Motorola Solutions today announced the commercial release of Motorola Public Safety LTE with shipments beginning on November 11, 2011. Motorola’s successful alliances with Ericsson, the global market leader in carrier LTE networks, and Verizon Wireless, the provider of the fastest, most advanced 4G mobile network in America, have resulted in this standards-based solution that provides the foundation for next generation public safety communications. Combined with a complete suite of Public Safety LTE services that span planning, integration, support and hosting, Motorola is helping to accelerate broadband multimedia capabilities in public safety.

Key facts

· Motorola’s Public Safety LTE provides an end-to-end LTE solution built for public safety broadband with devices, applications, networks and services.

· The commercial release of Public Safety LTE offers fully tested and operational devices including Motorola’s recently announced Public Safety LTE vehicular modem (VML700) and USB data modem (UM1000).

· The Motorola and Ericsson strategic alliance enables LTE technology to be used in mission-critical communications.

· The Ericsson LTE eNode B equipment, RBS 6000, included in Motorola’s Public Safety LTE solution complies with 3GPP Release 9, exceeding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Public Safety Communications Research Program (PSCR) mandate of 3GPP Release 8.

Lebanon’s government has announced that the country’s two mobile networks will be formally permitted to launch 3G services following several delays.

Telecom minister Nicolas Sehnaoui also announced that the service would be fixed at the equivalent of US$19 for 500Mb of data downloads.

Lebanon’s two state-owned – but BOT operators, Alfa (Orascom Telecom) and Zain, will offer 3G subscriptions and will announce the rates for other packages in early November.

There had been concerns earlier this summer that legal action from an ISP, Cedarcom could delay the launch as it claimed the government did not have the authority to issue 3G licences.

The ISP also claimed that the regulatory regime was blocking it from selling landline DSL based services, which it considers to be unfair and unjust competition.

The two networks recently awarded contracts to deploy HSPA enabled 3G networks.

The managing companies have renewing one-year contracts to manage the networks – which the government has repeatedly attempted to privatise but the sale has been blocked by political problems.

Motorola Mobility is expected to unveil its latest version of its once wildly popular RAZR device at an event to be held in Dubai on October 25.

The RAZR is just 7.1 millimetres thin and is set to become available in North America, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa starting next month. Boasting a sculpted glass face, diamond-cut aluminium accents and a hyper-vibrant 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display for vivid images, the Motorola RAZR also sports KEVLAR fibre and Corning Gorilla glass to help the screen stand up to scratches and scrapes.

The device possesses a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor with 1GB of RAM, all powered by Android 2.3.5.

“Motorola RAZR is an iconic brand, and one that originally revolutionised the mobile device industry by turning a functional necessity into an object of desire,” said Sanjay Jha, chairman and CEO, Motorola Mobility at the introduction of the event in the US last week. “Now we’ve done it again with a head-turning, ultra-thin smartphone that offers users breath-taking speed, innovative apps and revolutionary accessories.”

South Africa based Vodacom is facing a court battle in the Democratic Republic of Congo as it seeks to sell its majority 51 per cent stake in the company.

The minority shareholder, Congolese Wireless Network (CWN), which owns the other 49 per cent, is seeking a legal ruling to block the sale claiming that there are unpaid fees due.

Vodacom and CWN have had a fraught relationship ever since Vodacom invested in the company in May 2002. It has been reported recently that rival South African operator, MTN is interested in taking over the investment from Vodacom.

"We’ll send a letter to all the main shareholders and we’ll block the sale," a CWN spokesperson told Bloomberg in an interview in the DRC capital, Kinshasa

Vodacom and CWN went to arbitration last year following a dispute over investment funding for the mobile network.

Vodacom Congo counted 4.2 million subscribers at the end of March.

Nokia has posted a 13 per cent fall in its revenues for the third quarter of 2011, to €8.98 billion (US$12.4 billion). Sales of mobile devices were down by 25 per cent year-on- year.

The handset manufacturer posted a net loss of € 151 million) for the three months to September, from a €322 million profit in the same period last year.

Nokia also reported an operating loss for the quarter, of €71 million, compared to an operating profit of €403 million last year.

Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop commented: "I am encouraged by the progress we made during Q3, while noting that there are still many important steps ahead in our journey of transformation."

"In summary, in Q3 we started to see signs of early improvement in many areas, but we must continue to focus on consistent progress so that we can move Nokia through the transformation and deliver superior results to our shareholders."

The company reiterated its plans to launch its first Windows Phone based device in select countries later this quarter, and then to systematically increase the number of countries and launch partners during the course of 2012.

On a year-on-year basis, the decline in total Devices & Services volumes in the third quarter 2011 was driven by lower smartphones volumes that more than offset the increase in mobile phone volumes.