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...

The Slovenian operator Tusmobil d.o.o. is expanding its 3G network to provide peak rates of up to 21 megabits per second (Mbps) to customers, improving its coverage by migrating to an all-IP, HSPA+ network on the 900 MHz frequency band...

Indian state-owned operator BSNL has secured a government grant of US$524 million in order to deploy a WiMAX network across several rural regions that are not served by fixed broadband networks...

Arianespace has successfully launched Intelsat S.A.’s newest satellite, the Intelsat 17 (IS-17), from Kourou, French Guiana...

Mobile penetration in two central Asian countries is nearing 100% following healthy growth over the past decade...

A pilot mobile number portability (MNP) scheme has launched in two Chinese provinces, the northern municipality of Tianjin and the southern province of Hainan...

Vietnam’s telecommunications sector is witnessing healthy growth with the advent of 3G. Operators are keen to offer the new technology, and increasingly liberalised regulation is attracting foreign firms to the market, according to Pyramid Research. Mobile data services are growing in popularity due to the proliferation of 3G services, and a CAGR of 13.4% is forecast through to 2015...

The same three vendors that are deploying Bharti Airtel’s 3G infrastructure in India have been awarded contracts to expand the operator’s African networks following its acquisition of Zain Africa...

Russia’s increasing need for business communications capabilities has prompted VimpelCom to sign a capacity deal with SES World Skies in order to increase the volume of its services in Eastern Siberia and the Far East of Russia...

LTE infrastructure in Kenya could be constructed by a public-private partnership and then sold with equal availability to both new and existing service providers, according to a new proposal from the country’s government...

The Indian 2G licensing scandal that resulted in the resignation of the country’s telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja will has seized the attention of several government ministers and regulators, who have declared their intention to punish those involved...

The success of mobile financial services in Africa is well known throughout the industry: the proliferation of mobile phones has transformed attitudes across the continent towards banking. Speaking to some of the market’s key players, Developing Telecoms asked what it is that makes the services so compatible with the market...

Tunisia’s largest operator, Tunisiana, is now completely owned by Qtel. The Qatari operator already owned a 50% stake following a joint venture with Orascom, and the Egyptian conglomerate has now sold its stake to its partner as part of an effort to reduce its overall debt before it completes its merger with VimpelCom...

The leading telecom operator in Bulgaria, VIVACOM, has launched a unified OSS platform in Plovdiv, in southern Bulgaria...

Updates for the fourth quarter of 2010 are now available for the telecommunications sectors in Kenya and Sudan. Covering mobile, fixed-line and internet sectors, the reports from BMI Research feature the latest market data released by service providers and regulators...

An international competitive carrier in Israel has deployed a convergent prepaid and postpaid charging solution from LogNet Systems...

Nigeria’s Sterling Bank has launched a new SMS fraud protection service, in line with the trend of African banks taking advantage of the ubiquity of mobile phones to interact with their customers and enlist their help in monitoring card activity for fraudulent charges...