2012

Brazilian mobile penetration is expected to grow from 124% in 2011 to 153% in 2016 and IPTV services are expected to increase from 21,000 subscriptions in 2011 to 1.5 million …

India and Sri Lanka have signed an agreement for establishing a mechanism of technical and institutional cooperation in the field of telecommunications, with the purpose of development of telecommunications in both the countries.

During the last two years we’ve seen an increase in attacks on smartphones and mobile devices. We’ve run across rootkits, botnets and other malware. Attackers have moved on from simple destructive malware to spyware and malware that makes them money.

Emerging markets operators will hold off on LTE deployments in favor of upgrading their 3G networks to HSPA+. This technology provides spectral efficiency and headline data speeds similar to current implementations of LTE for the price of a software upgrade in most cases.

One of the biggest stories of 2012 will be whether anyone credibly challenges Apple and Google in mobile phones and the apps, content and services ecosystems that support them. Time is running out for Microsoft and RIM to convert consumers upgrading from featurephones; stealing subscribers away from iOS and Android will be an even more difficult task.

Mobile technologies in unpaired spectrum have always been a challenge for me. I’m not ignorant of the many local successes of WiMAX and other alternative wireless broadband technologies, but none have really become global movements in the way they would have liked.

Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) has wasted no time putting to use the AWS spectrum it bought from Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and other cable companies for $3.9 billion last month. …

Walmart got a bit more with the times and increased the competitive pressure in the no-contract space by announcing the addition of “unlimited” data services to its Family Mobile offering. …

A report by research firm Deloitte has predicted that 500 million smartphones with a retail price of $100 or less will likely be in use worldwide in 2012.

Mexican antitrust regulator Cofeco (Comision Federal de Competencia) is slowing down media company Grupo Televisa SAB’s plan to buy half of mobile phone group Iusacell, owned by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, …

The two major telecom operators in Mexico – fixed Telmex and mobile Telcel -, which together generate two-thirds of industry revenue, contribute less than one third of the investments. In …

6waves Lolapps is buying Dallas-based Escalation Studios for an undisclosed sum. 6waves claims to be the world’s second largest publisher of games on Facebook (behind Zynga), and with this acquisition …

Nokia has emerged as the most trusted brand of India in the Brand Trust Report 2012, prepared by Trust Research Advisory, an authority on the measurement of trust among brands.

2012 is forecasting to be a pivotal year for regional wireless carriers across the United States. Many of the issues we have been combating for several years will still be plaguing regional carriers, along with new issues that arise every day in this dynamic industry. Several of these issues will reach a crucial turning point for carriers. We begin 2012 with numerous questions and not enough answers.

We expect to see some traction on the TD-LTE front in India in the second half of 2012. Maravedis forecasts that the TD-LTE subscriber base in India will reach 2.25 million by the end of 2012. RIL, a pan-India license holder, is expected to lead the market in terms of the number of TD-LTE subscribers with a 62% market share in 2012.

Although smartphones seem like old news, their impact on the wireless industry is only beginning. In 2012, as these phones become truly mainstream consumer devices, sales volumes and data network traffic will skyrocket, forcing the wireless industry to completely rethink how it designs, sells, deploys and operates wireless services.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show was big on attendance, but small on news across the wireless space. Sure, there were a number of new devices announced at what is traditionally …

Clearwire (CLWR) reported an agreement with China Mobile (CHL) and the Global TD-LTE initiative for common test specifications and joint interoperability testing for the technology across global band configurations, including …

Indian telecom regulator has proposed an entry fee of $3.88 million for for a national level unified license from the current figure of $322.3 million.

Samsung Electronics says it plans to borrow roughly a billion dollars to fund operations at its chip-making facility in Austin. The Austin factory produces the A5 processor that powers Apple’s …

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has directed all telecom access service providers to update their subscribers about tariff plans.

Brazil closed 2011 with 242.2 million mobile subscribers –most of them prepaid and on GSM connections – with Vivo ending the year as the country’s largest carrier by market share, …

Microsoft has invested $10 million in a tech center located in São Paulo, its second and biggest center in Latin America joining a previously launched center in Mexico City. Microsoft …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. The arrival …