Video exec says dynamic ad-splicing systems are ready to pay the freight on Comcast's 400M monthly VoD streams

5:55 PM The optical division, not all of NSN. But even that might be a stretch

Orange Director of Technical Strategy Yves Bellego discusses the proper placement of small cells (in location and importance) as the operator builds out its LTE networks

Cubes, bees, balls and young women with blue hair ... they're why we carry a camera at Mobile World Congress!

Comcast's EVP and GM of data and communications services discusses the MSO's deal with Verizon Wireless, and what's on deck with Skype and Wi-Fi

3:00 PM At least one wireless operator says customer experience management is helping bring in more revenues

Riot police are flanking student protesters as the front gates to Mobile World Congress are shut down in Barcelona UPDATED 5:45PM

Operator CEO says there have been initial approaches from Facebook and Google about sharing revenues in return for mobile QoS guarantees

Dr. Michael Hecker, VP of strategy and corporate development at Russian operator MTS, talks about the carrier's ongoing growth and why it has opted out of LTE network sharing

With speedy 3G networks, the Spanish giant is in no rush to deploy LTE

Telefonica shows off just how fast LTE can be with a little help from AlcaLu's lightRadio metrocells deployed here in the Fira conference grounds

TeliaSonera takes a stand against over-the-top services and says users will have to pay for VoIP

10:00 AM Cheap Androids are cleaning iPhone's clock when subsidies are removed, but are big subsidies sustainable, even in the US?

10:00 AM T-Mobile's marketing challenge may be as great as its technical one as it seeks to convince consumers to move from '4G' HSPA+ to 4G LTE

Also: Ziggo goes for IPO; Comcast still says no to usage-based broadband; fewer than 1M Google TV devices activated

9:00 AM M2M devices are everywhere in Barcelona as wireless operators try to connect to just about any device with a current

Euronews celebrates Leap Day with – guess what? – a roundup of what's happening in EMEA telecom. (Who says we can't think outside the box?)

T-Mobile's CTO and SVP of Products discuss how Magenta will rebuild its network and revamp its marketing as it plans for LTE by 2013

If HSPA+ was 4G, then what's LTE? As it rebuilds from the AT&T merger fallout and works to deploy LTE, T-Mobile's stepping up its marketing messages

3:00 AM Ethernet Europe Chairman Stan Hubbard tells us what to expect

2:00 AM Sure, maybe it's true that connectivity can bring peace, love and harmony – but enough, already

Akamai Technologies has launched 'Aura Network Solutions,' a set of licensed CDN products aimed at network operators

Fed up with the OSS mess, Deutsche Telekom and other operators want new standards, which DT intends to put into RFPs by 2015

Cablevision's capex will rise above last year's $814.8M as the MSO accelerates some projects it had teed up for 2013

Ahuja says aloha as LightSquared begins its search for a CEO who won't call the FCC names

Sprint will sell $2B in notes for refinancing and network upgrades, but some cash may be earmarked to aid Clearwire

11:30 AM At Mobile World Congress, small cells appear to have finally found their speedy, cloudy niche

11:00 AM What is the vendor's big message in Barcelona? And what's it costing?

To be sure their Ethernet links can handle Multi-CoS, service providers need a pre-deployment proofing mechanism such as ITU-T Y.1564

The sun is shining and the networks are shrinking – yes, it's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona!

Also: Comcast-TiVo hook-up inches closer to launch; Google eyes easier fiber deployments; Moto invests in MediaMorph

Alcatel-Lucent announces a product co-development program with big operators, including Verizon and Orange, for its lightRadio small cells

7:45 AM Mimicking HTC's early days, the Chinese handset maker plans a slew of new Android and Windows Phone devices that it hopes will dent the US market

Cisco CEO Chambers pre-announces small-cell launch at Mobile World Congress, places tiny radios in a larger cloud context

In today's Barcelona bulletin: Vodafone looks to share cost of fiber rollout; Telefónica and Mozilla hatch plans; Ericsson's OpenStacked

