Actix acquires ComOpt to create the premier wireless performance optimization company and the industry’s first end-to-end voice and IP performance engineering solution capability

Actix, the global provider of wireless network performance engineering software, has acquired ComOpt, a leading provider of automated wireless optimization solutions. The combined products of Actix and ComOpt represent the wireless industry’s only end-to-end, vendor independent, performance engineering solutions set. For all major wireless technologies, including 3G, they address every aspect of performance
engineering from systems verification to optimization and troubleshooting, using drive test, protocol and predicted data, across voice and multi-media services.

This acquisition – which brings together two of the leading vendor independent performance software specialists – is a significant development for the wireless industry. Performance engineering is a key part of the operator workflow, where operators are seeking to maximize the return on existing investment, rapidly deploy new services, maximize the use of
available spectrum and bridge the customer experience gap. Performance engineering is complementary to OSS but where performance management hides engineering detail through aggregation, limiting the ability of engineers to ‘drill down’ and fix specific problems, performance engineering solutions
facilitate analysis and decision making to improve the customer experience of 3G services. This enables operators to proactively make changes based on a detailed understanding of the network and services.

Commenting on the acquisition, Rob Dobson, Actix CEO said: “Actix and ComOpt have created a major new force offering intelligent performance engineering solutions for wireless focused on the key business challenges facing operators today – squeezing more out of existing networks and realizing
service revenues from new technology networks. Like Actix, ComOpt is profitable and growing fast and both management teams are convinced that the synergies will make us both even stronger. Combined, our solutions will enable operators to master the interaction of highly complex new technologies, allowing them to accelerate the rollout of new revenue-generating services and provide a high quality service to their customers.”

Joachim Samuelsson, ComOpt Managing Director, added: “This move will not only accelerate our growth plans, through synergies with Actix’ sales, marketing and global distribution resources, but also provide an excellent product fit.  ComOpt’s automatic optimization solutions are already established market leaders and widely regarded as the best in class.
Together, our products effectively complete the picture for operators seeking an intelligent performance engineering solution portfolio that will help them to achieve performance targets right across today’s network technologies through to next generation service offerings.”

External Links

Actix

mBlox acquires WCL to reinforce its position as a provider of SMS infrastructure services

Today mBlox announces that it has acquired WCL Wireless Commerce UK Ltd (WCL), one of the UK’s best known premium rate SMS aggregators.

The acquisition once again demonstrates mBlox’s continuing strategy to consolidate the SMS messaging industry. mBlox thereby acquires WCL’s blue chip roster of clients along with its experienced and highly skilled management team. The agreement underscores mBlox’s position as Europe’s leading provider of SMS infrastructure services and provides UK customers with an even stronger SMS transmission partner.

Andrew Bud, Executive Chairman of mBlox, said: “mBlox’s momentum continues to grow. This is the time of consolidation, and WCL, a quality business whom we have admired for several years, was a great addition to our business. This is excellent news for WCL’s clients, offering them more services and geographic coverage from a financially strong provider, whilst maintaining their established relationships with this fine management team.”

Bud continued: “We firmly believe that consistent focus on infrastructure and scale will shape the winners in this sector. mBlox started to consolidate the transmission side of the international SMS messaging industry over a year ago. The recent acquisition of Swapcom’s SMS delivery capabilities in France and today’s announcement are further steps in our plan to be the leading international SMS operator.”

Phil Ray, Managing Director of WCL, said “We are delighted to be joining forces with mBlox.  Their transatlantic infrastructure, strong financial base and commitment to this industry makes this an exciting opportunity for WCL clients and management. We are proud of what WCL has accomplished thus far and we look forward to building more success within mBlox.”

WCL clients will be seamlessly migrated to mBlox’s transmission platform and will continue to receive their existing services. They will benefit from access to mBlox’s comprehensive suite of international premium and standard SMS services including mBlox’s recently announced US premium-rate SMS service. Q Advisors LLC of Denver, CO (www.qllc.com) acted as financial advisor to mBlox in connection with the acquisition.

External Links

mBlox

BA to bring BT Openzone to 80 executive lounges

BT today announced that it had struck an exclusive global deal with British Airways to install BT Openzone access points in 80 of its main customer lounges around the world.

