Vodafone Group has offloaded its 4.2 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for US$200 million to conform with new regulatory requirements in India.

A Bharti representative confirmed that Bharti Enterprises had bought the stake through one of its companies, the Economic Times said.

The sale follows new regulations under the unified licence regime that prohibit a company from holding an interest in more than one licensee company in the same service area. India has 22 service areas, or circles.

Vodafone India is the country’s second largest mobile player with a 19 per cent market share. Airtel is the market leader with a 23 per cent share, according to GSMA Intelligence.

Vodafone bought a 10 per cent stake in Airtel in 2005 and sold part of it in 2007 after its acquisition of Hutchison-Essar, which was later renamed Vodafone India.

Vodafone has faced multiple tax issues in India since that purchase. In April it hit another hurdle after the country’s income tax department asked the operator to re-file its 2009-10 tax return for re-assessment.

Following the appointment of new government representatives onto the board of state-controlled Telecom Egypt (TE), the incumbent voted for a new CEO – existing board member Osama Yassin – sparking speculation that a change in mobile direction might be on the cards.

Ousted CEO Mohamed el-Nawawy, who appeared keen on pursuing a mobile path through a unified licence – so allowing the landline monopoly to compete directly for the first time with the country’s mobile operators – had not made much progress.

TE was given the go-ahead by the government last year to acquire a unified licence – for which TE agreed to pay US$350 million – so giving it the opportunity to offer mobile services over operators’ existing infrastructure.

Local media, however, cite ongoing disputes about licence details between TE and the country’s mobile operators (Vodafone, Orange, and Etisalat), which seems to have prevented the launch of the incumbent’s branded mobile services.

It is not clear if the new CEO will push more aggressively on mobile, or signal a change of direction altogether.

Another issue is whether or not TE will need to sell its 45 per cent stake in Vodafone Egypt should it enter the mobile market directly.

As well as the appointment of Yassin, TE’s new-look board of directors appointed former minister of communications, Mohammed Salem, as chairman.

MTN Zambia is reported to now have plans to list on the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) in order to comply with its local licence conditions.

The move follows fears that the country’s regulator, the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) might impose sanctions on the company for failing to comply with the regulation.

ZICTA regulation compels foreign-owned telecom companies to have at least 10 per cent of shares held by Zambians through the stock exchange.

MTN is, to date, the only foreign owned mobile phone operator.

In 2009, MTN said it was set to finalise the issuance of the shares through a private placement arrangement in the first quarter of 2010.

MTN Zambia currently enjoys a 51.4 per cent market share, counting 10.5 million mobile subscribers, followed by Airtel Zambia and government-owned Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel).

The Tanzanian government has agreed to buy back a 35 per cent stake in Tanzania Telecommunications Corp (TTCL) from Bharti Airtel for TZS14.6 billion (US$7 million), with a government official confirming the state is now set to “regain sole ownership of the company”.

The government is reportedly keen to recapitalise the cash strapped operator, which is minority owned by Bharti Airtel Tanzania.

Airtel’s Tanzanian subsidiary was first established when the Indian operator acquired Zain’s African assets in 2010 for approximately US$10.7 billion. The deal with Zain came with a 35 per cent stake in TTCL, which the government originally sold in 2001.

Both parties have been in talks over a deal for the past five years, but negotiations have stalled because of price.

Bharti Airtel Tanzania is the second largest mobile operator in the country – also 40 per cent owned by the government – and trails only behind Vodacom Tanzania in terms of market share.

Tanzania has a highly competitive telecom market with seven active operators.

According to GSMA Intelligence, by the end of the year TTCL will have approximately 232,000 connections, from a total of 36 million forecast for the entire country.

BlackBerry was again the subject of takeover speculation, shortly after the company announced more job cuts in its latest reshuffle.

According to reports, Microsoft is among the potential suitors for BlackBerry, as it looks to bolster its position in the mobile market. Following its acquisition of the bulk of Nokia’s Devices & Services business, it seems unlikely that Microsoft is after the Canadian company’s smartphone business; rather, its enterprise mobility management and security tools are likely to be the prize.

Chinese players Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi are also reported to have looked at BlackBerry.

BlackBerry does still have a significant brand presence, particularly in the enterprise market across the US and Europe. It also has an intellectual property portfolio that may prove appealing, particularly to Xiaomi, which some observers believe is hamstrung in this area.

Reports earlier this year linked BlackBerry and Samsung, although both companies denied this was the case. The pair are working together, however, in the enterprise mobility space.

In the Canadian player’s latest reshuffle, it said its intention is to “reallocate resources in ways that will best enable us to capitalise on growth opportunities while driving toward sustainable profitability across all facets of our business”.

The number of positions to be cut as a result of the company’s realignment has not been confirmed.

BlackBerry has seen its device volumes plummet in recent years, making it more and more difficult to profitably sustain this unit. While it has introduced new devices designed to target die-hard BlackBerry loyalists – such as BlackBerry Classic and BlackBerry Passport – there is little sign that these are driving a turnaround in its fortunes.