This week, Nokia Siemens finally admitted it doesn’t know when its Motorola acquisition will close, while French authorities claimed the largest cyber attack in the country’s history originated in China.
NSN delayed the completion date for its $1.2 billion acquisition of Motorola’s wireless assets indefinitely due to continuing scrutiny of the deal by Chinese anti-monopoly officials. The latest round of probes in the country could take up to three months to complete.
China found itself at the center of a cyber attack storm after French security agency ANSSI tracked stolen data back to the country. The information was gleaned in one of the largest cyber attacks in French history.
Research firm IHS iSuppli predicted LTE investments by Chinese operators will remain a fraction of their 3G spend, despite forecasting outlay on the 4G technology will double in 2011. Spending on LTE will hit $100 million this year, compared to $4.12 billion for 2G and 3, the firm states.
Lack of competition limited the sum raised in Sweden’s 4G spectrum auction, with research firm Coleago Consulting noting the 2.05 billion Swedish Kroner ($320 million) raised is 63% lower per MHz/POP than in Germany’s auction, and 32% lower than Hong Kong’s HK$1.9 billion ($243 million).
Proposals from Indian regulator TRAI over 2G spectrum re-licensing look set to cost carriers either some of their current allocation, or between 128.25 billion rupees ($2.8 billion) and 207.3 billion per MHz in additional spectrum fees. The current 20 year licenses expire in 2014.
Bharti Airtel revealed it has signed up 600,000 3G subscribers since launching services late January, with users typically consuming a terabyte of data a day in each city of operation.