Trends & Forecasts

 India’s Department of Telecoms has been hit by allegations that have forced the country’s telecoms minister, Andimuthu Raja, to resign. The department is believed to have sold 2G spectrum licences for far less than they were worth, thereby costing India billions of dollars...

Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries lead the European ranks in terms of fibre to the home/building (FTTH/B) subscriber growth. The fastest adoption of these technologies can be observed in countries where local loop unbundling (LLU) has either not been implemented or not gained much popularity. In the long term, investment in FTTH/B technology will become one of the major competitive weapons for all fixed broadband operators in the ongoing battle against mobile broadband providers...

Steve Finch, of Cambodia's Phnom Penh Post newspaper, describes how overcrowding has devalued Cambodia's telecoms sector...

A new report that profiles major VAS providers in India also provides an in-depth look at the country’s VAS market. ‘Novonous VAS Tracker 2010’ has covered 77 companies, with a detailed SWOT analysis for each of the participating companies...

Nokia Siemens Networks has announced the establishment of its fifth Global Network Operations Centre (GNOC) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is the first GNOC in the Americas and it aims to serve a growing base of Latin American operators seeking to outsource network operations so that they can focus on core activities of their business. The GNOC will be established with an initial 15 million euro investment and host up to 300 expert technicians, responsible for managing up to 20 million subscribers. The centre will be operational from January 2011...

Eastern European revenue growth is set to outstrip Western Europe’s over the next few years, according to ABI Research’s Enterprise Mobility Market Data...

 The collaboration between the Mexican media company Grupo Televisa and the mobile operator NII Holdings (Nextel) has come to an abrupt end, with GT scrapping its agreement to purchase a 30% stake in Nextel...

 In a move seemingly aimed at clearing its name in the Middle East with regard to security concerns, BlackBerry manufacturer RIM has announced a strategic alliance with mobile operators and regulators in the UAE...

 China’s Zhenjiang city is set to undergo a transformation project by which it will support services such as remote healthcare, intelligent transport and e-energy solutions via wireless communications...

With only a few days left before it was due to be instated, the UAE’s proposed ban on BlackBerries has been cancelled...

Developing Telecoms takes a look at the market potential of MVNOs in Latin America, where the model faces numerous difficulties despite the massive potential for growth in this burgeoning region...

Etisalat’s bid for a 46% stake in Zain could be a step closer to becoming a reality – and help has come from an unlikely source. Qatar Telecom (Qtel), a regional rival of Etisalat, has expressed an interest in purchasing Zain Saudi Arabia – a move which could facilitate Etisalat’s planned acquisition...

Having recently looked to acquire a controlling stake in its Indian joint venture, the UAE operator Etisalat has now attempted to acquire a 46% stake in Kuwait’s Zain...

Due to a rigorous market regulatory policy and the 2009 economic slowdown, the value of the telecommunications market in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania) decreased by 14 per cent...

India’s mobile market may soon be opened up to MVNOs as the country’s government considers ways of bailing out the eight operators which won bids for mobile licences two years ago...

Strong growth in the Asian telecommunications market has seen a correspondingly strong development of infrastructure. Research and Markets have conducted an in-depth examination of the telecoms infrastructure in each of the region’s economies...

 A new report from Research and Markets details the growth and popularity of mobile services in the Philippines, examining why mobile has eclipsed fixed-line across the archipelago...

New Q310 information on the telecoms markets of Qatar and the UAE is now available, and the results, while mixed, indicate positive growth and a bright outlook for the future...

Two new entrants to the Russian telecoms market may be awarded LTE spectrum this week – a potentially controversial development since both Osnova Telecom and RusEnergoTelekom (RET) are backed by the Russian government...

Thailand’s 3G auctions, set to take place on the 28^th and 29^th of September, have so far attracted eight bidders...

China Mobile is now moving into the mobile search engine market. The operator has announced a joint venture with Xinhua, China’s government-owned official state news agency, which will see the two parties create a search engine in an attempt to rival market leaders Baidu and Google...

The Indian Government has set August 31^st as the deadline for Research In Motion (RIM) to bring its BlackBerry email and messaging services in line with India’s security criteria...

The UAE’s well-publicised security concerns over Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices have threatened to develop into a crackdown that could envelop the Middle East region and spread well beyond it. However, RIM have been granted some respite by Saudi Arabia’s telecoms regulator, which has stated that it will allow the continued operation of the BlackBerry instant messaging service within the Kingdom...

The Chinese search engine giant Baidu looks unlikely to relinquish the mobile search market to competitors, with new data showing that the engine registered the most mobile searches of any company in China during Q2 2010...

 WiMAX has seen phenomenal growth throughout the MENA region since it was first launched in Algeria in 2007. The service is now offered by 26 of the 55 operators licensed to provide it, and is now commercially available in 11 countries in the Arab world...

Growth of broadband in Africa and the Middle East will be driven by mobile broadband, due largely to poor wireline services and conscientious branding from mobile operators...

Following the publication of data by all key mobile network operators in Bangladesh, a new report has found that the country’s telecoms industry saw a slight decline in growth between 2009 and 2008...

Despite underdeveloped services, Turkmenistan's telecoms sector has been steadfastly expanding in recent years, with a new report from Research & Markets showing that the country's teledensity rate doubled between Q108 and Q109...

The fourth quarter of 2009 saw Tanzania’s mobile market continuing the growth of Q309, demonstrating a convincing return to healthy growth after a notable slip in the first half of the year...

Revenue from mobile broadband in the MENA region is likely to quadruple by 2014, according to a new report from Onda Analytics. Although handset-based revenue is expected to be slow, mobile broadband will have a major impact on operators’ financials with over 20 million subscribers in the region forecast by 2014...

Colombia’s mobile broadband market took off last year but speeds are reportedly erratic and rarely reach 1Mb/s - even in the major cities. These are key conclusions from the brand-new Research and Markets report, Colombia - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), which is Pakistan’s largest phone service provider, is planing to expand its network of Internet broadband users to over three million in the next five years. CEO Walid Irshaid took the opportunity of a call for investors to announce his ambitions...