Cool Wireless Companies of the Week

Sorry.  It's all old news on this page; I'm having trouble keeping up, so you'd do better to check out the Wireless Industry News Blog

AirG is a Vancouver-based company that offers wireless internet chat communities.  They have 7 million users and grow by 27,000 more each day.  85 providers worldwide offer AirG's services.  Some providers in the states rebrand it as their own....just in case you're wondering why you don't see it on your own wap lineup.

Nuance Communications Inc. uses voice recognition to allow mobile phone users to ask questions for the phone to answer...like "where's the closest bank?"...and to search for MP3s to download.

AuthenTec Inc makes small fingerprint scanners for laptops and cellphones.  There are about five million cellphones in Asia with the half-inch long fingerprint scanners.  Some feel that this is a good added security measure for mobile-payment options on cell phones.  This is being used to abate fears that a mugger could use an m-commerce phone to make purchases with a stolen phone.

India's state-owned wireless provider, BSNL, signed up 1 million subs in December, 2005.  Pretty big numbers!

Yet another marketing company is trying to somehow make money with SMS. www.boomerangback.com says they can offer coupons, alerts, contests, etc. to mobile clients from any provider. They tell you to test them out by sending an MOSMS to 206-391-6245. I tried it, but nothing happened for me. Maybe you'll have better luck!