Telekom Austria, the fixed net subsidiary of the Telekom Austria Group, today announced that it will launch Austria's first aonTV MediaBox. Based on its core feature "my media", which is included in the offer free-of-charge and can be installed easily, aonTV MediaBox is able to intelligently interconnect the TV set with the PC and/or mobile phone. So, any image, video or music file stored on the computer can be retrieved and accessed on the TV set.

"With our aonTV MediaBox we are turning multimedia technology into a personal and individual experience for our customers – an objective which is in line with our innovation strategy. Moreover, the interconnection of the TV set, the PC and the mobile phone is demonstrating the full potential of the networked home. Therefore, we are not only setting the course in digital entertainment, but we are also anticipating the future needs of our customers," commented Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO Telekom Austria Group.
 
aonTV MediaBox also enables the access to Telekom Austria‘s online hard disk up to a data limit of 1 GB, which is usually made available free-of-charge to all Fixed Net aonTV and broadband customers. An upgrade to 50 GB is available for EUR 4.90 monthly. The online hard disk is said to provide a number of advantages: any stored image, video or music file can be directly retrieved and accessed on the TV set, when the PC is switched off, or on the go via mobile Internet or mobile phone. Customers can also grant and share access to their stored data to other people. A further advantage of the online hard disk, which is placed on one of Telekom Austria's secured servers, is its back-up capabilities – no data can be lost as files can be restored onto the computer at anytime. 

The features will be made available to all Telekom Austria's aonTV customers without any additional costs and without the need to replace the current set top boxes. Based on an automatic software update, each and every aonTV set top box will be upgraded to an aonTV MediaBox by the end of September 2009. This up-date will be automatically carried out once the aonTV MediaBox has been switched on.

A new mobile application that will enable students to receive University information direct to their mobile phone is set to be launched next month by the University of Sheffield. The new campusM application will allow students to access comprehensive information about upcoming events, view campus maps and have their own up-to-date timetable.

The application, developed by oMbiel, will also feature a friend locator to help them meet up with other students, and users will also be able to browse their library records and look up faculty, staff members or student contacts from the University directory.  Students will also be able to use the application to receive the latest news and important alerts to help them with University life.

The University of Sheffield will be the first of a group of universities in the UK to roll out campusM to its students, who will then be able to download the application for free from the University's online portal.

For the launch, campusM will be available on the iPhone and iPod touch, but by the end of the year, the application will be compatible with other mobile phones, including those from BlackBerry, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, Sanyo and Sony Ericsson.

Dr Christine Sexton, Director of the University of Sheffield's Corporate Information and Computing Services, said: "With over 24,000 students and almost 6,000 staff, students are living increasingly mobile lives, needing information and services on the move at anytime. We had to find a way to make our services more accessible to meet the need of our students. campusM  will ultimately save students time, keep them better informed and make communicating with staff and other students a lot easier.

"The campusM application offers an integrated suite of services that our students want, enabling them to stay informed with the ease and convenience that mobility brings. It gives students all the information they need in one central place, which is accessible anytime and  anywhere and which will enhance the overall student experience and allow them to concentrate more of their time on their studies."

Hugh Griffiths, CEO of oMbiel said: "Our selection by the University of Sheffield is validation that oMbiel is providing a leading industry application to make student services available at the tap of a finger, regardless of their location. It is a major milestone in our development of mobile applications for the Higher Education sector and it will significantly contribute to the rapid expansion of the technology in the UK."

Agito Networks, a specialist in enterprise mobility, today announced that Hertford Regional College (HRC), the largest further education college in Hertfordshire, had deployed its Agito RoamAnywhere Mobility Router to improve the accessibility of mobile staff.  Agito worked with UK-based partner Convergis on the new customer deal.

Based in Broxbourne and Ware just north of London, HRC was formed from the merger of Ware College and East Herts College in the early 1990s.  Since then, HRC has grown in size, currently employing 900 staff and serving more than 12,000 full- and part-time students. 

According to Dr. Daniel Hidlebaugh, Network Services manager, the college is finalizing a $140 million construction project to update its facilities, with a grand opening of the facilities in Ware this month.  While the new facilities in Ware and Broxbourne, a 4-story building that covers half of a city block due to open in October, are state of the art, their building materials do not allow cellular coverage indoors.  Mobile phone accessibility is critical to the college's staff, he said.

