Coming up to two years since his appointment as Vodafone Qatar CEO in June 2013, Kyle Whitehill has been able to infuse the Qatar cellco with the type of energy associated with Vodafone Group companies worldwide. Investing heavily in people and technology, Vodafone Qatar is carving out a successful niche for itself in this small Gulf market, which stands out as Vodafone’s only direct investment in the Middle East

Kyle Whitehill has been CEO of Vodafone Qatar since June 2013, a period in which the company’s share price has almost doubled

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The tagline for Huawei’s first Cloud Conference to be held in the Middle East was ‘make it simple, make business agile’, and from the communications service providers’ (CSP) point of view, the technology company is looking to help them to act as fast as over the top (OTT) players to market developments.

It is estimated that as much as US$73 billion will be lost by mobile network operators to OTT VoIP providers through to 2020, equalling 8.9 per cent of total voice revenues, and in order to try and mitigate those losses Adli Dehelia, senior vice president, Middle East BSS for Huawei recommends that CSPs transform digitally.

“The areas of change that we are helping CSPs with are three-fold: The provision of agile IT; the development of digital customer experiences; and the advancement and introduction of digital services. At the current time there are a number of differences between the way CSPs and OTTs operate, and these include with respect to products, marketing, service, sales, and partners. We are working to close these areas of difference,” said Dehelia.

Dehelia also described how Huawei business support systems’ (BSS) offering has evolved from supporting IT, through to providing agile IT, and now delivering enabling IT through its business enabling systems (BES) solutions. The company launched a series of IT technology innovations at the conference, including its BES, FusionSphere 5.0 open stack-based cloud platform, and Oceanstor V3 storage platform.

Dehelia explained that through Huawei’s ROADS strategy, which is an acronym for real-time, on-demand, all-online, do-it-yourself, and social experiences, together with the adherence to an open ecosystem and an agile operation, the company’s BES solution will look to create awareness around its capabilities, go-to-market advantages, and its leading innovation.

Zain Group today reported that consolidated revenues in Q1 2015 to March 31 amounted to US$942 million (KD 279 million), down 14.6 per cent year-on-year in local KD currency. EBITDA for the quarter amounted to KD 117 million, down 11.5 per cent year-on-year, while the company’s EBITDA margin stood at 42 per cent.

Net income for the quarter amounted to KD 41 million, down 27 per cent year-on-year, while the number of subscribers was flat at 46.1 million from the same period last year, despite Zain stating it had added 1.8 million gross customers over the 12 months.

Telenor Group has appointed Sigve Brekke – head of Telenor’s Asia operations since 2008 – as the company’s new CEO. He takes the reins on August 17, replacing Jon Fredrik Baksaas who is retiring after 13 years in the top job.

Svein Aaser, Telenor Group chairman, said various candidates outside Norway were considered for the post after Baksaas indicated last year he would be stepping down, but insider Brekke, who joined Telenor in 1999, won out in the end.

Asia now represents more than 40 per cent of the total enterprise value of Telenor Group.

Brekke will receive an annual base salary of NOK5.9 million (US$790,000).

Under Baksaas’ tenure, the Scandinavian operator has enjoyed impressive growth. When he assumed his role as CEO in 2002, Telenor had 15 million mobile subscribers. It now has 192 million mobile subscribers worldwide, thanks largely to growth in Asia, and a presence in 13 markets.

Over the same period, revenues more than doubled, from NOK49 billion to NOK107 billion, and market capitalisation jumped from NOK45 billion to NOK270 billion.

The outgoing CEO backed Telenor’s decision to choose Brekke, describing him as the “perfect candidate” to continue Telenor’s growth and value creation.

Baksass was re-elected as chairman of the GSMA in December 2014, which covers a two-year period until end of 2016, a position he is expected to keep despite today’s news.

Ooredoo announced today the appointment of Rene Meza as the new CEO of its Myanmar business, replacing Ross Cormack who has taken the decision to leave his position later this year.

Meza currently holds the position of managing director of Vodacom Tanzania, and has over seventeen years of international experience in emerging markets having held leadership positions in telecom businesses in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Prior to Vodacom Tanzania, Meza was managing director of Airtel Kenya and Zain Kenya and he was also COO of Millicom Pakistan. He will join Ooredoo Myanmar later in the year and there will be a hand over period to ensure a smooth transition in leadership.

Cormack joined Ooredoo in 2003 to lead the mobile business in Qatar and in 2005 he became CEO of Ooredoo Oman. Over the past two years, he has led the Myanmar operation from a green field operation to a fully-fledged telecom provider.