MTN Group and Liquid Telecom have announced a partnership covering wholesale, carrier-to-carrier, high-speed broadband, enterprise, and fixed data services, enabling the two companies to access each other’s fixed and mobile networks in African countries, where one or other may not currently have a presence.

The agreement gives MTN the ability to service its multinational enterprise customers in Burundi, DRC, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. It also enables the operator to provide coverage outside Africa.

Vodafone Group has withdrawn its interest from obtaining a Lebanese management contract to run one of the country’s two state-owned mobile operators, reports Reuters.

The withdrawal will come as a blow to Lebanon’s telecom ministry, which has been seeking to issue long-term contracts to operators for nearly two years.

Zain has managed the country’s largest operator Touch since 2004, while Orascom Telecom Media and Technology has managed Alfa since 2009, but both arrangements expired in 2013, and have since been running on short-term rolling contracts.

Due to Lebanon’s political instability, the country’s telecom ministry was unable to invite bidders to take on three-five year agreements until earlier this year.

According to local reports, six international companies registered interest in Lebanon at the time, including Zain, Vodafone, Orange, Maxis, Turkcell and a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.

Federal laws in the UAE have been amended allowing for the possibility of foreign investors to own shares in Etisalat Group.

The changes permit legal/judicial persons wholly-owned by UAE nationals to hold shares in the company. Also, non-national individuals and entities may own up to 20 per cent of Etisalat Group’s shares, subject to the approval of the company’s board of directors. However, restrictions in respect of voting rights shall be applied to the shares owned by non-nationals and such shares shall not hold any voting rights at Etisalat’s general assembly.

In addition to ordinary shares, a ‘special share’ will be issued to the federal government of the UAE, and Etisalat Group will also be entitled to issue different classes of shares. However, other than the issuance of the special share, Etisalat does not intend to issue any additional shares at this time.

Some of the other material changes, include the ability for Etisalat to establish a new operating company for the purpose of operating its telecommunications network business and providing telecommunication services in the UAE, subject to special shareholder approval; and establishing a share buyback programme at any time in accordance with terms and conditions.

MTN and fixed incumbent Telkom have been forced to drop a planned partnership in South Africa’s mobile market, after their proposal was vetoed by the country’s Competition Commission.

The rejection could now make a link-up between Telkom and smaller operator Cell-C more likely.

The fixed line player, which has a small homegrown mobile business, had hoped to extend an existing roaming agreement with MTN to include bilateral roaming and the outsourcing of its mobile network to MTN, which would have also purchased infrastructure from Telkom. And MTN would have access to spectrum from Telkom for the rollout of a 4G network.

The two operators would have maintained separate mobile retail businesses.

However, the deal fell foul of the Competition Commission, which has recommended that the Competition Tribunal block the deal. The Commission said the deal would lessen competition in the mobile services market.

As a result of the commission’s decision, MTN and Telkom “agreed not to proceed with the transaction in its current form”.

Ooredoo Maldives received an Internet service provider licence from the Communication Authority of the Maldives (CAM) earlier this month.

With the new licence, Ooredoo Maldives will be able to offer a new range of fixed line services, including business and home Internet, Ooredoo Fibre and Ooredoo Cloud. The company received the licence after a competitive bidding process, which saw Ooredoo come out ahead of national and international competition.

The licence was received at the same time as Ooredoo Maldives celebrates ten years of operating in the Maldives.

Ooredoo Maldives saw a 52 per cent increase in revenue for the first half of 2015, as well as a substantial increase in net profit.