Millicom has appointed Cynthia Gordon, a senior executive with Ooredoo, to head its Africa business.

Gordon, who joins on September 21, will be Millicom’s executive vice president, CEO Africa Division, with responsibility for operations in six countries.

She will report to Mauricio Ramos, Millicom’s recently appointed CEO whose background is in the Latin American cable television industry. Aside from Africa, the group’s footprint also covers Latin and South America.

Millicom’s strategy is based on what it terms the digital lifestyle, which bundles a number of services, including mobile, cable television and mobile money, into a single offering for consumers.

Gordon was chief commercial officer of Ooredoo, reporting to the group’s CEO. Previous stints included Orange, where she was vice-president of partnerships and emerging markets and developed her African expertise.

Millicom’s African operations covers six markets: Tanzania, Ghana, DRC, Senegal, Rwanda and Chad.

Nokia Networks has won a deal with Ooredoo Qatar to deploy its small cells in hotspots across the country. The agreement follows a trial using Nokia Networks’ LTE and 3G small cell solution in high-traffic indoor and outdoor locations in Doha. Nokia Flexi Zone small cells were installed in strategic locations such as café and restaurant rooftops to ensure additional capacity, coverage and better network availability, as well as reduce latency.

Sudatel announced its consolidated financial results for the first half of 2015, reporting that for the first six months of 2015 the telco generated consolidated revenues of US$220 million, flat year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in local currencies (down six per cent Y-o-Y in US$).

The group’s consolidated EBITDA for the period amounted to US$75 million, an increase of five per cent Y-o-Y in local currencies. EBITDA margin rose by two per cent to 34 per cent at the end of the period. Consolidated net income reached US$25 million, down 11 per cent Y-o-Y in US$ terms.

Sudatel has a diverse portfolio of subsidiaries ranging from data centres to submarine cable companies and local telcos in Sudan and across Mauritania, Senegal, Ghana, and Guinea Conakry.

Seventeen local firms in Myanmar are reported to have applied to be part of a consortium that will operate the country’s fourth mobile phone network.

A Reuters report quoted Chit Wai, a deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, as saying “the next step after selecting local partners will be appointing an international consulting firm to help select a foreign partner for the joint venture”.

Local public companies with registered capital of at least US$2.3 billion were invited to state their interest in the licence, which will be valid for 15 years and will be granted by the end of the year.

There is no limit on how many firms can join and the winner is to be announced in September.

The country already has three operators up and running: MPT-KDDI, a joint venture between the telecom ministry and Japan’s KDDI, which has 50 per cent market share, Telenor (34 per cent market share) and Ooredoo (15 per cent market share), according to GSMA Intelligence. Telenor, in particular, is growing rapidly. At end-June, it counted 9.5 million subscribers.

The country has rapidly reached a penetration rate of 27.5 per cent (Q2 2015).

ZTE announced results that showed solid growth for its infrastructure business, including mobile network sales, although its handset unit was hit by weakness in China.

On a group level, the company reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of CNY1.62 billion (US$252.18 million) for the first half of 2015, up 43.20 per cent, on revenue of CNY45.9 billion, up 21.76 per cent.

ZTE noted growth in revenue for 3G systems in China, FDD-LTE equipment domestically and overseas, and TD-LTE kit in international markets, as well as fixed and optical equipment at home.

It said it had increased its investments in areas such as LTE, bearer network, SDN and GPON, while costs as a percentage of operating revenue was “largely unchanged” due to enhanced management over sales and distribution costs and admin expenses.

A little over half – 53.1 per cent – of ZTE’s sales came from China. The issue of FDD-LTE permits in the country has led to further increases in network equipment sales, with the fixed broadband market also entering a period of fast growth.

Internationally, ZTE reported “stable operations and quality growth on the back of more comprehensive partnerships with mainstream global carriers”, in line with its strategy of focusing on heavily populated nations and big operators.

In terms of product categories, ZTE’s carrier networks business saw a 30.58 per cent increase in revenue to CNY28.51 billion (representing 62.1 per cent of the group total). But it saw a 4.29 per cent decrease in operating revenue for its handset terminals unit, to CNY9.96 billion (21.7 per cent of its total).

The handset weakness was “mainly attributable to the decrease in operating revenue from handset terminals in the domestic market”.