MobilityWire

A Vesta Corporation (http://www.trustvesta.com), uma pioneira e líder global em soluções de pagamento eletrônico, anunciou hoje o lançamento do Prepaid.com (http://www.prepaid.com), um portal de recarga que permite aos clientes móveis enviarem airtime (tempo de conexão) para amigos e parentes no mundo todo. O portal oferece recarga imediata e sem taxa para contas telefônicas móveis pré-pagas e permite que expatriados e imigrantes possam manter fortes laços familiares, independente da distância e de fronteiras.

O Prepaid.com fornece aos operadores móveis uma solução plug and play que suporta recarga tanto no próprio país como em países diferentes para os serviços móveis, tais como airtime pré-pago, assinaturas e banda larga móvel. O novo portal ajuda os operadores móveis a capitalizarem nos bilhões de pagamentos feitos para outros países anualmente e inclui uma grande variedade de recursos fáceis de serem usados que mostraram aumentar o valor por toda a vida dos clientes.

“Ao usarem o Prepaid.com, os consumidores agora têm uma maneira conveniente de enviarem airtime para parentes e amigos em outros países”, disse Chris Parsons, diretor de Marketing da Vesta. “Trabalhar com a Vesta aumenta as opções de pagamento para os operadores e garante aos clientes do mundo todo a segurança e privacidade que requerem”.

Tendo processado centenas de milhões de transações, a Vesta Corporation ganhou a reputação de fornecer soluções de pagamento inovadoras e seguras para empresas de telecomunicações do mundo todo e seus clientes. O processo de recarga com a marca do operador do Prepaid.com mantém os mais altos padrões de segurança de pagamento e dados da indústria e pode ser integrado facilmente com a infra-estrutura do operador para maior rapidez de comercialização.

Para adquirir airtime no www.prepaid.com, um visitante simplesmente seleciona o país e operador, coloca o número do telefone que gostaria de fazer a recarga e em seguida os seus detalhes sobre pagamento. O Prepaid.com aceita uma grande variedade de dispositivos de pagamento, incluindo os principais cartões de crédito e débito do mercado, cartões de crédito emitidos internacionalmente e cartões de débito pré-pagos da marca Visa ou MasterCard.

Sem inscrição complicada, senhas ou cartões de refil necessários, o processo de recarga é rápido, confiável e seguro. O Prepaid.com não cobre taxas de serviços ou acréscimos e imediatamente aplica o airtime à conta presenteada. O portal oferece suporte online e ao vivo com agentes atendendo 24×7 e os clientes podem criar uma conta para, com segurança, armazenar detalhes sobre pagamentos e números de telefones receptores, revisar história dos pagamentos e imprimir recibos das transações.

Os consumidores podem realizar recarga apenas uma vez ou agendar pagamentos presentes periódicos para garantir que os seus amigos e parentes possam sempre se comunicar com eles. Segundo disse um consumidor, “Fico mais tranquilo sabendo que a minha mãe pode me chamar a qualquer hora, pois agendo recargas para o telefone dela mensalmente”. Futuros aperfeiçoamentos permitirão aos assinantes enviar pedidos de presentes e recargas através de sites de mídia social e SMS.

O Prepaid.com está lançando com a Telefonica Movistar, Iusacell e Unefon no México, e está também ativamente investigando parcerias com operadores móveis em outras geografias onde o envio de presentes para outros países é comum, incluindo a América Latina, o Caribe, a Europa, Sudeste da Ásia, China e Índia.

Sobre a Vesta Corporation
O Prepaid.com pertence e é operado pela Vesta Corporation, provedora de uma plataforma de pagamento totalmente gerenciada que oferece aos operadores móveis a maneira mais eficiente e econômica de fornecerem uma vasta gama de serviços diretos com a marca do operador (através do telefone, Internet, SMS, USSD, aplicativo de handset e cobrança recorrente). Com a sua matriz localizada em Portland, Oregon, e operações na Europa e China, a Vesta Corporation é uma pioneira e líder mundial em soluções de pagamento eletrônico desde 1995. A Vesta estabeleceu relacionamentos de longo prazo e de sucesso com os maiores operadores internacionais, incluindo a AT&T, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Cricket Communications, Eircom, Sprint, Telia, Tele2, Telefonica, T-Mobile, Verizon e Vodafone, entre outros.

Para informações adicionais sobre a Vesta Corporation, favor acessar http://www.trustvesta.com. Para informações adicionais sobre o portal de pagamento do consumidor da Vesta, favor acessar http://www.prepaid.com.

