• Nokia and New Alliance have formed a 50/50 joint venture to support China-based developers and mobile services. The joint venture, dubbed the Nokia Alliance Internet Services Company Limited, will open for business in January 2010 and involve about 80 people.
• CTIA has appointed Vivian Lausevic as its director of government affairs. Lausevic, who has more than 16 years of experience working with Congress, will work with members of Congress and their staff on legislative and policy matters that affect the wireless industry.
• CTIA announced the trade group's newly elected 2010 Executive Committee members. The new members are Tatara Systems President and CEO E.Y. Snowden and Carolina West Wireless CEO Slayton Stewart. Clearwire co-founder CEO Ben Wolff, who currently serves as an Other Supplier representative, will be assuming a new role on the Executive Committee as a Mid-Sized Carrier representative. The newly elected members of the Executive Committee serve a one-year term beginning Jan. 1.
• Analysys Mason has appointed former Yankee Group enterprise head Steve Hilton to its own enterprise unit. Prior to joining Analysys Mason, Hilton spent six years managing the Enterprise and SMB team at Yankee Group. He has also held senior positions at Lucent Technologies, TDS and Cambridge Strategic Management Group (CSMG).
• InvolveMobile has launched its newest software-as-a-service platform for the U.S. market. The service allows users to set up interactive text messaging and mobile campaigns from a Web browser. InvolveMobile currently works with marketing teams at brands such as MasterCard, ESPN, News Corp, EMI, Radio One, Samsung and Journal Broadcast Group.
• Mobile infrastructure, commerce and marketing company Transaction Wireless has secured an additional $2 million in Series B funding from Mission Ventures and Okapi Ventures. Since the initial Series A funding, Transaction Wireless has launched both the wCharge Credit Card Terminal by Transaction Wireless and the wGift Platform. Today's funding will be used for ongoing technology and customer deployment, sales and marketing.
• Samsung Mobile has dedicated the first of more than 90 mobile charging stations at 20 U.S. college campuses. By the end of this year, Samsung Mobile plans to install charging stations at 10 colleges. The charging stations allow several people to re-charge their electronic devices at the same time for free. To date, Samsung has installed more than 300 charging stations in 10 of the country's busiest airports.