The GSMA, the global trade association for mobile operators, is to lead a programme to connect refugee camps in northern Uganda to mobile networks to support family reunification, education, healthcare, economic activity and other needs. Through its Development Fund, the GSMA, in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), will work with mobile operators and equipment suppliers to use the cost-effectiveness of GSM mobile networks and devices to provide refugees with affordable and sustainable access to a wide range of services from voice calls to Internet access to electronic learning programmes.

MocoSpace, the largest and fastest growing mobile community in the United States, announced that it has reached a growth milestone in signing up its one millionth member. MocoSpace lets people connect with friends anytime, anywhere on their mobile phones. Members enjoy sharing photos, messaging, chatting, customizing profiles, playing games and more. “The announcement of our millionth member represents an exciting milestone for us - more and more people are realizing the benefits of being connected to their community on the go, while life is happening,” said Justin Siegel, chief executive officer of MocoSpace.

Virgin Mobile USA, with more than 4.8 million customers, announced the next innovation in one of the world’s most popular mobile services, text messaging, with the launch of 3jam SMS 2.0. The new, free-to-join service debuts today and improves basic text messaging by allowing friends and family to stay connected with group communication, enabling customers to have multi-party text-message conversations. The launch marks the first time a US carrier is introducing multi-party text messaging, thanks to a partnership with San Francisco-based SMS services firm 3jam.

WorldMate, Inc., a leading provider of travel services for mobile devices, announced the commercial availability of WorldMate Live, the world’s first comprehensive mobile travel service. The WorldMate Live application operates on BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion and manages a traveler’s full itinerary, including travel arrangements and business meetings, making all details immediately accessible on the BlackBerry smartphone, and ensures one’s trip is as smooth as possible by pushing alerts regarding imminent events.

TMobile USA, announces what Sidekick fans have been craving - the next evolutions of the T-Mobile Sidekick family. Two newly designed devices - T-Mobile Sidekick LX and T-Mobile Sidekick Slide - will hit the streets this fall and both feature the must-have assets that make Sidekick the ultimate messaging device, including the newly launched, custom-designed MySpace application. While Sidekick enthusiasts await the new devices, T-Mobile kicks off Sidekick Nation, a user-generated video contest hosted by MySpace where fans have the chance to show their creativity and win a grand prize that includes $10,000 and a trip to Hollywood to see his/her video highlights aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

There are already plenty of websites where you can download tracks by current music stars at a price. Grundig is charting a different path: The online platform mp3community offers a wide range of music by young artists - free and totally legal. An English version of the platform will be available shortly to handle the increasing amount of hits from outside Germany. In another development, from October artists will be able to upload MPEG4 files, which will then be offered for download along with the MP3 files.

As European deals for Apple's iPhone are announced, the chosen operators will be well advised to learn from the experiences of AT&T Wireless in the US when it comes to billing users, says Analysys the global advisers on telecoms, IT and media. The kick to mobile data usage given by the iPhone in the US market resulted in some subscribers receiving bills that were very large physically - in extreme cases running to hundreds of pages - detailing every mobile data event. AT&T quickly changed the way bills were provided - issuing summaries rather than full details by default - but the issue highlights the mismatch that often exists between users' requirements of bills and operators' perceptions of what users want.

An unprecedented gathering of leading operator CEOs will debate the future of the mobile industry at the GSMA’s Mobile Asia Congress at the new Venetian Macau Resort on November 12-15. The chief executives of China Mobile, the world’s largest operator, NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest operator, MTS, Russia’s largest operator, the Chairman and Group Managing Director of Bharti Airtel, India’s largest operator, and the CEO of Mobilink, Pakistan’s largest operator, the Chairman of Smart, the Philippines’ largest operator, Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest operator, and Telstra, Australia’s largest operator, will be among the keynote speakers.

Your Electronic Warehouse has announced the start of its iPod Earphone Trade-In Program. This program allows customers who own iPods to trade in their factory earphones for $20 towards a future purchase at Your Electronic Warehouse or Discount Golf World. This promotion allows new iPod owners to maximize their iPod’s potential by getting a pair of high-end headphones from Bose, Shure or Monster. These high-end headphones produce high quality sound and provide excellent comfort that will give the customer the ultimate iPod experience.

At an Enterprise Mobility Day event, Nokia further executed on its commitment to drive the adoption of business mobility by addressing the needs of business users and business managers. The company introduced the Nokia E51, a business smartphone, the latest addition in the Nokia Eseries portfolio, and also showcased it within the context of Nokia mobile unified communications, its strategy for extending mobility to unified communications.