Vesta Corporation (http://www.trustvesta.com), un pionero y líder mundial en soluciones de pagos electrónicos, anunció hoy el lanzamiento de Prepaid.com (http://www.prepaid.com), un portal de recarga que facilita a los usuarios móviles enviar tiempo aire a sus amigos y familiares en todo el mundo. El portal ofrece recarga inmediata sin cobro para cuentas prepagadas de teléfonos móviles y permite a expatriados e inmigrantes mantener fuertes lazos familiares, independientemente de la distancia y las fronteras.

Prepaid.com ofrece a los operadores móviles una solución plug and play (conectar y lista para operar) que soporta recargas dentro del país y entre fronteras para servicios móviles tales como tiempo aire prepagado, suscripciones y banda ancha móvil. El nuevo portal ayuda a los operadores móviles a capitalizar sobre los miles de millones de pagos transfronterizos enviados anualmente, e incluye una variedad de funciones fáciles de usar que han demostrado incrementar el valor perdurable de los consumidores.

“Gracias a Prepaid.com, los consumidores ahora tienen una medio conveniente para enviar tiempo aire a familiares y amigos en otros países”, dijo Chris Parsons, director de mercadeo de Vesta. “Trabajar con Vesta expande las opciones de pago para los operadores y garantiza a los compradores la seguridad y privacidad que exigen”.

Después de procesar cientos de millones de transacciones, Vesta Corporation ha adquirido una reputación de ofrecer soluciones de pagos innovadoras y seguras para las empresas de telecomunicaciones en todo el mundo y sus clientes. El proceso de recarga de Prepaid.com con la marca del operador mantiene los más altos estándares de seguridad de datos y pagos en la industria y se integra fácilmente con la infraestructura de un operador para lograr un rápido posicionamiento en el mercado.

Para comprar tiempo aire en www.prepaid.com, un visitante simplemente selecciona el país y el operador e ingresa el número de teléfono que desea recargar seguido de los detalles de pago. Prepaid.com acepta una vasta variedad de métodos de pago incluyendo las principales tarjetas de crédito y débito, tarjetas de crédito emitidas internacionalmente y tarjetas de débito prepagadas exclusivas de Visa o MasterCard.

Sin requisitos de registro complicados, PINs o tarjetas de recarga, el proceso es fácil, confiable y seguro. Prepaid.com no cobra cargos por servicios o sobrecargos y aplica el tiempo aire inmediatamente a la cuenta beneficiada. El portal ofrece asistencia para las transacciones online y con agentes en vivo, 24 horas al día, 7 días a la semana, y los compradores pueden crear una cuenta para guardar con seguridad los detalles del pago y los números de teléfono de los beneficiarios, revisar la historia de pagos e imprimir recibos de la transacción.

Los consumidores pueden realizar una recarga una sola vez o programar pagos de regalo recurrentes para asegurar que sus amigos y familiares siempre puedan mantenerse en contacto, como uno de los consumidores dijo, “Tengo la tranquilidad de saber que mi madre me puede llamar en cualquier momento gracias a que pude programar recargas fijas para su teléfono todos los meses”. Futuras mejoras permitirán a los abonados enviar solicitudes de regalo y recarga a través de los sitios de medios sociales y SMS.

Prepaid.com se lanza con Telefónica Movistar, Iusacell y Unefon en México, e investiga activamente asociaciones con operadores móviles en otras regiones donde los regalos entre fronteras son comunes, incluyendo, América Latina, el Caribe, Europa, Asia Sudeste, Asia, China e India.

Acerca de Vesta Corporation
Prepaid.com es un portal de propiedad y operado por Vesta Corporation, proveedor de una plataforma de pagos de gestión completa diseñada para ofrecer a los operadores móviles el medio más eficaz y rentable para ofrecer servicios de recarga directa con la marca del operador (vía teléfono, Web, SMS, USSD, aplicación de auricular y cargo recurrente). Vesta Corporation, con sede en Portland, Oregon, con operaciones en Europa y China, es un pionero y líder mundial en soluciones de pagos desde 1995. Vesta ha establecido asociaciones duraderas y de gran éxito con operadores líderes internacionales incluyendo AT&T, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Cricket Communications, Eircom, Sprint, Telia, Tele2, Telefónica, T-Mobile, Verizon y Vodafone, entre otros.

