Review, Regulation, Competition, NGN, Global: ITU has published guidelines for regulators in an attempt to foster investment and access. The medium is Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN, which has just been issued in its eighth edition.

The 2007 Guide to Romanian Telecommunications is the most comprehensive survey ever produced of the Romanian telecommunications Industry. It offers a strategic overview of the developments and trends in all areas of the telecommunications market in Romania, following the country’s accession to the European Union...

Internet, Broadband, Qatar, MENA: Qatar's broadband boom is continuing apace. Broadband accounts grew by 90% in 2006 and now make up two thirds of all Qatari accounts. In recent months authorisation has been given for the liberalisation of Qatar’s markets. Advisors Group is weighing up the opportunities...

Books, WiMAX, 4G, Global: Network operators face some heavy lifting when considering WiMAX deployments. Xchange is offering some help with Shouldering the Weight of WiMAX, a downloadable publication. It outlines weighty issues like variable tower costs, the network’s ability to support rich media, anticipated CPE pricing, and promising possibilities for FMC.

Convergence, Bandwidth, WSIS, Global: The occasion of the Internet Governance Forum gave the Association for Progressive Communications the opportunity to launch three new papers on key ICT policy and internet rights issues. The papers are available in French and English.

Publications, Fibre-optics, CLA: Published by The Fiber Optic Association (FOA), The Fiber Optic Technicians Manual has now been translated into Spanish.

Markets, Morocco, MENA: GSM penetration in Morocco topped the 40% mark last year - and yet some 80% of GSM users are still using payphone services for national calls.

Telephony, Internet, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, MENA: Arab telecom operators served 85 million cellular subscribers and 30 million fixed telephony lines in 2005. The Middle East and North Africa is a rapidly expanding market, as detailed in a new report.

GSM, Morocco, MENA: The Arab Advisors Group is now completing its multi-client major survey of individual GSM users in Morocco.

Markets, Wireless, Broadband, Algeria, MENA: WiMAX is now commercially available in Algeria, while several operators in many Arab countries have started testing the service.

Report, SMS, Global: Ubiquitous availability, immediacy and ease of use feature high up in the list of reasons why Short Messaging Services (SMS) are so important for businesses to get right. The findings come from a report by global mobile message carrier Clickatell, and by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.