Several factors are driving the market for greater in-building coverage. So which technology stands to meet businesses' and operators' demands? Step forward Active DAS, says Keith Dyer

When it comes to providing coverage and capacity in-building, things used to be relatively simple for mobile operators. First off, although coverage has always been a key element, capacity demand wasn't that high. The use of mobiles was for voice only, and in fact with the price premium still evident, and limited distribution of mobile numbers as a primary contact number, the number of calls being made to and from mobiles in a business setting was relatively low.

Then came mass penetration of mobile phones, mobile and single-contact numbers on business cards, the expectancy of being able to reach anyone, anytime. Text increased as a business tool. No matter, where it was really necessary to support a business on campus, or in an area of poor coverage, additions could be made to the macro coverage. But then came 3G, which delivered a triple whammy. First, on the service side, it became vital to support the use of mobile devices, wherever they were, for email and other enterprise applications. Then, as 3G in Europe used higher frequencies, clearly penetration of steel, concrete, reinforced glass buildings was going to be an issue. Finally, the nature of W-CDMA cells, with their breathability and near-far power ratios, meant that just chucking extra cells into a plan wasn't necessarily the best answer. It was also a lot more expensive, and site permissions a lot harder to come by.

So several situations presented themselves. For smaller solutions, picocells proved a viable answer. Then there was DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems), which worked by taking a donor feed from the macro cell, or from a repeater, and then distributing that over fibre through the building. Typically, these systems consist of components such as coaxial and radiating cables, power splitters, directional couplers and indoor antennas.

And it is active DAS that is currently driving the market, according to ABi Research. ABI research says that the provision of coverage in the largest buildings will drive active DAS systems growth at a compound annual growth rate of 28% through 2013.

According to ABI, active DAS systems deliver the greatest cost benefit in very large buildings. Below 500,000 square feet, passive systems such as repeaters and passive DAS systems start to become more cost-effective. But with data services becoming a greater portion of wireless services ARPU, capacity becomes an equally relevant design factor.

ABI Research principal analyst Dan Shey, says, "Capacity is playing an increased role in the design of in-building wireless systems. As buildings get smaller, and with the presence of older passive systems, solutions will utilize a toolkit of options including repeaters, femtocells, picocells, and passive and active DAS systems. Interestingly, this solution complexity will also create a very competitive supplier environment."

In-building wireless systems will also provide the communications infrastructure to serve the needs resulting from other growing trends such as public safety coverage and environmental concerns. Says Shey, "As in-building wireless systems become more useful to building owners and enterprises, reliability, throughput, and manageability will become important design factors. This will drive product development in all related equipment and will create more managed services opportunities, ultimately growing the in-building wireless ecosystem and revenues."

Andrea Casini, Vice President, Europe, Middle East, North Africa Sales and Marketing, Andrew, says that Andrew is seeing increased demand.
"As European markets are flattening out as far as new network rollouts are concerned, operators are now seeking new ways to boost revenues. We have seen a number of operators looking towards in-building and special coverage projects as a means to do just this. In fact, this is driven by network optimisation activities by operators trying to address interference, capacity, and dead coverage spots. Improvement in high-speed data performance is also an important factor. In general, we are seeing an accelerated trend in network performance improvements.  

Enterprises are certainly looking to provide wireless coverage in office buildings as growing numbers of staff demand wireless coverage wherever they happen to be within the business site, and owners of public buildings are now also beginning to realise the benefits of indoor coverage. Organisers of large events now demand seamless wireless coverage, and with technology having developed to deal with much higher capacity than a few years ago, wireless vendors now need to optimise their services to provide a multi-operator, peak capacity service, with minimal visual impact, and at a competitive price in order to stay ahead of the game."

John Spindler, VP Product Management, ADC, says that increased data usage and applications are driving that demand, spurred on by increased 3G coverage.
"There's more data usage, 3G systems are now rolling out everywhere, and the higher frequencies of those systems attenuate more quickly. Just as users need better coverage and capacity, the frequencies bringing them these new services need more help with in-building systems. In addition, in-building systems help mitigate the problem of cell phones "hunting" between multiple macro towers in dense urban areas by providing a stronger signal from inside the building," Spindler says.
Andrew's Casini says, "There is no doubt that data usage has increased over recent years. Businesses now demand instant access to a range of communication methods including e-mail, instant messaging, and voice and video over IP, all of which require a high-speed broadband connection to work efficiently. It is no longer acceptable for large service providers to provide an unreliable connection, especially as the market becomes more crowded. In dense urban areas the competition for wireless coverage is amplified significantly, which is why operators need to consider deployment of advanced in-building solutions."

