Huawei is looking to invest around US$2 billion in India over the next four years and is currently setting up a global R&D facility in the country.

The company generated revenues of US$1.5 billion in India during the past financial year. Of that US$1.2 billion came from network infrastructure sales and the remaining US$300 million from handset and modem sales.

"2011 was a good year for Huawei because our revenue in India increased about 20 per cent… Last year we began building a new R&D centre in Bangalore, which will house more than 5,000 people," Huawei India CEO Cai Liqun told local media.

The Bangalore facility is estimated to be costing US$150 million and will open next June. The company already has a global network operations centre (GNOC) in the city.

Looking ahead though, Liqun said that 2012 will be tough for the industry due to the lack of clarity about regulatory issues.

BlackBerry-manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) is reportedly mulling a break-up of the company that could see it spin-off its messaging network from the handset manufacturing division.

The Sunday Times reported that RIM is looking to either list or sell the struggling handset unit – with Amazon and Facebook named as potential suitors. Meanwhile, it said that RIM’s messaging network could also be sold, or opened up to rivals such as Apple and Google.

An alternative option being considered, according to the newspaper, would be to keep the company together but sell a stake to a larger technology firm such as Microsoft.

Last month, RIM said it had enlisted JP Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help it evaluate various financial strategies, including “opportunities to leverage the BlackBerry platform through partnerships, licensing opportunities and strategic business model alternatives."

RIM will report its latest quarterly earnings (ended June 2) later this week. The firm has already warned it will post an operating loss with “lower volumes and highly competitive pricing dynamics in the marketplace” impacting the business.

MTN Afghanistan has paid US$25 million for Afghanistan’s second 3G licence, following the award of a concession to Etisalat in March. A signing ceremony on June 20 was presided over by the Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA) and the ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT).

MTN expects to make 3G services available to its customers within 20 days, though it did not comment on the extent of the network’s planned coverage. At launch, rival Etisalat’s 3G footprint was limited to the capital Kabul, though the network was extended to Jalalabad earlier this month.

Still waiting to be awarded 3G licences are Roshan and the Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC). Both companies have previously expressed intentions to add 3G services, but have been awaiting the disbursal of authorisations. The duo are expected to be offered licences in the near future and at the same price paid by MTN and Etisalat.

As noted by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, with fewer than 5,000 broadband subscribers at the end of March 2012, but more than 18.5 million wireless subscribers at that date, 3G is poised to satisfy Afghanistan’s demand for Internet services by mobilising the nation’s large wireless market, filling the void left by the poor provision of traditional fixed Internet services.

Vodacom has said that a quarter of its network Lesotho is now powered by ‘green’ base stations using energy saving technologies such as wind and solar power. The base stations are powered independently of diesel generators or the national grid and are among the first of their kind worldwide.

Currently 40 out of a total 165 base station sites in Lesotho are powered through a combination of solar and wind. Vodacom Lesotho’s other technologies include power system optimisation that ensures that in the event of power failure, a traditional site continues to operate for up to three hours on stored battery power before a diesel generator kicks in.

In addition, smart meters are used to monitor power consumption and remote control systems are used to operate base station sites remotely both reducing the need for physical site visits.

Vodacom Lesotho said that it plans to build 80 new sites that use only renewable energy sources over the next four years. It will also refurbish existing operational sites to reduce its reliance on diesel generators. Smart meters have already been installed in two sites, one green site and the other running off the electricity grid, in a test to more accurately measure power consumed.

Mobile subscriptions in the Middle East grew at a rate of 69,230 new connections per day in the first quarter of 2012, according to Ericsson’s) second Traffic and Market Report – On the Pulse of the Networked Society. The report revealed that a total of 6.3 million new connections were added across the region from January to March 2012, taking the total number of subscriptions to 266.3 million.

According to the study, mobile subscription penetration in the Middle East stood at 96 per cent, compared to 69 per cent in China and 97 per cent in North America. It was also revealed that total mobile subscriptions around the world are expected to reach nine billion by 2017, compared to six billion at the end of 2011. The report forecasts that 85 per cent of the world’s population will have Internet coverage via 3G by 2017 and that mobile broadband connections will reach the five billion mark that year.

In the report, Ericsson also predicts that by 2017 half of the world’s population will be covered by LTE/4G networks. Smartphone subscriptions will number around three billion in 2017 – compared to 700 million in 2011. Mobile data traffic (voice and data) is expected to increase by 10-15 times between 2011 and 2017, mainly driven by video. Web traffic by mobile PCs and smartphones is foreseen to be dominant in the period, driven by the attractiveness of mobile broadband. Traffic generated by advanced smartphones is growing rapidly and is forecast to approach similar levels as mobile PC based traffic (in total) in 2017.