Mobile subscriptions at 4.6 billion by year-end

Mobile subscriptions will rise to 4.6 billion by the end of this year, boosted by a continuing mobile phone boom in emerging economies, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said yesterday. That represents about two mobile subscriptions for every three people in the world, although in developed economies many people have more than one subscription. Mobile broadband subscriptions would top 600 million in 2009, with fixed broadband subscribers at 500 million, the United Nations telecoms body said. ITU said its latest statistics highlighted major regional discrepancies, with mobile broadband

penetration rates still low in many African countries and other developing nations.

Via Reuters

Google in Android deal with Verizon

Google yesterday won its biggest endorsement from a mobile phone company for its Android mobile operating system, with Verizon Wireless of the US announcing a multi-year partnership to launch phones, netbooks and PDAs based on it. The deal will mean that Google and Verizon – the largest mobile carrier in the US – take on Apple and the iPhone, which is marketed exclusively by AT&T in the US. The timing of the announcement in New York, on the eve of the CTIA mobile phone show in San Diego, also seemed designed to upstage Microsoft‘s launch yesterday of phones running on its Windows Mobile 6.5 operating

system, and of its new Skymarket application store.

Via FT.com

AT&T allows Internet voice calls on Apple's iPhone

AT&T Inc will open its third-generation wireless network to third-party Internet voice applications on Apple Inc's iPhone, clearing the way for services such as Skype. AT&T, which has exclusive rights to the iPhone, said in a statement that the company informed Apple and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission of its decision, which was in response to a regulatory inquiry into the wireless industry.

Via Reuters

Google targeted in e-mail scam

Google's web-based e-mail system, Gmail, has been targeted as part of an "industry-wide phishing scheme". The firm said that it had immediately safeguarded the affected accounts. BBC News has seen two lists that detail more than 30,000 names and passwords from e-mail providers, including Yahoo and AOL, which were posted online.

Via BBC online

Qualcomm Makes Bet On Mobile TVs

Qualcomm Inc., which is known more for cellphone chips than products sold to consumers, is betting that a new pocket-sized device will spur more interest in mobile TV. The San Diego-based company yesterday announced that a subsidiary will begin offering what it calls FLO TV Personal Television. Qualcomm said U.S. retailers are expected to offer the device over this holiday season at a suggested price of $249.99. FLO TV is a wholly owned Qualcomm unit that operates a special network that broadcasts TV signals, rather than having users call up video programming using conventional cellular networks. So far, the

service has been available on specially equipped cellphones.

Via WSJ online

UN warns the next world war will be online

The UN telecommunications agency chief Hamadoun Toure has told delegates at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

Telecom World 2009 conference that the next big war will most likely be fought online. Delegates at the conference in Geneva were told that countries were becoming increasingly dependent on the internet to control basic services and any future wars could focus more on the online world, since such a battle would allow weaker adversaries to fight on a lelve playing field with larger powers.

Via V3