A new study from Juniper Research has found that Mobile VoIP services will develop significantly faster in developed markets due to the direct correlation between 3G roll outs and the take up of mobile VoIP. This is the case even though mVoIP traffic volumes may eventually be higher in developing markets due in part to the calling patterns of migrant workers, according to the study Mobile Voice Strategies: mVoIP Opportunities & Business Models, 2010-2015.

"By 2012 we expect significant uptake of mobile VoIP in its various different flavours", says Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research. "By that date mobile VoIP will be available over both 3G and WiFi networks. We also anticipate that several more traditional operators will have joined 3UK and Verizon in the US and developed relationships with mobile VoIP players such as Skype," he says.

Further findings include:

• Alliances between mobile VoIP players and traditional operators may provide the best option for today's incumbent operators to address the advent of mobile VoIP.
• Revenues from the circuit switched voice market will continue to diminish over the next five years, although this will not accelerate.
• A high percentage of Mobile VoIP carried over applications will be via WiFi networks, bypassing operators' networks altogether. Such traffic will result in some lost revenues, amounting to around $5bn by 2015.

The mobile voice report includes an in-depth analysis of the current state of play of the mobile Voice market considering the position of both the incumbent operator and the mobile VoIP new entrant. The report contains five year forecasts for the number of Mobile VoIP Users over 3G networks, the number of mobile VoIP users via alliances, number of mobile VoIP users via applications, number of 4G mobile VoIP users. It also contains the value of traffic associated with all of these categories.

Telmap, a specialist in mobile location solutions, today announced that it has been selected by Mobile TeleSystems OJSC to enable MTS Navigator, bringing a personal search, mapping and navigation service to MTS subscribers.

Telmap's white label, hosted and managed mobile search, mapping and navigation solution will be offered to MTS customers as MTS Navigator and will be fully customized to the MTS brand, look and feel. MTS Navigator includes features such as in-car navigation with 3D moving maps and text to speech technology enabling pronunciation of street names, live traffic alerts with alternative route options and a dedicated pedestrian mode. In addition, MTS Navigator will be fully customized to the Russian local market, including local content, Russian language support and more.

MTS Navigator will be available to the Russian market on the full MTS portfolio of GPS-enabled phones during the third quarter of 2010.

"Telmap is very proud to work with MTS, the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS and one of the largest operators in Europe, and is constantly working on brining innovative, new services to its subscribers", said Oren Nissim, Telmap CEO. "We are confident that our solution will provide MTS with the optimal platform to deliver Russian consumers with a unique, location-enabled experience."

"After a diligent selection process, MTS has selected Telmap to provide its advanced mobile location solution to our subscribers", said Marc Sommer, Director for Products and Innovations, MTS. "We feel that the Telmap offering is a unique one, as it has a clear value proposition that will help differentiate MTS from other service providers in Russia when it comes to location services. Also, we are very happy with Telmap's ability and willingness to customize the solution to the specific requirements of the Russian market, as we believe local content is a key success factor for the service."

txtNation and Failsafe Payments Certo Payment Gateway have announced a deal that adds additional 70 new markets for Certo Payment Gateways online mobile billing coverage through a new partnership with telco mobile billing provider txtNation's JunglePay service.

The new partnership enables customers in a total of over 70 markets to purchase the digital products they want and pay for them through their local mobile phone provider account. Over 200 individual providers can now be used to clear web payments and are now live on Failsafe Payments platform.

Both Merchants and Merchant Service Providers (MSP`s) worldwide can now enjoy a true one stop integration platform to access all integrated Certo Payment Gateway`s partners and services.

According to a 2008 study by Javelin Strategy and Research, over 75% of decisive consumers would prefer to add small online purchases to their existing telephone, broadband or mobile bills as an alternative to using credit or debit cards.

Michael Whelan, txtNation of txtNation adds, "Failsafe Payments adds a whole new dimension to txtNation's, JunglePay service.  By interfacing JunglePay to Failsafe Payments Certo Payment Gateway, we bring out a large network of mobile operators to bear across Certo Payment Gateway`s fantastic brand."

"Integrating txtNation`s JunglePay further enhances the big value of using our Certo Payment Gateway for multiple banks, alternative payment methods, fraud scrubbing 3-D Secure and much more all integrated into one single platform." says Patrick Sallnert, Chief Operating Officer for Failsafe Payments EU.

"We are continuing to integrate Mobile Billing providers to offer the Merchants and MSP`s worldwide that uses Certo Payment Gateway a simple technical solution and excellent coverage when enable Mobile Billing services for their customers." says John R. Williams, Sr., President for Failsafe Payments North America.

