A new report by GSA (the Global mobile Suppliers Association) is said to confirm how operator investments in mobile HD Voice network deployments and trials are expanding across Europe and worldwide.

Mobile HD Voice uses Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband technology (W-AMR) standardized by 3GPP, and enables high-quality voice calls in mobile networks and an improved user experience. It provides significantly higher voice quality for calls between mobile phones supporting the feature, and can be implemented in GSM and WCDMA (UMTS) networks.

GSA’s Mobile HD Voice: Global Update report, published June 3, 2011, confirms that 40% of countries in the European Union have commercially launched mobile HD Voice services, or are engaged in trials and tests ahead of planned commercial introduction. Furthermore, operator investments in mobile HD Voice extend far beyond Europe.

The first commercial mobile HD Voice service was introduced in September 2009. HD Voice services are now launched on 20 mobile networks in 18 countries and territories – Armenia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, La Réunion, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and the UK.

Trials and network deployments of HD Voice ahead of planned commercial introduction are also progressing in Australia, Austria, the Dominican Republic, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, UAE and the USA.

A total of 33 HD Voice-capable phones are available from leading manufacturers including Alcatel, HTC, LG, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Many of the latest products are shipping with the HD Voice capability activated as default.

Alan Hadden, President of the GSA, said: “The availability of HD Voice on mobile networks is quickly spreading. HD Voice enabled by W-AMR technology is the most significant development in the mobile voice service for many years.”

There is a strong business case for Mobile HD Voice. Customers make more, or longer, calls with HD Voice, and highly value the service. HD Voice helps operators to clearly differentiate their offerings and enable high quality services to voice dependent business like call center services, information services, emergency services, etc. HD Voice is also ideal for conference calls and can contribute to a reduction in business travel and raise productivity while reducing the environmental impact. Calls which are easier to hear and understand reduce the fatigue typically associated with long conference calls.

The maximum benefits from using HD Voice on a mobile HD-capable network are realized or perceived when both calling and called party use HD Voice-capable phones. However, improvements in call quality are also observed even when calling a non-HD Voice phone, due to improvements in the acoustic performance and advanced noise reduction capabilities present in most HD Voice phones.

The report includes links to several demonstrations of HD Voice phone quality.

MNOs and Banks Convene in London to Debate the “mega-scale opportunity” of NFC in 2011

As the excitement around NFC payments mounts, the whole of the NFC payments industry will unite in London on the 13-14 June for NFC Payments Europe 2011. The biggest brands from Banks, MNO’s, Mobile device OEM’s, system integrators, payment and solution providers, regulators, semiconductor manufacturers, technology and infrastructure providers will be in London for two days of discussion and debate.

With Google’s CEO calling NFC a “mega-scale opportunity” and the Head of Handset Software for RIM stating that 2011 is a “pivotal year for NFC”, the event seems to have come at exactly the right time for those companies involved in NFC payments.

The agenda covers some of the key issues that the industry currently faces. Panel debates on SIM Vs Handset Integration, how to reach critical mass and the business case for both banks and MNO’s are some of the highlights of the conference. Presentations on how to structure deals between banks and MNO’s alongside NFC from a merchant’s perspective, will cover some of the key challenges facing the ecosystem.

Scattered throughout the two days will be case studies given by some of Europe’s thought leaders. On top of this delegates will benefit from market predictions from IMS Research and a global overview courtesy of Visa Europe.

Confirmed speakers giving their two cents currently include the likes of Visa Europe, Orange, MasterCard Worldwide, Barclaycard, Bouygues Telecom, ClickandBuy, Everything Everywhere, KPN Group, La Caixa, IBM, Samsung, Citigroup, RIM and Bankinter amongst others.

James Davlouros, Business Leader, Vice President – Innovative Platforms at MasterCard Worldwide commented “I’m looking forward to the conference, as it provides a great opportunity for MasterCard and a number of key players to discuss various aspects of mobile payments, as we seek to grow our business in this exciting segment.”

