MobilityWire

Mobile First, Inc. (www.mobilefirst.com), a global leader in mobile billing solutions, today announced availability of Mobile First Mobile Payment processing for developers and providers of online games, social networking applications and virtual currency platforms. Now available in 40 markets around the world, Mobile First Mobile Payment lets these online entertainment merchants provide a highly convenient way for people all around the world to pay for their services. The latest product in Mobile First’s suite of premium SMS solutions, Mobile Payment provides merchants the ability to accept payments from anyone using SMS text messaging services, almost anywhere in the world.

“The global surge in popularity of social network applications, online games and other digital consumption has been met by a growing willingness by users to pay to play,” said Kevin Spector, CEO of Mobile First. “Mobile First is focused on making the payment process simple, secure and reliable for both merchants and consumers. At no cost, Mobile First handles every part of the payment process short of putting our logo on a merchant’s site, breaking down all the barriers to turning on a global mobile payment system.”

Secure, simple and reliable, the Mobile First Mobile Payment solution allows customers of online merchants to shop for myriad online products and services, and complete their purchase by simply entering their mobile phone numbers. Real-time verification is achieved using a security code sent to customers’ mobile phones, reducing the risk of fraud. Payments are immediately processed and customers are credited for their digital purchases.

Built on Mobile First’s proven payment platform that has processed more than $250 million in mobile payments since 2003, Mobile First Mobile Payment eliminates the barriers that come with credit card payments, providing a higher converting alternative payment mechanism, consistently achieving conversion rates ten times that of traditional credit card payment options.

With no setup fee or monthly cost, Mobile First Mobile Payment features:

• Simple implementation and flexible integration
• Full service customer support
• Localized language translation
• Secure transaction processing
• Real-time reporting
• The highest payout rates in the industry
• Ever expanding country support with new markets added every month

To begin using Mobile Payment from Mobile First, merchants simply register by visiting: http://paywith.mobilefirst.com. Once they receive their login credentials and register their products, Mobile First sends HTML code and an easy-to-implement API to activate the Mobile Payment service on the merchant’s website. By simply adding three lines of custom code onto a Web page, merchants are instantly ready to maximize the revenue opportunity of their application with the 1.7 billion potential customers in Mobile First’s supported markets.

Mobile First will be exhibiting at Engage! Expo in New York City on February 16-17. To meet with Mobile First at this event, contact biz@mobilefirst.com, or drop by booth number 26.

For more information about Mobile Payment from Mobile First visit http://paywith.mobilefirst.com.

About Mobile First
Mobile First is a global leader in mobile billing and mobile payment solutions, having processed more than $250 million in secure, reliable SMS payments for merchants and digital content providers all over the world. Founded in 2003, Mobile First is headquartered in the Silicon Valley and has more than 100 employees in offices located in the United States and Hong Kong. For more information visit www.mobilefirst.com.

Just in time for the holiday season, Talkster is offering the first 10,000 people who sign up at Talkster.com $5 in free calling credit. To participate, visit www.Talkster.com, and sign up before it’s too late. Callers should use the promo code “TALKSTER” to get their $5 in free calling credit.

With $5 in free calling credits, people can speak more than 2 hours to India, more than 4 hours to China and 5 hours to Mexico (time based on calling rates from the United States).

Under this promotion, callers get access to 50 countries with the lowest calling rates in the industry. Current Free World Dialing customers will enjoy access to new calling areas through this partnership, including Brazil, Japan, South Africa, and Pakistan.

“Talkster understands the holidays are the time of year when connecting with friends and family, especially those away from home, is important to all of us,” said James Wanless, COO of Talkster. “This special holiday offer gives our customers even more to celebrate. With international calling rates as little as .08 cents a minute to call places like Thailand, we are making the whole world that much closer. People can talk for as long as they want without worrying about being hit with a huge phone bill.”

For more information visit Talkster at www.Talkster.com.

About Rebtel
Rebtel makes it possible to call any phone, anywhere in the world, for just cents per minute. Rebtel services can be used with any phone – landline or mobile. There is no charge to set up an account. No contract. No monthly fees. No connection fees. No hidden costs. Anyone may make a free five minute call to test the service. Thereafter, customers only pay for the minutes they use. Free Calls between more than 50 counties served by Rebtel are always free and only one of the two people on a call have to be a Rebtel customer.

