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.

Current discussions focus on a potential mobile phone deal with AT&T’s mobile unit, Cingular, the largest U.S. cellphone company, where Yahoo would provide advertising, Web search and other services along the lines of the contract Yahoo struck late last year to act as exclusive provider of advertising for Vodafone mobile phone customers in Britain, the source said. "It is pretty obvious that the next new thing is mobile services and advertising," the source said.

In a joint statement issued on Friday afternoon, AT&T and Yahoo said Yahoo also would be providing services on AT&T’s Internet television service later this year. "AT&T and Yahoo have already made adjustments over the years to reflect competitive conditions and the relative benefits each party brings to the relationship," Yahoo Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel said. "As we continue our conversations, we have a common goal to increase the economic benefits for both parties."

Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto estimated the AT&T deal provides Yahoo with $210 million to $290 million per year in subscription and advertising revenues. Doubts raised by the report came as an unexpected blow to Yahoo, which has been rebounding from a series of business missteps that caused shares to lose 35 percent last year.

Ahead of the Journal report, Yahoo shares had risen around 13 percent head in the year to date. Investors are betting on stronger growth this year and next, following a major upgrade of its Web search advertising system last month. Yahoo spokesman Mark Plungy labeled the Journal story "rumor and speculation" and confirmed talks continue. "AT&T and Yahoo’s ongoing partnership is rooted in the open and ongoing dialogue we maintain about future opportunities," he said. The two partners introduced advertising on the front page of their joint broadband marketing site earlier this year.

Later this month, Plungy said, Yahoo is introducing advertising on their co-branded e-mail service for high-speed customers. Further mobile ties remain under negotiation. "We are discussing ways to expand our partnership in the mobile arena, now that AT&T has 100 percent ownership of Cingular," he said. Yahoo shares closed down 5.2 percent at $29.12 on Nasdaq. AT&T closed up 4 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $36.55 on the

New York Stock Exchange.

AT&T, formerly known as SBC Communications, struck a broadband marketing partnership in 2001 in which SBC pays Yahoo a small cut for each high-speed Internet access customer in return for Yahoo building and managing Web services for customers. The deal covers AT&T customers in the 13 states where the top U.S. phone company offers local phone service.

Yahoo has similar broadband deals with major phone companies Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news) and BT Group Plc (BT.L) and Canadian cable Rogers Communications (Toronto:RCIB.TO - news).  The Wall Street Journal highlighted how rivals Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) or Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) in the past year have struck a series of high-profile deals where they pay major computer and media companies for the privilege of marketing services to their partners’ customers, reversing the trend of five years ago when AT&T and others agreed to pay Yahoo. "Yahoo is likely in jeopardy of losing its AT&T deal, or at least a reworking of the deal that could materially scale back the relationship," analyst Scott Devitt of broker Stifel Nicolaus warned in a research note to clients issued Friday.

But the source close to the talks said the existing broadband contract includes a provision that AT&T customers who have signed up for the service would remain Yahoo customers for ads and Web services, whether or not AT&T chooses to renew.  Hence, the risk to existing revenue streams is low. Furthermore, Yahoo and AT&T are already focused on new areas such as mobile and TV partnerships as broadband use has become more widespread and growth in new customers has peaked.

NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. cellphone carrier, passed on the chance to be the exclusive distributor of the iPhone almost two years ago, balking at Apple’s rich financial terms and other demands.

Among other things, Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly cellphone fees, say over how and where iPhones could be sold and control of the relationship with iPhone customers, said Jim Gerace, a Verizon Wireless vice president. “We said no. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial.”

Verizon’s decision to pull the plug on talks sent Apple into the waiting arms of Cingular, which will be the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone. The multifunction device is expected to ship in June and cost about $500. Apple and Cingular (which now is solely owned by AT&T and adopting that brand name) have declined to discuss terms of their alliance. But the Apple-Verizon talks offer a peek into the computer giant’s thinking. According to Verizon, Apple CEO Steve Jobs insisted that he have hard control over iPhone distribution.

The problem? While Apple and Verizon stores would have it, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other Verizon distributors could have been left out. “That would have put our own distribution partners at a disadvantage” to Apple and Verizon stores, Gerace said. Customer care was another hitch: If an iPhone went haywire, Apple wanted sole discretion over whether to replace or repair the phone. “They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat … on hardware and service support,” Gerace says.

Cingular won’t talk about the financial terms or say how long its iPhone exclusivity lasts, but two people with direct knowledge of the deal say it’s a five-year contract. The exclusive is USA-only, leaving Apple free to market its iPhone globally. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment on any aspect of this story. Mark Siegel, a Cingular spokesman, said, “We think this is a win for Apple, and it is a win for Cingular.”

Siegel declined to comment on customer care plans but said Cingular would field calls related to the wireless service. “I don’t want to leave the impression that these (iPhone) customers are not ours. They are.” Siegel would not say whether Cingular distributors, which include Wal-Mart and RadioShack, would get the iPhone. The deal announcement referred only to Cingular and Apple stores and their websites.