Millicom International – the holding company that operates mobile networks mainly in Africa and Latin America – has reported that its third quarter revenues rose by 13.1 per cent to US$1.15 billion.

Excluding currency fluctuations, revenues would have risen by 9.1 per cent compared to a year ago.

EBITDA was also up, by 9.3 per cent to US$529 million.

However net profit plunged to US$288 million compared to US$1.2 billion a year ago – although last year had been boosted by a one-off gain of $1.06 billion on the revaluation of the Honduran operation.

Mobile customers were up 13 per cent compared to Q310, bringing the total customer base to 42.2 million.

“In Africa, excluding Ghana and Senegal, our operations performed well during the quarter growing on average by 16 per cent in local currency. In Ghana we adjusted our prices due to the introduction of flat tariffs and specific promotions by our competitors. In Senegal our revenues were affected by capacity constraints associated with power shortages,” Mikael Grahne, president and CEO of Millicom said. “Revenue growth for Africa as a whole was 7.8 per cent in local currency. We remain focused on maintaining the affordability of Tigo products and services across the region.”

Grahne reiterated the company’s full-year guidance of an EBITDA margin of above 45 per cent, and a revision of the company’s CAPEX guidance to around US$820 million due to some delays in the delivery of equipment.

The company warned that it no longer sees a correlation between growth in customer numbers and future revenue growth and, overall, expects customer intake to continue to be quite volatile due to a range of factors including the macro environment, seasonality, competitor promotions and marketing activities.

Millicom is now focusing on 3G data and VAS customers who, on average, produce a higher additional ARPU as compared to 2G voice-only customers.

Etisalat reported a nine per cent rise in its third-quarter revenues to reach AED8.04 billion (US$2.2 billion), compared to AED 7.4 billion a year ago.

However, profits for the quarter were down very slightly at AED 1.72 billion compared to AED 1.74 billion a year ago.

Thus, a clear area of concern for Etisalat, as with most regional operators, is the downward pressure being exerted on profitability given the rise in market competition and the flattening of average revenues. For the first half of 2011, Etisalat reported a net profit after federal royalty of AED3.41 billion, which was down from a net profit of AED3.9 billion in 2010. This amount stood at AED4.6 billion in 2009, meaning net profit at Etisalat dropped by over a quarter in the two years to end-June 2011.

For the nine months to end-September 2011, revenue earned from international operations contributed 26 per cent to overall revenue, and increased 18 per cent on the same period last year.

Qualcomm has finally been granted the delayed BWA licences by the Indian government after it looked like the company could forfeit its US$1 billion bid for the concessions last year.

Although Qualcomm paid for the licences, they had not been formally handed over, and India’s Telecom Department was claiming that Qualcomm was late in filing the application paperwork – something the company denies.

Qualcomm paid US$1.05 billion for licences in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala circles with the intention of promoting the development of LTE technology.

Nawras in Oman is offering a free trial of high speed broadband to around 200 customers living in Al Mabailah North. For a three month period, customers will be invited to experience the benefits of Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) with download speeds of between 10-100 Mbps.

The telco is working with Haya Water Company and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to implement the fibre optic technology needed to provide high speed broadband.

A selection of four different FTTH pricing plans offering a variety of different speeds will be trialled to enable Nawras to fine tune its offerings ahead of the full commercial launch of this service. Customers will be able to test the speed, reliability and stability of FTTH.

Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Networks’ (NSN) Serve atOnce Device Management (SADM) software to be implemented across affiliates in 16 African countries. In addition, NSN will consolidate the operator’s existing multimedia messaging service (MMS) platforms into one centrally managed virtual platform.

Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and joint managing director, Bharti Airtel, said: “Nokia Siemens Networks’ robust mobile device management solution will allow our customers in Africa to enjoy the latest services by enabling seamless Internet connectivity and excellent customer care support. The solution will benefit Airtel from reduced operational costs when introducing new devices or services.”

NSN’s SADM will enable Bharti Airtel to remotely and automatically manage and configure user devices for new data services. The software will also enable the operator to gain valuable insights on device capabilities to make right business decisions when introducing new services.

In addition, under a three-year contract, NSN will provide its mobile Internet browsing solution (MIBS) and multimedia messaging solution, hosted on a virtualised and centrally managed VaaS platform. This will allow Bharti Airtel to provide these services faster and cost efficiently to all its customers across all affiliates in Africa.