3 Scandinavia has plans to increase its HSPA-based download speeds from today's 21Mbps to 84Mbps.

The company said that it plans to make its Turbo-3G service available later this year and it will in due course involve a nationwide rollout in Denmark and in four major cities of Sweden  (more about mobile service).
The three-year contract closed between Ericsson and 3 also includes the HSPA Evolution capability upgrade of the existing 3G network, i.e from 42Mbps to 84Mbps and a new WCDMA/HSPA radio access network at 900MHz frequency band. Also , Ericsson will make available IP-based optical and microwave backhaul, and support services.

Palm Inc. announced that two upgraded versions its Pre and Pixi smart phones will come to Verizon Wireless.

Palm and Verizon didn't mention what the prices of Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be. However, it is  known that the smartphones will  have more memory and a simplified interface.  In addition, the there will be  Wi-Fi access in the  Pixi Plus, which the current Pixi does  not have.

Verizon Wireless had said earlier  that it would adjust  phones to run Palm's new webOS software, but  they did not say when..  .

In February, Palm plans giving away free software upgrade for the existing webOS phones that will enable video recording, certain  improvements in  battery performance will also be present, the company said.

Palm, is  a firm  pioneering  in smart phones,  it is  located in Sunnyvale, CA, and it has been a competitor against Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerrys for years.

360networks, VoIP communication services provider, pronounced extending their coverage area into Northern California.

The additional zone will run from Eureka through San Francisco and down to Santa Cruz, which implies an additional coverage of some 7.2 million people from 126 rate centres.

These developments provide 360networks' customers, both new and existing, a high quality cost effective way of communication throughout Northern California

The first European company to offer a saleable femtocell, Vodafone has re-launched the gadget with a dramatic lowering of the price from £160 down to £50.

Also,Vodafone managed to convert its back office system for automatic provisioning of the femtocell. Its supplier, Sagem/Alcatel-Lucent, has assured Vodafone that manufacturing output has been considerably ramped up.

Although Vodafone clients can also opt payment of £5 per month for a year to get the femtocell, rumors are that other celcos will have to tag along this move of either subsidizing the unit or offering it for free.

Gary Fung has developed a $1 app called Ping. It can sort of remind of a Blackberry Messenger for the iPhone.

With this app, you send messages to other iPhones or iPod touches and it is free of charge.

Some other apps like TextFree Unlimited can send text messages to mobile phone numbers, Ping only sends messages to other iPhone or iPod touch users, though they have tio install that app on their device. With Ping you do not send a message to a phone number, instead you type in the intended recipient's Ping ID, the advantage being that your phone number is kept concealed. After you set up your unique Ping ID, you can send and receive as many messages as you like.

Ping supports push notification, so on receiving a new message the app alerts you. basically, using Ping is a lot like using SMS.