VimpelCom reported a huge net loss for the fourth quarter of 2013 as its revenue was hit by regulatory measures and economic challenges.

The Amsterdam-headquartered group, which has operations in Africa, Russia and Asia, reported Q4 revenue of US$5.6 billion, a seven per cent year-on-year decline.

Its net loss for the period was US$2.7 billion, which the company said reflected non-cash impairments. In the same period in 2012, the company reported a US$195 million net profit.

For the full-year, the operator saw a two per cent fall in revenue to US$22.5 billion, and a net loss of US$1.4 billion, attributed to non-cash impairments totalling US$3 billion, mainly related to operations in Ukraine and Canada.

The company recorded an impairment charge on its assets in Ukraine due to macro-economic developments and weakened operational performance, while it fully impaired its Wind Mobile assets in Canada after deciding not to bid in the country’s recent 700MHz spectrum auction.

VimpelCom said its progress was also hampered by mobile termination rate cuts in Italy, ongoing limitations in Algeria, unstable economic conditions in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and a slowdown in some markets.

The group’s mobile customer base increased by four per cent during Q4, however, to reach 220 million.

Kenyan operator Yu, which is owned by India’s Essar Group, has sold its subscribers and network in the country to rivals.

The operator is being sold to rivals Safaricom and Airtel for about US$100 million, according to the Sunday Nation.

Under the terms of the deal, Safaricom will inherit Yu’s network while Airtel takes on its 2.7 million connections.

However, even with the new additions to Airtel, the balance of power in the Kenyan market still drastically favours Safaricom, which holds an overwhelming two-thirds market share.

Post-Yu takeover, Airtel will have approximately 8.45 million connections, which leaves it trailing substantially behind Safaricom’s 21.5 million (GSMA Intelligence Q4 2013 figures).

The country’s fourth operator – Orange – has just 2.3 million connections.

Acquiring additional infrastructure should enable Safaricom to improve network quality.

Essar is also exiting from other interests in Kenya. It is selling a 50 per cent stake in Kenya Refineries to the government in a deal that closed last month.

Safaricom and Airtel met at the end of last week with the country’s regulator Communications Commission of Kenya to clear the acquisition of Yu.

Zain Group has reported finalising a US$800 million, five-year revolving credit facility to support general corporate needs.

The facility, which was initially planned for US$600 million, was upsized to US$800 million following an exceptionally strong response from banks. A total of 11 lenders participated, illustrating the high level of support for Zain Group among the regional and international financial community.

Al Khalij Commercial Bank, Arab Bank, Arab Banking Corporation, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi –  Kuwait Branch, National Bank of Kuwait, Natixis, Samba Financial Group, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Union National Bank acted as arrangers of the facility.

Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank also acted as coordinator and is the facility agent.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Ericsson KSA have collaborated to deploy the world’s first Zero Site in Riyadh that will provide seamless mobile communication in highly congested areas of the city. This represents the world’s first deployment of this innovative radio site solution using Ericsson’s Zero Site solution structure.

The Zero Site solution, capable of being deployed in just one day due to its flexible structure, enables STC to provide its customers with superior network coverage in urban areas of the city.

The general concept of the Zero Site is to integrate small cell solutions with street light poles, which enables mass deployment of complete solutions with optimal urban coverage but minimum visual impact. It is a fully encapsulated solution for outdoor site deployments.

During Mobile World Congress 2014 Huawei signed a number of agreements with Middle East operators.

These included signing a new series of agreements that will see Etisalat Group and Huawei deepen their cooperation in 5G mobile broadband services, fibre broadband services, and delivering Huawei’s latest range of consumer devices to more customers across the MENA region. A specific memorandum was also signed with Etisalat UAE to cooperate in mobile network modernisation in the Northern Emirates and Dubai over the course of 2014. Etisalat Nigeria further unveiled plans for an outsourcing partnership with Huawei covering aspects of the company’s IT infrastructure—the first IT outsourcing programme to be announced between the two companies in Africa.

Saudi Arabia’s STC has also announced the launch of an advanced 4G LTE-Advanced network in Saudi Arabia, supported by Huawei, with unprecedented download speeds making it the fastest commercial 4G network in the Middle East.

In Kuwait, Huawei and Viva announced plans to launch the first Joint Innovation Centre in Kuwait dedicated to enhancing the user experience of Viva’s mobile customers throughout the region.

Huawei also launched at MWC 2014 the world’s smallest carrier-grade router—the Atom Router—which simplifies the operation and maintenance of telecom IP networks and provides operators greater visibility of network performance.