NEWS IN BRIEF: GSMA, Certicom, Mobile TV, India, Australia

The GSMA says 4 billion mobile phone connections worldwide are now in service and predicts the number will increase to 6 billion by 2013.

Security software vendor Certicom has agreed to be acquired by RIM for C$131 million ($106.5 million). RIM recently doubled its bid to C$3 per share, ahead of a VeriSign offer of C$2.10 per share.

Mobile TV services will attract a global viewership of 500 million by 2013, says ABI Research. This growth will be led by the switchover to all-digital TV, which will soon occur in a number of major markets.

India's GSM providers attracted 9.3 million new subscribers in January, and now have a combined 267.5 million customers, TelecomTiger said.

The Australian government has chosen six broadband providers to participate in its trials of its controversial ISP-level filtering - Primus, Tech 2U, Webshield, OMNIconnect, Netforce and Highway 1.