Telkom’s shares fell more than 10 percent to R131.20 yesterday as the telecoms firm unveiled several strategy decisions, including its rejection of Oger Telecom’s offer, an entry into the mobile data market and a reduction in its stake in pay television provider Telkom Media. … more

On a chilly February morning, Andy Rubin hustles past equation-filled whiteboards in a two-story building on Google Inc.’s Silicon Valley campus.

Rubin, a computer scientist who builds robots for fun, has spent three years in this top-secret sanctum of the Googleplex. He’s putting the final touches on one of the most ambitious and potentially humbling projects the Internet juggernaut has undertaken: an operating system for cellular phones that’s designed to give Google the same grip on the mobile Web that it commands in online searches on personal computers. … more

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand Communications Minister David Cunliffe said Monday the government has approved a proposal by Telecom Corp. to split its operations into three separate units as part of regulatory moves to break up the company’s monopoly.

“In accordance with the Telecommunications Act 2001, I have decided to approve the plan which is legally enforceable,” Cunliffe said in a statement. … more

AT&T announced today that the nation’s largest wireless carrier will offer subscribers ten channels of live, mobile TV on at least two new phones starting in May.

AT&T Mobile TV uses Qualcomm’s MediaFLO system, which we reviewed last year with two Verizon phones. The MediaFLO system allows for at least 14 channels. AT&T and Verizon will share eight: CBS, Comedy Central, ESPN , FOX, MTV, NBC, NBC News, and Nickelodeon. AT&T will get two exclusive channels of their own, which Verizon customers won’t have access to. … more

 Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved a $267 million loan to a Denver, Colo.-based company called Open Range. The idea: build out broadband service for 518 rural communities in 17 states

The loan represents one of the federal government’s biggest ever public-private investments in broadband service. Considering Uncle Sam’s miserly approach, to date, that’s not saying much. But here’s what caught my eye: Those without service will have access to broadband and other technologies for the first time in their lives. … more

 BOONTON, N.J., March 26 /PRNewswire/ — Streaming video and music distributed across the Internet, an IPTV network, or a mobile handset will generate $70 billion in network-derived and content-derived revenue into the US markets over the next six years, according to a new market research study from The Insight Research Corporation. Streaming media refers to the transmission of digital audio and video files over an IP network or wireless network in real time or on-demand, while prohibiting users from storing the files locally. … more

Nigeria has been officially declared Africa’s largest telecom market, due largely to convergent services deployed by operators in the industry.

The influential global telecom research group, Informa Telecom & Media, in its latest online issue stated that following the industry statistics released early in the year by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which places total active subscribers’ base at 41.5 million “Nigeria has now officially taken the lead as Africa’s largest telecommunications market.” … more

There’s a new Mobile VoIP service available on Nokia E and N series phones that are WiFi-enabled. Tpad has devised a free SMS messaging service that will automatically update a phone, enabling it to use mobile VoIP, Telecom Tiger reports.

Chris Morris, Tpad’s general manager said “Free calling has finally arrived on mass market mobiles. We are giving all new users who sign up for a free Tpad mobile account a free test call to the value of $0.50 for a limited period. Users will thus have the opportunity to experience the call quality of next generation mobile VoIP.” … more

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazil’s largest telecommunications firm by subscribers and revenue, Tele Norte Leste Participações SA, or Oi, is close to making a formal bid to take control of Brasil Telecom Participações SA after shareholders reached agreement on key points of the proposal.

The combined company would become the main fixed-line phone operator and would control some 18% of Brazil’s cellphone market and 43% of broadband Internet services. … more

Microsoft is shouting its way into the VoIP market by extending its small business phone systems to support voice recognition.

The ability to run VoIP is being introduced to its Response Point systems through a service pack, which was announced this week but won’t be brought in until the summer.

Response Point is a combination of hardware from PBX vendors Aastra, D-Link and Quanta and software from Microsoft. It’s most likely to appeal to small businesses who lack telephony expertise. … more