According to a new report from ABI Research, the fixed-mobile convergence market is on the move. UMA-based Wi-Fi dual-mode solutions are said to have seen some significant penetration in both Europe and North America, due largely to successful market introductions by T-Mobile in the US (T-Mobile @Home) and Orange (unik) in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The first real competitive solution that could rival Wi-Fi-based products has now appeared, in the form of Sprint's nationwide (US) femtocell-based AIRAVE solution. The questions remain: is there room for both types of convergence in the market; and which solution is best placed to succeed, asks ABI?
ABI forecasts a total of 103 million access points of both types to be in service by 2013. Vice president and research director Stuart Carlaw says, "We expect cellular-based femtocells to have taken over the baton from UMA- and SiP-based Wi-Fi solutions by 2013, seizing 62% of the market." He goes on to add that,
"Although UMA-based Wi-Fi solutions have seen early gains in greenfield markets, these solutions have not proliferated much outside their current carrier footprints. This can be attributed partly to the carriers' desire to assess femtocell developments, but also to lingering concerns regarding the concept of Wi-Fi based fixed-mobile convergence."
ABI Research's study "Fixed-Mobile Convergence" examines the opportunity for UMA and SIP in converged network services, dual-use handsets, Wi-Fi access points, picocells and femtocells. It includes a review of the current standards position and activities of the major vendors.
103 million consumer fixed-mobile convergence access points in service by 2013, claims research
UK based MVNE CallKey completes merger with CallBlue
UK MVNE CallKey has announced that a merger with one of it's leading competitors, CallBlue, has been successfully completed.
This merger results in CallKey expanding its network capability with the addition of an HLR (Home Location Register), and MSC (Mobile Switching Centre). This combination expands CallKey's ability to act as a full MVNE (Mobile Virtual Network Enabler) providing the technology and services to facilitate companies to become full global roaming MVNO's in a very short time.
By owning the technical infrastructure that underpins the service, unlike other roaming providers, CallKey says it has complete control over call costs, quality, security and billing. Callers always receive the best quality because all calls are switched directly from the home network.
CallKey claims to be one of the world's first and largest suppliers of Travel SIMs, which abolish high roaming fees that are usually charged by incumbent Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
The company offers a 100% white label platform where MVNO's can customise everything as their own, including having their own branding of SIMs and web portal, plus customised audio prompts and short-codes. MVNO's can set up multiple sub-distributors, each with their own discrete pricing, and customisation.
Each MVNO is also given access to their own personal "back office" where they can fully manage their customer and sub-agent accounts, plus view all CDRs in real time. A comprehensive online diagnostics facility provides necessary information for customer support.
CallKey also provides a full A-Z wholesale rate sheet optimized for various regions, including the EU, where MVNO's can set their own tariffs, thus determining their profit margins. By offering free inbound calls in over 50 countries and cheaper outbound, MVNO's are able to target corporate and leisure travellers, and genuinely compete against incumbent Operators.
CallKey offers full customisation options, where its core technology can be applied using standardised toolsets defined in an API (Application Programming Interface). The API allows a development partner or customer full network control.
Spin3 ‘first’ to integrate mobile operator billing for mobile casinos
Spin3, a provider of mobile gambling solutions, today announced that Vodafone UK customers can now purchase casino credits via their monthly phone bills for the first time, providing a route to play Spin3-powered mobile casinos games.
Launching today, Wild Jack Mobile Casino incorporates the Vodafone UK Payforit banking option, which will be rolled out to other Spin3 operators in the near future. The exclusive deal enables Wild Jack Mobile Casino players to purchase casino credits with the charge going directly on their monthly phone bill.
Vodafone UK verifies each user's age through its customer records to prevent minors from gaining access to the service. While playing, gamers can view their balance and should they want to buy more credits, they can easily navigate to the banking section within the game.
Robbie Guy, Marketing Manager of Wild Jack Mobile Casino, says, "Spin3 continues to come out with innovative business solutions that help its customers grow. In the Games' Options menu, our players now have a new, simpler method of depositing funds into their accounts, along with the existing secure options. I'm confident that this new and exciting feature will increase Wild Jack's ever-growing player base."
