Comms4Business News

Demand for high-bandwidth services is growing rapidly in Germany. The networks are under constant pressure to provide the differentiating services that customers require. Tellabs’ optical solution provides the reliability and flexibility required in the heart of vitroconnect’s network.

The Tellabs 7100 series is a ROADM-based WDM system, which provides flexible, virtually unlimited bandwidth and industry-leading reliability of 99.9999% (six nines). In addition, the optical system is very easy to operate with state-of-the-art monitoring, self-restoring, automatically adjusting and troubleshooting capabilities.

Service providers need to increase density and reduce costs. Increased density produces more energy-efficient networks and architectures. The Tellabs 7100 series addresses this need with the high-density system-on-a-blade concept.

Tellabs has integrated advanced technologies into a single blade rather than requiring separate network elements to do the same work. Tellabs’ ROADM-based optical solution provides higher bandwidth capabilities with fewer network modules and in a smaller footprint. In addition, the network is easy to expand, as a result of the system-on-blade concept.

“We need to be able to fully trust our backbone network. Tellabs’ solution provides not only reliability, but it can also meet the unpredictable bandwidth needs of our customers,” said Michael Lakenbrink, Head of Sales of vitroconnect. “In addition, we can cut capital and operating expenses by seamlessly adding new services and locations in a matter of hours, not weeks.”

“The Tellabs 7100 system sets no services or bandwidth boundaries for vitroconnect. Our optical solution will enable vitroconnect to grow and expand as it wishes,” said Tarcisio Ribeiro, Vice President, Europe, Middle East & Africa at Tellabs. “Tellabs has integrated the latest Carrier Ethernet and optical network switching technology into the platform to provide high-speed, high-bandwidth services at lower cost.”

As part of this deal, Tellabs partnered with Dimension Data, an ICT services solutions provider. Tarcisio Ribeiro notes, “The Tellabs 7100 system provides the heart of the backbone network, and Dimension Data complements the solution with services and technical expertise to support the local requirements in Germany.”

With global mobile phone penetration nearing 78%, and mobile internet fast overtaking traditional ‘fixed’ internet in continents such as Africa, it is imperative that young consumers are protected from threats such cyberbullying and harmful content, and this solution has been developed to answer this challenge.

“Children today are exposed to a range of threats from malicious phone calls from school bullies to inappropriate content on websites,” said Ciaran Bradley, VP of Handset Security, AdaptiveMobile. “For this reason, we have enhanced our Parental Controls Solution by developing a dedicated app, which allows parents and guardians to protect children, but without needing complex rules and set-up procedures. The app works across Android, BlackBerry and iPhone devices and provides parents with the flexibility to maintain their children’s mobile safety without having to be near a PC. ”

AdaptiveMobile’s Parental Control solution enables operators to offer call, SMS and MMS blocking, as well as a range of web filtering services. The service can be precisely customised to allow access to certain websites during certain times, for example, access to Facebook.com outside of school hours, or phone calls to friends between 5pm and 9pm. “It should not be difficult for parents to ensure that their children are not being exposed to inappropriate or harmful content,” continued Bradley. “It is imperative that protecting children from harmful content online is as easy as possible and can be done on the move, from a phone, rather than having to be near a fixed PC. Safer Internet Day helps to promote best practise online and on mobile devices today, and we are pleased to support this initiative with our new solution.”

AdaptiveMobile’s Parental Control solution will enable mobile operators throughout the world to ensure that their customer have an enhanced level of protection across not only phones, but also tablet and other SIM-enabled devices. The product is available from March 2012: for more information please see Adaptivemobile.com

“This is the third successive year that the company has achieved this important distinction in customer excellence in the UK,” commented Steven Skakel, Managing Director UK & Ireland at NextiraOne. “Our team is consistently achieving high levels of customer satisfaction for our Cisco solutions due to the hard work and commitment they put in. Our recent achievement in Cisco TelePresence Video Master ATP and in Data Centre Unified Computing ATP accreditation adds further to this capability. I am pleased that this has been recognised not only by Cisco, but particularly by our customers, whose assessment of our performance is the deciding factor in this award.”

NextiraOne has been a Cisco partner since 1992 and shares a strong relationship in the UK and across Europe. The company is a Cisco Gold Certified Partner in 11 countries and also a Managed Services and TelePresence Video Master Partner. NextiraOne now holds Cisco Customer Satisfaction Excellence accreditation in eight countries. The company also has Advanced Technology Specialisations in many countries in a wide range of solutions including Unified Communications, Wireless LAN, Security, Routing and Switching, Data Centre Networking Infrastructure, Data Centre Storage Networking and Data Centre Unified Computing.

“Customer service is a cornerstone of the Cisco Resale Channel Program. We are pleased to recognize and congratulate NextiraOne for achieving outstanding customer satisfaction,” said Edison Peres, senior vice president of the worldwide channels go-to-market group at Cisco.

Cisco measures the customer satisfaction levels achieved by its Gold, Silver, and Premier Certified partners based on regional target goals, providing a weighted average of a partner's pre- and post-sales support over a rolling 12-month period. Partners that achieve outstanding customer satisfaction are awarded the Customer Satisfaction Excellence Gold Star and can be found using the advanced search menu in the Cisco Partner Locator.

The Cisco Resale Channel Program provides a framework for partners to build the sales, technical, and Cisco Lifecycle Services skills required to deliver Cisco solutions to end customers. Through the program's specializations and certifications, Cisco recognises a partner's expertise in deploying solutions based on Cisco advanced technologies and services. Using a third-party audit process, the program validates partner qualifications such as technology skills, business best practices, customer satisfaction, and presales and postsales support capabilities - critical factors in choosing a trusted partner.

The Tocco Lite 2 features enhanced social networking services and robust multimedia capabilities within a stylish and sleek design, making it the perfect choice for anyone that likes to be connected at all times and needs a device to play, store and share the latest multimedia content, such as photos, videos and games.

Complete with Samsung’s communication service ChatON, owners of the device can catch up with friends and family anytime and anywhere. Whether through personalised multimedia messages, group chat, Facebook, Twitter or using Instant Messaging services such as MSN, Yahoo! and Google Talk. A built-in music player means they can access and listen to their favourite music whilst on the go, and enjoy a quality and immersive experience when browsing the web thanks to a 3” QVGA screen.

Simon Stanford, UK & IRE Telecommunications & Networks Division commented: “Our range of Tocco devices have been among our best selling over the past few years. Thanks to the incredible response we’ve had to the original Tocco Lite and Tocco Icon handsets, we’re excited to now be offering our customers improved social networking and enhanced multimedia capabilities with the Tocco Lite 2. Our aim with this new handset is to build on the features we know our customers enjoy and find useful by providing greater synergy between their mobile handset and their social networks, and in doing so, giving them more ways to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones when they’re on the move.”

