In its UK Communications Market Report 2008, communications regulator Ofcom has identified a rapid increase in the use of mobile broadband in the UK.

According to Ofcom, following the launch of marketing campaigns for mobile broadband devices which enable consumers to access the internet on the move, there has been a surge in take-up with around 2 million adults in the UK saying that they had used a data card, USB modem or dongle to access the internet in March 2008.

The driver of this has been the sale of dongles, says Ofcom – small devices plugged into the USB port of laptops enabling internet access via a mobile network. Between February and June 2008, the number of dongle sales to consumers nearly doubled from 69,000 to 133,000 a month. During this five month period, there were 511,000 new mobile broadband connections in the UK.

Three-quarters of all mobile broadband users say that they access the internet via their dongle while at home and two-thirds of mobile broadband users say that they use both dongles and their landline to connect to the internet.

Ofcom also states that more than one in ten mobile phone users have accessed the internet on their mobile phone with the number of 3G mobile connections growing by 60 per cent in 2007 to reach 12.5 million subscribers – an increase of 4.7 million in 12 months.

A new analysis by Juniper Research is forecasting that Service Provider revenues, derived from mobile money transfer services and remittances, will exceed $5bn globally by 2013 – based on the commissions and charges that they will acquire from the gross value of money transactions made, both domestically within countries and internationally. 

In the third report in its Mobile Payments Series, Juniper says it found that there is a significant opportunity for the providers and vendors of mobile money transfer services as the market takes off, beginning as soon as 2010. The study explores how mobile money transfer will transform the ability of the ‘underbanked' population and migrant workers to make remittances, using their mobile phones as mobile wallets.

Report author Howard Wilcox provided some insight into this new market: "New services and trials are being announced almost every day. Judging from the response from users so far to services like M-PESA and SmartMoney, prospects for these services are excellent, both in developing and developed countries. For many people it has been costly and difficult for them to transfer money via existing services even to friends and family: using mobile phones solves the problem."

Highlights from the report include:

• Global annual gross transaction value (including the remittance itself) will grow over 10 times between 2009 and 2013
• The opportunity for companies providing these new services is forecast to exceed $5bn by 2013. 
•  The top 3 regions (W. Europe, Africa and Middle East and Far East & China) will represent over 60% of the global mobile money transfer gross transaction value by 2013.

The report provides six year regional forecasts of mobile money transfers and remittances, providing data on subscriber take-up, transaction sizes and volumes for both national (domestic) and international transactions. Crucially, the report identifies the incremental ARPU opportunity for mobile network operators, arising from these new services. The report also offers detailed case studies from companies pioneering in this market. Juniper Research interviewed 14 key vendors and operators active in this 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.

BTC Mobile, said to be the fastest developing company in the Bulgarian telecoms market, has implemented Neural Technologies' Minotaur solution to enable it to tackle fraud on its network.

BTC Mobile is part of the larger BTC Group, Bulgaria's main telecommunications provider, and has over a million mobile subscribers.  A fraud review carried out by the operator in 2006 highlighted several areas of concern, the most pressing of which was bypass fraud.  Bypass fraud is the illegal routing of calls in order to avoid paying interconnection fees.  Legitimate operators negotiate interconnection agreements between each other that define the routes and the cost to terminate calls on their network; routing calls in a manner that avoids these agreed interconnection points is bypass fraud.  The advent of Voice over IP (VoIP) has made bypass easier and more common and large telcos are losing significant revenues to VoIP routing.

Based on the review, BTC Mobile entered into a tender process to find an external fraud system to protect its profits and reputation.  Neural Technologies' Minotaur solution came top of the list.  "We selected Minotaur^TM based upon its proven track record and its flexibility in accommodating new fraud trends and service offerings.  We have not been disappointed; to date we are identifying in excess of 80% of bypass fraud on our network and expect to see this figure rise in the near future.  Fraudsters should be aware that BTC Mobile has got tough on fraud and is no longer an easy target!", stated Mihail Radulov, the operator's Fraud & Revenue Assurance Manager.

Luke Taylor, Commercial Director of Neural Technologies (Nt), said, "We are delighted to be working with the fraud management team at BTC Mobile.  Their proactive and professional approach to combating network fraud, coupled with the capability of Minotaur and Nt's dedicated support, is already delivering outstanding results and is set to provide them with an early return on investment".

Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) has secured an exclusive 12 month contract with Shelter, the leading housing and homeless charity in the UK.  Activity will begin with CRM and mobile internet activity, powered by MIDAS, to increase loyalty and retention of direct debit donors.  The campaign launches on Wednesday 20th August.

Shelter has identified mobile as 'a new opportunity for conversing with their younger supporter demographic.  Many charities encounter problems with users canceling direct debits after signing up online, on the street and through other channels:  The integration of mobile into the mix is designed to change this.

MIG has created a CRM approach that enables Shelter to thank their donors monthly via SMS, and include in the text a snapshot of the work that their continuing donations contribute to.  These SMS messages contain URLs to pages within a new mobile internet site, designed and built by MIG, called Shelter extra.

Shelter extra hosts a raft of fresh and regularly updated content including downloads, Shelter celebrity supporter updates, competitions, information on how to get involved in Shelter events, such as the London Marathon, as well as campaign and volunteering information.

David Jackson, Direct Marketing Manager at Shelter said, "By engaging users with the content and important work that Shelter does in the UK, donors will be reminded that their direct debit payments are more than just a note on a bank account statement, and that they are contributing to the fight against homelessness and poor housing around the UK.  We have every confidence that the expertise MIG bring to the table will make a key difference in increasing donor retention."

