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BT announces free Wi-Fi access with new smartphone app

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BT today announced a new free mobile application that will automatically connect customers to its network of 1.6 million Wi-Fi hotspots.  To celebrate the launch, BT says it is giving 50p to BBC Children in Need for each free BT FON application downloaded, until they reach a target of £10,000.

Users with an iPhone or Android device can download the free application today from the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. The application gives BT Total Broadband customers mobile access to free and unlimited Wi-Fi and includes a mapping service which is updated weekly so that customers can find their nearest hotspot.

Once BT customers have downloaded the app, they input their btinternet email username and password, and choose to be automatically logged in whenever they are in a BT Wi-Fi area. Because access is unlimited and free for BT Total Broadband customers there’s no chance of them racking up extra costs on their mobile phone bill, says BT.
 
BT’s Wi-Fi network is the biggest in the UK – made up of BT Openzone and BT FON hotspots – and all BT Total Broadband customers have free and unlimited access.  BT Openzone is a Wi-Fi service that can be accessed in places such as airports, hotels, coffee shops, motorway service stations and city centres.

John Petter, managing director, for BT Retail Consumer, said: “Millions of BT Total Broadband customers already get free access to the UK’s biggest Wi-Fi network. This free app makes accessing Wi-Fi so simple you don’t even have to think about it. This represents real value to our customers at a time when more and more people are using their mobile phone to access the internet. By downloading it now customers can also help BBC Children in Need.”

GSMA reveals new developments for Mobile World Congress 2011

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The GSMA today announced several new developments for the 2011 GSMA Mobile World Congress, which will be held 14-17 February, 2011 in Barcelona.

Building on the success of the inaugural App Planet event held in 2010, the GSMA is expanding the developer-focused programme at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2011 to include new elements such as Macworld Mobile and the Brand App Challenge. The GSMA also announced RIM and Palm as the first Application Developer Conference (ADC) partners for App Planet.  Finally, the GSMA announced that the CEOs of América Móvil, HTC, Vodafone and WPP have joined the list of industry leaders delivering keynote presentations at Mobile World Congress.

“App Planet proved to be a stunning success in its debut this year at Mobile World Congress, demonstrating the tremendous demand for in-depth content, networking and business development opportunities and information on the cutting-edge technologies and solutions in the mobile application space,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer, GSMA.  “The developments we are announcing today, particularly the launch of Macworld Mobile which will target the critical Apple developer community, will serve to make App Planet and Mobile World Congress the epicentre for the app world.”

At Mobile World Congress 2011, the GSMA is partnering with IDG World Expo, organisers of Macworld, the world’s premiere event focused exclusively on the Apple products platform, to produce Macworld Mobile, a mobile developer event for the Apple iPhone and iPad platforms.  The Macworld Mobile iOS Developer Conference will provide full-day, in-depth training on this critical platform, with technical sessions, targeting tools and applications specifically designed for mobile application developers and engineers.

“We’re excited to bring Macworld Mobile to Mobile World Congress,” said Mary Dolaher, chief executive officer of IDG World Expo, a leading producer of tradeshows and events.  “Macworld is known around the world for helping to drive and stimulate the Apple products community with educational programmes and business development activities. At Mobile World Congress, we will help international iOS developers to strengthen their skills, as well as facilitate connections with other developers and the worldwide audience of mobile decision makers who attend.”

In addition to the key components of last year’s event, including ADCs held by major mobile platform providers, an interactive exhibition and the App Lounge to facilitate networking and business development activities, App Planet will also feature new elements including the Brand App Challenge. The GSMA expects more than 10,000 developers to visit App Planet during the four days of Mobile World Congress.

Brand App Challenge
The GSMA is creating a competition focused on mobile application developers creating “brand apps” for a select number of global consumer brands. Developers will compete by creating customised mobile apps for the participating brand sponsors based on the objectives and guidance provided by the individual brands. The primary goals of the Brand App Challenge are to create networking and business opportunities which benefit the brands, application developers and the broader mobile ecosystem, as well as to tap the creativity and capabilities of the mobile application developer community to address brand and industry challenges.

The competition will begin in October with the finalists being named approximately one month before Mobile World Congress 2011. The Brand App Challenge winners will be announced as part of the Mobile World Congress conference programme and will receive cash awards for their winning efforts.

App Planet ADC Partners
The GSMA announced that Research in Motion (RIM) has again signed on as a key partner for App Planet, and will be focusing company’s entire Mobile World Congress presence in App Planet, located in Hall 7 at the Fira de Barcelona.  In addition to a 1,200 square metre exhibition, RIM will be hosting an ADC for 500 BlackBerry developers on Tuesday, 15th February, 2011.

Palm will also be an App Planet ADC partner and will be holding a full-day ADC on Wednesday, 16th February, 2011.