The Tocco Lite 2 will be available across a range of the UK’s major networks and retailers from early March 2012.

BT Total Broadband customers have free and unlimited access to the one of the largest Wi-Fi networks in the world. The numbers include more than 380,000 in London, 25,000 in Birmingham and Leeds, around 20,000 in Manchester, Edinburgh and Sheffield, and more than 11,000 in Liverpool, Brighton, Bristol and Cardiff.

BT Wi-Fi hotspots are free to six million BT broadband home and business customers. They are found at homes, independent businesses, city centres and well-known brands including Hilton, Thistle, Ramada Jarvis and Macdonald hotels’, Starbucks , Welcome Break and RoadChef Costa service stations, American Airlines and SkyTeam airport lounges plus Network Rail stations.

John Petter, managing director, consumer, said: “Millions of BT broadband customers are enjoying free access to the one of the biggest Wi-Fi networks in the world. Our free apps for the Apple, Android and now Blackberry devices make getting online even easier and have already proved a huge hit with over 900,000 downloads.”

Compared to traditional backup, Symantec say their approach enables 100 times faster backup, eases management and simplifies recovery if a disaster occurs, helping customers realise significant cost savings while better protecting their business information.

Over the last 20 years data has exploded, virtualisation has become widely adopted and service level agreements (SLA’s) have become near impossible to meet. These challenges also affect the smaller businesses that struggle with backup complexity and are at risk of data loss due to a disaster. The current approach to modernisation introduces an ever-growing collection of point solutions resulting in added complexity, increased costs and headaches for backup administrators, network administrators and executives.

“The single most dramatic change is scale – or volume – of data, applications and virtual machines which cannot be processed by current backup environments. Organisations have increased service level agreements, rising expectations of availability and the need to run in a 24/7 business model. When combined with trying to integrate new technologies, it adds up to a disruptive environment with a huge impact on IT teams. Organisations small and large need a holistic protection strategy, a single platform or solution, to handle the variety of data types and workloads as opposed to integrating a number of disparate point solutions, which proves to be costly and time consuming,” said Dave Russell, vice president of Storage Technologies and Strategies, Gartner.

“Today, Symantec unveils a radical new plan to modernise data protection that will drive out 80 percent of the operating costs associated with backup over the next five years,” said Deepak Mohan, senior vice president of Symantec’s Information Management Group. “Symantec is announcing a new set of solutions that address the problems in backup – from the most complex of enterprise data centres requiring a true tiered-recovery strategy to the smallest business that needs the confidence that they can easily recover their data.”

Symantec recently surveyed more than 1,400 IT professionals worldwide on their backup practices and their ability to recover information in the event of a disaster. The findings reveal that traditional approaches to backup are broken and a new approach is vitally needed.

According to Symantec’s 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey, SMBs are not making disaster preparedness a priority until they experience a disaster or data loss. Half of respondents do not have a plan in place and 41 percent said that it never occurred to them to put together a disaster recovery plan. The survey data reveals that the cost of not being prepared is high, putting an SMB at risk of going out of business.

The report says;

“In a way, the fundamentals of CSR are embedded in Zen’s corporate DNA. Its founder Richard Tang named the company Zen Internet to reflect his Chinese ancestry, which goes back 30 generations. While Richard is not a Zen Buddhist, many of his beliefs fall in line with Eastern values.

Recently he felt inspired by a visit to Bhutan, a country whose values most closely match his own for Zen. Just as Bhutan puts Gross National Happiness ahead of Gross National Product, Zen’s most fundamental long term objectives in order of priority, are happy staff, happy customers and happy suppliers. The order of these is very important yet very simple and underpins the company’s mission to provide the best ISP service in the UK.

“For Zen, CSR doesn’t represent a shift in the way we do business. It’s always been at the heart of what we do and how we operate. We are determined to be a good neighbour, work together with our employees, our customers our suppliers and the community around us to ensure that any impact we make on the world is for the better,” said Richard Tang, Managing Director.

“Whether that involves ensuring employees are rewarded for the work they do, providing customers with the highest levels of service, building our relationships with suppliers or supporting charitable events and coming up with new ways to be greener,” added Richard. Zen has created a working environment where its employees can flourish and fulfil their potential supporting its Happy Staff ethos. In 2009 Zen introduced a scheme to recognise the contribution, effort and loyalty of long term employees and the role this has played in the company’s success.

After 10 years of continuous services employees receive a gift of their choice and are invited to a celebratory lunch with Richard Tang. To date 20 employees have received the award, with five employees reaching the milestone during 2011. Gifts have ranged from flat-screen TVs and dishwashers to a boxed set of Domesday books.

Zen is committed to developing and retaining its employees and has a dedicated in-house Learning and Development team. In the last 12 months, through the development of its employees, 40 (10%) of Zen’s employees have successfully secured a position in another department or moved to a more senior position as a result of internal recruitment.

Zen provides products and services to meet its customers’ requirements now and in the future. With its 80 strong highly-skilled Technical Support team, customer experience is Zen’s number one priority as it doesn’t operate in a traditional call centre environment. Zen regularly wins independent awards that are voted for by its customers, including Which? Recommended Broadband Provider, Zen’s twelfth Which? endorsement in seven years and this year PC Pro Best ISP for the eighth year running.

Suppliers are chosen that the company believes share its mission and its values. These strategic partnerships play a vital role in its continuing success. Zen’s supplier relationships are built on values of openness, honesty and integrity and include important suppliers like BT.

Zen is committed to its local community. The company was founded in Rochdale and has stayed firmly rooted in Rochdale where its heart lies. It is committed to investing in the future success of the North West, offering opportunities to individuals and supporting charities.

Last Year Zen employees voted for Dr Kershaw’s as the company’s chosen charity and raised nearly £7,000 through its various fundraising activities, this year its charity is Boomerang based in Bury. Zen is also the Hallé orchestra’s technical sponsor for this year. Zen doesn’t just look at ways it can provide financial support or products and services. Zen employees have donated more than 95 pints of blood in the last twelve months alone.

The company has provided assistance with the IT Diploma to both students and teachers of schools in the local Rochdale area, as well as giving work placements to students wanting work experience. Over the past twelve months Zen has offered ten work placements for periods of between one day and six weeks, totalling 116 days helping students get the experience they need.

Zen’s also has a Technical Training Programme aimed at re-training applicants for entry level roles in its Technical Support department. The last programme saw three out of ten attendees offered jobs, with the other seven leaving with new skills and renewed confidence.

Zen understands that its activities affect both the environment and the communities in which it operates. In the past 12 months it has achieved a reduction of 8.5% in paper usage, reduced its CO2 emission by 8.4% and recycled 87.1% of its total waste.