Andy Forbes, Principal and Chief Executive, stated, "Our aim is to offer our students and staff the very best technology to support learning.  Our belief is that a 21st century further education college should have a 21st century learning environment, and that means fast, reliable, mobile communications in all areas.  I'm very excited at the extra communication capability that Agito offers to our staff.  Whether we're working at our two main campuses, training at the workplace, or out in the local community, we'll all be able to stay constantly in touch.  It's another big step forward for Hertford Regional College."

HRC learned of Agito Networks' mobile convergence for high-quality voice communications from its partner Convergis.  Understanding the colleges' communication problems, Andrew Dominic, senior sales consultant at Convergis, introduced HRC to Agito Networks' FMC solution.

"Agito Networks was an easy choice for all," said Dominic.  "The long-term strategic partnership and scalable network design, delivered by Convergis and the HRC IT team, meant the college already had a solid, voice-ready network available.  With Cisco VoIP and campus-wide Cisco Unified Wireless LAN already deployed, the Agito RoamAnywhere was the logical additional hardware requirement."

In addition to Agito Networks' Mobility Router and Cisco's WLAN and IP-PBX, HRC's has deployed Nokia handhelds and subscribes to T-Mobile cellular service.

"We had a one-day set up and it was easy for technicians to deploy to users' dual-mode phones," Hidlebaugh said.  "The handover inside and outside is very slick, the voice over WLAN quality is good, and it works seamlessly on mobiles acting as extensions from Cisco Call Manager, providing all the features as if users were on a desk phone."

Hidlebaugh's initial roll out was to key staff in network services, security and maintenance that are mobile and don't always have access to a fixed-line phone.  The next rollout is planned for teachers next Spring, with students potentially to follow.

"Now we can't do without our Agito system, after one day it became a must have," he said.  "Coverage was a concern before, but now we can reach each other at all times.  Everyone is benefiting from this, and we no longer have to spend over an hour trying to find someone."

An added benefit Hidlebaugh said is that the college was looking to reduce its $6,000 in telephony charges each month.  As a result of this deployment, he estimates the college will cut its monthly mobility charges in half.

"This is exactly what we were looking for, and accessibility is huge for us," he said.  "Organizations depend on their infrastructure to deliver for them, and with Agito if a system goes down a support technician can be reached quickly."

"HRC is a growing college serving the education needs of the Hertfordshire area, and its new facilities are impressive and truly state of the art," said Paul Donovan, Agito Networks VP of European Business and Market Development.  "We are pleased to enable continuous voice connectivity for them.  Agito is seeing good growth in Europe, and coverage issues and cellular cost savings remain the biggest drivers for our innovative FMC solution."

Agito's RoamAnywhere Mobility Router is said to be purpose built for organizations to help them mobilize enterprise voice and UC applications to increase mobile user productivity while reducing costs. It fuses WiFi, cellular and Unified Communications with location information, improving the accessibility and responsiveness of mobile users, while reducing mobile costs and improve in-building coverage.  RoamAnywhere high availability, redundancy, security, enterprise scalability, and IP-PBX and mobile handset support, including support for the Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry smartphone.

Huawei has announced that the company has now shipped over 60 million mobile broadband units worldwide, including data cards, dongles and embedded modules, across more than 133 countries.

As a provider of end-to-end mobile broadband solutions, Huawei has provided services to more than 315 international networks. Its customised devices are supporting and driving the rapid growth for mobile broadband services, as demand for these products has far exceeded industry forecasts over the past three years. According to consulting firm ABI Research's 2008 annual report, Huawei secured 55 percent of the global mobile broadband terminal market, solidifying its position as a clear leader in this field.

"This milestone highlights Huawei's deep understanding of the operator business," said Glory Cheung, spokesperson of Huawei Device. "Huawei has proven its ability to focus on operators' needs, provide differentiated customisation and deliver robust applications.  Huawei's pioneering vision and innovative solutions in the mobile broadband arena are driving the next-generation of mobile communication." 

