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

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

Motorola's NC800 Cellular Gateway will be introduced into Latin America through a distribution agreement with Brightstar, a distribution and supply chain solution provider serving the wireless industry...

Nokia has won a radio network contract from Warid Telecom for the company's green-field operations in Bangladesh...

Developing Telecoms recently published Francis Nyepon's account of the fate suffered by one of his country's key assets - the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation. Comments were welcomed by website and author alike. Telecoms consultant Denise Altey, who has worked in many developing countries, including Turkey and China , is a welcome contributor to the debate...

Lucent has been selected by Telemar to supply and deploy solutions for the operator's network evolution...

The man believed to be the third richest in the world, Carlos Slim Helu, is to buy three Latin American telecoms operations from US carrier Verizon Communications...

UNI Telecom Global Union, in conjunction with UNI-Africa and the AFL-CIO Solidarity centre, has launched a UNI Mobile Telephone Networks Union Alliance with membership from communications unions in 10 African countries where the South African cellular network operates...

Dr Bashir Gwandu has asked Nigeria 's telecoms operators to take the initiative in introducing the latest technology into their operations...

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is inviting tenders to supply enough mobile equipment to roll out 63.5 million lines.

Bangladesh has experience remarkable growth in telephony in the last four years. Prime mover has been the mobile sector.

Developing Telecoms receives many emails of support and obtains much of its information from experts working in telecoms world-wide. Here an official from Ethiopia updates us on the very latest situation there...

Landlines in Ethiopia are set for expansion as the result of investment by The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation which has announced the commencement of year-long contracts in the country.

Jordan stands on the cusp of a milestone year for its already successful broadband sector...

The Middle East and Africa 's largest fixed line operator is set to replace 12 of its billing systems with replacements from Convergys Corporation...

The Financial Post, one of Kenya 's leading business weekly newspapers with 50,000 readers, has taken serious steps towards data protection with the implementation of American Power Conversion Back-UPS uninterruptible power supplies...

Despite the liberalisation of the Internet market in Yemen , the Arab Advisors Group believes that this market has high entry barriers...

Vicente Fox, Mexico 's head of state, is under pressure from the country's competition chief to create a challenge to the private monopoly of Telmex. Eduardo Pérez Motta, head of the Federal Competition Commission (CFC) has identified a slowing-down on the path to full competition, which could have implications affecting the ultimate implementation of a level playing-field.

The Bolivian Power Company (COBEE, or Compañía Boliviana de Energía Eléctrica) has integrated its SCADA, PLC, data information and telephony transport services by deploying Optimux-XLE1 optical multi-plexers manufactured by RAD Data Communications...

KazakhTelecom, Kazakhstan 's national carrier, along with Lucent and Winncom Technologies, will be deploying a new, Internet protocol (IP)-based next-generation network for KazakhTelecom in Astana, the nation's new capital. It will support advanced voice and data services for business and residential subscribers...

Nokia is now the first equipment vendor to manufacture both mobile devices and network infrastructure equipment in India . It has also achieved the milestone of manufacturing over one million handsets in India , the market set to become the second biggest mobile device market in the world in terms of volumes by 2010...

 Liberian policy analyst Francis Nyepon describes the recent fate of The Liberia Telecommunications Corporation in a blistering article first published in The Liberian Times - and deserving a far wider readership. In the article, which is published in full and with Francis Nyepon's permission, the author expresses his trenchant views which may resonate with industry experts elsewhere. Both he and Developing Telecoms welcome any comment or discussion - for publication or privately. Anonymity will be guaranteed if requested.

Morocco 's national ICT strategy must aim at reducing the digital divide and propelling the Kingdom into the ranks of the leading members of the digital society.

Nokia has won a managed services contract from "du" (a new participant in the growing United Arab Emirates (UAE) market) whereby it is to supply the entire core and a large proportion of the radio network for GSM/GPRS/EDGE and WCDMA 3G...

Subex Systems Ltd, the Bangalore-based telecom software company, is in discussion with several telcos for a beta site for its Ontrack end-to-end subscriber risk management solution...

Turkish satellite operator Turksat has ordered its sixth communications satellite from France' s Alcatel...

Nigeria will become Africa 's largest telecommunications market, with penetration topping 41%, in four years time.

Nokia has now opened the extension to its Reynosa , Tamaulipas plant in Mexico , which is intended to boost its mobile-device production...

Algeria' s rising demand for telephony has created a new opportunity for the country's major mobile operator. Orascom Telecom has teamed up with its fellow Egyptian company Telecom Egypt to set up Consortium Algerien de Telecommunication and run Algeria' s second fixed-line system.

Declaring that it is ready for competition with Etisalat, Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (EITC, UAE's second telecommunications operator) has announced that it will launch mobile phone services in the second half of this year, and will aim for 30% market share within three years...

CoreMedia, a provider of interoperable digital rights management, has announced that Vivo, the largest mobile operator in the Southern Hemisphere, has selected CoreMedia DRM for its comprehensive digital content services. Also ordered are the MMBox/DiNO Platforms from Portugal Telecom Inovação...