China Mobile has officially asked ten vendors to tender bids to build a 'trial' 3G network based on China's own home-spun technology -
TD-SCDMA. The trial networks will be built in eight Chinese cities and should be operational by October 2007...
More
Masabi demos mobile banking app
To demonstrate how easy it would be to 'port' existing banking applications across to mobile phones, software specialist, Masabi,
has created its own secure
mobile Java app...More
Red Bend provides FOTA to Motorola
Recognising the tremendous advantages derived from being able to update handsets wirelessly, Motorola has selected Red Bend to supply it with Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA)
software...More
Nokia takes Qualcomm to court
Nokia is new tack in its long-running dispute with Qualcomm, Nokia has gone to
court in Germany and the Netherlands to get Qualcomm's patents voided...More
Qualcomm dismisses Nokia's move
Qualcomm has described Nokia's legal move to declare Qualcomm's patents exhausted in Europe as "entirely meritless."
...More
DoCoMo man warns Japan uncompetitive
A prominent employee of NTT DoCoMo - Japan's leading mobile network - has warned that the existing regime is proving untenable. Network operators are bearing the brunt of the cost of supplying mobile phones.
...More
Vodafone implicated in Safaricom scandal
Vodafone appears to have become entangled in murky dealings surrounding its partner in Kenyan's Safaricom
mobile phone network...More
Free mobile network set to launch
Following on from the massive success of Skype – which introduced the concept of free telephony to the masses – a venture called Blyk
intends to apply the same principle to mobile phones...More
Shoot blows away handset
A novel way of dealing with the nuisance of mobile phones ringing at inappropriate times has reached the ears of Mobile Insight. Blow them out of the skies, apparently...More
High availability email to expand
High availability software vendor, Neverfail, is looking to support other applications in the mobile space besides just email, new CEO,
Peter Parker, has revealed...More
Duo put ads into mobile games
Exit Games has joined with Amobee Media Systems to enable mobile operators and
game publishers generate additional revenue from in-game advertising.
More
Mobile phone components get slimmer
The mobile phone industry's fad for producing the slimmest possible devices is pressuring the components sector to shrink stuff a small as possible...More
Ofcom defies EU over termination fees
Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, is to go ahead and defy the EU over its policy
of enabling operators to recover the cost of their 3G licenses, according to a
report in the FT...More
Qualcomm back-footed by Broadcom
Qualcomm's policy of
vigorously defending its IPR and patents might well be backfiring. At least, it
appears to have lost a round in the fight against rival Broadcom...More
Snippets
The speculation over a potential buyer for Palm, the PDA manufacturer,
continues. One name put forward is Texas Pacific Group, the private equity
group. Another is leading handset vendor, Motorola. That's interesting as it
might be a move to prevent Nokia buying the company.
In Site of the Week (by Tony Dennis)
This week
Moistmob
The big news behind the launch of this
new WAP site, Moistmob, is that it will be 'hosted' by Tera Patrick. She's
described as the "first erotic supermodel to host a mobile portal." It's not
very clear exactly what tasks Tera has to carry out in order to 'host' the site
but at least her picture is up the top of the site. What's on offer via Moistmob
is very light blue and aimed at heterosexuals. Mobile Insight suspects
that another sister site called Knobmob will cater for homosexuals when it's
launched.
The site is run by Burst Mobile which is based in Leeds and uses Bango to handle
payments. When Mobile Insight accessed the site via 3, it was properly
protected from minors and required proof of age via a credit card or a phone
call.
