Operators

US operator AT&T is reported to be among the bidders for around US$3 billion in mobile assets that rival Verizon Wireless must divest as part of its US$28.1 billion acquisition of regional operator Alltel that was completed last month.

T-Mobile USA has launched the Samsung SGH-T929 'Memoir' 3G camera phone, reports International Business Times. The device is the first in the US market to boast an 8-megapixel camera.

Vodafone Essar, the UK-based group's Indian subsidiary, is in the process of a raising a INR100 billion (US$2 billion) bridge loan to finance its participation in India's forthcoming 3G spectrum auctions, reports Dow Jones Newswires.

French broadband provider Iliad is willing to pay the €206 million fee for one of the 5MHz blocks of frequency on offer to run the country's fourth 3G network, reports TeleGeography, citing comments co-founder and president Xavier Niel gave to national newspaper Le Figaro.

Vodafone could launch an HTC-made Android phone at the Mobile World Congress on 17 February, according to CNET News.

Google has made the original text of 1.5 million books available for free via iPhone or Android-based devices, reports The Telegraph.

The LiMo Foundation - tasked with creating a mobile Linux-based open-source operating system that can be quickly designed into a handset - unveiled a number of announcements today after being out of the spotlight for a while.