Asia Pacific

Japan's second-largest operator KDDI today revealed further plans for its launch of LTE networks, announcing Motorola and NEC as suppliers of radio access (base station) kit and declaring commercial availability by December 2012.

China Mobile - the world's largest operator by subscribers - is feeling the effects of the global downturn and increasing competition in its home market after posting its slowest growth in interim profit since the company listed in 1997.

TeleGeography, citing a bdnews24.com report, notes that GrameenPhone's IPO could be open for subscription in the last week of September, after receiving final regulatory approval yesterday.

Chairman Wang Jianzhou - head of China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers - is visiting Taiwan this week to forge partnerships with a number of local firms, including a large 3G handset deal with HTC and an e-book deal with Foxconn.

NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology have again pushed back the signing of a planned merger agreement, reports Telecompaper.

Bangladesh's Grameenphone has announced that its shares will be listed on the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges in the first week of October, reports Cellular News.

ZTE has won a WiMAX deployment contract in Ukraine from Icon Private Equity's portfolio company, Ukraine High Technologies (UHT), notes Cellular News.