New Keynote Speakers for Mobile World Congress 2011 The GSMA continues to expand the stellar line up of keynote speakers at Mobile World Congress and today announced that CEOs from leading companies including América Móvil, HTC, WPP, and Vodafone will be taking the stage in Barcelona. New Mobile World Congress keynote speakers include:

•         Daniel Hajj, CEO, América Móvil and Telcel

•         Peter Chou, CEO, HTC

•         Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive, Vodafone

•         Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive, WPP

Previously announced speakers include:

•         Randall Stephenson, Chairman, CEO and President, AT&T

•         Li Yue, President and CEO, China Mobile

•         Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google

•         Paul Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, Qualcomm

•         Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square

•         Evan Williams, CEO, Twitter

GSMA Ministerial Programme
The GSMA also announced that Saudi Telecom is the Platinum Sponsor and that Qualcomm is the Gold Sponsor for the GSMA Ministerial Programme at Mobile World Congress.  Now in its sixth year, the GSMA’s Ministerial Programme is a unique invitation-only event gathering ministers, regulators from over 90 countries  and CEOs from across the mobile industry for a series of in-depth strategic, policy and regulatory discussions, and bilateral meetings, over three days during Mobile World Congress.

Subex helps Telekom Slovenije address ‘Bill Shock’

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Subex, a global provider of Operations and Business Support Systems, announced today that it has successfully helped Telekom Slovenije implement a solution to protect its customers from ‘Bill Shock.’

The risk of Bill Shock has increased because individuals and businesses are using a growing range of telecoms services. In Slovenia, the government has directed all operators to alert their customers of potentially high telecoms bills in a timely way.

Subex’s ROC Fraud Management was implemented at Telekom Slovenije in late 2009. This solution is said to have helped the service provider to assess usage patterns among subscribers quickly and, in turn, provide it with the intelligence and analysis to select the subscribers that need to be warned.

The CEMM (Credit Exposure Management Module) of Subex’s ROC Fraud Management along with SAP’s Credit Risk solution has helped Telekom Slovenije create a dynamic credit risk limit for subscribers based on average usage for three months. Through detailed reporting and analysis the solution provides a clear view of any significant increase in the subscriber’s bill almost immediately, and thereby provides Telekom Slovenije enough time to warn their customer.

Mr. Tomaz Kraskovic, Director Finance Department at Telekom Slovenije said: “We take customer service very seriously and we want to avoid our customers receiving unexpectedly high bills. The Subex solution is flexible and allows us to quickly alert customers if we think they may be overspending on their phone bill.”

Paul Skillen, President – Europe, Middle-East and Africa, Subex added: “With an increasing range of services available to customers in Europe, bill shock reduction is an extremely sensitive and volatile issue for Communication Service Providers (CSPs). Service providers such as Telekom Slovenije understand the importance of positive customer experience and our solutions help them provide pro-active customer experience seamlessly and efficiently.”

Orga Systems’ NGCP said to process 12.000 diameter messages per second

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Orga Systems,  a specialist in real-time charging and billing, announced today that the benchmarked results of its convergent policy management solution NGCP provide ‘outstanding performance’ and provide MNOs with the ability to successfully profit from increasing usage of data services.

According to Orga, performance benchmarks of NGCP prove that the system processes up to 12.000 diameter messages per second running on an entry level UNIX server (T5220) with one CPU. Showing an average latency of 8msec, benefiting from its multithreading parallel processing, NGCP supports most efficient hardware utilization resulting in a processor load of less than 60%. The CPU load scales almost linear with throughput and gives operators a reliable reserve for peak load periods, says Orga. With its highly efficient design, NGCP is said to cope easily with rising demands in policy control and advanced charging scenarios. Its modular architecture is compliant to the latest 3GPP specifications and gives MNOs a future-proof platform for market growth, says Orga.

Orga Systems unifies policy management, active mediation and charging control on one single platform, helping operators to manage complex subscriber profiles and charging rules for all services across all networks for pre and postpaid subscribers. Real-time charging and policy management allow for the control of bandwidth-hungry applications, while at the same time generating additional revenues with new individualized service offerings, says Orga.

3D functionality and dual core processors to drive smartphone shipments to reach $94bn by 2015, says research

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A new report by Juniper Research has found that 3D functionality and other technology developments, such as the introduction of dual core processors, will drive the high–end smartphone market over the next five years.

Features associated with today’s smartphones, meanwhile, such as app store connectivity and touchscreens, will be present in over 80% of handsets shipped in the US by 2015. Western Europe and Far East & China are also demonstrating significant take-up says Juniper.

“The handset market will become increasingly polarised,” says Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper. “Handsets with smartphone functionality will account for the lion’s share of shipments in developed markets, while less developed economies will see a ready market for low cost handsets.”

However, several less developed markets, such as parts of Latin America and Africa, will all but miss out on the smartphone revolution.  Meanwhile the global mid-tier market, characterised by feature phones and standard handsets, will continue to contract, it says.

