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NewNet Communication Technologies acquires 3ple-Media

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NewNet Communication Technologies, a Skyview Capital portfolio company and specialist in mobile messaging and network signaling solutions for wireless, IP, and wireline networks, today announced it has successfully completed the acquisition of 3ple-Media, BV.  Headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands, 3ple-Media provides  multi-media messaging solutions to wireless carriers worldwide.

3ple-Media’s Mercury platform enables carriers to implement cost effective, media rich, campaigns such as live media broadcast, mobile advertising, streaming video and premium content subscription services. Optimized for multimedia messaging, Mercury is said to deliver ‘unsurpassed performance and scalability’ in a carrier grade platform, allowing carriers to capitalize on revenue generating multimedia opportunities.

Mercury’s advanced service compilation layer supports rapid development of multimedia campaigns, such as mobile advertising and streaming media services that enrich the subscriber’s experience. Carriers are in full control of content creation and can launch highly effective campaigns supported by sophisticated platform services and analysis tools.

3ple-media’s globally deployed employees will become part of NewNet’s team, ensuring business and product development continuity.

NewNet’s CEO, Ron Pyles, said: “Our acquisition of 3ple-media will enable NewNet to offer an advanced next-generation messaging solution to service providers, enhancing our competitive position and accelerating our commercial growth.” Pyles continued, “NewNet is committed to providing best in breed products and unrivaled service and support to our customers. The Mercury platform will enable carriers to achieve greater subscriber satisfaction. The transfer of the entire 3ple-media team assures a seamless transition.”

“We are excited that NewNet has emerged to take the business we have built to its next stage through continued investment in the Mercury platform and aggressive marketing on a global basis.” said Costi Manda, Managing Director, CTO and co-founder of 3ple-Media.  “NewNet’s industry presence and seasoned management team will enable the business to advance development plans and fully capitalize on the current demand for multimedia services.”

“The acquisition of 3ple-media is strategically important to the continued development of NewNet Communication Technologies” said Alex Soltani, Chairman and CEO of Skyview Capital. “We will continue to make needed investments to expand NewNet’s product portfolio and market reach, positioning NewNet for exceptional future growth.”

The effective date of the agreement was September 29th 2010. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Twenty-three African, Asian and European operators adopt data roaming solution

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Comfone, a specialist in roaming and hub service technology, today announced that 23 new mobile network operator  customers from across Africa, Asia and Europe, have joined its new Data Roaming Solution on its Key2roam Hub. In addition to the new, fully operational customers implemented since the data solution was launched in May, more than 25 other networks are currently being added to the solution, with a growing number of further contracts being signed, says Comfone.

By embedding its new Data Roaming Solution on its Key2roam Hub, Comfone says it has taken the major step of extending the hubbing principle to data roaming. As a result, with all data roaming traffic now centralised on the hub, the set-up and maintenance of data roaming relations is simplified and the operator’s involvement is minimised to service and system debugging and troubleshooting within their own network.

Markus Bigler, Comfone’s Senior Product Manager Hubbing, commented, “As we expected, the need for a simplified Data Roaming Solution is prevalent and operators are more than happy to be relieved of the need to manage their own complex data roaming set-ups. Our numerous roaming connections, which are now live and carrying data traffic, are working very reliably. Based on our long-standing experience with hubs, we can support operators with all their complex data roaming challenges and, with our Data Roaming Solution on Key2roam, offer them an excellent platform on which to manage all their data roaming issues.”

Analysis of recent GPRS traffic on Key2roam is claimed to show a clear increase in data roaming traffic, compared to voice and SMS. GPRS traffic is, therefore, generating an ever increasing percentage of the roaming revenues, which, in certain relations, can be as high as 40%, says Comfone. Besides the popularity of such data-bearing services as Blackberry’s support for email, mobile Internet access enabled by the plethora of smart phones entering the market offers huge potential for the generation of data roaming revenues. With average session times of around three quarters of an hour becoming the norm, these trends underscore industry forecasts emphasising that increases in data roaming traffic will result in substantial increases in roaming revenue, it says.

