Nokia and Austrian mobile operator mobilkom austria have signed an agreement for the delivery of a Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) network solution. The deal includes the provision of PoC services, with Nokia to operate the PoC platform. The service is commercially available for mobilkom austria customers in Austria.
 

With push to talk, people can use their mobile phones like walkie-talkies, communicating with a selected group or with individuals at the push of a button. Both business and private users can benefit from this simple, direct communication. Push to talk is especially suited for cases where users need to communicate occasionally but repeatedly with the same group or individual.
 
“mobilkom austria is the innovation leader in Central and Southeast Europe. We introduced push to talk as it adds value for specific customer segments. We have selected Nokia as the partner for push to talk as it offers the strongest pre-OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) solution,” said Dr. Boris Nemsic, CEO mobilkom austria and COO Wireless Telekom Austria.
 
“We are pleased that mobilkom austria group has selected Nokia as the provider of the push to talk service,” said Henrik Sund, VP, Managed Services, Nokia Networks. “Nokia is transforming itself into a service-driven company and this agreement with hosting and operations of the PoC platform confirms that we are a strong partner in this field.”

Kodiak Networks, the leading provider of advanced wireless voice systems, today announced a global handset licensing and marketing agreement with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. A series of GSM handsets will be powered with Kodiak Networks advanced wireless system technology, which enables a suite of premium, instant voice services applications, including push-to-talk (PTT).

The terms of the licensing agreement include joint marketing and distribution of handsets with the Kodiak client software to multiple wireless operators throughout the world. The Kodiak handset client offers customers innovative applications including Kodiak Instant Calling™ – PTT, Kodiak Instant Availability™ – real-time presence updates, Kodiak Voice Bridge™ – instant group conferencing and Kodiak Voice Notes™ – instant voice messaging.

“With the Sony Ericsson licensing and marketing agreement, Kodiak continues to gain momentum with the major handset vendors in the industry,” said John Jackson, senior analyst for Yankee Group. “Kodiak’s flexible implementation gives GSM and CDMA carriers rapid access to a large and increasing range of PTT-enabled devices, therefore providing end users with a wide variety of handset choices.”

“We look forward to working with Sony Ericsson to expand global distribution of Kodiak-enabled devices to wireless operators around the world,” said Timothy Hall, vice president of strategic alliances, Kodiak Networks. “The market for GSM handsets with differentiated features continues to grow at a rapid pace. We believe this partnership will help meet this demand while introducing an expanded set of advanced wireless applications to new groups of business professionals and consumers.”

Ericsson has been awarded a contract by Belgian operator BASE for the upgrade of the existing radio access network with EDGE technology. The contract has a total value of about USD 37 million (SEK 280 million) and will provide nationwide coverage by summer 2006.

Ericsson will be the sole supplier for a nationwide upgrade of BASE Mobile GSM network with EDGE technology.

Under the agreement, Ericsson will deliver all hardware, software and related services, such as implementation, project management, support, testing and training (turnkey project).

Jef Keustermans, President of Ericsson Market Unit Northern Europe, says “We are pleased that BASE has chosen Ericsson for its EDGE upgrade. This technology will support BASE in building a firm position on the mobile data services market in Belgium”.

Thorsten Dirks, Head of ICT at BASE, says: “With our decision for EDGE we can add extra capacity to data communications, allowing our customers seamless access to new, highly advanced broadband services throughout the country.”

The contract will mean that BASE can offer national coverage from day one. BASE had announced earlier this year that it would implement EDGE as part of a portfolio of services towards the Belgian end-user.

The regional network operator, developer of the UK’s largest WiMAX-class broadband network, appoints new Board members

Telabria, the award-winning UK regional network operator, has secured a first round of funding in excess of £1m ($1.8m) from private and institutional sources.  The funding will be used to develop the company’s WiMAX-class wireless broadband network
delivering data and voice services to residential and business customers in South East England.  “Telabria has a rapid growth plan,” said Charles Blount, Chief Financial Officer.  “This round will allow us to expand our wireless network services and develop our products to meet increasing demand.”  The company plans to raise further funds in the coming months.

An early member of the WiMAX Forum, an industry body promoting wireless broadband technology, Telabria announced plans in November 2004 to deploy wide area WiMAX-based networks to provide business-class wireless broadband
services for data and voice. Since that time, Telabria has been constructing a high-capacity backbone of fiber and licensed band microwave links that currently encompasses over 1,300 square kilometers, making it one of the largest WiMAX-class network deployments in Europe. Telabria also
develops and manufactures wireless mesh radio equipment for metropolitan Wi-Fi networks, and public transportation applications providing Wi-Fi access over cellular 3G networks.

