Business news with words country+phone. 31 news.

While Apple's iPhone is the absolute leader in terms of portable media devices that also happen to have phones built in, it would be foolish to ignore the other smart phone/media devices on the market. In particular, I like what Nokia is doing with its N series. The N95 8 GB, for example, is billed as a multimedia camera phone that comes with a nice - if a bit small by iPhone standards - 2.8-inch screen. I especially like the N95's two-way sliding interface and its surprisingly powerful 5-megapixel camera, fitted with a Zeiss lens. The combo makes the N95 a fully enabled, quad-band, use-it-anywhere-in-the-world phone and media device that's also a serviceable camera. I love the notion of taking my test N95 unit with me abroad and leaving my camera behind. I could drop in a local phone identity card in most any country, talk it up from La Tour Eiffel, and take excellent pictures to boot. Now, the N95 is far from perfect. It can be devilishly complex to use, and Nokia has stuffed in too many features. Navigating between using the phone, surfing the Web, and taking a picture took purple-belt gadget jujitsu. Plus, the N95 is not cheap - $779 (unlocked and without a plan) is a long way to go for any portable device, no matter how fabulous. (If this phone comes discounted as part of a plan, jump on it.) Still, a single media player/smart phone/camera that is world-ready is worth a look.

KAZAKHSTAN is seeking to more than double its stake in the Eni SpA-led Kashagan oil project as compensation for delays and cost overruns. The Central Asian country's government is seeking to raise its stake to 16.8 percent, Dinara Shaimardanova, an aide to Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev, told Bloomberg News by phone yesterday from the Kazakh capital, Astana. The state now holds 8.3 percent. The government has disputed a second delay to the start of production at Kashagan, the world's biggest oil discovery in 30 years, and an increase in costs that it says have more than doubled the price for developing and running the field to US$136 billion. Kazakhstan and the group of companies led by Eni extended talks on the dispute until January 15 as Exxon Mobil Corp opposes the increase of the Kazakh stake, Shaimardanova said on Monday. Eni, Exxon, Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc all hold 18.5 percent of Kashagan, while ConocoPhillips has 9.3 percent. KazMunaiGaz National Co,

If you think Americans have a lot of cell phones, consider this: Israel's wireless penetration rate is 117%.

INDIA, the world's second-biggest wheat consumer, scrapped a tender to buy 350,000 tons of the grain after balking at higher prices amid expectations domestic production will be the highest in seven years. "Prices are too high," India's Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News in New Delhi yesterday. "We will take a decision on importing more wheat after the next wheat crop." The country should meet an output target of 75.5 million tons, the most since 2000, the farm ministry said on December 18. India, importing wheat for a second year to boost state reserves, may wait a few months before issuing a new tender as it expects prices to fall. Wheat rose above US$10 a bushel in Chicago for the first time on December 17 after concerns dry weather in Argentina, the world's fourth-biggest exporter, will shrink global supplies. "We may not import wheat as of now," Pillai said. Government-owned State Trading Corp on

VANCOUVER – Telus Corp. (TSX: T ), the country's second-largest phone company behind Bell Canada, is lowering its 2007 revenue forecast by $75 million while aiming for six to eight per cent revenue growth in 2008, an increase of $500 million to $700 million.

The country's competition agency said it would begin an investigation into alleged fixing of tariffs for text messages provided by several mobile phone operators

Investors weren't happy with the latest forecast from the country's largest cable company, now facing competition from phone companies.

THE country's biggest listed electronics maker is to sell its loss-making computer business to an overseas investor. The Shenzhen-listed TCL Corp said yesterday it would dispose of its PC operations with the sale of an 82-percent stake in the unit. Shares of TCL stopped trading yesterday to await a further announcement. TCL's computer unit lost 67.8 million yuan (US$8.9 million) last year on sales of 2.14 billion yuan, the Huizhou-based company told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange earlier. The move follows Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business and Acer's purchase of Gateway. TCL made a profit in the first half of the year, helped by cost cutting. Its net profit was 45.1 million yuan compared with a net loss of 746.4 million yuan a year earlier. After the sale of the PC unit, TCL will focus on the TV and telephone business. The company recently announced a deal to sell the BlackBerry phone in China next year.

After two years of trying, Mobile TeleSystems, the country's top mobile phone operator, won approval from security officials to import the device.