The contract, which reinforces BT’s leading position in the UK for public Wi-Fi, will mean travellers can experience the benefits of BT Openzone wireless broadband in British Airways executive lounges across the UK,  Europe, United States, Africa, South Africa and India. The first ones will be working by the end of April.

     Hundreds of thousands of business and leisure  travellers pass through British Airways’ prestigious executive lounges every year. Connecting to the service will give them the chance to maximise every minute of their working days, even ‘waiting time’ in airport lounges.

     Airports have proved to be among the most popular locations for customers to enjoy the benefits of wire-free, high-speed working away from the office. During Wireless Broadband Week, when BT opened up access to its network free of charge, the company’s existing airport access points at Heathrow and Gatwick were in the top ranks of the most popular sites.
  
 Steve Andrews, managing director, BT Mobility, hailed the British Airways contract as a major success. He added: “BT has again led the way in the public Wi-Fi arena by signing this global deal with British Airways.
     “This will be another huge benefit to our customers and shows that we are delivering on our promise to establish a widespread network of premium sites for BT Openzone.
     “We see airports and airport lounges as perfect locations for BT Openzone access points. Flying, whether for business or pleasure, usually means spending some time waiting. Now customers have the opportunity to wirelessly log on to their company intranet to download the latest version of a presentation cost effectively at broadband speeds, or to catch up on their emails, or simply surf the web making them as efficient as when they’re in the office.” 
  
 The deal is the latest in a string of recent major contract signings for BT, including a roll-out in McDonald’s restaurants across the UK. It means that businessmen and other passengers will be able to log on wirelessly in the comfort of British Airways’ lounges and terraces, initially at London Heathrow and London Gatwick.
     Other BA lounges across the UK are also due to be covered, including Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle in England, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen in Scotland and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
     But the footprint of the coverage will also cover major European cities, such as Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin, Copenhagen and Athens, as well as all the major destinations in the United States and locations in Africa, South Africa and India. A full list of sites is available at www.btopenzone.com.

Paul Coby, chief information officer at British Airways said: “We are delighted to have signed an agreement with BT to have wireless LAN systems installed in more than 80 of our main lounges across the world in the next few months.
   “The wireless facilities will give instant internet and email connectivity to the hundreds of thousands of customers who use our lounges every year. We know many of them already want to make best use of their time whether it’s on business or leisure either before or just after a flight.
   “Our lounges have always aimed to strike a balance between giving customers enough time, space and comfort to relax as well as making enough computer areas or connection points available to those who want to work by checking their emails or relax by surfing the web.
   “The beauty of having wireless technology is that the customer can start up a wireless-enabled computer wherever they want to sit rather than having to use a dedicated area to have live internet access.
  “This ground breaking agreement is a major breakthrough between British Airways and BT – two British global companies going forward in wireless connectivity around the world.”

External Links

BT Openzone

More flexible 3G Radio Access Networks

NEC Corporation has announced that it will start marketing 3G Node Bs based on the recently developed CPRI specification.
The objective is to provide Mobile Network Operators with more flexible base station architectures which can reduce CAPEX while maximizing capacity and performance.

The Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) is an industry cooperation aimed at defining a publicly available specification for the key internal interface of 3G radio base stations between the Radio Equipment Control (REC) and the Radio Equipment (RE). The parties cooperating to define the specification are Ericsson AB, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. NEC Corporation, Nortel Networks SA and Siemens AG.
 
In partnership with Siemens, NEC is adapting its range of fully compliant 3GPP compliant Node Bs and the rollout will commence with the industry’s most popular operational Node B 440 range in 2004. These products will be supplemented by the introduction of distributed architectures in 2005 to facilitate simpler Installation and Commissioning. As the specification evolves this year, NEC will be taking advantage of more advanced cascading techniques for greater coverage with lower capital costs.
 
The CPRI specification will encourage independent technology evolution for the two main segments of the Base Station, permitting manufacturers to focus on core technology competence. The wider product portfolio and shorter time to market will still be underpinned by radio network system vendors retaining full responsibility for base station performance, reliability and interoperability.

