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Birdstep and Ciqual combine mobile customer service and mobile broadband data analytics

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Focus on joint solutions for User Self-Help, Advanced Customer Service and Wi-Fi Offload effectiveness

Birdstep and CIQUAL today announced a partnership to combine Birdstep wireless connectivity and security solutions with Ciqual customer service and customer experience reporting products.

The integrated user self-help and advanced customer service solution reduces the number of mobile broadband-related calls into the call centre and reduces the hold times of calls made to the Call Centre.

"The top 2 priorities for Mobile Operators are to increase mobile data revenues and deliver the best customer service. The combined Birdstep-Ciqual offering is 100% focused on these priorities", commented, Tom Walls, Ciqual CEO. "We are delighted to work with Birdstep and their best-in-class wireless connectivity solutions."

"Interest from mobile operators in South Africa, the US and Europe has confirmed a solution to both measure user experience and lower the cost of support and retention activities is at the top of their list. The combined solution we now offer with CIQUAL has become a crucial part of any solution in the mobile data area. " says Anders Harrysson, CEO Birdstep Technology

With Mobile Data users now concerned by data usage and quality of service, CIQUAL and Birdstep constantly measures the effectiveness of Wi-Fi offload, enabling the mobile network operator's customers to receive the best broadband experience as they are moved from congested 3G networks, onto local Wi-Fi hotspots.

A recent study from Echo Research highlighted that 50% of smart phone users would prefer to use a mobile self-service application to try to resolve their customer service issue before calling into the contact centre. .

DragonWave claims first to 2048 QAM microwave

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DragonWave has claimed it is first to market with a packet microwave product that provides modulation modes of up to 2048 QAM.

At Mobile World Congress NEC announced that it would have a 2048 QAM product in its iPASOLINK range later in 2012, but DragonWave appears confident it has beaten the Japanese vendor to the punch, announcing that its 2048 QAM product is available. Ceragon has a commercially available 1024 QAM product.

So what? Well, microwave vendors are engaged in a modulation rate war because higher modulation rates on microwave links offer high capacities from the same available bandwidth. Theoretically 2048 rates would devlier around 40% (DragonWave says 37%) more capacity than current 256QAM solutions.

DragonWave said that with 2048 QAM, customers can achieve greater than 500 Mbps in its Horizon Compact+ all-outdoor system and up to a Gigabit by adding its Bandwidth Accelerator (compression technology).

DragonWave press release:

DragonWave Inc. a leading global supplier of packet microwave radio systems for mobile and access networks, today announced the availability of higher modulation modes of up to 2048 QAM on its Horizon packet microwave products. This higher modulation allows the radios to transport up to 37% more data through existing microwave channels, which significantly improves spectral efficiency and, correspondingly, lowers operators' cost per bit. When DragonWave's unique Bandwidth Accelerator feature-the industry's only wire-speed bulk data compression technology-is enabled, spectral efficiency is further enhanced 25% to 100% depending on traffic patterns.
This unmatched spectral efficiency furthers the lead DragonWave's Horizon packet microwave products have in total link capacity over competitive products. Additionally, all Horizon packet microwave radios also support hitless adaptive modulation, bringing operators the benefits of higher capacity delivery by the new modes when link properties permit-even on existing links that have been designed for lower modulation modes.
Jennifer Pigg, president and founder, Battle Green Research, a Yankee Group affiliate, said "DragonWave has a well-earned reputation as a leading innovator in wireless packet microwave delivery. The company's solution of coupling higher modulation modes with Hitless Adaptive Modulation provides a cost-effective and much needed solution to meet the explosive increase in backhaul capacity demand being driven by a surge in mobile devices and the applications they employ."
With 2048 QAM, customers can achieve greater than 500 Mbps of transport in a Horizon Compact+ all-outdoor system and up to a Gigabit with DragonWave's Bandwidth Accelerator. Horizon Quantum can provide 2 carriers per radio each capable of 1024 QAM, delivering up to 2 Gbps in a single radio with Bandwidth Accelerator.
Peter Allen, CEO of DragonWave said "We are proud to once again increase the benchmark by offering the industry's highest capacity and highest spectral efficiency radios. Our commitment to remain at the forefront of technological innovation continues to benefit both DragonWave and our customers".
 

