Rumours that Egypt’s Naguib Sawiris is in talks with Russia’s VimpelCom have resurrected again after sources told Bloomberg News that the two companies are now looking at a merger of their assets. The combined company would be valued at more than US$25 billion, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

According to the report, Sawiris would become a significant minority investor in the new enlarged company, which would include his Weather Investments’ 51 per cent stake in Orascom Telecom Holding and Italian mobile operator Wind Telecommunications.

There had been reports earlier this month that VimpelCom was in talks with Naguib Sawiris to buy Italy’s Wind Telecommunications and a 51 per cent stake in Orascom Telecom on a deal that would be worth around US$6.5 billion. That deal was denied in a statement to the stock exchange which was carefully worded to leave open other options.

The transaction would create an entity with a combined total mobile subscriber base of more than 200 million customers.

VimpelCom was formed from the merger of assets owned by Russia’s Alfa Group and Norway’s Telenor. VimpelCom is 39.6 per cent owned by Telenor while Alfa’s Altimo unit controls 39.2 per cent and minority shareholders own 21.2 per cent.

MTN Group today reported financial results for the six months ended June 30, revealing an 11.4 per cent increase in aggregate users, to 129.2 million subscribers. Group revenue, however, decreased by 2.2 per cent to ZAR56.0 billion (US$7.7 billion) year-on-year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 1.1 per cent to ZAR24.2 billion compared to the same period a year earlier. The operator said first-half profit increased 6.2 per cent to ZAR8.1 billion.

MTN announced it would pay an interim dividend for the first time as it signalled a change from its strategy of recent years to expand through major acquisitions, after posting higher first half net profit.

MTN, which in the past 12 months has had to walk away from talks with Bharti Airtel and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, will pay a maiden interim dividend of 151 cents a share and increase its total annual dividend payout to 40 per cent of adjusted earnings per share.

MTN’s South and East Africa unit was the only operation to report an increase in revenue for the period: ZAR20.56 billion up from ZAR19.4 billion a year ago, an increase of six per cent. By contrast, MTN’s West and Central Africa operation saw revenues decline from ZAR26.76 billion to ZAR24.72 billion year-on-year – a decrease of 7.6 per cent.

The Middle East and North Africa region witnessed a revenue decrease from ZAR11.06 billion to ZAR10.66 billion for the same period, representing a slide of 3.6 per cent. The West and Central Africa operation counted the largest subscriber share for the period, with 59.36 million customers. In the Middle East and North Africa MTN reported 41.19 million subscribers, whilst the group’s South and East African operation counted 28.66 million users.

“The MTN Group delivered a sound operational performance for the six months ended June 30. This was the result of a solid performance in all aspects of the business, aided by high quality networks, robust and competitive distribution channels, attractive segmented product offerings and an increased focus on value added services,” commented group president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko.

For the first five months of 2010 to end-May, the UAE recorded a net decline in mobile subscriptions by 64,091, according to the latest figures from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). This represents the first time since mobile telephony was introduced in the UAE in 1994 that mobile subscriptions have fallen month-on-month.

The area in which the decline was experienced the most was with respect to prepaid subscriptions, where 114,475 users were lost between January and May, with the number of active prepaid subscriptions standing at 9.6 million at the end of May, down from 9.72 million at the end of January 2010.

The number of post-paid subscriptions rose by 50,384 accounts during the period, crossing the one million mark for the first time in May. At the end of May the number of post-paid subscriptions in the UAE stood at 1.02 million, up from 969,005 at the end of January.

The 0.6 per cent fall in overall mobile subscriptions between January and May 2010 can be partly attributed to the reduction in the number of residents living in the UAE, given that the global economic crisis led to large numbers of residents, primarily labourers, being repatriated to their home markets during the course of 2009 and 2010. Labourers overwhelmingly utilise prepaid subscriptions.

In a recent article compiled by Comm., the impact of the lower number of residents in the country was also highlighted with respect to the commercial difficulties a number of mobile retailers have faced over the past 12 months.

The largest declines in overall active mobile subscriptions were witnessed in the months of March and April, where numbers fell by 22,143 and 101,899 respectively before rebounding in May by 58,121 subscriptions. At the end of May, the TRA counted 10.62 million active mobile subscriptions in the UAE, representing a mobile penetration rate of 198.5 per cent. These figures were down from a peak mobile penetration rate of 206.7 per cent reported at the end of November 2009, reflecting an active subscriber base of 10.74 million.

Despite the fall in active subscriptions in the first five months of this year, the country’s two telecom providers continue to report robust operational results. Du recorded 182,100 net active mobile subscribers added during the quarter to end-June, taking the total subscription base to 3.92 million. Etisalat on the other hand reported 7.8 million active subscribers at the end of June, up from 7.71 million at the end of March, representing half the number added by Du during the corresponding period.

It took Ericsson 20 years to install one million radio base stations as announced in 2007, but has only taken a further three years to deliver the next million. The two millionth radio base station was an Ericsson RBS 6000 unit, delivered in August as part of a mobile broadband network expansion project.

Ericsson’s RBS 6000 is a multi-standard, energy-efficient base station that supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE in a single package

“Ericsson’s milestone delivery is proof of the explosive growth of mobile broadband,” commented Ericsson’s vice president and head of radio networks Ulf Ewaldsson. “The exponential growth in consumer adoption, data speeds and technology advancements continues to transform the way people communicate. As the world leader in mobile communications, Ericsson is proud of its role in advancing the industry.”

A main driver of the acceleration of deliveries is Ericsson’s RBS 6000, a multi-standard, energy-efficient base station that supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE in a single package.

Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has said that owners of unregistered SIM cards will have until September 26, 2010 to register and complete their personal details, after which the unregistered mobile lines will be suspended.

The TRA originally instructed the operators to start registering prepay users in July 2008.

“We have taken this step to support the public safety and discourage illegitimate use of the mobile telecommunications networks,” commented TRA chairman and acting general director, Mohammed Al Amer.

“It is very important for the users of mobile services to understand the objectives of this step and to take necessary actions to register their details, if they wish to continue using their existing prepaid mobile phone number,” he added.