Chinese Unicom has said that it will spend $14.5 billion on new network infrastructure over the next two years as it rushes it plans to deploy its 3G network. However, while the company does not have a 3G license right now, it is still waiting to for a government-inspired reorganisation that will see the best parts of China Unicom merge with China Netcom.

The rest of Unicom will go to China Telecom, that will also see China Telecom merging China Satcom and China Mobile absorbing China TieTong - a fixed line operator. This will effectively reduce its telecommunication operators to 3; China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile - all now will be able to offer fixed and mobile telecommunications as well as broadband.

The 3G network that will be deployed is different to what is used in the western world, as it will be using its own variation - the TD-SCDMA network.

Google Android could be released in five weeks, if a report in The Register is true. A "trusted source" has said that the T-Mobile’s Android, which is produced by HTC in Taiwan, will retail at US$399; and will offer the phone for pre-sale on the 17th September.

The phone is either called or codenamed "the G1", and the pre-sale will last only for one week and available for existing T-Mobile customers. The phone is also reported to include a 5 x 3 inch touchscreen, a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a 3-megapixel camera.

Android, Google’s answer to the iPhone OS and Windows Mobile, is expected to be delayed in the second-half of the year; however, its first handset might be delayed until the first quarter of 2009, if a report from Tech Trader Daily is true.

The HTC Android’s maker HTC is delaying the phone because it is "demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google", which probably means that HTC is not confident that the Android phone is not going to be popular, including to developers - according to Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research - as it "is not able to attract enough developers because toolkits offered by Microsoft, Apple, RIM and Symbian" because the developers are focused on them.

If you have never heard about them, here is a quick synopsis: Android is a Linux-based operating system filled with software, like a browser among other applications. This was supposed to set Linux as an alternative to the operating systems for mobile devices - and HTC was expected to release their Android-powered phone first.

I am still getting my head around why would someone would be so gullible to buy this application when the entire web was going haywire over it.

Lee5279xx was jokingly clicking on the Buy link, but apparently forgot that his wife had an application on his laptop and thus he bought the application for $999.99. He went to his bank to get his money bank, but now he’s in limbo because he now needs to negotiate with the developer - Armin Heinrich, or Apple. He even goes so far as saying it was a scam:

THIS IS NO JOKE…DO NOT BUY THIS APP AND APPLE PLEASE REMOVE THIS FROM THE APP STORE….APPLE MUST MUST MUST START TO SCREEN THESE FAKE APPS AND RIDICULOUS SCAMS.

No, it is not a scam, it’s just you being an idiot to buy the application in the first place.

Image & Source: Gizmodo

After the iPhone was launched in July 11 in many countries - including New Zealand and Australia for the first time, Another 20 countries will receive the prized iPhone in 20 countries on August 22nd.

Spanish telecommunication carrier Telefonica will launch in eight countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay; and Reuters is reporting that America Mobil will bring the iPhone to several South American countries - most overlapping with Telefonica’s countries and in Paraguay and Honduras.

But that’s not all, Bharti Airtel will be bringing it in India with Vodafone; O2 is bringing it to the Czech Republic, TeliaSonera’s EMT will launch the phone in Estonia, Orange and Era will bring it to Poland; and Orange will roll it in Romania as well. The Philippines will also have the iPhone thanks to Globe Telecom, and Poland with T-Mobile.

But that brings the list to 16, but four more have yet to be confirmed. This now brings the list to 45.

Flawed software patches from Nokia Siemens Networks has sent Optus’ 3G network in Brisbane down since 6am after it battled to reconfigure the network after a recent upgrade.

The upgrade, which went to all mobile switches nationwide, was supposed to provide better speeds and capacity loads. However, it triggered three separate network failures which caused chaos of customers in Queensland, New South Wales, ACT and Victoria last week - leaving subscribers without mobile phone service for about 10 hours.

While Melbourne and Sydney were able to be rolled back, Brisbane is suffering another downtime. Even though it was fixed at 7am, it went down again an hour later and at 4pm. To fix it, it has requested network engineers from Nokia Siemens’ headquarters in Finland to fix the problem.

Optus is reviewing the service level guarantees that it had in place with Nokia Siemens, but is ruling out compensation or legal action.

While Apple did say that they were checking all the apps that were going to be in the Apps Store, this has to be the most funny cock-up that Apple has done since the MobileMe launch.

This application, known as the I Am Rich application, is basically an application for the iPod Touch and iPhone that displays a red gem.

And that’s about it.

It’s all about how rich you are - and that is basically what the description of the application says

However, the most ridiculous thing about the application is the price - it costs US$999.99, or $1,199.99 for the application.

The good thing is that Apple will get 30% off all purchases - which is US$300 for those who were stupid enough to buy the application in the first place. So, while you go get your bank to loan you that much money for a picture of a red gem; we will be covering more technology news, while sipping at our coffees and writing on other people’s Facebook Wall - because that is much better than covering this app.

Click on the Read More link to view the application in its entirety.

Read More »

Known for their stylish, inexpensive and weird instruction booklets, IKEA is entering the mobile phone market; according to Fortune Magazine.

The company will join a long list of companies that have turn into mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, that will resell mobile phones running on somebody else’s network. In IKEA’s case, they will run with T-Mobile. It will launch in the UK this Friday to IKEA’s loyalty card members.

Called Family Mobile, it will operate as a pay-as-you-go service; and there are no plans for the company to bring the phone to other countries.

Virgin Mobile has run out of iPhones, after announcing that it would be offering the phone on Friday. The website is saying that both the 8GB and 16GB offerings are "Out of Stock", with the white iPhone version only available for the 16GB - and is very limited.

A spokesperson for Virgin has confirmed that the iPhone stock had gone dry. It did not say how many that it had to begin with.

When we reported that 3’s unauthorized, make-you-buy-your-own-because-we-cannot-be-stuffed-talking-to-Apple iPhone plans gave you a maximum of 2GB of data on one of their plans; we thought that it would be the only one that is going over the 1GB limit - but we were wrong, as usual.

Virgin Mobile, which recently said that it has been allowed to sell the iPhone (it is owned by Optus), is now offering 5GB on a $100 cap plan - and allowing you no handset repayments on the 8GB and 16GB versions. Those who are looking for something cheaper, they are also offering a $70 cap plan with 1GB - and offering the iPhone for free on the 8GB, and a $4 fee per month on the 16GB version.

However, since its cheap broadband plans were introduced with its home phone deals, there have been heavy congestion on the network with speeds so slow that it has been unusable by some customers. As well, while 750Kb/s speed throttling has been applied, it will not be applied to those on the iPhone.

Calls are charged at 40c per 30 seconds, within Optus’ and Vodafone’s range - though they offer calls at 35c per 30 seconds.