So what solutions does Casini see as providing the answer?
"Complex buildings such as large office blocks, airports and shopping malls require dedicated coverage and capacity.  The subscriber profile will dictate adequate traffic resources, most normally with micro and pico base stations complemented by passive and/or active DAS.  At times, and particularly so in suburban areas, backhaul could be a limiting factor. 
"Typical network planning is bi-dimensional, hence normally missing out the third dimension of vertical buildings.  This factor often skews the visibility of potential high-traffic (and revenue) pockets, that are simply neglected or overlooked.  As a consequence, networks may face huge traffic crowding and blocking, with lost calls and poor accessibility.

A correct assessment of those potential risks is a key factor to accelerate positive customer experience and revenue growth in today's competitive ecosystem.  Andrew provides appropriate tools to accurately measure network quality and lost traffic, and flexible wireless coverage solutions to efficiently address those issues."

ADC's Spindler says it is about finding the right mix of solutions. "Operators have used DAS and remote radio heads for years to mitigate the problem. Extending macro coverage is very expensive and time-consuming compared with deploying DAS or small radio heads to provide spot coverage in areas where macro coverage is poor. Pico cells are relatively new, but they make it possible for carriers to expand capacity inside a structure in a very cost-effective way when they are deployed in conjunction with a DAS. Previously, carriers would either deploy a small base station at a site or use roof-mounted antennas to grab signal from the macro space and relay it to amplifiers (BDAs) and DAS inside the building.  Pico cells are far less expensive and easier to deploy, and they can use standard TDM or DSL connection for backhaul, which also saves the operator money."

Andrew's Casini highlights the economic, as well as technical efficiency, of building shared systems in dense environments. "Our solutions are adopted in a number of dense urban areas, e.g., in Canary Wharf and in Glasgow's West End, both in order to overcome the limiting factors of wireless propagation in confined environments – i.e., typical coverage extension –  and/or to optimise the distribution of network capacity by providing an additional street-level wireless layer (typically low-power, low-impact antennas invisibly installed on light poles) that offloads urban traffic from the macro network in areas of high density of subscribers.

"Those solutions become extremely attractive from both an economical and a technical point of view because of their intrinsic ability to provide a shared infrastructure that can be efficiently used by multiple wireless operators and services. While the cost-sharing factor is obvious, it is also worth noting that the technical advantages of a shared solution with reliably consistent radio performance contribute to reduce interferences and maximise capacity and efficiency, particularly so in WCDMA technology. A robust O&M system allows independent access to status information by each participant to the system, including third parties in charge of the system itself."

Active and Passive DAS

A DAS can serve one or several operators and one/or several bands (e.g. GSM 900, GSM 1800 and WCDMA). In some cases the DAS can be used to concurrently distribute both cellular and non-cellular bands, e.g. both GSM and WLAN in one and the same antenna system. The most commonly deployed DASs are the passive coaxial cable solutions. These consist typically of a micro or a macro base station that is connected to a number of distributed antennas via coaxial cables and combining equipment such as power splitters, power tappers, combiners, multi casting matrixes etc. The DAS can support one or several mobile operators and one or several mobile technologies (GSM, WCDMA, CDMA2000, TETRA etc). But the DAS can consist of either passive or active components. When both active and passive components are used in a DAS, it is often referred to as a hybrid solution.
Some advantages of a dedicated RBS connected to a DAS, are that it is possible to ensure both dedicated coverage and capacity, confine the signals, prevent spillage and interference and thus enhance the quality for both speech and data services. In addition for enabling new traffic in previous non-covered areas, the solution also off-loads the macro network in overlapping coverage areas. The RBSs are normally owned by mobile operators.

Some of the biggest advantages of an active DAS, compared with passive coaxial DASs, are the much longer distribution distances as well as the smoothness and ease with which one may install the optical fibres. The initial cost of the system as well as the operation and maintenance costs are commonly higher than for a passive solution.

