Motorola today unveiled the Android-enabled DEXT with MOTOBLUR.
Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is the claimed to be first and only solution to synch contacts, posts, feeds, messages, e-mails, photos and more-from sources such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, Yahoo, your work e-mail and LastFM – and automatically deliver it all to the home screen.
Also announced today was the Motorola DEXT with MOTOBLUR, the first device in the company's Android-enabled product portfolio.
"MOTOBLUR, which will be available on multiple Motorola Android-powered devices in our upcoming portfolio, helps us to create phones that are instinctive, social and connected," said Ralf Gerbershagen, Vice President and General Manager of Motorola Western Europe.
"Today's mobile phone needs to be more than just ‘smart'. It needs to be social. The DEXT is such a phone, offering the ability to funnel your entire social life into a single stream."
MOTOBLUR is said to leverage Motorola's experience in mobile Linux and open platforms and benefits from the global MOTODEV program that supports developers creating a new generation of rich user experiences for Motorola handsets featuring the Android operating system.
DEXT will be available exclusively launching with Orange in the UK and France, Telefonica in Spain and America Movil in Latin America. Known as CLIQ in North America, the device will be available exclusively with T-Mobile USA.
Motorola launches first Android-powered device
Orange launches ‘world’s first’ high-definition voice service in Moldova
Orange Moldova has today announced the launch of the world's first mobile telephone service offering high-definition (HD) sound. The service is claimed to provide customers with a significantly improved quality of service when making calls.
The launch is said to be the second step in Orange's HD voice strategy, following on from the launch of a high-definition voice service for VoIP calls in 2006. Over 500,000 Livephone devices have already been sold in France and the range will be extended to other Orange countries over the coming months.
The first mobile handset integrating high-definition voice capability that will be launched by Orange Moldova is the Nokia 6720c. The handset integrates the new WB-AMR technology, which is said to be widely expected within the industry to become a new standard for mobile voice communications.
According to Orange Moldova, customers using the device will benefit from the best possible sound quality allowing for a much richer and natural sound that is capable of conveying emotion significantly better than an ordinary handset. Background noise is also faded out to provide clearer voice conversations creating a feeling of proximity between both parties. Market research suggests that 72% of customers would want their next mobile handset to be compatible with HD voice, and 50% of VoIP customers are willing to switch operator to get an improved voice quality service.
"High-definition voice is clearly the future standard for mobile communications and is set to vastly improve user experience over the coming years," said Yves Tyrode, Executive Vice President of the Orange Technocentre. "We are very happy to be able to bring this technology to our customers in Moldova, who will be the first in the world to be able to enjoy such a service."
Liudmila Climoc, CEO of Orange Moldova, added: "We are very proud to bring this world premier to Moldova, clearly demonstrating the potential of the Moldovan market. Our teams have worked very hard, in collaboration with the Orange group's teams across the world, to develop the advanced technology that makes this service possible. In addition, the high quality of our 3G network – which already offers coverage for 63% of the population and was recently upgraded to allow for speeds of up to 14.4 Mb/sec – enabled Orange to launch this premium service in Moldova. It is through the launch of innovative new services such as this that Orange is reaffirming its commitment to quality and investment in the future of Moldova."
Orange says it plans to rapidly extend the range of HD voice-compatible mobile handsets across Europe. The Group plans to introduce HD voice services to the UK and Belgium markets by the end of 2010 and believes that the handsets will represent the majority of the 3G handsets sold within five years. At the same time, Orange will also continue its plans to roll out HD VoIP in other European markets such as Poland and Spain.
Consumers spreading cellular spending across multiple connections, says study
A new Wireless Intelligence study into multiple cellular connections per user is said to have revealed that individual consumer spending on cellular services is considerably higher than reported Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) implies, particularly in North America. The study is said to be based on primary research and found that users are typically spreading their spend across multiple SIM cards or devices, which is distorting reported industry metrics such as ARPU and market penetration.
In North America, the study found that revenue per real user has actually increased in the region over the last two years despite the macro-economic turmoil. However, in Western Europe, the results show that consumer spending on cellular services is in decline and opportunities in areas such as mobile broadband are not being realised.
