Holiday Catchup Wire: Redford Mobile; Texting Costs; Yahoo-3UK; Verizon Music

Back after holidays, and some links that cropped up during the last week:

-- MySpace ties up with Russia MTS for mobile network: MySpace has entered into a partnership agreement with Russia's largest carrier, MTS, to launch a social platform for mobile internet users..MySpace will create an exclusive WAP-portal for subscribers of MTS Russia, who currently number more than 60 million.

-- Redford's mobile plans continue: Even though Robert Redford and partners have sold the Sundance Channel to Cablevision ( NYSE: CVC), he was still planning a series of short films for mobile phones under the Sundance Channel moniker; he will probably direct them and did not rule out appearing in them as well.

-- The rising cost of texting: The new wave of price hikes comes just one year after all the major carriers raised individual text messaging rates from 10 cents a message to 15 cents per message. The reason that carriers are charging so much for text messages is because they can. Even at 15 cents and 20 cents a pop, people are willing to pay for it. The carriers are also trying to get consumers to sign up for text messaging packages and unlimited plans that vary in price from $5 a month extra for 200 messages to $20 a month extra for unlimited texting on AT&T's ( NYSE: T) network, for example.

-- Yahoo to run 3 UK's mobile ads: Yahoo ( NSDQ: YHOO) has inked a deal to exclusively sell banners and sponsored link inventory on 3 UK's content portal, with the first ads going live later this month.

-- Making Music With Verizon Wireless: John Harrobin, the senior vice president for Verizon's digital media marketing envisions a not-too-distant future where Verizon ( NYSE: VZ) sells more bundled products ? including suites of ringtones, ringback tones and downloadable singles from favorite artists.

-- ROK Entertainment 2007 Revenues: Revenues for FY2007 are $14.6m (FY2006: $4.2m), representing an increase of 247 per cent. Its net losses for the years ended March 31, 2008 and 2007 are $36.6m and $12.7m, respectively. The increase in core losses was due to investment in expanded operational capacity, infrastructure and research and development. ROK ( LSE: ROK) expects to increase its spending significantly as it continues to expand its infrastructure and its sales and marketing efforts, and continues research and development.