One of the participants in Telabria’s initial round is Faroese Telecom (FT), the national carrier of the Faroe Islands.  FT delivers nationwide fixed and mobile GRPS/EDGE telephony and DSL broadband services, as well as digital terrestrial television (DTT).  More recently, FT acquired a national 3.5GHz
spectrum for delivery of WiMAX-class wireless broadband services.  “Our investment in Telabria reflects our belief that WiMAX has a significant role to play in the future of telecommunications,” said Trondur Djurhuus, VP & Chief Development Officer of Faroese Telecom.  “We believe Telabria is very well positioned to take full advantage of WiMAX in deploying next-generation broadband services in the UK and we look forward to working with the company closely to make it a success.”

As a result of the investment round, the company has appointed Trondur Djurhuus and Hans Christian Iversen to the Board; Mr. Iversen is a partner at Roland Berger, the  London-based strategy consultants, with considerable
experience in large-scale telecom, technology and media company management.

MyJotter launches speech to text serviec

UK based telecoms messaging specialist MyJotter.com today announced the launch of its new voice-to-text solution.  The service, available now to UK mobile users, enables callers to dictate voicemail messages which are then transcribed to text by a team of professional audio typists and sent to the destination of the caller’s choice – either via SMS or email – 24 hours per day.

“In a few moments MyJotter literally turns talk into text,” confirms David Cosserat, CEO, MyJotter.  “This is invaluable if you need to write a note or draft a document, for example between meetings, while in an airport, or when driving.”

Callers use a dedicated MyJotter premium rate telephone number to relay anything from a short memo to a full sales call report.  Transcribed text can then either be sent to a colleague or friend or back to the caller’s own email address for further editing later. 

“One of the great benefits of the service is that is allows people to make use of down-time so cost effectively,” continues Cosserat.  “It takes very little time to leave a voicemail and so a message that takes 10 seconds to dictate would cost just 17p – not to mention the time saved typing!”

Registration to the service is easy and free on www.myjotter.com.   In addition, the website allows users to import colleagues’ and friends’ email and phone details so messages can be sent to a chosen recipient by simply stating the contact’s name and delivery method (SMS or email) at the start of the voicemail.  By default, if recipient details are not supplied, the transcribed text will be emailed to the caller’s own email address.

In addition to the UK premium rate billing model MyJotter offers per-transcribed-word monthly billing to corporates based in the UK, US and Canada.  MyJotter plans to introduce further, pre-paid account facilities later this year that will then be progressively rolled out to additional countries around the world.

“Although the concept of voice-to-text is not new,” concludes Cosserat, “we believe the take-up for mainstream use of such a service will be substantial.  In a world when every second is becoming more precious, to be able take advantage of down-time in such an effective way is a particularly compelling proposition.”

To try MyJotter’s voice-to-text messaging service click the link below.

External Links

MyJotter

DA Group (DA), developer of character content for web and mobile, has struck a deal with Momentum, a Scandinavian-based content provider that operates through an extensive network of retailers across most European countries under their HOOHA brand.

The HOOHA brand and powerful retail distribution network will sell DA’s full range of Yomego video downloads, wallpapers and messaging solutions directly to the consumer.

The deal for DA’s rich emotive content follows a string of new contracts with content companies in the UK, Europe, the Far East and Australia, including Jamster, PNC, UK and Response Media.

Mike Antliff, CEO of DA Group plc, said,

“I am hugely encouraged by the number of new contracts for Yomego we are currently winning. The quality of our character content is having an impact on all the content providers we meet and gives them something very distinctive in their own portfolios.

“For us, however, the real endorsement is the number of companies wanting to promote Yomego and use it within their own marketing campaigns. This will help drive usage as well as ensure that our brand gets very positive exposure.”

As the Barclays Premiership kicks off this weekend, 3 has announced over 270,000 registrations for its football service including video highlights, text alerts, club news and video goal alerts.

Gareth Jones, 3’s COO commented: “3 leads the market with the most innovative and entertaining services on mobile and 3’s football offering is no exception. 270,000 fans have already signed up for our football alerts in time for the new season, that’s 3 times the capacity of the new Wembley Stadium.”

3 offers fans the very best of football on mobile with manager interviews, video previews and analysis, UEFA Champions League highlights and content from Soccer AM, Sky Sports and Football 365.

Every Saturday throughout the Barclays Premiership season, 3’s customers can watch video highlights of all the afternoon’s matches at 5:15, with all other matches available just five minutes after the whistle. On 3, you can even sign-up for club news and score alerts sent straight to your inbox.

At peak times last season, more fans were following football on 3 than walking through the turnstiles at Premiership clubs.