Matti Zinder, Head of Spin3, says, "We have a strong commitment to our operators and we are always striving to make the gaming experience as hassle-free and easy to access as possible, whilst keeping the highest security and age verification standards. By allowing players to purchase casino credits on their monthly Vodafone bill, we are giving casino operators yet another tool to offer their loyal base of customers and new users."
Universal mobile radio scanner from Rohde & Schwarz launched for setting up and optimizing WiMAX networks
Rohde & Schwarz has launched the R&S TSMW, a universal mobile radio scanner that features two integrated receivers and includes WiMAX functionality. The two receivers are claimed to allow considerably faster operation than solutions that use mobile phones with test functionality. At the same time, the scanner delivers accurate results across the entire high measurement bandwidth because individual blocks can be filtered out by using adaptive preselection. This allows network operators to perform drive tests for setting up and optimizing WiMAX networks. The R&S TSMW's platform concept makes it suitable for all technologies with bandwidths up to 20 MHz. It can be expanded for current and future standards via software options.
Now that the standardization and development of its base station and mobile station technology has been completed, WiMAX IEEE 802.16e is ready for network setup. To make setup faster and easier, Rohde & Schwarz is offering network operators the R&S TSMW, a universal mobile radio scanner with WiMAX functionality and a frequency range of 30 MHz to 6 GHz. The instrument is suitable for both mobile and stationary applications and detects signals with a sensitivity that is considerably below the noise level (noise figure of 7 dB at 3.5 GHz). This makes it possible not only to check neighborhood information for a base station but also to locate interference signals from other base stations. Since technicians can see exactly what is happening on the air interface, they can easily detect malfunctions. For this purpose, all preamble-based operating parameters, including received signal strength indication (RSSI) and carrier-to-interference-and-noise ratio (CINR), can be analyzed.
With its high measurement bandwidth of 20 MHz per receiver, the R&S TSMW covers all WiMAX bandwidths as well as those of other standards, which helps ensure future-proof operation. To attain optimal values for dynamic range and measurement accuracy across the entire bandwidth, the scanner features adaptive preselection. This allows users to filter out individual blocks in the case of high intermodulation suppression and analyze them in detail. Even weak signals can be measured in this way.
In addition, the R&S TSMW can simultaneously scan and demodulate on different frequencies – and on as many carriers as desired. Switchover times between the carriers are less than 5 ms. Thanks to the two integrated receivers, several WiMAX signals can be measured in parallel, fully eliminating switchover times. This results in a very high measurement speed.
An integrated GPS allows the measurement results to be linked to the measurement sites and displayed on a map during mobile operation. A Gigabit/Ethernet interface enables users to call up measurement data either locally or remotely on the PC via an IP-based access. When equipped with the R&S TSMW-K1 option, the R&S TSMW also offers high flexibility when evaluating data: The instrument features an I/Q interface that outputs raw signals that users can evaluate with MATLAB software. This is advantageous for measurements on standards that are still being developed: Channel measurements for 3GPP LTE are a good example, concludes R&S.
Telekom Austria Group results – international business remains main growth driver
Telekom Austria Group has announced its financial results for the first half 2008 and the second quarter ending June 30, 2008.
During the first half 2008, revenues grew by 7.7% to EUR 2,535.8 million primarily due to the consolidation of Velcom in Belarus and to higher contributions from the other international operations. EBITDA grew by 2.7% to EUR 967.7 million from EUR 942.4 million as a result of an EBITDA growth in the international operations and the consolidation of Velcom which more than offset a lower contribution from the Fixed Net segment. EBITDA includes exceptional costs in the amount of EUR 19.7 million.
Operating income decreased by 4.9% from EUR 410.2 million to EUR 389.9 million due to higher depreciation and amortization charges. Net income declined by 18.6% to EUR 226.0 million due to higher interest expenses mainly as a result of the acquisition of Velcom.
Capital expenditures for tangible and intangible assets decreased by 7.0% to EUR 350.3 million due to lower capital expenditures in both segments. Net debt remained stable at EUR 4,402.1 million at the end of June 2008 compared to the end of December 2007 despite the payment of the dividend.
