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iPass increases mobile network footprint with 2,400 more Wi-Fi hotspots in France

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iPass, a provider of enterprise mobility services, today announced that it has grown the iPass Mobile Network in France, assisted by a new partnership with Trustive, a European Wi-Fi access provider. The expansion of the iPass Mobile Network provides increased Internet hotspots throughout Paris and other French cities including over 1,000 hospitality venues alone.

“Wi-Fi is cheaper, faster and easier than 3G and demand is increasing exponentially thanks to the growing popularity of an ever increasing range of Wi-Fi enabled devices,” said Christian Vanghelder, managing director of Trustive. “We’re delighted to partner with iPass and look forward to welcoming iPass customers onto our network of premium Wi-Fi hotspots across France.”

“iPass continues to expand the iPass Mobile Network throughout Europe offering increased availability in major business hubs,” said Marcio Avillez, vice president of Network Services at iPass. “Both Trustive and its Wi-Fi partner SpotCoffee bring reliable Wi-Fi at hotels, restaurants and cafés allowing iPass users instant connectivity to their critical business applications.”

With the iPass Open Mobile platform, a cloud-based services delivery system, enterprises can enable their mobile workers to seamlessly connect to the iPass Mobile Network, while ensuring it has complete visibility and controls of network usage, security and costs.

Movial launches RCS on Android and iPhone – taps Russian Android market

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Movial today announced it has launched its Movial Communicator on Android and the iPhone and is working with several operators to launch Android and iPhone VoIP applications. 

Movial Communicator, a SIP/IMS (RCS and MMTel ) application for operators provides HD voice, HD video telephony, enhanced address book and messaging along with advanced communication user experiences across PCs, Mobile, TV, and Multimedia devices running on MAC OS, Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms. The company also announced it is working closely with the industry’s leading manufacturers and silicon vendors to enable up to 720p HD video calling on Android tablets. Movial Communicator on Android is immediately available in the Android market in Russia.
 
The Movial Communicator Android and iPhone application integrates the native phone book for intuitive GSM and VoIP calling and messaging. This enables end users to make IP calls when they are in Wi-Fi coverage. All phone calls and messages are charged to the user’s single phone bill. The Android and iPhone applications are accompanied with PC/Mac applications enabling users with “mobile phone” capabilities such as voice calls, SMS, MMS, but also IM, Presence, and contact list management.
 
Movial Communicator on Android can be downloaded to Android 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 phones. The application is seamlessly integrated into Android address books.
 
Movial ensures that operator voice and video chat services are well received by subscribers – providing uncomplicated, intuitive and easy to use features along with the added convenience of VoIP service offerings.  Over 18 operators have had mass market success with Movial’s services that eliminate over-the-top players’ credit card account top-up irritations and hassles by enabling them to offer subscribers a single, easy to understand monthly bill tied to their single phone number for their mobile phone, PC and Web calls and even enable them to extend free video calls to their subscribers. 
 
“Movial is delighted to power leading smart phones with commercial deployments,” said Jari Ala Ruona, CEO and Co-founder Movial. “We started as smart phone company 7 years ago committed to improving the user experience and as platforms have evolved so have we.  Our commitment has never wavered, and today, our team of design engineers provide highly competitive and sought after applications for operators that deliver the industry’s smartest and most beautiful consumer user experiences.”

Peugeot launches hyper-local advertising campaign with NAVTEQ LocationPoint

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NAVTEQ, a global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising, has announced that vehicle manufacturer Peugeot is running a first-of-its kind campaign on NAVTEQ LocationPoint, said to be one of the fastest growing hyperlocal mobile ad networks in the world. NAVTEQ LocationPoint delivers ads and offers to on-the-go mobile phone users as they approach local retailers. Ads feature built-in calls to action such as “click to map” to guide consumers step by step to the retailer’s location.

The Peugeot campaign is said to be unique in that it is the first time a major automotive brand has leveraged LocationPoint to connect with potential customers. The ads invite mobile users to detour to their local Peugeot dealer to test drive the sleek, compact Peugeot RCZ—enticing them with a special lease deal of 299 Euros per month. The campaign targets people as they approach one of 428 Peugeot dealers across France.

“The choice of medium reflects the technological spirit of the brand and the campaign complements the overall communication plan for the RCZ,” explained Marc Giulioli, Marketing Director Peugeot France. “The ability of NAVTEQ LocationPoint to generate traffic into the dealerships by targeting and engaging people on-the-go as they near points of purchase is a very powerful marketing tool.”

NAVTEQ has an ad inventory that spans devices, apps, and global regions. Ads are delivered with built-in features such as: “click to map”, “click to route”, “click to call”, which make it easy for consumers to go, shop, buy, or save coupons for later use.

