• Cellular South has completed its acquisition of Alabama-based Corr Wireless Communications. The acquisition will expand Cellular South's footprint through North Alabama and Georgia. For now, Corr Wireless will continue to offer wireless products and services under its existing name.
• Syniverse Technologies is delivering text messages free of charge for the newly launched text4baby initiative, an educational program of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB). Syniverse is working with Voxiva, which will provide the mobile healthcare platform, as well as with major U.S. mobile operators to offer the text message service at no cost to registered users. The program provides timely health information to women from early pregnancy through a baby's first year. The service sends health tips that are timed to the mother's stage of pregnancy or the baby's age.
• The GSMA and comScore have launched their Mobile Media Metrics product in the U.K. in partnership with operators O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK. Taking anonymous mobile Internet usage data from the operators, the service will provide insights into mobile media consumption. Based on pre-production data, 16 million people in the U.K. accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in December 2009, viewing a combined total of 6.7 billion pages and spending an aggregate of 4.8 billion minutes online during the month. The top 10 sites accounted for 70 percent of both total pages viewed and total time spent online on mobiles during the month.
• Page Plus Cellular has lowered its U.S. roaming rate from 59 cents per minute to 29 cents per minute. The prepaid carrier says roaming areas are minimal due to its large nationwide network. Last month, Page Plus lowered the rates on its standard voice plan to as low as 4 cent per minute.
• IDC reports that the worldwide converged mobile device market grew almost 40 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 after vendors shipped 54.5 million units. For the full year 2009, vendors shipped a total of 174.2 million units, up 15.1 percent from the 151.4 million units shipped in 2008. Converged mobile devices accounted for 15.4 percent of all mobile phones shipped in 2009, up slightly from 12.7 percent in 2008.
• Openwave Systems reported second fiscal quarter net income on a GAAP basis of $213,000 compared with a net loss of $64.2 million in the December quarter a year ago. Second fiscal quarter revenues of $49.7 million compared with $49.8 million in the prior quarter and $48.1 million in the December quarter a year ago.
• Aviat Networks, previously known as Harris Stratex Networks, reported that it narrowed its losses in the second quarter of fiscal 2010 to $7.9 million on sales of $122.6 million. The company lost $318.7 million in the same period last year on heavy charges related to impairment of goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets. The company's current revenue expectations for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 are in the range of $120 million to $130 million.
• Verizon Communications has elected former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater to its board of directors. The appointment is effective March 5. The addition of Slater will bring Verizon's total board membership to 13. Slater is currently a partner in the law firm of Patton Boggs LLP in Washington, D.C., where he focuses his practice in the areas of transportation and infrastructure and public policy. He is also vice chairman and senior advisor at James Lee Witt Associates, an emergency preparedness consultancy based in Washington and affiliated with Global Options Group.
• NEC Electronics has introduced its new Camera Engine 151 (CE151) system-on-chip (SoC) for camera phones. The new chip provides images comparable to digital-still cameras (DSCs). The new SoC also enables mobile phones to output full-HD (1080-pixel) video stream and still-image data up to 13 megapixels received by the CMOS sensor. The chip is backwards compatible with previous NEC Electronics' CE series.
• MACH has appointed Chris Burke to the new position of chief technology officer (CTO). Burke has held both technical and general management positions as MD EMEA for Research In Motion, CTO/CIO for Vodafone UK Ltd, CTO/CIO of Fixed Line Service Provider, Energis, and director R&D, Bell Northern Research (formerly Nortel R&D).
• Telegent Systems has introduced its third-generation analog mobile TV receiver, the TLG1121. The TLG1121 is based on 65 nm CMOS process technology and provides global support for NTSC, PAL and SECAM TV broadcasts for free-to-air analog TV and FM broadcast reception on mobile devices. The TLG1121 is offered in a 6 x 6 mm package, reducing package size by 25 percent compared to Telegent's second generation solution while consuming 25 percent less power from the battery.
• UTStarcom and telent Technology Services have signed an agreement concerning UTStarcom's mSwith product portfolio in the United Kingdom. UTStarcom's mSwitch NGN products will be packaged with telent's technology services solutions to create a new next generation network (NGN) solution set designed for U.K. operators. The agreement enables UTStarcom to expand the reach and impact of its global mSwitch solutions into the U.K. and Ireland.
• Sierra Wireless has selected IBM to host a new services platform dedicated to its software as a service (SaaS) M2M offering. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will provide data center collocation facilities and services to Sierra Wireless. In 2008, Sierra Wireless deployed its first SaaS platform in France to serve the European market. It is now expanding to support its growth in North America.
• Wells Fargo & Company announced that text banking is now accessible to all customers, including those who have yet to enroll in Wells Fargo Online Banking. Wells Fargo says it is the first major financial services company in the United States to offer text banking to all its customers.