Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will become executive vice president of Microsoft Devices Group on completion of the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices & Services business, Satya Nadella, the recently-installed CEO of Microsoft, confirmed.

Elop became Nokia’s executive VP of Devices & Services following the announcement in September last year that Microsoft had agreed to acquire that part of the Finnish firm’s operations for €5.4 billion (US$7.4 billion). The deal is expected to close by the end of April.

Nadella and Elop have already been working on the initial stages of integration planning for when the Nokia unit becomes part of Microsoft. The pair also worked together during Elop’s stint as Nokia CEO and when the Canadian headed Microsoft’s business division prior to that.

When Nadella’s appointment as CEO was announced in February, he told the company’s employees that their job “is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world”.

Kuwait’s politicians have approved a law that will see the creation of the country’s first independent telecom regulator.

At the moment, regulatory issues are handled by the Ministry of Communications, but as the government also owns the monopoly landline network, there have been concerns that this arrangement caused a conflict of interest at times.

The bill approving the creation of the regulator is only the first stages as the actual regulatory powers being devolved from the Ministry are still not laid out.

Once the regulator has been formed there is a general expectation that the landline network will finally be privatised, and competition introduced into the market.

The lack of competition is one of the key factors considered to have held back broadband Internet services in the country. While the three private mobile networks have deployed their services, the landline operator has lagged, and is still largely dependent on older copper based networks.

The politicians having approved the regulator’s creation, the law still needs approval by the Emir, although that is expected to be a mere formality.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) finally approved a bid by Safaricom and Airtel to acquire the assets and subscribers of Yu, the country’s third-largest mobile operator, which is owned by Essar Telecom.

The approval comes a month after Yu’s two bigger rivals submitted their application to CAK.

Safaricom expressed an interest in buying Essar Telecom’s passive infrastructure (located on 453 sites), while Airtel had its eye on Yu’s GSM licences and subscribers.

However, the industry regulator attached strict conditions on all three companies before the deal can go ahead.

According to allAfrica.com, conditions include the payment of Essar Telecom’s outstanding licence fees. That means both Safaricom and Airtel will each have to pay US$5.4 million.

Yu’s SIM cardholders must also be able to retain their numbers and related contracts during the transition period.

CAK has provided a six-month transition period to allow for the “seamless transfer”.

According to estimates from GSMA Intelligence, Yu had 2.8 million connections at the end of 2013, well behind market-leader Safaricom (20.1 million). Airtel had 5.7 million connections, while Orange (Telkom Kenya), in fourth place, counted 2.3 million.

Telecom Egypt expects that it will sign up around five million customers to its MVNO service within a year of its launch representing about 15 per cent of its existing landline customer base.

The company is expected to be granted a mobile licence to act as an MVNO by the end of June.

As a 45 per cent owner of Vodafone Egypt, Telecom Egypt is widely expected to use the Vodafone network for the wholesale access.

"We have around seven million households subscribing to our landline services, with an average of five people in every house," Telecom Egypt’s general manger for investor relations and internal reporting Mohamed Kamal told local media.

Millicom International Cellular has announced the creation of a tech incubator in Rwanda to develop new digital solutions. The company said the objective is to develop new businesses in which it will take an equity stake.

The incubator, called "Think", will be located in a purpose-built facility in Kigali. It will be the base from which a small number of potential entrepreneurs will be selected by a competitive selection process, application details for which will be announced by the local Tigo operation shortly.

Millicom will provide these entrepreneurs with seed financing, structured training and coaching programmes, access to Tigo technical resources for product testing and trials and support in accessing outside investors and customers.

Last year, Tigo passed the two million subscriber mark having grown by over 25 per cent in 2013 and achieving a 31 per cent market share.