The study measured the number of multiple connections per user to calculate 'real' penetration and revenue per 'real' user rather than using the traditional method of simply dividing revenue (ARPU) or population (penetration) by the number of connections. Based on this methodology, we found that North America has a 'real' market penetration of 71 percent in 3Q09 compared to reported penetration of 92 percent, while Western Europe has a 'real' penetration of 87 percent compared to a reported 128 percent.
According to Wireless Intelligence, the multiple connections issue has also distorted ARPU, which is considered to be falling or flat in most markets based on the usual reporting methods. When calculated in terms of revenue per real user and accounting for multiple connections per user, consumer spending on mobile is shown to be rising in some regions. This phenomenon is particularly visible in North America. According to Wireless Intelligence, reported ARPU (revenue per connection) in North America has been flat at around USD51 since 2006, but the new study reveals that revenue per real user has increased from USD60 to almost USD64 over the same period.
In Western Europe, revenue per connection has been falling by 5.4 percent (CAAG) over the last three years, while revenue per real user is also declining, though by a smaller margin, by 2 percent a year over the same period. The study found that revenue per connection in Western Europe will fall to EUR23 this year compared to EUR24.7 in 2008, while revenue per real user will fall to EUR33 this year from EUR34.2 in 2008.
"The results are striking in North America where we clearly see that consumers are spending more on cellular services despite the backdrop of a troubled macro-economic environment" said Joss Gillet, senior analyst at Wireless Intelligence. "However, while it appears that there is still room for growth in North America, our research suggests we are reaching user saturation in Western Europe. The region is entrenched in a phase where the prevalence of multiple SIM or device ownership is driving connections growth but revenue per real user is falling. This reflects the clear urgency for mobile operators in the region to invest in value-added services and network quality to generate profits."
3G femtocell subscribers to exceed 15 million during 2012, claims research
According to a new report from Juniper Research, demand for improved 3G reception for residential mobile voice and broadband use will be principal driving forces behind the growth of femtocells in the next few years, with subscribers exceeding 15 million globally during 2012.
The Femtocells research evaluated three adoption scenarios, and found that there is significant upside market potential for subscriber growth beyond these levels especially in developed nations. Juniper Research also found that femtocells will begin as standalone units but become integrated into the home wireless router in future, to form a "multi function mix and match" home network services gateway: router vendors are already working towards this.
Femtocells report author Howard Wilcox gave more details: "Surprisingly for some people, surveys such as that by Orange in March show that most mobile usage actually takes place from our homes. Poor indoor signal strength and slow web access are quite common problems faced by users. Femtocells offer an attractive solution – both for users and network operators who themselves can achieve economies through data traffic offload."
Further report findings from the Juniper Research report include:
- Shipments of standalone femtocells will take off over the 2011/12 period, but integrated units will be larger in value by 2014.
- The top three regions for femtocell subscribers in 2014 will be Western Europe, North America and the Far East & China.
- Revenues from new, advanced femtocell services will gain traction as soon as 2011.
Vodafone joins 3 with MiFi product launch
Will market Novatel Wireless MiFi 2352 as Mobile Broadband Hotspot
Following on from 3 UK's launch of its MiFi product, Vodafone has announced that it too will be offering customers a personal WiFi device that connects to the wider internet using the macro HSPA network as backhaul. The device will initially be available in Germany, Romania and Spain.
Vodafone customers will be able to use the Novatel Wireless MiFi2352, marketed by Vodafone as the Vodafone MiFi 2352, to connect up to five WiFi enabled devices within a 10m radius. Data is then transported over Vodafone's mobile network, offering users the chance to set up a WiFi network without the need for DSL or another fixed connection.
"“The Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot offers mobile professionals, students and families a one-touch connectivity solution that turns Wi-Fi enabled devices such as MP3 players and laptops into connected mobile internet devices,” said Huw Medcraft, Mobile Broadband Director, Vodafone.
At the moment there are no further pricing or launch plan details from Vodafone. We'll update when we have those.
Product support information from Vodafone is available here.
Broadband network technology – Get yourself organised
Self organising networks will be crucial to the efficiency and cost-effectivess of mobile broadband networks. But will they work?
