At the beginning of March 2010, Orange Jordan became the country’s first operator to launch 3G, enjoying an official exclusivity period that extended to just under 12 months thereafter. Within that time the telco looked to establish a strong brand association with the technology and the services it enabled ahead of the introduction of competition. The launch by Zain of its HSPA service in February 2011 will be a test of how successful Orange has been in establishing its own 3G credentials

Nayla Khawam assumed her new responsibility as CEO of the telco as of July 1, 2009

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The year 2010 has been considered by industry commentators as a turning point for the adoption of mobile advertising services given the business model becoming better understood by brands and network operators alike. Hani Ramzi, Alcatel-Lucent’s executive director of Mobile Advertising for the EMEA identifies the levers required for the successful execution of a mobile advertising engagement

Hani Ramzi is Alcatel-Lucent’s executive director of Mobile Advertising for the EMEA

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3.7 million new WiMAX subscribers were added in Q410, and 5.5 million will be added in 2011, according to the latest quarterly report from Maravedis. The subscriber base for WiMAX and LTE reached 17.25 million and 320,000 respectively at the end of March 2011.

The WiMAX subscriber increase represents a 32.7 per cent rise quarter over quarter, from 13 million reported at the end of Q410.

Maravedis anticipates that 59 FDD-LTE and three LTE TDD networks will be operational worldwide by the end of 2011. "There will be 305 million LTE subscribers by 2016, of which 14 per cent, or 44 million, will be TD-LTE users and the rest (86 per cent, or 261 million) will be FDD-LTE," said Esteban Monturus, co-author of the report.

TD-LTE has gained global momentum and attracted attention to TDD spectrum. Maravedis anticipates that commercial TD-LTE networks could begin in more than 10 countries or areas in 2011-2012, even ahead of China Mobile’s deployment

On the regulatory side, additional spectrum made available for 4G has seen much more progress in GSM refarming than in the digital dividend initiative. The latter is still many years away from full availability.

Nokia’s VP Purnima Kochikar confirmed in an open letter to developers that Symbian will likely fade away, though the handset manufacturer is planning to introduce a number of devices during the "transition period" of 2011-2012 that would feature the Symbian operating system.

"In many markets, including markets where Symbian is currently the lead smartphone platform with significant market share, such as China, India, Russia and Turkey, we will continue to make our Symbian portfolio as competitive as possible while we work with Microsoft to introduce Windows Phone," Kochikar said in the statement. No specific date has been offered as to when the manufacturer will stop supporting Symbian.

Nokia has also begun a rebranding phase, where promotional materials feature a new font, named "Nokia Pure". The aim of this new font and text is to look "pure and simple" along with conveying the "the impression of forward movement."

When Nokia announced its partnership with Microsoft in February 2011 to form a broad strategic partnership using their complementary strengths and expertise, it said it would continue supporting Symbian, though its primary mobile operating system would become Windows Phone. Nokia said Symbian would become a “franchise platform”, and the company still expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come.

The interim government of Tunisia is reported by French news media to have taken over the 51 per cent of Orange Tunisia that was owned by the son-in-law of the country’s former president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. The move had been expected for some time as part of a post-revolution investigation into favours offered to the family of the former president.

The French newspaper, Les Echos noted that the move would mean the government now has control of the mobile network, which is 49 per cent owned by France Telecom.

France Telecom told Les Echos that "nothing changes on the operational level and that for Orange Tunisia, it is business as usual."

The Tunisian government has set up a commission to decide what to do with of Ben Ali’s confiscated assets – and those of his family and friends.

It is expected that the government will sell the stake to a trade buyer or possibly float it on the stock market. A trade sale could be complicated though, as France Telecom is blocked from taking control of the company until 2014 under the terms of its licence.