Orange today announces that it will offer Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free music downloads for customers in a major refresh of its Music Portal, Orange.co.uk/music, and the converged mobile and web music download service, the Orange Music Store. Customers are now able to enjoy an easier route to find, purchase, manage and listen to music with Orange. DRM-free music downloads have already been secured with Universal Music, EMI Music and a number of independent labels.

Nokia Siemens Networks has expanded its portfolio of energy efficient Smart Site solutions with the introduction of SiteStar, a cooling cabinet that can increase battery life by three times, and reduce the electricity consumed for cooling batteries at a base station site by up to 95%. SiteStar will be commercially available in Q3 of 2009. SiteStar is ideal for countries with extreme climatic conditions and particularly for emerging markets where power supply can be scarce making battery back-up essential.

Aepona, a global provider of telecoms software products and services headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland, today announced its acquisition of Valista, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of payment, settlement and service lifecycle management solutions to mobile and broadband operators worldwide. The acquisition, which comes into effect immediately, creates a powerful, independent vendor, operating under the Aepona brand, with a complete solution for the “Network as a Service” (NaaS) business model now being embraced by Telcos globally.

Subscribers of SFR, France’s leading communications service provider, will soon enjoy real time multimedia applications, such as virtual office. Earlier this month SFR in collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks became the first to showcase such applications in France on a live 3G network with a 14 Mbps mobile broadband connection. SFR has selected a radio solution from Nokia Siemens Networks which will enable the migration of SFR’s mobile backhaul network to all IP (Internet Protocol), enabling the operator to increase capacity while keeping costs under control.

Alcatel-Lucent today announced that two scientists from Bell Labs, its world-renowned research organization, have been awarded the prestigious 2009 Marconi Fellowship and Prize. The two scientists, Andrew Chraplyvy and Robert Tkach, were recognized for their insights into how information is transmitted over optical networks and for finding innovative ways to significantly increase the speed and capacity of optical fiber communications systems.

NTT DOCOMO, Inc. and San Diego, California-based PacketVideo Corporation, a subsidiary of NextWave Wireless Inc. and a pioneer in wireless and digital home multimedia software and service applications, today announced that DOCOMO has acquired a 35-percent stake in PacketVideo for $45.5 million. The all-cash transaction, effective immediately, is intended to strengthen DOCOMO’s position in advanced music and video services in Japan.

Telecom Italia and 3 Italia have signed a “co-siting” agreement for the sharing of radio mobile access sites which regards both existing sites and those which will be built in the future. The objects of the agreements are the so called “passive” infrastructures: poles, cables, electricity supply and conditioning systems and other civil infrastructures.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has been awarded contracts with the three telecom operators in China to provide fixed broadband access. Millions of people in an initial nine Chinese provinces will now be able to enjoy high-definition TV, as well as high-speed broadband and quality voice services.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has recently, through a wholly owned subsidiary, purchased shares in LHS AG (XETRA:LHS) that together with currently held shares represents more than 95 percent of the outstanding shares in LHS.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (“Huawei”), a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, recently launched a new end-user oriented Femtocell device at the Femtocell World Summit in London, United Kingdom. Dubbed “Femtocell 2.0″, the portable wireless access device allows users to connect directly to a standard broadband DSL or cable service and delivers in-door 3G network coverage for handsets.