Numerous mobile content providers settled several class-action lawsuits today that stemmed from alleged unauthorized charges on users’ wireless bills.

Flycell, Glomobi, Mobilefunster, Thumbplay, WebAMG Holdings, Glispa and Motricity were all named in the lawsuits, and collectively put the cases to rest by agreeing to settlements in the amount of $9M and attorney’s fees of up to $1.85M.  In a press release on the subject, all companies were clear in saying that “each of the Defendants has denied any wrongful conduct, and the settlement is in no way a judgment or ruling by the Court that the Defendants did anything wrong.”

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A company called “StreetSpace” has filed a patent lawsuit naming Google, Apple, Nokia, Jumptap, Millennial Media and some 20 others as defendants over a mobile ad-serving technology.

StreetSpace, a maker of Internet kiosks and a subsidiary of wireless hardware company Embedded Wireless Labs, claims the aforementioned companies violated U.S. patent 6,847,969, which details a “Method and System for Providing Personalized Online Services and Advertisements in Public Places.”

StreetSpace operates a service that “allows network managers, businesses and retailers to monitor and analyze users’ locations, profiles, and network usage histories, thus enabling them to deliver personalized content (such as targeted advertising and/or location-based services) across the Web Station network,” the complaint explains.  ”Web Stations,” are public Internet terminals the company has been operating since 1999.

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A while back we covered the creation of the Mobile Internet Content Coalition (MICC) created by companies with a business-focus on SMS and its subsequent ecosystem.  Companies like 4INFO, Myxer and mobileStorm all have a vested interest in helping make SMS and the mobile Web as open and free of carrier control as possible, and the MICC was organized to petition the FCC and further this cause.

Turns out companies doing business using SMS aren’t the only ones fed up with how carriers manipulate SMS and limit the industry with their outrageous regulation and over-barring control — nonprofits are too.  Washington-based public interest group Public Knowledge has filed a letter to the FCC on behalf of several nonprofits urging the government body to take action on the state of SMS communication and the fact that it’s severely hindered by “layers of obscure, interlocking bureaucracy” that make it hard to innovate, communicate and connect via SMS.

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User’s are rushing to update their iPhones and iPod Touches to iOS 4 today, but in addition, users have been greeted with new terms to their iTunes account which include the option to opt-out of iAd data collection.

Users have been greeted with a screen informing them of changes to the iTunes Store terms and conditions, and while users are required to accept the changes before continuing, the summary of changes simply indicates that the company has made “material” changes to its privacy agreement.  Since iAd is based around the serving of interactive ads based heavily on the data Apple collects on its users, the new privacy terms explain what’s going on and allows an explicit, albeit indirect, means to opt-out.

Here’s what apple’s states in its new terms; “Apple and its partners use cookies and other technologies in mobile advertising services to control the number of times you see a given ad, deliver ads that relate to your interests, and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns,” the text says. “If you do not want to receive ads with this level of relevance on your mobile device, you can opt out by accessing the following link on your device: http://oo.apple.com. If you opt out, you will continue to receive the same number of mobile ads, but they may be less relevant because they will not be based on your interests. You may still see ads related to the contrent on a web page or in an application or based on other non-personal information. This opt-out applies only to Apple advertising services and does not affect interest-based advertising from other advertising networks.”

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It was announced today that two top Democratic legislators would begin the task of modernizing telecommunications laws that were last overhauled in 1996.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in a joint statement that they would hold meetings in June to examine how the Communications Act meets the current needs of consumers, the telecommunications industry and the FCC.

An overhaul has long been needed, but the issue gained steam after an April ruling by a federal appeals court that said the FCC had overstepped its boundaries in applying a portion of the Communications Act to an Internet service provider.

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It’s been widely reported that Yahoo has long had its sights set on Foursquare, but after failing to negotiate effectively, the company has picked up the next best thing- Jakarta, Indonesia-based Koprol.

Being called the “Asian Foursquare,” Koprol offers a similar location-based service including the omnipresent “check-in” functionality.  The company says it focuses on the “intersection of location, community expertise and mobile experiences.”

The price tag put on Foursquare was likely well above the $100M mark, and while the acquisition could have been both good and bad for both Yahoo and Foursquare, picking up Koprol instead was a smarter move given Yahoo’s long-term goals of placing itself at the forefront of emerging markets.

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After intense on-going scrutiny, FTC announced today the approval of Google’s $750M acquisition of AdMob, concluding it’s “unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks.”

In a statement issued today on its Website, the Commission said that although the combination of the two leading mobile advertising networks “raised serious antitrust issues,” the agency’s concerns were ultimately overshadowed by “recent developments in the market.”

The most notable development that tipped the scales in Google’s favor was obviously Apple’s introduction of iAd.  “In addition, a number of firms appear to be developing or acquiring smartphone platforms to better compete against Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, and these firms would have a strong incentive to facilitate competition among mobile advertising networks,” the commission explained in its statement.

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