Ixia to buy Anue for scaleable network monitoring

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Ixia is to buy Anue Systems for $145 million in cash. It said the acquisition of Anue would see it become a leading player in the rapidly growing network visibility market – a market that is growing over 30 percent per year and will enhance Ixia’s service provider presence and create new opportunities among enterprise customers.

As applications increasingly run in cloud networks and large data centres, service providers and large enterprises need better visibility into application performance. Traditional monitoring solutions cannot scale to successfully analyse the number of applications, services and immense amounts of traffic across wired and mobile networks. Anue’s Net Tool Optimizer solution efficiently aggregates and filters network traffic to help optimise network monitoring tool usage. This efficiency creates significant customer value by maximising IT resources, streamlining network troubleshooting and expanding network monitoring capacity.
 
“Many networking trends such as the deployment of cloud and virtualisation, LTE and mobility driven growth, security implications of applications delivered over cloud infrastructures and the massive expansion in bandwidth are fuelling both Ixia’s and Anue's growth,” said Vic Alston, Ixia chief operating officer. “Next-generation cloud providers, mobility operators and enterprises all require network and traffic visibility to maintain quality of service across application and service delivery. Anue's Optimizer solutions provide customers with a measurable value regarding performance, scale and resiliency of networks, while enabling the creation of a next generation platform for quality of service delivery across live networks.”
 
Alex Pepe, Chief Executive Officer of Anue, said, “I’m truly excited about the power of this combination and the opportunities it creates for our respective customers and employees. This transaction will give Ixia reach into our service provider and enterprise customers, while Anue’s products will benefit from Ixia’s international channels. Ixia and Anue together will bring value to customers by helping to build and operate networks that deliver high value applications and services with quality, scale and resiliency.”

Anue grew revenues 51 percent in 2011 to $40.5 million and generated gross margins of 83 percent for the year. For the 12 months ended March 31, 2012, Anue generated $47.6 million in revenues. Ixia expects this transaction to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings beginning in the third quarter of 2012. Non-GAAP earnings exclude stock-based compensation, amortisation of acquired intangible assets and other non-recurring charges, net of the applicable tax effects. The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of 2012,

EricssonIPX aiming to attract NFC developers with TSM testing kit

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Ericsson has announced the release of a development kit for its Trusted Service Manager (TSM) service. With the development kit, selected partners can remotely deploy, update and delete applications, while maintaining the same security level as in a real-life implementation through a standards-based TSM platform. This means that partners can test their applications, with actual users, even in a commercial environment. With the launch of the kit, Ericsson hopes to boost the advancement of compelling NFC applications, within access control, payment, loyalty or ticketing.

Richard Anell, Head of IPX, Ericsson, says; "We are making this development kit available to selected partners because service providers need to take their applications from the lab and PowerPoint stage to the next level. The development kit provides a true-to-life setting, not a simulation and is exactly how it would work in a commercial environment." Mr. Anell continues: "Analysts agree that in the coming years we will see exponential growth of NFC services as more and more NFC handsets become available, and operators invest in the required infrastructure. But to gain true momentum the applications must be tested, refined and optimized with consumers prior to commercial roll-out."

The development kit contains 2 Micro SD cards and Range Extenders from Device Fidelity as well as one NFC USB Reader, plus a test account on Ericsson IPX's TSM platform. Included are software components and documentation and an example service is provided, so service providers can test the full deployment path before using their own code.

The Micro SD cards contain a Secure Element, a trusted execution environment where the partner's application runs in NFC card emulation mode. Ericsson's Android proxy client enables communication with the TSM platform for remote life cycle management of the secure applications through standardized web-service APIs.

Kineto and Taqua partner to offer IMS voice over WiFi

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Companies enable mobile operators to extend new IMS-based voice and messaging services over existing Wi-Fi networks

Kineto Wireless and Taqua have announced a joint solution that enables mobile operators to include Wi-Fi as part of their Voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployment strategy.
 
Using Taqua’s IMS core network solution mobile operators can enable smartphones equipped with Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi client to receive IMS-based voice and messaging services over existing Wi-Fi networks, such as at homes and offices.  Operators can now embrace Wi-Fi as a part of their VoLTE deployment plans, adding critical network coverage and capacity in the exact locations subscribers spend most their time.

