• ABI Research says the average North American user is expected to consume 159MB of data in 2010, up from 100MB in 2009. Though data usage in North America is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 55 percent between last year and 2015, mobile data revenues growth rate is expected to be just 18 percent. ABI says this presents a challenge for operators as they look to manage the demands on their networks without a corresponding increase in income.
• MobileIron, a company that specializes in management of multiple smartphone operating systems, has raised an additional $16 million in a Series C financing round led by Foundation Capital. The funding will support MobileIron's ongoing business expansion and product development. Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Storm Ventures also participated in the round.
• Syniverse made $22.3 million in the second quarter 2010 on $158.8 million in sales as the company's first quarter momentum carried forward into the second half of the year. Looking ahead, the company expects to make between $82 million and $89 million for the full year 2010 on sales of between $615 million and $635 million.
• Mobile payments company Payfone has closed an $11 million Series B funding round from Opus Capital, BlackBerry Partners Fund and RRE Ventures. The company plans to use the funds to scale its presence across EMEA, Latin America and Asia. Bob Borchers of Opus Capital and Kevin Talbot of BlackBerry Partners Fund will join Payfone's board of directors in connection with the financing.
• Consumer Cellular has upgraded its data and messaging plans to include full access to the Internet combined with text messaging, reducing the total price for both services through its "Connect!" program. The new plans are comprised of Connect! Lite, which offers 100 text messages and 2MB of data for $2.50 per month; Connect! Ready, which offers 500 messages and 15 MB of data for $5.00 per month; Connect! Active, which comes with 1,000 messages and 30 MB of data for $10.00 per month; and Connect! Complete, which provides 2,000 messages and 75 MB of data for $20.00 per month.
• In partnership with Northrop Grumman, Good Technology announced that the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) portal has agreed to license 80,000 seats of Good Mobile Messaging Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (Good S/MIME). The contract will provide mobile e-mail to the 2 million registered users of the AKO portal. The backend integration supports a range Microsoft Windows Mobile devices and support for iPhone and Android devices will be provided in the fourth.
• Personal Communications Devices (PCD) launched its newly redesigned website. The new website is designed with sections devoted to the company's three key audiences: service providers, manufacturers and end users.