Single-operator DASs are typically owned by the mobile operator, while multi- operator DASs tend to be owned by other players in the market, such as neutral host providers, building owners, government authorities and enterprises

With a growing number of platforms to support, as well as an increasing demand for mobile access to enterprise applications, mobile device management may offer operators a useful USP in the corporate ICT market

2008 does seem to have been the year when operators have come to market with device management solutions aimed at the enterprise. As well as solutions now available through Vodafone and Telefonica, Orange UK has announced the launch of its Device Management service, claimed to be the first product of its kind that enables businesses to effectively manage their employees' mobile devices in-house, without having to bring them into the office or contact customer services.
Orange Device Management is a hosted solution that enables companies to remotely manage their device fleet, with IT managers able to send updates, troubleshoot, and lock or wipe devices over the air. It requires no back-end server and is being marketed as a simple solution to set up and get running. Employees get the freedom to work where they like, safe in the knowledge that any issues they have can be dealt with quickly and securely without them having to come back into the office.
Anthony Keyworth, Director of Business Products, Orange Business Services UK says, "With business mobile needs constantly evolving, it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to be able to manage their device fleet in a cost-effective and time-efficient way. Orange Device?Management helps increase the productivity of the mobile workforce, as well as providing businesses with greater security for their data."

So where does enterprise device management sit within the overall market? Penetration of all mobile device management (MDM) technologies in handsets is growing strongly globally, according to global advisory and consulting firm Ovum's latest quarterly report.

According to Ovum, growing support for advanced mobile device management technologies in mobile handsets promises to give the mobile service provider a much increased degree of control over the device fleet. Key applications of MDM include remote configuration, defect fixing, diagnostics and software management.

The results of Ovum's study are the outcome of a comprehensive survey of mobile handsets launched globally over the past four years, feeding into a repository of nearly 900 handsets from all major manufacturers and listing their key characteristics, including support for FOTA, OMA CP and OMA DM, plus their date of launch and regional availability.

Results show that between 4Q06 and 4Q07, global shipments grew by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 83% (for firmware over-the-air update), 51% (for OMA client provisioning) and 159% (for OMA device management).

Ovum has tracked penetration of three key MDM technologies throughout 2007: OMA client provisioning (OMA CP), OMA device management (OMA DM) and firmware over-the-air (FOTA) update.  The study reveals that in 4Q07 OMA DM was supported in nearly one-third of all handsets now shipping worldwide.

Adam Leach, lead principal analyst at Ovum and author of the report said: "It is crucial for service providers to understand the penetration of key enabling technologies in order to decide whether and when they should be scaling up the use of MDM in their businesses. What is clear is that we are now at a critical point in terms of adoption of this key technology. Service providers looking to offer device management services based on OMA DM should find they have a good choice of handsets across a range of price points."

Ovum forecasts continued strong growth for all MDM technologies globally; by the end of 2008 Ovum expects OMA DM and FOTA, will reach 44% and 57% respectively, of global shipments. By the end of 2009 they will be an established part of the handset technology landscape, with penetration in over half the installed base of handsets and in 84% and 69% respectively, of new mobile phone shipments.
"Firmware updating is by no means the only application of OMA DM that service providers are interested in. OMA DM is already being used for more sophisticated types of device configuration than OMA CP is capable of, such as continuous provisioning in conjunction with automatic detection. It is handling client provisioning for new value-added services being offered by operators, and supporting important commercial functionality such as preferred roaming lists," says Leach.

As the OMA finalises more standardised management objects, such as those for software updating and diagnostics, the relevance of OMA DM will continue to grow for all service providers, says Ovum.
So with the standards looking well set, stable, and with clear progression in mind, are operators now in a position to address to enterprise market with a solution that Enterprise IT providers will find difficult to match? This is important because it has been a tough task for operators to date to convince IT departments that they can compete with their existing suppliers.

Microsoft's Roderick van der Graaf, Windows Mobile EMEA Enterprise Marketing Manager, says that for his company device management is an extension, one of a range of options.

"The way we see it, we deliver one part of the total solution. We provide the software for the more than 140 devices in the market that are Windows Mobile compatible; the device manufacturers concentrate on making their devices;  and mobile operators provide the data tariff. But we have seen more of a shift where that three- way partnership becomes more of a square, with the line of business applications providers becoming involved.

"Also, with mobile operators we see they have more and more customers asking for mobility, and not just among new customers, but with IT people wanting to work with them, rather than the communications of telephony managers. When that happens, IT departments want a management solution that meets their budgets, which are under pressure."

The advantage for a company like Microsoft, of course, is that with Exhange Server so widely deployed, device management can be sold on as part of a total solution, whether hosted or behind the firewall.

But the drawback is that by addressing device management in this way, enterprises are tying themselves into just one device platform. And unless you exert very strict control over your users, then this is likely to cause problems. Users demand the handset of their choice, or self-buy, exposing IT departments to the need to support multiple platforms.

Rob Dalgetty, Commercial Director at Mformation, says that  the device market is in reality a fragmented environment, with multiple OS and software platforms.

