Ericsson has appointed Johan Wibergh as Senior Vice President and head of business unit Networks effective July 1, 2008.  Johan Wibergh is currently head of Ericsson Brazil. Kurt Jofs, currently head of business unit Networks, has decided to step down and will leave the company at the end of the year.

“I welcome Johan Wibergh to his new position. Considering the achievements he has made in former positions, I am sure he will be an excellent head of business unit Networks”, says Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson.

Johan Wibergh was Vice President and head of sales for business unit Global Services during 2004-2005. In June, 2005, he was appointed head of Ericsson in the Nordic and Baltic region and in 2007 he moved to Brazil to take on the same responsibility there.

 “In his five years as head of business unit Networks, Kurt Jofs has demonstrated excellent leadership skills and he has been instrumental in taking Ericsson to today’s strong market leading position and outstanding profitability”, says Carl-Henric Svanberg. “I truly regret that Kurt Jofs has taken the decision to step down, but I highly respect his prioritizations in life.”

Kurt Jofs will remain an Executive Vice President in Ericsson until the end of the year, supporting Carl-Henric Svanberg and Johan Wibergh.

Actix, a supplier of Network Status Management (NSM) systems, has today announced the development of Actix Viewpoint, a web-based solution for the management and distribution of network performance engineering and status information.  Actix Viewpoint is designed to deliver operational efficiency and consistency in the management, analysis and reporting of network performance engineering data across the wireless enterprise.

The addition of a new Call Trace Management module represents the most significant enhancement to the Actix Viewpoint platform to date, enabling mobile network operators to capture live call trace data to measure the performance of the mobile network on a per user basis. Using data directly from switches in the live radio access network, Actix Viewpoint 1.4 can give both engineers and managers access to information about all live calls running through a particular switch at any given moment, giving extraordinary granularity and accuracy in assessing network status.

Viewpoint's new Call Trace Management module not only delivers higher statistical relevance to any data captured, because of the number of calls being monitored, it also means the operator can gather massive volumes of data at a much lower cost due to the enormous data handling capabilities of the underlying Actix One enterprise-grade platform. Cost reductions of as much as 80 percent have been measured in live deployments of Viewpoint around the globe.

"Operating a wireless network in a mature market is becoming an increasingly complex engineering and management challenge, with service providers trying to enhance performance, improve quality of service and drive efficiency all at the same time", commented Chris Larmour, Actix' Chief Marketing Officer. "The primary focus of this latest Viewpoint release has been to help operators deal with this challenge by making mobile network performance and status management much easier and much less expensive. By working closely with Actix' Tier 1 customers in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, we have identified multi-million dollar inefficiencies, and made game-changing adjustments to Viewpoint to address these issues."

In all more than 150 enhancements have been made to Actix Viewpoint 1.4, including the addition of new reporting functionality to enable operators to view performance and experience indicators from competitive networks. A new Microsoft Excel reporting framework has also been added so that reports can easily be created using Viewpoint generated data at the push of a button, saving literally months of manual effort – typically such reports are generated manually today, taking man-months of effort to complete.

Processing speed has also been enhanced by making improvements to data handling and validation capabilities, which automatically identify problem files, missing information and erroneous figures to ensure data sources do not delay workflows and reports.

Further improvements have been made to the prioritisation of file processing and pipelines, as well as several map updates, which enable users to easily zoom into any area of the network and make location lookups using latitude and longitude or sector name.

Meru Networks, a specialist in mobility infrastructure for data, wireless voice (VoIP) and video, today announced that it has appointed Pamplona headquartered Sistelec, a Spanish importer and distributor of networking products and solutions. Following on from the launch of Meru's new partner program last week, the partnership represents another entry by Meru into a marketplace which will increase its established portfolio of deployments. Healthcare, education and SMEs will be Sistelec's main targets to introduce Meru's access point architecture to.

During the recent elections, a huge emphasis was placed by the Spanish Government on the need for technology innovation. Sistelec, the pioneers in distributing wireless solutions, will support and provide this demand for the country's fast changing public sector which has an increasing need for ubiquitous broadband internet. Whilst sectors such as the construction industry in Spain have declined in market growth, technology has continued to increase year by year.

Dave Kelly, VP EMEA at Meru explained: "Spain's appetite for advanced networking solutions is growing rapidly and this partnership aims to support and take full advantage of this. The combination of our unique wireless infrastructure technology and Sistelec's highly skilled workforce is an excellent and competitive pairing that can offer more choice to this important market."

