France Telecom Orange’s mobile money service, Orange Money, has been launched in Botswana. Orange Money is a system that allows customers to carry out simple banking operations and transactions in total security.

Orange partnered with Standard Chartered Bank to provide the service, having first launched Orange Money in Côte d’Ivoire in December 2008, and later expanded to Senegal, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Kenya. Overall, Orange Money has now attracted over two million customers.

Hong-Kong-listed wireless solutions provider Comba Telecom has announced its selection by a major operator in the Middle East to supply wireless equipment for its LTE network build out in the region. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Comba provided a number of LTE equipment including indoor and base station antennas for deployment in both indoor and outdoor environments for the network. In addition, Comba also supplied 3G antennas to enable a ubiquitous wireless coverage experience for the mobile operator’s customers.

The order includes the supply of hundreds of LTE antennas and thousands of 3G antennas. 

“We are delighted to be part of such an important project. Besides the performance and value proposition of our products, we believe that Comba’s superior support, delivery and customer-focused service orientation were key factors in our win,” commented Charlene Chong, GM of Comba’s Middle East operations.

Apple today introduced iCloud, a set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on iPads, iPhones, iPod touch’s, Macs, or PCs to automatically and wirelessly store content and push it to all devices. iCloud services include new versions of Contact, Calendar, and Mail; iCloud Backup and Storage; Photo Stream; and iTunes in the Cloud. And for US$24.99 a year, iTunes Match will offer the benefits of iTunes in the cloud for music that has not been purchased from iTunes. iCloud will be available this fall, along with iOS 5. A free beta version of iTunes in the Cloud is available today in the U.S. and requires iTunes 10.3 and iOS 4.3.3.

Qtel announced today that it is taking steps to comply fully with the national regulator’s instruction to close down Qtel’s Virgin Mobile reseller service. ictQatar recently issued orders instructing Qtel to close down Virgin Mobile and remove the Virgin Mobile brand from the market. The orders also require Qtel to migrate all existing Virgin Mobile customers to another Qtel mobile offering or provide them with a full refund of unused credits in their Virgin Mobile accounts.

Qtel has confirmed that it intends to automatically migrate all existing Virgin Mobile customers to Qtel’s Hala service. This will allow Virgin Mobile customers to retain their distinctive ‘333’ mobile numbers as well as any existing mobile balances. From that point onwards, Qtel’s Hala prices and validity rules will apply and customers will be able to recharge using Hala Recharge cards.

Last July ictQatar announced that Qtel would face a fine and appropriate action in regards to its launching of Virgin Mobile-branded services in May that year. However at the time it was determined by the regulator that Virgin Mobile’s services did not constitute a third mobile licensee and therefore did not breach the terms of Vodafone as second licensee, though, the way it was marketed did deceive consumers as to its genuine nature.

On May 17, 2010, just four days after the launch by Qtel of Virgin Mobile services, the regulator issued orders to Qtel requiring certain changes in the marketing and presentation of Virgin Mobile services, followed by further instructions on May 20 on the same matter. On July 15, 2010 Qtel was ordered to “correct any wrong or misleading perception created by Qtel about Virgin Mobile services, and to ensure compliance with the telecommunications law”.

SoftAtHome, a software provider of home operating platforms that help service providers deliver convergent applications to the digital home, announced it is opening a new office in Dubai to support the current deployment of its technology with Etisalat.

SoftAtHome provides a software platform that enables operators and third party developers to create convergent applications for the digital home by combining services such as voice, video, content sharing, security, broadband access, connectivity or management, and deploy them across different devices in the home including TV set top boxes (STB), home gateways and connected televisions.

In 2010, Etisalat selected SoftAtHome to deploy its multiplay offering across the UAE, including IPTV, video-on-demand, personal video recording, Internet TV, digital content sharing, application store and broadband access. Etisalat has a small equity stake in SoftAtHome