"This plays into a real strength with mobile operator-based solutions because operators carry all the OS and handset models already. So there is a significant opportunity for operators to apply their strengths to the business market.

"Added to that, a key part of the proposition is not offering cross-platform support, but hosted solutions as well. This enables enterprises not only to have direct control of their devices, on whatever platform, but to stay abreast of standards developments, as well as other enhancements to functionality."

Mobile Europe:
Mark, device management has been around for a while, where is it now in terms of its utilisation amongst European operators?

Mark Banfield:
Operators have, for some time now, implemented device management platforms allowing them to configure devices for their basic settings, enabling their subscribers to get access to basic services – things like MMS, GPRS and so on. InnoPath, though, is now seeing a demand to move beyond that, into a different kind of approach to device management than we have known for the past four or five years.  Unlike many others in the device management space, InnoPath is focused on a client-server type of management platform, allowing for functions such as Firmware-over-the-Air (FOTA) updates, checking and correcting of configuration settings, and more sophisticated actions such as application or security management, in a much more standardised and active way. As more smart devices enter the market, on a variety of platforms, generating higher demand for data applications and services, European operators are now starting to see the need for their customer care teams to manage this for their subscribers more intelligently. They need to be able to communicate efficiently with their users, diagnose and fix problems, put security onto the handsets, in an efficient way. Until now Europe has been a bit behind the Japanese and US markets, but now we are seeing the move to the end-to-end client server approach that InnoPath delivers, and which has delivered benefits to the wealth of Tier 1 operator customers, including KDDI, Verizon and AT&T. 

Mobile Europe:
And you see customer care as presenting a compelling ROI case for operators deploying this updated technology?

Mark Banfield:
As devices become more and more complex, we are seeing customer care call times increase. When we speak to operators today they tell us the number of the calls and the complexity of the calls is increasing. And really this is only the tip of the iceberg, because with operators only having the ability to solve more complex problems manually, we can see call times reach from 30 to 60 minutes, as customer care agents take users through complex manual configurations. But being able to do this over the air, means for the first time front-line customer care agents can reach out and touch the device live, helping with troubleshooting and correcting mis-configured settings. This is a fundamental change in the way the subscriber interacts with the operator’s customer care organization.

The benefits of this is that first time call resolution increases, customer satisfaction increases, uptake of high revenue applications increase due to ease of use, and the cost of supporting complex devices such as smartphones decreases. That means operators benefit, both in generating additional revenues and saving cost.  In terms of the ROI you mention, we’ve recently worked with Stratecast to validate this. Stratecast predicts that in 2009, operators globally will spend over $25 billion on frontline care. Mobile device management, even with today’s modest client penetration and handling a small number of uses cases, will address $3 billion of these expenses. And by 2013, MDM will address $23 billion in expenses across the industry. This means that the operators we are talking to are looking at cost savings of tens of millions of dollars a year. That’s pretty compelling.

Mobile Europe:
Does this mean you have developed solutions specifically designed for customer care departments to use?

Mark Banfield:
We have a unique care portal that presents either the subscriber or a frontline agent with an easy to use way of accessing MDM capabilities. There’s certainly a necessity to develop very simple to understand tools for customer care agents, hiding much of the technical complexity from them. For example, the agent may ‘pulse’ the phone for vital statistics, determining at a glance if something is seriously wrong. She may check on service settings, comparing these in real-time against expected values, and then send out corrections over-the-air. ActiveSync and WiFi are examples of easily mangled settings. If the worst happens, the CSR may lock and wipe the device. We’ve even developed a care portal for customer self-care, allowing subscribers to manage their own issues. I think users are getting more and more used to be being able to go online and carry out some of their own trouble shooting. And this, of course, takes even more load off carriers’ customer care operation.

Mobile Europe
You earlier mentioned the technology there, specifically FOTA and the client server model. What’s different about that approach to device management, and how InnoPath implements it?

Mark Banfield:
Device management is evolving from an early market where a high degree of customization was the norm, and where each operator had very different requirements, to a more standard approach. We can’t ignore this. As a company, we needed to make the transition as well. We’ve developed our iMDM suite as a standard product, a single platform and codebase, instead of deploying a set of applications on multiple code bases requiring deep customization for every deployment. This permits InnoPath to focus on improving the platform and its functionality. Because it is a product, new features and applications may be easily developed or integrated and the operator may more easily deploy mobile device management with reduced costs. This also creates a platform that may be easily adopted by partners wishing to do the same, and permits deployment and support by a global sales & support organization. And by product, I mean scalability to the largest of Tier 1 operators, extensibility into other access technologies such as WiMAX or even wireline, ease of adding new applications, well documented interfaces, standards compliance, a rich workflow capability that permits the operator to change how the platform operates on-the-fly, saving time and money, and a Device Capabilities Repository and accompanying test program that insures DM manageability of the largest variety of phones.

