Finnish cell phone manufacturer Nokia has been working overtime to establish new markets for the upcoming quarter. Beginning a few weeks back when Nokia announced efforts to open up its media-sharing site and games offerings on the wildly popular social-connecting web site Facebook and it looks like the company isn't finished just yet.

Nokia's "Share on Ovi" media sharing service was converted into a Facebook application last month, and members of the network can play Nokia's "Reset Generation," linking cell phone and PC gamers allowing them to play against each other.

Today Nokia followed up by saying that it will purchase Canadian mobile messaging company Oz Communications to give consumers access to instant messaging services and emails through their mobile devices.

Privately owned Oz is headquartered in Montreal and has about 220 employees. Nokia said it was attracted by the Canadian company's technology that allows handset users to tap into familiar computing programs from Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.

While many are anticipating the arrival of the new Google phone (the G1) it turns out that perhaps nobody anticipates its arrival more than the company putting it out: T-Mobile. In anticipation of the phone's October 22 release, T-Mobile has lifted the cap on its monthly data plan.

The amendment was made just one day after T-Mobile announced the G1 (the first smartphone to use Google's Android operating system). The T-Mobile G1 will combine touch-screen functionality, a QWERTY keyboard with popular Google products such as Google Maps Street View, Gmail and YouTube.

T-Mobile stated it reserves the right to slow down traffic for a "a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance."

Sprint announced yesterday that it had completed the sale of about 3,080 towers to TowerCo for $670 million. Sprint will lease the towers back from the company it sold them to, freeing up cash to pay down its debt in the process.

The two companies involved have signed a long-term leasing agreement whereby TowerCo will provide Sprint with towers to support its CDMA, iDEN and WiMAX networks.

Sprint will use the money raised from the sale to pay down some of its $24 billion in debt. In recent years Sprint has fallen far behind rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless in subscriber growth and profitability.

However, Sprint is by no means the first carrier to move away from owning their own towers. Instead, companies like American Tower, Crown Castle International and smaller players like TowerCo, have taken over ownership of towers and then leased them back to the carriers who sold them.

Many smaller companies around the world complain that a lack of budget is what keeps them from offering up competition against the giants. That theory is about to be put to the test as internet powerhouse Google has decided to take a stab at dethroning the iPhone as the must-have gadget of the moment.

Co-developed with T-Mobile, this new handset will the first mobile device powered by Google's open-source Android operating system. Like the iPhone, this new unit, being labeled the G1, will offer a large touch screen similar to the iPhone, a 3.0-megapixel camera with photo-sharing capability, a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google's email and mapping programs.

The device will be available at T-Mobile stores and online in the U.S. beginning Oct. 22, with a price tag of $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement. It will hit Europe shortly thereafter.

For full specs, click here.

Have a fear of commitment but want to reap the benefits of the Verizon Network anyway? Take comfort, Verizon announced today that beginning immediately wireless customers can sign up for month-to-month service, without a contract.

The new Month-to-Month agreement will allow consumers to purchase new handsets at full-retail price (or use their own CDMA devices) without the commitment of a one- or two-year contract. Additionally they can terminate their agreement at the end of any month without paying an Early Termination Fee.

Month-to-Month agreements are now available on all Nationwide Voice and Data plans for new and current contract customers. Current contract customers must fulfill the terms of their current contract before moving to a Month-to-Month agreement.

Asus Taiwan has introduced its own take on the touch screen PDA handset which will feature the innovative touch-responsive user interface they call Glide - the ASUS P552w.

Loaded with a 624 MHZ processor and a slew of great features, this mobile phone boasts of 3.5G HSDPA connectivity, GPS, and the Glide touch interface which enables users to perform various navigational actions including selecting, zooming, scrolling and flipping through the phone's display screen, with just a flick of the users' fingers.

It also features various mobile applications that provides useful information to users including, news, weather forecast, photo slideshows, listening to music, all within a few finger taps. Additionally the unit will offer Bluetooth, WLAN 802.11 b/g, GPS, USB and other wireless connectivity features.

Asus hopes to bring this unit to the States in the near future, price to be announced.

AT&T has launched assisted-GPS technology (A-GPS) on its network to add location-based services (LBS) on its cell phones last week with two more navigation applications on the way: MapQuest Navigator and AAA Mobile navigator, underscoring its focus on GPS services.

AAA Mobile navigator will offer audible turn-by-turn directions as well as AAA TourBook travel guide information such as Diamond Ratings for restaurants and lodgings, gas prices, movie reviews and show times.

MapQuest Navigator will give turn-by-turn, voice-guided driving and walking directions, 3D moving maps, and access to 16 million points of interest from MapQuest's database. Users can get real-time traffic alerts, gas prices, gas station locations and AOL's City's Best restaurant and venue ratings.

Conventional GPS often encounters difficulty providing reliable positions in poor signal conditions. For example when surrounded by tall buildings (as a result of multipath), or when the satellite signals are weakened by being indoors or under trees. Unlike true GPS, which searches satellites for latitude and longitude coordinates, A-GPS triangulates locations of cell phone customers using nearby landmarks to identify actual position.