China keeps growing like crazy and it still manages to surprise us with its numbers. According to statistics published by China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII), there were 574.63 million mobile subscribers as of the end of March 2008. Number of subscriptions grew 1.66% on month, 19.55% on year, and the total number of subscribers…
Cuban operator reports 7,400 new mobile phone accounts
Recently, Cuba’s only telephone company reported that 7,400 new mobile phone accounts have been contracted in the 10 days since all Cubans were allowed to sign up for the service. Previously, mobile phones were offered only to foreigners or Cubans in top government positions or jobs with foreigners. However, that haven’t stopped many clever Cubans…
AT&T multi-cultural print ads look awesome
AT&T has created a multi-cultural print campaign, featuring painted hands that represent cultural and historic traits of Egypt, China and Japan. We’re not sure what’s exactly the idea behind the ads — except maybe to prove AT&T is all about diversity — but we love the way they look, nevertheless. BBDO is behind the eye-catching…
UK-based free, ad-supported mobile operator Blyk hits 100,000 members
We’ve already covered Blyk in the past and we’re glad to report their business model works, as the free, ad-supported mobile operator for the 16-24 year olds just announced that it has reached 100,000 members. According to Blyk, members have embraced their concept so rapidly that annual member targets have been reached six months ahead…
British jewellery retailer Fameo goes mobile
Everyone’s going mobile nowadays and jewellers are not an exception. UK-based Fameo launched what seems as the first British mobile jewellery catalogue to allow anyone with web-enabled mobile phone to browse and search their offers, monitor order status, research information and get customer service — all while on-the-go. In addition, Fameo’s mobile website provides users…
Mobile phone street repair service is a big industry in India
Street repair services for mobile phones are a big industry in India, with technicians getting a full fledged diploma from a “Mobile Repairing Institute.”Jan Chipchase is leading Nokia’s team which is trying to lower the cost of phones for emerging markets, an effort that also has an eco-friendly character. The group of 15 has scanned…
I-play Bowling to bring Wii-like experience to mobile phones
We’re seeing a trend here — if there’s an accelerometer built inside a mobile phone, let’s use it. With their I-Play Bowling title, the mobile games publisher wants to deliver the Wii-like bowling experience to mobile phone users. Not that the game won’t work with ordinary handsets, on the contrary. However, if you happen to…
Mobile number portability hitting Singapore on June 13
Starting from June 13, mobile phone users in Singapore will be able to switch service providers without changing their numbers. At the moment, about 130,000 mobile phone users have ported their numbers under a current call-forwarding solution, which assumes that consumers have to use their old and new mobile numbers concurrently. These consumers will have…
Russian telecom giant Sistema entering India’s mobile phone market, big time!
Russian telecom giant Sistema, which recently acquired a controlling stake in India’s Shyam Telelink, announced that it will be launching a nation-wide mobile services by April 2009. Sistema-Shyam is the first company among the new players to get CDMA spectrum in 13 circles and it hopes to get the frequency in remaining ones to become…
Austrian city bans mobile phones on public transport
This is getting ridiculous. It seems that banning a mobile phone use is becoming a trend. I do acknowledge some people can be quite annoying when using their mobile phones, but banning their use on public transport is simply ridiculous. To be fair, you can’t get a decent (if any) signal in metros in many…