Telecom Roundup: Verizon Workers View Obama Records, Nokia and China, More

(MoneyWatch)  Verizon employees view Obama cell phone account -- Clearly keeping the telecommunications world safe for democracy, some Verizon employees "accessed and viewed" the cell phone account of President Elect Barack Obama without authorization. But apparently they didn't listen to voice mails or read emails. They probably also didn't inhale. [Source: Washington Post, Reuters]

AT&T funding privacy group -- AT&T is funding an organization that will try to help steer government efforts to manage online privacy. A co-chair of the group previously headed a phone company think tank on net neutrality. [Source: GigaOM]

Virgin Mobile bearish on mobile broadband in short term -- Even though Virgin Media has introduced its own mobile broadband offering, the company thinks that in the short- to medium-term, mobile broadband is only a complement to regular Internet access. Thank heavens the roads will be safe for a while longer. [Source: Reuters]

Africa wants $10 cell phone -- South Africa-based carrier MTN Group has sent engineers to China to source mobile phones that the company can sell in Africa for $10. That would set a new floor for handset prices, and a potential fiscal pain for phone manufacturers. [Source: Red Herring]

Nokia customizes for China Mobile -- Nokia will work with China Mobileby creating customized TD-SCDMA handsets for the carrier. First models will be out by the end of next year. [Source: DigiTimes]