| Sierra Wireless first to support Telstra’s dual channel HSPA+ network |
10/09/2010 |
| Sierra Wireless has announced that it is supporting the launch of Telstra’s first in the world dual-channel HSPA+ network in Australia with some of the fastest modems the company has ever produced.
The Sierra Wireless AirCard 312U wireless USB modem, first demonstrated at Mobile World Congress in February, is now commercially available in Australia, marketed as the Telstra Ultimate USB modem.
With it, Australians working at client locations, at airports, or on their commute home can access the Internet and online applications at speeds typically reserved for office environments.
Dual-channel HSPA+ doubles the speeds of current HSPA+ networks from a peak downlink of 21 megabits per second (Mbps) to 42 Mbps, at the same time improving network efficiency and providing a better experience for customers with more consistent network performance. Customers using a Telstra Ultimate USB modem in enabled coverage areas will experience real-world download speeds up to 20 Mbps.
“The new speeds have the potential to increase how and where our small and large business customers work, boosting productivity in the process,” said Mike Wright, executive director, Telstra Networks and Access Technologies. “Our customers have told us that they want higher speed mobile broadband so they can work more flexibly outside of the office and we are delighted to offer them these new speeds.”
In addition to announcing the commercial launch of the AirCard 312U, Sierra Wireless has introduced the AirPrime MC8801, as well as the AirPrime MC8704 and MC8705 intelligent embedded modules for HSPA+ networks, to support manufacturers incorporating wireless connectivity into a variety of devices, including notebook, netbook, and tablet computers; connected consumer electronics products like personal navigation devices; and home or enterprise-class routers.
“Once again, Telstra is leading the world in rolling out the latest HSPA+ technology, and we’re thrilled to be the first to provide customers in Australia with products that enable them to take full advantage of the network’s capabilities,” said Jin Pak, vice president of sales, Asia Pacific, for Sierra Wireless. “Being first with wireless USB modems benefits our embedded customers as well. Manufacturers looking to provide the capabilities of the new AirCard 312U inside their devices can be confident that Sierra Wireless embedded modules deliver a tested, reliable solution for the best possible performance.” |
| Outsourcery announces Nokia for ‘InPartnership’ programme |
10/09/2010 |
| Following the launch of its InPartnership programme, Outsourcery is has announced Nokia as its first strategic partner. Nokia and Outsourcery have embarked upon a joint venture aiming to promote the widespread adoption of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) on Nokia mobile devices through its partner network.
Nokia’s smartphone’s and Microsoft OCS will allow companies to interact with stakeholders in real time, driving greater efficiencies and profitability for businesses.
Microsoft OCS offers a simple and effective way to empower real time communication in business, featuring instant messaging, audio and video conferencing and live meeting capabilities. The big benefits to users of the MicrosoftMobile Communicator pre-configured Nokia handset users are that all these features are live and ready to use the moment the handset is activated.
The first initiative involves promoting Microsoft Mobile Communicator-ready Nokia handsets to Outsourcery Partners, this being the first of many upcoming projects to promote the use of Mobile Communicator on smartphones including the Nokia E72 and Nokia E52. Future initiatives will involve Outsourcery managing Nokia’s 30 day free trial programme of MicrosoftMobile Communicator on Nokia smartphones. By teaming up with Outsourcery, Nokia has enabled its customers to activate unified communication on mobiles.
Simon Howitt, channel business unit director at Outsourcery, said: “We have received a tremendous response since launching the InPartnership programme and by reaching agreement with Nokia to become our first Strategic Partner shows the offering is spot on. Coming on the back of the Microsoft Worldwide Hosting Solutions Partner of the Year Award, this partnership with Nokia is an indicator of the progress Outsourcery is making in business messaging and unified communications.”
Jon Corbett, services marketing manager for Nokia UK, said: “This partnership is a great opportunity to drive real growth for UK businesses through Microsoft Mobile Communicator on Nokia devices. The combination of these solutions with Outsourcery’s expertise in service provision, offers business customers a unique opportunity to enhance the productivity and responsiveness of their workforce and drive real growth.” Howitt continued: “This collaboration is the first of a number of other agreements and we are in advanced discussions with other potential strategic partners and expect to announce more agreements over the coming weeks.” |
| Vodafone sells 3.2% interest in China Mobile |
10/09/2010 |
| Vodafone has announced an agreement to sell its entire 3.2% interest in China Mobile Limited and the continuation of commercial and technology cooperation between the companies. Vodafone expects the cash consideration to be approximately £4.3 billion before tax and transaction costs.
