First Tizen Based Smartphones to Be Shown Off Next February:

Tizen, one of the alternative smartphone operating systems that has been under development for a while should see its first commercial phones shown off  next February.

Invites have been sent out to a press event on the 23rd February, the day before the Mobile World Congress opens in Barcelona for a preview of the new phones.

Tizen is backed by companies such as Samsung and Intel as an alternative to the dominant Android OS. There had been expectation that the first Tizen based smartphones would go on sale late this year, but that appears to have been pushed back until next year at the earliest.

Tizen is based on Linux and formed by the merger of the Linux and Limo Foundations.

Mobilicity Said to Receive Takeover Bid from Rival:

Struggling Canadian mobile network, Mobilicity is reported to have received a takeover bid from a rival small network that could see the two merge to form a stronger competitor to the big three networks.

However, the bid from Wind Mobile is said to be about half the offer made by Telus, that was later blocked by the government.

Wind's offer for somewhere in the region of C$165 million was submitted just before court-monitored bidding was due to close.

Telsus' offer would have paid off all of Mobilicity's debt, so the offer from Wind Mobile could leave debt holders out of pocket, unless the offer included Wind taking on the debt itself.

The merger of the two smaller networks could lead to some necessary consolidation in the market, and enable the government to maintain its aim of at least four networks in each part of the country.

None of the companies commented on the record as the court process is still private.

Europe Moves Close to a Single Charger Standard for All Phones:

The European Union has approved the final stage of plans to require a single common phone charger standard for all phones sold in the region, although full compliance could take up to three more years.

The common charger is part of a provisional deal on radio equipment rules struck by politicians and the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of Ministers on Thursday.

"I am especially pleased that we agreed on the introduction of a common charger - although the Council and the Commission were hesitant at first. This will benefit the consumers", said rapporteur Barbara Weiler after the successful outcome of the negotiations with the Council.

The draft directive lays down harmonised rules for placing radio equipment, including cellular telephones, car door openers and modems, on the market. The rules aim to keep pace with the growing number and variety of radio equipment devices and ensure that they do not interfere with each other while respecting essential health and safety requirements.

Common charger

European politicians ensured that the new radio equipment rules will oblige manufacturers to make mobile phones compatible with a common charger. It will simplify the use of radio equipment and reduce unnecessary waste and cost for

Cutting red tape

Customers will also face less paper work when buying radio equipment, because manufactures will be allowed to leave out a separate "book" of declaration of conformity, in favour of a simplified statement on conformity with a web link to a full declaration.

Vodafone Served With Another Indian Tax Demand:

Vodafone has been issued with another tax demand from the Indian authorities, and given just 30 days to make the payment of nearly US$600 million.

The company says that the tax demand is not valid and it plans to appeal.

Vodafone's local customer service division, which provides services to the Group's companies around the world was issued with the Rs3700 crore (US$591.4 million) tax demand from the Income Tax Department. The amount includes interest from when the I-T Dept claims that the tax was due.

The assessment is for the year 2008-09 and follows an earlier draft transfer pricing order that sought to add Rs 8500 crore to the company's taxable income.

Transfer pricing is the method that subsidiaries within a Group charge each other for services. Divisions are required to bill each other for services based on fair pricing as if operating in an open market to avoid distortions and tax avoidance.

"Vodafone maintains that there is no tax payable on this transaction and the company will file an appeal before the tax appeal tribunal as soon as possible," the company told the Economic Times newspaper.

MasterCard Expands Mobile Money Transfer Capabilities:

MasterCard is acquiring a majority stake in HomeSend, a mobile money joint venture set up by eServGlobal and BICS.

The HomeSend platform was first to market in offering international mobile remittances and now has live deployments in 50 countries.

MasterCard will tie the service into its own chain of credit card processors to offer new options and flexibility for sending or receiving funds and enable cross border remittance payments worldwide.

"HomeSend will provide an important platform to deliver improved remittance services, and bring person-to-person transfer capabilities to more financially underserved consumers around the globe," stated Ed McLaughlin, Chief Emerging Payments Officer at MasterCard. "MasterCard, eServGlobal and BICS each brings its own unique contribution to the newly formed entity. Collectively, we have an opportunity to improve people's lives."

MasterCard will own a controlling share of the HomeSend JV. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Software Veteran Leads Intel Services Charge:

The mobile revolution has put powerful computers in our pockets and the explosion of connected devices -- the Internet of Things -- is bringing technology into more parts of our lives. To deliver the experiences we've come to expect, those tens of billions of devices rely upon connecting to cloud software and services. And behind the scenes, software and service providers must reach across platforms to meet escalating user expectations -- even if that means supporting a rival's hardware.

Hank Skorny, a 25-year veteran of the software and mobile services industry, knows well the challenge of escalating expectations. He joined Intel in 2011 and leads the company's growing services business. ­In a recent interview, Skorny discussed the multibillion-dollar market for services, how location-based services can literally save lives and how having the right timing when entering a market can be critical to success or failure.

Telecommunications Data Show Civic Dividing Lines in Major Countries:

Many residents of Britain, Italy, and Belgium imagine there to be a kind of north-south divide in their countries, marking a barrier between different social groups and regional characteristics. Now a new study by MIT researchers reveals that such divides can be seen in the patterns of communication in those countries and others.

Telecommunications data in Britain, for instance, show that only about 9.5 percent of communications cross a line about 100 miles north of London. In Italy, only 7.8 percent of communications cross a line roughly along the northern border of the Emilio-Romagna region, above which lie the industrial and commercial metropolises of Milan and Turin.

These invisible borders, the researchers say, help us grasp the social, civic, and commercial interactions that exist in contemporary nations, and may be of use to government officials and other policy experts.

"We are looking at networks to think about how communities are structured over space," says Carlo Ratti, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, director of MIT's Senseable City Lab, and a co-author of a new paper summarizing the results. The study is part of a larger effort, he adds, to see "how we can use these technologies to better understand the extent of constituencies and communities."

The paper, "Delineating geographical regions with networks of human interactions in an extensive set of countries," is being published this week in the journal PLOS ONE. The findings show that, for all the digital connectivity in civic life today, people still connect in "a geographically cohesive, connected set of communities," says Stanislav Sobolevsky, a researcher at the Senseable City Lab and a co-author of the paper.