NEC Corporation has announced that Zain Kuwait has selected NEC’s femtocell solution to enhance the indoor mobile experience of its enterprise and consumer customers. Zain plans to launch Kuwait’s first commercial high-speed, high-quality femtocell service to its enterprise customers this year.

“In September 2010 we began a thorough user trial with NEC. During this successful trial we found that our customers highly valued the quality of service femtocell technology brings,” said Zain Kuwait CTO, Yaqoub Khajah. “NEC’s femtocell solution provided high throughput and superior indoor coverage.”

NEC is providing Zain Kuwait an end-to-end femtocell solution that includes NEC femtocell, and femtocell gateway systems that connect to Zain’s existing core systems. Zain Kuwait’s customers can install the NEC femtocell with no intervention from Zain.

Ericsson has won a seven-year contract to manage Clearwire’s WiMAX network in the US. As part of the deal, approximately 700 Clearwire employees will transfer to Ericsson within the next few months.

Ericsson already has a managed services contract in the USA with Sprint Nextel – which is the majority shareholder in Clearwire.

Under the terms of the contract, Ericsson will be responsible for network engineering, operations and maintenance, including field services, 24×7 network monitoring, end-to-end engineering, provisioning and routine maintenance.

Clearwire is retaining ownership of all network assets and full responsibility for future technology and strategy decisions.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Malawi’s latest mobile operator, Celcom, which is also the country’s fourth player, has outlined plans to invest US$270 million in deploying its network infrastructure, and will specifically target rural markets.

The company – which is owned by local businessmen, the Mulli brothers – was granted its licence earlier this month after repeated attempts to have the third mobile licence holder, G-Mobile launch its services.

One of the Mulli brothers was quoted as saying that the new company has invested approximately K41 billion (US$270 million) to deploy its network, with a launch expected by October 2011. Nationwide coverage is expected by 2014.

Malawi had fewer than 2.6 million customers at the end of 2010, which represents a population penetration level of around 16 per cent. The country has two active mobile networks, Zain and Telecom Networks Malawi.

Microsoft is set to confirm that it has agreed to buy Internet phone service Skype, according to the BBC.

According to some reports, the deal could be worth as much as US$8.5 billion, which would make it Microsoft’s largest acquisition.

Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users. Last August it announced plans for a share flotation, but this was subsequently put on hold.

eBay bought Skype for US$2.6 billion in 2006, before selling 70 per cent of it in 2009 for US$2 billion.

Skype is now majority-owned by a group of investors, led by private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.

Analysts say Microsoft wants to buy Skype to improve its video conferencing services.

Some experts have questioned whether Microsoft is planning to pay too much for a company that has struggled to turn a profit.

Nawras has confirmed the recent successful landing of its second sea cable, completing Oman’s stage of the project with Tata Global Network-Gulf (TGN-Gulf). Chief commercial officer Tore Solberg and CTO Peter Rubeck were on site to witness the arrival of the MV Reliance cable ship and to observe the subsequent safe delivery of the cable from ship to shore.

Peter Rubeck and Tore Solberg cut first buoy in landing ceremony

The telecommunications cable was attached to approximately 50 buoys and floated to the shore where it was joined to the Nawras network. The buoys were then detached one-by-one, enabling the cable to sink slowly to the seabed in a controlled manner under the direction of specialists. Divers ensured that the cable is safely embedded in position and protected from the elements, weather and shipping.

By the second half of 2011, the first of the two telecommunications cables will be taking traffic from the Nawras network in the direction of Mumbai and onwards to the rest of the world.

By virtue of being a part of the Tata Communications submarine cable network, Nawras will be able to have enhanced capacity as well as complete control over the quality standards for both voice and data services sent through these sea cables.

Nawras, is investing a total of OMR140 million (US$364 million) in network-related capital expenditure over 2010 and 2011 including this sea cable development.