Colibria integrates Funambol’s SyncML-based mobile cloud software in RCS and Address Book offering

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Funambol, an open source mobile cloud company, and Colibria, a SIP/IMS presence and messaging specialist, today announced that Colibria will integrate Funambol’s mobile cloud software into its Rich Communication Suite (RCS) offering and forthcoming Network Address Book (NAB).

Colibria already delivers key application elements of the RCS such as ‘Presence’, ‘Instant Messaging’ and the XDMS enabler. By supplementing its RCS application suite with Funambol’s SyncML-based mobile cloud software, Colibria says it provides its customers, and partners, with a more comprehensive RCS solution and makes it easier to offer RCS services to end users.

Colibria will also enhance Funambol’s mobile cloud address book capabilities by integrating it with Colibria’s XDM servers to offer a NAB that is compliant with the upcoming Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Converged Address Book (CAB) enabler. The Colibria NAB will include features such as contact view sharing, automatic contact updates between users, and discovery of common social network and internet communities, it will also facilitate integration with external networks. The NAB will be a cornerstone in delivering contact management seamlessly integrated with a presence-enabled address book, as well as providing smooth integration with end users’ social networks.

Arild Nilsen, Colibria CTO, said, “End users are demanding more services unified around a centralised address book. The Colibria and Funambol partnership promotes the vision of a network-enabled contact repository, providing the launch pad for interaction with various social communities, including external social networks, accessible from any device at any time.”

“We are seeing exciting new communication on mobile phones that integrate voice, data, video and media from social networks and email systems, but the fundamental building block for all these services remains contact information,” said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO. “Our open source-based mobile cloud sync software is being integrated with Colibria’s products to provide a comprehensive RCS platform for converged communication.”

Colibria says that by providing automated contact network updates and discovery of common external social networks, as well as external social network integration, the value of the RCS service for the end user will be fundamentally enriched.

Muzicall and Warner Music announce pan-European ringback tone partnership

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Muzicall, European provider of ringback tone (RBT) services, has signed a pan-European deal with Warner Music Group to make the record company’s catalogue of music available as ringback tones to mobile phone users. Ringback tones enable mobile phone users to replace the ‘ring ring’ their callers hear with another sound, typically a piece of music. Muzicall’s deal with Warner Music Group will allow ringback tone customers to play music from Warner Music Group’s roster of global talent.

“Ringback tones are a great illustration of how technology can combine promotion and commerce in one service. In Asia particularly we’ve already seen how powerful they can be in driving discovery of new music and monetising the mobile space. We are delighted to be forging this partnership with Muzicall, as they have the expertise, infrastructure and ambition to help us grow European fans’ appetite for this type of personalisation product.” said Leanne Sharman, Vice President, Commercial Development, Warner Music Europe.

Muzicall says the deal with Warner Music Group comes as ringback tones become increasingly popular in Europe with Muzicall having grown the customer numbers across its managed services by over 300 per cent in the last 12 months. Muzicall anticipates that the expanded choice of music available to play as ringback tones will help increase customers still further, towards the levels of popularity seen elsewhere in the world. For example in some parts of Asia, 50 per cent of people have ringback tones on their mobile phones.

“There has been a surge in interest in Europe for ringback tones and we hope that the addition of Warner Music Group’s substantial and prestigious catalogue of artists will help boost that popularity still further,” said Pacome Lesage, VP Product and Business Management of Muzicall. “Ringback tones enable customers to personalise their phone calls in a unique way so that they select a range of artists to play to different callers. This ability to tailor the experience to each caller means that ringback tones will appeal to a wide audience of very passionate people.”

Unlike ringtones, ringback tones are not downloaded by the consumer to their handset. Instead, a customer’s ringback tones reside on the server of his or her mobile phone operator. This ensures that ringback tones cannot be pirated, which makes it an ideal channel for the music industry. Ringback tones typically consist of music, however, the customer can also choose from movie clips, TV show theme tunes, sound effects and numerous other sounds. Customers can have an unlimited amount of tunes in their collection with the ability to assign a tune to different callers.