Infrastructure vendor claims it has eight LTE contracts and 30 pilots in tow and is poised to become the third-largest player in the category

The vendor takes its shot at letting consumers chat across any network, with an eye toward eventual operator-owned services and VoLTE

CEO Hans Vestberg talks about being 'No. 1' in LTE and says the pairing with Telcordia makes Ericsson an interesting market mover

Ericsson CEO talks about mobile networks and OSS/BSS market share, LTE success, small cells and his company's new partnership with money transfer giant Western Union

Diane Scott, chief marketing officer at Western Union and president at Western Union Ventures, talks about her company's new mobile money relationship with Ericsson

An optional, by-the-gigabyte 'Essentials' service puts a friendlier spin on the idea that got TW Cable lambasted three years ago

TiVo integration takes higher priority in the MSO's near-term video game plan

Going up against Cisco (and, yeah, HP and IBM), Dell knits together its acquisitions, including Force10, for one big honkin' enterprise play

Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio is 'the iPhone of mobile infrastructure' and it's protected accordingly here in Barcelona

Western Union is Ericsson's new partner as the vendor ramps up its mobile money strategy, but its cloud plans remain unconvincing

2:10 PM With all these connected devices and data plans, how the hell will we actually pay for the wireless home of the future anyway?

A deal may still be inevitable, but Sprint management may be out of step with its board of directors, analysts speculate

Also: Adobe puts more hooks into TV Everywhere, Google gets out of Clearwire while cable stays in, Netflix gives RIM the cold shoulder

Except the crowds!

Chinese handset maker's slew of Android smartphones and tablets announced at MWC will features its new user interface skin

It's all about Mobile World Congress today as Nokia brings out a cheaper Lumia, Orange gets Atom-ized and Ericsson heads for the cloud

Carriers and hardware providers have made it too hard for users to easily talk to others over mobile video, says AT&T boss at MWC

NSN looks to small-cell technology acquired from Motorola to give it a boost in North America

This week's top telecom stories, as chosen by the readers of Matt's Mentions

4:15 AM Beta program brings the VoIP app to Windows Phone, but Microsoft likely has more up its sleeve – if the operators will stand for it

An Orange-branded, Atom-powered smartphone is coming to France and the UK at a mass-market price

South Korean operator taps Mindspeed for LTE-optimized small cells, Light Reading Mobile has learned

Chinese handset maker is using its own quad-core chip to build what it's calling the world's fastest, most power-efficient smartphone

Telefonica takes first step toward a 4G HetNet with the deployment of AlcaLu's lightRadio metrocells at the Fira conference center

5:25 PM Even though terabit work is already underway, it might not be too early to start worrying

4:30 PM AT&T and Verizon are the biggest and they're only going to get bigger. Should we expect them to be the best, too?

Rogers boots up NextBox 2.0, a Videoscape-powered system featuring a souped-up gateway, a cloud-based UI and live TV streaming to tablets

Cisco is talking about putting silicon-photonics modules onto switches and routers sometime before late 2013

AT&T is planning to deploy self-healing technology across its network to improve performance

The explosive growth of mobile broadband service usage is creating a surge in demand for mobile application management

Cisco sees optical interconnects using silicon photonics as a way to make routers and switches handle more data at lower costs

Also: EchoStar posts Q4 loss; Dish to close more Blockbusters; Google picks Sanjay Jha's successor; lower STB shipments sting Technicolor

LR Mobile preps for MWC, where Google will be huge, Ubuntu tackles the phone dock, Nokia's going cheap, Fujitsu's getting a quad-core and Windows 8 is unveiled (again)

With a number of LTE TDD network deals under its belt, Huawei is preparing to launch its first smartphone supporting that technology

8:30 AM What (and whom) to watch out for as the optical industry returns to Los Angeles with 100G and more on its mind

8:00 AM This week: Video CDNs; telecom markets in Taiwan and the Netherlands; MVNOs in Romania; LTE in Moscow

