PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cell phone text messaging will be blocked during this weekend’s local elections in Cambodia, where the government is imposing a two-day "tranquility period" to keep voters from being inundated with campaign messages. But the country’s main opposition party said the move would curb constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

All three major phone companies in Cambodia have agreed to block text messages on Saturday and Sunday, Telecommunications Minister So Khun said Friday. Campaigning was to end Friday for elections to choose councils to administer Cambodia’s 1,621 communes and urban sub-districts known as sangkats. Voting will take place Sunday, and text messaging will be restored after polls close at 3 p.m. local time.

Officials imposed the ban based on a request from the National Election Committee, So Khun said. He referred to the ban as part of a necessary "tranquility period." The election committee chairman, Im Suosdey, said the committee was concerned that political parties could "use SMS services to send messages to 20 or 30 people at a time to galvanize them to vote for their parties." Being inundated with text messages could "spoil" the calm during the run-up to voting and on election day itself, he said.

The Sam Rainsy Party, the sole opposition party with parliamentary seats, objected to the ban. Mu Sochua, the party’s secretary-general, said in a statement Friday that the ban "severely" curbs people’s freedom to communicate as guaranteed by the Constitution. She called on the National Election Committee’s chairman and the telecommunication minister to reverse their decisions.

Twelve political parties are fielding a total of 102,266 candidates in the elections, which are held every five years. The first local election was held in February 2002. Until then, the communes were ruled by chiefs appointed by the Interior Ministry.

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which has maintained a firm grip on power during the last three decades, won overwhelmingly in the last local election and is virtually certain to emerge victorious again.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Philips Electronics is introducing a mobile phone with a built-in compartment for an ordinary AAA battery to power the device when the main battery runs low.

The Xenium NRG handset was developed in collaboration with battery maker Energizer Holdings Inc. and Techtium Ltd., an Israeli chip maker specializing in battery management technology. The AAA battery inserted into the phone can be of any brand or type, whether rechargeable or disposable. In the case of a rechargeable, the phone will recharge both the main battery and the backup AAA when it is plugged into an electrical outlet.

The companies say the AAA battery can provide up to three extra hours of talk time. They did not disclose how much the Xenium NRG would cost, when it would go on sale, or in which countries.

The new handset is based on the same Techtium technology that was used to develop Energi To Go, a portable backup phone charger that Energizer introduced last year. That device is also powered by standard AAA batteries. "Service providers tell us they want to increase (revenue)," said Itai Green, Techtium’s chief operating officer. "But when people run out of power, the providers can’t make money" from calls, text messaging and other non-voice services.

Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics NV announced in February that it was selling its remaining cell phone operations to China Electronics Corp.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - news) said on Tuesday it has taken a step toward the long-promised notion of phones replacing credit cards, checks and cash by signing agreements with Wachovia Corp. (NYSE:WB - news) and several other banks.

The agreements will allow customers of its Cingular Wireless arm, which is being rebranded as AT&T, and participating banks to manage their accounts and pay bills electronically by using an application on their cell phones. While the use of mobile phones for transactions is in its nascent stages in the United States, such services are already available in parts of Europe and Asia.In Japan, people commonly shop with their mobile phones by just waving their handset instead of swiping credit cards.

AT&T, having tested mobile banking last year, has said it will not charge extra for the service but expects it to attract more users to its wireless Internet service and potentially help it add new users and keep existing ones.Along with Wachovia, U.S. banks such as BancorpSouth Inc. (NYSE: BXS - news), Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE:RF - news) and SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE:STI - news) are offering mobile banking to AT&T customers. The move is part of an effort by wireless companies around to world to boost their revenue and customer loyalty by convincing subscribers to use phones for everything from Web browsing and text messaging to playing music and video.

AT&T said customers can download software from privately held Firethorn Holdings LLC onto their phones. AT&T plans to include the software in new handsets in the second half of this year and is planning a multimillion-dollar ad campaign.Firethorn is also acting as an intermediary between AT&T and the banks.

AT&T said most BancorpSouth customers who tried mobile banking said they would use it to check their balance, and about three quarters said it would help them make better spending decisions. Wachovia operates in 21 U.S. states, while Regions operates in 16 states in the Midwest and South, including Texas. SunTrust provides banking in Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and BancorpSouth operates in eight U.S. states.

AT&T Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson talked about the mobile banking service in a keynote speech at the CTIA wireless technology conference on Tuesday. He also commented on combining wireless and fixed-line services. "I’m confident that in the not too distant future the concepts of having different handsets for different networks ….. will be seen as quaint," Stephenson said. For example, cell phone video conference services that AT&T plans to launch in 50 markets this summer could eventually work in conjunction with video conferencing on television screens and desktop computers."You should fully expect in a very short period that the other two screens will be brought into this," said Stephenson. He saw mobile video representing as dramatic a change as the replacement of black-and-white televisions with color. To illustrate the growing ubiquity of mobile phones around the world, Stephenson said that while four babies are born every second in China, about 25 people are signing up for wireless services in the country.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - A federal judge issued a permanent injunction on Friday barring Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE:VG - news) from using Internet phone call technology owned by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - news).
U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton granted Verizon’s request for an injunction prohibiting Vonage from using some Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies that allow consumers to make calls over the Internet.

Vonage shares fell 6.2 percent, or 25 cents, to $3.80 shortly after the judge’s decision. Trading in the stock was then halted.

A jury on March 8 found Vonage had infringed three patents owned by Verizon. The jury said Vonage must pay $58 million plus 5.5 percent royalties on future sales.

Judge Hilton agreed with Verizon that it would suffer irreparable harm if he allowed continued infringement of the patent. He rejected an argument by Vonage that the injunction would harm the public interest.

The exclusive deal will help Vodafone, Europe’s biggest mobile operator, boost mobile usage and with it data revenues, and also helps MySpace launch itself in the European mobile market.MySpace, bought by media giant News Corp for $580 million in 2005, has been looking to boost its global network of users via international expansion, offering mobile and video-related content.

“The partnership will enable millions of Vodafone customers to access MySpace mobile, allowing them to edit their own MySpace profiles, find and add friends, post photos and blogs and send and receive MySpace messages while on the move,” the two companies said in a statement.

Vodafone, which plans to initially roll out the service in the UK in the first half of 2007, said it would pre-load MySpace mobile software on select handsets in the future, and also make it available for download from its Vodafone live! portal.

MySpace, which lets members look up friends’ blogs and songs posted by their favorite artists, launched in the UK last year and has been looking to spread its wings in Europe. Last month it launched its French website and it has a beta site in Germany.

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