It is intended that approximately 70% of the net proceeds will be returned to shareholders by way of a share buyback with the remainder used to reduce the Group’s net debt.
Vodafone has agreed to sell its entire shareholding of 642,868,587 shares in China Mobile by way of an accelerated bookbuilt offering. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS are acting as Lead Managers and Bookrunners.
Since Vodafone made its original investment in China Mobile in 2000, both companies have enjoyed a strong relationship and cooperated closely in many areas of business and in the development of the mobile industry. Following today's announcement, both companies will continue this cooperation in areas such as roaming, network roadmap development, multinational customers and green technology.
Commenting on the transaction, Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive of Vodafone said: “Today’s transaction achieves a near doubling of Vodafone’s original investment in China Mobile and combines our stated portfolio strategy with ongoing cooperation with China’s leading telecommunications company.” |
| Premier Mobile to raise £100,00 for Great Ormond St Hospital |
09/09/2010 |
| Independent corporate telecommunications provider Premier Mobile, has pledged to raise £100,000 for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. As part of the fundraising efforts, managing director Jason Yeomans is undertaking a gruelling physical challenge known as the ‘Thames Challenge.’ The challenge involves cycling from Great Ormond Street Hospital to the source of the River Thames and then kayaking back to central London. The whole trip, more than 250 miles, consists of 100 miles cycling for one day and then 150 miles kayaking for the next four. With the challenge not only being physically demanding but mentally demanding, Yeomans will have a fellow team member, recruitment consultant and best friend, Paul Bennie. By teaming up with Romex, the mobile application service provider, supporters of the team will be able to follow Yeomans and Bennie’s progress via the live tracking website that Romex has set up to cover the event. Using Teamfix software their progress will be reported whether kayaking or cycling.
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity was chosen as the nominated charity for the company because of the inspirational story of Amy Shepherd, the daughter of one of the team at Premier Mobile. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of two but thanks to the pioneering work of the team at the hospital, her life was saved and she is now fit and well, approaching her fifth birthday. The challenge is just one part of the fundraising activities that Premier Mobile has planned. A Corporate Golf Day has already taken place and Yeomans and a number of members of staff ran the Hinckley half-marathon in May. On 22 October, an exclusive Charity Ball will take place at the Landmark Hotel in London. To date, over £10,000 has been raised. Yeomans said: “All the team at Premier Mobile are delighted to be getting involved and raising funds for this fantastic cause. We were all inspired by Amy’s story and were keen to do what we could to help. The Thames Challenge is just one part of our fundraising activities. I’m really looking forward to it but I know it’s going to be very tough, both physically and mentally. Hopefully as we’ve been training for some time, we’re prepared for the conditions.
“The main aim is for us to raise awareness of the charity and of course raise as much money as we can, hopefully getting as many suppliers and members of staff at Premier Mobile involved. It’s not only about this Challenge; we’ve a host of other activities going on, in particular our Charity Ball in October.” Senior fundraising executive at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, Lindsey Burke, said: “It’s fantastic that Premier Mobile has pledged to raise £100,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and we can’t thank them enough for all their efforts. At the hospital we need over £50 million every year from external fundraisers so we can continue our life saving work. Having companies like Premier Mobile involved makes a world of difference to us.” |
| Shebang signs up with Crystal Ball |
09/09/2010 |
| Shebang Business, the direct B2B arm of Shebang Distribution, is the latest name to sign up with Crystal Ball.
Matthew Wright, general manager at Shebang Business commented: “I’ve been looking for a mobile tracking solution which includes lone worker protection, for over three years. There are a number of companies that offer GPS mobile tracking systems, most of which I have seen, and the solutions that they offer simply don’t work as well as Crystal Ball.
“The system is streets ahead of every other solution I’ve seen, it’s robust and it’s the product that I’ve wanted, the one I’ve been looking for. Crystal Ball’s range of products perfectly complements the business solutions that we offer our customers today, it’s a perfect fit.
“The fact that you can track mobiles, vehicles and assets, including Lone Worker Protection, all on one system, simply blows everything else away. Plus, if you put Mobile Monitor into the mix, then you have another very powerful business app which provides unique and substantial benefits for our customers.”