When targeted ads don’t hit the target

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If you’re going to make a big deal about delivering ads only to those people who have opted to receive them, then you better make sure that is what is happening.

On Friday last week, O2 Media released the news that L’Oreal and Starbucks were using the location technology of Placecast, allied to O2’s customer opt-in service O2 More.

The release itself would leave you in little doubt about how O2 saw the service. Here’s some selected quotes that highlight that this service is a) opt-in and b)targeted and personal:

“enabling brands to deliver relevant SMS and MMS to consumers in a more targeted, engaging and effective way than ever before“

“the six-month trial, which relies on consumers opting into the service to receive relevant messages dependent on their age, gender, interests and for the first time, their location“

“It enables brands to target their audiences better than ever before and give consumers relevant and targeted information and offers.”

“When opted-in O2 More customers are found to be within a geo-fenced area owned by Starbucks, those interested in food and drink receive an SMS offering them money off Starbucks VIA Ready Brew at a nearby branch”

“O2 does not spam its customers with irrelevant or frequent SMS or MMS”

There’s enough there I think, to make the point. The service is opt-in, targeted and relevant.

So how is it then that a colleague who has never opted in to O2 More received an MMS from Starbucks offering him 50% off Starbucks VIA products – the exact offer O2 Offers is making in this trial. And when I Tweeted this had happened, one follower got back to say he’d had the same thing. Neither user had, to the best of their knowledge, ever signed up to O2 More, or ticked anything relating to it. One of them doesn’t even like coffee (I’ve since unfollowed him, obviously, for that sin).

So, then, I called O2’s press office to ask if it was aware of other instances, and whether they could look into the matter.

O2 said it knew of no other problems at that point, and would look into it. So far, though, no news. It’s possible that the users did sign up somehow without knowing it – but that seems unlikely that both managed to do so. It also seems unlikely that I have stumbled upon the only two people in the whole of O2’s customer base to have received messages that they shouldn’t have. Advice from @O2 on Twitter was to text STOP, etc. But the point is, this was supposed to be an opt-in, targeted service. It was also sold to the brands as that, I’m guessing.

Now, I’m not writing this just for the sake of bashing O2. I want to see operators succeed in such services, and think there’s a great case to be made for them to do so. But this kind of thing can be (can be, I stress, it’s not nailed on) damaging. It annoys users and might make them think twice about trusting their operator with their data. And if it gets back to the brands that O2 has indeed, albeit unwittingly, spamming users, then that’s not good either.

I don’t want to make a huge deal of what might just be isolated incidents. And I appreciate there are worse things than being offered a half price coffee from Starbucks (like, being offered a free one, as the old joke goes). I just think it’s incumbent on operators to get this sort of thing right from the off, because consumer iD and data is going to be so critical to future business models for all of us in this industry.

Now I’m off for a coffee. Because I’m worth it.

 

Keynote Systems announces Mobile Web Perspective 5.0 for monitoring mobile sites

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Keynote Systems, a global specialist in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring, today announced Keynote Mobile Web Perspective 5.0 (formerly known as Mobile Application Perspective).  Keynote Mobile Web Perspective (MWP) 5.0 allows Web operations teams to monitor 24/7 the availability, performance and quality of their mobile Web content from 50 global locations. 

Keynote MWP 5.0 is powered by the actual WebKit browser engine allowing precise and accurate emulation of 11,000 device profiles, including the latest smartphones.  The new version of MWP introduces self-service scripting and provisioning so that Web operations teams can quickly deploy new monitoring scripts to keep tabs on their mobile Web sites and meet the increasing expectations for quality demanded by today’s mobile users.  Enterprises moving to the mobile Web with 3rd party partners, platforms and content providers will benefit from MWP’s 24/7 monitoring capabilities to ensure that service level agreements are being met.