"MIG's CRM approach chimed perfectly with our need to retain monthly donors.  By launching a ‘light touch' communications channel we are able to reinforce their decision to support Shelter with good news about where their money goes in helping homeless and badly housed people.

Tim Dunn, Head of Marketing Services, MIG said "Text and WAP usage is massive in Shelter's demographic, so we expect to report great results in usage of the service, and ultimately in increasing overall revenues for the cause."

Neverfail, a software company providing continuous availability and disaster recovery solutions, today announced that it has been accepted into O2's Accelerator Programme in the UK. Together with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Neverfail's protection solution is said to offer O2 customers the ability to access business critical information and remain in touch with key contacts via a BlackBerry smartphone at any time.

Neverfail for BlackBerry Enterprise Server environments is said to provide end-to-end protection for a company's email and wireless applications by proactively monitoring the health of those environments at all times.  If any problems are detected, Neverfail takes a variety of pre-emptive or corrective actions to solve them, and also offers customers the option to automate a full system failover, if appropriate.

"Through our partnership with Neverfail, we are thrilled to offer a robust continuous availability solution to our customers running BlackBerry Enterprise Server, ensuring an exceptional user experience," said Illona McMullan, Business Applications Manager at O2. "O2 was the first carrier to bring BlackBerry smartphones to the UK market. With the inclusion of Neverfail into our Accelerator Programme, we are continuing our commitment of offering our BlackBerry customers strategic business protection for their mobility platform."

"Email and data downtime is a fact of life should any part of the mobility infrastructure fail, Neverfail has developed a solution to protect the mobility infrastructure from end-to-end," said Richard Ruddlesden, EMEA Channel Director at Neverfail. "We look forward to providing uninterrupted access to mobile applications and keeping O2's customers constantly productive regardless of data centre failures."

Sony BMG Music Entertainment UK and O2 have announced the launch of the first operator-supported major label mobile music store.

The store, called My Play, will be available exclusively through O2 Active and is powered by Momac's multimedia publishing platform GoMedia. It brings together the full suite of mobile music products in the shape of videos, full track audio and realtones onto one store. Designed to help bring consumers closer to their favoured artists, the simple user interface will see consumers accessing the store simply by clicking on artist microsites as their gateway into the store. Purchases from the store will be chart eligible from launch.

"This is the first joint venture retail partnership between a major label and an operator and is further testament to O2's strategy to work with the best partners to create products and services that will enhance the customer experience, " said Sally Cowdry, Marketing Director, O2 UK. "Joining forces with such a leader in the music space will bring our customers an in-depth music service with the most popular artists available straight to their mobile."

Ged Doherty, Chairman of Sony BMG Music Entertainment UK, says: "It's never been more important to think of ways in which best to bring the artist and consumer closer together. The exciting thing about this service is that its artist micro-sites do exactly that, and being mobile, it enables the connection to happen immediately. We're delighted to be working with O2 on this new service, they are a company who have demonstrated a fantastic commitment to music over a sustained period of time."

The store is live from August 7th with videos priced fully inclusive at £1.50, tones at £3.50 and full music tracks at 99p. Artist micro-sites will rotate in line with Sony BMG's release schedule. The store itself is powered by the Momac publishing platform GoMedia which will manage and deliver the raft of content and services. Momac already have a proven track record with both O2 and Sony BMG.

MobileAware, a provider of Mobile Customer and Employee Self Service solutions, has announced an undisclosed additional round of funding led by existing investors Nauta Capital and Cross Atlantic Capital Partners. MobileAware also announced that Todd Shingler, a 17-year wireless industry veteran, has taken over as Chief Executive Officer following closure of the March investment round. As a result of the latest investment, Mr. Dominic Endicott of Nauta Capital, Mr. Paul Sutton of Cross Atlantic Capital, and former CEO Mr. Kevin McKloskey have joined the company's board of directors.

Founded in 1999, MobileAware specialises in delivering Mobile Customer and Employee Self-Service solutions to customers across a range of sectors, with a particular emphasis on the telecommunications, travel, transportation, utility and emergency services industries.  Built on its patented Mobile Interaction Server, ExpressQ, and SmartIP products, MobileAware's Mobile Self-Service solutions are deployed to over 100 customers globally, nearly half of whom are Fortune Global 2000 companies.  This latest round of funding will be used to fund the further expansion of MobileAware's Mobile Self-Service solution offerings.

"With proven product technology, an experienced management team, and years of experience in deploying successful Mobile Self-Service solutions, MobileAware brings a unique value proposition to the market," commented Dominic Endicott, Director at Nauta Capital. "We are excited to continue our involvement with MobileAware as they continue to grow and execute their go-to-market strategy."

"We are delighted to receive the continued support and confidence of Nauta Capital and Cross Atlantic Capital Partners," commented Todd Shingler, CEO at MobileAware. "This investment reaffirms the clear business value we deliver to our customers and will drive an exciting new phase of expansion as we bring to market a number of new Mobile Self-Service Solutions. The strategic advice that Dominic, Paul, and Kevin will add as members of the board based on their vast expertise in the telecommunications and software industries will be invaluable to our continued success."

Shingler joined MobileAware in March 2003 as Vice President of Products and subsequently led Sales and Business Development in the Americas.  Prior to joining MobileAware, he spent 12 years in various roles within Nortel Networks' wireless organization in the USA, Germany and France.