The GSMA reported that Mobile World Congress was attended by more than 47,000 visitors from 189 countries with executives from the largest mobile operators, software companies and equipment providers as well as government delegations. Attendees holding C-level positions constituted 50% of visitors and there were more than 2,800 CEOs at the conference. Leaders from companies including AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Ericsson, Microsoft Corp., MySpace, Nokia, Telefonica, Telenor, Verizon Communications and Vodafone gathered to outline the plan to cope with the global economic slowdown and lessen its impact on mobile industry. The Congress featured 1,300 exhibiting companies on more than 57,000 square metres of space, 11% larger than in the previous year. Announcements made at Mobile World Congress were reported by nearly 2,400 international, Web, and broadcast media. Prospects and strategic issues facing the mobile industry will be explored at the Mobile Asia Congress that will be held in Hong Kong in autumn 2009.  

  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,

  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.  

  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.  

  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.  

  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 ®

  Venturi Wireless, the trusted leader in broadband services optimization for mobile and wireless operators, announced the Venturi Video Optimization solution. Venturi Video Optimization or VVO enables mobile operators to deliver high-quality and cost-effective video to mobile broadband-enabled devices. The product optimizes video for the wireless environment and minimizes the impact on network resources. End users get video as though they are using wired broadband Internet, with fast download speeds and high-quality video without re-buffering or interruptions. Tomas Isaksson, Chief Executive Officer of Venturi Wireless, says that the company is “thrilled to launch Venturi Video Optimization” because video is “a driving force on the Internet”, and “the growth potential for video over a mobile broadband connection is endless”. Venturi Video Optimization solution is a very nice thing for operators because video optimized with VVO is smaller in size that increases network bandwidth and results in faster download time. Moreover, operators can feel confident in investing in a solution with such a great prospect. All other advantages of VVO will be disclosed at the GSMA Mobile World

  Chinese government is likely to grant operators permission to launch 3G network. The ministry for industry and information technology plans to grant operators 3G licenses in January of 2009. It is already known that according to one of the conditions of the licenses the three operators (China Mobile China Telecom and China Unicom) must develop the network together and share deployment costs. 3G network is expected to bring $30 billion to the government that will be felt in the economy of the country.    

  Vertu is pleased to announce that they signed a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) deal with NTT DoCoMo to provide communication services to Vertucustomers. In the second quarter of 2009 Vertu will provide a premium membership called Vertu Club through their partnership with NTT DoCoMo. In addition, on 19 February 2009 Vertu will open its first store in Japan called Ginza Flagship Store, where customers will be able to see the whole Vertu collection and pre-orders of handsets will be taken for delivery.  

  Western Union and Vodafone are going to test the possibility of sending money to Kenya from Western Union office in Reading. Cell phone users will be able to transfer money to subscribers of Kenyan cell carrier Safaricom. Due to cooperation of Vodafone and Western Union M-Pesa subscribers will be able to make international remittances easily.  

  The T-Mobile G1 has barely started to hit retail channels, and we’re already seeing mockups of the next-generation Android smartphone from T-Mobile. The mockup you see here is supposed to be the successor to the T-Mobile G1, logically dubbed the T-Mobile G2. The mockup is more of an evolution in design than a next-gen successor to the still green-behind-the-ears G1, but we’re fans of this mockup just the same. Selling itself on giving the user more screen real estate, a smaller “chin,” and enhanced web browsing capabilities, the T-Mobile GII is definitely a head-turner. The mockup demonstrates the current T-Mobile G1’s weaknesses, but also gives us something to look forward to with a next-generation Android handset. Take a gander at the mockups below and twiddle your thumbs in anticipation of the T-Mobile G1’s true successor.

Orange has sent an internal memo to employees in the UK noting that they have suspended sales of the BlackBerry Bold due to ’software issues’. The suspension is simply an interim measure that Orange made in the best interests of their customers while RIM works away at a fix for the issues. The internal statement from Orange on the Bold: “Following reports of software issues with the BlackBerry Bold handset across a variety of mobile operators, Orange has decided to act in the interest of its customers by suspending shipments of the device in the UK. We are currently awaiting feed back from RIM as to when an industry wide fix for these issues will be in place, and expect this suspension to be an interim measure. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you. BlackBerry/RIM are doing everything they can to resolve this issue and will be completing full testing and validation to ensure future handsets do not have any quality issues. This may take a couple of weeks so it’s up to us to do what’s best for our customers.” I have to admit, I’ve heard a lot of issues from friends and colleagues regarding the Bold. Spontaneous restarts and OS crashes are not uncommon. Even so, those that have experienced issues

The freshly-launched Vizada brand became now even stronger. Apax Partners France announced today that besides France Telecom Mobile Satellite Communications, the company includes a recent acquisition which is Telenor Satellite Services. This means that the company becomes one of the leaders of the global satellite communications industry with more then 400 distributors world wide. The company will specialize in two forms of services in order to meet all type of clients: Fixed Satellite Solutions and Mobile Satellite Solutions. Those will be provided via a large range of satellite systems like: Eutelsat, Thuraya, Intelsat, Iridium, New Skies, and many more.

Reliance Communications and Research In Motion (RIM) launched the first prepaid service for the BlackBerry® wireless solution in India. This first of its kind ‘pay as you use’ pricing model in India is in line with Reliance Communications’ strategy to extend BlackBerry services to customers who are looking for cost-effective options, giving customers flexibility and control over their expenses for wireless services. Reliance Communications has been on the forefront of offering a wide range of prepaid options to consumers across its data cards, mobile phones and fixed wireless phones offering. This prepaid service option is available on a range of BlackBerry smartphones including: The BlackBerry® 8830 World Edition smartphone, which operates on both CDMA & GSM networks The BlackBerry® Curve™ 8330 smartphone on CDMA networks The BlackBerry® Curve™ 8300 smartphone on GSM networks The BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8100 smartphone on GSM networks The BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8130 smartphone on CDMA networks, and  The BlackBerry® 8703e smartphone on CDMA networks For further query, customers can visit any Reliance World or Reliance Communications

Qt Software today announced that Qtopia, a platform for creating user interfaces and applications for advanced consumer electronics based on Linux, has been renamed and launched as Qt Extended 4.4.Qt enables developers to build innovative services and applications once and then extend the innovation across all major desktop, mobile and other embedded platforms without rewriting the code. Qt Extended extends the Qt application development framework, bringing increased functionality to embedded Linux. Qt Extended inherits the Qt WebKit Integration, which helps device manufacturers enrich applications with live web content such as online maps, music stores and instant messaging.Qt Extended 4.4 includes a new Video IP Desk phone reference design which demonstrates an Internet-connected video desk phone UI for finger touch interaction for 3.5" screens. The objective of the reference design is to illustrate the versatility of Qt Extended.Qt, originally developed by Trolltech, is a proven development framework for multiple operating systems. It is used by many leading consumer brands and is found in embedded Linux devices. In June 2008, Nokia completed the acquisition of Trolltech and it is now a fully integrated entity within the Nokia Devices unit, called Qt