Although this is the first CSR report for Zen, since the company was established in 1995 it has always been at the heart of everything it does and the way it operates. The company credits its employees, customers and suppliers for helping it to be a responsible business.”

Eddy Willems, Security Evangelist at G Data, comments: "Today’s children are more digitally advanced than ever before, but as a result are less cautious than their elders. If kids are old enough to use a mobile device, they need to realise that such a device still requires a robust security solution. From malicious apps to the dangers of public Wi-Fi, children also need to be educated about the security risks.“

Willems continues: "Safer Internet Day is a great initiative and G Data fully supports it. Children are the future and it is important they are made aware of the risks so they can discover the digital world safely.“

G Data’s top 5 mobile security tips for kids:

One ploy used by cyber criminals is fraudulent apps for tablet PCs or smartphones with Android operating systems. In most cases the app pretends to be harmless and useful, for instance a game, but in reality it also secretly initiates calls to premium numbers, causing kids to lose hundreds of pounds. Therefore, children should only download applications that have abundant positive reviews from users already from reliable sources such as the Google Android Market, Even then be cautious, as it is possible for bonafide apps to get fraudulent updates.

Public Wi-Fi (e.g. in a cafe or shop) should be avoided where possible as it is often inadequately secured, meaning cyber criminals can spy on data. Many children still don’t fully understand the danger of logging onto personal platforms from an open Wi-Fi connection. Hackers can very simply “listen to the session” and obtain personal data, including passwords - this is called a 'Man in the Middle‘ attack. Children should try to avoid sites that require a login when using free Wi-Fi altogether. In any case, they need to ensure they only insert passwords or personal information on encrypted websites. The address bar should say "https://" before the site you are surfing - the "s" stands for secure! There are many tools that allow hackers to log on and see what your password is if it is not encrypted.

It is now easy to access social media sites via smartphones and tablets, so children need to be aware that criminals are increasingly using sites such as Facebook and Twitter to find out other users’ personal data. Children should be careful about how much information they reveal on sites. This includes geographical locations, which can be done with several very popular apps. This particular information publicises their whereabouts to all, including criminals.

Children generally have more than one online account they access via mobile devices, and often use the same weak password across all, which is not safe. Strong passwords are essential. It sounds very simple and the security industry has been saying it for years, but weak passwords give hackers an easy way in. Children should incorporate numbers and symbols into their passwords and never use the same password across different platforms.Although it can be annoying for youngsters trying to remember multiple passwords, there is a very simple way around it. A tip is to use the same password but depending on what it is for, alter it slightly, so for example, if my password was: EddyWillems12!, I could do the following:

a. Facebook: Eddyfacebookwillems12!

b. Twitter: Eddytwitterwillems12!

c. Hotmail: Eddyhotmailwillems12!

Users should install an effective security solution on their mobile device that includes authorisation checking for installed apps as well as a virus scanner. If you are accessing the Internet, whether a laptop, smartphone or tablet, a security solution like G Data MobileSecurity, should be installed and updated regularly.

Each year, Safer Internet Day is organised by Insafe to promote the safer use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world. This year it will take place on Tuesday 7 February 2012 and will focus on connecting generations and educating each other, with the slogan: "Discover the digital world together... safely!”

Simon Stanford, UK & IRE Telecommunications & Networks Division said: “After much speculation, we are pleased to announce the availability of the Galaxy Nexus White which follows the great reception the phone has received since it was launched back in November. One of the things we at Samsung pride ourselves on is the choice we offer customers, and we’ve enjoyed huge success to date by introducing white variants of our most popular models to our product portfolio.”

The Galaxy Nexus White offers customers all the features found in the original Galaxy Nexus, from the 4.65’’ HD Super AMOLED display which boasts a market-leading resolution of 720p (1280x720), to the 5 megapixel camera and super-fast 1.2GHz dual core processor and HSPA+ connectivity so owners can connect to and browse the internet quickly and easily when they’re out and about.

As the first smartphone to run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy Nexus White offers customers an entirely new look and feel, including a redesigned user interface with improved multi-tasking, notifications, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC support and a full web browsing experience. In addition to a rounded slim design, the Galaxy Nexus White also introduces new innovations such as ‘Face Unlock’, which uses facial recognition to unlock the phone. Whilst integration with Google+ means owners can easily stay in touch with friends and family and talk over Google+ Messenger.

Today, Samsung Electronics, Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Wireless Communications Equipment category, celebrated the announcement of Yusuf Jimacale as a Torchbearer nominee for this year’s Olympic Torch Relay.

Samsung ‘Everyone’s Olympic Games’ campaign brought the spirit of the London 2012 Olympic Games to Chelsea and Manchester United fans by encouraging them to share their passion for sports with London 2012 when it comes to town later this year.

The announcement was made in front of roaring crowds at half-time during today’s match. Yusuf Jimacale was congratulated on the pitch before fans who showed their appreciation for the commitment Yusuf has shown to developing young football talent.

Born in 1991, Yusuf came to Chelsea Football Club through the Hammersmith and Fulham Kickz project four years ago. Immediately Yusuf showed notable leadership skills and began making a positive impact on his peers whilst gaining relevant coaching qualifications.

Yusuf delivers coaching sessions at local primary schools on a daily basis and provides three evening-coaching sessions per week. Most recently, Yusuf made an enormous contribution to an Afro-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust event and was a key member of the volunteer team that organised the World Mental Health Day event at Stamford Bridge.

Since becoming part of the Chelsea FITC (Football in the Community), Yusuf has demonstrated compassion, provided inspiration, and dedicated his time to young people in his community; it’s for these reasons why Yusuf has been nominated through the Samsung nomination programme as a worthy Torchbearer in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.

As a Presenting Partner of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay, Samsung has held a worldwide nomination campaign to select some of the 8,000 Olympic Torchbearers and is honoured to count Yusuf as a Torchbearer nominee, thanks to Samsung. Commenting on the nomination, Sunny Hwang, Vice President & Head of Global Sports Marketing, Samsung Electronics said, “In our ambition to make the London 2012 Olympic Games an event for everyone, we have selected potential Olympic Torchbearers from all walks of life and from all around the world. As we step closer to the exciting journey, Samsung hopes to share our passion towards London 2012 and congratulates all those who have been offered a conditional Torchbearer place. Yusuf’s outstanding contribution to the community is the very essence of what the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay represents and we hope he continues to inspire many young people for years to come.”

Samsung has been strongly committed to sport through the sponsorship of the Olympic Games. Samsung are keen to share the Olympic spirit and celebrate the excitement of the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games with sports fans around the world. Samsung has been a Principal Sponsor of Chelsea FITC since 2006 to help fund the programme developing football at grass roots level and taking it into new regions around the world.