Raj Singh, managing director at Crystal Ball, added: “We’re delighted to be working with Shebang, they bring a very forward thinking and dynamic approach to the table and they’re well respected in the industry. Shebang understand the products and the market, and what Crystal Ball can do for their business and for their customers. It also gives us a fabulous opportunity to work with Shebang on other areas of their business.” |
| Hungama Mobile brings Bollywood to Europe |
09/09/2010 |
| Hungama Mobile, India’s largest mobile and digital entertainment company, has announced that it will be making its vast digital catalogue of Bollywood and Indian entertainment content available in Europe, through its partnership with Wireless Expertise. Hungama Mobile owns exclusive worldwide rights for digital distribution for music, videos and films representing over 300 leading music labels and film production studios, comprising 75% of the Indian Entertainment market. Wireless Expertise is a leading digital content distribution consulting firm focussed on helping content publishers to distribute its digital content and applications via partnerships with Europe’s leading mobile operators, music portals, app stores and media owners. Albert Almeida, chief operating officer, Hungama Mobile, commented on the partnership with Wireless Expertise: “The demand for Bollywood and South Asian entertainment content in the UK is well established with at least four Indian films releasing every month in theatres. The popularity of Indian films is also increasing beyond the South Asian audiences in European countries such as France, Germany and The Netherlands now that the films are dubbed in local languages.”
He further added: “The European market has been historically under serviced as consumers do not always have access to legal sources of Bollywood content. Through our partnership with Wireless Expertise we hope to build our distribution and work towards satiating the consumers’ demand for Indian entertainment, especially in the digital domain. This alliance will enable us to deliver our content through well established European music portals and mobile operator stores and set the momentum for many new initiatives for Bollywood fans in the European market.” According to Anuj Khanna, CEO, Wireless Expertise: “The Indian entertainment industry has a global audience and produces more than 1000 films and generates annual revenues of over $2.5 billion. The majority of these revenues are generated in India but there is an increased appetite for digital entertainment in Europe, through legal channels, which needs to be satisfied.” “We are delighted to be working with Hungama Mobile to bring its entertainment content to Europe and grow the market. We look forward to jointly work with leading music stores and portals in making Bollywood content available to European consumers through both the WEB and Mobile channels.” Anuj Khanna concluded. |
| BroadSoft Announces Selected Developers from the Xtended Incubator Program |
09/09/2010 |
| BroadSoft has announced that four developers have been selected for its Xtended Incubator Program. Through this global initiative, the four developers – Mondago, InGenius, Lyrix, and Kim Wither – will receive seed funding from BroadSoft to develop communication applications that integrate BroadWorks with everyday business and consumer applications and web services.
BroadSoft initiated the Xtended Incubator Program in June 2010 as a way to accelerate the development of innovative communications applications. BroadSoft collaborated extensively with its communications service provider customers to define a prioritized list of the most desired applications. Application developers then submitted their capabilities and completed an interview process with BroadSoft. Once the application development is completed, these developers can earn ongoing revenues through the BroadSoft Xtended Marketplace.
The depth and breadth of selected developer capabilities are outlined below:
Mondago: Focused on increasing the productivity of a business’ employees, Mondago will integrate some of the largest CRM and enterprise software applications with the BroadWorks platform, including NetSuite Sage, Goldmine, and Microsoft Access.
InGenius: Will focus on deep and seamless integration of BroadWorks telephony capabilities into Salesforce.com and SugarCRM.
Lyrix: A software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based speech applications company is developing a hosted speech dialer that enables any BroadWorks user to dial their colleagues and company contacts using their voice.
Kim Wither: As an individual developer with BroadWorks experience, Kim is developing a mobile dialer and telephony management application for the two most popular smartphone platforms, iPhone and Android.
According to Dale Gantous, CEO of InGenius, “The Xtended Incubator Program is an excellent way for BroadSoft to capitalize on the creativity and ingenuity of external developers, while the developers benefit from a new way to monetize their applications. We are excited to be a part of this initiative and we appreciate BroadSoft’s open and inclusive approach to supporting and engaging its developer community with its marketplace.”