 
“Mobile operators are quickly moving to all-IP access networks and are keen to bring their valuable voice and messaging services to these networks,” said Eric Pratt, CEO of Taqua, LLC.  “With the combined solution from Taqua and Kineto, operators can rapidly introduce IMS-based voice and messaging services over Wi-Fi, turning any access point in the home or office into a virtual LTE small cell.”
 
With mobile voice and messaging accounting for the vast majority of service revenues, mobile operators must ensure a controlled migration from circuit to IMS-based voice and SMS services. Subscribers expect a consistent user experience, regardless of the underlying mobile access network. Kineto and Taqua have developed an innovative solution to ensure a consistent voice and messaging experience across LTE and Wi-Fi networks.
 
At the heart of Taqua’s convergence core is Taqua’s TCS6100 Small Cell Convergence Server (TCS6100), a SIP-based mobile convergence application server that integrates with existing mobile core elements, including the HLR, SMSC, SCP, and MSC. The TCS6100 extends macro network features and functions to small cell-served subscribers. Leveraging incumbent core network elements, mobile operators can: deploy new small cell offerings while preserving existing systems and practices; deliver a consistent user experience; and implement unified service plans across small cells and macro networks. The TCS6100 delivers voice, messaging, and data convergence while providing supplementary, regulatory, and emergency services.
 
In addition to the TCS6100, Taqua’s small cell core network is comprised of the T7100 Multimedia Controller and the T7000® Intelligent Switching System with mobile interface cards. The T7100 provides the media gateway controller and MRF functionality, while the T7000 provides all the media gateway control functionality.
 
“While deploying LTE and VoLTE are key steps in delivering a true mobile broadband service, they do not address ongoing in-building coverage and capacity challenges, especially in locations like the home and office,” said Jeff Brown, CEO of Kineto Wireless.  “With the combined solution from Taqua and Kineto, operators can leverage the massive global footprint of Wi-Fi as part of their VoLTE deployments to supplement in-building coverage and capacity.”
 
Kineto is the leading provider of solutions that seamlessly extend mobile services over Wi-Fi, elegantly providing subscribers with a single, consistent user experience regardless of underlying network.  By supporting IMS-based voice and messaging, Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi client enables mobile operators to rapidly deploy VoLTE-compliant IMS voice and messaging services over Wi-Fi networks, turning, any Wi-Fi access point into a virtual LTE small cell.

Ubidyne signs Asia-Pac customer for 800MHz active antenna

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Ubidyne has signed a deal with an un-named "major Asia Pacific-based manufacturer of telecommunications equipment" to develop an LTE active antenna for the 800MHz frequency range. The agreement follows network trials of Ubidyne’s 700MHz active antenna solution in the USA. UIbidyen said that it expects to sign a series of new contracts in the next 12 months with Tier 1 operators and OEMs and that the new 800MHz active antenna will be deployed with a major regional network operator in 2013.
 
In the US trials, Ubidyne’s Antenna Embedded Radio technology with flexible beam forming and tilting capabilities,  delivered double throughput at the cell edge and an increase of over 40% cell capacity with the same output power. In addition to the uB700™ that supports 4G (LTE) for broadband mobile networks in the US, Ubidyne’s uB900™ supports GSM, UMTS and LTE in the 900MHz frequency band to address mobile networks in Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Middle East. This latest announcement will further extend this range with the development of an LTE 800MHz solution, while Ubidyne is also looking at high-band antenna up to 2.6GHz as well as multi-band solutions.
 
“With the Ubidyne technology proven to exceed our theoretical performance predictions and demonstrate excellent reliability in independent trials, we are now getting a lot of real interest from operators and OEMs who need to meet the exploding demand for wireless data,” said Michael Fränkle, CEO of Ubidyne. “This was reflected at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. While there was a lot of discussion about the move to small cells, this represents a major investment in time and money; whereas visitors to our stand increasingly see active antenna technology as a way to maximise coverage and capacity from their existing macrocells. In addition to the deal announced today, we are in advanced discussions with further companies in Asia Pacific and other regions around the world.”
 
By removing the need for bulky coaxial feeder cables, remote electrical tilt assemblies and additional amplifiers on antenna towers and masts, Ubidyne’s patented active antenna technology significantly reduces installation costs and energy consumption while improving radio performance, deployment flexibility, coverage and network capacity. OPEX costs and outages are further reduced by Ubidyne’s Self-Healing mechanism that secures antenna coverage in the unlikely event of a system failure.

