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MWC – Redknee adds new UK customer

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Redknee, a provider of business-critical billing and charging software and solutions for communications service providers, has announced at Mobile World Congress  that Viacloud, a global alternative mobile services company, has selected Redknee’s billing, rating, settlement and customer care solution to support the launch of its UK operations. This new customer win will benefit from the synergies of the recent acquisition that have enhanced Redknee’s turnkey converged billing solution with additional Tier-1 operator capability. Viacloud’s UK operation is focused on supporting new and existing mobile operators to cost-effectively develop targeted services offerings.

Redknee’s real-time billing and settlement solution enables MVNOs to deploy and manage their own billing, settlement and customer care facility in order to have more control and flexibility over the customer experience. Redknee’s converged platform enables operators with the flexibility to launch new business models in order to grow new revenue streams. Redknee’s solution will also manage Viacloud’s partner, customer care and interconnect requirements as it increases its partners and launches MVNOs from its platform as a Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator. During the selection process, Viacloud was particularly impressed by Redknee’s reputation to quickly deploy and launch its solutions and the success it has achieved with other Tier 1 and MVNOs.

Mutaz Otaibi, Viacloud’s CEO commented: “We are committed to providing innovative solutions to our clients and selected Redknee for its reputation in successfully launching into competitive markets and gain market share.”

In addition to the flexibility and scalability for service providers to support MVNOs from their Redknee platform, Redknee’s real-time converged billing platform will enable Viacloud to offer the benefits of real-time promotions, reduced operating costs and advanced customer care to MVNOs quickly and effectively.

Lucas Skoczkowski, Redknee’s CEO commented: “We are pleased to be supporting Viacloud’s growth strategy.  Redknee’s flexible and open solutions are empowering enterprising service providers to enhance the customer experience and launch more innovative services in order to differentiate themselves.  At Redknee, we believe that customer insight, flexibility to offer competitive services and a robust subscriber experience will be essential to driving profitable growth for these customers, and continue to invest in our solutions to support them.”

MWC – SPB Software collaborates with Spatial View to demo auto-stereoscopic 3D user interface for mobile devices

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SPB Software, a mobile software developer, joined with Spatial View, a specialist in stereo 3D auto-stereoscopic technologies, to showcase the first glasses-free stereoscopic 3D mobile user interface with full navigation capabilities on Android devices.

This complete auto-stereoscopic 3D Android solution offers a mobile user interface by means of an all-encompassing Home screen that houses a rich set of animated 3D widgets, a specialized collection of 3D folders and a suite of customizable panels in stereoscopic 3D. The combination of elegant design and stereo 3D makes navigation effective and efficient, while emoting a feeling of immersion in the user.

 “By partnering with Spatial View and combining our flagship SPB UI Engine with Spatial View’s leading auto-stereo 3D display technologies, we are able to demonstrate a very compelling stereo 3D UI platform for readily creating highly responsive stereoscopic 3D user interface solutions,” said Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, CEO of SPB. ”Indeed, our stereo 3D UI framework aptly complements existing stereoscopic content based solutions in the market.

 “As a provider of auto-stereoscopic technology and 3D content for mobile devices, we are pleased to work with SPB Software to broaden the implementation of stereo 3D on mobile devices,” said Ihor Petelycky, General Manager, Core Technology and Applications at Spatial View Inc. “Now there is no need to keep switching from 3D to 2D, after viewing stereo 3D content. The whole mobile experience can be in stereo 3D.”

MWC – Qualcomm announces quad-core Snapdragon

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Qualcomm today announced its quad-core Snapdragon chipset designed to meet the requirements of next generation tablets and computing devices.  The new quad-core APQ8064 is the flagship chipset in the new family of Snapdragon chipsets and is based on the new micro-architecture code named “Krait.”  With the purpose of being built for mobile devices, this 28nm micro-architecture will redefine performance, achieving speeds of up to 2.5GHz per core and minimizing power consumption and heat generation to enable new, thin and light form factors.

he Snapdragon APQ8064 chip will be designed to enable the next generation of converged computing and entertainment devices.  These devices will have significantly higher performance requirements, including support for larger screen sizes and resolutions, more complex operating systems, multi-tasking, multi-channel audio, HD gaming and stereoscopic 3D (S3D) photo and video capture and playback, as well as output in full HD to 1080P flat panel displays over HDMI.