Self Organising Networks (SON) is a new technique being introduced alongside LTE/SAE as part of the next generation mobile broadband network technology, and is endorsed by the NGMN alliance as a key requirement for future networks. The objective is to automate the configuration and optimisation of base-station parameters to keep best performance and efficiency. Previously a drive test team would go out into the live network and take a ‘snap-shot' of the performance, then bring this back to the lab and analyse to improve the settings. Of course more snap-shots give more data and hence better optimisation, but this data acquisition process is expensive, difficult, and not repeatable. In addition, this is a reactive method to cure problems after they have occurred, and this does not help improve customer experience.
SON will enable network operators to automate these processes using measurements and data generated in the base-station during normal operation. By reducing the need for specific drive test data, this technique should reduce operating costs for an operator. By using real time data generated in the network, and reacting in real time at the network element level, this should enhance customer experience by responding more dynamically to changes and problems in the network much earlier so that users are less affected.
Basic principles
SON is the top level description of the concept for more automated (or fully automated) control and management of networks, where the network operator has only to focus on policy control (admission control, subscribed services, billing etc) and high level configuration/planning of the network. All low level implementation of network design and settings is made automatically by the network elements. The self organising philosophy can then be broken down into 3 generic areas relating to the actual deployment of the network, these are configuration (planning and preparation before the cell goes live), optimisation (getting the best performance from the live cell), and healing (detection and repair of fault conditions and equipment failures). Each of these is further explained below.
Self Configuration
This is the first stage of network deployment, and covers the process of going from a ‘need' (e.g. need to improve coverage, improve capacity, fill a hole in coverage etc.) to having a cell site ‘live' on the network and providing service. The stages involved here are roughly:
– Planning for location, capacity and coverage.
– Setting eNb parameters (radio, transport, routing and neighbours).
– Installation, commissioning and testing.
The Self Configuring network should allow the operator to focus on selecting location, capacity and coverage needs, and then SON should automatically set the eNodeB parameters to enable the site to operate correctly when powered on. This will in turn minimise the installation and commissioning process, and enable a simple "final test" at the site to confirm that the new site is up and running.
Self Optimising Once a site is live and running, there are often optimisation tasks to be made that are more of a ‘routine maintenance' activity. As the geography of the area changes (e.g. buildings constructed or demolished), the radio spectrum changes (e.g. new cells added by the operator or by other operators, or other RF transmitters in the same area or at the same tower), then the neighbour cell lists, interference levels and hand-over parameters must be adjusted to ensure smooth coverage and handovers. Currently, the impact of such issues can be detected using an OSS monitoring solution, but the solution requires a team to go out in the field and make measurements to characterise the new environment and then go back to the office and determine optimum new settings. SON will automate this process by using the UE's in the network to make the required measurements in the field and report them automatically back to the network. From these reports, new settings can be automatically determined. This will remove the need for drive test teams to make such measurements. This concept can also be extended to managing Quality of Service and load balancing by using quality reports to optimise the scheduling algorithms in the eNodeB.
Self Healing (fault management and correction)
When a site is fully operational and active then it is generating revenue/satisfying customers. If there are any problems with the site and it fails to provide a service/coverage then revenue and/or customers are lost, and so the site must be brought back up to full capacity as soon as possible. The third element of SON is to automatically detect when a cell has a fault (e.g. by monitoring both the built in self test, and also the neighbour cell reports made by UE's that are/should be detecting the cell). If the SON reports indicate a cell has a failure then there are 2 necessary actions; to indicate the nature of the fault so the appropriately equipped repair team can be sent to the site, and then to re-route users to another cell if possible and to re-configure neighbour cells to provide coverage in this area whilst the repair is underway. After the repair, SON should also take care of the site re-start in a similar process to the site commissioning and testing.
Technical issues and impact on network planning. To deploy SON in a multi-vendor RAN environment requires standardisation of parameters for reporting and decision making. The eNodeB will need to take the measurement reports from UE's and also from other eNodeB's and report them back into the O&M system, to enable optimisation and parameter setting. Where there is multiple vendor equipment involved then this must be in a standardised format so that the SON solution is not dependant on a particular vendor's implementation.