Para más información acerca de Vesta Corporation, visite http://www.trustvesta.com. Para más información acerca del portal de pagos del consumidor de Vesta, visite, http://www.prepaid.com.

Vesta CorporationVesta Corporation (http://www.trustvesta.com), a global pioneer and leader in electronic payment solutions, today announced the launch of Prepaid.com (http://www.prepaid.com), a recharge portal that allows mobile customers to send airtime to friends and family worldwide. The portal features immediate, no-fee recharging for prepaid mobile phone accounts and allows expatriates and immigrants to maintain strong family ties, regardless of distance and borders.

Prepaid.com provides mobile operators with a plug and play solution that supports in-country and cross-border recharge for mobile services such as prepaid airtime, subscriptions, and mobile broadband. The new portal helps mobile operators capitalize on the billions of cross-border payments sent annually, and includes a variety of consumer-friendly features that have been shown to increase the lifetime value of customers.

“By using Prepaid.com, consumers now have a convenient way to send airtime to family and friends in other countries,” said Chris Parsons, chief marketing officer of Vesta. “Working with Vesta expands payment options for operators and assures purchasers worldwide the security and privacy they demand.”

Having processed hundreds of millions of transactions, Vesta Corporation has earned a reputation for delivering innovative and secure payment solutions to telecom companies worldwide and their customers. Prepaid.com’s operator-branded recharge process maintains the highest payment and data security standards in the industry, and integrates easily with an operator’s infrastructure for fast time to market.

To purchase airtime at www.prepaid.com, a visitor simply selects the country and operator, and enters the phone number they would like to recharge followed by their payment details. Prepaid.com accepts a wide variety of payment devices including major credit and debit cards, internationally issued credit cards, and Visa or MasterCard signature prepaid debit cards.

With no cumbersome registration, PINs or refill cards required, the recharge process is fast, reliable and secure. Prepaid.com does not charge service fees or surcharges, and immediately applies airtime to the gifted account. The portal features 24×7 online and live-agent transaction support, and purchasers can create an account to securely store payment details and recipient phone numbers, review payment history, and print transaction receipts.

Consumers can perform a one-time recharge or schedule recurring gift payments to ensure that their friends and family can always be in touch. As one consumer stated, “I have peace of mind knowing that my mother can call me anytime because I set up recharges for her phone every month.” Future enhancements will allow subscribers to send gift requests and recharges via social media sites and SMS.

Prepaid.com is launching with Telefonica Movistar, Iusacell and Unefon in Mexico, and is actively investigating partnerships with mobile operators in other geographies where cross-border gifting is common, including Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Southeast Asia, China, and India.

About Vesta Corporation
Prepaid.com is owned and operated by Vesta Corporation, provider of a fully managed payment platform that offers mobile operators the most efficient and cost-effective way to provide operator-branded direct top-up services (via phone, Web, SMS, USSD, handset application, and recurring charge). Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with operations in Europe and China, Vesta Corporation, has been a pioneer and worldwide leader in electronic payment solutions since 1995. Vesta has established long-term, successful relationships with leading international operators including AT&T, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Cricket Communications, Eircom, Sprint, Telia, Tele2, Telefonica, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Vodafone, among others.

For more information about Vesta Corporation, visit http://www.trustvesta.com. For more information about Vesta’s consumer payment portal, visit http://www.prepaid.com.

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.

Vesta Corporation, a global pioneer and leader in electronic payment solutions, today announced the availability of version 5.0 of its industry-leading secure Mobile Payment Platform. The new platform enables wireless operators worldwide to increase subscriber ARPU, accept more payment types and achieve Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance through a managed service that includes a portfolio of new payment services and features.

“Vesta’s new payment platform offers a wide range of benefits to mobile operators,” said Chris Parsons, chief marketing officer at Vesta Corporation. “In addition to facilitating secure transactions, operators can also enjoy significant time to market advantages and a full suite of innovative features. Having processed hundreds of millions of transactions, Vesta has the experience, knowledge and agility to effectively deliver the payment technology desired by mobile operators and their subscribers.”

For operators, the 5.0 version of the Mobile Payment Platform offers a dynamic business reporting portal and Vesta’s token service that provides robust self-care functions and isolates operators from PCI compliance requirements. Enhancements for mobile subscribers include Vesta’s quick code functionality which enables even faster payments through multiple channels; wallet functions supporting multiple users and payment devices; and the integration of social networking applications where subscribers can request, send and receive payment-related gifts.

