European Commission approves spectrum refarming
The European Commission has approved the use of 3G services over spectrum reserved for 2G. The move should let operators use spectrum they already own to run mobile broadband services over greater distances than are currently possible.
Silicon

Sprint buys Virgin Mobile USA for $483 million
Sprint Nextel has announced that it will acquire Virgin Mobile USA in a move that strengthens its prepaid business. Virgin Mobile and Sprint's prepaid Boost Mobile brand will be brought under one prepaid business group in Sprint's organization, although they will each continue to serve existing and new customers following the close of the deal.
Fierce Wireless

Blyk closes down UK MVNO
Ad-funded mobile service provider Blyk has announced that it will close down its UK operations in order to concentrate on providing advertising-related services for network operators. This news follows announcements of an exclusive partnership with Orange UK and a similar deal with Vodafone in the Netherlands.
Total Telecom

Spinvox Fights Back: 'Critics Just Jealous'
Supporters of voice-to-text firm Spinvox are speaking out against a recent bout of bad publicity with one blaming "jealousy" for the backlash. Julie Meyer from Ariadne, which advised and invested in Spinvox, said the coverage was being fuelled by envy. "People are jealous, that’s what’s going on. It's 'lets see if we can pull her down' instead of saying 'isn't it fantastic a woman of 31 can conquer America?"
Sky News Online

BT signs VOD deal with Sony Pictures
BT has signed a new deal with Sony Pictures to enable video on demand access to a range of new and classic films on BT Vision. BT Vision subscribers will be able to watch new movies such as Terminator Salvation, Angels & Demons and The International on a pay-per-view rather than subscription basis.
Digital Spy

Orange offers legal music service with Universal Music
Orange and Universal Music are looking to attract subscribers and reduce piracy with the launch of a music streaming service available to pre-pay consumers. Pay-as-you-go customers of the new Monkey package who top up £10 each month will receive 600 minutes of music streaming, accessed by calling 247 from their phone. The service is aimed at 16-24-year-olds who don’t own 3G handsets or have mobile internet packages.
NMA

Apple cleared over iPhone ad claims
The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that Apple is free to claim that its iPhone applications store is superior to Google's Android Market service, rejecting complaints from fans of Google's G1 smartphone that a TV ad for Apple's App Store was misleading.
The Guardian

Yahoo! and Microsoft deal expected today
Speculation is rife that an announcement will be made today by Yahoo! and Microsoft on an online search and advertising partnership. Instead of a buyout, the two will enter into a revenue sharing agreement where Microsoft’s Bing will power Yahoo!’s searches and Yahoo will handle advertising sales using Microsoft technology.
Computer Weekly

Survey shows rapid changes for industry in mobile multimedia
Results from an annual survey by 3ple-Media have found that the top multimedia issues facing mobile operators are subscriber perceptions of cost and the relevance of multimedia content services on offer. While 58 per cent of respondents said that receiving multimedia services would be too expensive, a remarkable 78 per cent said that multimedia services related to local information will be the most popular type of content in three year's time, up from 12 per cent last year.
Mobile Europe