Telkom South Africa Denies Talks Over $3 Billion Bid from Mystery Investor:

South Africa's dominant landline network, Telkom SA has refuted media reports that it has been approached over a potential $3 billion investment in its mobile subsidiary.

Earlier in the week, BusinessTech reported that an unnamed company based in Asia had approached Telkom over an option to either buy the tower assets, or take a stake in the company.

The unrealistic number of $3 billion was being talked about, for what is the country's smallest mobile network. The sum would in fact be double the entire company's market capitalisation.

The report claimed that the unnamed company aimed to buy up to 1,600 Telkom towers and then build an additional 8,400 towers.

In a statement, the company said that it has "not received any proposal from a South East Asian company for the sale of its mobile towers business or an investment of $3 billion."

It did confirm that a previously announced review of the mobile network is ongoing, and that it is talks with "various parties to consider best options for the business".

Mobily Extends Takeover Talks for Local Landline Operator by Two Months

Saudi Arabia's Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) is taking longer to complete a previously announced deal to buy the local landline operator, Etihad Atheeb.

The company announced back in August that it was to buy a majority stake in the landline network, and had set a deadline of the end of this month to secure the regulatory approvals and complete due diligence on the firm.

It has now extended the talks until the end of next January, and the talks are no longer exclusive, allowing a rival bidder to emerge. Bahrain's Batelco owns a 15% stake in the company, but has shied away from buying the entire company in the past.

Etihad Atheeb had itself previously expressed an interest in buying a stake in a mobile network operator, but has posted years of losses and was now seen as a likely target for a buyout by one of the country's mobile networks instead.

Etihad Atheeb Telecom is a joint venture of Atheeb Trading Company, Al-Nahla Trading Company, Bahrain's Batelco and Traco Company. Just under half its shares are listed on the stock exchange, where its shares have been suspended several times over the years due to its ongoing losses.

Glo Mobile Given Two Weeks to Clamp Down on SIM Box Fraud:

Ghana based mobile network, Glo Mobile has been given two weeks to clamp down on the use of illegal SIM boxes on its network for international calls.

The regulator issued the warning after finding that the use of SIM Boxes to bypass the international termination rates payable to the landline network had surged on the Glo network.

Statistics from the NCA indicate that there has been a increase in fraudulent SIMs from around 2,500 in January, 2013, to nearly 30,000 in August, 2013.

"Our team of investigators uncovered that out of the number of SIM bypass activities exposed, Glo Mobile's share of the fraud accounted for more than 80 per cent since May, 2012," the regulator said.

However, the mobile network says it is as much a victim of the fraud as the landline network, as it has to pay termination fees to other networks for calls which appear to have originated on its network.

Commentators noted that as Glo is the smallest network, with around 6 percent market share, that its high level of SIM box fraud indicated some sort of failure within its own monitoring systems.