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A Telecom, Paging, Text Messaging and SMS Blog from NotePage
Telecom Industry News and Software Tips for Text Messengers. Daily information and news related to telecommunications, paging, text messaging, and sms messaging. Includes news announcements from the industry and tips related to text messaging and SMS.

• Low Cost Cell Phones
  For less than $15, you can buy a cell phone loaded with minutes. You can buy more as you go whenever those minutes run out. Best of all, you are not locked into a long-term contract.
  
  But in South Florida, New York, California, Georgia, Texas and elsewhere, traffickers have figured out they can make big profits by purchasing thousands of these low-cost phones and tweaking the software so that calls can be made on any cell network. The altered phones are then sold all over the world — costing the phone companies tens of millions of dollars.
  
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• EU Cuts Cost of Sending Text Messages
  The cost of sending a text message from the bar or the beach when mobile phone users are outside their home state in the European Union will be cut by 70 percent from next year under new plans, an EU source said.
  
  EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding will announce outline plans on Tuesday that include extending price caps on roamed voice calls for another three years, the source added.
• Pope Sends Text Messages
  Pope Benedict XVI took a new hi-tech road to spreading his message Tuesday, sending a mobile phone text to pilgrims attending World Youth Day celebrations in Australia, organisers said.
  
  Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI. Was the first message sent.
  
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• Mobile Giving Foundation
  Washington Nationals fans soon will be able to text in charity donations during a game, thanks to a partnership between the team, MLB.com, and the Mobile Giving Foundation. During the July 13 game against the Houston Astros, fans will be invited to text the word NATS to 90999 to give $5 to support the work of the Childrens National Medical Center to fight pediatric diabetes.
  
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• Ringtone Media Studio 50% Off on Software Deal of the Day
  Ringtone Media Studio is the best way to create your personalized ringtones from your mp3s and CDs, mobile movies from your video collection, and picture slideshows or mobile wallpapers from your photo collection. No subscriptions, no contracts, no pay-per-download. Create as many ringtones, wallpapers and movies as you want.
  
  Ringtone Media Studio is 50% off for only 24 hours!
• Cellular Spying
  The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are suing the Department of Justice to obtain official records concerning the U.S. governments possible use of cell-phone-tracking technology to spy on individuals without first obtaining a court order based on probable cause.
  
  In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the civil-liberties groups said the DOJ failed to provide an adequate and timely response to a records request filed last year under the Freedom of Information Act.
  
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• Mobile Phone Tools on Software Deal of the Day
  Mobile PhoneTools creates unlimited communication possibilities by synchronizing your cell phone with your PC and allowing you to exploit the most powerful features of your phone.
  
  Mobile Phone Tools Discounted 50% for only 24 hours!
• Telecom Providers Protected
  By a vote of 293 to 129, the House of Representatives passed a bill meant to protect telecom companies from being sued for eavesdropping. The Senate is expected to approve the bill sometime next week.
  
  Lawmakers have crafted a compromise on a bill that would extend controversial eavesdropping legislation and add provisions meant to protect telecommunications companies from private lawsuits, including several already under way.
  
  Ending months of negotiations, the House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that shields cooperating telecommunications providers from invasion of privacy lawsuits and extends the powers of government agencies to order wiretaps without a judge-issued warrant.
  
  The House passed the update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by a vote of 293 to 129. All but one of those voting against the bill were Democrats.
• Hang It Up or Use a Headset
  California will try to wrest cell phones from the hands of drivers, telling everyone from movie starlets and dot-com millionaires to surfers and soccer moms that conversations behind the wheel must be on a headset.
• Twenty-Four Percent of EU Homes Use Mobile Phones
  quarter of European Union households surveyed by the blocs executive body have turned their backs on fixed lines in favor of mobile phones, with a fifth now making calls over the Internet.
  
  
  The European Commission's survey of 27,000 homes in the 27-nation bloc found that 24 percent were using mobiles only.
• Nokia Buys a Social Site
  The worlds top cellphone maker Nokia said it has agreed to buy social networking start-up Plazes as part of its major push into offering Internet services. Plazes provides location-aware services that people can use to plan, record, and share their social activities.
• Cellular Waste
  The disposal of massive numbers of unwanted mobile phones will be a key focus of a five-day meeting on waste management which started Monday in Indonesia, organisers said.
  
  
  The fate of the more than three billion of the gadgets in use today will be discussed by more than 1,000 delegates from 170 countries at the meeting on the Basel Convention in Bali, a statement said.
  
  Cellular Disposal
• Mobile Price Wars
  Virgin Mobile USA is introducing a plan with unlimited calling for $79.99 per month, helping feed the price-cutting frenzy that has washed over the cellular carriers this year.
  
  
  The prepaid plan will be available July 1, the carrier said. Virgin was charging $99.99 for 1000 minutes per month with no limit on night and weekend calls.
  
  Verizon Wireless introduced a plan with unlimited nationwide calling in February for $99.99 per month that was quickly matched by its competitors.
  
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• Associated Press Via Cell Phone
  Associated Press on Monday unveiled an iPhone program for accessing its newly launched service that delivers news, photos and video to mobile phones.  
  
  The APs Mobile News Network was launched May 5 for a variety of smart phones, including the iPhone. The service displays advertising-supported local news stories from more than 100 participating newspapers as well as national and international news from AP. The reports are organized by ZIP code.
  
  complete article
• Teens Ignore Cell Phone Rules
  Targeting inexperienced motorists, several states have passed laws during the past five years restricting cell phone use by teenage drivers.
  But an insurance industry study being released Monday that looked at whether teens are ignoring such restrictions contends enforcement and parental influence are just as important as new laws.
  
  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety studied North Carolinas law, enacted in 2006, which fines motorists under age 18 who are caught using a cell phone.
  Researchers who watched as high school students left school found that teenage drivers used their cell phones at about the same rate both before and after the law took effect. In South Carolina, which does not have a similar restriction, cell phone use by teenage drivers was