It was a busy week in the Fixed Mobile Convergence (News - Alert) sector. Here are some of the major stories from TMCnet.
Telit Wireless Solutions has selected Calixto Systems for its India Competence Center. Calixto Systems Pvt. Ltd is an embedded, product realization firm based in Bangalore, India. Telit Wireless said Calixto has expertise in designing GSM/GPRS/CDMA/GPS-based products. Calixto also has a lot of experience with high-level system design, hardware design, software and firmware development, Telit said.
In another story, mFoundry has strengthened its strategic relationship with FIS. FIS recently increased its stake in mFoundry (News - Alert). Both companies have been working to improve their mobile banking solutions. FIS’ reputation in financial services technology coupled with mFoundry’s mobile banking products will offer a strong foundation for the mobile banking industry. mFoundry developed and managed Starbucks Card Mobile, the first and successful mobile payments program in the country. It is also positioned to deliver Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments solutions to customers.
TMCnet also reported that Ting is a new mobile virtual network operator launched by Tucows. Ting is marketed as a way for families and multiple-user small businesses to save money, without requiring contracts and without high overage fees. Ting says it wants to be a simple utility, selling consumers minutes, megabytes and texts on a fair, usage-based basis.
It was also reported that Quebec, Canada-based freedomone mobile, a company providing mobile solutions for businesses, is currently offering its mobile communication platform freedomone in cloud computing mode and as software as a service (SaaS (News 
- Alert)). The freedomone platform is hosted in a private, banking-type cloud. It is among the first companies in Quebec to offer a cloud-based mobile solution and is the only company to have a private cloud dedicated exclusively to mobility, the company said.
And it was reported by TMCnet that the next version of Windows Phone – known as Tango – may include Skype (News - Alert) and Google+ support, according to news reports. If true, it is considered welcome news by industry watchers. Yet, video calling may not be offered soon enough for the Tango version, according to news reports. In addition, Tango or an upcoming Apollo will increase the number of languages supported on the system to 120 from 35. The move suggests Microsoft (News - Alert) may target developing nations with the product.
Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
