South Africa based virtual operator, Virgin Mobile has announced that its mobile network partner, Cell C is selling its 50 per cent stake in the company, although it will continue to provide the underlying network services for Virgin Mobile South Africa, which was launched in 2006.

Calico Investments of the Bahamas is acquiring a 45 per cent stake of the company, while Virgin Group is buying the remaining five per cent to take its holding to 55 per cent. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Virgin Mobile has shown consistent high subscriber growth and has significantly increased its base of higher ARPU post pay subscribers in South Africa over the last two years,” commented Steve Bailey, CEO, Virgin Mobile. “It is time for us to capitalise on this growth and bring in an additional shareholder to invest in Virgin Mobile’s further expansion, which will enable us to deliver more exciting products and services to our valued customers.

Syria’s forthcoming auction of the country’s third mobile network licence is set to have a reserve price of €90 million (US$122 million), according to media reports in Syria, citing Mohammad Al-Jallali, deputy telecom minister. Etisalat, France Telecom, Qtel, Turkcell, and STC have all been pre-qualified for the auction.

The country is also expected to announce the establishment of an independent telecom regulator before the licence auction commences in April.

According to figures from the Mobile World, Syria is estimated to have had just over 9.1 million mobile subscribers at the end of March 2010, representing a penetration level of 44 per cent.

The two incumbent operators will have to buy out their current BOT agreements and convert to conventional licence agreements. The buyout price has been previously reported as being around US$500 million.

Vodafone announced that its fourth quarter revenues rose by three per cent to £11.9 billion (US$19.2 billion). Its full year profits are now expected to be "towards the upper end of the £11.8 billion to £12.2 billion range", the company said in a statement.

"This is the fifth successive quarter of service revenue growth improvement, with strong results from India, Turkey, the UK and Vodacom. In addition, Verizon Wireless continues to show strong momentum. Our performance has been driven by the effective execution of our strategy to strengthen our businesses and deliver growth, particularly in data services and emerging markets,” commented Vittorio Colao, Vodafone CEO.

Data revenue continues to drive the company’s growth strategy, with an increase of 27.2 per cent year-on-year in Q410 resulting from strong smartphone and mobile connectivity sales. On an annualised basis the group’s data revenue has grown to over £5 billion, exceeding messaging revenue for the first time ever.

Revenue from Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific increased by 17.6 per cent reflecting a nine percentage point benefit from foreign exchange rate movements. On an organic basis service revenue increased by 9.3 per cent with strong performances in both India and Vodacom in South Africa. The growth was driven by strong net customer additions in key markets and continued growth from data services.

Du has signed a five-year IT management contract with Ericsson. As part of the managed services agreement, Ericsson will augment Du’s IT applications and deliver development and maintenance for the UAE telco’s IT applications.

Under the terms of the contract, Ericsson will develop and maintain applications for approximately 35 platforms and technologies, including upgrading and consolidation of Du’s software applications domains, transformation of operations and enterprise support systems, and managed services.

Mobile satellite services company Thuraya Telecommunications Company announced the appointment of Samer Halawi as CEO. Halawi assumed the office on January 23, 2011 following the return of Yousuf Al Sayed to the Etisalat Group.

Samer Halawi, CEO of Thuraya

Halawi has held several leadership positions in major regional and international telecom firms. He was previously Inmarsat’s vice-president of Strategic Corporate Development, and had headed up Intigral, the joint venture between Saudi Telecom Company (STC), All Asia Networks (ASTRO), and Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), aimed at enhancing the digital experience of consumers irrespective of their access channels.

Al Sayed, who has been the Thuraya’s CEO since 1998, will now serve as board member of the company.