Two of the world’s leading music companies have partnered on a joint venture in China that will research and develop technology for distributing media to mobile phones.

The revelation Tuesday, sees Sony BMG Music Entertainment and the Warner Music Group join forces to invest in Access China Media Solutions, in what Warner dubbed “a strategic investment”.

Access – a joint venture between Japanese company, Access and US firm, Melodeo – creates software that makes the user’s experience of downloading music, video and ringtones, an easy experience. China currently has around 460 million mobile users and the pair are betting that as mobiles become more sophisticated, they will play an increasingly important role in entertainment.

Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business at Sony BMG said: “We think a good chunk of those consumers will be looking at their phones as an entertainment device.”

According to a press release from Sony and Warner, the pair will be focusing closely on Chinese oriented music.

Sony and Warner will also be keen to examine how to make China’s music market, which is rife with piracy, more secure. Michael Nash, senior vice president of digital and business development at Warner Music said: “Physical piracy in China is an enormous problem that’s created a crisis around investment in repertoire and artists.”

Vodafone has coughed up EВЈ3.34bn (Eur452m) for a 3G license in Egypt, the country’s telecoms regulator said on Monday.

As part of the 15 year agreement, Vodafone will also pay 2.4 per cent of annual revenues from the provided services.

The move makes Vodafone the second Egyptian operator to secure a 3G licence. Etisalat paid EВЈ16.7bn and 6 per cent of annual revenues for the country’s first 3G licence last year. Both operators have been awarded 10MHz of spectrum in the 2GHz frequency band and have five years to provide coverage to the whole population.

However, the National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt said that Vodafone cannot launch 3G services until Etisalat has started operations. Etisalat is expected to launch 3G services by the end of February.

The regulator said that the deal, which was signed by Vodafone, can be also granted to rival operator Mobinil in case it wished to sign the same licence.

Tarek Kamel, the minister of Communications and Information Technology and the chairman of the NTRA, said “The agreement with Vodafone to pay this amount of money mirrors a sincere confidence in the growth of the Egyptian Market with the introduction of the third mobile operator, in the light of the fact that the mobile subscribers in Egypt have surmounted to reach 18 million subscribers with a growth percentage of 70 per cent. The number is also expected to reach 30 millions by the end of 2010″.

Hot on the heels of Apple’s iPhone, South Korean vendor LG Electronics officially unveiled the distinctly similar looking KE850 on Thursday.

LG has teamed up with fashion house Prada on the branding of the device, which looks to be an evolution of its highly successful Chocolate phone.

Images of the KE850 had been leaked prior to the introduction of the iPhone and, in terms of looks, the two have already been closely compared.

But now that the full specs for the KE850 have been released, it appears that similarities with the iPhone go beyond the cosmetic.

The Prada phone features a touch screen for almost all functions, although LG has kept a couple of hard keys for call answering and ending. Under the hood the unit has a music player, which it promises can multitask alongside other applications like messaging; a video player; a Macromedia Flash based user interface; and a document viewer for Word and PDF files amongst others.

The phone is EDGE tri-band and features a 2 megapixel camera, microSD card memory slot and USB mass storage functionality.

However, two significant shortcomings of the KE850 are its lack of wifi and full internet capabilities.

The Prada phone will be available from Eur600 in the UK, France, Germany and Italy as of late February, followed by countries in Asia from late March. The Korean version of the phone is scheduled to launch in the second quarter.