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Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed the Wholesale Applications Community, an alliance to build an open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users.

The GSMA today reported significant progress with its Rich Communication Suite (RCS) initiative, a service that provides mobile operators with a feature-rich portfolio of interoperable communication services, enabling customers to access a wide range of advanced messaging applications direct from their handset's contact list.

Ericsson has signed an agreement to license its patented WiFi technology to Japanese digital equipment manufacturer Buffalo.

Tokyo High Court stayed a cease and desist order issued Sept. 30, 2009 regarding Qualcomm's license agreements with Japanese manufacturers.

KDDI America has entered into separate agreements with American MVNOs (Note (1)) Locus Telecommunications, Inc. (Hereinafter referred to as “Locus.”) on January 19th, 2010, and Total Call International, Inc. (Hereinafter referred to as Total Call) on January 21st, 2010 to invest in the respective companies. In accordance to the above mentioned agreement, KDDI America, Inc. will acquire a combined total of USD 41M (JPY 3.7B) of issued shares corresponding to 51% of the number of shares issued by the respective companies, and plans to make them as consolidated subsidiaries (Note 3). Through the aforementioned pair of investments, KDDI and the KDDI Group plan to enter the mobile service segment offering services to migrants residing in the U.S.—a promising growth market—to further expand the companies’ global business base.

Japanese regulators have certified the country's first data modem based on LTE technology, manufacturer LG Electronics said on Wednesday.

According to this PC World report, DoCoMo plans to demonstrate a prototype handset running LTE technology at this month's Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona. The demonstration at Barcelona will be running on a prototype LTE chip developed by the four companies, said NEC. The chip was first demonstrated in October in concept data cards, and its appearance at Barcelona will be the first time it's appeared in a handset.

Softbank Corp. said its fiscal third-quarter net profit jumped 41% year-on-year, driven by strong sales of the Apple iPhone at its wireless division. Softbank Mobile’s strong performance helped the group expand in the country’s cutthroat but profitable mobile market.

Network equipment maker Sandvine Corp (SVC.TO) received a contract from Japan's NTT Communications Corp to deploy its Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) on NTT's high speed network in Japan, sending Sandvine's shares up as much as 13 percent. The PTS platform provides broadband and wireless network operators with services like capacity planning and quota management.

KDDI is planning to roll out the "au Femtocell" – a miniature base station to be used indoors by summer 2010, and will commence trial operations in locations throughout the Kanto region beginning March 2010. "au Femtocell" is a miniature base station that creates a small mobile coverage area of a radius of approximately 10 meters; the service will be offered to the consumer market.