Leslie Ferry, VP, Marketing at BroadSoft concludes, “Our Xtended Incubator program was developed with a clear objective of catalyzing new, efficient communication options through integration with business and consumer applications. We were extremely pleased by the overwhelming amount of interest in our program from individual developers and companies with a range of expertise.” |
| Dexim debuts its Supercharged Leather Power Case |
08/09/2010 |
| Dexim, the iPhone and iPod accessories pioneer and worldwide registered brand will be launching the Supercharged Leather Power Case, a tailormade new product for iPhone4 at IFA this year.
The Supercharged Leather Power Case with integrated battery was designed with the iPhone4 in mind. This customised case can extend talk time for up to six hours, 40 hours for music and 10 hours for video/gaming.
The case, stylish thanks to its high quality protective sheep leather, is also equipped with a built-in On/Off power switch and a 2000mAh Lithium Polymer Battery all as well a micro-USB cable, therefore making charging and synchronising with your computer easier.
The Supercharged Leather Power Case (reference number DCA220) will be available from October onwards at O2, Sainsburys UK, Amazon, Play.com, BG Stores, Fone Bitz stores, iWorld UK, Laptopstuff, Mobile Fun, Mobileplace UK, Purelygadgets, Rashmian Ltd, ShopMania UK, technocrowd and The CompareStorePrices. Recommended retail price: ?70.74 including VAT. |
| 3D and dual core processors to drive smartphone shipments |
08/09/2010 |
| A new report by Juniper Research has found that 3D functionality and other technology innovations, such as the introduction of dual core processors, will drive the high end smartphone market over the next five years.
Features associated with today’s smartphones, meanwhile, such as app store connectivity and touchscreens, will be present in over 80% of handsets shipped in the US by 2015. Western Europe and Far East & China are also demonstrating significant take up.
“The handset market will become increasingly polarised,” said Anthony Cox, senior analyst at Juniper. “Handsets with smartphone functionality will account for the lion’s share of shipments in developed markets, while less developed economies will see a ready market for low cost handsets.”
However, several less developed markets, such as parts of Latin America and Africa, will all but miss out on the smartphone revolution. Meanwhile the global mid-tier market, characterised by feature phones and standard handsets, will continue to contract.
Further findings from the Next Generation Smartphones report include: The take up of video calling using the mobile device will be limited even with the launch of Facetime by Apple; Competition will drive smartphone pricing down, though this may be mitigated against by the launch of handsets with new functionality; The combination of the smartphone and the app store will result in substantial increases in data usage over the smartphone device.
The report finds that Apple’s operating system has revolutionised the market, leaving several well known players in its wake. The challenge for the likes of Nokia, Research in Motion and Microsoft is not only to bring new operating systems to the table as quickly as possible, but also to make sure that developers create apps for them when there are two successful stores out there already. |
| Second high profile appointment at Commsoft RMS |
08/09/2010 |
| With over twenty years experience in the UK telecoms channel, industry veteran David Miller has joined software specialists Commsoft RMS as Marketing Director targeted with the sustained growth of their channels to market. Having started in the industry at distributor MTV in 1990, David saw rapid promotion to board level before moving into senior roles at Panasonic, Crane and more latterly PSU Technology Group.
“David has an ideal profile for this important role,” commented Anthony Church. “He is one of those rare individuals who have gained experience working for resellers, distributors and manufacturers. He understands the channel and what is required at each level. This appointment will free up Bonnie to concentrate more on a sales and marketing support role, essential as we drive forward our continued growth into the Panasonic, Avaya and Shoretel resellers.”
“Having seen Anthony at the Northern Convergence Summit, I was thrilled when he called to discuss a potential role” commented David. “I have always held their products in the highest esteem having frequently worked with resellers whose sales people love the entire CommsOffice range. Sales people can be certain that when they quote for a system and bundle it with the CommsOffice software, they are going to differentiate themselves from their competition by focusing on the benefits rather than price. Their whole product range is unrivalled in my mind.”
This is the second high profile appointment in the past four months following the arrival of Sarah Linnett as Sales Director. “Sarah had headed up the Avaya team at Nimans and brought a wealth of experience that could be applied to growing our Avaya business” commented Bonnie, “David now brings further depth and knowledge which will be beneficial across all areas of the business and I can soon foresee a time when we will be taking on account managers to provide further support for our fast expanding base of resellers.”
“We have built an unbeatable range of products,” continued Anthony, “now we’re growing our structure to continue to be able to offer an unbeatable service. There are over a thousand Avaya resellers in the UK alone and as we continue to grow, we have to ensure that we keep strengthening the team to support that growth. ” |
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