Mobile Europe:
Can you provide an example?

Mark Banfield:
As an example, at China Unicom, deployment through a partner and customer acceptance required less than six months. These types of deployments are indicative of our product stability and standardization, as well as the ability of our operations team to work closely with our partners and wireless operators.

Mobile Europe:
Picking up on the standards issue you raise. Are the standards now stable in this area, and how does InnoPath exploit them for its customers’ benefits?

Mark Banfield:
OMA DM, which is the set of standards we are talking about, is very stable, and we have made more contributions to those standards than anyone – we’ve also been awarded over 20 US patents. Accordingly, our new Smart Client is the first post-load client to conform to OMA-DM standards. Of course, standards will always lag some way behind technological developments, as functionality increases, but InnoPath has continually focused on delivering a standards-based solution. Where we have expanded upon the standards, which we call Standards+, we’ve insured that interoperability is maintained.  It’s also important to understand that being standards-compliant is not just a matter of having a standards-compatible server, or client, I isolation. It’s about using the standard protocols in how the two interact, so that you have true interoperability.  This means that operators can have confidence that our clients embedded in handsets, whether that is by Nokia, or Sony Ericsson, or any of our partners, can be managed by their platform in a uniform way. It’s about true future proofing because it avoids vendor lock in. It also means customers can have confidence in their future strategies, as they add functionality and services. That level of standards integration is a true differentiator for InnoPath.

Mobile Europe:
Is the enterprise market one that is especially active at the moment?

Mark Banfield:
In parallel with our emphasis on MDM-enabled customer care, we’re also engaged by our operator customers for hosted enterprise device management (EDM). Importantly, many of the capabilities developed for operator consumer deployments – configuration, security, application management, and smartphone support – may be leveraged for a hosted offering. The platform supports what we call Multi-Tenancy, where the operator may delegate authority to multiple customers. In fact, if the operator chooses to do so, it could deploy the same platform for both consumers and enterprises, saving on deployment and training expenses. The operator-hosted EDM market is still in its early days, in terms of product positioning, applications required, and the different companies, large and small, approaching it from different angles. We’re following it closely.

Mobile Europe:
And with Android making such a splash currently, and the LiMO Foundation also involved in developing its flavour of Linux OS, how does a device management platform provider keep abreast of all the differing developments at the OS level.

Mark Banfield:
On the client end, separate from our support for featurephones and smartphones based on the likes of Windows Mobile and Symbian, we also work with OS platform providers to port our technology. We’re heavily involved in LiMO, where we chair the device management working group, and we’ve also ported our client to the Android platform. Being able to work with the widest cross section of platforms is critical, and is something we take a lead in. We continue to gain momentum in the client space, and have recently announced additional wins at Samsung, LG, and Pantech. At the upcomging Symbian Smartphone Show we’re demonstrating interoperability of our iMDM Server with a variety of Symbian handsets (Nokia and S-E) and will show a set of key care capabilities including device updates, diagnosing configuration settings and changing when required, all integrated with the unique care portal I described earlier.

Mobile Europe:
If operators don’t invest in MDM, do they risk losing control of customers to either the device manufacturers, or other parties?

Mark Banfield:
There is potential for the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple and RIM to address their customers’ devices with MDM, effectively addressing some of the areas the operator would like to address and thereby take control of the device and service provision, with device updates, device security and diagnostics.  Also, on the enterprise side, operators face challenges from behind the firewall software providers and the large systems integrators, challenging the hosted model. Anyone with a RIM enterprise server, for example, already has device management capabilities built in for Blackberry devices.

With operators needing to compete effectively and reduce their rising cost base, MDM is not a useful tool, but a mission critical must have capability. Any operator not considering MDM investments should spend some time looking closely at  their Customer Care environments and they will discover quickly that they are facing a massive problem which MDM can help them fix.

Mobile operators have long sought out corporate and enterprise business, as it is profitable and loyal. Recent events prove that the strategy may at last be working

The market for enterprise mobile data services in Western Europe is growing rapidly, and will reach EUR 8.9 billion by 2013 according to Analysys Mason. Although the market is currently being driven by push email, says Analysys, this growth will be outstripped by other applications that use email devices, and by machine-to-machine applications.