External Links

NEC
3GPP

Partnership is a result of increased demand for mobile public safety solutions

Emblaze Systems, part of the Emblaze Group and  provider of mobile media solutions for wireless networks, today announces that it has entered into an OEM agreement with Orsus Solutions, provider of mobile workforce applications.
Emblaze will provide Orsus with its leading-edge software solutions – EMstudio (live enabled in MPEG4 format), providing download and streaming capability, and EMplayer on Windows CE. 

To date, Emblaze has targeted operators with mostly “consumer” applications. This deal enables them to take a larger slice of the “mobile worker pie.”

Orsus Solutions provides highly-secure mobile public safety applications which allow law enforcement officers and security personnel to wirelessly receive and update mission-critical data, such as warrants, alerts and hazards, directly on their handheld devices without going through control rooms. The Emblaze video streaming capabilities, integrated into the Orsus application, will allow mobile security officers to remotely monitor real-time video on their wireless devices.

EMstudio is an encoding, authoring and publishing system for the production of mobile audio and video content for streaming download delivery.  It is a robust and easy to use content creation system that produces mobile-optimised media for both live streams and on-demand clips.  EMstudio integrates with third party editing tools and supports multiple output format options.

EMplayer seamlessly integrates with other device client software for automatic launch from a browser link or from an SMS, MMS or WAP Push message.  It features a simple and intuitive graphical user interface, for user-friendly navigation and consistent application flow. EMplayer supports customised interfaces and enables customisation of on-screen controls, bars, menus, menu items and dialog messages. 

Ben Reich, COO of Orsus Solutions, said: “The ability of security officers to effectively respond to events and make critical decisions while on the road depends, to a large degree, on having real-time access to data without being tethered to dispatch centers. The Emblaze offering will further enhance the ability of field security personnel to instantly receive critical data, react to events and take preventive action.”
 
Itai Ben-Dor, Managing Director of Emblaze Systems, said: “Mobile communication is hugely beneficial to the security market, a market which we believe has high revenue potential. This agreement demonstrates Emblaze Systems’ versatility and value in the business arena, helping to improve the efficiency of organisations and mobile employees, whilst increasing their competitive edge. This is mission critical in today’s mobile business environment.”

External Links

Emblaze Systems

New GPRS reference design enables mass market feature phones incorporating PMG technology

Wireless equipment manufacturers can now more quickly deliver feature phones with the help of a new complete reference package and software development framework.
The IXI-Connect OS operating system now runs on Texas Instruments’  high-performance, low-power OMAP processors and GPRS technology, IXI and TI announced today. 

      IXI-Connect OS enables mobile operators and phone manufacturers to develop their own User Interface (UI) and to upgrade phones over-the-air by downloading new UI, wireless protocols, drivers and applications. It also features Personal Mobile Gateway (PMG) technology that enables always-on wireless data connectivity for phone companion devices.
    
 “This new reference design showcases the strengths of TI’s
complete wireless solutions and IXI’s innovative software architecture for mass market feature phones powered by PMG technology,” said Amit Haller, president and CEO of IXI. “Utilizing IXI-Connect OS and TI’s leading-edge technologies, the new reference design will make the transition from product concept to production fast and simple for handset manufacturers. We will see the TI OMAP platform extending from smart phones to mass market feature phones.”

      Manufacturers also benefit from TI’s extensive wireless systems solutions and broad base of OMAP software developers who are creating new, innovative applications targeting TI’s OMAP platform and complete family of TCS Chipsets.
      “IXI-Connect OS, along with TI’s TCS2600 Chipset, is an ideal choice as a low-cost, high-performance platform for PMG devices, enabling new services and increased productivity via connected companion devices,” said Alain Mutricy, TI vice president and general manager for Cellular Systems.  “We are delighted to add IXI-Connect OS to the list of operating systems supported by the OMAP platform, and look forward to
the deployment of innovative PMG-based devices using TI OMAP processors.”
    
The reference design is based on TI’s TCS2600 Chipset featuring the OMAP 730 single-chip, second generation GSM GPRS integrated digital baseband and dedicated applications processor.  The Chipset also includes key 2.5G building blocks and TI’s BRF6100 Bluetooth Chipset, as well as complete software solutions with protocol stacks for fast product development.

