Eurobites: Vodafone and UAE's E& get cozy

Pan-African operator MTN saw first-quarter group service revenue rise 15.6% year-over-year, to 52.83 billion South African rand (US2.78 billion), despite the challenges presented by reduced economic activity in South Africa and the massive increase in "load shedding," or planned power outages. Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) was also up, by 8.6%, to ZAR24.20 billion ($1.27 billion). MTN maintains its medium-term guidance.

Kenya-based Safaricom increased its full-year group service revenue by 5.2%, to 295.7 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.16 billion), though group net income declined by 10.6% as a result of startup costs associated with its rollout of operations in Ethiopia. Significantly, Safaricom Ethiopia has today been granted the license to operate M-Pesa mobile money services.

Still in Kenya, two Internet service providers, ThinkWiFi and Mawingu, have joined forces to launch what they say is the country's first Telecom Infra Project (TIP) OpenWiFi network in the country. Managed from ThinkWiFi's headquarters in South Africa, the Wi-Fi network uses TIP OpenWiFi certified hardware and software including access points from Edgecore and CIG. Wavespot provides the cloud controller which also implements the backend analytics and location-based services. The service is being funded by advertising.

BT is drawing on technology from Fortinet to launch a managed networking and cybersecurity service for businesses and public sector organizations that have multiple sites. The new service, says BT, will enable customers to bring together SD-WAN, SD-Branch and security wondrousness into one place, all overseen by BT's boffins.

Swisscom has reached a new collective agreement with labor unions and employees, introducing a higher minimum wage, more flexible working time models as well as additional maternity, paternity and adoption leave, among other benefits. Employees aged 60 and over will be eligible for a partial retirement model of working, whereby their employment level can be reduced.

Apple's antics in the apps market have once again come under Euro-scrutiny – this time from Italy's antitrust watchdog, AGCM. As Reuters reports, the agency believes Apple penalizes third-party app developers by imposing a privacy policy on them that is stricter than the one it applies to itself. Specifically, the watchdog said users of third-party apps are subject to more visible prompts to block the tracking of their personal data.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading