News In Brief: BT, Fiorina, Alca-Lu, NSN, Motorola

BT is at the mid point of the deployment of its million-strong Wi-Fi hotspot network High speed public wireless broadband is now available at 500,000 homes, businesses and city centres in the UK and Ireland.  4.8 million BT consumer and business broadband users have inclusive network minutes in their contracts to use the facilities. A further 50,000 hotspots are available in the UK and overseas through international roaming partners.

Former HP chief and Silicon Valley stalwart Carly Fiorina is running for one of two US Senate seats in California. Fiorina will first run for the Republican Party nomination, and if successful take on incumbent senator Barbara Boxer
 
Alcatel-Lucent has won a $26 million contract to install a communications infrastructure along the 500km Uzbekistan-China gas pipeline for owners JV Asia TransGas.
 
Nokia Siemens Networks said it would open an LTE “center of competence” in Dallas, which will employ 500 people. Meanwhile, NSN has appointed the leader of its North American business, Sue Spradley, to its executive board.

Motorola’s next-gen handsets will come pre-loaded with a movie download app, courtesy of a new partnership with Blockbuster.
 
Nokia Siemens Networks will supply Hutchison 3G Austria with extra microwave backhaul capacity. The extended contract with NSN will also enable ultra high-speed downloads as LTE is rolled out.