Voluntary code fails to stem complaints

Under measures that came into force at midnight in the UK, mobile service providers will now have to adhere to new Ofcom rules designed to prevent mobile mis-selling. The new rules prohibit mobile service providers and those selling their products and services from engaging in 'dishonest, misleading or deceptive conduct'.

If providers breach the rules they could be fined up to 10 per cent of relevant turnover.

Following a significant increase in the number of complaints about cashback schemes and other forms of mis-selling in the mobile market, the mobile network operators introduced a voluntary Code of Practice in July 2007 to tackle mis-selling and cashback issues. This voluntary Code did not lead to a significant reduction in complaints. So in March 2008, Ofcom proposed new mandatory rules – called a General Condition.

Since it proposed to introduce new rules, Ofcom says complaints have fallen from over 600 to fewer than 200 per month.

The new rules include, but are not limited to, requirements for mobile network operators to:

–   not mis-sell mobile phone services;
–   make sure the customer intends and is authorised to enter into a contract;
–   make sure consumers get the information they need at the point of sale;
–   make sure that the terms and conditions of cash back deals offered by their retailers are not unduly restrictive; and
–   carry out certain due diligence checks in respect of their retailers.

Mis-selling complaints
Examples of mis-selling complaints from consumers include:

–   finding themselves signed up to a more expensive tariff than agreed at point of sale;

–   upgrading their 12 month contract believing they are signing up to another 12 month contract and then finding themselves entering into a new 18 month contract; and

–   signing up to a service after being told coverage in their area is good but then finding that they have little or no reception.

Ofcom says it will now monitor communications providers' adherence to the rules.

Nujira today announced that it has completed further funding of £10 million, to accelerate development of its handset technology and support expansion into a new market as well as general commercial development of Cellular Infrastructure and TV Broadcast sectors. The round included Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF), a new investor, as well as existing investors Bank Invest, 3i, Amadeus, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and private investors.

Commenting, Nujira CEO Tim Haynes said, "Nujira is making excellent progress in its established markets demonstrating the real benefits that our solutions deliver; in the past year we have announced significant customer engagements for our cellular base station, broadcast transmitter and handset technologies. More recently we have identified military communications as a market with considerable potential for our Coolteq^TM products and have already delivered hardware to customers. The new investment provides Nujira the opportunity to continue with the commercialisation of its Coolteq products, and to promote our technology into new markets."

Poul Erik Schou-Pedersen, managing partner at BankInvest New Energy Solutions said: "Nujira's commercial and technical progress since our last investment in September 2008 is extremely impressive, and we are delighted to extend our relationship with them through a further investment. In the past year, Nujira has extended and strengthened its relationships with major OEMs and has executed well on its technical strategy. This new round will enable them to fully exploit the existing market opportunities that they have developed, as well as enter a major new market."

Patrick Sheehan from the Environmental Technologies Fund added, "ETF believes in supporting successful businesses that make a positive contribution to the environment by bringing highly efficient technologies to market, and is delighted to add Nujira to its growing portfolio. We have tracked Nujira's progress over the last 5 years and seen it develop a strong market position and productive relationships with major OEM customers. We see a business with an innovative and proven technology with huge potential alongside a clear, well managed commercial strategy that is developing a market leadership position and is well positioned for long-term commercial success."

The worldwide Cellular and Broadcast infrastructure consumes billions of dollars of electricity each year, generating hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions as a result.  The majority of this energy is wasted by inefficient RF Power Amplifiers in the transmission stage, which dissipate it as heat.  Nujira's Coolteq modulators are claimed to cut this wasted energy by more than 50%, leading to significant economic and environmental benefits.

Nujira is engaged with thirteen cellular base station manufacturers, one of which, Sumitomo Electrical Industries of Japan, has publicly announced products based on Coolteq modules, with other manufacturers set to follow during 2009. Two global broadcast transmission equipment manufacturers have also commenced joint development programs with Nujira.

In April, Nujira announced that one of the global top five handset manufacturers had contracted with Nujira with others working to integrate the technology into their products. Nujira has identified military communications as a further attractive target market, as a number of governments have identified reducing the weight of equipment carried in the field by its troops as a strategic objective. Nujira is working with several major manufacturers and leading Western governments in programs to apply its power saving technology to military communications systems.

Boingo Wireless, the network of Wi-Fi hotspots, is adding close to 4000 locations in Sweden with the addition of the TeliaSonera Homerun network.