"The popularity of BlackBerry devices has demonstrated that significant growth in enterprise mobile data usage is possible, given a well-designed application," says the report's author, Margaret Hopkins. "Now that executives have these mobile data devices in their hands, they can be persuaded to use them for other applications, such as continuously updated key performance indicators (KPIs)."
Key findings from the new report include the finding that potential additional revenue from customised applications (such as field-force and sales-force automation in large enterprises) is estimated at EUR1.5 billion, while that from horizontal applications (such as small company access to salesforce.com and mobile timesheet updating) may be EUR400 million in Western Europe by 2013. In order to unlock this revenue, MNOs must learn from RIM's success with the BlackBerry: applications must be easy to use and be priced predictably. MNOs need to invest in middleware platforms that make it easy for them to mobilise existing enterprise applications without incurring high costs for integration. In order to sell the value of mobile applications to businesses, MNOs must demonstrate how their services improve relationships with customers and bring competitive advantage, as well as time and efficiency savings.

According to a report from global advisory and consulting firm Ovum, the top three budget priorities for CIOs at large enterprises are mobile data, IP convergence, and overall cost management. However, there are signs that budgets are being directed towards mobile data in particular.
Ovum's latest research among members of the Enterprise VPN Users Association (EVUA), whose members include companies such as PWC, Mars, GSK and Shell, suggests that more companies are moving from talking about fixed-mobile convergence as a concept to undertaking practical integration projects.

As a result, MNCs expect spending on mobile data to increase faster than any of the telecoms services they buy. Balanced over all areas of expenditure, Ovum expects telecoms budgets to change little over the coming year. However, 71% of EVUA members expect mobile data budgets to increase significantly over the same period. Having said that, mobile data traffic is predicted to grow much more quickly than budgets. EVUA members expect their service providers to come up with increasingly competitive deals, especially internationally.

Ovum's ongoing research with EVUA members shows that cost management remains a major area of concern for all telecoms services. While many MNCs have had success in bringing core fixed voice and data network costs under control, there are still issues around the cost of provision in less developed countries. It almost goes without saying that in multinationals it is the cost of mobile (and, increasingly mobile data) that needs most attention.

This need for greater visibility and control of mobile costs is seen as a barrier to greater acceptance and usage of mobile data applications and convergence. The uptake of mobile data services has been fairly slow in multinationals to date.

"Arguably the rate of growth has been limited by lack of global contracts, multinational service availability & consistency and continuing high prices for international data roaming" says Pauline Trotter, Principal Analyst at Ovum's Enterprise practice.

In the past, EVUA members have not held back in expressing their frustration with the level of support from mobile operators in supporting mobility on an international scale. This is a continuing area of concern, since it makes managing mobile usage and costs difficult for MNCs. However, there has been progress in getting 'enterprise-grade' service from mobile network operators. One sign of this progress is that major managed services or outsourcing contracts for mobile dominate new sourcing strategies. Forty-seven percent of respondents in our latest survey said that they are considering such contracts in the coming two years.

While many companies still procure and operate mobile nationally, there is a trend towards regional and even global contracts and agreements, as well as a trend towards longer contracts.
Cost management, performance (delivery to agreed SLAs) and geographical coverage are the highest rated delivery criteria for service providers among EVUA members. For mobile services, the quality of billing and reporting is also high on the agenda – this (along with cost management) is the main area where they would like to see improvement from mobile providers.

But there's also evidence of another major concern for business customers – security. New research from Vodafone UK reveals many UK businesses appear unsure as to how to secure mobile devices effectively – with nearly a quarter of all businesses having experienced security issues as a result of employees using laptops or mobile email devices outside of working hours and in contravention of company security policies.

Managing the new generation of mobile devices, from connected laptops to smart phones, is the new challenge faced by IT departments. Today's devices not only have the capability to access corporate networks, but can also store large amounts of potentially sensitive data. Vodafone's research highlights the potential risks that mobile workers are inadvertently creating through non-compliance with IT security policies.

Curt Hopkins, Head of Enterprise Mobility Solutions at Vodafone UK commented, "It's clear from the research that although many companies are setting remote and mobile working policies, they often prove to be ineffective because staff just don't follow them. Not only is this due to lack of knowledge or understanding on the part of the user, but also to lack of awareness in the IT department of effective solutions to extend and enforce security policies and practices to the mobile device estate. "

The research, conducted by Opinion Matters in June 2008 from a sample of 1,116 UK workers, shows that while many organisations are reaping the benefits of mobile working with improvements in productivity, flexibility and business continuity, in many ways their efforts could be undermined by failure to enforce IT policies and protect valuable business data outside of the office. The study reveals that a third of workers have never read their employers IT policies, or are otherwise unsure if they even exist, while approximately half of those surveyed were unsure if they are subject to different IT policies for when working inside or outside of the office.