While performance requirements have been increasing, battery technology and capacity have struggled to develop at the same pace. To meet this challenge, Qualcomm created its next generation architecture and integrated four new, low-power CPU cores and its advanced Adreno graphics into the APQ8064, enabling it to offer twelve times the available performance as well as 75 percent lower power than the first generation of Snapdragon processors.  The combination of advanced processors and multimedia technology will provide tablets and mobile computing devices with unsurpassed performance, battery life, low thermal dissipation and the broadest set of connectivity options available in the industry.

“We’re excited about the new, innovative devices the APQ8064 will enable in the market,” said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of computing and consumer products at Qualcomm. “With its WiFi integration and ability to seamlessly interface with Qualcomm’s 3G and LTE modules, the APQ8064 will provide OEM’s with a flexible, cost efficient and fast time to market platform that can meet all of their design configuration needs for tablets and next generation computing and consumer electronic devices.”

The APQ8064 processor will include the Adreno 320 quad-core GPU, which will deliver fifteen times greater performance than the original Adreno GPU, for a console-quality gaming experience, as well as rendering rich UI’s.  With up to 20 Megapixel camera support, the APQ8064 will internally synchronize two camera sensors for 3D video recording and will support external 3D video playback.

The APQ8064 will feature a variety of features that make it the most compelling processing solution for use in mobile entertainment and computing devices, including support for both PCDDR3 and LPDDR2 memory, serial and PCIe interfaces and multiple USB ports.

As part of the next generation Snapdragon family, the APQ8064 will share a core set of features, including a quad-combo of connectivity solutions (i.e. WLAN, GPS, BT and FM), support for NFC and stereoscopic 3D (S3D) video and photo capture and playback.  The APQ8064 also will support all available major operating systems and be software compatible across the chipset family.

MWC – Huawei demonstrates Heterogeneous Network solution

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Huawei today demonstrated its HetNet (Heterogeneous Network) solution at Mobile World Congress.

As an important part of Huawei’s SingleRAN@Broad solution, HetNet consists of a series of base stations, including Macro, Micro, Pico, and Femto units. The HetNet solution is able to deploy a precise and layered network based on actual traffic distribution, so as to realize seamless coverage at hot and blind spots. Micro, Pico, and Femto products can enable seamless and deep coverage for home and small and medium enterprise usage in highly-dense urban areas, while Macro can provide continuous coverage over a wide geographic area.

Due in part to the proliferation of smart terminals, mobile broadband traffic is expected to increase up to 500 times over the next decade. In order to meet this burgeoning demand as well as improving user experience and reducing cost, global mobile operators must accelerate the process of upgrading and evolving their wireless networks to mobile broadband. The HetNet solution will be one of the best choices for mobile operators to seize this initiative.

For example, in a large urban area, Huawei’s innovative HetNet solution not only helps operators achieve the smooth evolution of existing networks, but it also provides better voice and mobile data service experience for end users, in turn increasing operator profitability.

Wang Tao, President of Wireless Networks, Huawei, said, “Based on SingleRAN@Broad, Huawei’s HetNet solution enables three-dimensional coverage, the means to rapidly increase capacity, and an improvement in user experience. This innovative solution will help operators evolve their existing networks, resulting in lower costs and increased business success in the mobile broadband era.”

MWC – GSMA announces global HSPA Mobile Broadband connections have surpassed 400 million

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The GSMA today announced that HSPA Mobile Broadband connections have increased by 100 percent year-on-year, passing 400 million globally, according to figures from Wireless Intelligence. There are now more than 17 million HSPA connections being added each month around the world, compared to nearly 9 million a month in the same period last year. LTE, the next-generation Mobile Broadband technology, is also set to experience rapid growth over the next few years, rising from 4.2 million connections in 24 countries by the end of this year, to almost 300 million connections in 55 countries by 2015.

“Over the past 12 months operators around the world have invested more than $70 billion* in Mobile Broadband infrastructure and network upgrades, driving strong momentum for HSPA and paving the way for LTE to gain real traction,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer at the GSMA. “HSPA has achieved great success since it was first deployed in 2005, and to date is the fastest-growing wireless technology ever. 2011 is also set to be the tipping point for LTE, with network deployments in 24 countries and the commercial availability of the first LTE-based smartphones and tablets driving more than four million connections.”

The rapid growth of Mobile Broadband is driven by demand for the latest devices, applications and services, and enables users to access any type of content on the move. Mobile Broadband will also facilitate a wide variety of socio-economic benefits, especially in countries lacking fixed-line broadband infrastructure, which will empower education, improve health services, increase trade and drive innovation.