Quarterly comparison:
Revenues increased by 5.6% to EUR 1,276.2 million in 2Q 08 as higher revenues from international operations including the consolidation of Velcom overcompensated for lower revenues from the Fixed Net segment and lower roaming revenues.
Roaming revenues were impacted by a seasonal effect in 2Q 08 as the roaming intensive Easter holidays were in 1Q 08, whereas in 2007 they were in the second quarter. This seasonality amplified the effect of lower roaming prices and resulted in lower roaming revenues.
EBITDA grew by 0.6% to EUR 469.1 million as the consolidation of Velcom and higher contributions from the established international operations offset lower contributions from the Austrian operations, which included exceptional costs in the amount of EUR 7.7 million, as well as start-up costs in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia.
Operating income declined by 11.8% to EUR 174.7 million due to higher depreciation and amortization charges. Net income decreased by 26.3% to EUR 96.3 million during 2Q 08 mainly due to higher interest expenses following the acquisition of Velcom. As a consequence earnings per share declined by 24.9% to EUR 0.22.
Capital expenditures for tangible and intangible assets decreased by 8.9% to EUR 190.7 million mainly due to lower investments in Austria and in the Republic of Serbia despite the consolidation of Velcom.
Nuance to acquire SNAPin Software
Nuance Communications has announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held SNAPin, a provider of mobile device and server self-service technology. With the resources of Nuance and SNAPin, the combined organization says it aims to provide mobile customer care solutions that 'transform the way mobile operators and enterprises interact with consumers in real-time on mobile devices'.
"The integration of Nuance's mobile solutions and enterprise speech solutions allows Nuance to sharply reduce the costs of customer care and improve the quality of customer experience for mobile operators and large enterprises," said Steve Chambers, president of the Mobile and Consumer Services Division at Nuance. "Leveraging the proliferation of mobile devices worldwide, Nuance's solutions, combined with powerful technology from SNAPin, enable Nuance to deliver the economies of Web-based self-service to the growing expanse of mobile consumers."
According to Nuance, by combining SNAPin's key intellectual property, mobile expertise and established device and operator relationships with Nuance's robust capabilities in customer care and handset solutions and longstanding mobile and enterprise relationships, the company is positioned to deliver 'superior' mobile care solutions and fulfill a significant global opportunity that has captured the interest of the world's largest mobile operators.
As an example, says Nuance, Vodafone is using SNAPin's software to provide its customers with the ability to automatically resolve common requests – diagnose and repair configuration problems, make account inquiries and solve problems – directly on their mobile phone. "Delivering a superior customer experience at all touch points for our subscriber is key to how we acquire and retain loyal customers," said Adam Spence, group self service development manager for Vodafone Group. "We are excited by the joining of Nuance and SNAPin as it reinforces our strategy to offer our customers the most innovative and powerful mobile self-service experience across all of our established and emerging markets."
Nuance expects the acquisition in fiscal 2009 to add between $29 million and $32 million in non-GAAP revenue; $19 million and $22 million in GAAP revenue after adjusting revenue lost to purchase accounting; non-GAAP earnings between $0.01 and $0.02; and a GAAP loss between $(0.05) and $(0.06) including amortization and stock-based compensation. SNAPin solutions are delivered through the handset in a revenue model based on the value of transactions or calls served on the handset. Nuance has experienced rapid growth in its mobile business for the last several years and now anticipates combined mobile revenues in Fiscal Year 2009 between $260 and $275 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, consideration for the transaction is approximately $180 million in Nuance common stock. SNAPin's shareholders will be eligible for additional earn-out consideration based upon the achievement of certain financial and operational milestones. The transaction is expected to close in October 2008, subject to customary closing conditions and approvals, and is expected to be accretive in fiscal 2009.
Ericsson and STMicroelectronics announce joint venture
STMicroelectronics and Ericsson have announced an agreement to merge Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless into a joint venture. According to the duo, the 50/50 joint venture will have the industry's strongest product offering in semiconductors and platforms for mobile applications and will be an important supplier to Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Sharp. The fabless joint venture will employ almost 8,000 people with pro-forma 2007 sales of USD 3.6 b. ST is expected to exercise its option to buy NXP's 20 percent of ST-NXP Wireless before the closing of this transaction.