The addition of the hotspots to the Boingo Roaming Network in Sweden extends Boingo's reach in the Nordic countries, offering more places to get online with their smartphones or laptop computers throughout the region.

The locations include: convenience stores and gas stations such as 7-Eleven, Bilisten, OKQ8, Pressbyrån and Statoil; hotels such as Best Western, Clarion Choice, Ibis Hotels and Quality Hotels; grocery stores and supermarkets, including City Gross, Coop Sweden, Hemköp and ICA; camping sites, including First Camp; retailers, like Wayne's Coffee; as well as airports, marinas, train stations, and Surfzon Wi-Fi hotspots.

"Boingo continues to expand its network, and the addition of TeliaSonera Homerun is a critical addition to our Nordic and European footprint," said Luis Serrano, vice president of network strategy for Boingo Wireless. "TeliaSonera Homerun's comprehensive network is perfect for our Boingo Mobile customers who look for a high-speed solution for their Wi-Fi enabled smartphones to get directions, music, data and more while traveling."

As part of the agreement, TeliaSonera Homerun customers will be able to access Boingo's owned and operated network, which includes the top airports in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as the WSDOT Ferries Division Wi-Fi network in the Seattle, Washington area.

"TeliaSonera Homerun has one of the most comprehensive networks in the Nordic countries, delivering high-speed connectivity wherever people need Wi-Fi access," said Jan Karmakar, Head of Roaming, TeliaSonera . "Our customers will be able to get the same high-speed connection they know from TeliaSonera on the Boingo network, while Boingo customers can rely on TeliaSonera Homerun's high-speed connections."

Boingo provides Wi-Fi hotspots by combining more than 100,000 locations from 150 Wi-Fi operators into a single worldwide network spanning 90 countries.

iPass, a provider of enterprise mobility services, today launched the 'industry's first' global enterprise Wi-Fi client for the BlackBerry platform. With the addition of the iPassConnect Client for BlackBerry, iPass supports the leading smartphones used by large enterprises – including the iPhone, and Windows Mobile- and Symbian-based smartphones. Now iPass Mobile Office corporate customers-many with large departments using Wi-Fi enabled devices-can provide their employees with access to nearly 140,000 hotspots in 83 countries.

"Many employees at Bechtle are eager to leverage their BlackBerry smartphones for business applications," said Markus Jung, head of mobile solutions at German-based Bechtle. "Now that iPass is offering support for BlackBerry smartphones, we can satisfy their desire for Wi-Fi connectivity. iPass Mobile Office is a key component of our enterprise mobility strategy. It makes our employees more productive as they work remotely and gives our IT department a powerful management tool that ultimately saves them time and money."

Despite 3G connectivity on many devices, the advanced applications currently in use from vendors such as Oracle, Siebel, Salesforce.com and Microsoft demand the wider bandwidth associated with Wi-Fi for fuller functionality and greater usability. With access to the world's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network, enterprises can bridge the 3G performance gap while avoiding expensive roaming charges and taking advantage of predictable and transparent monthly mobility costs.

"Independent research conducted with 300 Belgian companies showed that while laptops remain the most used device for Internet access abroad, BlackBerry ranked top in the smartphone category with 59 percent," said Steven Van den Neucker, Director Mobile Telenet Solutions. "Now that iPass is offering support for BlackBerry smartphones, we can satisfy this demand and provide a global Wi-Fi connectivity service for these users. Now, more than ever, iPass Mobile Office offers employees a perfect solution for mobile working."

iPass is available for all current and future Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry smartphones.

"The addition of iPassConnect clients for iPhone and now BlackBerry smartphones gives our customers the widest choice of device support on the market at no extra cost to enterprises deploying the service," said Evan Kaplan, CEO, iPass Inc. "We're encouraging enterprises to take another look at their mobility strategies and begin to realise the benefits associated with a global connectivity service across multiple devices. Driving down mobility costs and management overheads has become even easier now that iPass offers support for increasingly popular BlackBerry smartphones."

The iPassConnect application for BlackBerry smartphones works in conjunction with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, giving IT administrators the ability to remotely deploy and manage how the application is used by employees. This functionality saves IT departments significant time and effort by negating the need to physically recall every handset to update it with software. As part of the iPass Mobile Office service there are no additional contracts to sign, start-up fees to pay, or credentials to manage.

