Equipment giant Nokia Siemens Networks is set to establish an LTE manufacturing facility in Russia...

A new joint venture between France Telecom and Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility has been formed in order to purchase a 44% stake in the Iraqi operator Korek Telecom...

Fourth quarter data provided by operators in the Philippines has resulted in expectations being checked for the market’s growth...

The South African operator MTN is set to provide its Nigerian subsidiary with an investment of US$1 billion. MTN Nigeria is the largest operator in the country, which is Africa’s biggest mobile market...

Yemen is much the poorest country in the Middle East and economic difficulties are numerous. Around 35% of the population is below the poverty line...

New deals between America Movil and Digicel will see operations from each firm change hands. Digicel is set to acquire America Movil’s Jamaican operations, but will also sell its businesses in Honduras and El Salvador to the Lat-Am giant in a separate deal...

The Ghana Cocoa Board, The Hershey Company, and the World Cocoa Foundation have announced a first-of-its kind program to use mobile technology to deliver practical information on agricultural and social programs to rural cocoa farmers and enable the farmers to ask questions and provide feedback...

The beleaguered merger proposal between Zain and Etisalat could be back on track, with Zain reportedly agreeing to sell its Saudi Arabian operations...

Two Indian operators have received notices of cancellation from the country’s Department of Telecommunications regarding the licences which they hold in certain regions, following their failure to comply with the requisite 2G network deployment criteria...

The Russian mobile broadband service provider Yota is readying its first LTE modem for launch next month. The firm aims to follow this launch with mobile routers, embedded laptops and smartphones...

The CEO of VimpelCom, Alexander Izosimov, has made it clear that while he expects the firm’s shareholders to greenlight its planned merger with Wind Telecom next week, the Russian operator will not be pursuing any more large scale acquisitions for some time thereafter...

Iraq’s government is aiming to raise around US$2 billion by auctioning off the country’s fourth national mobile licence by the end of 2011...

The Chinese government has proposed tracking the location of smartphones as a means of managing and ameliorating heavy traffic in Beijing...

The gravity of India’s 2G licensing investigation is becoming increasingly apparent, with another high-profile industry member resigning after being implicated in the scandal...

On International Women’s Day, the GSMA urges all members of the mobile industry, the international development community and the public to support women’s freedom to connect by signing the GSMA mWomen Charter...

The Honourable President of India, Smt. Pratibha Patil today launched ‘Sanchar Shakti’ - the Gender Budget scheme for Mobile Connectivity & ICT related livelihood skills for Self Help Groups – an initiative by Vodafone Essar, one of India’s leading cellular services provider under the aegis of Universal Service Obligation Fund of the Department of Telecommunications...

Thailand could see 3G auctions by the end of 2011, according to statements from Natee Sokonrat, the commissioner of the country’s new regulator...

Following on from allegations originating from European vendors that Chinese firms such as Huawei and ZTE are receiving state funding, China’s Ministry of Commerce has accused the EU of the same thing in a new study...

With Thailand beset by ongoing political problems on top of a sluggish economy, the country's telecom sector seems to have lost direction...

The main challenge now in emerging markets is to deliver mobile internet affordably, both to urban elites and to presently unserved remote areas. To do this, operators will need to be innovative...

If there is such a thing as the hot topic in telecoms, Mobile World Congress is where you will find out about it. And right now the issue that is taking up more time than anything else in the minds and engineering departments of service providers as well as vendors it is the explosion of data over mobile networks...

The Bahraini operator Batelco has had its offer to buy a 25% in Zain’s Saudi operations rejected by the Kuwaiti firm. This development is yet another setback for Etisalat’s bid to purchase a controlling stake in Zain...

NFC retail payment and other POS services are set to gain traction in emerging markets following the announcement of a partnership between contactless network provider accells and Fundamo, the specialist mobile financial services provider...

Following on from the arrest of former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja, the investigation into India’s 2G licensing scandal by the country’s Central Bureau of Investigation has resulted in several other arrests...

The biggest story of this year’s Mobile World Congress may have broken before the show has even started, with the announcement that Nokia and Microsoft have entered into a “broad strategic partnership” which will see Nokia adopt Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone operating system...

Major developments in the Indian 2G licensing scandal are underway, with the country’s Central Bureau of Investigation naming two of the operators that benefitted from underpriced spectrum permits...

Two of the largest mobile operators in the Egypt have criticised the drastic security measures enforced by the country’s ailing government in the face of ongoing unrest...

Adding to the objections of European telecoms vendors, a European Commission document has criticised the state financial support received by Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei...

The biggest mobile operator in Russia may be pursuing a merger as a means of furthering its ambition to become a major global telecoms group...

India’s telecommunications authorities could still enforce a ban on RIM’s BlackBerry device, as RIM has missed the most recent deadline for granting the government monitoring access to its enterprise services...

Kuwait is one of the wealthier members of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), ranking third in GDP per capita behind Qatar and the UAE, but a closer look at its telecoms sector reveals a major lack of competition in its fixed-line market...

Several private-owned operators in Thailand have received a large bill from none other than TOT, the country’s state-owned operator...

India’s telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal has outlined plans to disassociate spectrum from specific licences, instead letting mobile operators purchase spectrum via a “market-driven mechanism” – with auctions being a possibility...