CHINA'S Ministry of Information Industry will grant fixed-line operators licenses for mobile telecom services "at an early date," a senior official said in Beijing yesterday. The move would give the country's fixed-line operators, who have suffered losses in subscribers in recent months, equal footing with mobile service providers as they compete for the huge telecom market. Vice Minister Xi Guohua told a telecom forum that the rapid development of mobile telecom services had lured away subscribers of fixed-line services. According to ministry statistics, the number of newly added mobile phone users totaled 6.91 million in the first nine months, compared with 430,000 new fixed-line users. The number of new fixed-line users has been at a record low of 200,000 every month since May. Losses in subscribers were posted in August and September. "The canceling of fees for receiving calls via mobile phones since the beginning of this year has made it more difficult

Banking on mobile phones holds promise, provided regulators are willing to be flexible THE idea that mobile phones bring economic benefits is now widely accepted. In places with bad roads, few trains and parlous land lines, they substitute for travel, allow price data to be distributed more quickly and easily, enable traders to reach wider markets and generally ease the business of doing business. Leonard Waverman of the London Business School has estimated that an extra ten mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country leads to an extra half a percentage point of growth in GDP per person. To realise the economic benefits of mobile phones, governments in such countries need to do away with state monopolies, issue new licences to allow rival operators to enter the market and slash taxes on handsets. With few exceptions (hallo, Ethiopia), they have done so, and mobile phones are now spreading fast, even in the poorest parts of the world. As mobile phones have spread, a new economic benefit is coming into view: using them for banking (see article), and so improving access to financial services, not just telecoms networks. Pioneering m-banking projects in the Philippines, Kenya and South Africa show the way. These "branchless" schemes typically allow customers to deposit and withdraw cash through a mobile operator's airtime-resale agents, and send money to other people via text messages that can be exchanged for cash by visiting an agent. Workers can then be paid by phone; taxi-drivers and delivery-drivers can accept payments without carrying cash around; money can be easily sent to friends and family. A popular use is to deposit money before making a long journey and then withdraw it at the other end, which is safer than carrying lots of cash.

WORLD-CLASS technology and equipment will be on display at the China International Industry Fair 2007 in Shanghai next week. ABB Ltd, a Zurich-based power grid and automation equipment maker, will unveil its latest robots powered by remote control. Operators can monitor the robot from their office rather than go to the working site in person, and analyze any malfunctions in time, said Tormod Gunleiksrud, head of ABB's China robotics division. ABB's robots are used in a wide range of industries like packaging and welding. It has a 30-percent market share in Chinese automobile assembly plants. The fair opens next Tuesday and ends on Saturday. Shanghai Commercial Investment Co, a municipal government-controlled investment arm, will take four high-tech companies to the fair, with products like Smart Mobile Application Phone, and chips that can make payments like a bank card or tell whether a product is counterfeit. "We are working with one of the country's top wine makers

Two of the country's largest cell phone carriers are considering offering phones featuring software by Google, according to a news report.

Two of the country's largest cell phone carriers are considering offering phones featuring software by Google, according to a news report Tuesday.

Tesco Ireland has become the country's newest mobile operator with the launch of Tesco Mobile.

MOBILE phone makers will face a "shuffle" of market positions after China announced two weeks ago that it would relax license regulations for handset manufacturing. Put simply speaking it means that a heap of new players, most of them with unknown brands, will appear in the world's biggest cell phone market. China's State Council has abolished some 186 administrative examination and approval items covering mobile communication systems and terminals. The move indicates that the country will formally cancel the mobile phone production license examination and approval system, which started about a decade ago. Chinese companies intending to manufacture phones, had to have at least 200 million yuan (US$26.31 million) in registered capital and get approval from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Then, if they wanted to sell phones in China, manufacturing companies had to have their products quality tested and authorized by the Ministry of Information

A potential break-up of Telkom, the country's former fixed-line telephone monopoly, could position Vodafone and MTN as the continent's dominant players

Softbank is set to blitz the Japanese market with 10 new mobile phone models and launch a music-download portal to challenge the country's incumbents

Vodafone’s Greek unit has been fined €19.1 million (£13.3 million) for its alleged part in a wire-tapping scandal that involved more than 100 victims, including the country’s Prime Minister. The fine is the second imposed over the eavesdropping scandal that has rocked the country and become known as the Greek Watergate.

Motorola let loose a slew of new handsets today. Most are entry-level models for overseas markets, though two of the pleb-o-phones are headed for U.S. shores. But the real zinger is the gold-plated RAZR2 , which will only be available outside the U.S. No blinged out phone for the country that invented it? What gives, Moto?