Alcatel-Lucent has won a contract from Cameroon based ISP, YooMee Africa to deploy a LTE based network.

YooMee has targeted deploying TDD LTE in its new markets within the next six months. The operator expects to build out an average 35 to 50 sites per capital city before deploying in the remaining cities of the countries it operates in.

Alcatel-Lucent will deploy a complete end-to-end TDD LTE solution.

Vodafone reported a sharp rise in its first half profits as revenues rose slightly ahead of the disposal of its US$130 billion stake in Verizon Wireless.

The company saw continuing weakness in Europe though, with the revenue increase coming from acquisitions and growth in non-European markets.

Performance in the six months to end-September in the major European markets of Germany, the UK and the Netherlands remained under pressure due mainly to increasing price competition. Service revenues in Southern Europe fell 14.9 per cent.

Service revenue in the rest of the world however grew by 5.8 per cent, with good growth in most markets, partially offset by declines in Australia and New Zealand.

Group revenue in the six months to end-September was up by 1.2 per cent at £22.0 billion (US$35 billion). Excluding acquisitions, revenues would however have fallen by 1.6 per cent.

Free cash flow for the six months was down 7.3 per cent to £2.02 billion due principally to lower EBITDA, increased taxation and higher capital additions, offset by lower adverse working capital and higher dividends received.

Operating profit came in at £5.71 billion, down 8.3 per cent year-on-year.

Paltel has posted a near 10 per cent rise in its Q3 profits, rising faster than revenues or the customer base.

Revenues rose by 2.2 per cent to US$397 million, while net profit was up by 9.5 per cent to US$97 million. The customer base grew by 2.3 per cent.

Mobile subscribers grew in number from 2.59 million at the end of 2012 to 2.63 million at the end of Q313 reflecting a 1.7 per cent growth rate. Mobile subscriber ARPU decreased by 3.5 per cent to US$12.6.

The number of fixed line subscribers grew 401,000 at the end of the period, up 1.2 per cent year-on-year. ARPU for fixed line users grew by one per cent to US$ 19.3.

Zain Group today reported that for the third quarter of 2013 it recorded consolidated revenues of US$1.1 billion effectively flat when compared to US$1.106 billion reported for the same period in 2012. EBITDA for the quarter reached US$471 million, down four per cent year-on-year, while net income for the quarter reached US$186 million, down 12% year-on-year.

The company explained that for the Q3 period, had it not been for adverse ‘foreign currency translation impact’ (predominantly in Sudan) of US$41 million in revenues and US$17 million in EBITDA, revenue growth would have been three per cent and EBITDA would have been stable.

Regarding net income specifically, if not due to both a foreign exchange translation impact of US$7 million and an exceptional US$21 million loss from ‘foreign currency revaluation’, net income would have been up slightly year-on-year.

Zain also announced adding three million new customers over the last twelve months to serve 44.3 million at the end of September, reflecting a seven per cent growth rate.

Vodacom posted a rise in its first half revenues and profits that were at the upper end of its earlier guidance.

The company said revenues rose by 6.6 per cent to ZAR36.7 billion (US$3.67 billion) in the six months to the end of September. Growth in data revenue of 20.6 per cent and positive growth in prepaid segment revenue was offset by a 23.6 per cent decline in interconnect revenue coupled with poor performance by the independent service providers.

Strong growth in customers and benefits from accelerated investment programme in Mozambique supported service revenue growth of 8.7 per cent in the international operations. International operations now contribute 21.6 per cent of service revenue up from 20.2 per cent a year ago.

Net profit rose by 8.4 per cent to ZAR6.63 billion. Debt amounted to ZAR11.96 billion at the end of the period, a rise of 3.4 per cent year-on-year. During the period the group obtained two additional loans with a combined value of ZAR4.5 billion from Vodafone, which owns 65 per cent of the company to finance capital expenditure and working capital requirements and to repay maturing long term debt.

The group’s active customers increased 9.7 per cent to 53.8 million; with net connections of 949, 000 for South Africa and 2.3 million in the international operations for the six months period.