Operators

Dow Jones Newswires reports that Bharti Airtel’s chairman Sunil Mittal and MTN chief executive Phuthuma Nhleko met today with India's federal finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as the two companies strive to come closer to a deal to combine.

Bloomberg notes that China’s Huawei has garnered a 10 percent market share in Europe and expects to gain more ground this year.

US operator AT&T has reportedly begun rolling out 3G services in the 850MHz spectrum band with positive results from users. The company has previously operated 3G networks in the 1900MHz band, but the new spectrum has been freed up by the closure last year of its TDMA network.

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.

T-Mobile claims it has developed the world's first test of multi-user broadband services with mobility on a Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) using LTE in the city of Innsbruck in Austria, reports Telecompaper.

Cellular News reports that BT and Vodafone have announced that they have received approval from the Irish Competition Authority for plans by BT to transfer its customer base to Vodafone, while also providing wholesale network services to Vodafone for seven years.

Spain's Telefonica is to increase its investment in its Ecuador subsidiary by 30 percent this year, the unit's marketing manager said this week, reports Wall Street Journal. In March