In today's EMEA roundup: domestic woes continue for Spanish giant; Ericsson boosts 3 Italia's backhaul; Colt results less than frisky

Is this the end of text as we know it? Carrier trends suggest so :-(

Vendor unveils its AtomCell mini radio access network (RAN) unit and a separate combined antenna/RF unit for deployment in dense urban areas

Its initial LTE deployment will offer a maximum download speed of 72 Mbit/s – not that you'll get all of that

Michael Ansley, executive head of business partners at South African operator Cell C, talks to Pyramid Research analyst Badii Kechiche about the emerging 3G market and how Cell C is dealing with increasing data services competition

San Francisco is the first Comcast market to test out a system that links TiVo Premiere DVRs bought at retail to the MSO's VoD service

But Cisco turned down the deal – and that has nothing to do with why it's is now protesting Microsoft's pickup of Skype

1:55 PM Then pack this blog for the trip!

T-Mobile is challenged to move existing mobile broadband users quickly off the bandwidth it wants for a new 4G offering

Dish's Charlie Ergen gives the company's LTE plans an 80% chance of success, but warns that the FCC's finger is on the 'self-destruct button'

Service providers are embracing 100GE and deployments will ramp as ecosystem development helps drive affordability

Heavy Reading Chief Analyst Graham Finnie looks at all the angles he'll be tackling around policy control at Mobile World Congress, including charging, RAN congestion, analytics and diameter routing

Also: Pace to port TiVo UI in set-tops and gateways; Liberty Global eyes Ziggo, posts Q4 loss

There's more to the 'New Ethernet' but '2.0' was short enough to fit in a headline

The contract-free carrier plans to launch VoLTE in late 2012 as it says Qualcomm's 8960 chips are not yet 'fully baked'

Operators face a number of challenges as they build out their IP networks. Heavy Reading senior analyst Stan Hubbard identifies some of those key issues, including convergence, interoperability and network visibility

Pyramid Research analyst Eulalia Marin-Sorribes talks about the development of telco video and TV services in Latin America

T-Mobile says it will update 4G services in 2013 with LTE, as it plans a big $4B spend on network upgrades over time

8:10 AM Don't be a pain in the app – follow these guidelines!

Samsung's cost-cutting is making set-tops an even suckier business, but Cisco insists it's still committed to the boxes

8:00 AM Why bother investing in 3-D, HD, video-enabled mobile ads, when SMS is the only way not to annoy consumers?

In today's EMEA roundup: Deutsche Telekom records heavy Q4 loss; Telekom Austria also struggles; London's lamp posts sprout small cells

Israel-based DesignArt Networks beefs up its small-cell backhaul chipsets

LRTV’s South African adventure

A silly list from two silly people who didn't want to wait until tomorrow to get an angle on the 'new Ethernet'

Only months after its initial assault on the session border controller market, Metaswitch goes virtual

MSO-led JV to lay off 120 employees, shut down its NYC office and change course to focus solely on cross-platform VoD ad insertion

Operator says that 4G service is back after 'brief' 4G outage on Wednesday morning

Docomo increases network investment to cope with the rise of smartphone signaling traffic on its network

Major cable operators are now building video-optimized content delivery networks (CDNs) that promise to deliver a full range of IP-based video offerings

Just in time for the RSA Conference, Juniper announces a security acquisition with implications for the cloud

Analyst points to longer revenue recognition times and not a weakness in the business, though others are more cautious

11:25 AM Catching thieves is only one of the many apps wireless operators may consider to add big value to small cells

Among claims, T-Mobile says the deal will harm smaller carriers and put too much spectrum in the hands of Verizon Wireless

Also: Ceton slashes price on CableCARD PC-TV tuner; BendBroadband lights up HBO GO; UK earmarks cash to handle LTE-TV interference

10:10 AM Move over Samsung and Apple, there'll be a new crop of handset manufacturers making news in Spain

Group CTO Olivier Baujard has left Deutsche Telekom as the operator launches a technology review