Freely available for download through the iPass Software Downloads page or on BlackBerry App World, the new iPass client can be downloaded and accessed simply by entering an iPass username and password. iPass login credentials are not restricted to a certain number of devices so users are free to make use of the iPass service across multiple iPass-enabled notebooks or smartphones.

iPass Mobile Office also supports Windows Vista, XP and 2000; Max OS X 10.4,10.5 and 10.6; Symbian S60 Third Generation devices (versions 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2); Windows Mobile 5, 6 and Pocket PC 2003; and the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch.

RealVNC, a provider of remote control software and QualiSystems, a specialist in test automation for hardware, devices and embedded systems, today announced the launch of a unified comprehensive solution which is claimed to offer mobile manufacturers greatly enhanced mobile testing capabilities.

The solution enables automated remote testing, while enabling secure and robust cross-platform remote control of mobile handsets. With the solution, mobile vendors can perform thorough, automated tests on any device or platform, reducing testing time, complexity and costs, it's claimed.

VNC Mobile Solution is an OEM package offering access to VNC remote control technology for mobile devices. RealVNC provides cross-platform support, with the solution already available for Windows Mobile, Symbian and Blackberry, and development versions for iPhone, Android and Linux Mobile with Palm Pre to follow soon.

QualiSystems' TestShell system is a complete testing framework that provides end-to-end test automation without programming. TestShell solutions for mobile provides mobile device vendors and mobile network operators complete test coverage for all mobile testing requirements – validation, data (cellular), drive-test, RF, application-level and more, while 'significantly reducing testing cost and time-to-market'.

"After evaluating many ad hoc legacy offerings we were extremely pleased to find RealVNC's Mobile Solution, which addresses all our target platforms in one user-friendly package. The common API ultimately made it very simple to integrate RealVNC into our existing framework," said Lior Koriat, QualiSystems CEO. "Powered by RealVNC and TestShell Mobile agent, TestShell can now manage and control feature phones as well as smart phones based on a growing number of operating systems. With this partnership, we aim to open up the benefits of TestShell to even more mobile manufacturers and vendors".

TestShell Mobile's capabilities and advantages are claimed to have already gained considerable interest in APAC, EMEA and the United States by leading industry vendors and operators such as Samsung Mobile, Motorola, LG Electronics, KEPRI, Korea Testing Laboratory and others.

Dr. Andy Harter, CEO of RealVNC says, "We are delighted to announce this new agreement with QualiSystems. Their global reputation, presence and market sector expertise will facilitate the adoption of VNC within the leading handset manufacturers. The introduction of VNC Mobile Solution further enhances and strengthens our product offerings and is testament to RealVNC's dedication to product innovation."

Mobile marketing and customer self-service solutions provider, Movidilo, has announced its new technology line based around widgets to support transactional capabilities. The 'advanced' Movidilo widgets are said to give the b2c market the chance to offer a range of new mobile applications – m-commerce, ticketing, social networking or marketing – which can be deployed across a wide range of handsets.

Building on the existing benefits of mobile widgets, such as simple installation, discovery and ease of use, the new technology is claimed to go much further to deliver an improved user experience which can support all sorts of multimedia content. The widgets are also said to make the most of high quality graphics and multimedia features to provide an 'attractive' and 'user-friendly' interface.

"The transactional capabilities of our widgets are ideal for the launch of all kinds of new and more complex services such as m-commerce, ticketing, social networking, marketing or leisure, to name a few," said Domingo López Montesdeoca, ceo of Movidilo. "End users can enjoy an entirely new and refreshing experience on the mobile for any service or value-added functionality created with dynamic Movidilo widgets."

The ability to run the widgets on a broad range of mobile devices is also claimed to be another unique feature. Movidilo says its technology is mobile platform and vendor agnostic, guaranteeing a consistent and uniform user experience across devices.

"The possibilities are endless," continued López Montesdeoca. "Anyone can develop and deploy their own advanced widgets for the mobile channel with our technology, which enables them to engage with their users in a dynamic and interactive way. And they can do this without having to worry about mobile device or platform fragmentation and diversity."