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The spread of Short Messaging Service continues unabated in China with its volume increasing by 39 per cent in the first quarter of the year to 67.21 billion messages, the state media reported via The Hindustan Times.

"According to the Ministry of Information Industry, China’s telephone subscriber base has touched 674 million, including 325 million fixed line phones and 349 million cellular phones, both occupying first place in the world, China News Service reported.

In the first quarter, more than 30 new telecom services were introduced.
Source:textually.org

Call to Protect is a charity campaign that collects cast-off mobile phones to put in the hands of victims of domestic violence. They also sell the phones (although it’s not clear where, exactly), using the proceeds to fund similar organizations. If you’ve got an old phone you’d like to get rid of, it’s a nice alternative to trying to sell it for a few dollars. Campaign Page [WirelessFoundation via TreeHugger]

Following yesterday’s story about a student suspended from school because he wouldn’t give up his cell phone while talking to his mom – a sergeant on duty in Iraq – during his lunch break, has been granted a reduced suspension, thanks to the power of the press.
According to the Associated Press, "on Friday, the school district reduced the suspension to three days, which will allow Francois to return to school Monday. School officials received many calls about the incident, said assistant principal Wendell Turner. People are fussing at us, calling us names," Turner said. "We are the school that serves Fort Benning," Turner said. "We’re well aware of students with parents overseas."

Teenage cell phone users are also heavy users of television, computers and video games, according to a new study from MindShare Online Research. [via Media Week via YPulse]

"The media agency polled 400 respondents between the ages of 13 and 17, and found that teens with cell phones are heavier users of media than other kids their age.

The survey showed that "while virtually all teens watch television, cell phone users are significantly more likely than non-users to use the Internet every day, read newspapers, listen to the radio and read magazines."

Mike Grenville for 160characters.org reports that "morse code is still faster at sending text messages than using txt speak". Even when the morse code sender is 93 years old and the SMS challengers were teenagers!

"According to Times Online, an Australian museum staged a contest that pitted the oldest type of electronic text messages with the newest.

Not only was the technology a battle of ages, but so were the contestants. Tapping out the winning morse code message was 93-year-old telegraph operator Gordon Hill, who learnt to use the technique in 1927 when he joined the Australian Post Office.

In the competition, at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Mr Hill and his rivals were asked to transmit a line selected at random from an advertisement in a teenage magazine.

“Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.”

There are now more mobile phones in the UK than people, according to a report from management consultants Analysys, writes Iain Thomson for vnunet.com.

"Mobile penetration in the UK, Sweden and Italy rose to 101 per cent, 103 per cent and 104 per cent respectively in 2005.

The company expects the rest of Europe to reach 100 per cent by 2007, largely due to customers with more than one phone".