Our second report this week on the Philippines looks at the problems faced by the huge number of Filipinos based overseas as they try to keep in touch with their friends and families based in their home country. Filipinos based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait can look forward to low-cost mobile communication resulting from Roamware's new contract with PLDT subsidiary Smart Communications...

TVA, the Brazilian pay TV company, has a business vision of delivering mobile broadband and hyper-connected communications to businesses and consumers alike. For this reason, TVA has commissioned Nortel to work on a WiMAX trial designed to exploit 4G to the maximum...

East Africa and Rwanda came out badly when Deloitte published its report on mobile taxation rates. The GSMA, which commissioned the report, has now released more details of how and why Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania can create low-tax regimes.

Saudi Arabia is on the verge of conducting her third mobile licensing procedure. This represents the last major opportunity for Gulf-oriented operators. Developing Telecoms summarises why analysts have come to this conclusion, and highlights some hotspots for growth.

Idea Cellular is a brand-new company which has been traded for only a few days. Its ambitious aims as India's sixth-largest network are confirmed by its announcement that it will invest US$2 billion to hold out against other newly-arrived competitors such as Vodafone...

Portugal Telecom's African operations are set to expand well beyond her present low-key portfolio of four former colonies and a half-share of a partnership in Morocco. The strategy is based on Africa's currently low tele-density. First step is a mobile virtual operation in Angola.

RCS & RDS, the Romanian fixed and greenfield mobile operator, has selected Nokia as its WCDMA 3G core and radio network supplier. The company looks forward to a quick entry into the Romanian 3G mobile market and, under the brand name Digi.Tel, to offer a wide range of services.

Several of Pakistan's regions, together with capital city Islamabad, are set to experience an expansion of their networks...

China's north-south telecoms divide has become more pronounced with the news that China Netcom and China Telecom will not look for business opportunities in each other's 'territories.'

Phones-for-Health is a cutting-edge US$10 million public-private partnership bringing together mobile phone operators, handset manufacturers and technology companies.  

Financial analyst Deloitte has revealed the countries whose rates of taxation, direct or indirect, on mobile communications are the highest in the world. Heaviest tax is in Turkey, where the taxation rate as a cost of mobile ownership is over 2.5 times the global average. Deloitte's report, commissioned by the GSMA, is summarised in this critical review...

Financial analyst Deloitte has revealed the countries whose rates of taxation, direct or indirect, on mobile communications are the highest in the world. Heaviest tax is in Turkey, where the taxation rate as a cost of mobile ownership is over 2.5 times the global average. Deloitte's report, commissioned by the GSMA, is summarised in this critical review...

China Mobile's programme for attaining VoIP network migration in Shaanxi Province is now complete, thanks to softswitch solutions from Huawei. VoIP network migration has as its aim the optimisation of network structure, lower operating and maintenance costs, and an enriched end-user experience. The world's first-ever large-scale All-IP transformation is the result...

Rohde & Schwarz has been appointed RCT tester/developer for mobile WiMAX by the WiMAX Forum. The electronics company introduced its R&S TS8970 to a broad public for the first time at 3GSM Barcelona, after having previously presented it at various WiMAX conferences...

ASVT, which delivers voice, data and video services to government, consumer and corporate markets in the Russian Federation, will be deploying Comverse's MyCall Converged Telephony as well as its Converged IP Centrex. This will form part of ASVT's long-term strategy to deliver IP-based multi-purpose communication bundles to consumers and enterprises...

Ten million subscribers to Indonesian mobile operator PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk (XL) are now set to enjoy mobile video technology. Source of the technological empowerment is a partnership of IP Unity Glenayre, Dilithium, Polycom, locally based PT Asia Quattro Net and Inphosoft...

Russia's Vimpelcom Group, which includes cellular companies in both Russia and surrounding countries, has seen consumer demand for new SMS-based services grow dramatically over the last year. Reflecting this growth, Vimpelcom has selected LogicaCMG to support what is a rapid uptake of SMS-based applications under the LogicaCMG Beeline brand...

The SMS Forum has just announced it is to disband. The Forum believes it has successfully achieved its objective of introducing universal standards for SMS, and so further work from the Forum is no longer required.

China is a market which astounds observers with amazing regularity. On this occasion two sources of surprise are almost in competition. The first is that China has just completed a 4G trial in Shanghai and moved to full development - the surprise being that it has achieved this before rolling out 3G. The second surprise is that Chinese 3G has taken so long, as one of our own recent reports has noted...

Nokia has started offering the smart2go mapping and navigation platform as a free download, which will allow millions of people to use map coverage offered via their mobile devices...

Farming in the Huaral, a coastal valley in Peru, has always been a marginal operation, not least because the Huaral has a desert climate where it never rains. Any plan to improve the conditions of local farmers has to keep them informed of changing conditions. The Sistema de Información Agraria (SIA, Agrarian Information System), is a new decentralised structure create to collect and organise data using ICT technologies...