Australian mobile network operator Telstra will be the first in the world to deploy an eHSPA network, which can hit a peak of 21mbps downlink speed, at the end of year. The network will be called Next G.

Telstra is currently using Qualcomm’s MDM8200 chipset-containing Ericsson products on their network. The peak speeds and network efficiency enabled by this evolution will encourage the development of more innovative applications and, importantly, increase our network capacity to support the explosion we are experiencing in wireless internet use,” said Mike Wright, Executive Director Telstra Wireless.

The event showed that amid a financial crisis over the world, technology isn’t being affected at the moment, even though investors might disagree. Wireless connectivity is improving, and the thirst for higher speeds is being catered at an acceptable rate in some countries, although there are several countries in the world that do not possess 3G connectivity at all, which points out to a skewed growth towards developed and wealthy countries.

Press release after the break.

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This can appear to be a stupid or ridiculous story and in fact it is, mainly because it has a cool ending, like a movie.

A dog named Nero who lives with his owner in South Africa swallowed a phone that was in the hands of the owner’s daughter.

According to Telegraph, who interviewed the family, the daughter screamed terribly as she was scared that Nero would die. Nero was taken to an animal clinic where they conducted an x-ray. Nero needed to be operated so that the mobile phone could be removed. Is that  Nokia N80?

After the operation, the family was told that Nero not only had swallowed the mobile phone but also few stones. Something tells me that these people don’t feed the dog.

Well, Nero survived from the operation which costed more than 400 pounds and the mobile phone was thrown away as it wasn’t working anymore.

Mary, the Dog’s owner finished the interview with:

“He is my life, like one of my children.”

What a lovely dog….

[via Telegraph]

The National Organisation for Reproduction Rights in Music in Southern Africa (NORM) has taken action against Exactmobile, a mobile content provider in South Africa, which is owned by Primedia Ltd. NORM claims that Exactmobile has not paid royalties over copyrighted content since January 2006, and is asking for an additional R2m for damages resultant of the copyright infringement.

NORM requests for 7.5% of each ringtone sale, which according to the regulator, is reasonable compared to the 8.2% average royalty charged in Europe. Several mobile content providers have requested for this rate to lower to the 5% mark, which is denied by NORM, said Jay Savage, NORM Board member and MD of Sony ATV Music.

A large number of African and International artists are being affected by the infringement from Exactmobile, and NORM is requesting all the affected artists to make their voices heard and complain against the piracy that the provider is conducting.

Exactmobile denies the allegations, and says that it has the money ready in trust accounts, and is waiting for NORM to request the payment.

Exactmobile CEO, Davin Mole, does not agree with the rate charged at the moment: “We have consulted copyright experts, as well as other major players and we are confident our offer of 5% is a reasonable and fair offer, which is market-related and meets the expectation of the Copyright Act,” and said that the summons made by NORM are invalid: “There are certain fatal flaws, which will necessitate the withdrawal of the summons and we have launched the appropriate legal procedure. We would expect NORM to respect the legal process, and allow the law to take it’s course without further inappropriate discussion in the media. We view the comments made by NORM as defamatory and we reserve our legal rights in this regard.”

[via Bizcommunity.com (1,2)]

No, not our in-house artist Neo Carlo Magno, but Neo, the mobile phone manufacturer.

The Neo Ellipse features semi reflective dark finish and a molded chrome center spine, while it measures 110 x 44 x 15 mm. As you can see on the picture, the shape of the phone is curved, and this is no image effect, the phone is actually 15mm thick on the middle, while only 3mm thick on the ends.

The stylish Ellipse should be available by the 1st of October in Asian markets and the GCC. Other markets should follow after this date. You can purchase the device at the company’s website.

Neo has also launched in Hong Kong and the three major cities of India; namely, Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai. “We have started sales this month into the major retail chains like Hotspots, Cellucom and The Phone Store,” says Amjad Ali, Senior Vice President of Neo DWC-LLC. He continues to say, “It has taken us some time to enter this market but now that we are in, our design driven brand will add some flavor to the Indian mobile phone market.”

[via Slashphone]

Mobile TV hasn’t even been launched in most countries yet, and there’s already new technologies ready to take its place. DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds) was selected by the European Union as its official standard for Mobile TV.

At this year’s IFA in Berlin, Alcatel-Lucent has demonstrated a technology dubbed DVB-SH (Digital Video Broadcast – Satellite services to Handhelds), which contains MPE-iFEC (Multi-Protocol Encapsulation - inter-burst Forward Error Correction), a powerful error-correction coding that improves the quality of broadcast mobile TV reception in hybrid satellite and terrestrial networks.

The technology can be used in any frequency spectrum below 3GHz, including UHF, L band and S band, and in terrestrial, satellite or hybrid networks.

What this means for us is that we’ll have better TV quality if this technology is deployed. If you’re in Berlin, you should check out some of the modified Sagem MyMobileTV at the conference, which are being used to showcase the technology.

Press release after the jump.

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