Iran's newly-appointed minister of Communications and Information Technology has announced that the country will make yet another attempt to award its third mobile operator license, reports Cellular News, citing an article in the Tehran Times.

Reuters reports that Softbank, Japan's third-largest mobile operator, outran rivals NTT Docomo and KDDI in the number of net new subscribers it signed up in August, after relinquishing its lead in July to Docomo.

Singaporean mobile operator MobileOne (M1) has purchased local ISP Qala Communication as it looks to gain entry into the country's broadband services market, according to TeleGeography.

TeleGeography reports that Japan’s leading mobile operator by subscribers, NTT Docomo, is reportedly considering a move to launch its brand on the US market as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).

InformationWeek notes that Facebook says more than 65 million people are actively using the social network on their mobile devices.

The world’s largest handset vendor today introduced its first ‘LTE-capable’ modem. The Nokia device - RD-3 - is backwards compatible with the GSM family of technologies (eg HSPA) and will be used in development of LTE technology (planned for commercial launch next year).

Motorola is expected to unveil its first smartphones this week running the Android platform, a launch considered key to the company's future success following a serious decline in its handset fortunes.