LTE is set to out-perform most fixed-line broadband networks by delivering very fast, highly responsive connectivity with peak rate speeds of up to 100Mbps. However, for LTE to achieve the same success as HSPA, governments need to ensure that suitable spectrum is released in a timely and harmonised way. This will allow LTE to generate vast economies of scale, driving down the cost of equipment and handsets. Spectrum best suited for LTE includes the 2.5-2.6GHz band, which has been identified globally by the ITU as the ‘3G extension band’, and ‘digital dividend’ spectrum in the 700-800MHz band, freed up from the switchover to digital television.

As operators wait for spectrum for LTE to be released, many will continue to use HSPA as their primary Mobile Broadband technology. More than 2,900 devices from 200 suppliers support HSPA and there are now 341 live HSPA networks across 132 countries worldwide. Moreover, HSPA is a highly capable and cost-effective technology that can be upgraded to HSPA+, enabling peak speeds of between 21Mbps and 42Mbps. With additional spectrum, HSPA+ can even reach peak speeds of 84Mbps. There are currently 76 HSPA+ networks deployed in 43 countries with a further 52 networks planned worldwide, according to Wireless Intelligence.

The industry research firm also predicts that LTE is likely to experience its most rapid growth from 2012, when the majority of operators launch their networks and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) becomes available. The GSMA is leading an industry-wide push to establish VoLTE as the unified approach to delivering voice communications and rich services such as video telephony over LTE. Together with Verizon, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, LG and Samsung, the GSMA will be showing this progress at Mobile World Congress including live demonstrations of VoLTE using LTE smartphones over demonstration networks that leverage commercial IMS/LTE components.

“A tremendous amount of work by Verizon and its partners resulted in the first successful VoLTE call over a commercial network last week,” said Tony Melone, chief technology officer at Verizon. “This momentum accelerates this week with the GSMA, as we continue down the path of giving customers the best calling experience and making VoLTE the standard for voice over LTE and a commercial reality next year.”

Momentum for VoLTE will be further demonstrated at a GSMA-backed interoperability test event in September 2011. The event is being coordinated by MSF, an industry body that develops test specifications for multiservice next-generation networks, and hosted by Vodafone and China Mobile, two of the world’s largest operators, at Vodafone’s test centre in Dusseldorf and China Mobile’s research laboratory in Beijing.

MWC – Only imagination will stop networked society, says Ericsson chief

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Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, said in his address to journalists on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that “only our imaginations can stop us” in realizing a networked society, where everything that can benefit from a connection will have one.

Vestberg says three forces are coming together as the foundation for the networked society: mobility, broadband, and the cloud.  To support all three forces, he listed, of course, new products and concepts launched by Ericsson at Mobile World Congress. Those include: the Ericsson Device Connection Platform, which helps operators quickly and easily launch machine-to-machine solutions, Antenna integrated radio  – the first stepping stone towards a heterogeneous network,  IP networking portfolio, and a PC as a Service solution, which allows operators to bundle software in the cloud on top of mobile broadband subscriptions for consumers.

The President and CEO highlighted that Ericsson has launched 16 LTE networks in 11 countries on three continents. “We will not compromise on technology leadership,” Vestberg said. He also emphasized that the growing services business is a unique competitive advantage for Ericsson, the only vendor to have won a managed services deal for LTE. “Our customers trust us to help them build, manage and run the world’s best networks and we can draw from that for future LTE products, solutions and deployments. We put our customers first,” he said.

Vestberg stressed the importance of quality assurance in the network, especially as cloud services become a place for new business innovation and services.  “The network is the make-or-break part of the equation,” he said, and announced a strategic alliance with Akamai to ensure quality of service through to mobile devices.

Akamai President David Kenny joined Vestberg onstage to introduce the partnership, which begins with a joint setup of an optimized content delivery network on a global basis.

Additionally, Ericsson launched a range of different caching solutions in the Smart Services Router and Radio Network Controller to help operators improve the end-user experience and to optimize capacity use in IP and radio networks, respectively.
Vestberg spoke of combining IT and telecom into a new ICT industry where possibilities were heightened for innovation and collaboration, and ideas are exchanged online without limits on time or geography, and new business models are being tested continually. “Only our imaginations can limit us when thinking about the potential of the ICT industry in the networked society,” he said. Several recent services-wins in ICT, both in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific are paving the way for even more business in this domain, it says.

