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B!Digital launches adnetwork

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B!Digital, the mobile advertising and communications division of the Buongiorno Group, today announced the launch of B!mobile, a new advertising network (AdNetwork) will allow the leading independent European agency to work with both publishers looking to capitalise on their traffic on mobile internet and/or iPhone applications, and advertisers wanting to invest in efficient mobile communication campaigns.

Using a next-generation technology platform, B!mobile is claimed to be able to implement sophisticated, targeted mobile advertising campaigns. The platform permits segmentation by telephone operator, operating system and mobile device, with precision and transparency allowing constant control on the real return on the investment made, it says.

The platform is said to be simple and easy to use with direct and independent access for each advertiser. A control panel monitors the performance of every aspect of the campaign, making changes as needs arise. It also allows users to set and manage their banner campaigns on either a CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) basis. B!mobile aims to extend its adnetwork by grouping publishers from around the world with a particular focus on Europe, South Africa and on the emerging markets, in order to aggregate traffic by the end of the year and reach 1.5 billion impressions.

The new B!mobile Adnetwork Business Unit is headed up by Lara Gagliardi, an international role she has taken after successfully leading the B2C segment in the Mediterranean and LATAM areas for Buongiorno, promoting the BlinkoGold brand and developing specific expertise in performance advertising.

“Marketers, struggling to capture consumers’ attention, are quickly turning to mobile advertising” – commented Lara Gagliardi – “With its complete media offer of premium and performance B!Digital is perfectly poised to capture an opportunity which according to eMarketer will reach 1.1 billion dollars in 2012”.

Russia gets taste of LTE

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MegaFon, Russia’s largest network operator, together with Nokia Siemens Networks, have showcased a next generation mobile broadband (4G) data call at the IX International Investment Forum Sochi 2010. The high-speed LTE data transmissions were conducted on Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercial end-to-end LTE system.

The call demonstrated peak rates of up to 100 Mbps and was conducted using Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi Multiradio Base Station, along with Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network elements Flexi NS (Networks Server) and Flexi NG (Network Gateway) with unique 4D scaling. Nokia Siemens Networks also provided the necessary network planning, installation and integration for the solution showcase.

“We are committed to offering the best telecom services to the people in Russia and this call brings us one step closer to commercial LTE rollouts in the country,” said Tigran Pogosyan, deputy CEO for Strategic Projects, MegaFon. “Given the tight timelines for the project, Nokia Siemens Networks has done a commendable job in proving its technology leadership and excellence in support services.”

“MegaFon aims to be at the forefront of new technology deployment and specifically chose the Sochi event to showcase LTE technology in use,” said Kristina Tikhonova, general director, Nokia Siemens Networks in Russia. “Being a part of the next generation mobile broadband (4G) data call is a proud moment for us, as it marks the beginning of the LTE era in Russia.”

Ubiquisys secures $5 million funding round

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Ubiquisys, developer of 3G femtocells, today announced it has completed the second close of the funding round first announced in July, with a $5 million investment led by three Taiwanese companies: SerComm Corporation, UMC Capital Corporation and Pacific Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Advent Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Atlas Venture. 

Building on the company’s deployment with SoftBank Mobile in Japan, the capital will be used to accelerate its momentum worldwide, particularly in the Americas, it says.

The investment is said to reflect the growing importance of the Ubiquisys “Femto-Engine” business model, which frees operators and device manufacturers to fast-track their own femtocell designs. Ubiquisys already has strategic relationships with a number of Asian device manufacturers, who have been instrumental in producing femtocells at the sub-$100 price point that enables operators to supply them for free.

Ubiquisys has been well-placed to answer the number one concern among operators; interference problems between femto and macrocells. The company’s adaptive Radio Resource Management (aRRM) is the only system proven to eliminate interference problems in shared spectrum deployments.

The announcement is also said to reflect a highly successful year for the company, which has seen it achieve mass deployments in Japan and France, as well as exploiting its extensive IPR to develop the full range of small cells: residential, enterprise, rural and metro.

