Last summer the news was full of stories about people who unlocked their iPhones. So with the new iPhone not out even a week yet, the news cycle is repeating itself. The Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo is reporting that the firm DesbloqueioBR has won the race to be the first to unlock Apple’s latest version of the iPhone.

By altering the handset’s firmware and installing a special card add-on to the SIM chip, DesbloqueioBR claims that the iPhone can connect to any carrier. In most countries, only one service provider has the right to carry Apple’s brand. The initial price of the iPhone is subsidized by the service provider, which makes up for the loss through lengthy contracts and monthly charges. DesbloqueioBR plans to charge between 250 and 375 dollars to unlock an iPhone, an alteration that may cost service providers big money.

Other unlocks are sure to follow and so are the stories that cover them.

DesbloqueioBR

CTIA, the Wireless Association, has hired the Madison Group to represent them before the U.S. Congress and Executive Agencies. The Madison Group is a bi-partisan, minority-owned lobbying and consulting firm that specializes in tax, tech, telecommunications, trade and transportation issues. Madison Group represents its clients and attempts to solve complex public policy issues while working to find ways to generate a significant ROI (return on investment) for those groups that need government relations strategies.

“We are please to represent the leading voice in telecommunications. CTIA is an important client whose issues affect every American,” said Madison Partner Blair Watters.

CTIA
Madison Group

The mobile game and entertainment company Cellufun adds two new executives to its management team. Tom Burgess will sit on the advisory board and Keith Katz will become VP of Marketing. Both new hires are mobile industry veterans and have experience in the entertainment and advertising businesses.

Tom Burgess is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Battery Ventures. He was the Founder and CEO of Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising network AOL bought in 2007. An executive in online and wireless interactive marketing technology, Mr. Burgess is a pioneer of innovative advertising solutions and holds a patent in wireless advertising. He will assist Cellufun as it develops new advertising models.

“Cellufun’s growth and incredible volume of active subscribers excited me enough to learn more and eventually join the team to bring my mobile advertising and startup growth experience to the table as advisor to the company,” states Tom Burgess. “This company is on an impressive trajectory and I’m happy to be a part of that.”

Keith Katz is the former Head of North American Marketing for mobile gaming company Gameloft. Before that, he worked for Atari in global brand management and had his own startup called Little Upstarts that promotes physical development in infants and toddlers. Mr.Katz also worked for the NFL in brand marketing. Early in his career he worked for Feld Entertainment where he marketed family brands such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Disney on Ice. Mr. Katz will develop Cellufun’s brand and market the mobile solution Cellufun provides to service providers, media companies, major brands and advertisers.

“I couldn’t be more excited about joining Cellufun. As someone with a background in both console and mobile video games, I see Cellufun at the epicenter of both worlds. This company is truly unique its ability to entice both very casual and avid gamers to pick up their mobile devices to play games. Cellufun’s offerings have the “stickiness” and community feel of an MMO like World of Warcraft or Second Life that avid gamers crave, but they also possess the “pick up and playability” that many casual Web and mobile game players prefer. These are characteristics that simply don’t exist elsewhere in the mobile world, so a company with a consumer proposition like this is really a marketing person’s dream.”

Cellufun

Legislators in Cyprus are poised to pass a tough law that bans students from bringing mobile phones to school. Jamming handset reception in schools has also been contemplated.

The new law would reprimand students caught carrying a mobile phone on campus. Those caught with a handset turned on could be suspended and anyone filming with a mobile phone would face expulsion.

According to Dr. Zena Poulli, director of secondary education at the Cypriot education and culture ministry, students have been caught text messaging during exams and lessons. Classroom video and pictures have been posted on the Internet, and it is feared this has led to more unruly behavior and violent bullying incidents.

I’m not a fan of banning things. Classroom conduct is the responsibility of the individual teachers. If cheating and not paying attention to lessons is a concern, the teachers should be able to deal with the problems as they arise. Suspension is a serious punishment. Hopefully, school officials will only enforce this sanction in situations where cheating has been proven.

Expulsion is a worst sanction. Schools yard bullies have been around as long as there have been schools. The bullies are the ones that should be expelled, not those who record their misdeeds. Unruly behavior goes hand-in-hand with the education of young people. Anyone with enough education to read this post can remember a time when they misbehaved in school. It is up to the classroom teacher to enforce discipline. Life lessons can be learned from such discipline, along with academic learning.

AT&T retail stores will be open at 8AM local time on July 11th, so be “iReady!” Existing customers who don’t qualify for an upgrade will have to shell out $399 and $499 for the corresponding iP3G model. Customers who don’t want to extend their current contract will pay $599 for the 8GB and $699 for the 16GB model. Current AT&T customers who want to upgrade to the iPhone 3G from whatever else they have will have to pay an $18 activation fee while new AT&T customers will pay $36. Voice and unlimited data plans (e-mail and Web) range from $69.99 to $129.99. $199 my foot. Maybe we should all move to Hong Kong.

Full release on CrunchGear

Skyfire Labs, the mobile Web browsing company, has added Mike Rowehl to its ranks. Rowehl is to become the Scalability Architect, and oversee all scalability projects. Rowehl is a programmer, entrepreneur and blogger, and has nearly a decade of experience developing mobility systems. Recently, he founded and acted as CEO of Mowser, the Web “mobilize” that turns Web pages into mobile WAP sites.

