Huawei shipped 64.21 million devices in the first half of 2014, including 34.27 million smartphones, as it launched premium products such as the Mate 2 4G and Ascend P7.

In a statement, the Chinese vendor said that the “steady and sustainable” growth of its consumer unit “further demonstrates the success of its strategy to develop premium quality products while building brand awareness through global marketing initiatives”.

According to reports earlier this week, Richard Yu, head of the Consumer Business Group at Huawei, said the unit had already achieved more than half of its 2014 profit target, although no figure was put on this.

In the two months that followed its global launch, nearly two million P7 units were sold in 70 markets across Europe, APAC, MEA and Latin America. While the company has not released sales details for Mate 2 4G, it said that this has “achieved popularity in markets such as China, Europe, Southeast Asia and North America”.

The company was also keen to point out the international aspect to its growth. In the second quarter, it shipped a total of 20.56 million smartphones to markets in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, a year-on-year increase of 85 per cent.

Orange said Q2 and H1 2014 numbers were good enough to keep its full-year target of margin stabilisation, but it was nonetheless another rocky three months for the operator as fierce competition and regulation continued to chip away at sales and profit.

Group revenue for the three months ended June 30 slid 3.4 per cent, to €9.78 billion (US$13.14 billion), compared with Q213. H1 sales were down 3.6 per cent, to €19.6 billion.

Reflecting the top-line pressures, H1 net income was down €318 million, to €891 million.

More encouragingly, H1 operating costs were cut by €511 million, off-setting 70 per cent of the revenue downturn over the six-month period.

Orange had originally planned to cut indirect costs by €250 million for the year, but as €213 million of savings have been already notched up in this area during H1, the full-year target was upped to €300 million. Indirect costs primarily relate to labour, advertising and property expenses.

Taking into account H1 figures, Orange confirmed the group target of achieving a restated EBITDA of between €12 billion and €12.5 billion for the full year.

Restated EBITDA for the first six months was €6.14 billion, translating into a margin of 31.3 per cent (unchanged from H113). Orange expects that margin to remain stable for the year.

The enterprise segment saw H1 sales fall by 2.7 per cent, to €3.14 billion. Primarily due to improved sales from IT and integration services, however, it was a much better performance than the 5.3 per cent decline suffered in full-year 2013.

Capex for the first six months, at €2.5 billion, was 3.1 per cent up on H113. This was due to increased investment in 4G and fibre access networks.

Facebook said it may extend the deadline for closing the US$19 billion deal to acquire the world’s most popular messaging service provider, WhatsApp.

In its recent quarterly report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook said it agreed to a termination fee of US$1 billion in cash and an issue of common stock shares of the equivalent value if the deal was not closed by August 19, 2014.

The company said it may extend the closing date to August 19, 2015 if the closing conditions applicable to Facebook, other than certain regulatory approvals, have been satisfied.

It added that it expects this to be the case and that the deal should close during the second half of 2014.

The company clearly has confidence that the transaction will go through, but that regulatory approval may not come before the original deadline for the deal to close.

Rivals of WhatsApp were reportedly approached by European Union antitrust officials earlier this month regarding the proposed acquisition.

Sources told The Wall Street Journal that detailed questionnaires were sent to a number of technology and messaging companies, with the aim of gauging how the deal could potentially affect competition in the market.

The move comes ahead of a formal review of the deal by the European Commission (EC), which is unlikely to have taken place had Facebook not requested it, as WhatsApp does not generate enough revenue in Europe to trigger an investigation automatically.

The social networking giant asked the EC to conduct a review covering all 28 countries within the EU in May to avoid the possibility of separate reviews in multiple markets.

The US Federal Trade Commission notified Facebook and WhatsApp about their obligations to protect consumer privacy in April, including the fact that post-merger WhatsApp must continue to honour prior promises made to consumers.

Batelco has reported a 22.4 per cent decline in its second quarter profits as the company was hurt by one-off costs as well as increased competition in its core markets.

The company did not elaborate on what the one-off costs were.

Batelco is estimated to have made a net profit of US$27.6 million for Q214, based on calculations from its first-half financial statement.

Revenues however rose by 14 per cent to BHD194.6 million (US$515.9 million), and the company earned 57 per cent of its revenues from outside its home market, a rise on the 51 per cent a year ago.

The company operates in a number of Middle East and African countries and ended the period with nine million customers.

Zain Group CEO, Scott Gegenheimer is doubtful that 3G will be licensed in Iraq during the course of this year, given the worsening security conditions in the country. Speaking to analysts on a conference call, Gegenheimer said, “I don’t expect 3G (in Iraq) this year. I am not that optimistic about it given that the government has already been involved in shutting down some value added services as part of the country’s security arrangements.”

Earlier this year Iraq’s government said it was seeking to sell 3G licences to the three incumbent mobile networks for at least US$307 million each.

The country’s national mobile networks are limited to GSM services, and while customer growth was initially considerable in a country that lacked reliable telecommunications, the lack of 3G services has been a drag in the past couple of years.

Zain Iraq’s revenues for the first six months of 2014 amounted to US$856 million, with EBITDA standing at US$336 million and net income of US$165 million. The operator witnessed 16 per cent growth in customer numbers year-on-year to reach 16.1 million.