Unlike other approaches to active antenna systems (AAS), Ubidyne’s LTE 700MHz, 800MHz and 900MHz AAS technology uses one transceiver or M-Radio per antenna radiator. This means that an antenna with 16 radiators – or eight cross polar radiators – will also have 16 transceivers. Results from the US trials demonstrated that only a full AAS can meet critical upper sidelobe suppression requirements with margin, while simultaneously providing the highest possible antenna gain over an electrical tilt range of more than 10 degrees. And because of the Self-Healing feature, Ubidyne AAS still delivers this performance with up to four transceivers out of 16 being switched off.
 

What’s wrong with this picture?

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What’s wrong with this picture?

With senior executives at Orange known not to be keen on the Everything Everywhere brand name (funny, no-one seems to ever hear from the T-Mobile side of the fence on this pressing issue), it's perhaps not surprising that there still seems to be an element of clunkiness in attempts to take advantage of the dual properties of T-Mobile and Orange.

To be fair combining the network, and offering users access to "both" networks for the price of one, went well and users definitely liked it. But something still seems a bit wrong about an offer such as this. Instead of offering broadband "from our friends at Orange", both Orange and T-Mobile could be offering "Everything Everywhere/insert new brandname" broadband.

This broadband campaign looks like affiliate marketing, and I'm sure that strategically, T-Mobile and Orange top management would like to go further than that. Indeed, why not just offer it as T-Mobile broadband, even if it's Orange under the hood. Or is the idea to draw explicit attention to the fact that T-Mobile customers are blessed with not just T-Mobile's reach, but Orange's vast hinterland as well.

My thinking, though, is that Everything Everywhere could be the brand that is the understood term for any product offering that combines the two operators' offerings, or takes advantage of the property of the "other" one.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps a third brand would confuse things even more, and if T-Mobile and Orange suddenly started punting "Broadband from Everything Everywhere/insert new brandname", it would confuse the hell out of its customers.

Oh, now I don't know what to think. I know very little about marketing and no doubt consumers understand this offer perfectly well. Let's just forget I ever wrote this.

2011 a breakthrough year for NFC SIMs: SIMAlliance data

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16 million NFC SIM cards were shipped in 2011, according to the SIMAlliance, the SIM card's industry body. Accroding to the organisation, this is the first time that NFC SIMs have reached sufficient volumes to be included separately in its data.

Demand for the 3FF micro-SIM form factor (used primarily in tablets) grew by 63% year on year, while shipments of machine to machine SMD (Surface Mounted Device) cards grew by a factor of four between 2010 and 2011. Western European and North American destinations dominate for these cards as well as China for m2m.

Frédéric Vasnier, Chairman of the Board, SIMalliance said: “There’s little doubt that the SIM card – whatever its form factor – remains the default security, identity and access device for today’s mobile network operators, and through them, the end-user. But it was the emergence of M2M and NFC communications as significant sectors in 2011 that causes the real excitement. And as these markets move from emerging to maturing, service providers will increasingly be able to realize the incremental value of their SIM card estates.”

Orange results: no French Free-fall; Spain on the up: Poland OK

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Orange results: no French Free-fall; Spain on the up: Poland OK

Orange has released Q1 results of its European operations, following Everything Everywhere's separate results announcement yesterday. Here are the highlights, on a country by country basis, of its mobile operations.

FRANCE
Despite the apocalyptic reaction to Free Mobile's launch – a fear frenzy that Orange itself did nothing to dispel – the operator saw its net customer numbers decline by a manageable 0.7% over the quarter, although losing 2.5% of its base to Free over the quarter is certainly a worry.

Orange said that translated to a decline in market share of 1.5 percentage points in the first quarter, but added that since mid-March the number of portability requests has returned to the level of the fourth quarter 2011.

So, by 21 March 2012 Orange had 26,475 million mobile customers in France. However, the number of contract customers (19.066 million) rose 0.9% year on year, despite the net loss of 387,000 customers in the first quarter of 2012. This appears to suggest that Orange was mainly bleeding prepaid customers to Free.

Interestingly, the total number of MVNO customers hosted on the Orange network barely shifted, dropping from 3,066,000 to 3,062,000.

