Industry giants to deliver mobile broadband

Sixteen of the world's largest IT and mobile companies have united behind a GSMA-led initiative to create a new category of always-connected mobile broadband devices, delivering an alternative to WiFi, reports Market Watch.

Pyramid Research says this will give consumers the freedom to get online on the move, while enabling operators to address a $50 billion opportunity in both mature and emerging markets.

In the first phase of this unprecedented initiative, mobile operators, PC manufacturers and chipset providers are uniting to pre-install mobile broadband into a range of notebook PCs that will be ready to switch on and surf straight out of the box in 91 countries across the world.

Japan's Softbank Mobile has signed its first major corporate contract for the iPhone 3G, says PC World.

The deal with management and technology consultancy Bearing Point will see 1 000 of the phones given to the company's analysts and workers across the country.

Bearing Point says it is adopting the iPhone with the aim of improving the productivity of its consultants and helping them access information more easily. The move is anticipated to boost the sale of smart phones in Japan.

More than one-quarter of mobile phone users in the US have effectively stopped using their fixed-line phones for voice calls, according to a survey by research company JD Power and Associates, states IT World.

The online survey of more than 20 000 consumers found that 27% have replaced their landlines with cellphones for most purposes and that 61% of those people have cancelled landline service altogether.

The remainder have kept their landlines mostly for fax machines, home security services or emergency calls, said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at JD Power.