Ubiquisys, a provider of 3G femtocells, today announced that it is supplying Softbank Mobile with femtocells access points that the operator plans to provide for free along with free ADSL connections for residential, retail and small office based customers. According to Ubiquisys, the offer represents a groundbreaking change in the business model for small cells and demand has proven to be strong with significant initial orders already in production.

The Softbank femtocells will be set to open access mode, meaning all customers will be able to access the devices, increasing coverage for all, offloading traffic from the macro network and adding network capacity.

The Ubiquisys Femto-Engine system that is behind Softbank’s femtocells is comprised of two distinct components. Firstly, Ubiquisys supplies operator-proven Femto-Engine software that provides the femtocell “intelligence” – a range of continuous self-adapting systems, proven in multiple shared-carrier deployments, that enables the device to react instantly to any changes in its environment. Secondly, Softbank is being supplied with software-ready femtocell devices developed from Ubiquisys hardware blueprints.  Femtocells powered by Femto-Engine are claimed to incorporate years of experience gained by Ubiquisys through operator testing and deployments on live networks.

This model is said to have allowed Ubiquisys to break through the mass market wholesale price barrier allowing femtocells to move from niche applications to the consumer mainstream. One criticism of existing femtocell launches has been that the consumer is expected to pay for the device. By offering the device and an ADSL connection for free, Softbank Mobile has overcome this barrier to consumer adoption and becomes the first operator to offer a premium indoor mobile experience as standard.

“Making femtocells free to consumers has long been considered critical for widespread adoption,” said Chris Gilbert CEO Ubiquisys. “Softbank Mobile’s groundbreaking offer redefines the small cell business model and once again illustrates its position as a pioneer within the industry. Also by using the Femtocells in ‘Open Mode’, allowing any subscribers to connect, it will significantly increase the operator’s network capacity, benefitting all users.”

Telekom Austria today announced that it has successfully run a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) trial, performing a live LTE video call between technical engineers driving in a bus in Vienna´s 21st District, one of the company’s LTE test areas, and their counterparts in the provincial capitals of Graz, Klagenfurt, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. The LTE live test-call was performed with Telekom Austria Group’s telepresence videoconfering system, which supports life-size images with an ultra-high-definition video signal.

Telekom Austria’s LTE live demonstration, which was based on the successful combination of next-generation mobile technologies and fixed net infrastructure, underpins the potential of LTE to deliver a future-proof mobile broadband experience by enabling extremely high bandwidths under real-world network conditions. The LTE transmitters currently cover a few test areas in Vienna´s 2nd and 21st districts and in St. Pölten in Lower Austria. The LTE transmitters as well as nearly 1,000 further base stations are connected via high-performance fiber.

The LTE trial and the roll-out of mobile technologies such as HSPA+ and their successful combination with the fixed net infrastructure enables Telekom Austria Group to effectively work with an increased surge in traffic volumes and multimedia data-hungry applications. Telekom Austria says its mobile network, for instance, registered a 250-fold increase in its monthly data volume over the past 5 years. Mobile broadband customers reached more than 500,000 subscribers, which represents a 7-fold increase since 2006.

Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO Telekom Austria Group, said: “We expect data volumes to continue to surge going forward. Such sharp rises in data traffic will only be able to be managed by combining the latest mobile and fixed net technologies based on so-called air-to-fiber solutions. LTE will meet the significant future capacity requirements of mobile usage. “AirToFiber” enables the transfer of large data volumes most efficiently.”

Association Française pour le ‘Sans Contact’ Mobile (AFSCM), which facilitates the technical development of NFC and promotes contactless mobile services, has entered into a Contribution Agreement with GlobalPlatform.  The partnership will result in AFSCM contributing its business processes and end-to-end system architecture to GlobalPlatform for integration into its specifications, which will enable greater access to AFSCM use case materials and assist the advancement of the NFC ecosystem.

AFSCM has defined the required business processes between actors for real, mass market NFC deployments in France, with the technology now fully operational in Nice.  By sharing this knowledge with GlobalPlatform – the international body for smart card infrastructure development – AFSCM is opening up its use cases to a global NFC audience.  GlobalPlatform is currently enhancing its messaging technology to support the AFSCM’s contactless system architecture and related data exchanges for application deployment.  As NFC technology evolves, and future advancements are required, the two bodies will continue to combine technical expertise to enable developments and adaptations to be synchronized.

