In its fourth quarter earnings release Ericsson warned of short-term challenges as operators remained cautious with their spending plans, as a result of factors including macro-economic and political uncertainty. Anders Lindblad, Ericsson president of Region Middle East placed Ericsson’s Q4 and 2011 performance in regional perspective

Lindblad said one of Ericsson’s strengths is being more pro-active with customers than any of its competitors

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STC has selected Nokia Siemens Networks(NSN) to upgrade its nationwide GSM and 3G networks and expand its commercial 4G (TD-LTE) network. NSN is now responsible for building one-third of STC’s nationwide 4G network. STC announced the launch of its commercial 4G network using TD-LTE equipment from NSN in September 2011.

As part of the contract, NSN is modernising STC’s GSM and 3G networks to its Single RAN (radio access network) platform based on the Flexi Multiradio Base Station. The company is deploying its 4G radio network infrastructure across 2,500 STC sites over the next two years. NSN is also providing its FlexiPacket Microwave transport platform, which is a common transport medium for STC’s GSM, 3G and 4G networks with on-air speed of up to 400Mbps.

NSN’s Self-Organising Networks (SON) suite, part of the company’s Liquid Radio, enables straightforward plug-and-play 4G base station rollout. This results in operational and capital cost savings, while also improving customer experience by ensuring 4G base stations always deliver their peak performance.

As part of the contract, NSN is also upgrading its NetAct network management system to enable effective monitoring, management and operation of STC’s GSM, 3G and 4G networks. In addition, the company is providing services such as network implementation with project management capabilities for rapid and efficient network roll-out. It is also providing care services that include hardware, software maintenance and competence development. NSN already operates and optimises STC’s GSM and 3G radio networks as part of a separate managed services contract.

Apple announced today that it will spend US$45 billion of its almost US$100 billion cash pile over the next three years on shareholder dividends and a US$10 billion share buyback programme.

The news ends long-standing speculation around what the increasingly cash-rich iPhone-maker will do with its cash pile after a stellar performance in its current fiscal year to date. Its free cash stood at US$97.6 billion at year-end, with some US$64 billion of this based outside the US.

But Apple said the move would not affect its ability to invest in its business or make acquisitions. “We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business – so we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase programme.”

The firm plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of US$2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1. This would eventually lead to payout of about US$10 billion a year, making it (he claimed) one of the largest dividend-payers in the US.

Meanwhile, the company’s board has authorised a US$10 billion share repurchase programme starting in FY 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The programme is expected to be executed over three years, with “the primary objective of neutralising the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programmes."

Within large enterprises tensions are known to arise between the chief marketing officer, the chief information officer, and the chief financial officer over the resources that ought to be allocated to IT systems in order to keep the business running effectively. Khaled El Amrawi, Intel’s regional director for enterprise solutions in the Middle East, explains how cloud computing can help smooth over differences in management’s strategic IT outlook for a business, and allow the enterprise to benefit from significant efficiency gains

Khaled El Amrawi says in terms of a cloud computing strategy, it begins first with virtualisation of non-core data before mission critical ones are added

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Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) announced today that it has appointed Samih Elhage as its chief operating officer (COO). Elhage will join NSN on March 19, 2012, reporting to the company’s chief executive officer, Rajeev Suri.

The new role of COO has been created to lead the Global Operations organisation at NSN and the transformation of the company’s mode of operations and business performance management. In this new role, Elhage joins the company’s executive board.

Elhage was previously a senior advisor to leading private equity and global management consulting firms, focusing on investments and improving the operating performance of companies in the telecommunications sector. Prior to these advisory roles, until August 2010, Elhage held a number of leadership roles at Nortel, including president of Carrier Voice over IP and Applications Solutions and vice president of Corporate Business Operations.

Elhage has more than 22 years of deep and broad expertise in telecommunications. He began his career at Bell Canada in 1990 where he held multiple management and leadership roles relating to network development. Elhage then joined Nortel in 1998, where he held leadership roles in its Optical, Broadband and Core Data Networks organisations, before assuming leadership of Business Transformation and Operations.