Further findings from the Next Generation Smartphones report include:

·         The take up of video calling using the mobile device will be limited even with the launch of Facetime by Apple

·         Competition will drive smartphone pricing down, though this may be mitigated against by the launch of handsets with new functionality

·         The combination of the smartphone and the app store will result in substantial increases in data usage over the smartphone device

The report finds that Apple’s operating system has revolutionised the market, leaving several well-known players in its wake. The challenge for the likes of Nokia, Research in Motion and Microsoft  is not only to bring new operating systems to the table as quickly as possible, but also to make sure that developers create apps for them when there are two successful stores out there already, says Juniper.

Wireless Logic SIM provisioning platform gets £1 million upgrade

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European independent M2M connectivity provider, Wireless Logic, is to invest over £1 million in upgrades to SIMPro, its SIM card provisioning platform, which currently manages and monitors hundreds of thousands of active customer SIM cards across the UK and Europe.

The million pound investment will now see SIMPro enhanced and developed over the course of the next 18 months to help reduce support costs for SIs and to offer new services such as real-time data visual display, data-mining and disaster recovery, many of which could be available as soon as October of this year.

Developed and launched by Wireless Logic in 2007, SIMPro is said to be used by over 400 of the company’s 600 systems integrators across Europe who benefit from the platform’s ability to manage entire SIM estates across multiple mobile networks over one single platform.

Phil Cole, Wireless Logic’s co-founder and Sales Director, believes the platform’s ‘One Window’ view is becoming an essential tool for SIs managing large SIM estates who may be haemorrhaging profit through an inability to manage and monitor SIM estates over multiple networks.

“Many systems integrators managing M2M projects with multiple network partners find it difficult to manage their estate of SIMs, especially as the numbers increase. Many redundant connections remain active and can prove costly over time. Performance is also an issue – the quicker a problem is identified, the quicker it can be rectified. SIMPro uses a single view across the entire estate – regardless of network – all on one platform. For the first time, SIs can see where they can reduce costs, make efficiencies and now, with a raft of new features planned, they can make even greater savings.”

Some of SIMPro’s new features will include real-time GPRS monitoring and analysis, AT Command Device Management which removes call out costs, and SIMDev. SIMDev is a platform which allows SIs to develop applications separately to legacy systems; allowing development of Android, Windows or Bada applications without the need for extortionate development costs. Using SIMDev, SIs can bring new applications to market quickly, says Wireless Logic.

Cole added: “Users of SIMPro tell us that it is the most effective way to gain a global view of the entire estate of SIM cards, across many operators and countries, terminated through one VPN. With this additional investment, we’re looking forward to giving users even more value through innovative analytics and cost-saving support tools.”

Telmap announces commercial launch of Telmap5 in Europe

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Telmap today announced the launch of the Telmap5 Mobile Location Companion, commercialized by SFR in France under the name SFR GPS.

The new location companion is said to be the next generation of SFR’s existing Find & Go service (also powered by Telmap) and in addition to the complete navigation offering, Telmap says it has added several new features:

A ‘unique’ widget carousel which enables quick and focused access to nearby information from any screen within the application. Using the widget carousel, customers can quickly and easily find whatever they are looking for: The nearest Velib bike rental station or SFR shop, parking, hospitals, ATM’s and more all by simply clicking on the relevant widget on the carousel; An intuitive free-text search that enables users to access millions of points of interest from a variety of content providers and categorizes the results to ensure their relevance to the user; A new and improved map-centric user-interface which places users at the centre of the map enabling them to make the most of their surroundings.

SFR GPS is available on the BlackBerry Curve 9300 and 8900 and on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and 9000;  it will be available shortly afterwards on additional smartphones.  SFR customers have free access to the application for local search, mapping and pedestrian navigation and for a monthly subscription, customers can also benefit from complete turn-by-turn in-car navigation.

“This is the next step in our commitment to enable SFR to drive customer loyalty by bringing true value to their end-users through a differentiated offering that answers customer’s day-to-day needs,” says Oren Nissim, Telmap CEO.  “By constantly identifying new consumer trends, we will continue to enhance SFR GPS with additional content and services in the future.”

AT4 wireless introduces MIMO 4×2 capabilities in the E2010 Broadband Wireless Test Set

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AT4 wireless has announced the commercial availability of the LTE Rel-8 MIMO 4×2 option in its E2010 Broadband Wireless Test Set. The introduction of this option in the E2010, together with the already existing VSA capabilities, embedded channel emulation and AWGN and the multi-cell, multi-RAT capabilities, makes it a unique solution in the wireless test equipment industry.

