News From Around The Industry:

• AT&T hopes to fool the youth of America into paying way too much for digital music:
AT&T announced that it will soon offer wireless access to Napster, the subscription-based digital music service. But it's ignoring the subscription bit. AT&T is giving certain cell phone owners the power to actually purchase and download songs from the service, charging $7.49 for a group of five tunes and $1.99 for individual tracks. The price is high, but AT&T's director of premium content Rob Hyatt is confident that "young music fans" won't notice. "They're very price insensitive," he told The Associated Press. The Register tried to ask AT&T if he really said this, but the company refused to respond. That five-for-$7.49 option is nothing new. AT&T already offers wireless downloads from another service, emusic, at exactly the same price. But the company has broken new ground in selling individual tunes for nearly two dollars a pop. AT&T won't offer this ridiculously-expensive Napster service for the iPhone. Of course, there are other means of shuttling iTunes tracks onto your iPhone, including local-area WiFi networks. And just like Sprint, Apple charges only 99 cents a song. So, with its Napster announcement, AT&T is ignoring the good sense of both a partner and a competitor.

• VonageLovesYou!:
Om Malik at GigaOm reports, "It could pass as a cute little gesture, but somehow it smacks of desperation. The beleaguered VoIP service provider, Vonage has been in a ton of trouble, getting sued left, right and center by any telco with a VoIP-related patents. The legal worries are causing potential customers to pause and rethink before signing up for Vonage’s service. In order to lure them, Vonage has introduced a new website, VonageLovesYou.com, and is offering three months of phone service for $9.95-a-month, and is throwing in a free router, just to sweeten the deal."

• Aussie Communications Minister trumpets UN WiMAX decision:
Aussie Communications Minister Helen Coonan said that the UN's telecommunications body has endorsed the federal Government's rural wireless broadband strategy. The government and the opposition have been at loggerheads over the effectiveness of their chosen technologies to deliver internet broadband across Australia. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) radio communication assembly in Geneva has included WiMAX-derived technology in the framework of its set of standards. The ITU said this agreement paved the way for the deployment of a range of voice, data and multimedia services to both stationary and mobile devices.

• Time Warner Telecom files appeal against FCC easing AT&T rules:
Time Warner Telecom said it filed an appeal against the FCC's decision to remove certain restrictions that govern what AT&T charges rivals for broadband services. The appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was filed on the grounds that the FCC order to partially relax these rules violated conditions of earlier FCC approvals of AT&T's merger with BellSouth, Time Warner Telecom said in a statement. The company alleged that the Commission erroneously granted wholesale broadband special access relief to AT&T based on an analysis of only the retail market.

• AOL Starts New Mobile Services to Attract More of Its Web Users:
AOL is introducing wireless services to entice some of its 114 million monthly U.S. online visitors to access the company's Web sites with their mobile phones. A mobile-phone search at aol.com will now yield results a wireless user wants, Scott Falconer, executive vice president of AOL's mobile unit, said. These include ringtones, weather, movie listings and restaurant locations. AOL is also introducing MyMobile, free software that lets users access AOL Mail, MapQuest and the Moviefone ticket service from their cell phones. At first, MyMobile will be available only for devices running Windows Mobile, according to Falconer. A test version for other devices is planned for later this quarter, he said. The services are free and advertiser-supported. AOL's first goal is to coax its own Internet users over to mobile Web, Falconer said, noting the company had 114 million unique monthly visitors in the U.S. in the second quarter and 200 million worldwide.

• U.S. requests prime slice of radio spectrum for use by digital television in move that would create a multibillion-dollar market:
The United States led calls on Monday to allocate a prime tranche of the radio frequency spectrum for use by digital television, in a move that would create a multi billion-dollar market for that technology. On the opening day of a month-long conference at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), U.S. delegation leader Richard Russell said it was important that countries identify sections or "bands" of wavelengths to be used exclusively for advanced wireless services. Washington is particularly interested in getting the 700 megahertz (MHz) band allocated for such technology in advance of the replacement of analogue television with digital services in the United States in 2009, and other countries later. Russell estimated the market value of freeing up spectrum space could be worth $10 billion to $15 billion in the United States alone.

• Adobe Fixes Vulnerability In Reader And Acrobat:
Adobe released an update to fix a critical vulnerability its Reader and Acrobat software that could affect people running WinXP and IE 7. The vulnerability could allow an attacker to take control of the computer running the affected Adobe software. It was first disclosed September 20th and confirmed by Adobe on October 5th. "A malicious file must be loaded in Adobe Reader or Acrobat by the end user for an attacker to exploit these vulnerabilities," Adobe said. "This issue is remotely exploitable." The vulnerability affects Adobe Reader 8.1 and earlier, Adobe Reader 7.0.9 and earlier, Adobe Acrobat Professional, 3D and Standard 8.1 and earlier, Adobe Acrobat Professional, Standard, 3D and Elements 7.0.9 and earlier. Adobe recommends that users upgrade to Adobe Reader 8.1.1 or Acrobat 8.1.1. The company plans to deliver updates to Adobe Reader 7.0.9 and Acrobat 7.0.9 at a later date.