Ron Gourlay, Chief Executive of Chelsea FC commented: “Our Foundation programmes are designed to encourage people like Yusuf and to support their future ambitions. We recommended Yusuf to Samsung because of his unquestionable commitment and dedication to helping others through sports. Obviously we’re excited to learn that Samsung accepted Yusuf as a Torchbearer nominee.”

Commenting on his nomination as Torchbearer, Yusuf said: “I am so excited to be nominated by Samsung and given the opportunity to become one the Torchbearers in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay, thanks to Samsung. It would be an honour to join the 1000’s of other Torchbearers all chosen for their unique stories which have helped and inspired others within their communities. I will continue supporting our community programmes and feel proud of the successes we achieve whilst helping others reach their goals.”

Seb Coe, Chair of LOCOG, the Organising Committee of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, supported the nomination from the stands during the match and commented: “It’s great to see Samsung taking the vision of the Olympic Games to supporters of other sports. Yusuf is a very deserving nomination and his achievements convey what the Olympic Games are all about: passion, determination and commitment to what you believe in”.

Samsung has been associated with the Olympic Games for almost 25 years and has been the Official Wireless Telecommunications Partner since 1998.

The prices are regulated by Ofcom because Openreach has been found to have significant market power in the delivery of these services.

Ofcom is publishing its draft decision to provide transparency of the European Commission notification process as this is the first time this new procedure has been used for a major regulatory decision on telecoms in the UK.

Ofcom is proposing the following controls on annual rental charges (which are expected to run until 31 March 2014):

A fully unbundled line to a property - where a communications provider takes over the line to provide broadband and telephone services. The price currently charged by Openreach is £91.50. Under Ofcom’s draft decision this will be set to £87.41 for financial year 2012/13 and decrease further in the next year in accordance with the formula RPI -5.9%.

A shared unbundled line to a property - where a communications provider uses a proportion of the line only for the provision of broadband. The wholesale price today is £14.70 per year. Under Ofcom’s draft decision this will be set to £11.92 for financial year 2012/13 and decrease further in the next year in accordance with the formula RPI -15.9%.

Wholesale line rental - used by communications providers to offer telephone services to consumers using lines rented from Openreach. The price today is £103.68 per year. Under Ofcom’s draft decision this will be set to £98.81 for financial year 2012/13 and decrease further in the next year in accordance with the formula RPI -7.3%.

Ofcom expects to publish a final decision in early March.

Once a copy of the decision is received, Etisalat will work closely with EDB’s management and legal counsel to understand the judgment, its ramifications on the operations of EDB, particularly its customers and employees as well as its right to a review of the Supreme Court’s decision.

The Supreme Court decision relates to events that occurred in January 2008, well before December 2008 when Etisalat invested in Swan. Etisalat has no knowledge of what occurred in the license application process for Swan, far less did it have any involvement. The license applications were entirely conducted by the promoters and their associates who subsequently marketed the Swan investment opportunity to Etisalat through a well known international investment bank.

Etisalat has an excellent record of abiding by all of the laws and regulations in the 17 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa where it operates and continues to move forward with its growth strategy. We remain committed to becoming one of the world’s top 10 telecommunications companies.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement, M5 shareholders will receive approximately $84 million in cash and 9.5 million shares of ShoreTel stock, which equates to a total of $146.3 million in initial consideration based on a ShoreTel’s average stock price over the prior 30 trading days. In addition, M5 shareholders may receive additional contingent consideration of up to $13.7 million. The contingent payments are payable over the two years after closing and are based upon the achievement of certain revenue performance milestones for the year ended Dec. 31, 2012.

The acquisition of privately held M5 enables ShoreTel to expand its solutions into the cloud and reach a large and growing market segment of customers that are looking to deploy IP communications through a hosted model. Industry trends such as cloud computing, virtualization, data center economics and the flexibility of services-based models are driving the Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market, which provides businesses another way to bring unified communications to their workforce.

“The acquisition of M5 positions ShoreTel as a leader in the fast-growing cloud UC market and delivers a suite of hosted telephony solutions that is unmatched in the marketplace,” said Peter Blackmore, CEO of ShoreTel. “This acquisition is a critical step in our evolution and enables the company to capitalize on trends in cloud computing and advance our enterprise communications strategy.”

M5 pioneered hosted UC in 2000 and today provides more than 2,000 companies with enterprise-grade communications on a subscription basis. This acquisition positions ShoreTel to be a leading provider in the emerging UCaaS market, enabling it to extend its technology and industry-leading customer satisfaction that are the hallmarks of its value proposition into the cloud through a hosted offering.

According to a report by Gartner, the IP Voice as a Service market is expected to show a 36 percent compounded annual growth rate in North America through 2015 to $2.2 billion. With this acquisition, M5 brings the specialized knowledge, infrastructure and skills to give ShoreTel rapid entry into the hosted UC market while maintaining its focus on growing its traditional premise-based UC business.

ShoreTel is acquiring M5’s entire operation including its customer base, distribution capability, and proprietary network, and will be extending offers to substantially all of its employees.

Following the close of the acquisition, M5 will be operated as a ShoreTel business unit and will be led by M5 CEO Dan Hoffman, who shares ShoreTel’s brilliantly simple approach to unified communications, and an intense focus on customer satisfaction. Hoffman will become president and general manager of the new business unit.

While the engineering teams will remain separate they will cooperate and coordinate in order to leverage the innovation and best practices of both groups so that both product roadmaps will benefit from the combined capabilities. The current ShoreTel Champion Partner reseller program will evolve to include the ability to offer hosted services once the reseller has been qualified and certified.

“M5 is proud to be one of the leaders in the UC cloud market. We have achieved this position with a very strong management team and an excellent product offering that is the simplest in the industry,” said Dan Hoffman, CEO of M5 Networks. “Joining forces with ShoreTel enables us to reach our ambitions of scale and cement our position in the hosted UC marketplace.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of March 2012. Arbor Advisors acted as financial advisor to M5 Networks, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor to ShoreTel.

Remote patient monitoring, using the smartphone as a hub, will also lower the cost of mHealth services by reducing the need for costly tailored devices.

The new Juniper report finds that the monitoring of cardiac outpatients is currently leading the field, as insurance reimbursement in the US market plays a key role. However, in time the management of diabetes and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) and other chronic diseases will play an important role in the remote patient monitoring market.

“Remote patient monitoring will step in to reduce the cost burden of unhealthy lifestyles and aging populations,” says report author Anthony Cox. But while remote patient monitoring is already showing both positive medical outcomes and cost savings over outpatient care, more trials would still benefit mHealth in order to further convince the medical establishment of its benefits, finds Juniper Research.