In today's EMEA roundup: French giant's earnings down 4.8% in 2011; Deutsche Telekom loses its CTO; Yota's overnight LTE sensation

6:10 AM Plan for gradual migration from WiMax to LTE replaced by overnight switch in Moscow

4:20 AM The GSM Association updates on its Barcelona transport strike contingency plans

5:05 PM Expect words like combo, mixed and multi-mode to be very much in vogue in Barcelona next week

Small carriers that want to offer cloud services must be ready to think different and reshape their service catalog, says CHR exec

MSO plans debut of Xfinity Streampix, a subscription OTT video service that will be kept out of the hands of cord-cutters

'We need to build coverage where we haven't been before,' Ericsson's CTO says of vendor's move to buy into public Wi-Fi with BelAir

The gloves are off as the MSO claims its erstwhile wireless partner is infringing on four patents linked to services such as MMS and SMS

Also: Evolution gets NCTC hunting license; Cass Cable says goodbye to MPEG-2; TiVo to remove Blockbuster app

RIM brings important missing features to its tablet, but everyone is asking, is it too little, too late?

Its Multimedia unit becomes Business Unit Support System (BUSS) as it increases focus on OSS/BSS following Telcordia acquisition

Ericsson snaps up BelAir Networks in a bid to add Wi-Fi to its HetNet offering

Cisco tries to defuse the rumor that its set-top unit is for sale, noting that John Chambers says it's committed to the market, and that's that

In today's EMEA roundup: NSN beefs up its mobile infrastructure offer; Ericsson sees its future in SPIT; Turkcell's future ownership uncertain

Ahead of Mobile World Congress 2012, Heavy Reading senior analyst Gabriel Brown talks about small cells, Wi-Fi in mobile networks and voice over LTE (VoLTE)

CSL becomes one of world's first mobile operators to launch LTE voice services

F5 is buying LTE signaling management specialist Traffix to boost its opportunities with mobile operators

This week's top telecom stories, as chosen by the readers of Matt's Mentions

In today's EMEA roundup: NSN opens second US Smart Lab; Fujitsu wants in on Euro mobile device market; Apple and Motorola aren't very FRANDly

Wi-Fi offload vendor's latest product line goes all-in with Wi-Fi, 3G, LTE and backhaul

Comcast Media Center lets cable partners feed off a video CDN that forms the basis of the MSO's Project Infinity VoD initiative

BAM! Now Falcone's fund is hit with a lawsuit as hell week for LightSquared continues

Qualcomm, Broadcom and Avago all score renewed three-year OEM deals worth $6B in total to supply Huawei with chips

Shares jump 30% Friday as the online video publishing company raises $55M

Missed deadlines have apparently led to a parting of the ways between the MSO and Charlie Ergen's video tech spinoff

More pictures from the FTTH Europe Conference 2012 in Munich where doctors were on hand to treat the broadband patients

Also: Ice Cream Sandwich melts down, but Jelly Bean is coming soon; Apple's got a Mountain Lion; HP gets its groove back

Also: Comcast promotes Avgiris; Cablevision subs get their game on; Hulu Plus invades the Wii

8:00 AM This week: Global view of MVNOs; Western European telcos and cloud computing; Nigeria's telecom outlook; microwave backhaul in India

The Amsterdam Internet Exchange is one of those users that always needs more speed now, and that also goes for distance too, in this case

In today's EMEA roundup: AlcaLu in line for national Telefonica LTE deal; Euro giants seek access prices boost; Apple tops UK smartphones list

4:30 AM With little more than a week to go, Barcelona's metro and bus staff are still planning to strike during MWC week

A look at where the two big carriers are taking LTE in 2012. Oh, and Sprint, too

As mobile networks face denial-of-service attacks and other threats, Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Patrick Donegan highlights the network security options available to mobile network operators

Cricket's LTE network won't be as zippy as its rivals' as it builds it out on 5x5 or lower MHz channels

The startup's broadcast-TV plan has precedents on its side, but the right legal play would make Aereo dead meat, an analyst says

