After much talk, India's regulatory authorities and telcos are stepping up the pace with a deadline set to bid for 3G wireless licenses and trial services in place or due soon to facilitate the implementation of national networks.
Five major technology organizations - Purple Labs, Nexperience Ltd. Huawei Technologies, Comverse and Communology - have become members of the mobile operator-led terminal recommendations organization, Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP).
The effects of the global economic slump continues to have an effect on the telecom market, including the WiMAX wireless segment. Israel-based WiMAX player Alvarion announced that it will cut 11 percent of its workforce by the end of 2008 in an effort to maintain profitability throughout 2009.
A recent IDATE report confirmed that the number of worldwide FTTx subscribers grew by more than 23 percent between December 2007 and June 2008.
While Asia-Pacific continues to take the lead in the FTTx race, Europe and North America are also seeing increased FTTx subscriber growth.
Alcatel-Lucent has secured in early December a US$230 million order by China Telecom to increase the capacity and coverage of its mobile network country-wide. The contract with its Chinese flagship entity, Alcatel Shanghai Bell, commits the group to provide end-to-end CDMA wireless networking solutions for China Telecom in 56 cities within nine provinces.