Subscribers of Bharti Airtel in Ghana now have access to a new Voice SMS service, supplied by Kirusa...

Following a recent conference in London on financing telecoms in emerging markets, Developing Telecoms Publisher Alec Barton reflects on the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions amongst mobile network operators in emerging markets, particularly in Africa. He looks at some of the causes and considers whether the trend towards consolidation will continue...

India’s second-biggest mobile operator, Reliance Communications, has begun operating its 3G networks. Operating under R-Com, it has switched on 3G services in Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh and Kolkata...

One of Zain’s shareholders has initiated legal proceedings in an attempt to prevent the sale of a 46% stake in the company to rival operator Etisalat, in a move that threatens the proposed US$12 billion deal between the two Middle Eastern firms...

Haiti’s first mobile money service has been launched by Voilà and Unibank, following a successful nine month pilot which provided the international relief and development agency Mercy Corps with a secure, cost-effective method of distributing money across Haiti to support reconstruction efforts...

The Indian regulator TRAI has announced that it will publish a consultation paper that focuses on the country’s VAS market which it hopes will “see how to bring VAS into the active mainstream”...

The GSMA has elected Franco Bernabè, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Italia, as its new Chairman for a two-year term, from January 2011 through December 2012...

Around 49 million subscribers to Claro Brazil, the Brazilian subsidiary of América Móvil, will now have access to a device-agnostic mobile IM solution, provided by Synchronica. Named Claro Messenger, the mobile IM service is powered by Synchronica’s hosted instant messaging and presence service (IMPS) platform...

 India’s 2G spectrum licensing scandal has provoked many observers into giving their opinions on the country’s telecoms sector, and now the chairman of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, has commented on the events...

Developing Telecoms recently examined some of the factors that have led to mobile banking’s success across many African markets. Mobile money transfers in particular represent a far more secure alternative to handling devalued currency in a cash economy, and for this reason adoption has been widespread. However, the informality of mobile banking infrastructure in Africa can appear challenging to the developed world, and raises serious questions about the potential impact of fraud in the mobile finance sector...

One of the key bones of contention in the VimpelCom – Orascom merger has been the Algerian government’s claim that it was promised ownership of Orascom’s Algerian operations, branded Djezzy...

The Hungarian operator Magyar Telekom (MT) is targeting the country’s SME market with packaged business services that it will deliver via OneAccess ONE100 multi-service access routers...

In a bid to attract subscribers, China Unicom has halved the monthly fee that it charges for its 3G service. The operator’s cheapest monthly 3G tariff – formerly CNY96 – has now been reduced to CNY46...

One of India’s major service providers, Vodafone Essar, has begun a strategic engagement with Wipro, an IT services company, which will see the latter supply its fixed-line telecom services for enterprise business customers...

A new independent tower company will begin operating in Ghana as a result of a joint venture between American Tower Corporation and MTN...

Three of India’s telecom circles will soon have access to high-quality mobile broadband, a new range of VAS and significantly improved voice services from Aircel...

Mobile phones have the power to change lives in emerging markets, but attitudes towards gender are in some cases impeding progress. Cat Barton looks at how the advent of mobile phones in Bangladesh is plagued by a 'gender gap'...

Banglalink, a wholly owned subsidiary of Orascom Telecom and a leading operator in Bangladesh, has won the International Association of the Money Transfer Networks (IAMTN) “Best New Service” Award for Mobile Remittance services, powered by Comviva’s mobiquity mMoney.  This is the first international remittance service available via the mobile phone in South Asia...

TeliaSonera has increased its shares in TeliaSonera Asia Holding, purchasing US$160 million of assets and raising its stake to 75.45%...

The Egyptian operator Mobinil is now offering its subscribers interactive advertising tailored to their personal interests via Alcatel-Lucent’s Optism mobile marketing solution...

Turkey’s market leading operator, Turkcell, has augmented its 3G networks, upgrading the HSPA architecture with dual-carrier HSPA+ technology. The dual-carrier technology can theoretically achieve peak speeds of 42Mb/s, which is double the speed of single channel HSPA+...

Orange Armenia has successfully modernised its network, providing high definition (HD) voice services on the whole network across Armenia, and delivering up to 14.4 megabits per second (Mbps) data speeds in main cities...

Vodafone Qatar has selected Alcatel-Lucent as its sole supplier in its expansion into the fixed broadband market. Already a major mobile operator, Vodafone Qatar plans to offer customers an integrated service, encompassing fixed and mobile...

India’s government has begun investigations into the 2008 issue of 2G licences, a process which has been under scrutiny since the scandal which resulted in the resignation of telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja...

Egypt’s largest mobile operator is aiming to improve its productivity and maximise return on assets by deploying Clarity’s Infrastructure Management solution...

A new solution designed for monitoring, optimising and troubleshooting 4G networks is now available from Astellia...

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are of fundamental importance in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as in helping countries everywhere adapt to climate change and to deal with its sometimes catastrophic effects. This is the message of a report launched today by ITU and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) on Using ICTs in tackling climate change...

The mobile virtual network operator Effortel has successfully launched FreeM on behalf of Polish MVNO InMobile. FreeM is believed to be the first subscription free, advertising funded mobile service to provide consumers with free data access...

India’s Department of Telecommunications is preparing to dispute the eligibility of 85 licensees who reportedly did not meet the requisite criteria when their licences were issued in 2008...

The vendor Alcatel-Lucent has stated its belief that commercial LTE deployments may take place in India as early as 2011...

A new mobile browsing solution that fully supports Indic languages has been revealed by Bitstream. The new solution operates using the BOLT cloud computing browsing platform, and includes the BOLT mobile browser with Indic language user interfaces, the capability to perfectly render Indic text on a Web page, and the ability for end users to input Indic text into the browser...

The startup Indian operator Reliance Industries has switched allegiances from WiMAX to LTE. Having successfully completed trials of TD-LTE services, Reliance is now preparing for a commercial launch...

A new in-depth look at Israel’s telecommunications market indicates that its size has nearly peaked, but that growth possibilities still remain...

Over 94 million people in Indonesia now have the opportunity to learn English through their mobile phones, as the archipelagic nation’s largest operator, PT Telkomsel, has agreed to distribute and support the Urban English Language Learning Program on its network...