Whilst others have created WLAN switch architectures, Meru says it has focused primarily on ease of deployment and central management of access point (AP) configuration parameters. Solving this problem is both important and necessary, but it is not enough. The key challenge in a pervasive wireless LAN deployment is managing contention, interference and Quality of Service (QoS) in a dense Wi-Fi environment. Meru has done just that with its WLAN System.

The Meru Wireless LAN Controller provides centralized management and control of Meru Access Points. Meru Wireless LAN Controllers intelligently manage the RF spectrum to deliver a wireless LAN network that is as reliable as the wired network. Intelligent management of client access ensures the highest performance for dense voice and data applications, delivering a true converged voice and data WLAN network.

Monica Perez de Larraya, Marketing Manager at Sistelec commented: "Sistelec focuses strongly on differentiating itself from the competition and Meru's unique single cell architecture gives the Spanish market the lift it needs.  This makes us the pioneer distributing this type of technology as a wholesaler for wireless solutions in a much in demand market."

Meru's VirtualCell architecture is defined by access points that coordinate with one another to the extent that they don't interfere and can co-exist. Every access point uses the same a/b/g/n Wi-Fi channels. The VirtualCell approach simplifies channel mapping making it easier more cost effective to deploy and grow especially for users wanting to migrate to the next generation wireless standard, draft 802.11n.

MOSH, a mobile and online content consumption, creation and sharing service, has joined the Nokia Media Network, and now is offering advertisers the opportunity to reach customers around the globe who are downloading original mobile content. The Nokia Media Network provides reach to more than 100 million consumers around the globe through advertising on blue-chip mobile publishers, operator partners and Nokia properties.

"We are committed to expanding the Nokia Media Network, which is growing rapidly in both reach and quality, so we can drive greater results for our brand advertisers," said Mike Baker, vice president and head of Nokia Interactive Advertising.  "The MOSH audience, comprised of the heaviest users of mobile content around the world, is particularly desirable to many of our top advertisers."

MOSH has launched its "Spotlight" program, a 'paid placement' advertising initiative, where advertisements are Spotlight-branded and placed above all organic browse, search and contextual placements. Spotlight gives brands and mobile content companies the opportunity for promotion with highlighted placements for their content. Spotlight content is always front and center for all MOSH users to see, and, as MOSH is seamlessly integrated between Web and mobile, so too are the Spotlight campaigns, including banner ads for both the mobile and traditional Internet.

The feature has already proven to be a great success for its initial customers. Vringo, a U.S.-based video sharing community that allows consumers to find, create and share video ringtones, was a launch partner in the Spotlight program.  Since signing up as a Spotlight partner in early May, Vringo's downloads have increased by over 100 percent.

"Vringo is thrilled with the way the MOSH user community has embraced our application," said Andrew Perlman, Vringo general manager and SVP of content and community. "The additional visibility the Spotlight program provides has helped us gain additional exposure and users on a scale that has exceeded our expectations."

BLUE LION mobile, a Germany-based developer of interactive mobile applications, was both an early uploader to MOSH as well as partner in the Spotlight Program with BLUE LION's mobile software, "qeep." Qeep is a Java-based multilayered mobile social networking application that includes free messaging, photo blogging and multiplayer gaming.  Since signing up as a Spotlight partner in early May, downloads of qeep have increased by over 95 percent.

"We are very happy that qeep has been a pioneer of the Spotlight Program," said Christian Schulte, co-founder and managing director of BLUE LION mobile.  "Thanks to MOSH, downloads of Qeep have escalated significantly.  We will therefore be expanding our participation in the Spotlight program."

Additionally, Universal Pictures will be launching a Spotlight campaign in promotion of the studio's new film, "Wanted."

SwissQual, the independent Swiss network quality measurement company, has announced the release of patented new technologies that allow the most modern handsets to be used for unattended network field testing.

In common with most network quality optimisation and benchmarking companies, SwissQual offers a range of network quality probes which are based on real handsets. In this way the overall quality measurement can more closely assess the likely quality experience of a real user.

As handset design has advanced, so has handset battery design. Many handsets now use "intelligent batteries". Whilst providing many advantages, this development has posed a challenge for network quality probe companies.  Traditionally the handset's battery would have been removed and replaced with a "dummy". This enabled the handset to be
powered externally.   This, in turn, meant that if for any reason the
phone locked up, the phone could be re-booted remotely.

New handsets recognise if an "intelligent" battery is present or not and refuse to work if a "dummy" is inserted. This causes a huge problem for remote network quality measurement applications.

Said Pero Juric, SwissQual VP of Product Management; "Operators are increasingly interested in using unattended network quality measurement.
This dramatically reduces the unit costs of carrying out drive testing.
However unless the issue of rebooting modern phones remotely can be solved, it is impossible to carry out unattended operations. The tests for data services typically require sessions to be repeatedly set up and torn down. Inevitably this leads to a number of phone "lock ups".