Huawei, together with Telfort, a subsidiary of KPN, today unveiled a preview of Telfort 2.0, said to be Europe's first Next-Generation Business Support System (NGBSS).  The system, named Telfort 2.0, is a new customer care and billing solution which began serving a selected number of new customers in a few of Telfort's shops in April 2010. In June 2010 all of Telfort's postpaid customers will be transferred to this new platform. In the years to come, it will also serve Telfort's prepaid and internet customers.

Telfort has partnered with Huawei to deliver a NGBSS that will integrate Telfort's complicated IT landscape, and increase its business efficiency. The new system is based on service oriented architecture (SOA) and combines TM Forum Frameworx (also known as Next Generation Operations Systems and Software, NGOSS) enhanced Telecom Operation Map eTOM and Shared Information/Data Model SID standards, which are the basis for future evolution and transformation.

By optimizing business processes, simplifying the creation and deployment of new products and services and enabling customers to handle a much wider range of activities through self-service, Telfort's new system will reduce the company's Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). In addition the simplified open architecture will reduce the time to market (TTM). With the reduction in TCO and TTM plus the enhanced self-service for customers, the company can offer various types of new service plans.

Telfort has adopted Huawei's convergent next generation business support system to replace its legacy systems, and has selected a managed services partner (MSP) for the long term. "The telecom market is changing significantly", Robin Clements, CEO of Telfort explains. "The cooperation with Huawei offers us an efficient and future-proof IT environment with which Telfort will continue to compete successfully under changing market conditions."

BT Global Services has selected SMS hubbing technology from mobile interaction service provider tyntec to be part of its Global Telecom Markets (GTM) portfolio. The deal will see BT combining tyntec's International Messaging Transit (IMT) technology into its wholesale offerings for mobile network operators (MNOs) and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) clients.

SMS hubbing provides MNOs and MVNOs a ready-made, one-stop-shop portfolio of international SMS connectivity, doing away with the need for them to sign and manage hundreds of individual SMS roaming agreements. Having access to more than 700 mobile networks worldwide, BT GTM's SMS Hubbing service, based on tyntec's fully GSMA compliant hubbing solution IMT, can offer new and existing mobile operators global reach with one interface, one contract and one bill.

BT GTM will be offering the service to MNOs and MVNOs of all sizes, enabling large operators to reduce costs and increase reach whilst giving new operators instant global SMS capabilities. The hubbing solution allows customers choosing from a wide range of interface, connectivity, self-administration and reporting options. GTM will be offering the technology either as a fully managed service or with self-administration capabilities realised through a web portal.

Michael Kowalzik, CEO of tyntec, said: "Our agreement with BT represents a significant validation of our SMS hubbing technology. For BT Global Services to select IMT as its SMS hubbing solution of choice shows that it represents a truly market leading combination of reliability, flexibility and capability."

Oscar Ruiz, president Global Telecom Markets at BT Global Services, said: "tyntec's IMT solution provides a compelling combination of global reach, reliability and technology expertise for our Global Telecom Markets business. We aim to offer MNOs and MVNOs best of breed solutions, whatever the technology challenge, and we believe that tyntec offers this solution for SMS hubbing."

Vodafone today announced the winner of its Vodafone AppStar competition. FlickrShow was declared the best new app in Europe following a public vote.

Pedro Campos, an independent mobile developer, has been awarded a prize of €75,000 – on top of the €25,000 local prize he picked up from the first round of the competition.

Beating off competition from seven other country winners, FlickrShow was awarded the top prize for its innovation and the great user experience it offered. FlickrShow accesses Flickr in an unprecedented way, offering stunning slide slows and allowing you to search photos by keyword, username, colour and even by location using your phone's GPS system.

Pedro, aged 26, only took up mobile app development nine months ago and was attracted to the Vodafone 360 platform due to its open web standards policy and its cross platform reach, which he felt offers an intelligent and developer-friendly approach to the market. Based in Porto, Portugal, he is planning on using his winnings to invest in a local Portuguese web development company, to expand its mobile section.

Pedro said: "Winning the final stage of the Vodafone App Star competition is brilliant news. I made sure my app was not only easy to use but could help people in their everyday lives and it's great to see that it's been so well received by customers across Europe. Competitions like this really give developers a chance to shine and I'm grateful to the team at Vodafone for all their support. I'm looking forward to developing more apps for Vodafone 360 in the future."

