At an event in Qatar last night, Qatar Telecom officially rebranded as Ooredoo.

More than 2,000 people attended the event, and the launch of the new brand was celebrated by a multimedia and theatrical experience about the transformation into Ooredoo, representing the next step in the group’s evolution.

In 2012, Ooredoo rolled out its fibre network and launched business services like cloud and mobile money. Currently the company is preparing its 4G LTE mobile broadband network for commercial launch.

The rebranding will emphasise the company’s core commitment to its customers and proud Qatari values, of caring; connecting; and challenging. It has been designed to take the company to the next level and making Qatar one of the best-connected countries in the world, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.

Qtel Qatar is the first in the group’s portfolio to take on the new brand.

Kuwait cellco Wataniya Telecom today announced an agreement that will see Ericsson transform Wataniya Telecom’s network with an upgraded radio access network. This will allow higher network speeds and meet the growing demand for 3G services and strengthen the on-going partnership between the two.

The transformation will also accelerate the delivery of rich, advanced voice, data and multimedia services to Wataniya’s subscribers and prepare the network for future mobile-data growth created by the strong uptake of smartphones and other handheld data-enabled devices.

With the new contract – which represents the largest Ericsson has signed to date in Kuwait – the company will expand its relationship with Wataniya by transforming existing 2G and 3G networks, as well as adding WCDMA/HSPA capability on 900MHz and LTE capability on the 1800MHz band.

Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa (VMMEA) today announced that Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) will invest US$50 million in the MVNO, securing the investment company a significant minority stake.

VMMEA is the leading MVNO in the MEA region, while GIC is a leading financial institution equally and wholly owned by the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Following the conclusion of the transaction, GIC and the Virgin Group will be the two largest single shareholders in VMMEA, alongside prominent global and regional shareholders including, ePlanet Capital, Dolphin International, NTEC and Millennium Private Equity.

In June 2012, Virgin Group and Friendi Group announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement for the Middle East and Africa, which led to the two groups merging their regional telecom operations, creating the combined entity VMMEA.

The signing ceremony at the Virgin Group headquarters in London, sitting down form left-to-right: Peter Langkilde (chairman, VMMEA), Mikkel Vinter (CEO & founder, VMMEA), Shafic Ali (director Principal Investment, GIC) and Peter Stephens (Partner and Global Head for Telecoms & Media Investments, Virgin Group). Standing up form left-to-right: Fahad Al-Nusef (VP for Technology & Telecom Investments, GIC) and Mohamed Eissa (head of Technology & Telecom Investments, GIC)

Google is cutting 1,200 employees at Motorola Mobility as the handset vendor continues its struggle with financial losses, according to the Wall Street Journal. The job cuts are equivalent to more than 10 per cent of Motorola Mobility’s workforce.

The report is based on an internal company email that said “our costs are too high, we’re operating in markets where we’re not competitive and we’re losing money”. The redundancies will impact workers in the US, China and India.

The latest job losses are in addition to a 20 per cent reduction in Motorola’s workforce, equivalent to 4,000 employees, that was announced in August last year.

At end-2012, Google said Motorola had a total of 11,113 employees, a figure which did not include the Motorola Home business, which manufactures TV set-top boxes, and was sold to the Arris Group in December 2012.

Motorola has continued to make operating losses since its acquisition by Google was completed in May last year. In its most recent quarterly results, the vendor posted a US$353 million operating loss.

At the time Google warned that Motorola’s results would be variable for “quite a while” as its business is restructured. The aim is to focus Motorola on fewer markets with a slimmed down product portfolio.

MTN Group has reported that its full year revenues rose by 10.9 per cent to reach ZAR135 billion (US$15 billion), driven by rising mobile data revenues which were up by nearly 60 per cent.

Revenue rose in all markets, except Nigeria where it fell by 0.8 per cent year-on-year following significant tariff declines amid heightened competition. The weakness in the average rand exchange rate during the year also supported the improvement in reported revenue.

Profits were up by two per cent, which was below market expectations.

Over the past year, subscribers increased 15.1 per cent to 189.3 million, a strong result in the face of the on-going subscriber registration requirements and network challenges in key markets. Looking ahead, the company anticipates reaching the milestone of 200 million subscribers by mid-2013.