Qualcomm has finally been granted the delayed BWA licences by the Indian government after it looked like the company could forfeit its US$1 billion bid for the concessions last year.

Although Qualcomm paid for the licences, they had not been formally handed over, and India’s Telecom Department was claiming that Qualcomm was late in filing the application paperwork – something the company denies.

Qualcomm paid US$1.05 billion for licences in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala circles with the intention of promoting the development of LTE technology.

Nawras in Oman is offering a free trial of high speed broadband to around 200 customers living in Al Mabailah North. For a three month period, customers will be invited to experience the benefits of Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) with download speeds of between 10-100 Mbps.

The telco is working with Haya Water Company and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to implement the fibre optic technology needed to provide high speed broadband.

A selection of four different FTTH pricing plans offering a variety of different speeds will be trialled to enable Nawras to fine tune its offerings ahead of the full commercial launch of this service. Customers will be able to test the speed, reliability and stability of FTTH.

Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Networks’ (NSN) Serve atOnce Device Management (SADM) software to be implemented across affiliates in 16 African countries. In addition, NSN will consolidate the operator’s existing multimedia messaging service (MMS) platforms into one centrally managed virtual platform.

Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and joint managing director, Bharti Airtel, said: “Nokia Siemens Networks’ robust mobile device management solution will allow our customers in Africa to enjoy the latest services by enabling seamless Internet connectivity and excellent customer care support. The solution will benefit Airtel from reduced operational costs when introducing new devices or services.”

NSN’s SADM will enable Bharti Airtel to remotely and automatically manage and configure user devices for new data services. The software will also enable the operator to gain valuable insights on device capabilities to make right business decisions when introducing new services.

In addition, under a three-year contract, NSN will provide its mobile Internet browsing solution (MIBS) and multimedia messaging solution, hosted on a virtualised and centrally managed VaaS platform. This will allow Bharti Airtel to provide these services faster and cost efficiently to all its customers across all affiliates in Africa.

Telkom South Africa has confirmed that it is in talks with South Korea’s KT Corp regarding a possible investment by the Korean firm.

If the talks are completed, then it is expected that KT Corp will take a 20 per cent stake in Telkom SA.

Should the venture be agreed, Telkom will issue new Telkom ordinary shares for cash at an issue price of ZAR36.06 (US$4.61) per new Telkom ordinary share. That represents a 12 per cent premium over the current share price, and an investment of around US$600 million.

Alcatel-Lucent and Etisalat have today signed an agreement to jointly develop the most efficient and sustainable means to deliver mobile broadband to customers – built around the Alcatel-Lucent lightRadio product family. The agreement was signed by Nasser bin Obood, Acting CEO- Etisalat and Nicholas Bouverot, VP ME, Alcatel-Lucent.

Through its collaboration around lightRadio, Etisalat will help define the commercial introduction of this new product family in the Middle East and in other markets.

The lightRadio product family enables superfast speeds and high-quality delivery of applications to a variety of mobile devices, while reducing the size, complexity, cost and power consumption of mobile networks, making it a greener and more cost-effective solution for operators.

Under the joint innovation and collaboration agreement signed with Alcatel-Lucent, Etisalat will help influence the development of lightRadio via participation in joint working groups, early trials and validation of the technology. Business modelling teams of Bell Labs – the innovation engine of Alcatel-Lucent – will conduct a study of Etisalat’s network evolution path and determine the best fit of lightRadio products to help to reduce costs and meet customers’ needs. Etisalat is one of 10 operators worldwide selected to participate in this innovative collaboration model.