26 January 2012
Posted in News Analysis

Swims with integrated network-customer data tide

Finnish OSS company Comptel has added deeper customer analytics capability to its offering with the acquisition of Xtract. Xtract, also Finland based, provides customer analytics software to around 20 customers, including moble operators AVEA, DNA, Megafon and TeliaSonera. Comptel is paying €3.1 million for Xtract, which claimed revenues of €2.4 million in 2011 and has 27 employees.

By adding customer analytics capabilities to its fulfilment, charging and policy management capabilities, Comptel is following the industry trend for deeper integration and correlation between network and customer data.

26 January 2012
Posted in News Analysis

UK M2M service provider Stream Communications is launching a product that promises iPad and tablet owners faster browsing and download speeds. The company's FreeFlow product offers users a dedicated 3G SIM that will piggyback on Stream's managed M2M network, delivering optimised access to the end user.

Stream said that it had augmented its existing mobile infrastructure, originally developed for machine to machine communications, to meet the specific needs of iPad and Android tablet users. The company said that anyone in the UK with an iPad or tablet PC running a freeflow 3G SIM will be able to experience a vastly improved experience, both in terms of reliability and download speed.

Stream said that FreeFlow download times could be up to 50% faster than a standard 3G connection.

26 January 2012
Posted in News Analysis

Conference will set terms for future allocation of spectrum for mobile broadband services

The mobile world is waiting, preparing and girding itself for the annual glitz and grind of Mobile World Congress next month. But there is an event going on right now that has the potential to decide issues as significant for the future of the global mobile industry as anything discussed at MWC.

This is an event that is held only every three or four years, has no awards, celebrity parties, product launches or other shindigs. But it does have 3,000 top level regulators, legislators, technical advisors, lobbyists, liaison officers and other Governmental and quasi-Governmental officers from across the world. And it goes on for four weeks, from 23 January to 17 February.

23 January 2012
Posted in Press Wire

Rome's metro network will be equipped with 2G and 3G mobile coverage by the end of 2012, according to wireless coverage company CommScope.

CommScope said it has been chosen by Italian operators Telecom Italia, Vodafone, WIND and H3G to provide and install a multi-operator, multi-band cellular solution throughout the Rome Metro that will extend coverage to passengers and staff throughout the system’s stations and passenger trains. The project will enable 2G and 3G voice and data services for customers of Telecom Italia, Vodafone, WIND and H3G utilizing the GSM900, GSM1800 and UMTS frequencies utilized by the operators. The three-phase project is expected to be completed in late 2012.

23 January 2012
Posted in Blog

One corporate video and one short press call is all we have available to judge new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins' intentions. He made it clear in both that he is completely behind the development of the new BlackBerry 10 platform, and its supporting QNX OS, as the future of Blackberry and RIM. He is wedded to the idea of RIM as an integrated device - service - network company, and took care to reject the perception that RIM was a hardware only business.

Principally, he has called for better "execution" on product delivery - to time and to cost. Mainly, he would like to make sure the company stops tinkering with its development of products "in-running", and focus on just defining and then delivering the product. He would also like to improve the way Blackberry communicates with its consumer segment (he described the enterprise segment as a "fortress" owned by RIM). He's recruiting now for a CMO to change RIM's marcomms policy, and to take advantage of its presence with its 75 million users and millions of BBM customers.

23 January 2012
Posted in Press Wire

Telefónica has signed a strategic partnership with Joyent, a provider of cloud services and technologies. The partnership sees Telefónica making a strategic equity investment in Joyent that, in turn, gives it access to the Joyent technologies and software for the deployment of cloud services.

Telefónica said that cloud-based services are a key focus area for its Digital unit. It sees Joyent’s technology expertise as helping it to enhance its product offering particularly for SMEs and SoHo customers. Joyent has over 12,000 public cloud customers in the US.