Spain has become the first country in the world to offer a fully interoperable Rich Communication Services (RCS) solution, according to the GSMA.

The country’s three largest mobile operators – Telefonica’s Movistar and the local arms of Orange and Vodafone – have launched RCS nationwide using the consumer-facing ‘Joyn’ brand.

RCS is a major play by the operator community to compete more effectively with the over-the-top players. It enables services such as enhanced messaging and voice, video calling and content sharing directly from the phone’s contact book, regardless of the network or device used.

The Spanish operators are initially offering Joyn services via an Android app, with an iPhone app to follow shortly. The first devices with native support for Joyn are expected at the beginning of 2013.

Additional Joyn services such as VoIP and IP-video calling are also in the pipeline.

Telenor is reported to be in talks to merge its Indian operation with those of Tata Teleservices, to provide a stronger competitor to the country’s established major players, Reuters reports.

Such a deal would see Telenor taking a majority stake in the merged entity, with Tata Group reducing its holding. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, which is also a Tata investor, is set to maintain its stake in the enlarged operation, the report said.

Apparently, the joint business will have permits to operate in all of India’s 22 telecom service regions.

Wireless Intelligence figures show that Tata is currently the sixth largest operator in India, with 78.4 million subscribers, while Uninor is eighth with 42.1 million – although both are set to close some operations in the future.

The combined business is likely to move into fifth place in the market, behind Airtel (185.9 million subscribers), Vodafone (152.7 million), Reliance Communications (134.8 million) and Idea Cellular (115.5 million).

Telenor last week spent US$730 million for spectrum licences in six of the country’s most populous zones, covering a total population of 600 million. It was not awarded permits for Mumbai, Kolkata and West Bengal, where it will now close its units.

Tata withdrew its application for additional frequencies suitable for CDMA networks, with the company currently offering services using CDMA and GSM. It is set to close its operations in Jammu and Kashmir early in 2013, having had its licences cancelled.

Qualcomm’s IQ 2012 event for the EMEA region was held in Berlin in September, where the technology provider emphasised the central role it is playing in the creation and delivery of ever greater quantities of mobile digital content. Qualcomm chipsets have never been in higher demand as the smartphone frenzy shows no signs of dissipating across emerging as well as developed markets. Comm. reports from Berlin

Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm’s CEO, was not present at the EMEA’s IQ event 2012, instead taking part at the equivalent shows in Brazil and India

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Etisalat is backing its Saudi Arabian affiliate Mobily after authorities banned it from selling prepaid SIM cards, reports Reuters.

The ban was imposed by the Saudi regulator to force Mobily to meet "prepaid service provisioning requirements" outlined in an order regarding SIM registration rules made in September. If the ban on prepaid SIMs isn’t resolved quickly it could hurt revenue, according to analysts.

Etisalat CEO Ahmad Julfar told Reuters that the company is committed to its relationship with Mobily. Julfar also reiterated his company’s desire to increase its stake in Mobily if there is an opportunity to do so. Etisalat currently holds a 28 per cent stake in the Saudi number-two operator.

The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), the majority shareholder in mobile operator Roshan in Afghanistan, is set to launch a mobile operator in East Africa early in 2013, a reliable source confirmed to Comm.

AKFED is an international development agency dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. The fund operates as a network of affiliates with more than 90 separate project companies employing over 30,000 people, with revenues of US$2.3 billion in 2010. It is active in 16 countries in the developing world: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania and Uganda.

“Given AKFED’s presence in a number of activities in East Africa, ranging from hospitality, retail, and financial services, the fund has been able to attain a mobile licence in an East African country, which it intends to activate in the January/February 2013 time-frame,” the informed source said.

With commercial activities in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania the mobile licence is set to have been awarded in one of these three countries, with AKFED being confident it will be able to leverage its local contacts and networks in other industries in order to succeed in an ‘ultra-competitive’ telecom market.