China Telecom, Verizon and KDDI Join GSMA

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MADRID: The GSM Association (GSMA), an organization representing the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, announced  Monday that China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless have joined the organization after committing to deploy services based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE).



The organization unites almost 800 mobile operators and over 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem in 219 countries and regions. Under its umbrella one can find such diverse interests as handset makers, software companies as well as media and entertainment organizations.  "As the largest state-owned operator in China, China Telecom is very excited to join the GSMA, which will enable us to extend our reach and network across the global mobile ecosystem," said Cao Lei, Director of Technology, China Telecom in the GSMA official press release.



Meanwhile Alex Sinclair, the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA, commented on the decision taken by China Telecom and the other new members. "With its compelling, high-speed and cost-effective network architecture, LTE is bringing the GSM and CDMA communities together," he said. "We are delighted that China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless have joined the GSMA along with Qualcomm, and will be among the first operators to launch commercial LTE services," added Sinclair."LTE is widely regarded as 'the' Mobile Broadband technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators globally," he concluded.

HomeATM Slider Now Compatible with Your Blackberry!

Yesterday, in a post I saracastically dubbed "DumbPhoneded" I talked about security vs. convenience and a new McAfee report showing mobile device manufacturers are seeing more malware attacks than ever before.   Here's some excerpts from DarkReading's Smartphone Threats Intensify

• Security threats were bound to catch up with the proliferation of smartphones across the enterprise...
  
  
• Experts have long warned that smartphones...could become the new weakest link in the enterprise...
  
  
• But they are [typically] completely bypassing the IT infrastructure." They are also bypassing security, he says, putting sensitive data at risk...
  
  
• McAfee's report, which is based on a survey of 30-plus mobile device manufacturers from around the world, found these vendors are getting hit with more malware attacks than ever before. As a result, they are spending more money on recovering from them.
  
  
• Around 48 percent said their devices accounted for data loss problems, up from around 27 percent in 2007. (Editor's Note: You mean like my card information, and other personal data?)

Of course, as this blog has been consistently stating, if you want security in your transactions, it CANNOT be done in a browser environment and that especially includes phones.  Think of the highly publicized Caylee Anthony case.  Her mother's every single phone call, every single text...(even pinged her locations) to PINpoint her whereabouts on certain days and certain times.  If they can do it, don't think for a moment the hackers can't.

In fact, they are "wizards" at it.

So should you ever be in the market for a "guaranteed" secure/end-to-end encrypted financial transaction (send or receive: direct payment, person 2 person, bill pay, you name it) using existing bank rails, there's no place like HomeATM.

P.S.  Our Smart Phone Personal Swiping Device is network agnostic. CDMA or GSM and will secure transactions via phone to PC, phone to merchant, phone to phone, etc. 

For more information, feel free to contact me and I'll make sure you get to through to the necessary channels.