“Asia plays a leading role in the femtocell industry today, both in terms of product diversity and business model innovation,” said Chris Gilbert, CEO Ubiquisys. “Our work with SoftBank and SerComm has broken new ground and we are delighted to be adding strategic investors who bring extra know-how to help Ubiquisys build on our strong international momentum.”

Progress through uncertainty

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I spent the middle of last week in Sitges in Spain. Yes, very nice thanks. A steady 28° although a little humid. Food was excellent. Did some shopping, paid for it using a Visa app on an NFC-enabled mobile. All very easy. Didn’t need to exchange any currency, money was taken from my bank account in the usual manner.

Well, not actually my bank account. And not my phone either. I was testing a user trial in this nice resort town – with phone and money courtesy of Visa. In Sitges, 1,500 users and 500 merchants have signed up for a trial led by Visa, La Caixa and Telefonica. The initial results are promising, although there is some room for intepretation. Less satisfyingly, there was little to be learnt about the business model (ie who gets how much money, and who from) as this was only a trial to find out if people liked the experience.

The man from Telefonica said he thought London would be the first City in Europe to have mass market mobile NFC payments rolled out. London would be pushed by the Olympics into the first major implementation outside of Korea and Japan, he said.

The only “nuts” left to crack are handsets and the business model. Which has been the case pretty much since people started referring to NFC in a mobile phone capacity. Get cracking on the cracking, please.

That said, there does seem to be progress. Progress too in broadband spectrum allocation. Not only did the EC state this week that it wants to see “sufficient” spectrum for mobile broadband made available by the start of 2013, but it said the 800Mhz band digital dividend spectrum must be opened up to wireless broadband as well by the same date. Meanwhile, it wants countries to crack on with allocating spectrum in the already harmonised bands.

They must have been listening in Austria, because the country wrapped up its 2.6GHz auction this week – raising just short of €40 million, and firing the starting gun for the first operators to roll out LTE services in the country.

A1 Telekom Austria was the first off the block, stating it would launch a 30Gb per month service for €90. That clearly presents LTE as a high volume, high bandwidth, high value service.

But what of the auction itself? What does it tell us about the value of 2.6GHz spectrum to operators in Europe? Well, one consultant in this area, Graham Friend of Coleago Consulting, says the auction is slightly confusing.

He worked out that the benchmark for the paired spectrum of approximately €0.04/Mhz/Pop is at a similar level to the results from the German auction, but 4 times lower than the Danish auction, although both markets also had four existing operators.
Friend said, “Whilst relative levels of spectrum supply relative to operator demand is often a significant determinant of spectrum prices achieved at auction it is clearly not the full story.”

One reason for Austria’s auction raking in a quarter of Denmark’s on a like-for-like basis is that, unusually, the RTR attached roll-out requirements to the 2.6GHz band requiring 25% of the population to be provided with coverage with a downlink of 1 MBit/s and 256 KBit/s on the uplink by no later than December 2013.

“This represents an onerous requirement for operators as it will require them to deploy LTE sooner than perhaps they might have preferred,” Friend reasons. The coverage requirements will have depressed auction prices.”

Friend added that attaching coverage requirements to the 2.6GHz spectrum is unusual as coverage is usually addressed through lower frequency spectrum bands such as 900MHz and 1800MHz.

The relative prices for paired and unpaired spectrum also remains confusing as Hutchison paid less in total for its paired and unpaired spectrum (a total of 65MHz) compared to T-Mobile which only acquired 40MHz of paired spectrum. This outcome is however more likely to be due to the algorithm (effectively a second price rule) used by the regulator to determine the final prices.

The use of second price rules, where the highest bidder wins but only has to pay the amount of the 2nd highest bidder, tends to result in more economically efficient allocations of spectrum but it can lead to interesting variations in price for similar lots. For example Telkom paid 20% more for the same amount of spectrum as Hutchison and T-Mobile paid 40% more on a €/MHz/Pop for its 40MHz of paired spectrum than Orange paid for its 20MHz and the difference is unlikely to be explained in full by differences in spectral efficiencies of LTE in wider bands

Friend’s conclusion is that as countries such as Switzerland, Spain and the UK prepare to auction spectrum in the 2.6GHz band the Austrian auction provides some insight into the potential value of the spectrum – but considerable uncertainty remains.