1:00 PM The newly single Sony Mobile needs to make a big splash when it reintroduces the brand at Mobile World Congress

While Harbinger chief Philip Falcone seeks a spectrum swap that could save the day for the would-be wholesale 4G provider

Intellectual Venture says the three wireless operators infringed on 12 of its network-related patents

Also: DirecTV makes hay in Latin America; Comcast shares surge even with its D3 gaps; TW Cable preps bigger Android play

Europe's FTTH subs base is set to grow by more than 200% in the next five years, but that growth is mostly in the east, notes Heavy Reading analyst

The cloud services infrastructure collaboration between Orange Business Services and SITA is set to launch in June

U.K.-based ip.access reveals plans for its first LTE product and picks a new chip supplier

Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Adi Kishore explains how caching capabilities can play a role in the content management strategies of mobile operators

In today's EMEA roundup: German giant considers sale of Everything Everywhere stake; Ericsson's out of handsets; Telenor/VimpelCom latest

Pyramid Research EMEA Manager Badii Kechiche talks about the mobile growth opportunities in Africa's consumer and enterprise markets

Europe's fiber access fraternity has gathered in snowy Munich to check out the latest techs and trends ... and beer

CFO says the company wants to hit $300M from its vendors toward its LTE build in 2012 and 2013

Cisco wants the European Commission to force Microsoft to open up and make Skype play nice with other video conferencing products

By knowing customers better, cloud service providers can capitalize on $68B global market for SMB services

Also: FCC might extend analog TV rule; TWC CTO to keynote SCTE's Canadian confab; telcos top Ethernet rankings

FCC says it will reject LightSquared's plan after an NTIA report showing interference with GPS services

The CenturyLink merger is bringing Savvis cloud services to the SMB market, but users are sometimes expecting more than cloud can deliver in its early days

BT Group VP Mark Bagley says businesses wanting to use Facebook and mobile are looking to cloud services to help them ramp quickly

Cloudy shots of a clearly cloudy conference

Skype co-founder's startup signs an additional 4G wholesale agreement, but LightSquared says it still has a deal with the free mobile venture

12:00 PM Goodbye, femtos. Hello, 'small cells'

Even FTTH Council Europe admits Western Europe is lagging behind, with its director general poking the Tier 1 operators to get a move on

The arrival of mobile broadband services will require a major retooling of India's backhaul infrastructure.

Comcast hopes to have its next-gen video platform, formerly known as Xcalibur, in front of 'hundreds of thousands' of subs in 2012

10:40 AM In Berlin, the FTTH hype machine is in full swing

With $21.7M more under its belt, the Wi-Fi offload vendor is eyeing a public offering and narrowing in on the service providers

MSO's profits surge 26 percent as it sheds 17,000 video subs in the fourth quarter, versus 135,000 in the year-ago period

Vendor says its small-cell backhaul offerings will be based on 60GHz technology

In today's EMEA roundup: France Telecom's not happy with new mobile entrant; UK operators hit by MTR cuts; NSN in Poland position

Light Reading talks to the GSM Association's Chief Marketing Officer Michael O'Hara about this year's Mobile World Congress, the 'fringe', RCS-e, entertainment, awards and the Euro 2012 soccer tournament

LightSquared howls in protest Tuesday at NTIA's conclusions on network interference for the FCC

Barry Diller-backed startup prepares to launch a broadband-delivered, $12 service that meshes broadcast TV with a network-based DVR

It's not a complete list, but the important bit to take note of is: Have a plan

MSO rides Silverlight for beta launch of app that streams live TV channels to home-bound PCs and Macs and lets subs manage DVRs remotely

NTT Americas CTO Doug Junkins discusses how it has linked its data centers around the globe with an optical IP backbone to deliver Virtual Data Centers to multinational enterprises

Verizon is building a new billing system to enable attribute-driven OSS/BSS that lets it bill for third-party products, as well as its own