To combat these problems SwissQual says it has first designed and patented a new method of housing test mobiles which allows the power to be delivered to the phone, from a "genuine" intelligent battery, yet still allow it to be interrupted remotely on demand.

The processes can be automated in SwissQual's software so that the need for a restart of the handset is detected and automatically executed.

These advances mean that remote test systems can collect more data, over longer periods, without the need to return to base for attention: saving money and maximising the continuity of the test data.

Says Pero Juric; "We recognised this as a significant problem some time ago and have spent a lot of effort in finding a solution. The approach also delivers a number of additional benefits.  Because we now use the same switching system for all phones, it means that we can incorporate new handset models into our testing systems as soon as they are released.  The fact that we are also no longer using a "dummy" battery also means that the phone set up is exactly the same as that used by a subscriber, ensuring accuracy in the prediction of user experience."

These new patented technologies are now available in SwissQual's network quality measurement solutions.

Ubiquisys, a developer of 3G femtocells, is claiming to have become the first femtocell vendor to announce its commitment to the 3GPP's emerging Iuh interface, providing standardised communications between femtocells and the gateways in mobile operators' networks. Ubiquisys will support this interface in its products ready for the planned approval of Iuh in December 2008.

The 3GPP's work on Iuh for UMTS is part of the same drive as the Femto Forum's work to agree a modular architecture for all radio technologies, announced last week. The speed and momentum of these initiatives illustrates the growing demands from operators for a single standard network interface for femtocells.

This interface represents an important milestone in the full commercialisation of femtocells, because it allows operators to select devices independently from the network gateway. This opens the door to the proven efficiencies of multi-sourcing, and removes the costs associated with being locked into a proprietary interface. Ubiquisys took a modular approach to network integration from day one: its femtocell already supports both Iu-based RAN Gateway and IMS-based protocols for connection to mobile operators' networks. The remote upgrade of currently deployed femtocells is made possible because the Iuh standard is very similar to the current Ubiquisys RAN Gateway solution.

The commercial effectiveness of Iuh relies to some extent on parallel progress towards an agreed mechanism for femtocell Operations, Administration and Management (OA&M).  The Femto Forum is in an ideal position to drive industry consensus on this subject, which Ubiquisys is fully supporting.  Today, most operators deploying femtocells employ systems based on the DSL Forum's proven TR-069 standard.

 "We are delighted that operators and vendors, working within the 3GPP and the Femto Forum, are reaching consensus over this commercially vital interface," said Will Franks, CTO and Founder, Ubiquisys. "We are proud to be the first femtocell vendor to commit to Iuh, as it confirms our founding vision of a healthy femtocell ecosystem based on open standards. We are working closely with our network partners and customers to ensure a clean and seamless migration to the Iuh standard without holding up any of the planned trials and commercial deployments."

In the mobile media and entertainment (MME) market, the 'service enabler' role appears to hold greater revenue potential for mobile network operators than the role of on-portal content service provider, according to a new report, 'Mobile Media and Entertainment in Western Europe: value chains and business models', published by Analysys Mason.

"Mobile network operators have focused on becoming successful content service providers during the past five to six years to avoid being marginalised as mere 'bit pipe' providers," said Yanli Suo-Saunders, lead author of the report. "However, the trend towards unrestricted mobile Internet access, as well as the increasing number of online brands and handset vendors that are entering the mobile market, will pose a significant competitive threat to operators' portal businesses."

"Mobile operators are best placed to become service enablers in the content value chain by exploiting their unique assets, which focus on transmission, billing and consumer insight," added Mike Grant, co-author of the report. "These assets are essential to the success of content providers in the MME market, and the 'service enabler' revenue streams (including traffic, billing and advertising revenue) appear to be the most sustainable for mobile network operators in the long term."

Key findings from the new report include:
*       The off-portal market accounts for the majority of MME revenue
in many Western European countries, and is expected to continue to grow as more major mobile operators adopt flat-rate data plans and an open approach to mobile Internet access.
*       Handset vendors and established online brands are becoming
increasingly significant players in the MME value chain, and pose a competitive threat to mobile operators own-branded content offerings.
*       Mobile operators will need to closely examine their core assets
and identify potential areas for further investment in order to maximise their revenue potential from acting as service enablers.

The report discusses the state of the Western European MME market, identifies key players, analyses the value chains and business models that are emerging in eight MME sectors (personalisation, games, music, TV and VoD, adult content, gambling, social networking and mobile advertising), and assesses how they are likely to develop.