The Tunisian government plans to put its 25 per cent stake in number-one operator Tunisiana up for auction, reports Reuters.

Finance ministry official Slim Besbess said in a press conference that offers can only come from financial companies and investment funds and must be submitted by November 2. Operators and operator shareholders are forbidden from participating in the auction.

The stake being auctioned was confiscated from the Princesse Holding conglomerate controlled by the son of ousted Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisiana won a US$135 million licence to launch 3G and fixed-line networks in the country in May.

The remaining 75 per cent stake in the operator is owned by Kuwaiti group Wataniya, which is majority owned by Qtel.

Tunisiana controls 53 per cent of the three-operator market. It has approximately seven million mobile connections, ahead of rivals Tunisie Telecom (4.5 million) and Orange (1.7 million).

Although Facebook’s US$1.18 billion in revenue for Q2 was slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations and up 32 per cent year-on-year, the company swung to a US$157 million net loss – and gave little guidance on future prospects. 

The number of Facebook’s so-called monthly active users (MAUs) hit 955 million at the end of the period, up 29 per cent year-on-year, while 543 million of these now access the service via mobile devices, a 67 per cent rise.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was “focused on investing in our priorities of mobile, platform and social ads.” On the subject of mobile, Zuckerberg appeared to shoot down long-running rumours about a Facebook smartphone. During a conference call he described "building out a whole phone" as something that "wouldn’t make much sense for us to do."

Revenue from ads was up 28 per cent to US$992 million, representing 84 per cent of total revenue, but mobile advertising has only recently been introduced and it is likely to only account for a tiny fraction of sales. Many analysts questioned why Facebook has to date been unable to monetise its sizable mobile presence.

Payments and “other fees” accounted for the remaining US$192 million.

The net loss was mainly due to charges related to Facebook’s ill-fated IPO in May. Shares were priced at US$38 at launch but sunk below US$25 on July 26 for the first time.

Ericsson has entered an agreement with Vodafone Egypt to continue to provide a quality network to subscribers through the transformation of Vodafone Egypt’s radio network.

Ericsson is set to deploy its latest RBS 6000 technology in the Vodafone Egypt network, which will allow the operator to meet the demands of its growing subscriber base and continue to provide them with quality mobile coverage throughout the country. The RBS 6000 is a site solution that supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE in a single package.

Alcatel-Lucent reported a net loss for its second quarter and announced that it is planning to reduce its headcount by 5,000 in an effort to further cut costs. The results make it the latest infrastructure vendor to suffer at the hands of the economic downturn, along with Ericsson and Huawei.

The company reported a net loss of €254 million (US$ 313 million) for the second quarter on the back of revenue of €3.55 billion. The loss was particularly severe when the previous quarter’s €398 million net profit is taken into account.

Revenue was down 7.1 per cent from €3.82 billion reported in Q211 but up 10.6 per cent from the previous quarter’s €3.21 billion.

Revenue for the wireless network business amounted to €877 million, up 11.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter but down 18.7 per cent year-on-year. The decline in wireless revenue over the past year was attributed to “moderate or delayed spending of service providers” on 2G and 3G technologies. However, the company’s LTE business more than tripled its revenue during the course of the year.

North America and Europe provided the bulk of the company’s total revenue during the period but have declined 8.3 per cent and 15.6 per cent respectively compared to a year ago. The only region to have increased revenue in the past 12 months is the rest of the world with Central and Latin America recording a seventh consecutive quarter of double digit growth. All geographies were up compared to the previous quarter.

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen said the second quarter performance confirms the company’s strong position in “many attractive market segments” such as IP, next-generation optics and broadband access, but also the effects of the global economic situation.

Verwaayen commented that Alcatel-Lucent had launched "The Performance Program" to achieve a further €750 million cost reduction to bring total savings to €1.25 billion by the end of 2013. The plan includes the reduction of 5,000 roles in the organisation and the exit or restructuring of unprofitable managed services contracts and markets.

The company is targeting a strong positive net cash position by the end of 2012.

Etisalat today announced a net profit after federal royalty of AED 1.9 billion (US$518 million) for the Q212 to June 30, up three per cent quarter-on-quarter, and 17 per cent a year-on-year. Group consolidated revenue for the period amounted to AED 8.25 billion, up four per cent year-on-year.

Consolidated EBITDA increased by 16 per cent to AED 4.3 billion over the same period last year, while EBITDA margin improved six points to 52 per cent.

Revenue from international operations grew by 14 per cent to AED 2.3 billion while their contribution to the top-line reached 28 per cent.

Etisalat Group aggregate subscriber numbers grew to 172 million by the end of June representing year-on-year growth of 22 per cent and quarter-on-quarter growth of two per cent. Subscriber growth was mainly driven by new products and services in the mature markets and by further market penetration in growth markets.

In the UAE, Etisalat’s active subscriber base grew to 8.9 million, up seven per cent year-on-year and two per cent quarter-on-quarter. Mobile subscribers grew to seven million, up nine per cent year-on-year.