About Talkster
Talkster is revolutionizing communications with award-winning ad-supported and software-based technologies. Through its Free World Dialing™ service and talki™ mobile application Talkster is giving consumers highly affordable alternatives to long distance and international calling, plus text and picture messaging. Talkster’s talki white label application allows companies to create new opportunities for revenue and marketing by offering customers compelling services delivered through a branded mobile interface. From your mobile phone visit http://m.talki.me to download talki. For more information visit Talkster at www.Talki.me.

Talkster (www.talkster.com) announced today its talki™ mobile software took top honors in the eighth annual Mobile Star Awards™ program, winning the SUPERSTAR award in both the Consumer App: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Consumer App: Email or Messaging categories.

Other nominees in the Consumer App: VoIP category included Skype, Skype Lite and Fring. In the Consumer App: Email or Messaging category, nominees included Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway, emoze and Momail.

The Mobile Star Awards recognize the top mobile products, success stories and visionaries as chosen by thousands of readers of technology news portal MobileVillage’s Go Mobile™ newsletter. The SUPERSTAR award is the highest honor given to Mobile Star Award winners.

Built on Talkster’s award-winning Free World Dialing™ service, the talki software is built in the Java programming language for use on the widest number of phones possible. Talki gives users unlimited free text and picture messaging and delivers long distance and international calls for the cost of a local call.

“Talki is ideal for people looking to save money on calls, picture sharing and text messaging, especially this holiday season,” said James Wanless, the COO of Talkster. “I’d like to thank the entire Talkster team for their great contributions to making talki a simple and affordable dialing and messaging solution that our customers love to use.”

Talki was selected as the SUPERSTAR winner by subscribers of MobileVillage’s Go Mobile™ – an e-newsletter that delivers headlines and links from top mobile technology stories on popular websites such as CNET, Engadget, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Computerworld, AppScout, and others. “Go Mobile” was launched nearly ten years ago and is now published every three weeks for thousands of readers.

Today, people pay for both sending and receiving text (SMS) and picture (MMS) messages, and the cost can be high. In Canada one might expect to pay 20 to 25 cents for each text message and 50 cents or more for each MMS message either sent or received. But with talki the cost of these messages is drastically reduced. If both the sender and the recipient are using talki, messages between them are free. If the recipient isn’t using talki, then Talkster sends your message by SMS and you save up to 80% over regular SMS rates. Talkster gives you 25 free SMS to start, which you can send anywhere in the world. While SMS text messages are limited to 160 characters each, talki messages have no character limit.

“‘Go Mobile’ readers are the industry’s most savvy mobile business users, meaning Talkster can declare that talki was truly the users’ choice,” says Jon Covington, MobileVillage founder and president. “talki was chosen based on genuine results, not hype. Talkster was up against tough competition in these categories and has shown true leadership in innovation in the VoIP and messaging space.”

Visit http://www.talkster.com/Countries.aspx to see where the Talkster service is available.

For more information about the annual Mobile Star Awards, visit MobileVillage.com.

About Talkster
Talkster is revolutionizing communications with award-winning ad-supported and software-based technologies. Through its Free World Dialing™ service and talki™ mobile application Talkster is giving consumers highly affordable alternatives to long distance and international calling, plus text and picture messaging. Talkster’s talki white label application allows companies to create new opportunities for revenue and marketing by offering customers compelling services delivered through a branded mobile interface. From your mobile phone visit http://m.talki.me to download talki. For more information visit Talkster at www.talkster.com.

About MobileVillage / PDA Inc.
Founded in 1993, MobileVillage is a market and solution development company dedicated to advancing mobile and wireless technology in a wide range of industries. MobileVillage accomplishes this by fostering education and alliances through “Best of Breed” solution identification, event partnerships, an online industry directory, industry job postings, daily online news, its widely respected Go Mobile™ newsletter, a Mobile Mentors™ program, and popular annual Mobile Star Awards™ program. Visit MobileVillage online at www.MobileVillage.com.

MobileVillage^®, the Mobile Star Awards™, and Go Mobile™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of MobileVillage / PDA Inc.

Alberto Montesi, founder and CEO of Flycell, Inc., a leading mobile and online entertainment content company, has earned a Certificate of Finalist Recognition for Executive of the Year in North America in the 2009 International Business Awards^SM, known as the Stevies. The International Business Awards are the only global, all-encompassing business awards program honoring great performances in business.