3:00 PM Standards are needed and there are challenges in addition to the cost savings businesses see when adopting cloud services

Telcos have the assets and track record to grab a piece of the enterprise cloud services market popularized by Amazon and Rackspace

Huawei's to be among the first in line as CableLabs targets July for its first official tests on EPON gear that uses Docsis-style provisioning

Also: Hulu debuts first original series; U-verse realigns with Starz; GLDS nabs NCTC hunting license

The 7750 router gets a new job, giving operators a bigger role in mixing cellular and Wi-Fi traffic

9:15 AM Expect a Wi-Fi renaissance in Barcelona this year

In today's EMEA roundup: BT has big plans for Turkey, the Middle East and Africa; KPN apologises; Telkom stung by whopping anti-trust fine

For a period of possibly nine years, hackers reportedly had access to Nortel's network. And they might not be gone

The vendor's latest data-deluge warning says LTE and Wi-Fi offload are offsetting some of the tremendous growth in tiered data usage

As does Nortel's patent sale to Apple, Microsoft and RIM, with the DOJ promising to keep a keen eye on how all these patents get used

Standards efforts for Carrier Ethernet-based cloud services could get started soon. The question is what to work on first

12:50 PM 'It's an old person's worst nightmare,' says SNL's clever, yet accurate, commercial spoof

12:35 PM Patent licensing is a positive move, insists Ben Verwaayen

12:00 PM The spectrum-crunched carrier has hiked prices on handset upgrades, data and more

Enterprises of all sizes are turning to cloud IP-PBX systems

Cable co-op's downloadable video security platform gets off the block as some Tier 2 MSOs look to stay clear of the Moto/Cisco duopoly

Also: Netflix settles privacy spat for $9M; Comcast takes a page from Apple's playbook; Boxee eyes DVR ideas; TiVo to cull U-verse data

Android devices, as well as other smartphones, now come with technology that reduces signaling traffic on mobile networks

This week's top telecom stories, as chosen by the readers of Matt's Mentions

Stoke unveils a new gateway for mobile operators that can better integrate Wi-Fi into their data service offerings

6:10 AM Major vendors fight for customer experience management mindshare

Vodafone mulls acquisition of enterprise services specialist Cable & Wireless Worldwide, C&W Comms feels the squeeze and FT agrees Egypt M&A

Smartphones and LTE networks are hot stuff, but don't forget the service provider IT (SPIT) systems that help make them tick

Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Sterling Perrin and representatives from Reliance Globalcom, Level 3, and XO talk about the benefits and challenges of deploying 100G today

TV Everywhere firm cuts its IPO price as shares skyrocket in the early going, then settle for a small gain in their first day of trading

The latest Carrier Cloud Forum is a good barometer of how fast cloud has moved from the talking stage to the walking stage

With profits pleasing investors, Ben Verwaayen unveils his three-year growth strategy, and service provider IT (SPIT) is at the heart of it

Also: Roku jumps the pond; Amazon downplays subscription streaming plans; Arris to halt Moxi retail support; Cablevision chases government deals

This week: Mobile advertising in AME; AME telcos get down to business; Uruguay and Indonesia market forecasts; mobile network security

6:45 AM Everyone sure sounded happy on Cisco's earnings call, but there's plenty to be worried about

In today's EMEA roundup: Mixed picture for Alcatel-Lucent; EU telcos unite on roaming cuts; Vodafone slips its cash out of Greece

Revenues are down but share price soars as Alcatel-Lucent reports a full-year profit, targets more cuts and predicts a healthier 2012

But it's in talks to get DirecTV signed on with Exede, a faster (12Mbit/s) satellite broadband service

Cable vendor shoots for a 10% top line boost, citing strength from its Docsis menu, Moxi video gateways and some help from BigBand

NSN's Carrier Ethernet gear and management system are on its 'for sale' list, with joint venture partner Juniper seen as the most likely suitor

Bell Canada and Telus ink deals with Huawei to deploy LTE in Canada as the Chinese vendor gets closer to the US

