FirstNews Briefs for August 7, 2009

• Ericsson has landed an exclusive contract with Canadian startup DAVE Wireless to design and build the carrier’s 3G network. The UMTS/HSPA network will be enabled with HSPA+ for future upgrades. DAVE Wireless holds 10 licenses covering over 16 million Canadians and plans on launching low-cost wireless services in early 2010.
• MobiTV has appointed former Ericsson executive Anders Norstrom as COO. Norstrom has spent the last two years overseeing and managing the global deployment of MobiTV's mobile content and delivery services as managing director of Europe. Norstrom will split his time between MobiTV offices in the U.S. and Sweden during a transition period, joining the U.S. office full-time in January.
• Allot Communications inked a $5 million deal with an unnamed global tier-1 mobile carrier group. The initial order includes deployment of Allot’s service gateway, a 3GPP-compliant network management solution targeted at handling data traffic.
• Network testing company Ixia swung to a second-quarter $2.7 million loss on charges related to its recent acquisition of Catapult and stock-based compensation. Sales slumped to $38.4 million, but the company remained optimistic that its purchase of Catapult will start bringing in money by year end.
• Mobile payment provider Charge Anywhere announced the death of its vice president of business management, Marc Shultz. Shultz died on Aug. 1. The company praised Shultz’s work, calling him a “payments industry legend whose groundbreaking work in wireless payments paved the way to next-generation mobile, virtual and integrated solutions at the point of sale.”
• Mobile content provider Moderati has appointed Joe Brichler as CFO. Brichler was most recently CFO for Wild Brain and Kidrobot, which produce cartoons and make limited edition art toys and apparel, respectively. Moderati is a subsidiary of Bellrock Media.
• The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) has submitted a list of principles about how appliances can operate within a smart grid environment to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. AHAM’s positions include a call for open standards, communications support for smart meter systems and incentivized rating systems to draw in consumers. President Obama’s smart grid initiative is expected to depend heavily on M2M technologies.
• Backhaul provider Fiber Tower swung to a profit of $20.8 million in its second quarter thanks to gains stemming from an early debt repayment. Excluding repayment-related gains, the company lost $11.25 million.