Keynote MWP 5.0 simulates the multi-threaded behavior of a mobile browser for specific requesting devices and therefore can accurately simulate the download process on a true mobile browser. Scripting is done with point-and-click ease using Keynote’s free tool called MITE or Mobile Internet Testing Environment. The user simply clicks on the ‘record’ icon and enters a starting URL and selects a device profile.  The user can then capture all of the interactions with the mobile Web site, adding custom validation checks along the way.

“The lines between Web performance and mobile performance are blurring as an increasing amount of Web content, applications and services are being accessed from mobile devices,” said Vik Chaudhary, vice president of product management and corporate development at Keynote.  “As good mobile availability, performance and quality have becomes must-haves, operations and quality assurance teams need access to cutting-edge tools designed for the mobile world that allow them to understand and optimise experience for the mobile user. Keynote MWP 5.0 answers the call.”

With Keynote Mobile Web Perspective (MWP) 5.0, users can monitor the availability, response time and quality of any mobile Web site by emulating any smartphone or feature phone.  Complex use cases that combine navigating Web sites on a desktop or mobile device and sending/receiving SMS messages can be monitored using MWP.  Companies can even set instant alerts to quickly inform key members of the operations team who can then address issues and minimise their impact.

MWP 5.0 uses Keynote’s global test and measurement network to monitor the response time, availability, and quality of content from an end user’s perspective.  With MWP, IT staff can create a baseline and benchmark against competitors to understand how to build a more compelling and responsive experience, pinpoint areas to improve and enhance end user experience.

Squire Technologies launches new prepaid/postpaid wholesale billing solution

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Squire Technologies has announced it has developed a new ‘Component Release’ SVI-Billing Module.
 

Designed specifically to meet the needs of small to medium sized TDM and VoIP operators the SVI-Billing Module is said to have been developed with flexibility, usability and scalability in mind. The solution is a carrier grade wholesale billing and management platform that enables the launch, price and provision of Pre and Post Paid wholesale services.

Bulk importing of existing Number Plans/Tariffs & payment details allows for seamless integration into existing structures while the export of fully customised ‘white label’ invoicing and adaptable reporting allows carriers to strategically and efficiently manage the entire process.

With hugely flexible configurations, the intuitive Web based Graphic User Interface (GUI) helps multiple users develop and adapt strategic call plans while, being web based users are also able to manage remotely.

The SVI-Billing Module also provides easy access to highly detailed information making the analysis and identification of trends simple and highly efficient. Due to the value of this data the security features ensure the system remains completely secure, says Squire.

Allot Communications selects Continuous Computing on traffic management

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Continuous Computing, a global provider of integrated platform solutions, today announced that Allot Communications is using its packet processing and switch technology to enable the Allot Service Gateway Sigma (SG-Sigma) platform. Allot is a supplier of service optimization and revenue generation solutions for fixed and mobile broadband service providers worldwide.

The Allot SG-Sigma is a carrier-grade platform with 60Gbps of throughput. It integrates network intelligence, policy control and revenue-generating services in a single solution for Tier 1 and Tier 2 broadband carriers and Internet Service Providers. SG-Sigma combines a full complement of advanced traffic management capabilities as well as a variety of value-added network and subscriber services which are designed to be deployed in the platform to lower costs, improve service performance and enhance the user experience.

Continuous Computing’s FlexPacket ATCA-PP50 packet processing blade and FlexCore ACTA-FM40 switch are part of the carrier-grade platform underpinning the  Allot SG-Sigma. The PP50 is a high density, highly efficient processing blade that couples with the FM40’s advanced switch-based load balancing capabilities.

Andrei Elefant, vice president of product management and marketing for Allot Communications, said, “Networks around the world are filling up with a wide variety of data types, and operators need intelligent and powerful traffic management solutions to cope, differentiate and thrive. Continuous Computing helps Allot deliver on this market need. Its proven ATCA packet-processing products and strong switching empower us to address operators’ traffic management needs quickly and cost-effectively.”

