China Mobile said its net new subscribers in July totaled 5.6 million, taking its total subscriber numbers as of the end of July to 337.97 million.

The complaint is a new front in a dispute between Nokia and Qualcomm, the world's second-biggest maker of phone chips. They are at odds over how much Qualcomm should receive in royalties for 3G phones that allow faster Internet access. Nokia wants lower fees after a cross-licensing deal expired on April 9, arguing Qualcomm has less intellectual property in the newest technology than in older products.

Businesspeople and others who use their phones regularly for text messaging are likely to experience lots of frustration in using the Apple iPhone, at least in the short term, a research firm said Thursday.

China Mobile posted a better-than-expected 28% jump in quarterly earnings as more users switched to mobile phones, despite sacrificing margins to woo poorer rural customers.

A court order forcing Qualcomm to pay royalties for use of the technology would be inadequate because the companies are competing for the same customers...(However) Broadcom's licensing agreement with Verizon Wireless, which allows the carrier to sell phones with the infringing Qualcomm chips, shows there is a commercial solution to the patent dispute, Chesler said. "If the Verizon license is a real agreement that allows Verizon to have our chips, there can't be an irreparable injury," he said.

...In the first half of this year, Sohu.com reports the sales volume of illegal mobile phones reached 23.34 million in China, accounting for more than 25% of the country's total mobile phone sales.

Handsets with product names associated with popular LCD TV brands are catching on among Japanese consumers eager to watch "one-seg" mobile digital terrestrial broadcasts. Among these handsets are Sharp's Aquos series models and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB's Bravia series. Aquos and Bravia are LCD TV brands of Sharp and Sony, respectively. At present, three models are available, and their cumulative sales have far surpassed one million units..

Seeking to expand its product portfolio, Texas Instruments (TI) has acquired Integrated Circuit Designs (ICD), a developer of radio-frequency chips. This acquisition is the latest move by TI to strengthen its low-power RF portfolio. It follows the acquisition of Chipcon, a provider of short-range, low-power RF transceivers for ZigBee-based, wireless systems.

Two patent applications from Samsung describe a cell phone whose primary purpose is mobile gaming, with the actual telephony side of things playing second fiddle.

Qualcomm announced that more than 300 million mobile handsets worldwide have now been shipped with the company's gpsOne solution.

The insolvency administrator for BenQ Mobile Germany is suing parent company BenQ for a further 26 million euros (US$36 million) on top of more than 80 million euros it is already claiming. Loss-making Taiwanese electronics group BenQ has in the past rejected Prager's demands of payments for creditors.

Motorola announced contracts worth US$394 million with China Mobile Communications, part of China Mobile, for GSM network expansion.

Verizon Wireless and Bank of America have partnered to allow customers to access their bank accounts through their mobile phones.

Prices of LCD TVs in Beijing are taking their annual dip but this time two months earlier than usual. Some high-end joint-venture companies are joining in this time with many offering discounts across the board.

Motorola's Razr 2, a technologically advanced follow-up to the Razr cell phone, will make its US debut next month through Verizon Wireless, Verizon announced Friday.

Sanmina-SCI has transferred production of Ericsson products from Sanmina-SCI in Hungary to Sanmina-SCI's unit in Forserum, Sweden.

China will begin to offer mobile TV broadcast services before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games that utilize the country's homegrown CMMB (China's Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting) standard, an official from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said Wednesday.

T-Mobile today announced availability of the Samsung Blast, a curious slider phone decked out in glossy black with red accents.

"...the two companies also are negotiating a plan relating to transferring a part of Nokia's IC operations to STMicroelectronics...will enable STMicroelectronics to design and manufacture 3G chipsets based on Nokia's modem technologies..."

Mobile telephone carriers must allow customers' competitors to connect to their networks, and they must make roaming available to competitors for a "reasonable" cost, the US Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.

In recent months, both have detailed plans to build energy-efficient microprocessors specially designed for portable electronic devices. The catch is that a mass-market for these devices is still largely nonexistent. But with the frenzy over Apple's iPhone, the chipmakers are keen to secure a central role in a class of product that some believe could soon rival the PC.

President Bush decided not to veto a US International Trade Commission ruling barring the importation of new 3G cell phones that contain Qualcomm chips found to have infringed on a Broadcom patent.

Nokia and Microsoft have extended their cooperation to include support for Microsoft PlayReady technology into the Nokia S60 and Series 40 mobile device platforms.

"...The Bluetooth SIG anticipates silicon vendors such as Broadcom, CSR, Infineon and Texas Instruments will have Bluetooth v2.1+ EDR chips available immediately and that the first products will follow by the end of the year...."

Google has developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, email and Web browser software applications, according to a story published today in The Wall Street Journal.

Google's plans to bid for a portion of America's airwaves were dealt a blow last night when the US Federal Communications Commission refused to approve two of the Internet company's conditions.

Samsung Electronics is restructuring its handset division to better cope with growing global competition, a media report said Wednesday.

As a sponsor to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China Netcom will have to surrender its rights in providing WiMAx to China Mobile, which in turn has been given the authorization by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games to construct a WiMAX network in Beijing, sources said. This development may come as a disappointment to China Netcom, as the company loses its opportunity to expand its wireless sector in China.

Even without standards, though, Nokia has taken an early lead in the global race. The DVB-H standard promoted by the EU has gained support from some 200 companies, including US giants Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments, and is the only standard being supported by all major handset manufacturers, says Mark Selby, Nokia's vice-president of sales and multimedia.

The US Federal Communications Commission recently set rules for an upcoming sale of airwaves that may reshape the wireless industry, handing Google a partial victory in its push for open access.

BT is shutting down its Movio mobile television company and ending its partnership with Virgin Mobile's DAB TV service, which will also close. However, BT suggested that it may launch a service using the competing DVB-H format in the future, depending on market conditions.

One key question is how much consumers will be willing to spend on mobile TV. While some users may spend US$4 or US$5 a month to download clips to their cell phones, the more robust mobile TV services with live channels are typically priced at US$10 to US$20 a month. Kanishka Agarwal, an analyst at Telephia, estimates that mobile TV revenues totaled US$146 million in the first quarter, approaching the US$168 million generated by mobile video games. "The mobile video business is catching up to businesses that have been around a while," he said.

MotionDSP announced this week that the CIA's investment arm, In-Q-Tel, had provided MotionDSP with its first bit of outside funding - an investment of less than a million dollars. The CIA also committed to more than a million dollars in contracts for the firm's technology, which can take grainy or blurry video footage and make it clearer. The company is hoping the CIA deal will help his firm cash in on a burgeoning area: the sharing of images and video over cell phones.

Motorola announced Anthony J Vinciquerra, the president and chief executive officer of Fox Networks Group, and Greg Brown, president and chief operating officer of Motorola, have been elected to Motorola's board of directors.

Reports are that Quanta`s cellphone unit is researching and developing the smart cellphones to meet Dell`s special requirements, although the order amount has not been confirmed. Both Dell and Quanta have no comments on the release of the orders. Over the past several years, Quanta`s cellphone unit has not performed as well as expected. The company shipped only 1.7 million units of cellphones last year, less than the targeted goal.

China TechFaith and Arasor International Group said in a joint statement that they have entered into a partnership to jointly develop wireless handsets for emerging markets.