telecom

Investments to the tune of $17 million are a rarity these days, but app-factory RockYou has done just that: the San Francisco-based company has announced that Japanese mobile giant SoftBank and Korean telecom investment company SK Telecom Ventures have invested $17 million to create a new joint venture to build apps for the Asia-Pacific market.

RockYou's Series C venture round, which pulled in $35 million, was in June--with the fresh $17 million, the company has raised $67 million so far.

This marks the entry of RockYou, which is best known for its Facebook and MySpace widgets, into the mobile … Read more

Updated at 2:22 p.m. PDT. See below.

South Korea's largest wireless provider is said to be in discussions with Sprint about a potential acquisition, according to a report on CNBC's Web site.

Citing "people familiar with the situation," CNBC says that SK Telecom is interested in acquiring the much larger Sprint Nextel, but that any deal is still "weeks away," and that Sprint's own board of directors is "divided" about whether to sell the company at all.

The report says that SK Telecom will not pursue Sprint if it … Read more

This week, Denmark was named the happiest country in the world.

Its capital was renamed Copinghaven.

However, just next door in Sweden, Google was one of the leaders in protesting a new law that was passed on June 18.

Unlike some laws, this one is simple:

"We, the Government, can read any email that comes into or out of our borders. We can listen in to phone calls too. Don't bother to tell us you don't like this law. As we've already read your dirgy emails and listened to your moaning phone calls. Just the ones … Read more

Telecom giant AT&T announced Friday that it has outgrown its San Antonio corporate headquarters and is moving to Dallas.

The company's rationale, according to a statement, is that Dallas will give it better access to customers and worldwide operations, and also to "the key technology partners, suppliers, innovation and human resources need as it continues to grow." Some of those technology companies with major operations in Dallas include: Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Nortel, Research In Motion, and Samsung.

The move, which affects just 700 or so of the 6,000-some San Antonio-based employees, … Read more

Who needs sweet nothings uttered on the phone when you can send across your love through touch? Korean company Pantech is tapping into the gold mine of youths on hormonal overdrive with too much money to spend.

Its Touch-Screen Phone Love Canvas (IM-R300), the company's first touch-screen outing, not only lets one party draw little hearts and send them over to his or her significant other's Love Canvas, but they can also express their emotional status with various emoticons and vibrations by touching the panel.

The Sky-branded phone is being tested through SK Telecom, according to Telecoms Korea. (… Read more

Virgin Mobile USA will pay $39 million in stock to buy operator Helio, the company said Friday.

The deal ends more than a month of speculation that the two troubled mobile virtual-network operators would combine forces.

As part of the purchase, Virgin Group, which owns Virgin Mobile USA, and SK Telecom, the South Korean phone giant that holds a majority stake in Helio, will each invest $25 million in the combined company. In exchange for its investment, SK Telecom will be given a 17 percent stake in Virgin Mobile.

Helio, which was created to bring advanced cell phones and services to the U.S. market, … Read more

UPDATE: This story was updated at 3:00 p.m. PDT with comments from Helio about its retail strategy and merger talks with Virgin Mobile USA.

Virgin Mobile USA is expected to announce a deal to acquire fellow mobile virtual network operator Helio as early as this week, according to a story in The Financial Times.

The report cites sources close to the companies that say Virgin Mobile and Helio's majority owner South Korean cell phone operator SK Telecom have agreed in principle to a deal. As part of this deal, Helio's subscribers will become Virgin Mobile USA-branded … Read more

With the planned acquisition of mobile software maker Symbian, Nokia has decided to grab its future and run with it.

Nokia's decision to acquire the remaining stake in Symbian that it doesn't already own is designed to accelerate the mobile phone giant's product development--and serve as an open-source operating system platform to other handset makers, wireless carriers, software developers, and chipmakers, analysts say.

As a result, Nokia and other industry players hope to create a stronger defense against Apple's popular iPhone, Google's pending Android phone, and Microsoft's mobile operating system, analysts say.

"Nokia … Read more

Thought you had a one-of-a-kind phone with the Lillian Too Luck Dragon phone? No such luck. Quantum Telecom is displaying its clamshell twin Feng Shui phone at the company's CommunicAsia booth, alongside other fashion-inspired offerings such as its Hummer and Cadillac mobiles.

Unlike the red candybar predecessor with its stick-on front plate, this one comes in black and sports a gold dragon. At first glance it looked more like a laquer box than a clamshell phone. Inside, there appears to be a vanity mirror, though this could work either way as a feng shui talisman to repel negative elements. … Read more