Overview

Texting by American adults has increased substantially over the past year, but still does not approach the magnitude of text messages exchanged by adolescents. Some 72% of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages now, up from 65% in September 2009. Fully 87% of teen cell users text. Teens text 50 messages a day on average, five times more than the typical 10 text messages sent and received by adults per day. … more

Blackberry’s Canadian manufacturer should give law enforcement agencies access to customer data, the United Nations telecommunications chief said. … more

A survey released Thursday found that U.S. adults are following teens in embracing text messaging, with 72 percent of adults saying they have sent or received text messages compared with 65 percent in a September 2009 survey. Adults, however, still have a ways to go to catch up to the 87 percent of teens who reported using their mobile phones for texting. … more

Israel’s telecom regulator on Thursday ordered mobile phone operators to cut fees they charge each other to connect calls by nearly 80 percent, a move the companies say will hurt profits and revenue. … more

In a continuing trend, more businesses are shifting loyalties from Blackberry to iPhones and Android devices as the relative newcomers make inroads into the corporate world. Three-quarters of the 200 businesses surveyed in the United States and the U.K in the study reported that their employees are choosing other than Blackberry, Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. reported to Bloomberg. The number was 83 percent for U.S. companies. … more

Whoever said technology was dehumanizing was wrong. On screens everywhere — cellphones, e-readers, A.T.M.’s — as Diana Ross sang, we just want to reach out and touch. … more

Sony Ericsson Chief Executive Bert Nordberg said Tuesday that he expects smartphone use in China to expand to half of all mobile-phone users in the country within five years, as the company joins other global handset makers in shifting its focus to higher-end devices. … more

Mobile firm Orange has become the first UK network to use a technology that offers higher quality voice calls. … more

Chinese mobile telephone users must register their personal details to buy phone numbers under a rule that comes into force from Wednesday, in what the government calls an attack on spam but some see as a blow to privacy. … more

India has toughened its scrutiny of telecoms firms with a directive demanding “access to everything”. … more