Zer01 Communications will be unveiling their brand new unlimited voice plans this coming April 1 2009. The new plans will allow full access to voice and data (does this include SMS?) for almost $70 USD. This isn’t exactly cheap, but it is a good deal. I think Zer01 found a sweet spot for power users.

“We are the first mobile service to offer consumers a true national unlimited voice, data and Internet plan without any contracts or commitments that is priced affordably at only $69.95 per month with taxes and fees included. We have licensed patent pending proprietary Veritable Mobile Convergence (VMC) Technology from the Unified Technologies Group that allows each smart phone user to make voice calls or transmit data efficiently by bypassing carrier circuit-switched channels by sending voice communications through a VoIP system and onto a virtual private network that accesses the Internet,” explained Ben Piilani, CEO, Zer01 Mobile.

Currently, Ze01 is accepting beta testers for the unlimited voice plans. If you’re interested to sign up you can try your luck at their website.

What’s great about Nokia Messaging is that there’s always a dedicated team of developers building improvements to such a great email service. The following are some highlights of the new release:

• The 1.1 release of Nokia Messaging is localized in 22 languages and certified for 21 S60 devices
• Support for Windows Live Hotmail Addresses
• Support for HTML-formatted emails
• Support for hosted email accounts from Yahoo!, Gmail and Microsoft
• Support for up to 10 IMAP subfolders (selectable on email.nokia.com)
• Advanced Email Settings entry on email.nokia.com

You can download the latest version inside their website.

In addition to this, there is also a field for the outgoing mail server under the “Advanced” tab. More details at the Nokia Conversations blog.

It was actually confusing at first but Forget Me Not Mobile has introduced a service for the developing African mobile market. The Message Optimiser application is a software that works with any phone that has SMS capability. It combines SMS, Email, and instant messaging into one application allowing low end phones the functionality of data.

The app is being introduced in Africa as a means to bridge the gap between mobile phones that can handle data vis a vis price. Thus, you can own an ultra cheap phone (SMS only) and have Message Optimiser add the funcitonality of email and instant messaging.

[image taken from company site]

We’ve all seen dual SIM phones roll out into the market, but have you ever heard of single SIM cards having two numbers? Well now they’re here — the purpose of the Dual IMSI Global SIM Card is to keep two numbers — one USA number and one UK number so you’re never caught traveling with two phones. Everything you need is in a single SIM. Incoming calls within the USA are free and outgoing calls will cost a small fee:

Ed Neal, Managing Director of Geodesa Limited, who distributes GeoSIM says “We are really excited about this ‘market shaking product’ which is generating a great deal of interest from customers and resellers already. In the past, travellers roaming on a US network have had to pay for incoming calls on their mobiles and paid higher charges for making calls. From mid April, all that will change when we roll out GeoSIM Dual IMSI. The USA will effectively become part of Europe in terms of the GeoSIM call rates and free incoming calls. GeoSIM customers will be able to call and receive at the current rates available in Europe or the US no matter which side of the Atlantic they are on.” [source]

The long term plan? It seems like they’re bridging gaps between telco operators. Imagine one single call rate worldwide?

Red Mobile is the newest telco running in the Philippines. Here’ a creepy backmasking vid of “what really happens in conversations.”

Verizon and Ontela have worked together to produce a mobile uploader for Photobucket, one of the world’s oldest photo uploading tools on the Internet. Signing up is easy, as all you need to do is use your existing Photobucket account and link to your Verizon phone line:

To utilize the application, Verizon Wireless subscribers sign up for a Photobucket account – which can be created for free at http://photobucket.com – and enter their log-in information to link their Verizon Wireless account to their Photobucket online photo album. Once the accounts are connected, the application instantly uploads photos already saved on the phone to the user’s Photobucket account. The Photobucket Mobile Uploader then automatically sends any future photos directly to the same Photobucket account. [release]

The service will be available for 13 handsets on the Verizon network, and we’re assuming that these are the faster 3G / HSDPA phones. The service allows for unlimited photo uploading for only $2.99 a month.

For the kiddies who love to burn the midnight oil in text speak, Sprint currently has a package (search under “plans”) that allows you to purchase that unlimited plan with text, video and picture messaging. The service costs USD $49.00.

The Sanyo Katana is actually the perfect device for your kids and tweens. Though lacking in features (no 3G, plain ‘ol VGA camera) the Katana only needs to look decent wherever your kids go. Sure it ain’t an iPhone 3G, but who cares really?

So what’s the deal with AT&T U-verse? According to their release, AT&T U-verse is a consolidation of basically all their wired and wireless services into one brand name … the AT&T U-verse, doh!

AT&T U-verse brings together your TV, broadband, home phone and AT&T wireless services — all on one bill — with unique features that provide a new level of integration, convenience and control. AT&T U-verse services are all delivered over AT&T’s advanced Internet Protocol (IP) network. [Press Release]

Part of the integration of this service is the U-voice package that adds more value to your VoIP services with faster speeds from your provider.

Announced yesterday, Alltell Wireless is pushing their new Rev-A technology that does 3.1MBPS for downloads and 1.8 MBPS for uploads. This service is spread across 18 areas including Little Rock, Charlotte, New Orleans, Phoenix and Tampa in urban and rural areas.

Here’s a quote from the press release:

Alltel’s existing broadband Wireless Internet service enables remote access to corporate intranets, productivity enhancing applications and a variety of consumer products, such as Alltel TV and XM Radio Mobile. Rev. A will enhance the performance of all of those services. Alltel plans an initial rollout of Rev. A to 18 market areas and dozens of cities, including Charlotte, New Orleans, Phoenix and Tampa. Customers using Rev. A will experience average upload speeds of 500-800 Kbps with bursts up to 1.8 Mbps. Upload speeds on the company’s existing broadband network average 50-70 Kbps, with bursts up to 144 Kbps, so the enhanced network will be five to 10 times faster.

Download speeds also will increase. Rev. A download speeds average 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps, with bursts up to 3.1 Mbps. By comparison, downloads on the existing broadband network average 400-700 Kbps with bursts up to 2.4 Mbps. Using Rev. A, customers can expect to download a 1 Megabyte e-mail file attachment – the equivalent of a small Power Point® presentation or a large PDF file – in less than 15 seconds and upload the same file in less than 25 seconds.

How much, pray tell? Alltell Wireless’ EVDO service only costs $59.99 per month for unlimited use. So if you have a laptop or a mobile phone that is EVDO compatible, this new service may be the end-all for your portable needs.

[image from newscom]

That’s me - with my magnetic personality with butterflies, uploaded at the Singapore Zoo via Share on Ovi.

It’s no secret that Nokia announced its entry into the Web 2.0 Services with Ovi last August 2008. Around February of this year, Share on Ovi was launched, which is basically their competitor to Flickr. Share on Ovi allows you to upload photos, videos, audio, and documents and categorize them into channels. These channels subdivide your media into different categories but more importantly allow you to set passwords and privacy settings for each channel.

There doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of media you can upload. Video uploading allows you to do 100MB of videos at a time and photo EXIF and geotagging data are also recorded, when turned on. By far, it seems to be a “Flickr killer” because it looks almost the same, with almost the same features, and is still on beta. There has been no official word on the release of the Share API to allow a developer community to create photos and videos though. Check it out - www.share.ovi.com and really, let’s see if this FREE service is going to give Flickr a run for their money.

Share on Ovi is only a part of the full Ovi experience but it is by far the easiest to understand and has been launched worldwide. Other services such as the Music Store are going to be making waves within the next few months. In Asia, the service has only been launched in Australia and Singapore.