Whilst Dickson Chu, Global Head of New Product Development & Alliances at Citigroup commented: “For us, NFC represents huge potential for changing the nature of our relationship with consumers and the nature of our relationship partners in the mobile ecosystem which should lead to new revenue opportunities. The conference agenda is top class and NFC Insight have certainly done their homework. I’m really excited to be participating and I am looking forward to meeting other senior execs from across the industry”

Organised by NFC Insight, NFC Payments Europe is aimed at helping facilitate the commercial rollout of NFC payments and will unite the industry’s elite for 2 days of in-depth discuss and exciting debate. After months of research, the agenda looks packed full of all the key issues that the industry currently faces. With all the key players set to appear the conference is certainly shaping up to be a great spectacle for the whole industry.

Contact

David Murdoch
Vice President
NFC Insight
Tel: +44 (0) 207 375 7246

david@nfcinsight.com

About NFC Insight:

NFC Insight publishes news and events for those involved in the NFC Space. Through high-end B2B conferences, we connect people across the industry, provide market leading intelligence and enable companies to capitalise on emerging business opportunities in mobile payments, loyalty, ticketing, identification, electronic keys and all future NFC applications. Through continuous independent research with hundreds of companies and dedicated journalists, our news portal keeps you one step ahead of an industry in flux, and our events provide key networking forums for the industry.

iPass, a provider of enterprise mobility services, today announced a partnership with Connection Services Ltd, Owners of Quiconnect, a wireless broadband interconnectivity service, that will give iPass users Wi-Fi access in Slovenia via the Mobitel network.

“Slovenia lies in the heart of Europe, where the Alps meet the Mediterranean but being connected there is vitally important to business travelers,” said Connection Services Sales Director EMEA, Simon Amos. “The country has good ties with markets in Western and Southeastern Europe in addition to being in a central position with excellent infrastructure, so we’re glad to be a part of the Mobile Network so iPass users can gain access through our partnership.”

The iPass Mobile Network is said to be the world’s largest commercial-grade Wi-Fi network, allowing iPass users to connect in over 100 countries with a single secure login that uses existing corporate credentials to access over 500,000 Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide.

“iPass continues to increase our mobile network footprint throughout Central and Eastern Europe,” said Marcio Avillez, vice president of Network Services at iPass. “Slovenia is a new territory for iPass and thanks to our partner Connection Services we can provide a high-level connection experience.”

With the iPass Open Mobile platform, a cloud-based services delivery system, enterprises can have complete visibility and management of network usage, security and costs.

A new report from Juniper Research has found that while global operator-billed revenues will exceed $1 trillion annually by 2016, mobile network operators (MNOs) face the prospect of a “nightmare” scenario under which operator costs will exceed revenues within four years unless remedial action is taken.

The report found that MNO core revenues were flatlining and even declining in some markets, the result of market saturation allied to falling ARPU. Furthermore, operators were faced with the prospect of spiralling backhaul costs due to the dramatic increase in cellular network data traffic, which more than doubled in 2010 and is expected to increase by more than 13x to 25,000 Petabytes per annum by 2015.

However, the report argues that MNOs have the opportunity to redress the balance through a series of adaptive strategies designed to optimise core revenue streams, develop new revenues and significantly reduce operating costs.

The Mobile Operator Business Models report highlights the need for MNOs to offer integrated rate plans, while also providing a wide range of segmented postpaid and postpaid tariffs. It also emphasises the potential for double-sided revenue streams in areas such as cloud, M2M and mobile financial services where MNOs can leverage their existing assets.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “Clearly, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for MNOs, simply because the circumstances of individual operators differ widely, even within the same market.  Instead, we have outlined a series of measures which MNOs can select according to their particular needs.”

Other findings from the report include:

·         Tier 2 MNOs with lower traffic volumes may gain competitive advantage by retaining flat rate data bundles

·         Integrated Mobile Broadcast represents a potentially cost-effective means of offloading video traffic from the network

·         As cost of fossil fuels increases, transition to “green” networks and base stations represents both an environmental and economic imperative

Guildford, UK – May 31 2011 – Simon Burke, the former Chief Executive of Virgin Entertainment Group and Chairman of Hamleys PLC, hastoday joined Eagle Eye Solutions, the market leader in mobile voucher issue and redemption technology for retailers, as Chairman.

Simon Burke is a highly experienced retailer, having led or been a Board member of a host of prominent UK retail brands, including Virgin Megastores, W H Smith, Hamleys, and Majestic Wine. He is currently Chairman of Hobbycraft and Mitchells & Butlers PLC, and is a Director of the BBC.

