Ukraine's second-largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC), has announced plans to launch a fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) service in the first half of 2007.

The parliamentary communications policy committee in Bulgaria has announced that analogue TV licences will continue to be awarded until the end of 2008, or 12 months longer than had previously been planned.

Moscow CableCom Corp (MCC) is to be taken over by the Russian private equity group Renova in a deal worth around $152 million (€115.7 million).

The European Commission said Monday it had launched a lawsuit against Germany over a law allowing Deutsche Telekom AG to keep rivals off its high-speed Internet networks.

Swisscom has announced plans to commence a WiMAX field trial in the Swiss city of Boltigen from April 2007. In a statement, Swisscom said that this will be the first time it will test the new technology since receiving its Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licence in 2006.

New satellite operator ProtoStar has chosen Arianespace to launch DTH satellite ProtoStar I. ProtoStar I will be placed into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, during the first half of 2008.

Cypriot-Moldovan company Eventis Mobile has received a license to provide GSM 900/1800 mobile services in Moldova, the press office of Moldova's National Agency for Telecommunications and Information Regulation.

The home security industry remains one of traditional telecom's last bastions, with most home security systems continuing to rely solely on PSTN connections to relay intruder notification alerts.

EuroNews has launched on the Orange mobile network in Poland. The latter, which is operated by PTK Centertel, itself owned by the France Telecom-backed incumbent telco TPSA, began this year with 12.5 million subscribers.

Only weeks after selling his company's 3G access equipment business to Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel Networks Ltd. CEO Mike Zafirovski told a keynote audience here this morning that 3G isn't good enough to meet wireless broadband demands.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the global set top box market has been experiencing significant growth, largely due to the emergence of IPTV, DVRs, and the growing popularity of HDTV. With consumers demanding increased control over the TV viewing experience, there has been a continuous rise in the use of set top box technology across the world.

Sweden’s MTG has reported generally positive results for its operations in Central and Eastern Europe. Its Viasat FTA and pay-TV operations in the region saw their income in Q4 2006 rise to SEK553 million (€60.2 million), or 49% more than the corresponding period in 2005.

Alcatel-Lucent has received a contract from T-Mobile, the wireless business unit of Deutsche Telekom, one of the world's largest service providers, to enhance its GSM network with the latest generation of GSM/EDGE technology, dramatically increasing its speed. EDGE technology enables data rates of up to 220 kbit/s, and this upgrade will significantly increase today's GPRS data rates and offers data transmission rates of nearly four times that offered by ISDN.

Portugal Telecom's wireline business, PT Comunicações, provided the first public presentation of their IPTV project at a press conference today. Rodrigo Costa, president of PT Comunicações, said PT will begin to pilot IPTV in June of 2007. Costa said the company's IPTV initiative is one of the most important projects in the next few years for the telecom.

The Croatian satellite service provider Croatel has obtained permission from the country’s telecommunications agency to undertake a DVB-T/DVB-H trial in Zagreb and other major cities. It now plans to employ the newest 8000 series generation of encoders and multiplexers from Tandberg, along with RF equipment from Harris, to establish an MPEG-4 platform offering one HD and five SD channels.

Silicon & Software Systems (S3) and Irdeto revealed a new solution that allows operators to deliver Mobile TV, via a DVB-H network, to both desktop and laptop PCs using commonly available components.

Russia’s Sistema Mass Media (SMM) has outlined its plans for a mobile TV service. Speaking exclusively to Broadband TV News, the company’s MD Michael Dounaev said it is currently exploring potential joint ventures with either SK Telecom (Korea), Naspers or T-Systems ahead of a launch later this year. Initially FTA, the service would be rolled out on a commercial basis in 2008.

According to local reports, Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, the owner of the Polish national commercial broadcaster Polsat, is planning up to two IPOs at the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

According to a new ABI Research Brief, network operators are slowly beginning to roll out all-IP next generation networks (NGN). The move to an Internet Protocol-based infrastructure is a natural evolution for the fixed network as broadband services, including Voice over IP, take over from the Public Switched Telephone Network.

Viewers in Russia can expect to be offered at least six HD channels by this autumn. Earlier this week the DTH platform NTV-Plus announced at CSTB in Moscow that it will be launching three HD channels at the end of March.