• AT&T is teaming up with Wallace Wireless to offer group alert notifications for hospitals and healthcare organizations to help address their productivity, security and coverage needs. AT&T is the first carrier to carry Wallace's WIC pager. The device is compatible with AT&T's existing Enterprise Paging service, which can extend WIC Pager to virtually any AT&T device and provides enhanced paging functionality such as long SMS messages up to 456 characters, delivery receipts and two-way messaging. The device will be available to customers later this month.
• RELM Wireless has received a $6.6 million order from the USDA Forest Service for its D-Series digital P-25 portable and mobile radios. The Forest Service currently has about 57,000 of RELM's radios in service. The order is compliant with APCO Project 25 (P25), which requires interoperability among compliant equipment regardless of the manufacturer. RELM expects to fulfill the order during the first quarter of 2010.
• The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) is teaming with Harris Interactive to study consumer usage habits during OMVC's Mobile DTV Consumer Showcase in Washington, D.C. During the showcase, eight local area television stations will be transmitting up to 20 channels of free and premium broadcast TV programming to hundreds of different mobile devices that will be used by actual viewers and local residents. OMVC is planning an evaluation of quantitative and qualitative usage for each of the selected device platforms to understand usage and early adoption of mobile DTV.
• Travel services company Farelogix is partnering with Mobiata to provide airline merchandising capabilities to mobile devices, beginning with Android-based devices and the iPhone. The service will eventually be available on BlackBerry devices. The companies aim to allow airlines to market and sell ancillary products and services to on-the-go air travelers via their mobile phones. The service is based on Farelogix merchandising solution and Mobiata's FlightTrack and TripDeck travel applications.
• KDDI has selected Airvana's 3G CDMA femtocells and femtocell service manager as part of a comprehensive solution being delivered by Hitachi. Hitachi will provide core network equipment to connect Airvana's HubBub femtocell system into KDDI's core network. Airvana and Hitachi announced a femtocell partnership for the Japanese market in 2008. KDDI is Japan's second largest mobile operator
• TeliaSonera has increased it ownership in Uzbekistan operator UCell from 74 percent to 94 percent by acquiring 20 percent of the shares in the jointly owned TeliaSonera Uzbek Telecom Holding B.V. from Takilant Limited. TeliaSonera will pay about $220 million for the shares. UCell became Uzbekistan's second largest mobile operator in 2009 with 4.759 million subscriptions and a market share of about 30 percent as of September 2009.
• Mobile data solutions company Mobidia Technology has launched client-based technology to enhance policy and deep packet inspection (DPI) solutions. Features of the new technology include increased data delivery speed and extended standard differentiated services strategies that include upstream as well as downstream traffic. Mobidia's solutions are now available to wireless operators, policy and DPI vendors for evaluation and adoption.
• The Dell'Oro Group reports that the unified communications (UC) market's annual sales will expand faster than the overall enterprise voice market through 2014. "We believe that over the next five years, UC will disrupt not only how vendors develop products, but also what kinds of 'go-to-market' strategies they implement," said Alan Weckel, director at Dell'Oro Group, in a statement.
• Digital security provider Gemalto has acquired mobile authentication company Valimo Wireless for an undisclosed amount of money. Valimo enables mobile phone users to securely authenticate themselves, digitally sign documents and confirm legally binding transactions simply by entering a self-chosen pass phrase or a PIN code. The Helsinki, Finland-based company has been a Gemalto partner for five years.
• Sidebar, a free mobile application that allows users to receive personalized content recommendations, announced its availability on select BlackBerry smartphones. Sidebar also offers a built-in quick response (QR) code reader that allows BlackBerry users to scan both 2D barcodes and QR codes to receive price comparisons, product information and more. Sidebar for the BlackBerry is available now on: Storm, Storm 2, Tour, Curve 8900 and Bold 9700, with availability on additional BlackBerry models to follow.