Sprint Mobility professional services launched.

"Entner added, 'What they are doing is a good idea, but to pull it off, they have to be agnostic about the technology and even the carriers they recommend.'"

China to have over 440 mln mobile phone users by end of next year.

"The number of mobile phone users will reach above 440 million by the end of 2006, and fixed line subscribers will rise to over 380 million, said an expert with the Ministry of Information Industry (MII)."

Google to finally make its big mobile move?

"Rumors are trickling through the blogosphere that Google is going to buy Opera. It's been rumored for some time that Google was working on its own Web browser, thought to be based on open-source software like Mozilla, reflecting its apparent preference to build its own software when possible rather than buying it. But to see this as just about a PC browser is missing the point: this buy would be all about mobile."

Wireless enterprise spend will triple by 2008.

"visiongain intelligence has issued a new report that predicts worldwide wireless enterprise spending will 'rise from $50 billion in 2005, as operators, handset manufacturers, enterprises and other companies begin to adopt more coherent strategies.' Enterprises of varying size and location are also 'embracing wireless services in multiple ways and spending is set to increase to more than $130 billion in 2008 for enterprise wireless hardware, software and services.'"

Red Bend Software joins OMSI Forum.

"Red Bend Software... today announced that it has joined the Open Mobile Service Interface (OMSI) Forum. Participating in this organization allows Red Bend to contribute to open standards and apply its firmware update technology to mobile phone point-of-sale and customer service facilities... [OMSI] makes it possible to perform device management on mobile phones from different manufacturers using a single PC application."

Vodafone to buy Turkish mobile operator.

"Vodafone has emerged as the winner of the auction for Turkish carrier Telsim, saying it will buy the operator for $4.5 billion."

Bitfone's intellectual property portfolio strengthens.

"Bitfone Corporation ... today announced the award of a new patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent, Number 6,941,453, describes methods and concepts for the updating of at least one of firmware or software in an electronic device wherein the electronic device contains more than one update agent. This is the third U.S. patent issued to Bitfone. In addition, Bitfone announced that it has been granted patent Number 0506785 by the Korean Intellectual Property Office representing its first international patent."

Potential buyers seen unlikely to step up for Alltel.

"In theory, Alltel would be a good fit for Verizon since they both run CDMA networks and Verizon could fill coverage gaps in 'rural areas that Alltel specializes in.' However Alltel could be too costly. Entner estimated Alltel's 'wireless assets to be worth roughly $16 billion, and could be sold at a premium as high as $20 billion.'"

Stealth Text destroys SMS within 40 seconds of being read.

"StealthText allows you to send a text message safely in the knowledge that it will delete itself from the recipient?s mobile phone as soon as the person has read it ? ultimately, allowing the sender control of their own information."

Sprint Enterprise Mobility - the name says it all!

"Leveraging leading mobility solutions from Sprint and looking at similar expertise across the industry, Sprint Enterprise Mobility will enable large businesses and government agencies to design, implement and support tailored solutions unique to the requirements of their business."

NEC integrates Openwave LBS.

"Openwave Systems announced that NEC Corp. is integrating Openwave Location Manager into NEC's Network Assisted Location Information Solutions. Vodafone K.K. in Japan is the first customer to select the combined solution... [it provides] a high-accuracy, Assisted GPS (A-GPS) offering that enables location-based services for both the consumer and enterprise markets. The combined solution also incorporates an access management feature to protect subscriber privacy at both the mobile handset and application levels."

Vodafone learns that the Japanese are - Japanese!

"In what would have to be one of the biggest global blunders in mobile marketing that we've yet witnessed Vodafone Japan has admitted that Japanese customers are more advanced, more fussy and unique - thus leading to the wholesale rejection of many of their new global 3G models. Motorola and Nokia in particular, with a Vodafone Japan spokesman saying that some foreigh-made handsets, those by Motorola in particular, had been removed from retail stores or reduced drastically in store displays."

Mobile WiMax: it's done.

"It's done. A mobile WiMax standard has been approved by the IEEE and will be designated 802.16-2005."

China's mobile users to register.

"China will soon require all mobile phone users to register with telecom providers or face a cutoff in service, state media reported Friday."

Themes and predictions for 2006.

"Mark Lowenstein at Mobile Ecosystem provides... bullet-point predictions for 2006, in no particular order:
1. 2007 is the year for major disruption, not 2006
2. Not All MVNOs will Be Successful
3. The municipal WiFi hype will experience a pause
4. OS Shakeup on the Phone
5. Action Out of T-Mobile
6. Carriers Will Partner With Major Online Music Properties
7. There Will be a Slew of Major Media/Content Partnerships
8. IMS Dose of Reality
9. We Will See the Beginnings of a Viable Mobile Advertising Market
10. Enterprise Predictions
* Mobile Email Wars Will Produce Casualties
* Focus on Additional Packaged Applications
* More Managed Services
* Lots of Activity in the Public Sector"

Russell Beattie: RSS+ SMS.

"Yahoo! just enabled every blog and news service in the world to update 200 million American mobile consumers instantly. Every feed, from any source online is now a potential mobile alert service, instantly notifying readers, customers and users of any updates, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week anywhere they happen to be."

BellSouth wants to turn Internet into a toll road.

"The Washington Post reports that the CTO of BellSouth is ready to start dismantling the Internet as a commons and converting it into a toll road."