With the growth of mobile payments, and the increased diversity of new payment channels and methods, Vesta continues to place utmost importance on safeguarding the security and privacy of customer payment information. Vesta’s Mobile Payment Platform is fully compliant with the PCI data security standard (PCI DSS) as mandated by the payment card networks, ensuring best practices when handling sensitive card holder information. This compliance relieves the operator from the costs and burdens of maintaining compliance themselves, even through emerging channels like handset applications.

Another key benefit of the Mobile Payment Platform is that it allows operators to increase subscriber ARPU while reducing churn. This is accomplished through Vesta’s patented, industry-leading fraud engine which increases the rate of successful payments, and by analyzing the customer data that flows through the Mobile Payment Platform. Vesta helps mobile operators better understand customer behavior by analyzing payment usage and demographic data, allowing the operator to effectively up sell and cross sell, establish targeted marketing campaigns and optimize their prepaid and postpaid subscriber portfolios.

“As mobile consumers’ payment preferences evolve and they pay via increasingly diverse methods, more and more mobile operators are embracing the flexibility, convenience and security our platform delivers,” continued Parsons. “Vesta’s new Mobile Payment Platform release enables operators to ensure customer needs are met as seamlessly and securely as possible.”

To learn more about Vesta’s Mobile Payment Platform 5.0, visit Vesta Corporation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from Feb. 15 – 18, 2010, or contact Paul Nolan or Daniel Lowther at CCgroup on +44 118 9207650 or email vesta@ccgrouppr.com.

About Vesta Corporation
Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with operations in Europe and China, Vesta has been a pioneer and worldwide leader in electronic payment solutions since 1995. Vesta has established long-term, successful relationships with leading international companies including AT&T, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Cricket Communications, Meteor Mobile Communications, O2, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tele2, Verizon, Vodafone, and Yoigo. For more information, visit www.trustvesta.com.

Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ: BITS) today announced that the forthcoming version of its BOLT™ mobile browser will include the ability to run Web applications, commonly referred to as “widgets.” Since BOLT is a Web browser that works on mobile phones of all types, the addition of Web apps will give BOLT users increased functionality on their mobile phones. The new BOLT Widgets capability will be introduced in beta as part of the forthcoming 1.7 version of BOLT, to be released to the public at Mobile World Congress on February 15, 2010.

Although BOLT already runs website-based applications written in Ajax, Javascript and other Web programming languages, such as the popular Facebook game Mafia Wars and Google Docs, the new Web apps will be installed directly within BOLT and thus will load and execute even faster. BOLT users will be able to discover, select and install specific applications through the BOLT Widget Gallery. BOLT will display an iconic list of all installed apps, allowing users to quickly find and use them directly within BOLT.

“As many of the recent mobile and wireless trade shows have demonstrated, mobile applications are part of the mainstream mobile experience,” said Sampo Kaasila, vice president of research and development at Bitstream. “However, the vast majority of phones in use today are ‘feature phones’ not smartphones. Unfortunately for the users of these billions of feature phones, it isn’t easy to find, install and run mobile applications. By adding Web apps to BOLT, Bitstream is not only improving the usability of our mobile browser, we are also making it possible for literally billions of people to partake in the mobile apps revolution.”

BOLT is a server-assisted browser that has been shown to have the most accurate page rendering of any mobile browser in its class, receiving a perfect 100 percent in the Acid3 page rendering test. Using this same cloud computing technology to support Web applications allows BOLT to offer increased functionality to the broad spectrum of devices BOLT already runs on, even the most basic mobile phones.

At its launch, Bitstream will have an initial set of sample applications available in its Beta Widget Gallery. BOLT Web applications are written as standard W3C widgets (www.w3.org/TR/widgets/), a standard with broad industry support.

Bitstream will be showcasing its new version of BOLT to OEMs and Carriers at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 15 to February 18 in booth number 1A70.

About BOLT
The acclaimed BOLT mobile browser has the most faithful rendering of Web pages of any browser in its class. This fast mobile browser quickly and accurately displays Web pages on mobile phones just as they would appear on desktop computers. BOLT is the only browser for mobile phones of all types to support streaming video from popular media sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace. Based on the same WebKit rendering engine used by the iPhone’s Safari and Android’s Chrome browsers, BOLT is compatible with the majority of the world’s 4 billion mobile phones. BOLT features a patented split-screen viewing mode, intuitive keystroke shortcuts and copy/paste functionality, and offers a user-friendly, feature-rich mobile browsing experience for even entry-level mobile phones. Download BOLT for free at http://boltbrowser.com – the mobile Internet has never looked this good on your phone.