Further findings from the report include: Mobile Healthcare and medical App downloads will reach 44 million in 2012, Rising to 142 Million in 2016; Clarification from the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) on which mHealth apps will require FDA approval is still required but is expected to add further impetus to the market; Developing markets continue to benefit from SMS-based education programmes and stand to benefit in medium term from app-based healthcare services such as mobile ultrasound that are now being developed; EHR (electronic health records) have yet to gain significant traction even in developed markets but in the long term will become an important component of mHealth offerings

Now, SMS services and infrastructure vendor Telsis is first in the world with an all-phones service, DriveSafe, that can lessen the temptation many people feel to text while they are behind the wheel.

While the phone user concentrates on driving safely, DriveSafe automatically replies to any text messages with a short operator-branded reply such as ‘I’m driving at the moment. I’ll read your text as soon as it is safe to do so.’

DriveSafe went live in a network for the first time this week, available free of charge to Vodafone New Zealand’s 2.5m customers in time for the February long weekend holiday when hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders take to the roads.

Vodafone’s director of sales Grant Hopkins says DriveSafe is aimed at helping New Zealanders use their mobiles safely. “Vodafone DriveSafe is designed to take the pressure off when you’re driving and you get a TXT message. It lets the sender know that you can’t reply immediately, without you needing to take your eye off the road. We’re pleased to be able to bring innovations like this to New Zealand and hope it will help drivers think carefully about their actions to reduce the road toll.”

New Zealand Automobile Association motoring affairs general manager Mike Noon welcomes the introduction of Vodafone DriveSafe. “One of the worst things about texting and driving is that drivers know they shouldn’t do it but in many cases just can’t seem to stop themselves when they hear a message arrive.

“Vodafone DriveSafe is a simple tool that can help drivers to leave the phone alone. The driver can relax knowing the person who texted them has been sent a reply and, as a bonus, it is spreading the message that texting and driving are a potentially lethal mix. Any distraction is dangerous when driving but texting is especially bad because not only is your mind focusing on the message but your eyes are off the road and at least one of your hands isn’t on the wheel either.”

The launch has been endorsed by the New Zealand Transport Agency. "Texting while driving became illegal two years ago but it remains a significant and unwelcome cause of too many crashes, so it's great to see Vodafone's initiative giving people another option to make a safe choice when they are travelling," says the NZTA's chief executive, Geoff Dangerfield.

"The NZTA encourages all Vodafone customers to subscribe to DriveSafe and to use it. But we hope this sort of innovation does not stop with one company. Telecommunications has a huge base of customers who use texting to stay in touch. Expanding an innovation similar to DriveSafe can only have a positive impact on safer journeys for all of us."

Using Telsis’ innovative SMS technology, DriveSafe is a network service, not a handset app, so it works for any type or age of phone. It requires no downloads or configuration by users, and is simply “always there” for every customer of any mobile network that deploys it. DriveSafe is enabled simply by texting a short command such as ‘drive on’ to a short code, and turned off by sending ‘drive off’.

Jeff Wilson, Telsis CEO and founder said: “Studies around the world show just how widespread the problem of texting while driving is and how seriously it affects the reaction times of people who persist in doing it. DriveSafe makes it easier for people to avoid the temptation to text and drive. We predict that operators deploying DriveSafe will be applauded by motoring organisations and governments for exercising their social responsibility, and for making it easier for phone users, and other road users, to stay safe.”

Telsis DriveSafe is designed to be quick and easy for mobile operators to install. It works alongside messaging network infrastructure and requires no integration with billing or provisioning systems. Operators will benefit from being able to brand automated DriveSafe responses, and by the service attracting customers from rival networks.

Christian Buch, Head of Billing & International Roaming, TELE Greenland, commented: “By partnering with MACH and deploying its Roaming Implementation Service, we have been able to rapidly expand our roaming business in a cost-effective manner. MACH’s end-to-end management of the entire process has required minimal in-house resource from us, while at the same time allowed us to maintain full visibility of all activity and complete control over our overall roaming revenue business. The increased traffic and revenue which we have experienced as a result demonstrates the strong ROI of the solution within a relatively short timeframe and we anticipate even more benefits over the next three years.”

With MACH’s service, TELE Greenland is benefiting from support for every single step of the roaming business expansion process, from initial strategy setting and the establishment of new roaming relationships (including the mandatory IREG and TADIG testing), to contract negotiation, roadmap advice, business analytics and re-rating. The business analytics functionality of the service has highlighted missed revenue streams, such as prepaid roaming, while the ability to optimise the roaming rollout list has also helped to increase traffic.

Philippe Ribonnet, Chief Operations Officer, MACH commented: “By working closely with the team at TELE Greenland and building up a strong partnership, we have helped the operator achieve rapid roaming coverage expansion in the most cost-effective way and with minimum in-house resources, boosting its roaming traffic and increasing its roaming revenues. Through this partnership, TELE Greenland has benefited from our extensive expertise and knowledge in the roaming implementation space, as well as from our all-important operator relatonships and negotiation skills, to guarantee rapid expansion of its roaming business.”

With the largest number of roaming relationships in the industry, MACH is well positioned to offer its strategic advice and implementation expertise to operators like TELE Greenland who are looking to grow their global roaming businesses. MACH’s Roaming Implementation Service offers operators a customisable solution which can be scaled up or down to suit individual needs. The service allows operators to quickly and cost-effectively expand their roaming businesses, driving down in-house resource and costs, while maintaining full visibility of activity and control over revenue.

The Ofcom research found that in November 2011, half of consumers who had paid for an ‘up to’ 8Mbit/s broadband package only received an average speed of 3Mbit/s or less. While half of consumers who had paid for an ‘up to’ 20/24Mbit/s service received average speeds of 5Mbit/s or less.

The Panel believes that the new CAP guidance, which comes into force from April, doesn’t go far enough. It requires that speed claims should be achievable by at least 10% of an ISP’s customers, and only where a significant proportion of customers are unlikely to receive a speed sufficiently close to that advertised should further qualifying information be included.

“This additional qualifying information must be equally prominent to consumers when they are thinking about which broadband package to buy. Consumers can only make an informed choice if they can easily compare different packages and providers. We will be watching carefully to see if the new guidelines are effective.”

Until now, using a mobile to call a traditional Freephone number, such as those starting with 08 , meant having to pay up to 46 pence per minute for the call, now Channel Islands based telecommunications company, JT , has introduced the first working five digit voice short-code number which is free of charge to mobile callers and works on all networks.

JT’s MVSCs will be welcomed by those businesses that wish to offer Freephone facilities to their customers as part of their marketing strategy. In 2011 Ofcom reported that 48% of mobile callers believe it is the company they are calling that is responsible for setting the charges of the call so if the calls are free this reflects well.