The equipment vendors who are implementing SON will need to develop new algorithms to set eNodeB parameters such as power levels, interference management (e.g. selection of sub-carriers), and hand-over thresholds. These algorithms will need to take into account the required input data (i.e. what is available from the network) and the required outcomes (including co-operation with neighbour cells).
Further more, as SON is also implemented into the core network (Evolved Packet Sub-system, EPS), there needs to be standards on the type and format of data sent into the core. Inside the core network, new algorithms will be required to measure and optimise the volume/type of traffic flowing taking into account the Quality of Service and service type (e.g. voice, video, streaming, browsing). This is required to enable the operator to optimise the type and capacity of the core network, and adjust parameters such as IP routing (e.g. in an MPLS network), traffic grooming, etc.
Effects on network installation, commissioning and optimisation strategies
Equipment vendors have the opportunity now to develop algorithms that link eNodeB configuration to customer experience, allowing fast adaptation to customer needs. The challenge is to link RF planning and customer ‘quality of experience' closer together at a low level technical implementation. The benefit is that the network can adapt to meet the user needs in the cell without additional cost of optimisation teams constantly being in the field. The network planners' simulation environment will now need to take into account the SON operation of eNodeB when the making simulations of capacity/coverage for the network. As the operator may not directly control/configure the eNodeB, the simulation environment will need to predict the behaviour of the network vendors SON function in the network.
Operator/Installer's site test must verify that all parameters are correctly set and working in line with the initial simulation and modelling. This will ensure that the expected coverage and performance is provided by the eNodeB. The SON function will then ‘self optimise' the node to ensure that this performance is maintained during different operating conditions (e.g. traffic load, interference). This should reduce the amount of drive test required for configuration and optimisation (in theory reduced to zero), and drive test is only needed for fault finding (where SON is not able to self heal the problem).
Conclusion
SON can simplify operator's processes to install new cell sites, reducing the cost/time/complexity to install new sites. SON gives an obvious benefit if deploying femto cells, as the operator is not strictly in control of the cell site and needs to rely on automated processes to correctly configure the cell into the network. In addition, the running costs of the site are reduced, as drive test optimisation is reduced and site visits for fault investigation and repair can be reduced. All of this leads to OPEX savings for the network by using automated technology to replace manual operations.
For the customers on the network, SON will lead to better customer satisfaction as coverage and Quality of Service are driven and optimised by actual customer usage, and there should be reduced downtime or faulty cells. The OSS monitoring systems and SON should work together to automatically detect usage trends and failures and automatically take action in real time to correct errors.
About the author:
Jonathan Borrill, Director of Marketing, Anritsu EMEA Ltd.
Mobile TV services – TV for our times?
With progress on broadcast networks stalled, what can operators do to stay relevant in the mobile TV market?
There was a story that footballer George Best loved to tell about himself. Supposedly, one morning George was spotted by a hotel bellboy lying on a hotel bed, surrounded by empty champagne bottles and thousands of pounds in cash. Next to him in the bed lay a former Miss World. The bell boy takes the whole scene in and says, "George, where did it all go wrong?"
It's a question one might ask of mobile broadcast TV. Except that if mobile broadcast TV was lying in a hotel bed, it would be surrounded only by thousands of broken business plans and dreams.
When it was first proposed, mobile TV created quite a stir in the technology and communications community with a promise of grandeur. Research company InStat notes that this promise is easy to understand in that mobile TV combines the greatest communications trend in the last 20 years, mobility, with the people's love of TV.
"Mobile TV, however, has been a disappointment to many," an InStat report claims. "After many years of digital standards melees, the growth of subscription-based digital TV subscriptions has not materialised to the degree that was originally anticipated, despite some impressive service offerings that have been brought to market."
Olivier Dhotel, Director Mobile TV, Group Strategic Marketing, tells Mobile Europe that although the operator is experiencing great growth on its TV services, the promise of digital broadcast TV seems to be receding.
The problem this brings is that broadcasters and content providers look at the numbers of subscribers viewing TV streams on mobile, and see nothing like the scale they are used to. The numbers, growing though they are, remain in the few hundred thousands, rather than the millions that the broadcasters are used to.
