African communications regulators are moving to combat poor services by mobile service providers by imposing heavy fines. … more

Just a couple short years ago, many people were abuzz over metro Wi-Fi experiments in Philadelphia, Houston, and San Francisco, only to see those efforts largely collapse as slow speeds, expensive deployments, and economic tussles between carriers and municipalities resulted in low adoption. But waiting in the wings for several years has been the promise of WiMAX technology to deliver broadband connectivity wirelessly across entire cities with less equipment to deploy than metro Wi-Fi. After nearly two years of uncertainty, Sprint and its partner Clearwire are now starting to set up WiMAX networks in several cities. … more

Prices and terms for the WiMax service that Sprint Nextel launched on Monday stand up against other wired and wireless broadband options, but a key measure — coverage — remains a question mark. … more

Phone firms, chip makers and PC manufacturers are uniting to push mobile broadband on laptop computers.

The alliance will build wireless modules into laptops to make it much easier to use the gadgets on future high-speed services. … more

The Ministry of Information and Communications will earmark VND 1.2 trillion (around US$2 million) for four companies this year to develop basic telecom services for public interest. … more

While Internet providers in the United States have backed off, for now, from the idea they may be able to make money by selling information on where their customers surf on the Internet, British Telecom is still moving forward with the idea. … more

In the fourth quarter of 2007, American cellphone subscribers for the first time sent text messages more than they phoned, according to Nielsen Mobile. Since then, the average subscriber’s volume of text messages has shot upward by 64 percent, while the average number of calls has dropped slightly. … more

Mobile broadband is becoming a more popular option than Wi-Fi hotspots which are location specific, it has been claimed. … more

Ericsson plans to establish an Innovation Centre in sub-Saharan Africa to develop mobile applications that will benefit society as a whole, but with a special focus on meeting the needs of poor and rural population . The initiative will focus on solutions in health, education, agriculture and small business development, and is a step in Ericsson’s ongoing commitment to support the achievement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. … more

A large-scale study of the long-term effects of cell-phone use needs to be carried out, medical professionals said at a congressional hearing … more