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Deal done for $129.8M

Fueling the fire surrounding the likelihood of toll-free data coming to the U.S. market soon, Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo told investors at a Barclays Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications conference today that content providers are starting to see the value in paying the wireless operator for the data consumed by their subscribers when they view their content via a mobile device.

RootMetrics finds T-Mobile has boosted its upload speeds significantly with its new LTE network in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS--Trade shows like CTIA Wireless 2013 are often the scene of phone and device introductions. Handset makers often hope to grab conference-goers with new and innovative devices. But this year's CTIA show is decidedly different. This year, there are almost no new devices to note. Handset makers, starting with Apple and now including the likes of BlackBerry, Nokia and Samsung, prefer to launch their new devices at dedicated events, where they can control the flow of the headlines. As a result, few device makers use trade shows as the launching pads for their new gadgets. Nonetheless, there were a handful of new handsets worth discussing at this year's CTIA Wireless. Slideshow

The telecoms regulator for the United Arab Emirates has allocated spectrum in both the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands for mobile broadband services, making the UAE the first country in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to harmonise the allocation of frequencies in the two bands.

Group EBITDA reaches $905M

A new variant of the Citadel financial malware is targeting users of the Payza online payment platform by launching local in-browser attacks to steal their credentials, according to researchers from security firm Trusteer.

BT Expedite & Fresca, BT’s multichannel retail specialist business, has signed a deal with Cath Kidston Ltd, the global lifestyle brand, to design and build a new e-commerce website for the company.

Apple remained at the top of a global ranking of brands for 2013, with a value of $185 billion, but Samsung Electronics is closing the gap, moving up 25 places to No. 30, according to the latest BrandZ Top 100 study of leading global brands.

Twitter, in a much-needed move to keep its users safer from cyberattacks, is introducing a more secure login process.

Also in today's EMEA roundup: Telecom Italia denies break-up; Telefónica's LatAm IPO on ice; Ericsson calls time on cable production

A new report on data pricing across the European Union highlights the continuing huge discrepancies between data charges per gigabyte in the 27 member states, and said German data charges are among the most expensive in the EU.

Vodafone Group reported what is being described as its biggest ever fall in full-year sales, as the operator also said it was happy with its Verizon Wireless stake and would reinvest the latest Verizon dividend payment of $3.2 billion to counter weaknesses in Southern Europe.

The ITU-T L.1410 and L.1420 Recommendations to assess the environmental impacts of ICTs are among 10 international methodologies to have been pilot-tested in Europe’s bid to establish and converge around a common international framework to assess the energy and emission footprint of the ICT sector.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1410 “Methodology for environmental impacts of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) goods, networks and services” provides a standardized way to assess the direct environmental impact of ICT goods, networks and services, as well as their indirect impact on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of non-ICT industry sectors. It is based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology standardized in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.

ITU-T L. 1420 “Methodology for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in organizations” standardizes the requirements with which an organization should comply when assessing energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is based on ISO 14064-1.

In a study led by the European Commission, 27 leading ICT companies and associations engaged in a 10-month trial of measurement methodologies developed by entities including international standards development organizations (SDOs) such as ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), ISO, IEC, ETSI and the GHG Protocol.

The study was commissioned by the European Commission’s DG CONNECT as part of its ICT Footprint initiative which aims to test the workability and compatibility of ‘footprinting’ methodologies in the ICT sector, with the overarching goal of building consensus and engendering convergence around a “common methodological framework for the measurement of the energy consumption and carbon emissions arising from the production, transport and selling processes of ICT goods, networks and services.”

The results of the study are detailed in a report titled “ICT Footprint: Pilot testing on methodologies for energy consumption and caron footprint of the ICT-sector”.

The pilots recognized Recommendation ITU-T L.1420 as the only available international reporting methodology to assess ICT-related energy consumption and/or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in ICT organizations as well as ICT-related activities within non-ICT organizations.

As regards products, networks and services, similarities were found between Recommendation ITU-T L.1410 and ETSI TS 103 199 "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of ICT equipment, networks and services: General methodology and common requirements with the goal to develop a common ITU-T/ETSI Methodology for ICT products, networks and services".

The report concludes by recommending actions through which policy makers, SDOs and industry can accelerate the drive towards a common international ICT-footprinting framework. The pilot-testing has proven that the work performed by ITU-T is resulting in robust deliverables and should be leveraged as a basis for future enhancements.

Acting on suggestions from the pilot-testing report, ITU-T Study Group 5 (Environment and climate change) and the ETSI Technical Committee on Environmental Engineering (ETSI TC EE) are collaborating on the revision of their respective standards, Recommendation ITU-T L. 1410 and ETSI TS 103 199.

A first meeting between the two expert groups will discuss a roadmap for this collaboration. Kindly hosted by ETSI, the meeting will be held in Sophia Antipolis, France, 27-31 May 2013. Details can be found here.

Read more on ITU-T Study Group 5 here

Read more on ITU-T and climate change here

 

 

Aircom was selected by ON Telecom for the design and optimization of its LTE network.

LAS VEGAS--Just 24 hours after a tornado wreaked havoc on a suburb of Oklahoma City, public safety experts on a panel at the CTIA Wireless 2013 conference here talked about next-generation 911, the future of text-to-911 and other major public safety wireless issues.