In the joint venture, ST contributes its multimedia and connectivity solutions as well as a complete 2G/EDGE platform and 3G offering, including customer relationships with Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Ericsson contributes its 3G and LTE platform technology as well as customer relationships with Sony Ericsson, LG and Sharp.
In a business where scale matters, the complementary product portfolios contributed by the parent companies will deliver significant scale and synergies by leveraging and expanding the existing strategic cooperation between Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless, says the duo.
"By combining the complementary strengths and product offerings of Ericsson and ST in platforms and semiconductors the joint venture is well positioned to become a world leader," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. "The industry continues to develop at a swift pace and customers see benefits from our broad offering. This partnership is a perfect fit and secures a complete offering, as well as the necessary scale for technology leadership."
"ST is taking another bold step. By combining two industry-leading operations, we will create a world leader in mobile platforms and semiconductor solutions with even stronger capabilities to create customer value and continue to deliver rapid innovation," said Carlo Bozotti, President and CEO of ST. "In April, we announced a plan to join wireless resources with NXP to strengthen our wireless business and enhance our leadership position in a sector which we have targeted for strong organic and external growth and substantial expansion of financial returns. Now, we've expanded our ambitions and will be even better positioned to meet our opportunities."
Frans van Houten, CEO of NXP, said: "We understand the desire of ST to call our 20 percent stake in order to expand the ST-NXP Wireless joint venture with Ericsson. We support this next step that Ericsson and ST are taking to create the global leader in wireless semiconductors. To help ensure the success of the joint venture going forward all NXP's supply and support agreements will continue as planned. The additional proceeds of the 20 percent stake will enable NXP to further build leadership positions through innovation and investment in NXP's core businesses."
Location Based Services – WiFi to the LBS rescue?
Can adding WiFi location to GPS fill in the missing piece in the puzzle of LBS commercialisation, Keith Dyer asks?
Yes, we've been here before. We've even written this intro before at Mobile Europe, but it seems that finally we are now seeing the birth of a sustainable and commercial location based services market.
In 2007, North America generated 81% of the world's Location Based Services (LBS) revenue. In 2013, that percentage will be just 32%. In the same period, Western and Eastern Europe's combined LBS revenues will jump from just 5% to 31%. The Asia-Pacific region, meanwhile, will see a rise from a 2007 share of 11%, to 27%.
"Location based services are not a zero-sum game," says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. "It's not that Americans will lose enthusiasm for LBS. These changing shares of global LBS revenue just reflect the fact that a market which for technical reasons has been largely restricted to North America, will finally grow strongly in other world regions."
LBS's slow uptake outside North America has had everything to do with the fact that unlike the CDMA phones so prevalent there, which have utilized GPS to comply with the United States' E911 regulatory mandate, the GSM handsets owned by most users in Europe and Asia have not generally offered native GPS support. However with the broader proliferation of GPS-enabled GSM handsets in those other regions, and with the quickening rollout of 3G services worldwide, the opportunities for LBS service offerings will grow quickly.
That's not to say that the same applications will be adopted at the same rate everywhere, or that LBS revenues will be uniform. "Since most LBS application developers sell to the world, and most of their products are platform-agnostic, the cost per service for users is likely to be similar in all regions," says Bonte. "However, a navigation service can cost as much as $9.99/month, whereas friend-finder services might only be $2.99. On that basis, as well as via cultural preferences, particular services will be popular to differing degrees in different regions. That can affect the total revenue to be generated from a particular region."
Another great boost to LBS this year has come from just one direction, Nokia, which has seen regulatory approval for its takeover of Navteq. More significantly, perhaps, Nokia is tying in GPS to more and more of its phones, and adding a service layer on top of that through Nokia Maps, one of its Ovi services.
Paul Lee, telecoms director at Deloitte, comments, "Nokia's announcement that it expects half of its mobiles to have GPS by 2010-12 should not surprise. The steadily falling cost of technology means that every year the number of functions that could be included in a device grows.