“Peugeot now joins a growing number of global brands from a diverse range of industries which are taking advantage of this compelling and effective advertising medium,” added Bruno Bourguet, senior vice president, EMEA Sales, NAVTEQ.  “Our aggressive expansion programme has paved the way for the NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising network to provide brand advertisers with large-scale audience reach.  It is a great step forward for a leading name such as Peugeot to recognise the exciting new dimension which location brings to mobile advertising,”

Avea selects Xtract’s advanced analytical solutions to reduce churn

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Xtract, a provider of advanced analytical solutions powered by Social Intelligence, today announced that the Turkish operator Avea has signed an agreement to use Xtract’s Social Links solution.

Social Links will help Avea to reduce subscriber churn with proactive retention campaigns, and also provide insight regarding the social interactions within the subscriber base.  Operators can use this insight to create and deliver propositions that are highly relevant to their customer base.

Social Links provides mobile operators with the opportunity to identify and reach out to likely “churners” with personalised marketing messages.  This can be done in timely manner, even before the customer has even made the decision to leave the network and can still be reached. This is a key element of any churn reduction strategy and is possible due to the application of sophisticated, advanced analytics. Ultimately enabling the operator to predict the future behaviour of subscribers with a far higher degree of accuracy than ever before.

“Xtract’s solution is an integral complement to our in-house tools preventing churn at the very early stages, as well as identifying the social behaviours of our subscribers” commented Bulent Velioglu, CRM Director of Avea.

Mika Lindholm, CEO of Xtract added: “We are confident that the combination of our industry proven advanced analytics which are powered by Social Intelligence and  Avea’s innovative marketing campaigns will ensure that Avea achieves superior results and realises their business objectives related to customer lifecycle and value management.”

Nokia’s Ovi Store hits five million downloads per day

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Nokia has announced that its Ovi Store has grown by nearly eight times over the last year and now reaches up to 5 million downloads per day, propelled by the latest Symbian devices – the Nokia N8, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia E7 – which are said to account for about 15 percent of the daily downloads.

Increased demand for apps from the approximate 200-million-strong Symbian consumer base has seen the Ovi Store catalogue grow to more than 40 000 apps, with about 1000 added per week. This momentum has resulted in 158 developers from 41 countries now surpassing the million download milestone each for their apps.

Nokia’s new monetization opportunities for developers are tailored for local markets and include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than Nokia’s nearest competitor. Ovi Store has seen integrated operator billing increase consumer transactions by up to four times and this, coupled with Nokia’s beta programs for in-app billing and in-app advertising, means more revenue opportunities for developers on Symbian.

These opportunities are also being extended to Nokia Series 40 devices, which will enable apps for the next billion mobile phone consumers. The refreshed Ovi Store experience, previously available only for the new Symbian devices, has resulted in more than 35 percent growth in downloads for Series 40 devices in the last two months, making up about a quarter of the total downloads.  

Developers and publishers, large and small, are using Ovi Store’s global reach and rapid growth to cultivate new communities. The communities are driven by deeper user connections within their apps, further driving downloads and potential monetization opportunities for developers, says Nokia.

“As consumers continue to download Ovi Store content with increasing frequency, developers have an immediate opportunity to reach consumers worldwide and capitalize on the approximately 150 million Symbian devices we plan to ship in the coming years,” said Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s Executive Vice President of Services and Developer Experience. “This momentum continues to demonstrate consumers’ appetite for Nokia’s global and locally relevant apps, and will help us plan the future apps store experience for improved and new Symbian devices, as well as Nokia smartphones based on the planned collaborative opportunities with Microsoft.

“Nokia’s Ovi Store has given our Angry Birds a fighting chance to defeat those havoc-wrecking green pigs and share the joys of clearing levels from every corner of the globe,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio. “We look forward to continuing development for Nokia’s latest Symbian devices and working with Nokia and the future of the Windows Phone platform.”

“In about a year, Nokia’s Ovi Store has gone from approximately 1 million downloads per day to up to 5 million downloads per day today, and the velocity appears to be increasing, fueled largely by Series 40 and new Symbian devices,” said Josh Martin, senior analyst, Strategy Analytics. “At this new rate, that’s nearly 2 billion annualized downloads and with the company’s new direction, app developers can surely capitalize on this growth today and in the future with the estimated approximately 150 million Symbian devices that Nokia expects to deliver.”

Turkcell Group implements WeDo Technologies’ business assurance RAID

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WeDo Technologies, a specialist in revenue and business assurance solutions, has signed a deal with Turkcell Group to implement its business assurance software RAID across the entire group. The software is said to ensure Turkcell Group avoids data and financial losses related to inconsistencies in business support systems and network platforms. 
 

