Ericsson announced today that Rutger Reman has been appointed as head of Industry & Society for Ericsson in the Middle East region. Industry & Society is a newly-established division within Ericsson in the Middle East, created to drive the company’s business growth and expand its market share in the region. As part of his new role, Reman is responsible for optimising the division’s overall performance, exploring new business in the Energy & Utilities, Public Safety & Security, Intelligent Transport Systems, and Smart Cities market segments.

Reman possess an extensive international experience working with Ericsson across key departments, including Project Management, Product Management, Operations, Marketing and Sales. He first joined Ericsson in Sweden in 1995. Since then, he has worked on a multitude of Ericsson projects spanning Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

MTN Group is reportedly mulling the possibility of taking a majority stake in Telkom – South Africa’s largest landline provider – in a bid to challenge the dominance of Vodacom, a Vodafone Group subsidiary.

According to a Bloomberg report, MTN has held “exploratory discussions” in recent months. Sources say a bid is not imminent, however, as a final decision has still to be made.

The report comes on the heels of a Telkom filing with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) saying that it remains in discussions with MTN South Africa “regarding the potential extension of their existing roaming agreement to include bilateral roaming and outsourcing of the operation of Telkom’s radio access network”.

The JSE filing goes on to say that if the deal is successfully concluded then it “may have a material effect on the price of Telkom’s securities”. The statement adds that shareholders would be kept updated.

A merger with Telkom, which is about 40 per cent owned by the state, would boost MTN’s ability to launch bundles of fixed and mobile services. Telkom may also see the attraction of a deal, since it only has a relatively small mobile business as South Africa’s fourth largest mobile operator.

Vodacom – the largest mobile operator in South Africa – is seeking antitrust approval to acquire broadband company Neotel, which is the country’s second-largest provider of fixed-line services behind Telkom.

Alcatel-Lucent hosted its annual Tech Symposium in New Jersey in November, and the atmosphere was decidedly confident, be it on a low key basis. The company, which was facing deep financial distress just a couple of years ago appears to have turned the corner as it looks to change the gears of its ‘Shift Plan’ strategy and focus on innovating, transforming, and growing the company

Michel Combes was proud to report that as part of 2014’s Alcatel-Lucent Tech Symposium, the company had held its first investor day since 2006

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Vodafone Egypt has scheduled a three-year investment programme of EGP9.5 billion (US$1.25 billion), with investments set to cover purchasing new equipment, modernising base stations and extending coverage, Vodafone Egypt CEO Ahmed Essam told Reuters.

Vodafone is a 55 per cent shareholder in the number one mobile player, which is threatened with new competition from Telecom Egypt.

The fixed incumbent has opted to sell its stake in Vodafone Egypt and go it alone, using one of the country’s unified licences, currently being finalised. Existing players in the mobile market are Mobinil and Etisalat, along with Vodafone.

The aim is to sell the Vodafone stake by the end of 2015. To this end, Telecom Egypt is mulling which of two sets of bankers will handle the sale, said Bloomberg.

Annual investments will represent “more than 30 per cent of annual revenues,” said Essam.

“By end of this fiscal year in March, we would have spent more than EGP3 billion, which equals one third of the allocated investments and also more than 30 per cent of our yearly revenues in Egypt,” he said.

On November 9, 2014, Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa (VMMEA) introduced the Virgin brand into Saudi Arabia, following up on the October 1 introduction of its co-brand FRiENDi mobile into the same market. While the decision to launch and incorporate two mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) brands in the same market simultaneously has already set VMMEA apart from its competitors, the company’s ability to simply commercialise its operations in the kingdom is probably its largest differentiator to date

Mikkel Vinter said VMMEA is pursuing a 10x5x10 strategy, looking to be in 10 markets in five years, counting 10 million customers

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