Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) today announced the appointment of Salvatore Maisano as head of Central East and West Africa (CEWA). In his new role, Maisano is responsible for overall sales and operations of NSN across the CEWA region. Previously, he was head of sales for MEA at NSN. Maisano has held a number of senior management positions in the ICT industry, including head of China and Far East at OTE/Marconi (now Selex).

Maisano joined Nokia in February 1999 from OTE/Marconi, where he was heading China and the Far East region, based out of Beijing.

He started his career in R&D and has developed a truly international career, leading global accounts, sales and operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as Asia Pacific, China and India.

Born in Italy, Maisano holds an MSc in Applied Mathematics from the University of Florence, Italy.

Bob Collymore, Safaricom CEO, said the operator had already given up interest in smaller rival Yu by the time the regulator issued tough conditions on any takeover deal.

“I said last week and still maintain that Safaricom is no longer interested in this deal,” Collymore told Business Daily. “The decision we must make is whether to come back to it or not.”

A main sticking point is the M-Pesa money service. Safaricom is unhappy that it would need to open up its M-Pesa agency network – as a condition of a Yu deal – to rivals Airtel, Telkom Kenya Orange and MVNOs.

In February, both Safaricom and Airtel expressed an interest in Yu, owned by Essar Telecom.

Safaricom had an eye on buying Essar Telecom’s passive infrastructure (located on 453 sites), while Airtel was keen on Yu’s GSM licences and subscribers

However, the industry regulator attached strict conditions, including the payment of Essar Telecom’s outstanding licence fees.

Batelco Group has named a new CEO, Alan Whelan, nearly a year after the company parted ways with its previous CEO.

The company has been looking for a new CEO since it issued a statement last May stating that it had "separated" from its CEO, Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa with immediate effect.

Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa was appointed to the role in late 2011, replacing Peter Kaliaropoulos, who became CEO Strategic Assignments responsible for Batelco’s joint ventures.

Whelan’s business career has seen him lead a number of large scale international businesses in the ICT sector. He began his career with Fujitsu/ICL before moving to BT where he held a number of roles including business manager and global joint venture leader, in which he was instrumental in setting up Concert, a joint venture with AT&T Corporation.

He subsequently spent four years with AT&T, first as vice president of its Concert operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and then as vice president of Global Service Provider Markets.

He also held key roles with Cable & Wireless, including managing director of C&W Wholesale & Enterprise businesses, and non-executive chairman of CTM – a full-service telecommunications provider in the Macau special administrative region of China. He has also served as president, Europe, Middle East and Africa in the Indian-owned Reliance Globalcom business.

Telecom Egypt will be asked to pay EGP2.5 billion (US$359 million) for the unified licence that will permit it to offer mobile services, the country’s telecom minister Atef Helmy has announced.

Telecom Egypt’s licence will last just two years, as an MVNO. After that, it will be able to bid for a full mobile licence when the government plans to auction 4G spectrum to all telcos.

Telecom Egypt will also have to negotiate a sale, or some sort of resolution, as to what to do with its 45 per cent stake in Vodafone Egypt.

The telecom minister also added that the country’s three mobile networks will also be asked to pay EGP100 million each if they want the limited licence to resell landline services over the Telecom Egypt network.

There are concerns that the landline reseller licence is too restricted though. The main issue is that the landline access will be limited to just the older landline network, which cannot carry reliable broadband Internet services. Access to the fibre network is not included.

The issue of an international gateway was resolved though, with Vodafone and Mobinil being asked to pay EGP1.3 billion and EGP1.5 billion each respectively. The newest mobile network, Etisalat Misr already has an international gateway licence, but will be asked to pay EGP8 per subscriber instead.

MTN Nigeria has transferred 232 employees to Ericsson and Huawei as part of a network maintenance outsourcing agreement.

However the fate of 20 employees that MTN no longer needs, but were reportedly turned down for employment transfer by the managed services providers is still in limbo.

MTN signed the managed services agreements with Ericsson and Huawei last October as part of a cost cutting exercise relating to its 10,000 towers across the country.

The transferred employees have been guaranteed the same wage and conditions by the new employers for a year, while severance packages are available if the remaining 20 staff members are made redundant.