MWC – “Mobile industry’s focus shifting to customer experience” – Nokia Siemens Networks’ CEO outlines industry trends and insight on day one of Mobile World Congress

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Addressing press and industry analysts at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks, outlined the progress the company made in 2010, as well as providing insight into where the mobile industry will focus in 2011. In particular, Suri highlighted the industry’s shift in focus to customer experience in an increasingly complex ecosystem.

“It isn’t news anymore that the mobile data explosion continues to accelerate, but while our competitors are still focused merely on volume, we have shifted to address complexity,” Suri said. “We continue to lead the industry in smart networks, and this year we’re showing how operators must use their end-to-end view of people’s connectivity to add value and bring an overall better experience.”

Suri outlined the challenges facing mobile operators as they deal with ever-increasing complexity, including a huge number of different access networks, multi-tasking devices, and applications.

“If you want to look at where operators will start to spend more money, just look to the world of customer experience. When we survey our customers, more than 82% list improving customer experience as their highest priority.”

The advantages Nokia Siemens Networks says it can bring to these operators include managing network quality end-to-end and, more importantly, guaranteeing the service level for any given application. This opens up opportunities for operators to partner with content providers to generate incremental revenue streams, it says.

At a tactical level, Suri explained that in 2011 the company’s Smart Labs in Helsinki, Dallas, Madrid and Seoul will continue to be vital for testing all major smart devices, operating systems and application types, managing customer experience and operator expectations.

In addition, as markets with limited spectrum look towards 4G, Suri highlighted the role TD-LTE will play. “If you look at how to deliver mobile broadband, there is a huge amount of unpaired spectrum available, and new TD bands will open as frequencies are freed-up. While TD-LTE has its roots in China, it is very much a global technology. The right band is now licensed for TD-LTE in around 40 countries and the ecosystem is clearly accelerating.”

In reviewing accomplishments over the last year in the company’s three strategic focus areas – mobile broadband, managed services and subscriber centric solutions – Suri  outlined the progress the company has made.

In mobile broadband, Nokia Siemens Networks says it won more deals with more customers than any of its competitors, and pioneered new technologies such as iHSPA, Long Term HSPA Evolution, and LTE Self-Organizing Networks. In 2010 it won 25 new 3G customers, more than any other vendor, and has the highest number of WCDMA customers at 193, positioning it strongly in a market not expected to peak until 2020. In LTE, Nokia Siemens Networks has signed 31 commercial contracts to date, again the most in the industry, it says.

For three years in a row the company says it has recorded strong growth in Managed Services, with 65 new contracts in 2010. In Subscriber-centric Solutions, the company says its performance has been good, growing in key areas such as insight and experience (which includes subscriber data management) and security.

MWC – Ericsson, Verizon Wireless and Samsung demonstrate Voice over LTE

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Today at Mobile World Congress, Ericsson, Verizon Wireless and Samsung made one of the world’s first LTE voice calls over a smartphone with an IMS client for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) according to GSMA specifications. The calls were carried out over Ericsson’s LTE demonstration network based on commercial products and using Samsung’s 4G LTE smartphone, which will be available through Verizon Wireless in the United States later this year.

VoLTE is said to be designed to provide consumers and users with rich communications services and outstanding call quality.  The demonstrations are said to be among the many steps toward commercial availability of interoperable, global devices and network infrastructure supporting voice services over LTE

Based on established industry standards, VoLTE will give network operators the ability to offer enhanced voice services on LTE networks globally.  Consumers benefit from additional mobile services such as presence, video and chat, which can be available from any device, location or service provider in both mobile and fixed broadband data networks

“Today’s demonstrations are important because operators need to start making strategic decisions about how to maintain and develop their current voice and SMS businesses when launching LTE mobile broadband networks,” said Johan Wibergh, Head of Ericsson’s Business Unit Networks. “VoLTE allows operators to provide telecom grade voice services, along with enriched multimedia services, using an interoperable, global standard.”

“Verizon Wireless has always been an innovator in the technology industry, and VoLTE is the most recent example,” said Tony Melone, chief technology officer, Verizon.  “We’re working hard this year on this technology and expect to have commercial VoLTE services available in 2012.”

