Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce firm, will take a 28 percent stake in digital mapping company AutoNavi Holdings Ltd, part of Alibaba's move to boost its competitiveness by beefing up its product lineup.

Unlisted Alibaba (Hangzhou, China) will invest $294 million to become the largest shareholder in the Chinese-based firm, according to a statement from AutoNavi (Beijing, China) on Friday which confirmed an earlier report from news portal Sina (Shanghai, China).

China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator by subscribers, said its unlisted parent is beefing up its internal supervision after a government audit office highlighted problems in accounting practices and internal management.

The report by China's National Audit Office comes at a time when the new Chinese leadership led by President Xi Jinping has made tackling corruption a top priority, warning that the problem is so serious it poses a threat to the party's survival.

India’s Reliance Communications has beaten earnings expectations for the fourth quarter thanks to an increase in revenue from one-off gains.

The operator – controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani – said that net income fell to INR3.03 billion ($55.2 million) in the fourth quarter from INR3.32 billion in the same period last year, with revenues up 12% to INR59.56 billion.

Analysts polled by Reuters had been expecting net income of INR1.29 billion on revenues of INR53.47 billion.

US telecoms operator AT&T is to collaborate with Indian IT company Wipro on the development of M2M services for a variety of major industries.

Solutions developed by the two partners will use an M2M application platform from Axeda (Foxboro, MA, USA), with which AT&T (Dallas, TX, USA) already has a relationship.

“Customers are turning to us to make their M2M connectivity easy to manage and monitor in virtual real-time,” said Mike Troiano, the vice president of advanced mobility solutions for AT&T Business Solutions.

The Qatar Foundation Endowment (QFE) has bought a 5% stake in India’s Bharti Airtel for the sum of $1.26 billion, helping the operator to reduce debts and fund the expansion of network activities in Africa.

The price paid implies the Indian operator is worth $25.2 billion in total, about 7% more than a valuation based on its share price last Friday, before the transaction was announced.

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.

Chinese telecom operators will start awarding contracts for super-fast mobile networks this year, kicking off the third wave of a global investment cycle that is reshaping the competitive landscape among telecom equipment makers.

China, the world's biggest mobile market with 1.1 billion subscribers, is likely to further alter the picture at the expense of European suppliers by giving a huge boost to Huawei (Shenzhen, China) and its smaller Chinese rival ZTE (Shenzhen, China).

Indian telecoms executives Sunil Mittal and Ravi Ruia will not have to appear before a special court set up to investigate irregularities in the allocation of spectrum more than a decade ago, following a ruling by India’s top court that will see the hearing deferred by at least six weeks, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires.

Reliance Jio Infocomm has signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel to rent capacity on the i2i submarine network that runs from India to Singapore, without disclosing the financial terms of the deal.

Reliance Jio (Mumbai, India) says the arrangement will allow it to connect directly with the world’s major business hubs and internet service providers, allowing it to provide ultra-fast services to its customers.