Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed retail group Mr Price (MRP) has become only the second company to commercially launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in South Africa, eight years after Virgin Mobile introduced its services over domestic cellco Cell C’s network in mid-June 2006. TechCentral reports that the MVNO, branded MRP Mobile, is using MVN-X’s mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) platform, and also leverages Cell C’s network.

At the end of May 2014 Steve Bailey, the former CEO of Virgin Mobile South Africa, launched his MVNE business – MVN-X – to help pave the way for the introduction of new MVNOs into the South African market; at that time the executive noted that he had a ‘large, well-known South African retailer’ lined up to launch operations, and it now transpires that Mr Price was the company in question.

Twitter reported a widened loss despite increasing revenue during the second quarter, with mobile continuing to play an increasingly prominent role.

The microblogging company reported revenue for the quarter ended June30 of US$312 million, up 124 per cent year-on-year and a healthy increase on the US$250.5 million reported for the first quarter.

However, it reported a net loss of US$145 million, up from US$42 million for the equivalent period in 2013, and from US$132 million for the prior quarter.

Mike Gupta, Twitter’s CFO, said the net loss during the period included US$158 million of stock-based compensation expenses.

Mobile monthly active users reached 211 million during the period, a 29 per cent year-on-year increase. Mobile users represented 78 per cent of total monthly active users, which totalled 271 million, up 24 per cent.

In addition, mobile accounted for 81 per cent of total advertising revenue, which reached US$277 million during the period, up 129 per cent.

During the period, Twitter launched a mobile app promotion, enabling developers to develop install-and-engagement via the platform. It also agreed to acquire TapCommerce, which provides mobile retargeting and re-engagement advertising.

Twitter’s outlook for the third quarter projects revenue of between US$330 million and US$340 million, with stock-based compensation expenses projected at between US$180 million and US$190 million, excluding potential equity awards in relation to future acquisitions.

The company raised its revenue forecast for the year as a whole to between US$1.31 billion and US$1.33 billion, from US$1.2 billion to US$1.25 billion predicted in its first quarter results.

Bharti Airtel reported solid figures for the quarter to June 30, although strength in its home market of India contrasted with a poorer performance for its African operations.

The company reported a profit attributable to shareholders of INR11.09 billion (US$184.42 million), up 60.9 per cent year-on-year, on revenue of INR229.62 billion, up 13.3 per cent.

Mobile data revenue was INR22 billion (accounting for 9.6 per cent of total revenue), up 73.9 per cent year-on-year, with growth across its geographies.

The company counted 287.15 million mobile subscribers at the end of the period, up 1.3 per cent during the quarter. The lion’s share of these came from India (205.52 million), which saw an increase of 1.9 per cent in the three months.

For its Indian mobile services, Airtel saw an EBIT of INR29.5 billion, up 40.6 per cent, on revenue of INR127.53 billion, up 9.9 per cent.

For its African operation, while Airtel reported an EBIT for INR2.8 billion for the unit, down 23.7 per cent, it also said that the unit saw a net loss of INR8.2billion, widening from an INR2.99 billion loss in the prior-year period.

Revenue for the African operation increased 17.5 per cent to INR69.69 billion.

The company noted a number of positive trends impacting Africa, including a return to growth for the telecom industry, “spearheaded by mobile Internet and money”.

It also said that much of the increased loss was attributable to foreign exchange issues.

Christian de Faria, MD and CEO, Africa, said: “With Niger and Chad having obtained licences, we will now have 3G presence in all 17 countries. Our investments in licences, networks and marketing are directed towards sustaining double-digit revenue growth”.

Huawei shipped 64.21 million devices in the first half of 2014, including 34.27 million smartphones, as it launched premium products such as the Mate 2 4G and Ascend P7.

In a statement, the Chinese vendor said that the “steady and sustainable” growth of its consumer unit “further demonstrates the success of its strategy to develop premium quality products while building brand awareness through global marketing initiatives”.

According to reports earlier this week, Richard Yu, head of the Consumer Business Group at Huawei, said the unit had already achieved more than half of its 2014 profit target, although no figure was put on this.

In the two months that followed its global launch, nearly two million P7 units were sold in 70 markets across Europe, APAC, MEA and Latin America. While the company has not released sales details for Mate 2 4G, it said that this has “achieved popularity in markets such as China, Europe, Southeast Asia and North America”.

The company was also keen to point out the international aspect to its growth. In the second quarter, it shipped a total of 20.56 million smartphones to markets in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, a year-on-year increase of 85 per cent.

Orange said Q2 and H1 2014 numbers were good enough to keep its full-year target of margin stabilisation, but it was nonetheless another rocky three months for the operator as fierce competition and regulation continued to chip away at sales and profit.

Group revenue for the three months ended June 30 slid 3.4 per cent, to €9.78 billion (US$13.14 billion), compared with Q213. H1 sales were down 3.6 per cent, to €19.6 billion.

Reflecting the top-line pressures, H1 net income was down €318 million, to €891 million.

More encouragingly, H1 operating costs were cut by €511 million, off-setting 70 per cent of the revenue downturn over the six-month period.

Orange had originally planned to cut indirect costs by €250 million for the year, but as €213 million of savings have been already notched up in this area during H1, the full-year target was upped to €300 million. Indirect costs primarily relate to labour, advertising and property expenses.

Taking into account H1 figures, Orange confirmed the group target of achieving a restated EBITDA of between €12 billion and €12.5 billion for the full year.

Restated EBITDA for the first six months was €6.14 billion, translating into a margin of 31.3 per cent (unchanged from H113). Orange expects that margin to remain stable for the year.

The enterprise segment saw H1 sales fall by 2.7 per cent, to €3.14 billion. Primarily due to improved sales from IT and integration services, however, it was a much better performance than the 5.3 per cent decline suffered in full-year 2013.

Capex for the first six months, at €2.5 billion, was 3.1 per cent up on H113. This was due to increased investment in 4G and fibre access networks.