In a regular series, Mobile World Live‘s Asia Editor Joseph Waring provides a regional roundup of news snippets:

Airtel, BSNL to sign roaming deal
India’s number one mobile operator Airtel and state-owned BSNL are expected to soon sign a country-wide roaming agreement to strengthen 2G services in rural areas.

A BSNL representative said the intra-circle roaming deal is part of its strategy to share infrastructure to improve coverage and reduce operating costs, the Economic Times reported.

Airtel claims 87 per cent population coverage, while BSNL claims 72 per cent.

Coolpad aims to quadruple online sales
Coolpad, which set up a joint venture with China’s Qihoo 360 in December, aims to quadruple online sales in China this year and boost smartphone output by a third to 60 million units, the Taipei Times said.

Qihoo 360, China’s second largest search engine, is investing $409 million to take a 45 per cent stake in the venture with Coolpad, which plans to sell 20 million Dazen-brand smartphones online this year.

According to IDC, Coolpad was the fifth ranked smartphone maker in China last year – down from third in 2013. It has aspirations of moving into second place this year behind number one Xiaomi.

Tata launches hosted roaming platform
India’s Tata Communications has introduced a hosted and managed roaming service that allows mobile operators to increase their business efficiency and improve their customers’ roaming experience.

The company said RoamPulse provides real-time monitoring, reporting and alarms of all roaming traffic, which enables operators to proactively identify problem areas and reduce the number of service outages. It said undetected roaming issues can led to significant commercial losses and trigger customer churn.

Tata claims RoamPulse’s centralised system reduces resolution time by enabling multiple internal teams to work together to find the root cause of outages. It covers 2G, 3G and 4G signaling traffic.