Turkcell Group required a flexible revenue assurance solution which supported their individual requirements, while at the same time also providing the group with a robust set of functionalities.
 
WeDo Technologies partnered with two local companies to meet Turkcell Group’s requirements; a strategic consultancy company called Telcotank and an integrator company called i2i. The project will be rolled out in phases, starting with the operators Turkcell and Superonline in Turkey and Astelit in Ukraine. Altogether the project will take 18 months to complete.

The project will cover a range of key areas including subscriber and service reconciliation, usage assurance and billing and rating verification.
 
“When we were talking to WeDo Technologies about our revenue assurance requirements, we knew RAID was the right solution to go for as it is a tried and tested solution, with a fast and guaranteed return on investment” said Omer Altinok, Group Revenue Assurance Manager at Turkcell.
 
“We are really excited to be working with Turckell Group and increasing our footprint across Turkey and the surrounding countries” said Ines Ferreira, Southern Europe Business Development Manager at WeDo Technologies. “We feel the structured approach to integration will enable Turkcell Group to focus on the key risk areas, such as rating and billing validation, while maintaining the focus on and end-to-end deployment.”

 

Almost 400 HSPA systems launched worldwide reports GSA – 150 HSPA+ systems to launch by end 2011

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Newly updated reports on worldwide mobile broadband market developments have been published by the GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) which confirm the ever-expanding global footprint and evolving performance of mobile broadband services enabled by HSPA-based systems. 
 

Some 429 operators have now committed to HSPA network deployments in 167 countries. HSPA is the first evolution of WCDMA and has been deployed by more than 99% of WCDMA operators. Commercial HSPA services are launched on 398 networks, 17% higher than a year ago. HSPA-enabled mobile broadband services are now commercially launched in 160 countries/territories, compared to 143 one year ago.
 
More than two-thirds of HSPA networks (68%) are configured to support at least 7.2 Mbps peak downlink data speeds, compared to just over half of HSPA networks one year ago.  39% of operators have deployed HSUPA for fast data uploading performance, compared to 29% in April 2010.
 
The introduction of HSPA Evolution technology, often referred to as HSPA+ was the major trend in 2010 and this continues in 2011. A total of 173 operators in 77 countries have committed to deploy HSPA+ and 123 of those operators have now commercially launched HSPA+ systems in 65 countries. Most operators entering the market today are launching immediately with HSPA+.
 
Alan Hadden, President of the GSA, said: “Our research confirms that 43% of HSPA operators are committed to HSPA Evolution (HSPA+) systems and almost 31% of HSPA operators have now commercially launched HSPA+. GSA forecasts there will be at least 150 commercial HSPA+ systems launched by end 2011.”
 
* 90 commercial HSPA+ networks support a peak downlink data speed of 21 Mbps using 64QAM modulation, delivering a typical user experience up to 8 Mbps (depending on device capability)
* 10 commercial HSPA+ networks support 28 Mbps utilizing MIMO technology
* 23 commercial HSPA+ networks support 42 Mbps, which is achieved by combining 64QAM and doubling the bandwidth (DC-HSPA+)
 
An increasing number of operators have committed to deploy 42 Mbps DC-HSPA+ capabilities on their networks and GSA anticipates that the number of commercial 42 Mbps systems will more than double by the end of this year.  This is remarkable progress considering the first 42 Mbps system went live only a little over one year ago, says GSA.
 
Five operators have committed to the next HSPA Evolution step of 84 Mbps, which can be realized using a combination of DC-HSPA+ (64QAM) and MIMO. 84 Mbps systems and devices are expected to be commercially introduced within the next 12 months, it says.
 

Telia Sonera’s LTE network: latest test results

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VoLTE call quality “excellent”; further tests for motion, contention required

Telia Sonera’s Finnish LTE network delivered a peak download of 48Mbps in tests carried out by British network test company Epitiro. The tests also showed mean latency of 23 milliseconds meaning that the LTE network would be well suited, at present, to services such as HD video and online gaming.

John Curley, CTO of Epitiro, said that although the company did not know when the LTE service was experiencing peak demand, download speeds of 10-15Mbps were recorded at times, suggesting there was some evidence of service contention. The mean download speed measured was 36.1Mbps.

Epitiro said that LTE upload speeds averaged 1.7Mbps, which meets Skype’s recommendations for Basic video calling (0.3Mbps), HD video calling (1.5Mbps) and Group video calling (0.5Mbps).

Testing was completed over a 5 day period in March 2011 with over 20,000 data points being collected. A 3G test probe also measured services to enable direct comparison to 4G LTE services. Average results for 3G tests over the same period showed a mean download speed of 4Mbps and latency of 117 milliseconds, Epitiro said.