AT&T embraces Amazon's style of cloud, taking advantage of Cloudscaling's new role as an OpenStack-based cloud builder

Also: DirecTV goes wide with 'classic' TiVo; Google-Moto deal nears DoJ OK; TW CEO tells MSOs to unblock Roku; Amazon's latest Netflixian move

In today's EMEA roundup: Vodafone feels the heat in Spain and Italy; Apple wants some patents sanity; AlcaLu speeds things up in Luxembourg

Bob 'The Father of Ethernet' Metcalfe is to announce 'A New Ethernet' on Feb 23. Could this be a case of the Emperor's New Clothes?

5:15 AM Planned public transport strike will be a kick in the cojones for Mobile World Congress attendees

Q3 revenues might actually be less than Q2's, but Cisco is still claiming victory

Boxee wants TV tiers to stay in the clear so it can cater to "cord shavers." MSOs say encryption will reduce truck rolls, service theft

Earnings per share beat the consensus by $0.04, but investors might be more interested in what happens next quarter

Sprint expects to spend $6B on its network next year, which is good for its equipment partners, but potentially troublesome for its finances

Sprint spends its way to a $1.3B loss on iPhone and Network Vision upgrade costs in Q4

10:35 AM The first live stream of the Super Bowl attracted 2.1 million unique viewers, and a bunch of whiners

Also: TiVo seeks takeover bids; live TV is absent on upgraded U-Verse iPad app; Telus taps in to Cisco's Videoscape

9:15 AM That's what premium chipmakers are going to argue, and they might have a point

Gabriel Brown of Heavy Reading gives his industry expert view on the timeline and challenges of voice over LTE

In today's EMEA roundup: Nokia cuts 4,000 more jobs; Bouygues Telecom goes with Ericsson; Telenor numbers down, with good reason

Nokia will axe 4,000 jobs at smartphone factories in Finland, Hungary and Mexico, and shift mobile device assembly ops to Asia

Spanish mobile operator challenger Yoigo will offer a shared data plan for multiple devices with a little help from its DPI supplier

We got snap-happy at the packet network love-in -- see who posed for our pics

5:30 PM Joe's reasons why UBM TechWeb is buying 4G World from Yankee Group

5:15 PM Canada likes Dish's outer-space LTE plan, but AT&T wants a faster deployment roadmap for LTE

We've already heard lots about Sprint's status in regards to iPhones, WiMax, iDEN and LightSquared, so can we sleep in?

2:15 PM RIM claims to out-download Apple and outsell Android on apps

1:00 PM Verizon's Redbox partnership could the pave the way to a virtual MSO and force cable to pursue much grander OTT video plays

Juniper's access box with mobile backhaul synchronization might be the right product at the wrong time, reckons industry analyst

10:15 AM Fixed broadband and 3G set for big bucks investment in China – but just how much is another matter

Also: Grist for the Apple iTV rumor mill; Brightcove prices its IPO; cable VoD ads get real; TW Cable ad highlights Netflix

Backhaul could be a reason for LTE performance differences between AT&T and Verizon in Houston, finds Signals Research Group

In today's regional roundup: AlcaLu launches Motive CEM; RIM's CEO hails the EMEA market; Tele2 has a fulfilling fourth quarter

Juniper says its ACX line of routers will provide a capacity boost and push more traffic engineering to mobile access networks

Alcatel-Lucent uses its Motive subsidiary as the launchpad for its customer experience management push

Security vendor F-Secure wants to help mobile operators get into the game of syncing, storing and streaming digital content

RAD Data CTO Yaakov Stein set to detail how Ethernet trumps MPLS-TP in the access network

Tired of hearing about software-defined networking? Too bad

Amid a season of weak forecasts, one analyst thinks carrier spending isn't going to be so awful

A new Sprint site reveals when and where it will remove its iDEN towers, offering a hint at the company's initial LTE launch plans

Google is ready to begin stringing fiber, getting it an important step closer to connecting live customers to its 1-Gig network

