The GSMA and its Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) partners enabled mobile operators to deploy services that allow subscribers to send and receive low-denomination money transfers via their mobile phones. The GSMA has been successfully cooperating with Western Union 18 months and that’s why it decided to make a proposition to Belgacom International Carrier Services (Belgacom ICS), its technology partner eServGlobal, and the RBS Group, a global bank. The MMT programme was launched in 2007 with a single wholesale remittance provider and there are 12 of them today. The GSMA cooperation with new Mobile Money Transfer partners will serve to accelerate the availability of money transfer worldwide.  

  Orange Guinea Conakry and Ericsson are putting into operation more than 100 solar-powered BTS 2111 base stations in rural Africa. These hybrid base stations by Ericsson use the power produced by both solar-energy panels and a diesel generator. Moreover, the stations are exceptionally reliable, easy to install and maintain – for instance, they don’t have any forced cooling system. The companies are getting closer towards their target of reducing CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 and increasing mobile coverage. Orange Group plans to install more than 1000 solar-powered base stations in Africa by the end of the year.  

  Ericsson and Telecom Italia are going to deploy MIMO technology in the mobile network of Milan resulting in speed increase up to 28 Mbps in download and 5.8 Mbps in upload. Telecom Italia will be the first Italian mobile network operator to use the technology developed by Ericsson. Milan will be able to enjoy a faster mobile broadband Internet  (HSPA) in June 2009. National coverage will follow in the second half of the year.  

  Seventeen top mobile operators and manufacturers announced that they have decided to team up and create a universal charger for new mobile phones. The project is initiated by the GSMA. The universal charger compatible with all mobile phones will eliminate the manufacturers of making duplicate chargers (all of them have 51,000 tonnes in weight) that can be purchased separately in case the original charger is broken. Environment will only benefit by the reduced production of chargers. Moreover, mobile phone users will find the universal charger very convenient – they won’t have to spend a lot of time looking for a charger compatible with their mobile phones. The universal charging solution (UCS) is scheduled to be included in the package of most mobile phones by the 1st January 2012. A universal charger will be based on the Micro-USB interface. The following companies will work upon the UCS: 3 Group, AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone, KTF, LG, Motorola, Mobilkom Austria, Orange, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telstra, Telecom Italia, Telenor,...

  Nokia and Qualcomm plan to develop advanced UMTS mobile devices initially for North America. Most probably new smartphones will run Symbian S60 and have Qualcomm MSM7xxx and MSM8xxx series chipsets. The first mobile devices are slated to launch in the middle of 2010. Vice president of Qualcomm says that cooperation of such giants like Nokia and Qualcomm would result in an exceptional leap in mobile industry.  

  Torch Mobile today announced the launch of version 1.1.0 of their award-winning Iris Browser™ for mobile devices running Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 and 6. The company simultaneously announced Iris Browser for the Windows CE platform. The new browser is both fast and resource efficient. Torch Mobile also announced future versions of the browser will be available for download in the first quarter of 2009.  

  RF Micro Devices today said it is targeting the CDMA components market. The company has already developed power amplifiers, switches and low-noise GPS Modules (LNA). In 2009 RF Micro Devices (RFMD) is going to refresh its CDMA product portfolio launching power amplifiers, discrete switches and GPS low noise amplifier (LNA) modules with integrated filters. The company recently launched the RF73xx family of linear CDMA power amplifiers, the RF1126 and RF1136 discrete switches and the RF2815 GPS LNA module with integrated surface acoustic wave filter that is designed for CDMA mobile devices supporting GPS. The size of the above-named RF2815 GPS LNA module is only 3.3 x 2.1 x 1.0 mm. The module is optimized for both solution size and performance and is suited for battery-powered mobile devices, such as portable navigation devices and CDMA handsets supporting GPS. Samples of the RF1126, RF1136 and RF2815 are available now. Samples of the RF73xx product family will be available in the second half of 2009. RFMD's product portfolio is on display at the GSMA Mobile World...

  Mobixell Networks has announced a multimedia messaging support package that enables iPhone users to send and receive MMS messages to and from any device. The fact that iPhone doesn’t support MMS has been a source of frustration for may people. However, everything is in the past already – the new solution allows iPhone users to send MMS messages with image attachments to any e-mail address. Audio and video attachments can be presented as clickable icons with no application installation required.  

  Media Go™ application debuted together with the Sony Ericsson W995 at Mobile World Congress 2009. By means of this application you can play and organize files in most formats and transfer them between your phone and PC in a very simple way. With the Sony Ericsson W995 you can watch TV shows or movies in premium video quality or see if there are any new videos from YouTube™ using Turbo 3G or Wi-Fi™. With the W995 you will not get bored anywhere, be it a railway station or crowded bus. The mobile phone has Walkman™ player and an 8.1MP camera. You can print photos up to a full A3 size with no loss of quality. This phone brings together the best music and video experiences. The W995 comes with HPM-77 headphones – try them and you’ll feel like you are listening to your favourite band live as thought you are in a recording studio! In selected markets the HPM-77 will be replaced by the HPM-88 noise cancelling headset.    

  GSMPress.com has decided to show all mobile network operators to its visitors in a very simple and convenient way. We have recently launched GSMPress.org that is actually an interactive world map by means of which you can learn what operators work in every single country. You should first select a part of the world. On doing this you will see an enlarged map of the selected part with national flags marking every country. There are two ways of selecting a country itself: you may either click on its flag, or choose it from the list to the left of the map. As soon as you select a country, the map is replaced by information about mobile network operators situated in it that includes operators’ name, network type and name, mobile country code, GPRS and 3G availability. Source: GSMPress ®

  The Blue Earth cell phone will be presented at Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona. Blue Earth is a world’s first full touchscreen mobile phone with the solar battery built in the backside. The phone has already contributed to environmental protection as it is made from recycled plastic extracted from water bottles and the process of extraction is not too harmful to the nature. Owners of Blue Earth will like the ‘eco walk' function that turns on the in-built pedometer and counts your steps, calculating the amount of CO2 emissions that has not got into the atmosphere because you are walking and not driving. You will see saved trees on the display – this is your contribution to the nature. The packaging for the phone is also made from recycled paper. Blue Earth comes with energy efficient charger consuming less than 0.03W.    

  Tired of contemplating your fingerprints on the glossy iPhone 3G? Well, maybe we are going to meet another iPhone model that will be matte. MacRumors.com has got leaked photos of the next generation iPhone 3G. The pictures were presumably made in China, but this information and authenticity of photos has not been confirmed. The photos show the dark and black backside of a 16GB model with the model number A1303. It is also reported that the new smartphone case will be textured for better gripping.  

  The Nokia Music Store in Austria can be found at http://music.nokia.at and in Switzerland at http://music.nokia.ch respectively. The stores have such a big variety of songs and tracks that it seems to be impossible not to find something you are looking for among five million tracks. You can make a purchase via your PC or from optimized Nokia devices such as the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. You will pay 1.00 EUR per track and 10.00 EUR per album at the Australian store. Speaking about the store in Switzerland, a track costs here 1.50 CHF and an album – 15.00 CHF. There are several payment options, including credit cards and pre-paid vouchers.