Red Cross is taking advantage of SMS, big time. The organization will provide real-time alerts to critical blood inventories, tips for successful blood donations and early notification of new promotions to all donors who opt-in for the program. Once that is cleared (user has registered), he or she will be able to make appointments using a “click to call” feature or locate a blood drive by entering a zip code.

Hopefully this will help Red Cross get all the blood it/people need. Interested donors can opt-in by sending a text message to 42227 or by registering at bloodisneeded.org. And yes, we advise all healthy individuals to give blood.

[Via: textually]

The United Arab Emirates could permit mobile number portability (MNP) starting from next year. An offical at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) told Al Ittihad that MNP would only be available to subscribers who had a mobile phone for over a year, though.

That would certainly be a good thing for all our UAE readers (and those who don’t read us, for that matter) and I’m hoping this will get through in the country.

For the record, there are two carriers operating in the Emirates – Etisalat which has some 7.3 million mobile phone subscribers, and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD)’s partner – Du with 2.9 million subscribers.

[Via: CellularNews]

Like they don’t have smarter things to do, the French Senate is discussing the bill which if signed would prohibit phone use (calling and texting) in the middle of the class to limit distractions for the students. And while I can agree there’s some point to be made here, the thing I don’t understand is the next part. They want to extend the prohibition to ban mobile phone use EVEN WHEN STUDENTS ARE OUT OF CLASS, during breaks. Banning texting while driving makes sense, this simply doesn’t. Hopefully, this will end with the discussion and no actions will be taken. I’m all against these kinds of bans – if you want to limit the mobile phone use in classes, install phone jammers and that’s it. “Stupid” is the only word that comes to my mind…

[Via: Unwired View]

I love writing about smaller carriers and their efforts to keep growing. On that note, we bring you this story which involves Mississippi-based Cellular South and their plans to acquire Alabama-based Corr Wireless.

Details of the deal were not disclosed and the acquisition requires regulatory approval, which Cellular South hopes to get in several months.

Corr Wireless has 130 employees and provides its service to more than 30,000 customers in 18 counties of North Alabama and in Rome, Georgia. The area includes the cities of Huntsville, Madison, Decatur, and Gadsden, plus the counties of Blount, Cullman, Marshall, Dekalb and Jackson in Alabama.

Both parties say that the partnership is a good fit for both companies.

[Via: Yahoo]

According to Qatar News Agency, telecoms regulators in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are to meet to discuss plans to push down roaming costs in the region.

Last year, government ministers from the GCC said they will take the necessary steps to reduce the roaming charges within the region, but little has been done since then. However, despite the fact that regulators have been kinda quiet on the issue, several operators have expanded their roaming services, with Zain being one of them to enlarge its borderless roaming zone.

A separate body, the Arab Regulators Network (AREGNET) has also called for regulators to do the same and make mobile phone calls in roaming cheaper. We’ll see how all this goes…

[Via: CellularNews]

CompaniesAndMarkets has some interesting numbers to report about the ever growing Chinese mobile industry. Here’s the recap:

• During the first half of 2009, China exported 237 million mobile phones valued at $16.1 billion, and imported 11.74 million units.
• The total output of mobile phones was 305 million in the same period.
• Among the big winners were BYD, Samsung, ZTE and LG. Samsung’s Huizhou Plant was almost three times more productive this year, when compared to 2008. ZTE also won big time, as it obtained large shares in the new telecoms procurement.
• In contrast, the growth rate of Foxconn, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Huawei and Compal declined sharply. Huawei tried to sell its handset making unit in H2 2008, but failed to do so. And the remaining manufacturers had little changes.
• Finally, last year the world’s still fastest growing economy exported 533 handsets valued at $38.5 billion!

More information is available from CompaniesAndMarkets’ website.

[Via: CellularNews]

India’s Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) said that it is investigating the possibility of taking a stake in Zambia’s landline and mobile operator – Zamtel. The company’s Chairman, Mr R.S.P. Sinha, told reporters that the company had signed an NDA with Zamtel, hence they cannot talk about it at this stage.

Zambia’s government plans to sell three-quarters of its stake in Zamtel to a private investor and eventually float the remaining 25% onto the local stock exchange. It is estimated that the company needs a capital injection of around $200 million, which cannot come from the government.

For the record, Zambia currently has three mobile network operators: Zain which holds 70% of the market, MTN with 20%, and Zamtel with 10%.

[Via: CellularNews]

Prepaid operator Page Plus Cellular announced the new plan called Talk n Text 1200, which costs $29.95 a month and includes:

• 1,200 voice minutes,
• 1,200 messages (SMS or MMS), and
• 50 megabytes of data.

The main idea here was to offer something for everyone in a single plan. There are enough minutes for “talking without thinking,” enough text messages as well as a decent number of megabytes included with the plan, though I could add the last point is arguable, especially for high-end users…

Anyway, we dig the idea that if you can’t get yourself the “unlimited everything” plan, you should go for some plan which best suits your needs. In that sense we like Page Plus Cellular for thinking it through and unveiling new plans from time to time. Plus, I personally like supporting small carriers, hence I’m giving them some space on IntoMobile.

India’s Aircel and state-owned BSNL have signed a 10-year passive infrastructure sharing agreement. As a result, Aircel, which has around 32,000 base stations, will now have access to BSNL’s approximately 45,000 towers across all its licensed circles.

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. But we do have a comment from Aircel’s COO Gurdeep Singh, who said: “Aircel will now have access to strategically located sites across BSNL’s 21 circles (excluding Mumbai and Delhi). Leveraging BSNL’s passive infrastructure will help Aircel meet its aggressive network roll out plans in addition to reducing operational cost.”

[Via: CellularNews]

Just in time when the HTC Hero pre-orders have started, Cellular South has unveiled a new offering – Smartphone Unlimited Plan, which is touted as the “first plan of its kind which makes the enriched user experience smartphones provide and advanced devices, such as the HTC Hero, even more accessible to individuals and families.”

Basically with this plan you get unlimited everything — including talk, text, web and email for $79.99. Additionally, the second such plan is available for half off at $39.99 per month.

The new plan builds on top of Cellular South’s earlier offering – the original Smartphone plan, which included (limited) mobile to mobile calling and unlimited data, Web, e-mail and text messaging for $49.99.