Gil Bernabeu, GlobalPlatform Technical Director, said:  “AFSCM has been instrumental in driving the advances of contactless technology within the French marketplace.  In addition to creating a forum to enable this innovative technology to be brought to market effectively and developing the materials to educate consumers, it has ensured service interoperability by promoting common specifications.  The association has also guaranteed consumer experience remains at the core of its members’ advancements by encouraging harmonized processes and emphasizing the important role of security and privacy.  We very much look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with this forward-thinking association.”

Pierre Noizat, AFSCM General Manager, added: “We recognize that contributing to GlobalPlatform will increase the accessibility of AFSCM use cases by placing these on a universal platform that can be accessed by the entire NFC market.  With the success of AFSCM processes in the live Nice deployment, and the positive developments towards a contactless market in France, we are aware of the importance of sharing our knowledge to benefit all NFC implementations.  Working with GlobalPlatform will also guarantee that AFSCM use cases remain interoperable and stable in the future.”

GlobalPlatform says it aims to support all business models to facilitate a fully interoperable and scalable NFC landscape.  Gil Bernabeu concluded: “GlobalPlatform works with a number of associations including the GSM Association and European Payments Council to ensure all recommended business models are sustainable through our technology.  We encourage any party with NFC use cases to contact us to identify if their model can be incorporated into GlobalPlatform’s Specifications.  We believe this level of industry collaboration is vital to realize the full potential of NFC technology.”

WIN, a provider of interactive information and entertainment to mobile phones, is said to be working with Vodafone to improve its services to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). The initiatives centre on new customer acquisition and support as well as helping to increase ARPU for Vodafone and the MVNO by making it easy for customers to set up Internet and picture messaging services on their handset.

The partnership is said to ensure that new customers on MVNOs hosted by Vodafone can request a new SIM by simply sending a text to a shortcode. Vodafone’s MVNO partners include well known brand names such as Asda, Talk Mobile, BT Mobile, Truphone and Lebara.

After receiving the text message request, the WIN platform manages a short dialogue with the consumer which results in a full user profile being created and a SIM card being posted directly to them.

Vodafone’s Director of Wholesale and New Business Development, Tim Stone, said: “The text service is ideal. Potential customers can see a promotional offer and simply send a short text message to order a new SIM and take advantage of a good deal. It allows potential customers to respond to advertising instantly whilst ensuring costs to manage those customer enquiries are kept to a minimum.”

WIN also partners with Vodafone on an automated service delivering picture messaging and Internet settings direct to handsets “over the air” which is also triggered by text.  Vodafone’s systems are said to have the intelligence required to detect the type and model of handset being used, and WIN’s service then allows the right settings to be delivered and installed.

WIN also offers Vodafone’s new MVNO customers other ways to request their settings – for example via a self serve web interface – and supplies the Vodafone Customer Care centre with a simple to use web tool. Whichever method the customer uses to request the settings, the systems determine the type and model of handset being used and use the WIN platform to deliver the correct settings.

“WIN’s short-code text for Internet and MMS settings works in partnership with our own systems to ensure that when a customer requests the settings, we are able to automatically detect, deliver and install the right settings for the make and model of phone” says Vodafone’s Stone

“Unless you get these settings right, new customers tend to just use voice and text and that affects their perceived value of the virtual operator service – this in turn makes them much more likely to churn to another carrier,” explains Stone. “Our partnership with WIN and the short-code settings service ensures that customers get online straightaway and access the things they like, such as their Facebook and Twitter accounts, direct from their mobile.

“By maximising consumers’ accessibility to value added services, we help our MVNO partners to drive their ARPU.  What’s more, the intuitive and simple nature of the set-up process also helps to drastically cut back the number of calls to our customer service teams,” Stone adds.

WIN CEO Graham Rivers explains that the services were borne out of discussions with Vodafone to look for ways in which the global operator could improve its services to its MVNOs.

