Zain Group has appointed Eaman Al Roudhan as chief regulatory officer of Zain Group effective 1 November, 2014. This follows the departure of Saud Al Zaid who was appointed a board member of the newly formed Kuwait Telecom Regulatory Authority.

Al Roudhan comes with 20 years of experience of which 17 years have been in telecom executive management and leadership roles of different business units within Zain Kuwait as well as several Zain Group affiliates.

She is a member of a number of international standards and regulatory affairs bodies such as the GSMA Arab World regional interest group and the GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer Group (CROG). She holds a BSc in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Kuwait University.

Bharti Airtel’s net income in Q3 surged 170 per cent to INR13.8 billion (US$229 million) as growth in data revenue helped deliver the highest quarterly profit in more than three years.

Its overall revenue grew seven per cent to INR228.5 billion, with its core Indian market seeing growth of 12.3 per cent – accounting for 71 per cent of the group’s revenue during the quarter.

Mobile revenue, representing more than two-thirds of total revenue, increased 66.7 per cent in Q3 compared to the same period a year ago.

India led the growth, with the easing of a long-running price war meaning that the price of voice actually rose by 2.4 per cent. Data revenue increased 74 per cent.

Revenue in Africa increased 6.4 per cent in local currency terms, but after accounting for the appreciation of the US dollar, was up just 1.9 per cent. Data revenue grew 57 per cent thanks to a 50.4 per cent increase in the region’s data customer base and a 24.5 per cent jump in usage per customer. Mobile data now represents 10 per cent of Africa’s overall revenue compared to 6.6 per cent a year ago.

The company said active Airtel Money users increased to 5.3 million during the quarter and transactions on the platform reached US$3.3 billion. Christian de Faria, MD and CEO of Airtel Africa, said more than five million customers carry out an average of over 1.4 million daily transactions.

The operator’s total customer base, across 20 countries and including mobile and other services, increased 8.4 per cent to 303.7 million from a year ago. India, now with almost 212 million mobile connections, continued to outpace South Asia and Africa, growing 9.5 per cent. Africa grew 7.5 per cent and has 71.4 million connections.

Capex expanded 74 per cent to INR37.2 billion, and almost 60 per cent was spent in India. It added almost 11,500 3G base stations in India over the past year, with 3G sites accounting for 27 per cent of its 141,000 base stations.

EBITDA was up 12.1 per cent to INR77 billion and its EBITDA margin rose from 32.2 per cent in Q3 2013 to 33.7 per cent. Its India EBITDA margin was up 3.2 percentage points to 38.3 per cent.

Ooredoo Oman reported that total revenues for the third quarter of 2014 amounted to OMR57.8 million (US$150 million), up 13.9 per cent year-on-year, while EBITDA came in at OMR31.2 million, up 27.3 per cent.

Net profit for the quarter stood at OMR10.8 million, an increase of 35.9 per cent year-on-year.

For the first nine months of 2014 revenues grew by 11.3 per cent to OMR 166.1 million (US$431.5 million). The growth is driven by increases in both mobile and fixed data revenue as well as international voice revenue.

EBITDA for the nine month period was OMR 87.9 million, up 23.6 per cent, driven by higher revenue.

Net profit for the nine month period was OMR 29.5 million, up 27.7 per cent due to an improvement in EBITDA.

The total number of customers grew by 6.5 per cent during the first nine months of 2014, up from to 2,514,231.

Fixed service customer base decreased by 2.4 per cent to 59,630 customers in the first nine months of 2014, which the telco said is due to a transition period during which it upgraded its home broadband technology. The mobile postpaid customer base grew by 2.8 per cent to 192,427 customers, while the mobile prepaid customer base for the first nine months of 2014 increased by 7.1 per cent to 2,262,174.

Lenovo and Google announced today that Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google is complete.

The acquisition of the Motorola brand and Motorola’s portfolio of smartphones like Moto X, Moto G, Moto E and the DROID series, as well as the future Motorola product roadmap, positions Lenovo as the world’s third largest maker of smartphones.

Lenovo will operate Motorola as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Motorola’s headquarters will remain in Chicago. With the completion of the acquisition, Lenovo welcomes the addition of a new portfolio company with nearly 3,500 employees around the world – including about 2,800 in the U.S. – who design, engineer, sell and support Motorola’s devices.

Liu Jun, Lenovo executive vice president and president of Lenovo’s Mobile Business Group, is chairman of the Motorola Management Board. Rick Osterloh, a Motorola veteran, will remain president and chief operating officer of Motorola.

Google will maintain ownership of a majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, while Motorola will receive a license to this rich portfolio of patents and other intellectual property. Motorola will retain over 2,000 patent assets and a large number of patent cross-license agreements, as well as the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark portfolio.

The total purchase price at close was approximately US$2.91 billion (subject to certain post-close adjustments), including approximately US$660 million in cash and 519,107,215 newly issued ordinary shares of Lenovo stock, with an aggregate value of US$750 million, representing about 4.7 percent of Lenovo’s shares outstanding, which were transferred to Google at close. The remaining US$1.5 billion will be paid to Google by Lenovo in the form of a three-year promissory note. A separate cash compensation of approximately US$228 million was paid by Lenovo to Google primarily for the cash and working capital held by Motorola at the time of close.

The transaction has satisfied all regulatory requirements and customary closing conditions, including clearance by competition authorities in the US, China, EU, Brazil and Mexico, and by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Etisalat posted a robust set of Q3 financials, enjoying double-digit growth in revenue and profit, but the performance would have been much more subdued had it not been for Maroc Telecom (part of consolidated results since May 2014).

Revenue for the three months ended September were up 38 per cent, year-on-year, to AED13.24 billion (US$3.6 billion). Take Maroc Telecom out the equation, however, and sales were up a more modest six per cent over the period. Strong domestic growth and a steady performance in Egypt largely explain the single-digit rise.

Nearly 50 per cent of Q3 group revenue now comes from Etisalat’s international operations, up from 35 per cent in the same quarter the year previously.

Quarterly underlying cash profits, or EBITDA, leapt 53 per cent over the same period, to AED6.97 billion. Without Maroc Telecom, the EBITDA rise would still have been an admirable 14 per cent, although clearly much lower.

Net profit for the quarter was up 22 per cent year-on-year, to AED2.22 billion.

The number of group subscribers was up 25 per cent, to 180 million, compared with end September 2013 (again, thanks largely to Maroc Telecom). More worryingly, the subscriber number was a four per cent drop compared with end Q2 2014. (Etisalat pinned much of the blame on its mobile operation in Pakistan, where it says political unrest has had an adverse impact.).

Total number of subscribers in Pakistan (fixed and mobile) fell from 28.5 million (September 2013) to 26.7 million 12 months later.

The number of mobile subscribers also fell in Etisalat’s home market during the quarter, from 9.33 million (end June) to 8.87 million.

Blended ARPU was up, however, to AED119 (Q2: AED115), helped by a slightly higher proportion of higher-paying post-paid customers in the mobile mix. Post-paid accounts for around 20 per cent of Etisalat’s domestic mobile subscriber base.

Group capex during Q3 was up 45 per cent, year-on-year, to AED1.84 billion. Etisalat attributes much of the increase to its UAE operations and the consolidation of Maroc Telecom.

International operations accounted for 63 per cent of consolidated capex in Q3 2014 (up 38 per cent year on year). Aside from the demands of the Maroc Telecom consolidation, 3G network rollout in Pakistan was a big factor in the spending ramp-up.

Etisalat secured a 3G licence in Pakistan for US$147.5 million during the summer.