Eagle Eye Solutions is the market leader in delivering mobile voucher issuance and redemption technology to retailers. The key to any digital voucher is the ability to redeem simply and securely, in real time and with the ability to track customer usage. Eagle Eye delivers that vision today for retailers, using the Chip and PIN pad and without any requirement for a massive upgrade of retail/EPoS systems. Eagle Eye is already working with many prominent retailers including Comet, Aurora Fashions, Blockbuster and Virgin Active.

“I am very pleased to be joining Eagle Eye. Mobile vouchers are the next big thing in retail and leisure. This technology offers the only easy way to redeem these vouchers securely and in a way which tracks the usage, both of which can be invaluable to businesses. I look forward to working with the Eagle Eye team and helping to drive this innovation further into the retail and leisure sectors,” said Simon Burke.

Steve Rothwell, CEO, Eagle Eye Solutions, said: “We’re delighted that such an experienced and high profile figure in the retail industry is joining Eagle Eye at a time when we’re enjoying a rapid expansion of our retail partnerships. Mobile vouchers are going to be key for retail mobile marketing and it’s great that our solutions are going to play such a central part in the system.”

The ‘red-hot’ growth that the service provider switching and routing market has experienced over the last year cooled in the first quarter of 2011, according to Ovum.

In its new market analysis, the independent telecoms analyst says that although global spending grew by nine per cent compared to the first quarter of 2010, this was the least positive result in more than a year.

However, Ovum’s research shows that Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Juniper and ZTE all posted double-digit revenue gains compared with the first quarter of 2010. However, market leader Cisco and Tellabs both posted declines.

Market leader Cisco’s revenues of $1.25 billion for the first quarter of 2011 were down six per cent compared to the first quarter of 2010 and down 12 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. This led to the company losing the most annualised market share.

Second-ranked Juniper enjoyed the biggest gain in sales versus the first quarter of 2010, increasing its revenues by a massive 28 per cent. This meant it also had the largest share gain for the annualised period ending in the first quarter of 2011.

Dana Cooperson, Ovum network infrastructure practice leader and author of the market report, commented: “While the market still experienced healthy growth, it was more modest than we have seen in previous quarters and an indication that this red-hot growth is cooling.

“All the global regions grew compared with the first quarter of 2010. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa and in South and Central America the growth was particularly strong, more than the nine per cent global average. However, growth in North America and Asia-Pacific fell short of this average.

“In terms of vendor strategy, mobility, the cloud, and the mobile cloud continue to be a focus of attention for vendors and are causing them to hone their value propositions. Meanwhile network operators are taking a more holistic approach when it comes to their needs.”

The Telekom Austria Group and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the launch of integrated carrier billing for BlackBerry App World for customers of Telekom Austria Group’s operating company in Austria, A1 Telekom Austria.

Austria is the first country of the Telekom Austria Group’s market to enable customers to purchase apps from BlackBerry App World and conveniently charge the purchases directly to their monthly phone bill. The integrated carrier billing will support in-app purchases as well, allowing the download of fee-based digital goods, such as additional features in an app or levels in a game, without interrupting the application experience.

“We always strive to offer our customers throughout the Group the most practical mobile services available on the market. There is a great demand for comfortable payment solutions for mobile content,” Claudia Winkler, Group Chief Marketing Officer explains. “We are happy to be among the first in Europe to offer our BlackBerry users this great advantage.” BlackBerry App World offers a wide range of more than 25,000 applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones.

Claudia Winkler: “Simplified and secure payment via the monthly phone bill adds convenience to our customers’ application experience and creates the cost transparency the users ask for. We are glad to have Research In Motion as a strong partner, and will be rolling out this service for all our customers across our markets.”While customers take advantage of the payment method’s simplicity, carrier billing is also said to offer benefits for developers. According to market experience the easy purchasing method via the phone bill results in increased downloads and subsequently higher revenues for the developer. “We found that applications with local content are the most popular among our users. So we hope, that the new service will add momentum to the downloads,” adds Claudia Winkler. Developers will have a better environment for the creation of apps for BlackBerry App World, which will spur on the development of more local applications for BlackBerry users.