"At present, navigation may make sense for mobile handsets. The addition of GPS technology and mapping software, could allow handset vendors to raise prices. Or at least slow price declines. It may also help individual vendors gain market share. In addition, manufacturers are also considering how location functionality could provide additional revenue streams, on top of handset sales."
But though GPS may come to be seen as a nice thing to have on phones, will there be associated revenue streams for mobile operators. Lee is not so sure.
"While mobile GPS may be good news for vendors, operators may find it harder to monetize this technology. Operators should try to understand how the technology could be used to enhance the value of other existing services, such as messaging, or serve as the platform for entirely new ones, such as social networking or treasure hunts," Lee says.
"While the combination of GPS and mobile phones should ultimately be a success, the industry cannot afford to overlook several critical differences between the use of satellite navigation in vehicles and that by pedestrians. A critical requirement of satellite navigation is the line of sight between the satellites above and the device on the ground. Without it, no positioning information can be received.
"In a car, this is relatively easy. GPS systems are usually mounted on dashboards, or integrated into cars and linked to an external antenna. In contrast, mobile phones used by pedestrians are often kept in pockets or hip holsters. In either case, line of sight is far harder. Furthermore, with pavements often in the shadow of tall buildings, pedestrians may struggle to get a signal even with the device uncovered.
"Thus while a growing number of GPS-enabled mobile phones may be shipped and sold, aside from the initial novelty, they may not be used very often. This may mean additional costs for the manufacturers and operators, but little added value."
But there is one company that thinks it has the answer to this in-building issue. This company is using WiFi to provide location. How? Well, it keeps a dynamic database of all the WiFi hotspots and access points it can lay its hands on, by conducting drive-through surveys. It then gives each access point a precise location. So when a user turns his iPhone, or any other WiFi enabled device on, it is able to provide a location based on the WiFi zone it is in. The company is called Skyhook, and its ceo Ted Morgan says he thinks WiFi location can provide the missing link in the location world.
Skyhook has just launched in Europe. The launch includes a massive coverage expansion throughout the UK and Europe and the establishment of sales and operational offices in the region. Skyhook has already mapped over 16 million Wi-Fi access points in Europe, and now provides coverage to over 130 million people in Europe. Skyhook's fleet of 200 European data collection specialists has driven over 750,000 kilometers to date and continues to expand coverage every day. "Skyhook's European expansion is an important step towards our goal of delivering consumer-ready location across any environment, indoors or outside, in rural areas or downtown, in Berlin or Boston" said Ted Morgan, CEO of Skyhook Wireless.European application providers are taking advantage of Skyhook's European expansion. UK-based BuddyPing and Rummble and Dublin-based Locle are integrating Skyhook's software into their applications. By working with Skyhook's positioning system, these cutting-edge mobile social networking and search applications are responding to the consumer demand for fast, accurate, and reliable location determination in all environments.
Synchronica acquires AxisMobile and raises funds of US$ 18 Million in 2008
Synchronica, a provider of mobile email and synchronization solutions, has today announced that it is acquiring consumer mobile email specialist AxisMobile for US$4.9 million in new Synchronica shares. Synchronica also stated that it has raised additional funds of US$10million, from new and existing institutional investors, which brings the total funding secured in 2008 to US$18 million. The company says that the additional funds will be used to accelerate product integration and fuel the growth of the combined business in emerging markets such as China, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The AxisMobile acquisition is said to be aimed at making Synchronica the leading player in mass market mobile email and synchronization middleware for mobile operators and service providers. The addition of AxisMobile's complementary technology, customer base and routes to market, combined with the injection of $10 million of additional funds, is planned to enable Synchronica to provide mass-market mobile email solutions that work on more than three billion mobile phones in the market today.
AxisMobile's consumer mobile email platform is said to complement Synchronica's Mobile Gateway software by adding ‘email to SMS' and ‘email to MMS' gateways as well as a client-less solution for WAP/xHTML browser access. AxisMobile's patented Optimizer email transcoding gateway further adds the ability to display a large variety of attachments such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint presentations on standard feature phone handsets that would otherwise be unable to support such functionality.