Indeed.

Meanwhile, one thing that is certain is that at about this time tomorrow I will be hosting an excellent webinar on how operators can ensure optimum performance of their radio networks. You can register here (https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/709582521) for this event. I look forward to welcoming you online tomorrow.

Keith Dyer
Editor
Mobile Europe

http://mobileeurope.co.uk/news/news-anaylsis/8123-london-to-lead-way-in-nfc-mobile-payments

http://mobileeurope.co.uk/news/news-anaylsis/8132-lte-ready-for-launch-in-austria-after-39-million-auction-concludes

http://mobileeurope.co.uk/news/news-anaylsis/8129-ec-wants-800mhz-open-for-mobile-broadband-by-2013

http://mobileeurope.co.uk/news/news-anaylsis/8128-device-management-missing-the-enterprise-mark

LTE ready for launch in Austria after €39 million auction concludes

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Telekom Austria says it will be the first to launch commercial LTE – with €90 a month tarrif

Austrian telecoms regulator RTR has concluded the auction of 140MHz of paired spectrum and 50MHz of unpaired spectrum in the 2.6GHz  band – raising €39.5 million from the four incumbent operators Telkom, Hutchison, T-Mobile and Orange.

A1 Telekom Austria acquired 2×20 MHz in the paired band and 25 MHz in the unpaired band, while Hutchison 3G Austria received 2×20 MHz in the paired band and 25 MHz in the unpaired band. Orange Austria Telecommunication GmbH acquired 2×10 MHz in the paired band, and T-Mobile Austria GmbH was assigned 2×20 MHz, likewise in the paired band.

The auction was conduced by the Austrian regulatory authority (TKK) and took place from September 13 to September 20, 2010. A total of 14 paired and 9 unpaired frequency blocks were offered in this auction which had a total minimum bid value of €7.4 million. The regulatory authority expects that the frequencies will be used primarily for high-speed mobile broadband services in areas of high population density, for example using LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology.

A1 Telekom Austria said that it has acquired four paired frequency blocks with a bandwidth of 2 x 5 MHz each and five unpaired frequency blocks with a bandwidth of 1 x 5 MHz for a total  of €13.2. The operator said it would become the first Austrian provider to commercially launch LTE.

“We have been intensively testing LTE for a few years and based on our extensive expertise and year-long experience we will be able to start the commercial launch of this cutting-edge technology immediately after the grant of the license. Our base stations meet all technical prerequisites for the start, thus we will be the first mobile provider to start LTE in Austria,” said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO Telekom Austria Group.

A1 Telekom Austria will launch a new tariff “A1 Broadband LTE” in Q4 2010 that will provide customers with speed up to 150 Mbps, a download volume of 30 GB and will be marketed at a price of €90 per month.

 

4G LTE netbooks and tablets to represent 20% of LTE subscribers by 2015 – report

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According to a new report from Juniper Research, LTE 4G enabled netbooks and tablets will be used by as many as 20%, or 1 in 5, LTE subscribers by 2015.

Juniper says it found that the many advantages of LTE mobile broadband such as high data rates and reduced latency will result in an ideal environment for the proliferation of new and upgraded end user devices such as netbooks, tablets, digital cameras and games consoles to add to laptops and smartphones.

4G LTE Report author Howard Wilcox gave more details: “Juniper’s view is that mobile operators will be keen to embed a wide variety of devices with broadband wireless connectivity, because they see this as a route to stave off ARPU declines: our forecasts show that there will be roughly as many LTE netbooks and tablets combined as laptops by 2015.”

However, Juniper believes that there are many hurdles for the mobile ecosystem to overcome before this  step change in the connectivity of consumers across the world becomes reality. Not least of these are issues around the availability and customer support for connected devices, and most importantly the business model.

Juniper’s primary interviewing programme covering the entire LTE industry found that:

·         Video streaming and gaming were viewed as the potential top services on LTE – benefiting from the higher speeds and reduced latency made possible by LTE

·         LTE netbooks and tablets are poised to outstrip LTE laptop shipments, especially in the consumer market

·         The industry is looking for answers regarding the types of business models that will replace existing data plans.