Business unit teams up with health care investment group to spur technlogy adoption by medical ecosystem

12:30 PM Taiwanese handset maker is predicting a weak first quarter as it struggles to differentiate Android and attract interest in 4G

Mobile operators are realizing they must take more steps to secure their networks against malicious acts

Also: Time Warner plows cash into Conviva; Cisco exec heads to Comcast; Entropic checks into hospitality

Consolidated believes the combined company can save $25 million in annual operations costs and as much as $10 million in capex

It's looking like the disaster's impact on optical production has been kept under control so far

This week's top telecom stories, as chosen by the readers of Matt's Mentions

8:00 AM Although denied, speculation that one of NSN's parents has been looking for the next CEO of NSN will create uncertainty

7:00 AM Take Light Reading's survey on your own mobile life and learn how the rest of the industry uses mobility

In today's EMEA roundup: NSN says that it's not looking for a replacement for Rajeev Suri; Huawei opens Hungarian optical-gear unit

As the wireless service reaches an end, Cox reportedly gets set for the expected layoffs

4:20 PM We'll forgive the new Sprint reseller for its dumb name, because its data-sharing strategy is really quite smart

MSO grudgingly agrees to reconfigure its Cisco traffic manager so all P2P traffic sidesteps traffic management

Satellite TV giant is seeking out new broadband partners to aid its OTT video offerings, and WildBlue apparently won't be among them

Also: Android cracks down on malware; patent drama in Germany; iOS and Android take over; Facebook mulls mobile ads

Also: Ex-SeaChange pres has non-compete; DirecTV halts WildBlue broadband sales; shady sports streamers put on ice; PPV goes 3-D

10:30 AM Move aside, entertainers – it's the SCTE's turn to share the Emmy spotlight

Supreme Court rules that 122 mobile licenses must be revoked, causing market chaos, plus other news from India's turbulent telecom sector

One equipment vendor after another is predicting weak carrier spending, but there's a way to get around that

Operating margin improvement at BT, the sale of Orange Austria and Mobistar's customer experience focus feature in today's news potpourri

LightSquared gets another month and change to sort out GPS issues from LTE partner Sprint

It's not the first vendor to do this, but the it's first switch vendor to go this big with the technology

2:30 PM At last, signs of a more compelling ROI case for Europe's network owners

Transport system vendor BTI Systems is in growth mode and has secured new funding. Is Google helping to fuel its top line?

Finisar's been there for a while, but JDSU says it's sampling gridless-ROADM devices now, prepping for 400G and terabit

In an important milestone for VoLTE, Qualcomm does a voice-call hand-off on an Ericsson network

Also: Comcast exec to keynote SCTE shindig; Amdocs scores a big re-up; Cisco vet hops to Clearleap; Comcast home security is a Mile High

This week: The telecom landscape in Kenya, Slovakia and Russia; SMEs and ICT in Latin America; the next-gen ROADM opportunity

With the loss of another key executive, the video software vendor is living up to its name

In today's EMEA roundup: FT CEO says he will double fiber access spend in 2012; Etisalat hit by Indian 'scam' backwash; PacketFront's CPE sale

Netflix taps encoding startup EYE IO to boost bandwidth efficiency by up to 50% and keep consumption caps and broadband meters in check

Sixth-largest US carrier plans to cover 25% of its sub base with LTE next month, and offer them a Samsung tablet and smartphone

A hearing on cable's co-marketing deals and AWS spectrum sales to Verizon Wireless is said to be on its way

Also: SeaChange cuts headcount; Comcast beefs up Internet Essentials; DTAs pay for Technicolor; SlingPlayer's on Fire

The CEA objects to a plan that would let MSOs sell old set-tops, including HD-DVRs, and it might win a round for a change

In today's EMEA roundup: Brussels thinks Samsung may have 'distorted' markets through patents abuse; Euro roaming fees to go even lower?

But it's only for certain enterprise cases, so don't go thinking MPLS's No. 1 fan has gone off the deep end