The AxisMobile acquisition is also aimed at enlarging Synchronica's footprint in emerging markets, by adding a sales force and key customer contracts in the relatively untapped areas of Eastern Europe, CIS and Russia, to Synchronica's existing sales presence in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Currently AxisMobile has eight live customer installations with major mobile operators, predominantly in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) and China. Customers include: MTS (the largest mobile operator in Russia and CIS with 84 million customers), Megafon (a Russian mobile network operator with 34 million customers across 88 regions of the Russian federation including its Moscow subsidiary Sonic Duo), T-Mobile, IXI Mobile (consumer backends for US, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay), E-Plus (Germany´s third largest mobile network operator with 13.6 million customers), as well as a major Chinese bank. AxisMobile has also secured contract wins with a leading Ukrainian mobile network operator, a further leading tier one Russian mobile network operator and a leading Swiss mobile network operator.
Commenting on the acquisition, Synchronica CEO Carsten Brinkschulte said: "The fundraising and the acquisition of AxisMobile is a dramatic acceleration for Synchronica and I believe that it will build value for our shareholders. We aim to build a world leader in the market of consumer mobile email and synchronization solutions, and this acquisition is a key milestone that will improve our competitive positioning and accelerate our commercial growth. It will increase our ability to sell to customers, particularly to those in emerging economies, where we see the largest potential growth for mobile email and synchronization. With the fundraising and the acquisition of AxisMobile, Synchronica now has sufficient mass and funding to take advantage of the outstanding opportunity to exploit the commercial potential of mass-market mobile email. The next few years will be an exciting time for us all here at Synchronica and for our customers around the globe. We look forward with increased confidence from this inflection point."
Shai Schiller, Executive Chairman of AxisMobile, adds: "This is the start of an exciting new era for AxisMobile and our customers. There are real synergies between Synchronica's products and target markets and our own, so it makes great commercial sense to combine forces. Both companies are committed to open standards and to developing products that work on even the most basic of handsets – a must given that the market for mass market mobile email is being fuelled by demand from the developing world. We are confident that the combined might of our two companies will prove to be greater than the sum of its parts."
Mobile operators must get mobile broadband strategy right
AdaptiveMobile, a security provider of mobile subscriber protection for enterprises and individuals, has today said that mobile operators need to carefully consider their international mobile broadband strategies.
The advice, says the company, follows the European Union's threat to impose legal measures to make operators cut the amount they charge their mobile broadband customers for roaming on overseas networks, which has made some operators consider banning all customers from downloading data through their mobile broadband service while abroad to avoid getting involved in a high profile legal wrangle.
AdaptiveMobile argues that operators taking a simplistic view to blocking subscribers' mobile broadband usage while abroad run the risk of losing the significant revenues promised by mobile broadband subscribers willing to pay for a high-quality roaming service.
Gareth Maclachlan, COO of AdaptiveMobile, comments: "Whilst operators understandably don't want to be perceived as trying to unfairly glean excess revenues from unwitting subscribers while abroad, taking a ‘one size fits all' approach blocking their usage while abroad will result in them losing very significant revenues, at a time when you would expect them to be looking to maximise their 3G network investments. Even though there is the suggestion that subscribers would be able to lift the block, for a high proportion, this would be too disruptive and operators would never maximise their average revenue per user (ARPU).
"Operators need to take better control of their network assets, so that they can offer a bespoke service to each user on a case-by-case basis. In this way, they can not only control subscribers' mobile broadband usage in the UK and abroad, but also the type of content that is being delivered over their network to the user, in terms of blocking spam and viruses, and in the case of vulnerable users, inappropriate or intimidating messages and imagery. They should also make steps to better protect roaming users from unnecessary data usage, such as application and operating system updates, which can be upto 500Mb in size and in many cases are downloaded without user knowledge.
"In a competitive European market, where operators are increasingly trying to differentiate their service and the many millions of corporate subscribers are becoming increasingly international, operators surely have no choice but to ensure they maximise all mobile broadband revenue opportunities whilst offering subscribers the best possible service."