Nicknamed the Stevie^® for the Greek word “crowned,” the awards will be presented to honorees at a gala dinner on Monday, September 14 in the St. Regis Hotel in New York City.

Organizations all over the world are eligible to compete in The International Business Awards. This year’s honorees were selected from more than 1,700 entries received from organizations and individuals in more than 30 countries.

Montesi was recognized as a finalist for Executive of the Year for leading his international team at Flycell to create a digital entertainment service that is responsive to the consumer’s desires and needs, while staying at the forefront of technology innovations and trends in the space.

With Montesi’s guidance and expertise, Flycell has achieved profitability at a time when many companies in the digital entertainment sector are struggling to stay afloat. Despite the faltering economy, Flycell has experienced quarter over quarter growth, with revenue for the first half of 2009 nearly equal to revenues from all of 2008.

“Being named a finalist for a Stevie Award is an honor for me personally, but more importantly, is a testament to the continued success of Flycell,” Montesi said. “The Flycell team is focused on creating and delivering the cutting-edge mobile and digital entertainment customers are demanding. We have experienced exceptional growth, especially thus far in 2009. It’s undoubtedly been the collective effort of our entire company that I’m most proud of, and I applaud the whole Flycell global team for our success.”

Members of the Awards’ Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs selected International Stevie winners from among the Finalists, which were determined by volunteer judges around the world during two months of preliminary judging.

“Despite the harsh economic climate, entries to the IBAs actually grew a bit this year, and that illustrates the increasing importance of The International Business Awards worldwide,” said Michael Gallagher, president of The Stevie Awards, presenters of the IBAs. “We congratulate all of the honorees, and we look forward to recognizing them for their achievements at our gala awards dinner in New York on September 14.”

Complete lists of honorees and other details are available at www.stevieawards.com/iba.

About Flycell
Flycell, Inc. is a leading mobile and online media and entertainment destination. Flycell lets people from all walks of life personalize their phones with the mobile content that reflects their own unique tastes in entertainment, sports, games and more. The company partners with media companies and mobile network operators globally that utilize Flycell’s cutting edge multimedia applications and services. Headquartered in New ork, N.Y. and launched in 2005, Flycell is a wholly-owned subsidiary of wireless services company Acotel Group (MIL: ACO).

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

Flycell, Inc., the popular mobile and online media and entertainment company, is making it easy for football fans everywhere to keep up with their favorite National Football League (NFL) teams with the introduction of Sports Alerts, a premium text alert service. Sports Alerts complements Flycell’s already diverse and growing offering of online and mobile games and quizzes, all available at Flycell.com.

With the first week of the NFL Preseason kicking off August 13, Flycell’s Sports Alerts give football fans an easy way to keep up on the scores for their favorite teams with mobile text alerts delivered right to their phones. A premium SMS alert subscription service, Sports Alerts sends any number of in-game or final score updates for a user’s selected team(s) direct to their mobile phone. Sports Alerts is just one of the many Flycell offerings that can be selected using credits from a $9.99/month Flycell ClubPack subscription. Did the 49ers crush the Raiders in the Battle of the Bay? Did “da Bears” defeat the Giants? Find out with Sports Alerts from Flycell.com.

“Sports Alerts is a quick and fun way to get the latest information on your favorite teams even if you can’t be there in person,” says Lindsey Weinger, VP Web Experience at Flycell. “Fans get their selected team’s final scores delivered in real-time, right to their mobile phone. And with the option for in-game score alerts, fans can always be in the know on any scoring action, as soon as it happens.”

In addition to keeping up on the latest NFL scores, Flycell’s Sports Alerts allows fans to track and receive mobile text alerts for many other professional and college sports teams, including: Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Hockey League (NHL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Football and Basketball.

How to use Sports Alerts

Anyone can visit http://www.flycell.com/sports-alerts/ to get started with Sports Alerts. Simply go to the Sports Alert page, select your sport and team, and opt-in to the Sports Alerts service. Fans will receive a text message with their personalized PIN code to confirm their subscription. With a Sports Alert subscription fans can receive as many different team updates as they want.