“Skyfire is leading a major disruption in the way consumers experience the Web via mobile devices and pushing the front in terms of making standard Web development methods effective on handheld platforms,” said Rowehl. “I’m thrilled to continue to be a part of solving some of the most fundamental issues in mobile technology, and honored that the Skyfire team has chosen me as one of the pillars of their effort.”

“Getting Rowehl is truly a coup for us,” said Nitin Bhandari, CEO and Co-Founder of Skyfire. “The success of any start-up is related to its ability to attract top talent, and Mike is a giant in the field, and has an unparalleled knowledge of the mobile industry.”

Skyfire Labs is the creator of Skyfire mobile browser. This technology allows users to experience the mobile Web the same way they do on their PCs. The company was founded in 2006 by Nitin Bhandari and Erik Swenson.

Skyfire

There have been a lot of new local and state laws passed lately that restrict a driver’s use of a cell phone. Starting tomorrow, 16 and 17 year-old drivers cannot text or talk on a cell phone in California. A similar law restricts adults to using only hands-free devices while motoring about. Texting isn’t covered in the law for those 18 and older, but other statutes that are aimed at distracted driving can restrict driving and texting.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 33 states have introduced 127 bills that restrict a driver’s use of a cell phone or similar device. Generally, these statutes don’t apply in emergency situations.

California’s Public Policy Institute believes 300 fewer traffic deaths will take place each year, once the hands-free laws take effect. Anyone caught using a cell phone illegally will be fined $20 for the first ticket and $50 for subsequent tickets. Additional fees may be added to the price, more than tripling the cost.

California drivers busted under the new statutes will catch a small break. The California Department of Motor Vehicles will not assign a violation point to their driving records.

The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum announced yesterday it will meld its activates and membership list into the Linux Mobile Foundation (LiMo) with the hope of creating a strong base for promoting a mobile Linux operating system. Entities like Symbian and Android are competing with Linux to create a worldwide standard for an open mobile phone operating system.

“LiPS Forum is proud of our standardization efforts, development activities and other achievements of the last three years,” LiPS Forum president Haila Wang said in a statement. “Our membership agrees that LiPS’s greatest impact can be realized by adding our members’ expertise and resources to LiMo Foundation. Together, the member companies can better strive for a unified and ubiquitous Linux-based mobile platform.”

Mobile technology fans should find the race for a standard operating system a good competition. Android was created by Google, the Internet search engine giant, with all the money and innovation that company can bring to the race. LiMo has a head start over Android, with the first handsets that use Linux software entering the market in a few months, well ahead of Android. Symbian is a tough competitor too. It is expected that the world’s largest manufacturer of handsets, Nokia, will buy the company.

I don’t know if bookies in Britain have placed odds on this race but it is becoming the Olympics of technology. Whoever wins, it should be good for the mobile industry. No mobile operating system will dominate the market like Windows controls the PC world any time soon, which makes the contest fun to watch.

LiPS

Here’s the press release for now. There will be a conference call at 11am EDT that I will broadcast on CrunchGear live. More as we get it.

WARREN, N.J., June 27, 2008 – Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. (NYSE: VM), a leading national provider of wireless communications services, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Helio, a joint venture between SK Telecom and EarthLink, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) providing highly advanced postpaid products and services with unique user applications. Under the terms of the agreement, Virgin Mobile USA will acquire Helio from SK Telecom and EarthLink for limited partnership units equivalent to 13 million shares of Virgin Mobile USA class A common stock, with a value of $39 million based on the closing price of Virgin Mobile USA’s class A shares on June 26, 2008.

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The UN is meeting in Indonesia this week for a five day conference on waste management. At the top of the list of things to be concerned about is the disposal of billions of gadgets and handsets that have inundated the world in the last ten years. Over 1,000 delegates from 170 countries are attending the Basel Convention which is being held on Bali, Indonesia.

MobileCrunch has been covering the issue of recycling mobile devices for close to a year now. (See: Recycle). High officials in the U.N. must be reading us because a statement from the Basel Convention said the delegates would “consider adopting new sets of guidelines for the environmentally sound management of used and end-of-life mobile phones.”

Well, maybe the U.N. heard about this growing problem from some other source. A polar bear afraid of drowning may have tipped off Al Gore. Whoever warned the U.N., they may have finally got one right. The statement continues: “The use of mobile phones has grown exponentially from the first few users in the 1970s to … more than three billion in April, 2008. Sooner or later these phones will be discarded, whole or in parts.”

Part of the problem arises when developed countries recycle their old mobile phones by refurbishing them and then selling the handsets to developing countries that are hungry for the technology. Many developing nations don’t have the infrastructure to deliver landline phone and Internet, and mobile technology is perfect for such situations. Cell towers are relatively cheap and can deliver a large stream of information in remote places. Unfortunately, many of the poorer nations don’t have the resources to properly dispose of cell phones. All handsets have some metals and chemicals that can be harmful to people and wildlife.

Then there are those countries that have a, “Not in my backyard,” policy. They dump their waste in countries that can’t or won’t develop safe measures of reclamation and disposal. The Basel Convention, which is an international treaty, attempts to regulate the international trade in hazardous waste and aims to minimize its generation and movement across borders.

Hopefully, the convention will be able to come up with some reasonable safeguards. But asking over 1,000 U.N. delegates to come up with something reasonable in five days is probably asking too much. It might be easier to teach polar bears to shave, so they don’t have to be out in the cold water when global warming melts even the ice in your refrigerator.

Basel Convention