In documents AT&T filed in April with the Federal Communications Commission on its planned $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile, it cited thriving competition in the wireless industry as part of its argument on behalf of the deal. In particular, AT&T pointed to the rise of "mavericks" like MetroPCS and Leap Wireless International that cater to budget-conscious consumers and compete more directly with T-Mobile.

The launch of the next version of the iPhone is an event that typically inspires fevered speculation about what new design, features and pricing the signature Apple device will offer. Much of the rumor-mongering this time around, however, seems to be about the timing.

To break the Congressional deadlock over the debt ceiling crisis, President Obama today turned to a weapon that's helped to bring down governments across Northern Africa and the Middle East this spring: Twitter. In an address earlier today, Obama urged voters to write, call or tweet their local Congress members to put pressure on them to reach a compromise on raising the debt ceiling with the Aug. 2 deadline looming.

Facebook appears to be taking another step toward extending its franchise to mobile devices. According to a Bloomberg report Wednesday, the social networking powerhouse is set to bring its Facebook Credits virtual currency to the mobile Web. Starting this month, Facebook began requiring social game developers on the site such as Zynga to process payments using Credits. Facebook in turn takes a 30% cut of transactions using its virtual currency.

With peak vacation season upon us, a new study from mobile ad network Mojiva and Insight Express takes a look at travel planning via mobile. The upshot of the survey was that nearly three quarters of (73%) consumers book their travel plans a month or less in advance so it's not too late to target people during the peak summer travel season.

eBay has been one of the most aggressive retail players in the m-commerce space, both through its lineup of category-specific mobile apps and its PayPal payments unit. The company has projected doubling its mobile transaction volume this year to $4 billion. Much of the spending on eBay is coming through PayPal Mobile, which is on track to handle $3 billion in payment volume in 2011, up four-fold from last year. Impressive numbers, but what's especially interesting is eBay's strategy of being anywhere and everywhere consumers want access to one its services -- something like the retail version of the cable …

There's little question the iPhone is ascendant. Nokia was overtaken by Apple as the world's leading smartphone maker by volume in the second quarter, with 20.3 million iPhones shipped in that time period, compared to 16.7 million for the Finnish phone giant. The number of iPhones shipped was up 142% from a year ago, while Nokia's smartphone total fell 34%. A wireless changing of the guard is underway.

In one of the strongest statements yet against AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) called the deal "highly dangerous to competition and consumers" in a letter sent today to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. He urged the agencies to block the planned $39 billion merger.

Few would debate the natural link between mobile technology and local information as people use their devices to learn more about nearby businesses or connect with other people on the go. So it's hardly surprising a trove of companies -- from Foursquare to WhitePages.com to AT&T -- are trying to capitalize on that connection with mobile efforts catering to consumers and small businesses alike.

A new mobile advertising study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau presented at its "Mobile Marketplace" conference Monday had few topline surprises, but offered some interesting insights -- especially those relating to agencies.