External Links

Texas Intruments
IXI Mobile

Danes love texting

Mobile messages using pictures, text and sound have proved immensely popular with Danes. MMS is primarily used for sending humorous messages and for pure entertainment.
But MMS messages are also coming more and more into their own as a practical tool for accessing such items as news and city maps.

“With the introduction of an attractive product like Telia Xpress, customers can now simply and easily utilise the full potential of MMS technology. Throughout 2003, we have exploited our position as challenger to promote solutions that have also highlighted the benefits of MMS technology for our customers. The boom in MMS messaging has taken place in the second half of 2003, accounting for a whopping 85% of the total number of messages sent in 2003,” says Jesper Brøckner, CEO, Telia Mobile.

The rise in Danish Telia users’ MMS messaging represents a 531 % growth compared to the first half of 2003 and has secured Telia a 29% MMS market share. The increasing hold of mobile phones on Danish daily life has also meant that Telia customers sent almost 600 million more SMS messages in the second half of 2003 than they did in the first half of that same year. This translates into a Telia SMS market share of 33 %.

“It’s not just youngsters who are sending SMS messages. Danes in general have become more used to sending short personal and practical greetings via SMS. In recent years, a plethora of business-related services have also appeared on the market. For instance, people can subscribe to business news and a share-monitoring service that sends them SMS messages when shares rise or fall by a certain percentage. You can even receive travel offers from travel operators and prolong your parking ticket using SMS. All of these new options have helped to make SMS a greater part of our daily lives,” says Jesper Brøckner.

External Links

TeliaSonera

Anam has announced its Fair Pay pricing models for its Eclipse series of Messaging Delivery and Content Management Platforms.

In a radical departure from industry vendor norms, Anam’s Fair Pay approach is non-transaction based and allows operators to plan their service expansion on a fixed cost basis.

“Our Fair Pay commercial models help with revenue growth expansion by offering a low-risk approach to both service deployment and expansion. Operators can test this technology within their network with minimal financial risk” said Gerry McKenna, Chief Executive Officer, Anam.

Over the next few years, operators will face increasing end-user pricing pressure on SMS and even MMS pricing. SMS pricing pressures will be driven by ongoing competition from other competitors and most importantly from new advanced multimedia services that have to be priced at consumer levels. 

“Consumers will only spend a limited percentage of their disposable income on mobile communication and entertainment. We can provide operators with the flexibility to offer lower cost SMS & MMS services, whilst improving their real net profits,” explained McKenna.

SMS pricing models have also restricted the widespread adoption of mobile IM-style chat services. Anam’s technical and business approaches now make this a commercially viable service option.

Typical pricing models are based on transaction-per-second licenses and can be node-based, which means that expansion and upgrade costs are considerable. Similarly, ongoing maintenance charges are typically related to the size of the license price and bear no relation to the required maintenance effort.

Much of the world’s SMS infrastructure is aging and will require eventual replacement. Fair Pay from Anam offers a new commercial approach that makes this process financially easier to manage.

“At Anam, we believe it is time to offer a new pricing model that reflects the massive level of additional investment required by operators to maintain a successful Data Service. Anam’s Fair Pay approach can ensure that the costs of delivering this service are more efficient to operators,” said McKenna.

External Links

Anam

Tecnomen is introducing its NGM Video Mail service at
3GSM World Congress. This service allows video callers to
leave video messages for one another when the recipient
is busy, not replying or unavailable.

The basic functionality of Video Mail service is very
similar to Voice Mail. The unanswered call is forwarded
to the Video Mail service and the caller sees the
subscriber’s personalised video greeting and can leave a
video message. However, advanced services and
capabilities, such as personalisation, enhance its
usability beyond traditional messaging.

The Video mail service is based on Tecnomen’s eZONER NGM
platform, an all-IP open standards-based solution for
advanced messaging service deployment. The incoming call
is terminated with H.324M video gateway, which further
connects to the video mail server with VoIP protocol. The
video gateway can also be used to route the incoming
video call to fixed network video terminals and standard
PCs equipped with video call software.

The Video Mail service can also be launched as a
subscriptionless Video Mail on-demand service for those
subscribers who do not have their own permanent video
mailbox. In this case the message will be stored in a
temporary mailbox and after the message has been
retrieved, the temporary mailbox will be removed from the
system.