“WIN has been providing similar services to Vodafone for the last couple of years so it seemed only natural for the Wholesale team to leverage that relationship and extend some of those features to its MVNO partners.

“Everyone wins in this scenario,” added Rivers. “The set up process becomes easier for the host operator, the MVNO, and most importantly the new customer.”

First introduced last year, Vodafone says the service has made for happier customers right across the supply chain.

“From our end we can see improved customer retention, more efficient after sales service, and increased data traffic,” confirmed Stone. “There’s no doubt in my mind that part of the  improvement can be attributed to the enhancements we have made to the process of acquiring and setting up services for new customers.”

Synchronica, a mobile email, instant messaging and data synchronisation provider, has announced that it has signed an agreement with an emerging markets focused Device Manufacturer to bundle Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway with its handsets in a deal generating $1.28 million of revenue to Synchronica in H1 2010.

The Device Manufacturer has committed to bundling Mobile Gateway with guaranteed minimum volume commitments over a period of 18 months. Synchronica will recieve a number of milestone payments during this 18 month period with the first payment expected before the end of the year.

The Device Manufacturer, which focuses particularly on the emerging markets in countries of the former Soviet Republic and Asia, will offer Mobile Gateway bundled phones under its own brand.

Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway provides push email and mobile synchronisation services and has recently been expanded to include instant messaging, news feeds and access to popular social networking sites. Mobile Gateway is based on industry standards and requires no additional software client to be downloaded to the handset and enables push email for the broadest range of handsets, from high-end Smartphones to low-cost, entry-level devices.

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, said, “The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a key growth market for mobile data services where the number of mobile phone subscribers has now easily surpassed the population, yet fixed and mobile broadband penetration is still considerably lower than the world average. This deal will strengthen our position in the CIS where our products are already well established with three mobile operators in live operation. By working with Device Manufacturers, we can further accelerate the roll out of Mobile Gateway across emerging markets where there is increasing demand for mobile internet access, but financial constraints have so far prevented mass-market adoption.”

NEC today announced the launch of ePASOLINK, a new compact wireless transmission system said to provide ultra-high link throughputs of up to 2.5 Gbps in the E-band spectrum range of 70/80 GHz. ePASOLINK is claimed to enable mobile network operators to build a cost-effective, IP-based mobile backhaul network that meets the high-capacity data demands of  mobile broadband technologies such as HSPA, WiMAX and LTE. 

The deployment of 4G mobile broadband networks will result in an ever rising capacity demand for backhaul. Tail links to cell sites are predicted to expand to several hundred Mbps in capacity, and network operators will increasingly use ring topologies with transmission throughputs exceeding 1Gbps in the aggregation portion of the backhaul.

Traditionally these capacity needs have been met with microwave and optical product solutions, says NEC. By utilizing millimeter wave frequencies, ePASOLINK addresses the market gap where sub-42GHz microwave spectrum becomes congested and the fiber optic alternative is too expensive to deploy efficiently. This is particularly the case in dense urban and suburban areas where operators often face intense competition in the expansion of 4G mobile broadband infrastructure, says NEC.

ePASOLINK provides scalable transport of 2G, 3G, HSPA, WiMAX and LTE, in addition to its support for both Ethernet and SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy)/SONET (Synchronous Optical Networking) protocols with carrier-grade reliability.  Advanced Quality-of-Service capabilities ensure that operators can provide customers with SLA (Service Level Agreement) assurance and premium content delivery.

“NEC continues its close relationship with leading operators across the world and we are confident that ePASOLINK will be a key component of their strategic portfolio for the evolution of mobile backhaul,” said Hiroyasu Ishii, General Manager of the Global Network Division at NEC.  “NEC continues to innovate and build on its history of quality and exceptional services that ensure our market leadership in mobile backhaul.”

ePASOLINK from NEC helps mobile operators to build and operate their backhaul networks with a low cost of ownership.  ePASOLINK is supported by NEC’s widely adopted Network Management Systems, which facilitate easy integration with existing microwave infrastructure, such as PASOLINK, the microwave transport system market leader.  ePASOLINK is an all-outdoor solution which is said to help lower installation and site rental costs in an all-IP backhaul network.