Flycell Clubpack subscribers get the Sports Alerts service for only two credits. For just $9.99/month Flycell ClubPack subscribers receive 10 credits/per month to spend on cool mobile downloads, like ringtones and wallpapers, and other fun mobile products like games and applications.

Once a fan is subscribed, they can text HELP to 69999 to get help and text STOP to unsubscribe to Sports Alerts.
Visit http://www.flycell.com/sports-alerts/ to follow your favorite team today.

About Flycell
Flycell, Inc. is a leading mobile and online media and entertainment destination. Flycell lets people from all walks of life personalize their phones with the mobile content that reflects their own unique tastes in entertainment, sports, games and more. The company partners with media companies and mobile network operators globally that utilize Flycell’s cutting edge multimedia applications and services. Headquartered in New ork, N.Y. and launched in 2005, Flycell is a wholly-owned subsidiary of wireless services company Acotel Group (MIL: ACO).

Flycell and Flycell Sports Alerts are trademarks of Flycell, Inc. All other referenced product and brand names are trademarks of their respective companies.

Flycell, Inc., the popular mobile and online media and entertainment company, is setting out to make mobile quizzes sexy and fun with its new subscription-based premium text service, SMS Love. SMS Love complements Flycell’s already diverse and growing offering of online and mobile games and quizzes, all available at Flycell.com.

With SMS Love, Flycell brings fun quizzes to your mobile phone that you can play from anywhere, anytime you want. With three sizzling quiz categories to choose from including Love & Relationships, Bedroom Behavior, and Personality, SMS Love offers something for everyone. For the hottest cure for boredom or blues, give SMS Love a try today at http://www.flycell.com/how-hot-are-you.

Flycell’s SMS Love is a premium SMS alert service that sends you fun love, sex, and personality quizzes on a weekly basis. For $9.99/month SMS Love subscribers can play as many quizzes as they want and receive personalized quiz results based on their individual answers and demographic information.

“We designed SMS Love as a sexy and fun way to pass time using your mobile phone,” says Flycell founder and CEO, Alberto Montesi. “Players get their personalized quiz results sent directly to their mobile phone, so they always have something fun and interactive, right at their fingertips. Based on players’ quiz selection and results, SMS Love recommends additional quizzes to take, and players can retake quizzes as many times as they like.”

Because maybe you don’t know the REAL you

Mobile quizzes are a great way for people to look at themselves objectively, and learn things about themselves they might not have known. Flycell’s SMS Love quizzes ask all the right questions to get to the heart of issues like “Are you addicted to love?”, “What’s your break-up style?”, and “Are you seductive?” because really, who doesn’t want to know?

How hot are you? Ask SMS Love

Are you Romantic? Seductive? A Star? Take an SMS Love Quiz and find out now. Are you not safe to touch without oven mitts? Are you so smokin’ you make fire stop, drop, and roll? Are you so hot you get blamed for global warming? Do you often notice that the pavement is melting around you? If you answered yes to any of these questions but still wonder “Am I hot?” then SMS Love has the answer for you!

How to play SMS Love

Anyone can visit http://www.flycell.com/how-hot-are-you to get started with SMS Love today. Simply go to the SMS Love “How Hot Are You?” starting quiz, complete the questions, and opt-in to the SMS Love service to get personalized results sent to a mobile phone. Players will receive a text message with their personalized PIN code to confirm their subscription.

Once a player is subscribed, they can text QUIZ to 69999 to get a list of the top active quizzes, text QUIZ INFO to get a description of SMS Love, text HOW2 to get a list of keywords on how to play, text LAST to retake the last quiz they took, text NEXT to get the next quiz in their most recently selected category, text HELP QUIZ to learn more about SMS Love rates and message charges, and text STOP to unsubscribe to SMS Love.

With an SMS Love subscription players can take any of the SMS Love quizzes from their mobile phone at any time. Their personalized quiz results and recommendations for new quizzes to take will always be sent to their mobile phone.

Visit http://www.flycell.com/how-hot-are-you to get started playing Flycell’s SMS Love today.

About Flycell
Flycell, Inc. is a leading mobile and online media and entertainment destination. Flycell lets people from all walks of life personalize their phones with the mobile content that reflects their own unique tastes in entertainment, sports, games and more. The company partners with media companies and mobile network operators globally that utilize Flycell’s cutting edge multimedia applications and services. Headquartered in New York, N.Y. and launched in 2005, Flycell is a wholly-owned subsidiary of wireless services company Acotel Group (MIL: ACO). For more information concerning Flycell visit: www.flycell.com.

