UAE telco Du announced the appointment of Carlos Domingo in the newly created role of senior executive officer, New Business and Innovation.

As a member of the executive management team, Domingo’s responsibilities will include leading the development and execution of Du’s new business and innovation strategies, to foster a connected society and empower business acumen within leaders in the company.

Domingo joins Du from Mobily where he managed digital services, alliances, and partnerships, product development, analytics and big data department. Prior to that he held the position of CEO of New Business and Innovation at Telefonica Digital and was CEO of Telefónica R&D, the global innovation and R&D arm of the Telefónica Group.

Vodafone reported that in fiscal Q4 to March 31, 2015, the telco company returned to organic service revenue growth, albeit by a slim 0.1 percent, after 10 quarters of shrinkage. Weakness in Europe was offset by strong growth in its Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific (AMAP) region.

It comes as the telco reported a profit of £5.92 billion (US$9.22 billion), down 90 per cent year-on-year from £59.42 billion, on revenue from continuing operations of £42.23 billion, up 10.1 per cent year-on-year.

Its prior-year profit benefitted from a £48.12 billion gain from discontinued operations, related to its exit of the Verizon Wireless business in the US.

Profit from continuing operations of £5.86 billion was down from £11.31 billion, with the prior-year period benefitting from a significant income tax credit uplift.

Group service revenue of £38.5 billion was up 9.4 per cent year-on-year. Growth in Europe of 15 per cent to £25.97 billion was offset by a 0.8 per cent decline in AMAP to £12.04 billion although on an organic basis (taking into account M&A and foreign exchange changes) the picture was reversed, with a decline of 4.7 per cent in Europe, and an increase of 5.8 per cent in AMAP.

The telco has spent the last 12 months investing in speeding up its network and boosting coverage.

Vodafone remained cautious in its outlook, warning that it would continue to invest in its network this year. It forecast core earnings in the year ahead would be in the same region as this financial year, of between £11.5 billion and £12 billion.

On a group level the company has 20.2 million 4G subscribers in 18 markets.

Greg Young was appointed CEO of Ooredoo Oman (then Nawras) in October 2013, replacing founding CEO, Ross Cormack. In recent times the operator has stalled operationally as well as financially having reported shrinking revenues and net profit, wreaking havoc with its share price. Since taking the reins Young has stabilised the telco’s performance and believes he can breathe new life into the operator and watch it fulfil its potential

Prior to his appointment as CEO of Ooredoo Oman in October 2013, Greg Young acknowledges there was a period of under-investment at the company that may have given rise to some under-performance

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Bharti Airtel has secured financing of up to US$2.5 billion from China Development Bank (CDB) and Commercial Bank of China.

CDB is reported to have put up US$2 billion in credit, with a further US$500 million coming through from Commercial Bank of China.

According to an Airtel statement, its agreement with CDB represents the single largest bilateral commitment by the bank to an Indian company, and its largest to any telecom operator globally.

The funds are still subject to final approval, and Airtel will be able to draw on them over a long period of time, with loan maturities extended up to nine years.

Airtel is forecast to count over 250 million total mobile connections by the end of 2016, maintaining its position as the country’s largest operator.

Earlier this year, Airtel also announced an agreement with China Mobile to collaborate on the growth of 4G, while working on a joint strategy for procurement of 4G devices, including smartphones. The company already has existing network equipment deals with Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE.

Vodacom reported that total revenue rose by 2.1 per cent to ZAR77.3 billion (US$6.5 billion) for the twelve months to March 31, 2015, while service revenue during the period only grew by 0.2 per cent to ZAR62.2 billion.

Group net profit fell by 8.5 per cent to ZAR12.5 billion.

The group’s total customer base grew by 7.2 per cent to 61.6 million over the course of the year.

In its home market of South Africa, Vodacom reported an 18 per cent reduction in the blended average effective price per minute for voice calls, and a 24 per cent cut in the average effective price per MB of data.

The operator also felt the effects of a 50 per cent reduction in mobile termination rates (MTR) in South Africa effective April 2014. The combination of pricing pressure and MTR cuts meant a 2.7 per cent fall in group service revenue in this market to ZAR47.032 billion.

Vodacom reported that service revenue from its other African markets combined – Tanzania, Lesotho, DRC, and Mozambique – rose by 10 per cent to ZAR15.3 billion.

The overall customer base in the four markets grew by 13.7 per cent over the year to 29.5 million, representing 48 per cent of Vodacom Group’s entire customer base.

Vodacom’s data revenue in its other African markets also grew 32.9 per cent as the number of active customers in this segment grew to 9.9 million.

However international EBITDA declined 3.6 per cent to ZAR4.11 billion, while the company’s number of mobile money M-Pesa customers grew by 34.2 per cent during the period to reach eight million in its Africa markets.