Second place in the competition was awarded to a group of Italian students from Politecnico di Milano, for their travel app, Cool Traveling. Raffaele Bisogno, Marco Cavone, Tommaso De Pace and Stefano Francavilla, who are currently studying for a Masters in Computer Science, will now receive a further €25,000, taking their total prize winnings from the Vodafone AppStar competition to €50,000. Cool Traveling lets you plan a trip around Italy in a simple and cost effective way providing information on a range of travel services such as train and plane tickets, weather forecasts and accommodation guides.

The full shortlist of country winners that FlickrShow competed against includes:

• Germany – Lootogo: The world's first review guide to public conveniences where you can evaluate the best place to go, wherever you are.
• Greece – Social Whale: Lets you read and post status updates to all your favourite social networks with just one click.
• Ireland – Dublin Bus Info: Uses your mobile GPS to find bus stops near where you are in Dublin whilst providing bus stop and timetable information.
• Spain – Yata! – A location based application that provides user generated geo-located info created by other users in a given area, so customers can easily see their recommendations and tags on a map.
• Netherlands – Happy Birthday: A new, improved version of the best birthday reminder there is. Don't ever forget the birthdays of those you care most about again.
• UK – Jogger Tracker: Uses GPS to calculate information such as the amount of calories burned and distance travelled during a run. Info is then stored on the handset and converted into a graph.

"Customers have an insatiable appetite for mobile apps, so it made sense to give them the chance to judge for themselves who our winner should be. It's clear from the hard work and effort of our finalists that there is a lot of talent out there and it's great to be able to reward the best of the best, while demonstrating our own commitment to supporting the developer community," said Lee Epting, Director of Content Services at Vodafone. "The Vodafone AppStar competition is just one of the ways we are working with developers to help them reach customers worldwide. In future we will focus on providing developers with more of the right tools and support, as well as additional competitions to reward innovation in this space."

The Vodafone AppStar competition is part of Vodafone's ongoing engagement with developers. Vodafone recently announced a new publishing process for developers via the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) portal, enabling developers to use open web technologies to create, monetise and distribute apps to customers with JIL-enabled handsets. Apps submitted through JIL.org are supported by 50 different handset models across multiple European markets and offer an attractive revenue model for developers. In addition, developers benefit from a quick and transparent review process, which sees all apps assessed in 10 business days.

Telefónica is aiming to trim the cost of customer care and improve subscriber satisfaction at its Movistar operation in Spain with the deployment of the latest release of Telsis SMS Wizard, the natural language text query and response system developed by Telsis.

The group, which owns market-leading mobile brands throughout Europe and Latin America, is using its Spanish operation as a testbed, relying on SMS Wizard to automatically handle increasing volumes and types of customer care and promotional queries from subscribers.

Telsis SMS Wizard lets people ask questions by text messaging in any language and idiom they choose, and responds instantly by text with appropriate answers. The latest version of Wizard supports quicker and easier creation of services that combine text and voice, and Movistar has been quick to exploit the new functionality.

The first new Wizard application to be developed by the operator could automatically send subscribers a text message satisfaction survey immediately upon completion of a voice call with customer care agents. Other applications are in the pipeline, says Telefónica CRM technology director Mario Soro Fernández.

"We are on a mission to drive down the cost of customer care but at the same time improve customer satisfaction levels. Too often this industry has embarked on cost-cutting in the knowledge that in reality subscribers will end up with poorer service. Our view is that by developing self-service channels alongside the call centre, we can have the best of both worlds. This latest Wizard application will enable us to prove our theory by giving Wizard a dual-role: as a self-service channel of communication through which subscribers can get answers to an ever-wider range of queries, and as the means by which they can tell us immediately if we are getting things right."

Movistar deployed SMS Wizard in 2005, using it alongside IVRs and agents to handle an increasing range of routine ‘how do I' queries, as well as support seasonal and rolling promotions and the flagship Lend Me 4 Euros service which lets pre-pay phone users text for an instant balance top-up.

At sister company O2 UK, SMS Wizard is giving millions of pre-pay customers self service control over O2 Rewards, the award-winning loyalty programme that gives free credit worth 10% of the previous quarter's top-ups, up to a maximum value. Customers can either send a text message or make a voice call to the Telsis system – which automatically responds via their choice of channel. Through a common business back- end, it enables them to join the scheme, check their points balance, claim Reward talk time, or opt-out.

Telsis products are in use with major mobile and fixed network operators worldwide. The company has an extensive range of carrier-grade infrastructure solutions including SMS Routing and IN voice platforms, as well as media gateways for NGN and VoIP support. Telsis has a long history of enabling operators to benefit from the introduction of innovative value added services, and is now leading the industry in defining a new global standard for SMS service usability and customer experience.