RACO Wireless is set to announce two acquisitions that will significantly enhance its managed-services offering to M2M customers.

The M2M-focused MVNO had made clear its acquisition intentions last October, when private-equity group Inverness Graham Investments took a majority stake in the business, and has spent much of the intervening period examining potential takeover targets.

M2M specialist Telit says one of its new modules has won the approval of Sprint for use on the operator’s US cellular network.

Telit (London, UK) says the new CE910-DUAL cellular M2M module is ideal for embedded applications requiring easy integration, but also suited to platforms based on Windows and Linux operating systems.

The manufacturer reckons it is particularly appropriate for applications such as vending, tracking, smart metering and telematics.

Banking on the enduring popularity of 2G networks for M2M services, third-placed US mobile operator Sprint says it is extending its partnership with Swiss-based module provider u-blox as it looks to capitalize on rivals’ plans to migrate all traffic to newer 3G and 4G networks over the next few years.

The operator says the u-blox (Thalwil, Switzerland) agreement will allow business customers concerned about the continuing availability of GSM-based 2G networks to extend the product lifetime of their existing 2G M2M devices by migrating to Sprint’s CDMA network.

Indian operator Sistema Shyam has managed to reduce its net loss to INR7.79 billion ($143 million) for the fourth quarter of 2012, from INR11.98 billion during the same period in 2011, despite the considerable uncertainty over the company’s future towards the end of last year.

The operator said the net loss would have narrowed further were it not for unfavorable movements in exchange rates.

Antenna provider Antenova is to rebrand itself as Antenova M2M and focus on building its position in the M2M and connected-device markets following the departure of chief executive Greg McCray in February.

With McCray now heading up ACAL Energy (Runcorn, UK) – a developer of fuel cell systems – Antenova (Cambridge, UK) is reportedly being led by managing director Chris Flack.

The company says its antenna solutions already have a proven track record in a range of M2M settings, including telematics, automatic meter reading, m-health, wireless security and home automation.

Module maker Sierra Wireless has launched a new 3G wireless gateway designed to support M2M services across a range of industrial, enterprise and transportation applications.

The AirLink LS300 is billed as a successor to the company’s AirLink Raven gateways, which Sierra Wireless (Richmond, Canada) says have been successfully used in a wide variety of M2M deployments.

These range from monitoring soil conditions in vineyards or vibrations in historic buildings to delivering messages to roadside traffic signs or photos from red light cameras, according to Sierra Wireless.

Tele2 has told the UK’s Financial Times newspaper that it will seek further acquisitions after negotiating the sale of its Russian subsidiary to VTB, a state-controlled bank, earlier this month.

VTB (Moscow, Russia) paid $3.5 billion for the company after MTS (Moscow, Russia) and Vimpelcom (Moscow, Russia), Tele2’s biggest mobile rivals, had teamed up to offer as much as $4.25 billion.

M2M module maker Sierra Wireless says it has become a sponsor of crowdsourcing platform MedStartr and will henceforth be the preferred provider of wireless communications technology for MedStartr companies.

MedStartr says it will gain direct access to a full range of connectivity solutions from Sierra Wireless (Richmond, Canada), helping MedStartr companies to accelerate product development.

The UK’s Vodafone has complained to Indian authorities about their refusal to extend its licenses in the three important service areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has reportedly refused to renew permits on the basis of a new telecoms law that requires operators to bid for spectrum in a process separate from the issuance of licenses.

Previously operators had been able to acquire licenses and spectrum at the same time.

A slowdown in network equipment and device markets has taken its toll on China’s ZTE, which has reported a net loss of RMB2.84 billion ($457 million) for 2012, compared with a net profit of RMB2.06 billion the year before.

China’s second-biggest network equipment maker, behind Huawei (Shenzhen, China), ZTE (Shenzhen, China) also reported a 2.36% decline in revenues, to RMB84.22 billion.

In a statement accompanying the figures, ZTE pointed to the slowdown in equipment investments by the global telecoms industry in 2012.