Alternative mobile communications company, Talkster (www.talki.me), today announced its mobile application, talki™, won Technology Marketing Corporation’s (TMC) 2008 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award. Talkster’s talki™ mobile application gives consumers affordable alternatives to traditional long distance and international calling, plus text and picture messaging without the hefty SMS and MMS charges. Since introducing its award-winning consumer communications services in 2007, Talkster has saved callers millions in international calling fees.

The Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award recognizes Talkster’s vision, leadership and attention to detail which are the hallmarks of the prestigious award. Talkster has been awarded TMC’s Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award for the last three years; having won for its innovation in voice over instant messaging (VoIM) technologies in 2006 and for its innovative Free World Dialing™ ad-supported calling service in 2007.

“Talkster has been recognized with our 2008 Product of the Year Award for its excellence in the advancement of voice and data communications,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief. “Talkster has proven it is a company committed to quality and excellence in solutions that benefit consumers worldwide. Especially key in this trying economy are solutions like talki that leverage mobile technology to save consumers money. With this award TMC is honoring the innovations of Talkster’s team for the third year running as the company continues to successfully evolve its alternative communications offerings to meet the needs of consumers and VNOs around the globe.”

talki is a new lightweight software application from Talkster, available as a download or accessible through a mobile browser. It offers free or low-cost international calling, plus text and picture messaging, all in one convenient and easy to use mobile app. Talkster incorporated its award-winning Free World Dialing service into talki so people in 37 countries can place long distance calls at the same rate they pay for local calls, meaning no more expensive international mobile phone charges. For calling to countries where Free World Dialing is not yet supported, calling can still be done at rates 80 percent to 90 percent less than typical mobile calling rates. What’s more, the talki mobile app offers consumers unlimited global text messaging without SMS charges and global picture messaging without MMS charges.

Also available as a white labeled service, talki allows VNOs to deliver new voice, text and multimedia services to mobile subscribers without relying on carrier infrastructure. With talki, VNO’s can easily deliver new communications services, such as free or low-cost international calling or unlimited text and picture messaging, opening up new opportunities for revenue and marketing, independent of carrier capabilities and without the need for capex investments. The talki white label service includes a complete portal with tools for managing subscribers, subscription packages, advertising campaigns and monitoring usage statistics. Plus, Talkster’s mobile billing system gives VNOs an easy way to offer their customers the ability to purchase calling and messaging credits directly from their mobile phones via SMS or PayPal.

The 2008 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award winners can be found on the INTERNET TELEPHONY and Customer Interaction Solutions Web site.

About Talkster
Talkster is revolutionizing communications with award-winning ad-supported and software-based technologies. Through its Free World DialingTM service and talkiTM mobile application Talkster is giving consumers highly affordable alternatives to long distance and international calling, plus text and picture messaging. Talkster’s talki white label application allows companies to create new opportunities for revenue and marketing by offering customers compelling services delivered through a branded mobile interface. From your mobile phone visit http://free.talkster.com to start using Free World Dialing, and http://m.talki.me to download talki. For more information visit Talkster at www.Talkster.com.

About TMC
Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) is a global integrated media company helping our clients build communities in print, in person and online. TMC publishes Customer Interaction Solutions, INTERNET TELEPHONY, Unified Communications, and NGN Magazine. TMCnet, TMC’s Web site, is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries. TMCnet is read by two to three million unique visitors each month worldwide, according to Webtrends. TMCnet is ranked as 2,921 in Quantcast’s Top U.S. Sites placing TMCnet in the top .03% most visited Web sites in the US. In addition, TMC produces ITEXPO, 4GWE Conference, Digium|Asterisk World and Communications Developer Conference.
TMC’s Green Blog has been ranked on the “100 Best Blogs for Those Who Want to Change the World”. TMC also recently launched new industry-specific Web sites: IT.TMCnet.com, Cable.TMCnet.com, Robotics.TMCnet.com, Satellite.TMCnet.com, Green.TMCnet.com. New services offered by TMCnet include the Tech Jobs site, TMCnet iPhone News and Facebook connections. For more information about TMC, visit www.tmcnet.com.