Paul Bullock, head of JT Group’s Wholesale Division, explained the importance of the launch: “For a while now we have been looking to enter the UK market with something fresh and exciting and because of our investment into our fixed and mobile networks, we are now uniquely positioned to provide this new service to UK businesses ahead of the competition.

“With growing mobile usage MVSCs are an important innovation and we are absolutely delighted to be the first to deliver the service to banks, travel agents, insurance companies or indeed any call centre requiring a dynamic Freephone service. By extending the Freephone service to mobile users with an MVSC we are quite literally changing the way customers communicate with companies and how companies communicate with their customers. Our MVSC can be used at anytime from any location in the UK and companies can now confidently send SMS alerts to customers to provoke or maintain two way communications, which is now an effective marketing tool for businesses in a number of sectors.”

This announcement is the latest development in the JT Group’s five year growth strategy and demonstrates the company’s commitment to becoming the partner of choice for global telecoms innovation by making the latest technologies accessible to customers around the world. Through acquisition of ekit.com JT Group extended its global reach and now has operations as far afield as Australia and Boston. It also operates the largest Tier 1 telecommunications infrastructure in the Channel Islands delivering world class hosting facilities to the global finance and eGaming industries.

Talking about entering the UK mobile market Mr Bullock added: “This is the first of many new products and services JT Group’s Wholesale Division is working on along with the JT Group’s Gigabit Isles initiative which is bringing the world’s fastest broadband to the Channel Islands and the opening of the first CI based global telecommunications research, development and training facility.”

JT Group’s Wholesale Division delivers a number of global services including the successful Direct Connect SMS which is an automated SMS messaging service which is used by companies based as far afield as Malaysia, New Zealand and the USA, and which in 2010 delivered 650 million messages.

Fragger delivers hours of exploding fun. Players unleash their shooting abilities to kill enemies and unlock perks. The game features 370 different levels and 12 different worlds. Grenade launching experts can compare scores with the millions of other users that play Fragger on Android and iPhone. Starting 31st January 2012 Android users can download Fragger for Android for free at www.getjar.com.

“GetJar is a great partner for us. Their global presence is what drew us to them when looking for a launch partner for Fragger,” said Rob Small, CEO of Miniclip.com “We want to preserve the factors that lead to Fragger’s 100 million plays on Miniclip.com, namely that it’s free. GetJar is well known as the destination for free apps.”

“To work with an industry giant like Miniclip really tells us that we’re doing something right,” said Ilja Laurs, CEO and Founder of GetJar. “We’re glad to have Miniclip launch Fragger exclusively on GetJar.”

Founded in 2005, ioSafe’s patented technology provides unparalleled physical security protection against fire, flood and theft for thousands of homes and businesses. Like an aircraft black box, ioSafe adds physical security and protection to irreplaceable data.

“The vast majority of data from family photo albums to critical business data, sits vulnerable in local pockets all around the world. Because data growth exceeds internet bandwidth growth, data created locally will be forced to be stored locally,” says Robb Moore, ioSafe CEO. “ioSafe technology provides a ‘disaster plan-in-a-box’ solution for terabytes of data wherever it sits vulnerable. Our backup hard disk and solid state drives, combined with our Data Recovery Service protect not only against fires, floods and water damage but hard drive failure and accidental deletion. We are on a mission to protect local data from loss no matter where it might be stored. We’re hugely excited about bringing our technology to the UK and our partnership with Micro-P to deliver this solution to the masses.”

With a fast growing global reputation for quality and innovation, ioSafe offers an extensive series of award winning products, suitable for the consumer right up to the most data conscious enterprise. With extensive options ranging from the portability of the ioSafe Rugged Portable, available in both HDD and SDD options, designed to withstand the most extreme conditions, through to the ioSafe SoloPRO SSD complete with armorplate military grade drive casing. All backed by the industry's best warranty and ioSafe's unique Data Recovery Service (DRS) which provides up to$5,000 towards the cost of third-party forensic data recovery services if required for any reason.

Stuart Hatch, Micro-P Business Manager, comments: “We’re delighted to welcome ioSafe onboard. It’s a fantastic addition to our increasing storage portfolio and gives our customers access to a solution that offers unbeatable protection for their data. Data storage is one of the fastest growing categories in IT and we are seeing more and more interest in people not just looking at capacity, but also questioning their data recovery exposure. ioSafe addresses this head on.”

In mature markets where the installed base of PNDs is already high, the device category is facing increasing competition from smartphones and low-cost in-dash navigation systems. Aftermarket navigation systems will be the largest segment for several years to come and many customers, especially in Europe and North America, are likely to use more than one navigation capable device for different occasions in the future.

However, growing shipments of PNDs in markets such as Brazil, China, India and Russia are not likely to compensate for the decline in Europe and North America. Global PND shipments are forecasted to decline to about 23 million units in 2016. The number of mobile subscribers using a turn-by-turn navigation app or service on their handset doubled in 2011 and reached 130 million worldwide. The subscriber base is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9 percent to reach 340 million users worldwide in 2016.

Broad availability of GPS handsets and attractive pricing are key factors for widespread adoption of mobile navigation apps. “The global active installed base of smartphones surpassed 700 million units at the 2011, which is approximately 15 percent of all mobile phones in use”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

He adds that about half of the current mobile navigation subscriber base uses free apps and services that are bundled with handsets or service plans from mobile operators. A growing number of mobile operators worldwide are switching to bundled freemium navigation services to offset the cost for end users in response to free navigation apps for smartphones from Google and Nokia. Navigation app developers and mobile operators are trying to monetise services by introducing premium feature and content add-ons that allow users to customise navigation apps to suit their personal needs.

“Since relatively few users need turn-by-turn guidance on a daily basis, complementary features such as traffic information, speed camera alerts, parking space information and local search become increasingly important means to drive usage”, commented Mr Malm. Stimulating usage is also important for developers and mobile operators that seek additional revenues from location-based advertising and local offers.

Inmarsat’s new ‘FB Multi-voice’ capability will greatly increase the flexibility of FleetBroadband by adding the ability to deliver simultaneous calls. The company will deploy Metaswitch Universal Media Gateways and the MetaSphere Multimedia Telephony Application Server (MTAS) at network hubs in Western Europe and the Pacific Rim, with control from Inmarsat’s global headquarters in London.

“Metaswitch is the best fit for our increased feature requirements, plus we have been very impressed with the quality of the technology and the worldwide support organization,” said David Kingdon-Jones, Director, Product and Service Management at Inmarsat. “Our maritime services have a trusted reputation in the shipping industry and are sold by a large number of partners worldwide. Now we can provide even better communication services for users.”

