• Alltel will offer its customers Pacific DataVision’s SkyMail service for wireless dictation. The resale deal will being with business customers.
• Qwest, which recently switched its cell phone sales from Sprint Nextel to Verizon Wireless, now says its customers can start buying the Verizon products.
• Mobile social network MocoSpace snagged Jim Scheinman for its board of directors. Scheinman was an investor in and the first employee of desktop social networking player Bebo.
• Namco Networks and USA Today announced the availability of USA Today Txtpert on mobile phones, a word puzzle game that tests consumers’ texting abilities. USA Today Txtpert by Namco is the mobile version of the word puzzle that recently launched in USA Today.
• mBlox announced that Ken Elmer has joined the company as CFO. Previously, Elmer was with Tiburon, and before that, he was a division level CFO at Pacific Bell and Pacific Telesis Group, as well as CFO at Visionael, The MapFactory and TCSI.
• Otter Products is partnering with Moftware to offer cases for the BlackBerry and iPhone in India, the U.K. and the United States. Cases will be sold on Fommy.com, a global site of smartphones, cell phones and accessories, and Fommy.co.in, a sister site for retailing specifically in India.
With the current economic climate, wireless operators face shrinking marketing budgets and reduced consumer spending.
Globally, the credit crunch is very much alive, and operators will be tightening their belts into the foreseeable future by putting off capital purchases.