About Bitstream
Bitstream Inc. develops software technologies and applications for the graphic art and mobile communications industries. Bitstream’s award-winning fonts and font technologies enable device manufacturers and application developers to render the highest quality text in any language, on any device, at any resolution. The company’s MyFonts brand is the world’s leading provider of fonts to consumers. Bitstream’s Pageflex brand enables marketers to easily produce customized communications in print, email, and online. The company’s latest offering is the BOLT mobile browser, which has been installed by millions of users worldwide since its release in February 2009. For more information visit www.bitstream.com.

Kony Solutions, Inc., the mobile applications platform provider with Write Once, Run Everywhere technology, today announced that the Kony Mobile Application Platform™ now supports the Google Nexus One phone and all other predecessor phones that run on the Android mobile operating system including the Motorola Droid and HTC Hero.

Based on an open architecture, the Kony Mobile Application Platform generates native on-device applications and mobile websites for all major mobile device operating systems. This includes more than 8,000 phones across the most popular operating systems. Current mobile operating systems supported are as follows:

• Google Android
• RIM BlackBerry
• Brew
• Apple iPhone & iPod Touch
• Java ME
• Palm WebOS
• Symbian S60
• Windows Mobile

Recognizing the challenge of a fragmented and increasingly diverse mobile device marketplace, Kony Solutions developed an extensible, future-proof mobile applications platform that supports the constant emergence of new devices and operating systems. The Kony Solutions platform utilizes an embedded client library within its Kony Studio development environment, which executes an application development layer that is completely abstracted from the target mobile operating system. Support for a new device or mobile operating system simply requires development and updates to the corresponding client library.

“Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, the list continues to get longer and more complex as the mobile marketplace rapidly evolves. The challenge for every consumer facing organization is how to quickly provide their audience with multi-device mobile applications that deliver a high-value experience at an economical cost of ownership,” said Raj Koneru, founder and CEO of Kony Solutions. “At this rapid-fire pace of device development, it is crucial to utilize a mobile application platform that is designed to not only overcome this challenge, but actually take advantage of it. Our Write Once, Run Everywhere technology enables organizations to quickly offer and maintain their mobile applications running on the latest devices, making them truly future-proof.”

About Kony Solutions
Kony Solutions provides the mobile applications platform with Write Once, Run Everywhere technology that delivers mobile presence and commerce for consumer-facing enterprises. Delivering on the vision of one mobile platform, many mobile applications, on all types of mobile devices, the Kony Mobile Application Platform uses a single-code base to develop mobile applications that run faster, better and with lower total cost of ownership. Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., the company also provides pre-built vertical applications, which are customizable and ready to be deployed, hosted, and managed via Kony 360 services. Visit www.konysolutions.com.

Flycell, Inc. (www.Flycell.com), the popular mobile and online media and entertainment company, announced today the top mobile content for 2009 based on actual consumption by millions of people who subscribe to the Flycell service around the globe. People come to Flycell to download ringtones, mobile games, wallpapers, animations and themes to personalize their mobile phones and make them unique reflections of their individuality and lifestyle.

Even though the faltering economy impacted other areas of consumer electronics and digital media, Flycell reported 2009 as its best year ever, with more people using the Flycell service for downloading mobile content than ever before.

TOP MOBILE PHONE:

Handset manufacturers and mobile operators may be interested to know which devices were the most popular ones used by Flycell subscribers. Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Kyocera each had one handset apiece in a top ten list dominated by Samsung and LG. Which handset was the most popular? The envelope please?

The handset most used by Flycell subscribers in 2009 was the touch screen LG Vu (also referred to as CU920 and CU915).

TOP MOBILE GAME:

Mobile games have become one of the most popular ways to engage the brain when a person would otherwise be bored, such as waiting for a bus, riding the subway or shopping with a girlfriend. Games based on television game shows were popular this year, with “Wheel of Fortune Deluxe” and “Jeopardy Deluxe” both landing in the top five. Which mobile game takes the top prize? The envelope please?

The game most downloaded by Flycell subscribers in 2009 was the action packed arcade game “Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2.”