RAD Carrier Ethernet access devices participate in seven tests at EANTC’s Interop Showcase

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Four different Carrier Ethernet access devices manufactured by RAD Data Communications are included in the multi-vendor Interoperability Showcase organized by the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC) at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress (CEWC) 2010 in Warsaw.

The showcase follows a two-week long hot staging at EANTC’s Berlin headquarters, which included a total of 100 separate devices from 24 different vendors.

RAD products were successfully tested for IEEE 1588-2008 synchronization (slave clock, transparent clock and 1588-2008 interoperability with Synchronous Ethernet), Synchronous Ethernet, ITU-T Y.1731 performance monitoring, IEEE 802.3-2005 link OAM, IEEE 802.1ag connectivity fault management, ITU-T G.8032 Ethernet Ring Protection Switching (ERPS), and ITU-T G.8031 Ethernet Linear Protection Switching.

The RAD products were the new feature-rich ETX-203A Carrier Ethernet network termination unit for MEF-certified SLA-enabled Ethernet services, the ETX-204A Carrier Ethernet demarcation device, the MiToP-E1/T1, a TDM pseudowire gateway with synchronous Ethernet support incorporated in a smart SFP, and the IPmux-216 TDM pseudowire access gateway.

“RAD’s participation in the EANTC Showcase and the successful interop results opposite 23 other vendors proves that Carrier Ethernet is a very stable and reliable network technology with high availability and SDH/SONET-like resilience,” notes Ilan Seidner, Director of Marketing Communications at RAD Data Communications. “In addition, the clock synchronization and restoration tests demonstrated that Carrier Ethernet can be used unconditionally for mobile backhaul applications.”

EC wants 800Mhz open for mobile broadband by 2013

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Wants to see “sufficient” spectrum for mobile broadband in digital dividend spectrum

The European Commission has proposed that EU governments “open up” 800MHz spectrum to mobile broadband use by the 1 January 2013.

It is also proposing that all countries have provided licenses for the use of already harmonised spectrum (900/100MHz, 2,5GHz, 3.4-3.8GHz) for mobile broadband services by the end of 2012.

That appears to open up the prospect of widescale spectrum refarming across the EU, as all the current main bands are made available for mobile broadband.

The proposals are part of a five year policy proposed by the EC for planning and harmonising the use of the EU’s radio spectrum. The proposals must be adopted by the EU Parliament and Council of Ministers.

An EC statements said, “Wireless broadband is essential to deliver the target of broadband for all by 2013, one of the key goals of the Digital Agenda for Europe.”

The EC proposal continued:
“The top priority is to earmark sufficient spectrum for wireless services, including broadband. The Commission proposes that EU countries should complete by 2012 the process of giving licences to operators to use spectrum bands which have already been technically harmonised at EU level for the use of wireless broadband, (the 900/1800 MHz bands, the 2.5 GHz band and the 3.4 – 3.8 GHz band). In addition, EU countries are asked to open up the 800 MHz band (see IP/10/540) to wireless broadband by 1st January 2013, while foreseeing possible derogations until 2015 in exceptional cases.”

The statement doesn’t seem to suggest how much spectrum will be opened up in the 800MHz bank, save for asking for “sufficient spectrum”. That reflects the wording of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group in its June 2010 opinion on the harmonized allocation of digital dividend spectrum for non-broadcasting purposes.

 

Device management missing the enterprise mark

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Operators can become trusted enterprise DM provider

Operators are again being asked to look at enterprise device management as an area ripe for service growth, although one technology provider is warning that current systems do not address enterprise needs.

Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron, told Mobile Europe that there has been a “huge wave” of smartphones crashing into the enterprise market – with 55 million entering the enterprise market this year. This wave is “creating pain” for IT departments that have been “caught off guard”, Tinker said.

“The enterprise is a really large market opportunity for mobile operators that has been relatively ignored,” Tinker said. “Mobile operators can help their customers say yes to a wider range of devices in the enterprise.”

