Huawei Denies Hacking into BSNL Base Stations:

China's Huawei has denied media reports that it had hacked into the infrastructure of the state-owned mobile network operator, BSNL, and said it will work with the authorities to address any security concerns.

India's ICT Minister, Killi Kruparani told the parliament that the government is investigating the claims that at least one base station in Andhra Pradesh had been targeted by the Chinese vendor.

"The government has constituted an interministerial team to investigate the matter," Minister of State for Communications and IT Killi Kruparani informed the Lok Sabha.

"Huawei India denies such alleged hacking and continues to work closely with customers and government in India to address any network security issue- that may arise in technical and business operations - with full compliance on network security norms, regulations and laws," Scott Sykes, Vice President, Head of International Media Affairs of Huawei stated.

Huawei Telecoms Equipment Targeted by NSA Spies:

Analysis of NSA documents released by the whistleblower Edward Snowden has shown that the US spy agency directly targeted equipment manufactured by China's Huawei.

The documents show that at least two, possibly three projects that were given individual codenames targeted Huawei routers, firewalls and network equipment known to have been sold to at least three major mobile network operators.

As a telecoms equipment vendor, Huawei would have been just one of many telecoms manufacturers targeted by the US spies.

Although Huawei has always denied it, there are these persistent allegations that the company was some sort of backdoor for Chinese spies, and yet it finds itself in the curious position of having been targeted to act as a backdoor for US spies instead.

The documents raise some uncomfortable questions, particularly for politicians who have accused the company of being a front for the Chinese military.

In October 2012, the USA's House Intelligence Committee carried out an investigation and concluded by recommending that US firms avoid doing business with the Chinese supplier, although much of the report's allegations appeared to be based on dissatisfaction with the company shareholding structure and openness than any proven security threat.

Ethiopian Authorities Release Seized Huawei Equipment:

Ethiopian authorities have released US$13 million worth of network equipment that it had seized as part of a dispute over import taxes.

The Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) confiscated the 235 items of equipment last year following allegations that Huawei was not paying import taxes.

It has now secured an agreement where it will pay some of the disputed tax, as well as the custom's offices warehousing costs for storing the equipment.

The tax dispute did not stop Huawei recently being awarded a US$800 million network upgrade contract by the state-owned monopoly mobile network operator. There have been questions raised though as to why Huawei was apparently shipping equipment for the upgrade ahead of the contract being awarded.

China Mobile selects Micropross NFC Forum test tools for acceptance testing:

China Mobile, one of the world’s most important mobile network operator, has selected Micropross NFC Forum test tool for compliance testing of NFC enabled devices, before allowing them to be sold on the China Mobile point of sales.

NFC (Near Field Communication) is one of the most discussed technology of the moment, because it paves the way for new use cases around mobile devices, such as smartphones, or tablet PC. Those use cases include payment, exchange of data, and easy synchronization with other hardware such as headsets. The number of NFC enabled devices grows on a daily basis, and in order to verify the good interoperability between those devices, Micropross has developed a full range of compliance platforms, aiming at payment (EMVCo), NFC (NFC Forum) and general contactless (ISO) conformance testing.

China Mobile, in order to ensure the best experience to their users, have the strict policy of submitting all devices submitted by their different vendors to a full acceptance round, in their own laboratories. With the growing momentum of NFC, it became important for China Mobile to include tests for this technology, and after a comprehensive evaluation process, they selected Micropross Contactless Test Station as the tool they would use for this purpose.

Firefox OS Smartphones Go On Sale in More Countries:

Telenor has announced that their first Firefox OS phones went on sale in Hungary last week and sales begin in Serbia and Montenegro now. The mobile network operator also announced plans to bring Firefox OS phones to Asia in 2014.

Followed by a wave of launches in Latin America in October, Firefox OS phones have also launched in more European markets recently.

In the last few weeks, Deutsche Telekom started offering Firefox OS phones through Telekom in Hungary and Cosmote in Greece. Earlier this year, Deutsche Telekom launched Firefox OS phones through T-Mobile in Poland.

Firefox OS based smartphones are now available in 13 countries with more coming soon.

In related news, Geeksphone, a Firefox OS smartphone vendor appears to be working in a new handset that can support both Android and Firefox in the same phone.

Mobily Extends Takeover Talks for Local Landline Operator by Two Months

Saudi Arabia's Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) is taking longer to complete a previously announced deal to buy the local landline operator, Etihad Atheeb.

The company announced back in August that it was to buy a majority stake in the landline network, and had set a deadline of the end of this month to secure the regulatory approvals and complete due diligence on the firm.

It has now extended the talks until the end of next January, and the talks are no longer exclusive, allowing a rival bidder to emerge. Bahrain's Batelco owns a 15% stake in the company, but has shied away from buying the entire company in the past.

Etihad Atheeb had itself previously expressed an interest in buying a stake in a mobile network operator, but has posted years of losses and was now seen as a likely target for a buyout by one of the country's mobile networks instead.

Etihad Atheeb Telecom is a joint venture of Atheeb Trading Company, Al-Nahla Trading Company, Bahrain's Batelco and Traco Company. Just under half its shares are listed on the stock exchange, where its shares have been suspended several times over the years due to its ongoing losses.

Mali Awarded Third Mobile Operator License:

The government of Mali had granted a mobile operator license to a consortium, the Planor-Monaco Telecom International Group - making it the third mobile network operator in the country.

Monaco Telecom is the technical partner in the consortium, which operates through the Malian company, Alpha Telecom Mali, which is understood to be controlled by the local businessman, Apollinaire Compaoré, who owns Télécel Faso in Burkina Faso, and is a shareholder in MTN Côte d'Ivoire.

The consortium paid US$105 million for the 15-year license, which had been expected to be awarded late last year.

The country is currently in the news for other reasons, due to the Islamist civil war in the north of the country and the recent intervention of the French military in that conflict.

The two existing operators are France Telecom-Orange and Maroc Telecom's Malitel.

Kenya's Safaricom Warned Against Raising Telecoms Taxes:

Kenya's largest mobile network operator, Safaricom had warned the government against raising more taxes on mobile money services saying that they would adversely affect the poorer people of the country.

Safaricom's CEO, Bob Collymore said that tax rises could put its M-Pesa mobile money service beyond the reach of the poor, leading to a decline in financial inclusion, especially in rural areas.

The company has already absorbed a 10% tax that was imposed last year, at a cost of US$4.6 million to date.

Collymore added that around 28% of total telecoms revenues already go to the taxman.

The warning came as local county governments have started adding their own charges on telecoms networks, especially on infrastructure permits, and are said to be looking at adding taxes on local mobile money transactions.