Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group CEO, said the company would consider a “transformational” merger or acquisition in the future if the price was right, according to a Financial Times report.

Speaking at an investor event in New York, Colao explained that the company’s investment in its networks and wider consolidation in the sector are likely to leave Vodafone in a better position to consider such deals in the longer term.

Vodafone has recently been linked with a number of large potential deals, including tie-ups with AT&T and TIM Participacoes in Brazil, which is controlled by Telecom Italia. It has also been linked to major cable company Liberty Global.

Having sold its 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications for US$130 billion a year ago, there has been considerable interest in what Vodafone will do with the proceeds.

Soon after the Verizon transaction was completed, the company embarked on the GBP7 billion (US$11.4 billion) Project Sprint network investment programme.

It has also acquired several fixed providers — Ono in Spain and Kabel Deutschland — as it pursues a quad-play strategy in which it provides mobile fixed telephony, broadband and TV.

Most recently it inked a deal to acquire a majority stake in Greek fixed and broadband player Hellas Online. It also reached a fibre-sharing agreement with rival Portugal Telecom in July.

Colao noted that Vodafone may face competition in the UK from BT, which is believed to be preparing to launch discounted mobile services, via an MVNO agreement with EE, later this year, allowing it to offer a similar breadth of services.

Cell C, South Africa’s third largest mobile operator, informed the country’s Competition Commission that it opposes the network sharing deal between rival MTN and the country’s largest fixed operator Telkom, which has a small mobile presence.

Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos said his company does not agree with the proposed transaction as it stands.

Telkom started negotiations with MTN in March as it looked to cut costs at its loss-making mobile business. Sipho Maseko, Telkom’s CEO, recently said the company is battling with a decline in landline use and increasing operating expenses as it struggles to make an impact on the mobile market.

Telkom Mobile had just 1.9 million connections at the end of the second quarter, putting it firmly in last place. Market leader Vodacom had 32.5 million connections with MTN on 23.3 million connections and Cell C on 16.8 million.

Telkom and MTN already have an agreement in place to allow roaming on their respective networks but MTN is believed to be keen to gain access to Telkom’s spectrum.

A Competition Commission representative said they are examining the proposal — something that is seen as normal practice with such deals.

Ericsson today announced an agreement with SAP to securely deliver network-enabled cloud solutions, which will provide users with secure access to their business apps and content on mobile devices. For the growing Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) market, which is expected to reach US$2.1 billion by 2016 (Radicati Group), this joint offering will help businesses across all industries to better manage and secure organisational effectiveness and employee productivity. Ericsson will offer SAP Mobile Secure, a set of cloud-based solutions, combined with an IT managed service offering, expanding its portfolio of services available for its 400+ mobile network operators.

This offering combines the power and simplicity of SAP Mobile Secure with the stability and scalability offered by Ericsson IT managed services and service delivery capabilities. Worldwide, Ericsson manages networks that serve 600 million subscribers and additionally provides managed services for networks that serve 1 billion subscribers.

With this offering, an enterprise of any size can, within minutes, bolster its overarching mobile strategy with a comprehensive EMM solution that helps promote, publish and configure apps for all stakeholders – both on non-managed and managed devices. As these employees, business partners and consumers benefit from the apps; the integrated mobile device management (MDM), mobile app management (MAM) and mobile app security components will protect the data and provide valuable analytics that enable the enterprise to continuously optimize its mobile strategy.

The Ericsson and SAP agreement delivers a solution that addresses the security needs of today’s enterprises, which are increasingly going mobile. Furthermore, it is aimed at enabling operators to enhance their end-to-end offering and capture new revenues from their existing base of enterprise customers.

Bharti Airtel has announced a deal to sell some 3,500 towers across its African networks to the tower management firm, Eaton Towers.

The financial terms were not disclosed.

As part of the deal, Airtel has also signed a 10-year lease with Eaton Towers for its own use of the assets.

The deal also expands Eaton Towers’ coverage in Africa to seven countries with over 5,000 towers under management.

Telkom Kenya (Orange) has announced the appointment of Vincent Lobry as the company’s new chief executive, taking over from Mickael Ghossein with immediate effect.

Lobry, who has been with the Orange Group since 1998, moves to Kenya from Poland, where he was the senior executive VP of Orange Polska, that country’s largest operator.

Ghossein, who has been at the helm of the struggling telco for five years, has been appointed senior VP of Orange Business Services, Middle East.

His departure comes months after the replacement of several other managers. They included CFO Yvan Ridard, CTO Alain Bridard, chief sales and marketing officer Xavier Villegas and head of marketing Bertrand Vuillemin.

At the time Ghossein denied reports he would be leaving by September.

Orange, which owns 70 per cent of Telkom Kenya, has been in talks with various suitors for months about a partnership in its Kenya and Uganda businesses.

Telkom Kenya has also begun talks on an out-of-court deal with former employees claiming Sh3.2 billion (US$33 million) in severance pay in a bid to clear the way for a sale.

The government of Kenya, through holds a 30 per cent stake in the Kenyan telco.