Twentieth Century Fox SMS campaign violates law, says Federal Court
Twentieth Century Fox potentially violated federal law by allegedly sending consumers unsolicited text messages marketing DVDs of the film “Robots,” a federal judge has ruled.
Interestingly, last month a Chicago court held that SMS messages that are sent without the consumer’s consent could violate the TCPA. Consent is absolutely essential for SMS marketing.
According to Gonzalo E. Mon, attorney at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, the TCPA generally prohibits the use of an automatic telephone dialing system to place calls to a mobile number without the prior express consent of the recipient.
In his opinion, an ATDS is equipment that has the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator and to dial such numbers.
As per the court, it is not necessary to prove that the sender actually used the equipment’s automatic capacity, only that the equipment had that capacity.
Oxygen8 offers cheap SMS Bulk Rates
Oxygen 8, Global micro-billing, communications and mobile enablement firm has launched a new SMS bulk rate for UK media companies and corporate who aim for maximizing their revenues through mobile marketing activities internationally.
With this new service the UK media firms will be able to conduct mobile marketing over 700 carriers for £0.011 (€0.012) per message.
According to Oxygen8 Commercial Director, Gary Corbett, the company wants their customers to be able to grow their business quickly and easily either within their domestic markets or across the globe.
In today’s world, that means having a resilient platform, but with the flexibility that is required to adapt services to the increasingly sophisticated and complex way that consumers interact with new media. With the Oxygen8 platform, accompanied by their new SMS bulk rates, this becomes possible.
AccuWeather launches ad-free app
AccuWather Inc. has launched the AccuWeather Quick application in order to meet the demands of the people who are constantly on the move. The app will be offering consumers’ weather information such as current conditions, hourly data and midday forecast.
According to Michael Sylvie, director of user experience/interactive media at AccuWeather, State College, and the company got many requests for an ad-free app, and they were tired of all the weather apps that looked exactly the same. So the company decided to make a paid app and make it fun, especially in using the accelerometer to navigate rather than all the buttons and tabs other apps use.
The highlight of the application is its colorful icons, which it uses to deliver information visually.
AccuWeather has several mobile applications for different smartphone platforms, a mobile site and an SMS alert service.
Indian telco BSNL to launch money transfers and groceries on SMS
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A mobile banking platform is proposed to be launched by Indian telco BSNL to help a mobile subscriber send money orders electronically through SMSs, encashable at all post offices in the country.
Anyone wishing to send money through the money transfer service will have to transfer the money by way of an SMS by going to his nearest post office. A lot of money could be saved as the SMS will reach on time. People having no proper address for physical delivery of the money order would also be helped by this service.
Besides, BSNL has also planned to launch a service under which a person with the help of an electronic authorization from his bank on his mobile phone will be able buy goods at the local kirana shop or any other store.
According to BSNL Board Director (Consumer Mobility) R K Agarwal, the platform had been test-piloted in Chandigarh and the state-run telecom major expects to roll out the service in association with the postal department, after getting the Reserve Bank of India’s approval.
Eagle Mobile’s auto-voice-SMS a hit (Albania)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A radical increase in completed calls has been achieved by Albania’s newest cellco Eagle Mobile since the launch of auto-voice-SMS in January.
Kirusa, a vendor of voice SMS and a developer of mobile value added services made this solution available to the telco.
More than 22% of Eagle subscribers availed the facility over a period of month.
Best New year SMS Greetings: Survey
With new year round the corner, it’s time to be eco-friendly and use new year sms greetings instead of sending out physical cards. but the challenge is to decide what to choose. Let us make it simpler for you.
Here are the results of a survey conducted and it has revealed the TOP 3 New Year SMS greetings:
New Year SMS Greetings
- Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Happy New Year.
{Click Here to send it for Free} - New is the year, new are the hopes and the aspirations, new is the resolution and new are the spirits. Have a promising and fulfilling New Year.
{Click Here to send it for Free} - Before the golden sun sets, 2009′s calendar is destroyed, and mobile networks get jammed, I wish in 2010 every moment is enjoyed. Happy New Year. {Click Here to send it for Free}
More options available at http://NewYearSms.YouMint.com
Vodafone free SMS weekend a hit with the customers (Netherlands)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Free SMS weekend offered by Vodafone in Netherlands on 17 and 18 November emerged as an instant hit with the customers. The offer was given until Sunday noon after the speech network was hit by a nationwide breakdown.
9.00-11.00 am on Sunday, the SMS traffic was 2.3 times more than normal with most of the SMS sent by the prepaid customers. On Saturday night, between 10.00-11.00 pm, the traffic increased by almost 50 percent as the subscribed customers sent maximum number of texts.
Between 6.00-9.00 pm, during Sinterklaas evening, the traffic rose by 21 percent than normal.
Pay mobile bills of TATA DoCoMo network via SMS (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Facilitating payment of the mobile bill for its customers, Tata DoCoMo and ItzCash signed an agreement wherein the users can pay their bills via SMS using an ItzCash card.
The company also said that there are no hidden costs, charge-backs and reversals and the consumers can also utilize the full value of the card with all transactions confirmed in real time.
As per the service, users of TATA DoCoMo will have to SMS the keyword ‘PAYBILL’, amount to be paid, account number of the ItzCash and password and send it to 121.
ItzCash Card is available at ItzCash franchisees in denominations ranging from Rs. 100 to Rs. 10,000. Orders for the card can be placed online by the customers.
Hutchison 3G Austria modernizes its network for HSPA+ and LTE
Hutchison 3G Austria is modernizing its radio access network to be ready for HSPA+ and the next generation of mobile broadband, or LTE. At the same time this step will allow the operator to halve the energy consumption of its base stations. Nokia Siemens Networks will undertake this upgrade starting in autumn 2009.
The demand for increased mobile broadband capacity and throughput in Austria is reflected in the increasing usage of data cards and mobile services like Mobile TV, video download or video sharing,†said Berthold Thoma, CEO of Hutchison 3G Austria. Mobile broadband is also one of the most pragmatic solutions to bridging the digital gap between cities and rural areas. For rural areas, mobile broadband coverage is simply less expensive and faster to deploy than fiber to the home†solutions. We hope that with our nationwide coverage we will contribute significantly to this end.†(more…)
VimpelCom launches BlackBerry Internet Service in Russia
The VimpelCom Group (NYSE: VIP) and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the launch of BlackBerry® Internet Service and the BlackBerry® Curveâ„¢ 8900 smartphone for Beeline customers in Russia.
BlackBerry Internet Service is a powerful and easy to use service designed for smaller businesses and individuals. It allows customers to access up to 10 supported corporate and personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts, such as Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail) from a BlackBerry smartphone. Set up is easy and does not require IT support, making it an excellent option for business users, professionals and individuals who don’t have the resources to manage a corporate email server. It enables automatic synchronization of messages between the subscriber’s BlackBerry® smartphone and email accounts.
Kent McNeley, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, VimpelCom said, We are glad that following the success of the BlackBerry solution in the corporate market in Russia, we are now able to offer a service for the wider consumer market. A key feature of the BlackBerry solution is the ability to stay connected practically wherever you are in the world and receive your emails automatically. Today, we are offering our Beeline subscribers the opportunity to connect on BlackBerry Internet Service with unlimited data for just 300 rubles per month.†(more…)