“Allot’s choice of Continuous Computing technology for its ATCA-based SG-Sigma continues the highly productive relationship between our two companies,” said Mike Coward, chief technology officer and co-founder of Continuous Computing. “Packet-processing plays an increasingly important role in network traffic management, enabling operators to retain customers, offer new services and stay in business. Continuous Computing’s proven packet processing expertise and understanding makes us the trusted partner of choice for vendors like Allot who want to bring to market reliable solutions capable of meeting the network challenges that operators face today.”

Nokia Siemens Networks unveils ‘world’s lowest power-consuming server’ for mobile operators

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Nokia Siemens Networks has launched its new Flexi NS (Network Server). The packet core network server has the lowest power consumption in the market, consuming only 59 watts per 100,000 subscribers. Flexi NS also allows operators to serve more smart device users, due to its signal handling capacity. The new Flexi NS will be available for commercial deployment by the end of 2010.

“With the increasing adoption of smart devices, operators are required to reduce power consumption and handle an ever growing signaling load, while still providing an enhanced user experience,” said Petri Pöyhönen, head of converged internet connectivity at Nokia Siemens Networks. “Our new Flexi NS not only addresses these issues, but also helps operators lower investment, as a single network server allows them to serve more smart device users.”

The energy-efficient Flexi NS will work both as SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) for 2G/3G/HSPA networks and as MME (Mobility Management Entity) for LTE. It is based on the industry-standard ATCA-based platform that applies the latest hardware technology advancements. This will ensure operational synergies for network operators, while enhancing Nokia Siemens Networks’ portfolio of open and cost-effective packet core network elements. The product is fully compliant with 3GPP Release 8 specifications.

 

Tekelec launches Diameter Signaling Router for 3G, LTE and IMS-based data networks

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Tekelec, a broadband data management company, today launched its new Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) designed to help operators cost effectively scale and manage services and applications on 3G and all-IP LTE and IMS networks.  The DSR is said to reduce the complexity of connecting, provisioning and interoperating essential Diameter-based equipment.  Diameter is a key next-generation signaling protocol for the all-IP network, carrying policy, charging, mobility management, and authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) traffic.

By providing a single connection point for all Diameter traffic, the DSR centralizes Diameter routing, signaling traffic management and load-balancing tasks.  The DSR also supports the Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) functionality as defined in 3GPP.  Specific use cases include:

 *   Providing the framework to manage in-network and out-of-network roaming (from 2G/3G to LTE or LTE-to-LTE)
 *   Scaling any Diameter-based network – including scaling policy, charging, Home Subscriber Service (HSS), and IMS deployments
 *   Diameter message mediation to enable interworking between disparate islands of Diameter implementations
 *   Network defense against potential overloads or attacks of Diameter signaling messages

The solution has already been selected by MetroPCS, the first U.S. LTE network.

“Diameter traffic will accelerate quickly with the proliferation of LTE and IMS network build outs which could create congestion, scalability and interoperability issues at the signaling layer,” said Brian Partridge, vice president of Yankee Group’s Anywhere Network team.  “Just as it has with SS7, Tekelec’s goal is to establish a leadership role as a key provider of the next generation of signaling infrastructure.”

DSR also integrates with Tekelec’s performance management solution, the Performance Intelligence Center, to analyze network, subscriber and service activity.  This synergy eliminates the need for extra probes and layers of equipment, while giving operators insight into how subscribers are taking advantage of new IP-enabled devices and applications.

“A full Diameter ecosystem gives operators both the infrastructure and the intelligence to scale and innovate by leveraging a common language with which the network communicates,” said Ron de Lange, executive vice president, Global Product Solutions at Tekelec.  “The Diameter Signaling Router enables Tekelec to further expand our footprint in Diameter deployments, building upon our success with the Diameter-based Camiant policy management deployments.”

The Diameter Signaling Router channels all Diameter traffic to and from LTE and IMS endpoints, and will scale to hundreds of millions of subscribers to support the world’s largest networks, it says.

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