Mexico's Congress on Tuesday gave overwhelming final approval to an expansive overhaul of the telecommunications sector, which aims to boost competition in the industry and tame the likes of billionaire Carlos Slim and broadcaster Televisa.

The bill encourages more foreign investment in the telecoms industry and gives regulators the power to stop companies from controlling more than 50 percent of the market, a measure aimed directly at telecoms tycoon Slim and Televisa (Mexico City, Mexico).

Verizon said on Tuesday it plans to invest $100 million in solar power and fuel cells at 19 facilities in seven U.S. states to cut its carbon footprint and make its operations more resilient to storms and other disasters.

The energy project should be complete by next year, with installations at corporate offices, call centers, data centers and central offices of the telecommunications giant in Arizona, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina.

Wireless service provider Leap Wireless reported on Tuesday a wider quarterly loss as revenue declined as it had more than 93,000 net customer losses in the first quarter.

Leap (San Diego, CA, USA) posted a loss attributable to common shareholders of $111.3 million, or $1.43 per share, compared with a loss of $98.4 million, or $1.28 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue fell to $789.9 million from $825.6 billion, compared with Wall Street expectations for $735.75 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew)

Deutsche Telekom says it will announce more partners for its Global M2M Association (GMA) with France Telecom and TeliaSonera in the next two or three months.

Speaking to M2M Zone on the sidelines of last week’s M2M World Congress in London, Jurgen Hase, the head of Deutsche Telekom’s M2M Competence Center, said the new partners would help to expand the GMA’s footprint.

“We will announce some new partners from Europe in the next two or three months,” he said.

AT&T has launched a home security and monitoring service in 15 US markets, as it ramps up efforts to generate revenues from non-traditional sources.

The operator – which runs the second-biggest mobile-phone network in the US, after Verizon Wireless (New York City, NY, USA) – ultimately aims to generate $1 billion in annual revenues from the service, according to Reuters.

The operator reported first-quarter revenues of $31.4 billion.

Vodafone says its technology is powering India’s first connected cars after signing a deal with Mahindra Reva, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group, to supply M2M technology for the manufacturer’s e2o range of vehicles.

The operator says the partnership will allow e2o drivers to access a range of in-vehicle services using smartphone apps or dedicated web pages.

These include checking on battery power, remotely controlling temperature settings and finding details of local charging stations.

UK regulatory authority Ofcom has announced plans for a trial of so-called ‘white space’ technology that could prove ideal for use with M2M services.

The technology would use the gaps in radio spectrum that fall between bands used for digital terrestrial TV broadcasting.

Besides supporting M2M communications, the airwaves could also be used to provide WiFi-like services or broadband access in rural communities.

Inviting industry organizations to participate in a trial scheduled for the autumn, Ofcom said the technology could be fully rolled out next year.

Ensuring end-to-end security ranks as the number-one priority for M2M projects, according to a recent survey of M2M solution providers in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific conducted by Beecham Research.

In a survey carried out for US software giant Oracle, some 60% of respondents said that “ensuring end-to-end security” was one of their top three priorities for delivering M2M projects today.

“Integration with IT” came second on the list, ticked by 50% of respondents, followed by “coordinating partners in the value chain”, chosen by 45%.

US IT giant IBM says it has launched new products aimed at accelerating the adoption of M2M technologies by global organizations.

The company says its new software and services will help customers to connect their existing systems to a wide variety of mobile devices and M2M technologies.

At the cornerstone of the strategy is IBM MessageSight, a new product designed to help organizations manage the billions of mobile devices and sensors installed in automobiles, traffic management systems, smart buildings and household appliances.

PayPal is extending its reach to more physical stores, having signed up 50 merchant acquirers which help process payments but the eBay Inc unit has yet to persuade Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer.

PayPal's expansion into brick-and-mortar stores gives the company access to a market that is roughly ten times the size of the online payments sector where it got its start over a decade ago.