Huawei announced it has been selected by Telkom South Africa to deploy the company’s next-generation ultra-broadband network access.

Telkom, Africa’s largest integrated communications company, offers integrated communications solutions to both homes and enterprises in South Africa. To maintain its competitive advantage and further grow its market share, Telkom will migrate its fixed network to a fibre-based ultra-broadband network, thereby increasing its access bandwidth, and helping to address voice and data service challenges. Deployment of the countrywide network will involve four million users.

By employing Huawei’s SingleFAN solution, the network will achieve a downlink rate of up to 100 Mbps per user, providing enhanced products and services including voice, data, and IPTV.

Last month Comm. Reported how ZTE South Africa CEO Cris Fuentes said the company was terminating its relationship with local firm ZTE Mzanzi, in which it owns 40 per cent. ZTE Mzanzi successfully asked a court to stop Telkom from rolling out a ZAR 13 billion (US$1.59 billion) network upgrade that had been awarded to Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent.

ZTE Mzanzi believed Telkom’s bidding process was not fair and that its tender was never properly considered, despite complying with all of Telkom’s requirements, including those on empowerment and technical capability.

STC Group’s incoming CEO, Khaled bin Abdulaziz Al Ghuniem, is now just a few days off assuming his role officially on June 18.

Al Ghuniem is considered one of the most experienced corporate managers in Saudi, where he has held various senior positions. Prior to being appointed to lead STC Group, he was the chief executive officer of Al-Elm Information Security Company.

Al Ghuniem has also been engaged as a full time consultant for the Defense and Aviation ministry, as well as an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences at King Saud University. He is a member of the board of directors of various Saudi companies and associations.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from King Saud University, and both a Masters and PHD degree in Electric and Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in the US.

Afghanistan based mobile network, Roshan today announced it has surpassed six million active subscribers less than one year after the company became the country’s first operator to cross the five million mark.

The company said that it has also experienced significant growth in non-voice services and, in particular, in providing data products to its customers.

Since inception in 2003, Roshan has invested more than US$550 million in network infrastructure and now reaches 60 per cent of the population in Afghanistan.

The chief executive of Wataniya, Kuwait’s No. 2 telecoms operator, has resigned, parent company Qatar Telecom (Qtel) said.

Qtel announced that Scott Gegenheimer left to "pursue other opportunities" and his deputy Abdulaziz Fakhroo has been promoted to acting chief executive.

Gegenheimer joined Wataniya in 2002 and became CEO in 2008.

Fakhroo was appointed deputy chief executive earlier this year.

Qtel owns a 52.5 per cent stake in Wataniya, which in turn has operations in Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives.

The operator reported a 90-per cent drop in first-quarter net profit for Q112, with earnings from the prior-year period boosted by a one-off fair value gain.

Nokia’s share price saw its biggest rise since January 5 on June 8 amid renewed speculation that the company could be subject to a takeover bid, reports Bloomberg. The handset manufacturer’s stock price rose by six per cent to close at €2.36 (US$2.96) in Helsinki last week, with Exane BNP Paribas saying in a note that Microsoft could be a potential acquirer.

Swedbank Markets analyst Haakan Wranne told Bloomberg that with Nokia’s stock trading at just over €2.00, “it’s obvious that there is more value than that in the assets” – making it understandable that takeover rumours make its stock jump. However, Canaccord Genuity analyst Bo Nordberg said Nokia is not a “particularly compelling” proposition and that the analyst community is “quite sceptical” about the company’s outlook.

Prior to last week’s increase, Nokia’s share price had declined by 41 per cent since the beginning of the year, while Samsung overtook the company in the first quarter of the year to become the world’s largest handset maker.

Nokia has been struggling to compete in the smartphone arena but is pinning its hopes on the tie-up with Microsoft to use Windows Phone, announced in February 2011. The first Windows Phone Lumia devices were announced in October, with several new models having arrived since.

Nokia reported a €929 million loss for Q1 on total sales of €7.4 billion, down 29 per cent on the same period a year earlier. In response to the results, CEO Stephen Elop said the company has a “clear sense of urgency to move our strategy forward even faster” with cost savings in the Devices & Services division a priority.