Dhotel admits that this is a problem. He says that when it comes to attracting content partners, many are "not exactly keen".
So in the absence of digital broadcast networks (yes, there are some, as in Italy and Austria, for example), what can oeprators do?
Partick Bossert of Convergys says that operators need to change the way they think about TV.
"The service provider business role has not changed. They should not try to be aggregators of contentand media, but instead provide the billing and customer care relationships to their users. A user might enter into a subscription with Sky directly, but with the right kind of package from the operator, a user could watch that same content and be billed for it on their phone bill. The operator then provides that customer relationship, which is already strong, on behalf of the content provider."
Bossert says that operators can therefore provide a service wrapper for the media owners. He also points out that they should not underestimate their regional power.
"A media publisher works on economies of scale. The cost of providing a global business with local support doesn't add up. But service providers do act locally, and already provide all the billing, marketing, protection and other customer services relevant to that market."
Bossert adds that there is another way operators could stay involved, and that is to carry out more packet detection and monetisation.
"People are happy to pay small amounts now for content," he says. Billing at the moment tends to be event agnostic and transmission media agnostic. These things could be charged for. A bundled tariff that includes low cost per-minute viewing is possible, but nobody seems to be doing that."
There is another alternative to the subscription-based mobile digital offerings that has been gaining momentum. The alternative utilises the existing analog free-to-air broadcast signals by placing a tuner in a mobile phone to receive programming, essentially creating analog mobile TV. The analog mobile TV phenomenon that found its genesis in China has since spread to other regions of the world, dependent only on the existence of available free-to-air broadcast signals.
Telegent has commissioned In-Stat to take a look at this mobile TV execution method: delivering mobile TV to handsets using analog signals, monetised strictly through advertising by the local broadcasters, otherwise known as free-to-air.
3G Mobile TV Services
There are advantages and disadvantages to both for mobile operators. While mobile operators can rely on their own network and offer more channels via 3G mobile TV streaming services, the video quality may not be consistent. The 3G mobile TV service is only available to those with 3G handsets and plans, so 3G mobile TV services cannot be offered to the entire subscriber base, unlike a mobile TV broadcast service.
The method of monetization for 3G mobile TV is typically subscription fees. Monthly subscription fees range from a few dollars per month to over $15 per month, depending on the number of channels offered and the service pricing for the region. Some operators offer hourly, daily, and weekly options to encourage usage as well.
Digital Broadcast
There is a fragmentation of standards for digital mobile TV broadcasting that appears to be the way of the future. In digital mobile TV broadcasting, several standards are being used, each mainly in one country, and that situation is likely to continue in the future. Examples are MediaFLO in the US, CMMB in China, and T-DMB in South Korea. The most widely deployed standard is DVB-H, in terms of number of countries in which the standard is available. In addition to being promoted by the European Union, DVB-H trials or limited services are operating in the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia, and Indonesia. Even though DVB-H has the widest deployment, it is fair to say that up-take has been fairly sluggish.
It is important to note the In-Stat predicts that the number of viewers of mobile digital free-to-air services will be greater than the number of subscription-based mobile digital viewers.
Unlike 3G mobile TV, handsets capable of receiving mobile digital TV need a special embedded digital tuner chip. This results in a higher per unit cost in the range of $30 to $100 to the consumer as well. In geographies such as the US where the operator subsidises the cost of the handset, the operator has extra pressure to recoup this higher subsidy cost in the form of higher ARPU.
Over-the-Top
Increasing penetration of broadband Internet access by consumers has contributed to an increase in online viewing of video content. The Internet can also provide access to TV and video content consumers already "own," delivered to their homes by cable or satellite providers and stored in digital format on digital video recorders. "Place shifting" represents a way to access that content from a remote location using the Internet.
The content is provided on a best effort basis, lacking the reliability that is expected from TV. Also, much of the valuable live content that drives demand for real time TV such as news, sports, and weather is often not available without a subscription fee as major media conglomerates have purchased those rights.
