Vodafone Qatar has announced the appointment of Ian Gray as Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 December 2015.

Gray takes over from Kyle Whitehill who will be leaving Vodafone to pursue other opportunities.

Gray joins Vodafone Qatar from Vodafone Egypt where he is chairman, having served on the board of Vodafone Egypt for over 14 years, including time as CEO of the company.

Prior to joining the Vodafone Group, Gray was CEO of the FTSE listed companies Brown and Jackson PLC and later General Cable PLC, a UK based fixed line and Cable TV operator. 

Whitehill joined Vodafone Qatar in June 2013, having previously been CEO of Vodafone’s Ghanaian unit.

Nokia today announces that Amr El-Leithy would become the head of Middle East and Africa as part of the planned combination of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent, after and subject to the successful closing of the public exchange offer for Alcatel-Lucent securities announced on April 15, 2015.

El-Leithy would oversee the combined company’s customer operations across Middle East and Africa, driving the execution of strategy and ensuring superior customer service, underpinned by a strong focus on innovation and quality.

El-Leithy is currently president for Middle East, Turkey and Africa for Alcatel-Lucent. He joined the company in 2009. Prior to that he served as regional general manager for North & West Africa at IBM.

Orange confirmed an agreement to sell its 70 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya to Helios Investment Partners for an undisclosed sum.

In a statement, Orange said the move “reflects its constant focus on optimising its portfolio of assets”, adding “Africa and the Middle East region is a strategic priority for the group”.

Helios emerged as one of a number of bidders attempting to acquire some or all of Orange’s stake in Kenya’s fixed incumbent and third largest mobile operator in September, which has been up for sale for some time. Previous bids for the entity have failed, including one from Vietnam’s Viettel Group at the end of last year.

Orange, which operates in 19 countries across Africa and the Middle East, has previously stated its Kenyan business was under review as part of its strategy to be a top two player in the markets where it operates.

According to figures from Orange, Telkom Kenya counted four million mobile customers at the end of June this year, with the company lagging behind rival Airtel’s seven million connections and market leader Safaricom, which has more than 24 million connections.

Helios has made numerous investments across Africa, and operates a wide ranging tower business. The company owns towers in Ghana, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Congo-Brazzaville.

Orange said finalisation of the deal remains subject to approval from the relevant authorities.

Ericsson and Cisco today announced a global business and technology partnership to create the networks of the future.

The multi-faceted relationship will offer customers the best of both companies: routing, data centre, networking, cloud, mobility, management and control, and global services capabilities. Together the companies plan to deliver customer value by:

· Offering service provider customers an end-to-end product and services portfolio, and joint innovation that accelerates new business models,

· Creating the mobile enterprise experience of the future through a highly secure technology architecture for seamless indoor/outdoor networks, and

· Channelling the combined scale and innovation of both companies to accelerate the platforms and services needed to digitise countries and create the Internet of Things (IoT).

In a world driven by mobility, cloud, and digitisation, the networks of the future will require new design principles to ensure they are agile, autonomous, and highly secure. Ericsson and Cisco will meet this challenge together by offering end-to-end leadership across network architectures including 5G, cloud, IP, and the IoT – from devices and sensors to access and core networks to the enterprise IT cloud.

Customers will be able to accelerate their business transformation by drawing on the parties’ complementary capabilities, including global services capabilities such as consulting, integration, and support to managed operations across IT and networks.

Today’s announcement will be supported by multiple agreements that include commitments to network transformation through reference architectures and joint development, systems-based management and control, a broad reseller agreement, and collaboration in key emerging market segments. The parties have also agreed to discuss FRAND policies and enter a licensing agreement for their respective patent portfolios, enabling unfettered joint innovation and providing certainty for customers of both organisations. As part of this agreement, Ericsson will receive license fees from Cisco.

Ericsson and Cisco are strong and complementary partners, with a combined 56,000+ patents, US$11 billion of research and development investment, and more than 76,000 services professionals serving customers across more than 180 countries.

The strategic partnership will be a key driver of growth and value for the next decade, with each company benefiting from incremental revenue in calendar year 2016 and expected to ramp to US$1 billion or more for each by 2018.

Sifiso Dabengwa will leave MTN with immediate effect, MTN said in a statement to shareholders today.

His exit — which MTN is describing as a resignation — comes amid the record-setting US$5.2 billion fine imposed by a Nigerian regulator after the group’s Nigerian operation allegedly failed to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards by a specified deadline.

Former MTN Group CEO and current non-executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko will take the reins as executive chairman on an interim basis until a replacement to Dabengwa has been found.

Dabengwa has been group CEO of MTN since March 2011, when he took the leadership role from Nhleko. He first joined MTN in 2004 as CEO of MTN Nigeria. He is a former executive director of Eskom.