Sprint launched a new service yesterday that allows its customers to choose a star-star number like **SARAH (**72724) instead of a standard 10-digit phone number. The StarStar Me service costs $3 per month for each number. StarStar number work within the United States on phones from Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and AT&T.
The Nokia Lumia 810 is headed to T-Mobile USA. Specific pricing and availability were not announced, but T-Mobile said the device is expected to land “in the coming weeks.” AT&T recently announced it would carry the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820. Separately, T-Mobile said it will offer the LG Optimus L9 later this fall.
Rural communications provider Frontier Communications Corporation is offering some of its Washington state customers AT&T wireless service. The new offering is available in Everett, Bothell, Lynnwood and Redmond. Customers will have access to a “broad assortment” of AT&T smartphones. The two companies signed a three-year agreement in 2011 that allows Frontier to offered bundled wireless service from AT&T.
Accenture has released a new survey showing that an increasing percentage of consumers worldwide are using smartphones and tablets to access the Internet. Two-thirds of all people who use the Internet use mobile devices to go online every day. The trend is particularly strong in emerging markets like Brazil, South Africa and Russia, where an average of 70 percent of consumers use the mobile web. “The growth in use of mobile devices to access the Internet, in conjunction with a willingness to pay for mobile services such as cloud or premium services, is opening up a host of opportunities for market players in the communications, media and technology industries,” Nikolaus Mohr, a managing director in Accenture’s Communications, Media & Technology operating group, said in a statement.