As the number of handsets with larger screens and data plans has increased, the popularity of consuming over-the-top content has also increased. Essentially, the handset is increasingly becoming another client upon which users can consume Internet video content, making it a competitor of mobile TV services.
The monetisation method of this content is usually advertising, making the content "free" to the end user. However, the video is not without cost. Unless the viewing device is using a personal area connection (PAN) like Bluetooth or a local area connection (LAN) such as Wi-Fi, the handset will incur data charge.
Analog Broadcast
Another option for mobile TV broadcasting was brought to market in Asia in 2007 and has since achieved consumer adoption in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia/CIS, the Middle East and Africa. Telegent Systems, a fabless CMOS semiconductor company, has developed a successful single-chip mobile TV receiver that enables mobile handsets to receive analog TV broadcasts.
Mobile handsets began shipping with analog TV receivers in mid 2007 and have become quite plentiful. By mid-2009, Telegent shipped more than 40 million ATV chips in a two-year period. There are many markets where digital broadcasts have not begun and analog shutoff is years away. Analog TV is free and the consumer just has to buy a handset with a receiver. This makes for an attractive proposition, similar to the one that has prompted consumers to snap up digital mobile TV broadcast receivers in Japan and South Korea, where the digital service is free-to-air.
Similar to digital mobile TV, analog mobile TV requires a separate tuner chip to enable the functionality. The cost to add the TV feature is less than US$10 per unit. It should be noted however that even though the analog broadcast solution requires an additional TV tuner, the feature can be implemented in low cost models and is therefore able to reach a consumer segment not addressed by higher end phone models, such as those that support 3G streaming solutions
As the various digital mobile TV standards were grabbing all the headlines, analog mobile TV-enabled handsets were quietly shipping. There were not any fights over standards. There were no new broadcast towers going up. And by the end of 2009, there will about 54 million analog mobile TV enabled handsets in service.
Vodafone UK launches One Net
Vodafone has launched Vodafone One Net, a service claimed to combine fixed and mobile voice from which small and medium sized businesses can save up to 20% on their communications costs.
According to Vodafone, One Net ensures that businesses are able to work effectively whether in the office or out and about. The single service ensures businesses are always available to their customers at the same time as giving them greater cost control on communications spend via a flexible, scalable service that can grow or contract depending on the size of the workforce.
Vodafone One Net offers a single number for landline and mobile phones, one voicemail for all fixed and mobile messages, one contract and a single point of contact to cover all communications needs. Business customers can switch seamlessly between their mobile and landline phone depending on where they are. This means making or receiving a call in the office on a fixed phone and continuing it on the move via mobile is now a reality.
Customers can opt to pay a predictable flat call rate, per user subscription, allowing flexibility as the business grows or contracts, with the cost of the call remaining the same whether fixed or mobile.
The Vodafone One Net service also offers customers the opportunity to have a virtual switchboard, fully hosted by Vodafone UK which can support businesses with multiple office locations. Rather than having a fixed switchboard or PBX, Vodafone UK takes care of the management of communications between locations, routing the call via the most effective channel. One Net also offers call quality monitoring, so customers benefit from business-grade service levels and network performance.
"Our small and medium sized business customers have told us that they want to deal with one trusted communications provider who can support them in improving business efficiency, delivering outstanding customer service and improving cash flow whilst remaining responsive to changing business needs," says Peter Kelly, Enterprise Director for Vodafone UK. "Vodafone One Net delivers this by enabling businesses to work effectively in or out of the office, providing a one stop support service for fixed and mobile voice communications that also effectively reduces costs."
Fixed calls are provided through Vodafone UK's extended partnership with BT Wholesale.
The launch of Vodafone One Net follows the launch in July 2009 of Vodafone One, offering integrated voice, data and fixed line services for corporate customers.
TeleWare combines SMS and intelligent Number with private mobile network functionality
TeleWare, a provider of intelligent communication solutions to businesses and service providers, today announced the immediate availability of SMS capabilities for users of its intelligent Numbers, enabling text messages to be sent to a user's virtual number and have them delivered to their designated mobile phone or email inbox.