The company also tested VoLTE VoIP quality, terminating a call originating in Finland over a Samsung USB device to a test probe on BT’s 21CN network. Curley said that it showed quality to be “excellent”, scoring ITU-T PESQ MOS (Mean Opinion Score) values of 4.2 or 4.3, from a theoretical maximum score of 5. Tests were carried out using SIP control and the G.711 CODEC.

The Call Setup Times recorded using the 4G LTE services were approximately 0.6 seconds, whichi Epitiro described as exceptionally fast, especially considering the call was originating in Finland and terminating in the UK. These setup times reflect the minimal network latency using LTE within Finland.

Epitiro said that further examination of how the service performs as subscriber numbers increase would be of interest, as additional subscribers could cause congestion at the point of access or in the backhaul. In-motion measurements will also be of interest to see how real-time applications perform with challenges unique to those situations, including cell handoff.

Tests were carried out from March 21st to March 25th 2011, with network measurement probes conducting testing at 30 minute intervals. Each test consisted of Epitiro’s automated mobile broadband test probes connecting to both 4G and 3G services and collecting a series of key performance indicators through active test sequences. Testing was conducted from environmentally controlled locations in Turku, Finland where strong radio signals were available. Genre Mobile Ltd provided the in-country logistics.

Visa to invest €100 million a year into mobile payments and e-commerce

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Visa Europe has said it will invest €100 million a year into mobile and ecommerce payments and expects to see “commercial launches of mobile payments” before the end of 2011.

To place this in context, Visa Europe said in its 2010 annual results that it had invested €1 billion in total on payment technology since its creation in 2004 – an annual average of roughly €140 million. It is now commiting €100 million a year to mobile and ecommerce payments integration.

A spokesperson for the company said the €100 million is “new money”, and “will continue to be invested each year until commercialisation is fully underway”.

Speaking at Visa Insight, Visa’s partner and customer programme in Barcelona, Peter Ayliffe, Visa Europe Chief Executive, said, “We are seeing strong double digit growth in the usage of Visa cards across Europe, particularly with debit, and will continue to do so in the next few years as electronic payments displace cash. But during this time we can now expect to see the emergence of contactless, mobile and even further growth in ecommerce.

“To realise this opportunity Visa Europe will invest €100 million annually. The first results of this will be commercial launches of mobile payments before the end of 2011, closely followed by a major launch in ecommerce payments.”

Ayliffe added, “In just ten years we have moved from €1 in every €18 spent in Europe on a Visa card to €1 in €8.  Today we have committed to accelerate this displacement of cash by bringing to market ways to pay that bring true convergence between electronic payments and mobile and ecommerce technology.”

Network monitoring? Let the customers do it for themselves

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Network monitoring? Let the customers do it for themselves

A network quality monitoring company called Metricell has launched a service that lets users track, by location and time, the quality of service they are receiving from their network provider.

The service, called Tracesaver, is available as an Android or Blackberry app (Apple app is “coming” the company said) and is said to deliver continuous transparent tracking of phone usage and precise locations across the day.

If it delivers on its promise, it could provide a service that lets users see exactly the quality they have received, and of course have the ability to share that with their service provider or operator.

Tracesaver users are provided with encrypted access to an industry quality web site to review their call details, whereabouts and all other key facts. Weekly, monthly summaries are provided to show metrics concerning the service performance they receive from their network provider. Low signal and dropped calls are pinpointed, services used, upload data speeds and more are summarised for all registered mobiles. An overall Global Service Quality measure is provided for users over any period. 

End of the drive test?
The service can also be made available to mobile operators, with the platform tailored to integrate with an operator’s customer support services function.  Metricell said that the use of smartphones to report the actual customer experience could enable major advances to existing operator customer support systems with efficiency benefits and cost reductions by eliminating most 1st generation drive test measurements.

Steve Mockford, Metricell’s Managing Director comments: “Tracesaver uses smartphones to capture key data 24-7 to pinpoint network problem areas. Subscribers have a free service to track their whereabouts and summarise all aspects of their mobile phone usage. Customer use cases include emergency location of family or general tracking of fleet vehicles.

 

“Many users specifically want to pinpoint where they have unacceptable network service levels. From an operator point of view, tracesaver has targeted collection to report locations of poor quality or dropped calls. Other key metrics such as upload data speeds, services used, overall coverage experience and more.”

Metricell works already with MBNL, providing its Livetime NetView product. Its Subscriber Experience module for Livetime can be used with Livetime NetView in an operator environment, and drives the Tracesaver customer-facing application.

Livetime also acts as the project data warehouse for Everything Everywhere’s network consolidation project.

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