This week Google shimmied its search out of mainland China, while Chinese operators counted the cost of rolling out 3G.
Domain registrar Go Daddy said it would stop taking .cn registrations in China because of privacy concerns, while Google called for new global trade rules to combat censorship, which it said limited free trade.
The cost of rolling out 3G drove down the earnings of China Telecom and China Unicom, with each facing higher marketing cost as 3G competition steps up. Telecom’s net fell 34% and Unicom’s underlying profit was down 35%.
Analysts warned that a sharp fall in Chinese network rollouts would hit Ericsson’s bottom line.
China Mobile and state-backed China Broadcast Corp. launched a mobile TV service using the locally-developed CMMB standard.
After two unsuccessful tilts at MTN, Bharti Airtel made its African breakthrough after Kuwaiti-based Zain accepted its net $9 billion (€6.75 million) offer.
Ciena finalised its acquisition of Nortel’s Metro Ethernet business. It said it would integrate Nortel’s optical transport gear into its portfolio, but not its metro Ethernet or optical switches.
For the first time, data overtook voice traffic on mobile networks, Ericsson said.
Broadband subs worldwide rose to 467 million last year, with IPTV subscriptions rising to 33 million, Point Topic said.
Telecom New Zealand said its recent 3G network meltdown was a result of bad software code and a router failure.
UK regulator Ofcom called for BT to make its ducts and poles available to its broadband competitors at no cost.
Skype’s founders set up a $165 million fund to back European disruptive technologies.
Police cracked down on violent flash mobs in Philadelphia.
And a UK health official linked a rise in syphilis to heavy Facebook use.