"We believe we are the first company in the mobile business area to overcome this problem," said Steve Haworth, CEO of TeleWare, "until now, the only approach that allowed full SMS capabilities on the mobile required separate mobile and landline numbers."
The separate mobile and fixed line number solutions compelled every business to issue their staff with at least two numbers for business – the mobile and the fixed line. This puts call control into the hands of the caller, as they select which number to use. Perhaps more importantly, it also means that, as employees move between organisations, their mobile numbers often moves with them and so their contact also moves away from the business.
With the new solution, a single intelligent Number is allocated by the business and the mobile private number can be used for private calls and SMS while the intelligent Number is used for all business calls and business SMS messages. Both numbers are live concurrently and SMS is fully operational.
This also means that all business calls to the intelligent Number will use the company's existing call control systems, such as auto attendants, corporate voicemail and alternative routing options, ensuring business calls are handled efficiently and cost effectively.
"The cost of generating an incoming call from a prospect will, typically, be in the region of £300 – £500 per call," explained Steve Haworth. "Companies are spending money generating sales prospects then risking losing that prospect through changes to sales staff or poor call control on mobile phone numbers. In the past companies had little choice but to give their employees multiple numbers since SMS is a business tool in today's increasingly mobile market. Today they have the choice, they can both receive SMS messages and have a business number that belongs to the business not the individual," added Haworth.
For employees representing multiple companies it is also possible to have multiple intelligent Numbers for voice calls and mobile calls on a single mobile handset so that they are informed as to which business they are answering for when taking a call. The SMS functionality is a fully integrated feature of intelligent Number and is part of TeleWare's operating system for their Telephony Server. It is available for immediate deployment by TeleWare On-premise customers as they upgrade to V11 or deploy a TeleWare Mobility Server and is already fully deployed to all TeleWare Hosted Services customers.
Huawei launches SingleMetro platform
Huawei has unveiled its SingleMetro platform, which is said to allow operators to upgrade from triple-play to multi-play services smoothly. The SingleMetro platform is said to be the latest enhancement to Huawei's IPTime (IP Transport Infrastructure for Multi-play Experience) solution, and enables service experience optimization, network capability monetization and TCO (total cost ownership) reduction.
The demand for HDTV (high-definition television), high-speed Internet, mobile broadband and other applications is driving operators to deploy multi-play metro networks. Huawei claims its SingleMetro platform will enable operators to flexibly create new business models with unprecedented user experiences and increased network capability monetization. Operators will also be able to benefit from enhanced QoE (Quality of Experience), improved ROI (Return on Investment) and simplified OAM (Operation Administration Maintenance).
"Service providers are rapidly transitioning to converged metro service architectures in order to effectively support the further evolution of multi-play service delivery. Huawei's new SingleMetro platform combines the traditional service routing functions of an edge router, multiple specialized network devices such as video quality monitoring, and a cost effective metro Ethernet aggregation capability into a single platform flexible enough to support new service models. Emerging service models must include new and innovative ways to help carriers monetize and provision their network infrastructures," said Glen Hunt, Principal Analyst of Carrier Infrastructure, Current Analysis.
SingleMetro's high-precision packet-based clock distribution enables full service operators to provide enhanced 3G and LTE (long term evolution) services. The integrated value-added service engine (iVSE) ensures non-stop HDTV while saving bandwidth significantly with distributed cache. The user-centered operation model designed into the platform supports inline real time service monitoring (iRSM) which is able to visualize network performance for real-time monitoring and rapid trouble shooting. The platform also integrates technologies of IP/MPLS forwarding, service routing, intelligent edge, subscriber management, video engine, content caching, security, deep packet inspection (DPI) and PS core support and other intelligent featuring.
"The upgrade from triple-play to multi-play is more than adding new services. It's about building future-oriented network infrastructure that can support innovative technologies, services and business models. As part of Huawei's All-IP convergence strategy, the SingleMetro platform reflects our long-term commitment to address the challenges and pressures of global operators through our network solutions," said Daniel Tang, Vice President of Huawei Network Product Line.
Huawei has also launched its Metro Services Platform (MSP) CX600 V6, as the first product release of the SingleMetro platform. More product releases are expected to be available to the market by the end of 2009.