The change in working patterns of a more flexible workforce has uncovered a host of problems for the IT department as many businesses are finding it hard to enforce IT policies and protect valuable business data outside of the office.  This problem is only set to grow as businesses balance security risks against the growing need to provide secure network access for remote workers in an ever-widening range of locations, and across many different networks and devices.

Vodafone UK addresses issues identified in this latest research with it latest release of Vodafone Secure Remote Access (VSRA) – a comprehensive solution that enables companies to secure information, devices and connectivity and enforce IT policy. Features such as Full Disk Encryption to protect data that resides on laptops and Data Leak Prevention to stop the removal of sensitive data along with policy-defined access control provide much higher levels of security. Available as a complete managed service, VSRA gives IT managers the assurance that security policies are enforced, devices are protected, data is secured and access is closely managed by user and by device wherever they are.

"Today's mobile devices are complex and have the potential to open holes in corporate security policies. Businesses that implement a remote access solution across their network will benefit from reduced risk, improved compliance and productivity as well as improved peace of mind, knowing that their corporate information is secure," concluded Hopkins.

And Orange too has  announced the launch of a Device Management service, the first product of its kind that enables businesses to effectively manage their employees' mobile devices in-house, without having to bring them into the office or contact customer services.

Anthony Keyworth, Director of Business Products, Orange Business Services UK said: "With business mobile needs constantly evolving, it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to be able to manage their device fleet in a cost-effective and time-efficient way. Orange Device Management helps increase the productivity of the mobile workforce, as well as providing businesses with greater security for their data."

Mobile Europe:
Andrew, you are managing director of the Morodo Group, the company that is marketing MO-Call, a low cost VoIP solution for international mobile calls. What is MO-Call about and how does it work?

Andrew Reid:
Put simply, MO-Call is a service designed to offer owners of mobile or internet-connected devices, low-cost international calls. We do this by offering a very light software application for download, which then routes your calls through our platform. There is no call for separate SIMs, address books, dialing prefixes or other numbers to call.

Users only have to have sufficient credit on their MO-Call account to be able to place a call, either while roaming, or outbound from their usual country of residence. For our MO-Call Home service, users place a call as normal. The application routes a call to our platform, which then makes an outbound call. At the destination number, the call is terminated onto the network required. CLI is carried throughout the process, and the user is debited the cost of the call in real time from his prepaid Morodo account.

For our other main service, MO-Call World, call set-up is slightly different. A user, places a call, which prompts the application automatically to send an SMS to the Morodo platform. This SMS prompts the platform to authenticate and authorize the user, before it places a ringback call to the calling party. When the user answers this call, the second leg of the call is then routed to the destination. If you are roaming, you can set MO-Call to call you back at any number you want – a local landline for instance, which means you can avoid the inbound roaming cost.

The difference between the two is really that in deregulated markets, where we can provision access numbers, we can offer the MO-Call Home service. In other markets, or for use as a fallback where there may occasionally be an issue with an access number availability, MO-Call World offers a great user experience too.

Mobile Europe:
So using this architecture, what rates are you able to offer users?

Andrew Reid:
For a UK example we can offer rates from 1.5 pence per minute to call China. European countries at around 2 pence per minute, up to 8, 9 and 10p per minute to countries right at the top end. Obviously our ability to offer rates is determined by the termination fees we are charged at a wholesale level in different markets. Our headline rates may not be as low as some you see from the calling card providers, but our rates are flat rate, with no hidden extras.
Clearly, it’s an attractive proposition, as in the six months we have been marketing MO-Call we have signed up 52,000 users, and are signing up new users at the rate of two to three hundred a day.

Mobile Europe:
There are lots of mobile application developers out there, both in the voice area and in other areas. How can you achieve that visible market presence?

Andrew Reid:
I think one of our chief differences right away is that we are focused on the voice market. It’s still the cash cow in the industry so that makes it the right place to be. A lot of applications developers in the games market, or similar, find that their only channel to market is through the operator portal. Developers in the voice area, however, have tended to focus on the business voice market, which of course places them in direct competition with the mobile operators themselves.