According to 3GPP specifications, MIMO 4×2 feature is mandatory to be supported by LTE Rel-8 compliant UEs. Early availability of this feature in AT4 wireless S3110B LTE Mobile Test Application enables LTE UEs manufacturers to validate their designs for compliance to this demanding feature. Additionally, the MIMO 4×2 feature also translates into immediate availability all 3GPP TS 36.521-1 chapter 8 MIMO 4×2 test cases, that will be required as part of the GCF and PTCRB certification schemes. This allows AT4 wireless customers to start pre-certification of their designs as of today, providing enough time to debug potential issues and avoiding roadblocks during actual device certification.

“This new feature, together with the early availability of December’09 compliant LTE protocol stack in our system simulator, allows AT4 wireless to provide its customers with the most advanced testing tools when it comes to LTE UE verification and certification”, said Juan P Hidalgo, LTE Product Manager at AT4 wireless. “This annoucement also reinforces AT4 wireless commitment to provide the most compact test solution in the LTE testing arena, leveraging AT4 wireless customers’ investments.”

Vodafone Hungary selects FancyFon device management

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FancyFon, a specialist in mobile device management solutions for smartphones, today announced that Vodafone Hungary has selected FancyFon’s technology, FAMOC, to provide mobile device lifecycle management, both as a hosted and behind-the-firewall solution, for its business customers.

Vodafone Hungary required a centrally managed and secure mobile device management solution to support the evolving demands of its business customers. Vodafone Hungary issued an international tender for such a solution, and FAMOC was selected over and above competing US and European-based independent software vendors.

As a result, Vodafone Hungary now offers mobile device management to its business customers; from SMBs to large enterprises and government organizations. In addition, FAMOC will enable Vodafone Hungary to differentiate itself from its regional competitors, by offering its business customers with device management functionality and capabilities, under aggressively competitive commercial terms.

Dr. Gabor Piller, Director of Vodafone Hungary’s Enterprise Business Unit, commented; “As an early adopter of ground-breaking technology, Vodafone Hungary wanted to be the first to offer its customers mobile device management functionality, and after researching the various solutions on the market, we decided that FancyFon was by far the best.”

Dietmar Fuchs, COO at FancyFon added; “As increasing numbers of businesses demand advanced levels of support for their fleet of smartphones, service providers must respond to the market by offering a centralized mobile device management solution. FancyFon is perfectly placed to provide carriers with a market-leading platform that enables them to cater to this demand, and allows service providers to offer device management to their customer base at an attractive price point.”

FAMOC is said to have delivered a mobile device lifecycle management solution to Vodafone Hungary, enabling the carrier to offer each of its business customers a centrally managed platform from which to control its entire fleet of corporate smartphones, based on disparate mobile platforms, in real time, over the air.

Orange and T-Mobile offer combined network access

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Two networks, one access – first move to single network?

Everything Everywhere (EE), the combined entity formed from the merger of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK, has said that from October it will offer users access across the combined footprint of both networks.

From 5th October, 30 million customers – the combined customer base of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK – will be able to access both networks. Customers will have to register for access to the “other” network and EE’s plan is for registered to customers to be able to automatically be authenticated on the “other” network, if signal is lost on their existing network. Tom Alexander, CEO, said that the operators would also include access to WiFi and fixed network assets within one “super network”.

Of interest to industry watchers will be the news that EE is intending to use this network sharing as a form of crude traffic management and Quality of Service control. A statement from the company said, “Next year customers can expect benefits such as automatically switching to whichever of the two networks has the strongest signal while they’re mid-call, and enhanced data and internet coverage.”

Detecting network signal strength and performing a hand-off across networks proves that the companies have taken steps in the background to integrate the signalling and control layers of the networks.
Although EE says that it will work both brands on a co-opetition basis, offering a harmonised or optimised network quality experience will necessarily eliminate one possible area of differentiation.

But the move also shows that instead of moving to just one network, EE will continue to view its networks for the time being as two separate networks-albeit with identical access privileges for users.

Another question that occurs is how the operators will charge each other for traffic termination, or carrying each other’s data. If a data session is begun on Orange’s network, but then hands over to T-Mobile’s network because it offers greater bandwidth at that time, then how will the session be handled financially between the operators? T-Mobile has effectively handled Orange’s data for it. Orange will bill the customer, or rate the data used against his bundle- essentially extracting the benefit from the session. Will Orange then pay T-Mobile for carrying the bulk of the data on behalf of its own customer? That would be a normal interconnect relationship, except in this case between two entities that share an owner.

The easiest way to deal with that, eliminating any added cost or complecity, would be to treat the network as one network, serving a combined user base. So it may not be too much of a stretch to view this announcement as the first move to a combined network, and business model.

Never one to undersell itself, EE described the move as “the start of the single, biggest improvement of network coverage since the birth of mobile”.
Both operator brands are offering the chance to sign up for network sharing online, at either www.t-mobile.co.uk/share or www.orange.co.uk/share.

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