Industry experts connected in Abu Dhabi this week to evaluate the state of telecoms in the Middle East. An appropriate time to look at telecoms in the developing markets as a whole at a time of global economic difficulty. Michael Schwartz writes...

A potential new player in Cameroon's mobile market as well as regulatory pressure to cut prices will help to more than double the mobile penetration in Cameroon by 2014, according to a new report from Research & Markets...

Nigerian private telecoms operator, ZOOMmobile is upgrading its interconnect billing and settlements systems. The new system means the operator can process 25 million interconnect call detail records  per hour in one of the world’s most complex interconnect markets...

Despite economic hardship, Turkey’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be increasing their IT spending in the near future. This is the prediction of IDC which conducted a survey among 750 SMEs in Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir...

Pakistani mobile operator Telenor Pakistan has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to expand and upgrade its network infrastructure. The five-year contract will have to take cognisance of low ARPU and persistent power shortages.

Radius Synergies, which provides in-building management solutions for buildings in India has commissioned Fibre-To-The-Home from Ericsson. A 3,000-unit complex in New Delhi is believed to be the first recipient of this technology which enables IPTV in high definition, VoD and 100Mb/s download...

Web-based analyst Seeking Alpha is predicting that Vietnam will emerge as a major market for mobile broadband by the end of 2014. Vendors of 3G equipment are expected to benefit from the boom...

Russian 3G player MTS has announced an ambitious strategy for the Russian market. Aware that many international players do not have an advanced presence in Russia, MTS is confident that its current presence in more than 20 cities will double to 50 by the end of this year...

O3b Networks is to help build the world's first ultra-low-latency, fibre-speed satellite network. One of the locations to be served will be the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where O3b will be partnered by Global Broadband Solution (GBS)...  

The long-running dispute between France Telecom and Orascom over ownership of Egypt's main mobile operator Mobinil has resulted in Orascom being forced to sell its holding to FT-Orange. But some analysts now think this may benefit Orascom in the long run...

A 3G network of 3,000 base-stations is set for construction by Huawei as part of Ukraine’s network development. Commissioner of the contract is life:), a local GMS operator whose services can be reached by almost the entire population of the Ukraine.

Bharti Telesoft, which provides integrated VAS solutions for mobile operators in emerging markets, has announced its new name, Comviva, and its new company name, Comviva Technologies Limited. This major change will be accompanied by a company-wide re-branding initiative to present a unified approach to the market...