Helix Wind, the company which we’ve already mentioned in the past, will trial its cell tower-powering wind turbines in Southern California. Installation will occur in early 2010, and the test will run for three months. In addition to providing power to the cell phone towers, Helix will also test whether it’s feasible to sell excess…

We already talked about India’s ban on prepaid mobile phones in Kashmir, which authorities put in force in belief rebels use fake documents to obtain the phone cards to evade detection and detonate bombs. Well, the move is far from popular and has led to angry protests, putting as many as 20,000 jobs at risk…

Oberthur Technologies announced the successful deployment of EcoSIM, what they say is the first patented eco-friendly SIM card in the market. The trick is in the size – Oberthur’s SIM card is half the size of a classic SIM and it also reduces the amount of plastics used by 50%. As a result, the CO2…

TeliaSonera and Altimo agreed to merge their interests in Turkcell and Megafon into a new company, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. AF Telecom, Megafon’s third major shareholder, is also invited to join the partnership, though we’re not sure about their response at this moment. The idea is to create an…

India’s Jet Airways is launching a new service for its customers, allowing them to get the lowest current fares on their mobile phone. The service works via SMS, and in order to use it, users should send a short message containing “Origin Destination Date” (i.e. BOM DEL 25/11) to 56388. In addition to the new…

Again we bring you the news involving a small carrier. It’s Page Plus Cellular which announced that its Standard Plan will provide more voice minutes for the same price beginning today, November 16th. Instead of 83 minutes, Page Plus’ $10 replenishment card now provides 100 minutes of talk time. In other words, customers who were…

Switzerland is probably one of the most organized countries in the world. In that sense I was not surprised to learn that the country’s Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) has already instructed the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) to prepare the allocation of mobile radio frequencies which are either currently free or which will become free…

Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), the company we’ve already seen co-operating with Nokia on mobile payments and fighting counterfeit products, has developed a new form factor for debit/credit cards called Convego Air Mobile, which has a form of a sticker, enabling contactless payments. Once the thin and pliable foil has been affixed to a mobile phone…

Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) is working on a text message rocket alert system. The system, which will be installed within two years and will work alongside existing air raid sirens, will automatically send an SMS to all phones in the area that could be endangered by a missile attack. The technology behind the SMS notification…

A new word has been created – metrotextual, representing a man who is openly affectionate and ends his text messages to male friends with “kiss.” According to the new research from T-Mobile, 22% of men regularly include a kiss on texts to their male friends. Apparently this anomaly (pardon my ignorance) is most widespread among…