The Maroc Telecom Group – a Vivendi subsidiary – reported a 3.4 per cent decline in its full-year revenues of €2.74 billion (US$3.68 billion), in the face of a 25 per cent mobile price cut in Morocco and a particularly unfavourable regulatory environment.

The revenue decline came despite a 12.2 per cent rise in its customer base, reaching 28.982 million, primarily driven by the company’s activities outside of Morocco, where the customer base grew by 39.2 per cent year-on-year.

In Morocco, revenues decreased by 5.2 per cent. Mobile revenues from outgoing services were nearly stable at constant currency thanks to a strong increase in usage of 27 per cent and the steady growth in the post paid customer base (up 25 per cent). The increase in bandwidth and the enhanced offerings lead to a 19 per cent increase in the broadband Internet customer base.

Revenues outside of Morocco increased by 7.4 per cent, driven by the sharp increase in the mobile customer base (up 41 per cent), notably in Mali where revenues rose by 33.7 per cent. Maroc Telecom Group’s EBITDA dropped by 10 per cent to €1.5 billion, although its EBITDA margin remained high, at approximately 55 per cent.

Aside from offering fixed and mobile services in Morocco, Maroc Telecom Group also holds stakes in Mauritel in Mauritania, via the CMC holding company; Onatel in Burkina Faso; Gabon Telecom in Gabon; and Sotelma in Mali.

The Qtel Group today completed a comprehensive frame agreement with ZTE that will see the two companies become strategic partners.

The agreement will make available new network solutions from ZTE, including the latest innovations in WCDMA and LTE technology, across Qtel Group operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

Through the partnership, Qtel Group and ZTE are agreeing long-term, sustainable pricing models that will offer significant benefits for customers across the Group’s companies, which include Indosat, Asiacell, Wataniya, Kuwait, Nawras, Tunisiana, Nedjma and Qtel.

The agreement was signed on the third day of GSMA Mobile World Congress.

Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to build and operate its forthcoming LTE network in Maharashtra, one of the country’s largest telecom circles.

The cellco in India will deploy its LTE network in the 2.3GHZ frequency band allocated by the Indian government for broadband wireless access technologies.

NSN will provide network design, integration, commissioning and optimisation services to the operator for rapid roll-out of the network and a full set of services including hardware, software and competence development services. It will use its Global Network Solutions Centre at Noida in India, which is already supporting TD-LTE networks globally, to remotely deliver services.

Ericsson and MTN Group announced the establishment of a strategic partnership to launch m-wallet services in Africa and the Middle East.  MTN will become the first operator to deploy Ericsson Converged Wallet platform, a new complementary service to the integrated prepaid charging system and mobile financial services solution for MTN consumers in those regions. 

The partnership between Ericsson and MTN supports the operator’s strategy to secure a flexible, reliable and efficient solution in the area of mobile financial services. As part of the co-operation, Ericsson will offer a prime integrator engagement model encompassing software, systems integration and managed operation services.

MTN has more than five million Mobile Money subscribers in 12 countries.

Ericsson Converged Wallet solution is built for high volume and secured transactions. It also delivers operational efficiencies by providing a single configuration tool and rating engine for all packages, prices, promotions, policies and notifications.

MTN will initially deploy the Ericsson Converged Wallet as a pilot in selected MTN operations during 2012, with a view to roll out the solution across all its operations in Africa and the Middle East.

The Angolan mobile network operator, Movicel has signed a contract with Huawei for the supply of a LTE network. Under the contract, Movicel will deploy a LTE FDD 1.8GHz network in the province Cabinda, the most productive crude oil region in Angola.

Movicel adopted an end-to-end SingleRAN convergent solution, including radio access network, core network, distributed base stations, and terminal devices.

The network is set to be commercialised by June.