 2012. The operator said this represents 47 per cent of the population of Qatar who are now using Vodafone’s services.

Customer growth this year has been driven by enhancements to the mobile network and the launch of innovative promotions and services such as the Swalif local calling offer and BlackBerry on prepaid.

"We’re proud of the continued growth of our customer base, which has been supported by the completion of our mobile network deployment. We now have nationwide coverage, excellent voice quality and a very impressive experience for customers accessing the Internet on their Vodafone devices. The challenging start-up phase is now behind us and we are looking forward to welcoming even more customers onto our network," said Richard Daly, CEO of Vodafone Qatar.

South Africa’s Vodacom Group reported a 7.8 per cent rise in service revenue year-on-year for Q1 2012, having added 11 million subscribers over the period, representing a growth rate of 29.9 per cent to the end the period with 47.8 million users.

The telco reported a 48.6 per cent increase in group active data subscribers in the 12 months to end-March 2012, topping 15.1 million. In its home market of South Africa, the company reported that its active data customers increased 35.4 per cent to 12.2 million, while the number of active smartphones on the network increased 55.4 per cent to 5.1 million.

With respect to its international operations, Vodacom reported that service revenue was up 27.5 per cent year-on-year, while active M-Pesa customers in Tanzania alone grew to 3.1 million from 1.8 million a year earlier.

“Our first year of trading as the new red Vodacom has been a big success. Our customer base has expanded 30 per cent to 48 million, we’ve invested ZAR8.7 billion (US$1.04 billion) in our networks and we’ve achieved the number one net promoter score in South Africa and in two out of our three measured international markets,” commented Pieter Uys, Vodacom Group CEO.

The Kenyan government is pushing ahead with plans for a shared 4G network, despite opposition from the country’s dominant mobile network, Safaricom.

The government plans to spend upwards of US$500 million with the deployment due to start next year.

Speaking to Reuters, Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary of the ministry of information and communication, said that the deal was set, but that the government was awaiting financing.

“We have finished with the study. We have sent it to the ministry of finance. We are just waiting for the approval and then we hit the road,” he said.

Safaricom recently said that it will withdraw from the plans for a shared LTE network for all the mobile networks if the government insists that it operate in the 2.6GHz spectrum band. Safaricom wants the network to be built using 700MHz spectrum band as it requires far fewer base stations, especially in rural areas and is hence cheaper to deploy, at least initially.

However, the regulator has rejected that demand and said that it will continue with plans for a network in the 2.6GHz band.

Virgin Group is not commenting on reports that it is selling a stake in its South African MVNO, and that the CEO, Steve Bailey is resigning from his post.

Citing a well-placed source, TechCentral reported that Virgin will reduce its 55 per cent stake through a sale of an unspecified amount to the UAE based Friendi Group, which already operates a number of MVNOs in the Middle East.

The report suggested that Virgin Mobile South Africa’s other shareholder, Calico Investments which owns the remaining 45 per cent stake will retain its holding, but plans to work with Friendi Group to expand across Africa.

Bailey declined to comment on his reasons for leaving.

Virgin Mobile South Africa was launched in 2006 as a 50:50 joint venture between the Virgin Group and local mobile network, Cell C.

Last February, Cell C sold its stake, with Virgin Group picking up an additional five per cent and Calico Investments of The Bahamas taking the other 45 per cent. Financial terms of that transaction were not disclosed.