Overall mobile revenues were up 3.8%. Revenues from mobile services  showed a 0.5% increase, excluding the impact of regulatory measures – in other words declined slightly. Orange said that growth in data services, as well as the rapid development of national roaming in the first quarter of 2012 (ie its revenues from its contract as Free's national roaming partner) offset decline in mobile voice revenues (that pesky regulation), which became more pronounced in the first quarter of 2012.

Total ARPU was €367, which translates to a per month figure of €30.5. That was down slightly form monthly ARPU of €32 in 2011. For comparison, Everything Everywhere's monthly ARPU is around the £23 mark.

Investment in networks, which represented 53% of the Group’s CAPEX in the first quarter of 2012, rose 4.6%, in particular with the acceleration of investment programmes in HSPA+ and LTE.

SPAIN
Despite the depressing macro economic situation, mobile revenues rose 3.5% to 797 million euros, excluding the impact of regulatory measures (those pesky MTR cuts worth -20 million euros, the operator said). That growth was a reflection of a mobile customer base that also grew 3.5% year on year, to just under 12.5 million.

Once again, it was data that drove revenues, rising 20.7% in the first quarter of 2012 as the number of data services users (smartphones and 3G modem sticks) more than doubled in one year, reaching 3.737 million at 31 March 2012, compared with 1.679 million one year earlier. The hosted MVNO customer base also rose 12.1% year on year to 1.443 million customers at 31 March 2012.

Total ARPU of €21 was slightly down on 2011, but not by much at all. Capex investments were mainly a continuation of the mobile access network renewal plan.

POLAND
Poland also produced some decent results for Orange. Mobile revenues rose 2.6% to 440 million euros, expand the total mobile services customer base (14,613 million customers at 31 March 2012, excluding MVNOs) rose 1.3% in one year, led by a 3.1% increase in prepaid offers (7.685 million customers at 31 March 2012). Data services also rose with 31% growth in the number of smartphones in one year. Orange Poland maintained its leadership with an estimated market share of 30%.

Monthly ARPU in Poland again fell slightly, to €9.75.

REST OF EUROPE
In Europe, revenues rose 0.4%. Revenues in Belgium grew 2.3%, led by data services and smartphone sales. In Romania, revenues improved with the growth of the contract customer base (+3.5% year on year), rising 0.1% overall, in contrast to the 1.8% decline in the second half of 2011. Moldavia and Armenia also reported steady growth of their contract customer bases. Slovakia reported a 9.4% decline in revenues, partly due, Orange said, to non-recurring items in the first quarter of 201.

Dragonwave cuts new microwave deal with NSN

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Dragonwave cuts new microwave deal with NSN

DragonWave has announced that its acquisition of NSN's microwave business will not now include NSN's Italian assets, and will not include a full transferral of NSN's microwave R&D activities. The new deal terms appear to significantly reduce the number of employees that will be transferred from NSN to Dragonwave.

Originally the companies said that 360 employees, mainly based in Milan, Italy and Shanghai, China, would transfer to DragonWave in a deal that was due to close in 1Q 2012. The Milan operation will not now be transferred. Approximately 130 employees based in Shanghai will, however, transfer to DragonWave in the second half of 2012, once all of the licenses and permissions to do so are in place.

The two companies also announced that they would enter into a service agreement that will see NSN provide R&D, product management and sales support to DragonWave. At the end of the service agreement period, the Italian assets may yet be transferred to DragonWave. Previously the companies had said that Dragonwave would take control of R&D and product development, with NSN acting as a sales channel. 

DragonWave said it would now be paying €11.7 million euros in cash, and €5 million in shares, for the microwave assets. DragonWave will also acquire other assets under a capital asset lease or other deferred sale arrangements with a value of approximately €3.6 million. The companies have scrapped an earn-out payment that would have been tagged to sales performance.

The original public sale price was for a combined cash and share offer of €15 million.

The amended terms appear designed to reduce DragonWave's operational expenses in the near future, by keeping a substantial block of NSN's Italian employees off DragonWave's books. A statement from Dragonwave said that the amendments had been made "to provide both companies with greater flexibility to adapt to changing market environments."

DragonWave reported that revenue for the full fiscal year 2012 was $45.7 million, compared with $118.0 million for the prior fiscal year. That translated to a loss of $33.5 million for the year.

 

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