“Samsung is proud to have played a key role in today’s successful trial and demonstration of the power, speed and connectivity of voice over LTE communications,” said Tom Jasny, vice president of 4G and mobile broadband for Samsung Mobile. “Samsung has made a significant investment in the development of both LTE-enabled devices and LTE infrastructure and it is gratifying to see our commitment to 4G innovation come to fruition.”

The solution for providing VoLTE includes LTE radio access equipment as well as Evolved Packet Core, policy control, Multimedia Telephony (MMTel) deployed in the IMS core as service engine for voice over LTE and fixed services.

MWC – Juniper Networks and Bridgewater to partner on end-to-end mobile packet core solution

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MWC – Bridgewater Systems, specialist in intelligent broadband controls, today announced that Juniper Networks  will resell Bridgewater’s complete control plane portfolio globally, as an integral component of Juniper’s MobileNext, the industry’s first open mobile core for 2G/3G and LTE networks.

Juniper Networks has selected Bridgewater’s intelligent broadband controls suite including the Bridgewater Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and Bridgewater Policy Controller/PCRF, both anchored by Bridgewater’s Subscriber Data Broker (SPR), as part of its MobileNext open mobile core solution for 2G, 3G, and LTE.

The Bridgewater portfolio also includes Bridgewater’s unique control-plane-in-a-box solution – EPC 500 – a pre-integrated network system that includes HSS, PCRF and Subscriber Data Broker and is designed to accelerate time-to-market for LTE trials and commercial deployments.

This partnership will yield best-of-breed, end-to-end mobile packet core solutions that allow mobile operators to optimize existing 3G networks, migrate networks to 4G, and innovate with new services using Bridgewater’s intelligent broadband control solutions.

The partnership will strengthen Juniper Networks 3G and LTE mobile packet core offer with the industry’s most comprehensive pre-integrated control plane solution offering proven scalability, performance, and market-leading functionality that helps operators drive revenue growth while simultaneously supporting ever-increasing mobile data growth.
 

Mike Marcellin, Vice President Product Marketing and Strategy, Juniper Networks
“Mobile operators need a highly-scalable and efficient packet core to meet the pressure to scale bandwidth and drive profitability. Our comprehensive mobile portfolio coupled with our partnership with Bridgewater, enable mobile operators to deploy 3G today and transform seamlessly to 4G/LTE.”

David Sharpley, Senior Vice President, Bridgewater Systems added: “Bridgewater is pleased to partner with Juniper as it delivers innovative, high-performance packet core solutions to mobile service providers worldwide. Juniper’s selection of Bridgewater’s PCRF and HSS validates our market and product leadership in comprehensive, carrier-grade intelligent broadband control solutions.”

MWC – Myriad enables mobile social networking for non-data users

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MWC – Myriad Group, a global specialist in mobile technology having shipped over 3.7 billion software applications on more than 2.2 billion phones, today announces the launch of Myriad Updates, a new text-based social networking service that makes mobile social networking, IM and email accessible to mass-market phone users. Myriad’s Xumii platform is the first of its kind to enable operators to offer social networking services over USSD and SMS, creating new opportunities to reach an untapped market of over 4 billion consumers worldwide.

Myriad Updates uses the Xumii platform that powers services for Telefónica and other major operators. This enables deployment in just a matter of weeks, allowing operators the opportunity to monetize data services in a new way that is complementary to existing data offerings, and is open to all subscribers.

Using short codes through any mobile phone, subscribers who have no access to data can now connect to their favorite social networks, and stay in touch with their friends on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr via Myriad Updates. The Xumii platform aggregates the most popular social networks into one single, operator-branded environment and enables subscribers to stay connected to these social networks without a data subscription and no need to download or install an application.

As mobile ownership is approximately three times higher than PC ownership in many developing countries (On Device Research Dec. 2010) and mobile social networking is on the rise with an expected one billion users by 2012 (eMarketer 2010), operators can now monetize this market with Myriad Updates by opening up social networking capabilities to all mobile subscribers.

“Hot on the heels of our partnership with Telefónica, Myriad will continue to react quickly to rising market demand to further expand the addressable market for operators. Through Myriad Updates, operators can enable mobile users with no access to data services, to connect with each other and the world around them for the first time,” commented Simon Wilkinson, Myriad CEO. 

As part of Myriad’s recent Telefónica partnership to provide mobile social networking services to Telefónica’s Movistar and Vivo brands, Myriad Xumii services will be made available to Telefónica’s 140 million subscribers across 13 countries in Latin America.

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