“We are very pleased to help Inmarsat launch Voice over IP services,” said Richard Dorey, vice president of sales for EMEA at Metaswitch. “By using Metaswitch’s exclusive quality assurance tools, Inmarsat will be able to maintain their reputation for superior customer service.”

In November 2011, the average actual UK residential broadband speed was 7.6Mbit/s, compared with 6.2Mbit/s in November/December 2010, and 6.8Mbit/s in May 2011.

This increase was mainly as a result of consumers moving onto higher speed packages. In November 2011, for the first time more than half (58 per cent) of UK residential broadband connections had a headline, or advertised speed of above 10Mbit/s, up from 48 per cent in May 2011.

However, more than 4 in 10 broadband consumers remain on packages with speeds of 10Mbit/s or less even though many of them would be able to get a higher speed at little or no extra cost if they switched package or provider.

This is Ofcom's sixth report of UK broadband speeds which aims to measure the performance of residential broadband in the UK.

Previous reports highlighted how there can be a significant difference between advertised speeds and speeds actually received by consumers. This confirmed the need for the Advertising Code-writing bodies, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), to review the use of ‘up to’ speed claims in broadband advertising to ensure that advertisements do not mislead consumers.

Following this review, CAP and BCAP published guidance in September 2011 on the use of speed claims in broadband advertising, which will come into force in April 2012. Among other things, it requires that speed claims should be achievable by at least 10 per cent of the relevant internet service provider’s (ISP) customer base, and where a significant proportion of customers are unlikely to receive a speed sufficiently close to that advertised, further qualifying information, such as the speed range obtainable by those customers, should be included in the advertisement. In addition, any claim should be based on robust and reasonably representative data.

In line with this new guidance, using data from Ofcom’s latest research, the industry average speed based on the 10 per cent availability criteria would be 6Mbit/s for services currently advertised at ‘up to’ 8Mbit/s, and 14Mbit/s for services currently advertised at ‘up to’ 20/24Mbit/s. As indicated above, advertisements for these packages would also have to supplement headline speed claims with information such as the median speed or the typical speed range achieved by half of customers around the median.

Of the 13 ISP packages covered, Ofcom’s research found that the fibre-based and cable broadband technologies were fastest. Virgin Media’s ‘up to’ 50Mbit/s continued to have the highest average download speeds of approximately 49Mbit/s.

BT’s fibre-based service (BT Infinity) delivered average download speeds of around 36Mbit/s, up from approximately 34Mbit/s in May 2011. The service also achieved the highest average upload speeds of 8.8Mbit/s. All other ISP packages did not change significantly from May 2011.

Ofcom is committed to ensuring that consumers have access to clear information about their broadband speeds. The Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds was introduced in December 2008 to inform prospective broadband customers of their likely maximum speed before signing up to a service, and a strengthened Code came into force in July 2011.

Ofcom has recently commissioned mystery shopping to look at whether ISPs are adhering to the spirit of the Code and aims to publish the findings in the spring.

Ofcom Chief Executive, Ed Richards, said: “It is encouraging that speeds are increasing and that consumers have a real choice of broadband service. There is a real opportunity for consumers to look at the packages and deals in their area in order to receive the best value, speeds and performance available to them.

“We can look forward to further increases in UK broadband speeds over the next few years. Most households in the UK can now access superfast broadband services, and these services are set to get faster still as Virgin Media aims to double the speeds of most of its cable services and BT aims to double the speed of its fibre-to-the-cabinet service from 40Mbit/s to 80Mbit/s.”

Enterprises focus on getting maximum efficiency and performance from their virtual private networks (VPNs), which are provided by communications service providers such as Belgacom to complement the capabilities of the enterprises’ own dedicated networks. Applications that run too slowly or do not perform with sufficient quality can negatively impact both business operations and customer relationships.

To date, the ability to ensure the performance of applications has been limited, and this problem is particularly acute with cloud-based services. Belgacom’s deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Assurance solution will help give enterprises the confidence that the applications they rely on – from both their own dedicated network and the cloud - are operating at optimum efficiency. For instance, if the Application Assurance solution shows that network performance is affected negatively by employees accessing non-business-related services during business hours, then access to those applications can be limited or restricted to non-critical times and the performance of the enterprise’s VPN will be improved.

Tom Wuyts, director WAN, Internet & Security (Enterprise Business Unit) at Belgacom said: “With the Alcatel-Lucent Application Assurance solution, our enterprise customers will have clear insight into how much bandwidth various applications are using – this is a key element of our ‘Smart Networking’ initiative, which is geared toward bringing greater intelligence to our networks for the benefit of our customers. On the whole, enterprises are very concerned about the performance of applications they access from the cloud – this new solution will help eliminate those concerns, and put enterprises in a better position to take advantage of the cost and flexibility benefits that the cloud has to offer. As importantly, our customers can take advantage of the service quickly and cost effectively, because there is no need for on-site equipment.”

Luc Defieuw, CEO Alcatel-Lucent Bell in Belgium said: “Enterprises are increasingly interested in cooperating with their service providers to enhance visibility and performance of business-critical applications running over their network. Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Assurance solution directly addresses that need – Belgacom’s enterprise customers will always know exactly how their services are performing and will be able to make critical adjustments as needed.”

Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Assurance solution is offered on top of the industry-leading Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR) and 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS). The solution is based on the Multiservice Integrated Service Adapter (MS-ISA) - which extends the intelligence of the 7750 SR and 7450 ESS - in combination with the 5670 Reporting and Analysis Manager (RAM), which provides extensive tools and capabilities to analyse and process detailed, application-level statistics per-subscriber.

The new PSCEU is made up of four business divisions:

Communication Solutions including professional scanners, multifunctional printers, telephony systems and HD video conferencing systems.

Visual System Solutions including projectors, interactive whiteboards, presentation aids and displays. Panasonic is the European market leader in the System & Installation category of projectors (>5000 Lumen excl. D-Cinema) with a 28% global revenue share.

Professional Camera Solutions including professional audio visual, security and integrated machine vision (IMV) technology. Panasonic is one of the top two professional camera vendors in Europe.

Computer Product Solutions including the Toughbook range of rugged notebooks, Toughpad business tablets and electronic point of sales (EPOS) systems. Panasonic Toughbook is European rugged notebook market leader with 62.9% market share in 2010

The new organisation is structured around customer needs. It is capable of integrating services and third party products into custom solutions and Panasonic can provide project management for multi-site or multi-country rollouts. Project management can also include coordinating Panasonic partners.

Masaki Arizono, Managing Director of Panasonic System Communications Company Europe, said: “Panasonic products have always helped make our customers’ working lives better. With our new organisation, we also make our customers’ lives simpler and can add more value through services and solutions. No other company in Europe has such a capability in our market.”