Tinker claimed, however, that “traditional providers of device management are not sufficient for the enterprise.” Most device management platforms are focused on configuration, provisioning and settings, Tinker claimed, but, “Enterprises don’t care about devices, they care about data and services – how well the services are working and how much they cost, not about device provisioning.”

“As mobile device management becomes more complex and costly, companies need help from a trusted provider,” said Tim Marsden, director, Communications and Media Solutions, HP. “Operators can become that provider. They can leverage the advantages of the cloud, efficiently manage a company’s mobile devices and, ultimately, build a new business for themselves.”

HP has addressed this by launching today device management as a service – intended to enable operators to address the enterprise IT market. HP’s Cloud Services Enablement for Device Management as a Service (HP CSE for DMaaS) allows IT staff to manage mobile devices and PCs through the cloud.

Using over-the-air technology IT managers can configure devices, distribute applications, diagnose problems, enforce security policies and protect data with full back-up and restore capability.

HP says that the benefits for businesses are: reduced cost, complexity and risk; access to state-of-the-art mobile device management technology; reduced capital investment; and the ability to extend high-value productivity applications to mobile workers.

The core of the HP MDM solution is provided by device management company Mformation Technologies. “Device management as a service is an idea whose time has come, and CSPs are uniquely positioned to be the trusted provider to businesses,” said Rob Dalgety, global marketing director, Mformation Technologies.

HP’s Aggregation Platform for SaaS acts as a mediation layer between the HP Mobile Device Management solution, the operator’s OSS/BSS and the business customer’s environment.

Tinker’s company MobileIron recently announced its Virtual Smartphone Platform 3.0 release. The release contains a Mobility API for channel partners to integrate MobileIron data and actions with other enterprise systems and build their own applications for mobile device management, security and analytics.

 

 

 

 

 

One billion subscribers to own smartphone devices in 2013, says research

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The number of smartphone users is expected to grow very rapidly within the coming years to exceed the one billion mark by 2013, according to the latest forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media. The growth will be driven by the ongoing competition between top tier OEMS and challengers such as Google, RIM, Apple and Microsoft who are racing to create the best possible user experience at lower pricing points, it says. Although Symbian currently leads the market, Android will become the most popular brand in the mobile OS market as it is expected to attract more than half billion users by 2015.

“Informa Telecoms & Media expects that the market share of Symbian, from total smartphone users, to drop significantly from 53% in 2009 to 32% in 2015. In fact, the platform will maintain its leading position until 2014 when it will be ousted by Android, which will become the new platform leader thereafter. In terms of sales, smartphones powered by Android are expected to surpass these of Symbian as early as 2012 with more than 142 million Android phones expected to sell that year versus 137 million for Symbian,” commented Malik Kamal-Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.

The number of Android users is expected to grow very rapidly due to the strong support by almost all major players in the mobile industry value chain – with the exception of Nokia. The platform is currently supported by some 200+ regional mobile operators and 20 top tier vendors. Today, about 100 Android smartphone models and variants have been launched worldwide and targeting different segments of the smartphone market.

The number of Android smartphone users is expected to grow 78% CAGR between 2009 and 2015 to reach 540 million representing 38% market share from total smartphone subscribers. The number of Android users is expected to surpass that of both RIM’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone by 2011, says Informa.

Symbian was developed more than 20 years ago and as the market evolves, the architecture of this platform has increased in complexity through a number of upgrade cycles and additions of new layers. Consequently, it is now becoming very hard for Symbian to keep up with innovation and bring champion smartphones to the market in a timely fashion.

“Android is gaining momentum rapidly and increasingly challenging alternative platforms including RIM’s Blackberry, Apple’s iOS and Nokia-dominated Symbian. Although Symbian will retain a leading position in the smartphone market, if the platform continues to under-perform in bringing innovation, pressure will grow for Nokia and could push the company to consider the adoption of an alternative platform, notably Android in the future. If Nokia joins the Android party, the support of this ecosystem by all key players could help the mobile smartphone industry to potentially commoditise its terminal software business much like what Microsoft did in the PC world. Of course, players who have chosen to pursue a vertical approach will survive but will be addressing different niche markets,” Kamal-Saadi concludes.

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