Network elements

The system comprises the following network elements,
based on open, industry-standard interfaces:

· 3G H.324.M Video gateway
· Tecnomen eZONER NGM Telco Server
· Tecnomen eZONER NGM Messaging Application Server
· Tecnomen eZONER NGM Common Message Storage

A key benefit of the Video Mail Service is Universal
Access to messages with various fixed and wireless
terminals basically anytime from any location. From the
office, users can access their voice and video messages
using their e-mail clients, such as Microsoft Outlook or
Lotus Notes. Out of the office it is possible to use
standard web browsers, or users own mobile terminals.

Another key element in personalised messaging is
notification of incoming messages. The Tecnomen eZONER
NGM notification engine provides users with several ways
to be notified of incoming messages according to their
personal preferences, via SMS, MMS, WAP push or via e-
mail.

A further ability to manage profiles solves the problem
that in business use, the need for different service
configuration can change several times a day. This means
that a user can build varying service profiles for
varying situations, a profile for vacation and a profile
for time at work.

Operator and service provider benefits

 Increased Revenue – turns non-profitable failed
  calls to profitable ones, as does Voice Mail.
· Seamless Co-existence – Tecnomen NGM platform
  provides seamless coexistence with Tecnomen eZONER
  platform providing solid, cost-effective growth path for
  future messaging services, such as Video Mail.
· Open standard based technology – Tecnomen eZONER
  NGM’s modular system structure ensures a risk-free
  investment for operators. Every system component can be
  updated or replaced without expensive migrations.
· Improved customer loyalty

And for the end user…

· Enables users to be reachable anywhere and anytime.
· Universal access allows usability of services with
  various terminals basically anytime, from any location.
  It enables integration of different roles of people
  (home, work) and gives tools to handle personal
  communication regardless of the terminal used.
· High level of personalisation enhancing efficiency
  and usability of the service.

External Links

Tecnomen

EDGE capability to cover the most important cities of Romani

Alcatel and Orange Romania, the incumbent mobile operator, announced that they activated today the EDGE (Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution) capability natively embedded in Alcatel’s Evolium radio access solution. This EDGE capability will cover the most important cities of Romania.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alcatel will EDGE-enable the Evolium 900 and 1800 MHz base stations already installed, thanks to a simple software upgrade. Alcatel will also add new base stations to the operator’s network, so as to guarantee an adequate coverage of the population and level of service. The commercial service will be operating in the second half of 2004, after an experimentation due to start in the coming weeks.

This project will enable Orange Romania to deliver new broadband mobile applications and services to its customers, with limited investment in the network. By choosing the Alcatel Evolium solution, Orange Romania adopted a scalable and future-proof technology, and protected its initial investments.

All Evolium base stations shipped by Alcatel in 1999 and 2000 can seamlessly host plug-and-play EDGE transceivers as an option. Moreover, since early 2001, EDGE is an integral part of Alcatel’s standard product offering and all Evolium base stations delivered to customers are fully EDGE-equipped at no extra cost. Alcatel has already shipped standard EDGE equipment to over 100 networks worldwide making EDGE a tangible reality.

As a result, all Alcatel GSM/GPRS mobile infrastructure customers may easily boost their existing network capabilities with EDGE while taking maximum benefit from their past investments. Alcatel’s approach has been to anticipate EDGE by shipping up-front cost-effective, multi-standard network equipment to allow smooth commercial opening of new end-user services as soon as the appropriate handsets become available in volume.

“The priority today is to deliver the most advanced applications and services to the market, keeping costs under control”, stated Bernard Moscheni, chief executive officer of Orange Romania. “The choice we made when we chose Alcatel’s Evolium EDGE-ready solution proved to be the right one, as it goes in this direction”.

“This is another important step in the long-term partnership between Alcatel and Orange”, added Marc Rouanne, chief operating officer of Alcatel’s mobile activities. “Furthermore, the activation of the native EDGE capability of our Evolium solution in Romania perfectly demonstrates how we can help our customers to face the growing market needs for new attractive mobile services.”

External Links

Alcatel
Orange Romania