Zambia’s Zamtel has announced the doubling of its network in the tourist capital of Livingstone, from 12 to 23 WCDMA capable base stations. The upgrade was provided by Ericsson, and the vendor has also conducted LTE trials on the hardware.

Zamtel has also ordered 128 3G base stations to be deployed in the capital city, Lusaka by the end of next year.

Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) is to reverse a previously announced deal to sell a 25 per cent stake in its Monaco subsidiary to Batelco.

In its financial statement, CWC said that it has agreed to unwind the transaction announced with Batelco for a minority stake in the Monaco business and as a result the CMC minority shares purchased by Batelco will be transferred back to CWC for US$100 million – the same price it was sold for.

The company said that it is reviewing options for the business.

The related sale of operations in Maldives, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, South Atlantic, Diego Garcia and the Seychelles are unaffected by the Monaco decision.

Commenting on the Group results, Tony Rice, CEO at CWC said "We have largely completed our disposal process, with the Seychelles transaction expected to complete this year. We have agreed to unwind the agreement we announced with Batelco for a minority stake in our Monaco business at the same time."

MTN Nigeria has signed managed services agreements with Ericsson and Huawei.

Under the terms of the contracts, Ericsson and Huawei will take over the management, optimisation and field maintenance of MTN’s network infrastructure in all its operational regions in the country.

MTN will retain ownership and full control of its network assets and continue to have responsibility for strategic design and planning, as well as equipment purchasing decisions.

Financial terms or the duration of the contact were not provided.

The CEO at Etisalat Nigeria, Steven Evans, is reported to have resigned from the company last month, although no formal statement has been issued.

According to reports, Evans resigned and returned to the UK after leading the company for most of its five years in existence.

He has been replaced by the company’s chief commercial officer Matthew Willsher on an interim basis while a permanent CEO is found.

Qualcomm has reported a one-third rise in its fiscal Q4 revenues, and nearly the same for its operating profits as the company continues to benefit from surging smartphone sales.

Revenues rose by 33 per cent to US$6.48 billion, while operating profits rose by 29 per cent to US$1.59 billion.

R&D expenses increased 23 per cent primarily due to an increase in costs to develop CDMA-based 3G, OFDMA-based LTE and other technologies for integrated circuit and related software products and to expand the intellectual property portfolio.

MSM chip shipments were 190 million units, up 35 per cent year-on-year and 10 per cent sequentially.

Net profit was up by 18 per cent to US$1.5 billion.

The company ended September with $29.4 billion in cash and equivalents in the bank.

"Looking forward, we expect continued strong growth of 3G and 3G/4G multimode devices around the world, particularly in China with the anticipated launch of LTE." said Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.

For the full-year to end-September, Qualcomm recorded record revenues of US$24.87 billion, up 30 per cent year-on-year.