• RF Micro Devices announced it has received production orders for its Polaris 3 Silver RF solution, the latest addition to the Polaris family of GSM/GPRS/EDGE RF solutions. RFMD anticipates production volumes to increase sequentially through this year.
• Malaysian 3G operator U Mobile announced it has launched its postpaid service, called the U38 Plan, in the Klang Valley. The carrier also has announced a 2-month trial of its HSPA service. The U38 Plan will be available to the public starting April 18. U Mobile is a wholly-owned subsidiary of U Television which was formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings and MiTV.
• fring announced that its mobile VoIP application is now available for Apple’s iPhone. fring promises iPhone users can talk, chat and interact with other fring users or “fringsters” and all of their online communities, using the iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection. Created in conjunction with Holon Institute of Technology academic research labs in Israel, a preview fring application is now available for the iPhone.
• Wataniya Telecom Algerie (WTA) plans to deploy Nokia Siemens Networks’ 3GPP Release 4 mobile soft switching solution. WTA says this solution allows it to reduce operating expenses, while accelerating the deployment of new services to mobile subscribers.
• Vodafone announced it has extended its partner market agreement with Mobilkom Austria group to Serbia, where Vodafone will introduce a range of Vodafone-branded products and services through Mobilkom Austria’s subsidiary, Vip mobile. This agreement marks Vodafone’s 41st Partner Market, a worldwide network of carriers world where Vodafone products and services are available through mobile operators that Vodafone does not own. Vip mobile will add the Vodafone logo to all products and services that are offered as the result of this agreement.
• NextPoint appointed Sally Graves to its senior vice president of engineering. Graves will be responsible for the company’s next generation network (NGN) engineering initiatives to provide interoperability solutions for both mobile and fixed-line service providers.