"With large and growing vendor investment in PaaS, the market is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth, leading to innovation and likely breakthroughs in technology and business use of all of cloud computing," said Yefim Natis, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Users and vendors of enterprise IT software solutions that are not yet engaged with PaaS must begin building expertise in PaaS or face tough challenges from competitors in the coming years."

PaaS is a common reference to the layer of cloud technology architecture that contains all application infrastructure services, which are also known as "middleware" in other contexts. PaaS is the middle layer of the end-to-end software stack in the cloud. It is the technology that intermediates between the underlying system infrastructure (operating systems, networks, virtualisation, storage, etc.) and overlaying application software. The technology services that are part of a full-scope comprehensive PaaS include functionality of application containers (servers), application development tools, database management systems, integration middleware, portal products, business process management suites and others — all offered as a service.

Gartner analysts said 2011 was a pivotal year for the PaaS market. As Gartner predicted last year in the report "PaaS Road Map: A Continent Emerging", the broad vendor adoption in 2011 amounted to a sound industry endorsement of PaaS as an alternative to the traditional middleware deployment models.

In 2012, the PaaS market is at its early stage of growth and does not yet have well-established leaders, best use or business practices or dedicated standards. The adoption of PaaS offerings is still associated with some degree of uncertainty and risk.

"However, PaaS products are likely to evolve into a major component of the overall cloud computing market, just as the middleware products — including application servers, database management systems (DBMSs), integration middleware and portal platforms — are the core foundation of the traditional software industry," Mr Natis said. "The tension between the short-term risk and the long-term strategic imperative of PaaS will define the key developments in the PaaS market during the next two to three years."

Some of the newly announced PaaS offerings will reach general availability late in 2012, and by the end of 2013, all major software vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market. By 2016, competition among the PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. However, until then, users will continue to experience architectural changes to technologies, business models and vendor alignments in the PaaS market.

As vendors continue to invest in PaaS services, and the major software vendors look to deliver comprehensive PaaS service portfolios, activity in all segments of PaaS will accelerate and the fast pace of growth and change in the PaaS market will create confusion, making user adoption decisions more difficult.

"While there are clear risks associated with the use of services in the new and largely immature PaaS market, the risk of avoiding the PaaS market is equally high," said Mr Natis. "The right strategy for most mainstream IT organisations and software vendors is to begin building familiarity with the new cloud computing opportunities by adopting some PaaS services now, albeit with the understanding of their limitations and with the expectation of ongoing change in the market offerings and use patterns."

1 February 2012

Vidyo will demonstrate its award-winning multipoint video conferencing software on Amazon's new Kindle Fire, today at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2012 in Amsterdam. The company will also showcase the latest platform support for its VidyoMobile HD video conferencing software client: Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ running on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smart phone. This new Android mobile platform will be part of a live, multi-point, global video conference connecting an extensive variety of endpoints on iOS and Android mobile devices including the Kindle Fire, laptops, and a six screen VidyoPanorama system.

It will feature the VidyoMobile client running on some of the most popular iOS and Android tablets and smart phones, including the Kindle Fire, iPad2, iPhone 4S, in addition to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smart phone running Ice Cream Sandwich. All of these devices will be connected live with one another and a VidyoDesktop system located across the world, in a multipoint, HD video conference, over wireless and public Internet networks. “Easy-to-use, universal business-to-business communication is the holy grail of enterprise video conferencing," said Ofer Shapiro, CEO and co-founder of Vidyo. "Traditionally, the challenge has been interoperability among companies who use different video conferencing vendors and endpoint devices. Vidyo’s software based approach offers a solution to this problem by providing high definition video conferencing over a multitude of off the shelf devices and interoperability with legacy systems. No other vendor can demonstrate what we are showing today.” VidyoMobile supporting Android versions 2.2 through 4.0 is available for Vidyo users with accounts on either an enterprise VidyoConferencing system or through an authorized Vidyo service provider, in the Android Market Place as a free app.

Both companies have been working together since 2007, continually evolving the service to the current high levels where customer experience and retention have been significantly improved.

Smartphones account for a large percentage of sales and play an ever increasing role in our day to day lives, customers can find themselves struggling with new software platforms, settings or applications when upgrading or taking a Smartphone for the first time. The technical support offered by ANOVO guides the customer through this difficult transition keeping them connected with easy to understand technical advice.

Dave Ware, Associate Merchandising Director at Phones 4u says ‘Phones 4u strive to always ensure our customers have the best support when it comes to product related user issues and that is where ANOVO comes in. ANOVO has extensive experience in the technology space and we are pleased that they are providing technical support to our customers and over 580 Phones 4u retail stores’.

What started out as a service to avoid the return of handsets has evolved into a retail technical support service ensuring customers understand their new phone and avoid an unnecessary trip back to the store.

Kevin Coleman CEO ANOVO UK says ‘I am personally delighted at the signing of this new contract with Phones 4u. This is a key service offering and one that forms a major part of our services strategy moving forward’.

Amit Klein, CTO of Trusteer, said “In addition to stealing bank account data, these Ice IX configurations are capturing information on telephone accounts belonging to the victims. This allows attackers to divert calls from the bank intended for their customer to attacker controlled phone numbers. I believe the fraudsters are executing fraudulent transactions using the stolen credentials and redirecting the bank’s post-transaction verification phone calls to professional criminal caller services (discussed in a previous Trusteer blog) that approve the transactions.”

In one attack captured by Trusteer researchers, at login the malware steals the victim’s user id and password, memorable information/secret question answer, date of birth and account balance.

Next, the victim is asked to update their phone numbers of record (home, mobile and work) and select the name of their service provider from a drop-down list. In this particular attack, the three most popular phone service providers in the UK are presented: British Telecommunications, TalkTalk and Sky.

To enable the attacker to modify the victim’s phone service settings, the victim is then asked by the malware to submit their telephone account number. This is very private data typically only known to the phone subscriber and the phone company. It is used by the phone company to verify the identity of the subscriber and authorize sensitive account modifications such as call forwarding. The fraudsters justify this request by stating this information is required as a part of verification process caused by "a malfunction of the bank’s anti-fraud system with its landline phone service provider".

Amit Klein, CTO of Trusteer said, “As Trusteer discussed in a recent blog, fraudsters are increasingly turning to these post-transaction attack methods to hide fraudulent activity from the victim and block email and phone communication from the bank. This allows attackers to circumvent security mechanisms that look for anomalies once transactions have already been executed by the user.”

Deterministic detection security mechanisms like Trusteer Rapport, which search for specific malware Crime Logic footprints before transactions are submitted and allow the online banking application to stop fraud by changing business flows (block money transfers, decline add payee, limit amounts, etc.), are not vulnerable to post transaction attacks.