We see ourselves much more as providing a potential partnership solution with mobile operators and other service providers. For mobile operators, there are markets they would like to grow in, but don’t want to spend the billions required either to acquire an in-country operator, or establish themselves in the market. Because we can offer a white label service, we offer them a way to build up a considerable brand presence in markets and territories where they are not yet active. Another area of huge potential growth is in areas where there are significant ex-patriot populations. There is research to show that the majority of calls made by Asian ex-pats living in the UK, for instance, go back to the sub-continent. MO-Call offers an Asian operator a route to a footprint in the UK, to address that market. Or a UK service provider can tap into that traffic to improve the user experience, and reduce costs, for the community within the UK. That model can be followed all over the world, such as in the Gulf and into other parts of Asia, and of course the USA.

Morodo offers MO-Call software for resale under four different license types, that have been developed to be as flexible as possible to meet the needs of a wide variety of resellers, affiliates, brand owners and operators. For example, for a potential Mexican reseller, we completely localised a new website and service, and you can look at www.mo-call.com.mx for the results. The localisation encompassed mobile software, sales content and service operation. In the last quarter of this year, we aim to complete similar projects for resellers in North America and Australia.

Mobile Europe:
Two of the issues with calling applications have been ease of use, and also the range of handsets that an application is compatible with. Does MO-Call address these issues?

Andrew Reid:
Absolutely. One of the areas we have been investing in is a series of short customer care guides that explain exactly how to find the application once you have downloaded it, and take you through the very simple path to operation.

We also recently announced that customers can now use MO-Call in any one of more than 1,100 different mobiles, from over 30 different mobile manufacturers. We develop in J2ME, RIM, Apple, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms. This is a huge range, which crucially includes the Java capability, far wider than most VoIP applications, which tend to be designed for a relatively small selection of smartphones. And even that number excludes users who can reach our application through their browsers, to our .mobi site or Internet web site, where they can use a web-triggered function to register for usage.

Mobile Europe:
Dealing with the number of mobile development environments out there is always a tax for developers. How do you offer your application in a standard way across so many platforms, and how do you retain and consistent and easy to use UI?

Andrew Reid:
We can achieve this because we are at heart a mobile software application developer – dedicated to the integration of software that adds value to the mobile experience. MO-Call is an application developed by the Morodo Technology Development Company based in Beijing, where all of our development takes place. The Morodo Technology Development Company is part of the Morodo Group, which is a privately funded corporate entity, founded in September 2006. Situating our development in Beijing means we can benefit from the tremendous universities of Beijing, specifically through our partnership with the Information Engineering School at Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. So we can maintain a high level of innovation at lower cost to many markets.
The management at Morodo have great experience in the telco world. I am the former CFO of Primus Europe, building a $13 million business in three years. Our technical director, James Barnes, was General Manager for Primus Mobiles, and worked with many software design companies in that capacity. Our team means we have a great experience of the mobile network operator and MVNO models, as well as of building businesses. We understand the needs and concerns of potential licensees and partners, whether they are from within or outside the carrier community.

Mobile Europe:
With operators facing a hit on their roaming revenues within Europe, do you think you are hitting a receptive target at the moment?

Andrew Reid:
I think the relevant point there is that although European operators are being forced, or have chosen, to cut their roaming costs within Europe, there is evidence that some have compensated for this by raising their costs for roaming in other world markets – so roaming costs are still an issue in much of the world.

There’s also evidence that mobile operators are beginning to embrace VoIP as a tool they can use, rather than merely regard it as a threat to existing revenues. They can offer soft clients and other means when their users are roaming, and to inbound roamers, to retain loyalty and ease the user experience. A tool like ours absolutely plays to that, as it comes with carrier-grade levels of customer care and support, and can be branded and offered to market with no change to a user’s existing call settings, address book, or any other functionality. It leverages the user experience the mobile user has already, rather than push him into separate applications, or even devices, such as with soft clients on laptops and handsets.

For the last 10 months Morodo has been working on something known as “Project RICO.” Just as MO-Call began with the simple idea of putting a calling card in a mobile phone, the MO-Call RICO project set out to bring VOIP to both your mobile and desktop. We are nearing the completion of a long development schedule and hope to deliver a unified communications solution under the MO-Call umbrella this calender year. Beginning with VOIP the added MO-Call features will evolve, offering Instant Messaging and Presence, free on-net calling, phone book management, conference calling, voice mail and media sharing.

Morodo has already attracted substantial interest from Mobile Network Operators with the MO-Call application.  We hope that our Mobile VOIP application will not frighten the MNOs, but rather encourage them to work with us in offering their customer base competitive services. That’s what we would like to see!