TOP WALLPAPER:

Because wallpapers decorate the backgrounds of mobile phone menus and idle screens, they are the most seen images people have on their phones. The wallpaper category 2009 was the year for Bling, Butterflies, Babies, and Barack Obama. A wallpaper featured earlier in the year entitled “Obama is My Homeboy” rounded out the top five, along with the images “Blue Neon Butterfly,” “Neon Butterfly Heart” and “Baby Girl.” But what did Flycell subscribers use most to dress up their phones? The envelope please?

In a sign of things that hopefully will come as the economy improves, the flashy money and dollar sign image “$ BLING $” was the most downloaded wallpaper in 2009.

TOP RINGTONE:

Ringtones are snippets of songs that people can assign to individual contacts in an address book. When people hear a favorite artist singing a chorus to a song they love they think, “This is a call I want to take!” Do people’s tastes in ringtones match their music tastes? The Billboard Hot Digital Songs of 2009 chart, a list of the top-downloaded songs across all genres ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, is topped by the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow,” followed by hits from Lady Gaga, Flo Rida, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and other artists with ringtones at Flycell.com.

Though “Boom Boom Pow” made it to the top five in Flycell’s most downloaded ringtones of 2009, the song trailed “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell’em, “I Love College” by Asher Roth and “Birthday Sex” by Jeremih. What ringtone was number one? The envelope please?

The ringtone most downloaded by Flycell subscribers in 2009 was from the song “Best I Ever Had” by the artist Drake.

TOP ARTISTS:

Flycell saw many artists skyrocket to the top of download lists in each genre and become some of 2009’s megastars. Eminem, Drake, Lil’ Wayne and Black Eyed Peas were all major players in the rap/hip-hop world this year. R&B artists like Jeremih, Ne-Yo, Keri Hilson, Keyshia Cole and Jay Sean were all in regular rotation on the top ringtone lists throughout the year as well.

Rock legends Bon Jovi had competition from newer artists like Hinder, 3 Doors Down, Saving Abel and The All-American Rejects. Country legend George Strait also had some stiff competition from Toby Keith, Sugarland and the freshest face in country, Taylor Swift.

The pop category saw the fiercest competition of all, with undoubtedly one of the best female pop singers of all time, Mariah Carey, joined by new stars, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry as the top five pop artists stealing the hearts of Flycell subscribers. Who made it to the top? The envelope please?

The top ringtone artists in 2009 were (by genre):

• Rap/Hip-Hop: Lil Wayne
• Rock: Saving Abel
• Pop: Mariah Carey
• R&B: Keri Hilson
• Country & Folk: Taylor Swift
• Latin: Don Omar

The full lists of 2009 winners in each of the following categories can be found on the Flycell Blog:

• 2009 Ringtones of the Year
• 2009 Artists of the Year
• Top 10 Handsets of 2009
• 2009 Games of the Year
• Top 10 Wallpapers of 2009
• Top 10 Animations of 2009
• Most Popular Themes of 2009

Visit http://www.flycell.com to kick 2010 off with your own mobile content favorites.

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 2004, Flycell is a wholly-owned subsidiary of wireless services company Acotel Group (MIL: ACO).

Vesta Corporation, a global pioneer and leader in electronic payment solutions, today announced that Marshall Behling has joined the company as vice president for international business development. With a strong background in business development and account management, Behling will continue to develop and manage Vesta’s strategic international partnerships.

“Marshall’s experience in global partnerships aligns with the expansion of Vesta’s full suite of payment solutions internationally,” said Chris Parsons, Vesta’s chief marketing officer. “His addition to the Vesta team will expand our ability to establish operator relationships in key markets and build new partnerships within the global payments ecosystem.”

Prior to joining Vesta, Behling was vice president of business development and account management at VeriSign, a major provider of Internet infrastructure services. Marshall joined the company in 1995 and in the years that followed, also led business development strategies for initiatives including digital content, intellectual property licensing, and international expansion.

“By outsourcing electronic payments to Vesta, telecommunications and financial companies worldwide are benefitting from an industry-leading innovative payments partner that helps them increase revenue and reduce costs,” said Behling. “Vesta is in a dynamic and growing space, and I look forward to playing an important role as the company increases their focus on opportunities in new geographies.”

About Vesta Corporation
Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with operations in Europe and China, Vesta has been a pioneer and worldwide leader in electronic payment solutions since 1995. Vesta has established long-term, successful relationships with leading international companies including AT&T, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Meteor Mobile Communications, O2, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tele2, Verizon, Vodafone, and Yoigo. For more information, visit www.trustvesta.com.