News In Brief: Alca-Lu, T-Mobile, BSNL, Tata Comm, AsiaSat

Alcatel-Lucent has opened  the world's first alternative energy laboratory dedicated to the telecom sector at the Bell Labs research site in France.

T-Mobile USA is rumored to be planning a pre-paid service for RIM's BlackBerry handsets, which will be offered for at least the BlackBerry Pearl II.

The wireless infrastructure market contracted 22.4% year-on-year in Q1, although base station sales only fell  slightly, researchers EJL Wireless said.

BSNL will soon launch  a fresh Wimax tender, after a number of shell companies made the shortlist for the previous attempt, according to the Economic Times.

Tata Comm  and Cisco  have joined the Wimax Forum board of directors.

Hong Kong-based AsiaSat has formed a JV with EchoStar to deliver DTH satellite TV to Taiwan and other Asian markets. The TV service will broadcast from AsiaSat 4.