Wireless Federation

American Airlines and Aircell together have launched a new mobile broadband service Gogo. Customers flying from American Airlines’ Boeing 767-200 aircraft will now be able to access the internet on flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami.
The Gogo service will be available for USD 12.95 on flights of more than three hours and for every paid session. Mobile phone and VoIP services are not available. The service will enable American Airlines passengers to surf the web, check emails, access IM, or a corporate VPN.
Additionally, once the aircraft has reached 10,000 feet, the passengers can turn on their Wi-Fi enabled devices s open their browsers and be directed to the Gogo portal page where they have to sign up and start surfing.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Verizon planning for a Nationwide Messaging plans which will be in American Sign Language (ASL) to better serve customers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The Nationwide Messaging plans from Verizon Wireless will be available for use with most consumer handsets, select personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones, including BlackBerry devices.

For $34.99 monthly access, the new Nationwide Messaging plans on consumer devices will include unlimited text, picture, video and instant messaging; unlimited Mobile Web access and unlimited data usage. Customers can also make voice calls for an additional 40 cents per minute. Customers who sign up for the $34.99 monthly access plan have the option of adding Mobile Email to their accounts for an additional $5 per month.

Customers with BlackBerry devices or PDAs can sign up for the BlackBerry or PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Messaging Plan for $54.99 monthly access, which will include unlimited text, picture, video and instant messaging; unlimited e-mail; unlimited Web browsing and unlimited data usage. Customers can also make voice calls for an additional 25 cents per minute. The Nationwide Messaging plans are available for all BlackBerry devices, the Verizon Wireless SMT5800, the Verizon Wireless XV6800 and the MOTOQ 9c.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Converged Mobile Devices — including smartphones, PDA-style phones, and BlackBerrys — have become indispensable tools for mobile workers. An IDC study finds that although the majority of formal enterprise adoption to date has been within large enterprises, predominately in the U.S. and Canada, potential for strong growth exists among small businesses in all markets and enterprises throughout other regions of the worldFurthermore, individual business users are coming in through the backdoor of corporate networks with their own devices. IDC believes IT departments will move to remedy this and gain control of such actions. According to IDC’s latest mobile enterprise device usage forecast, worldwide shipments of corporate-liable mobile devices will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54% to reach more than 82 million units shipped in 2011.

IDC data shows that the U.S. market accounted for 42% of enterprise shipments of converged mobile devices (CMDs) in 2006 and growth will remain strong over the next five years. IDC predicts that Western Europe will become the second-most important market in terms of enterprise mobility. The majority of Asia/Pacific and other regions of the world, including Latin America and Eastern Europe, will also experience a shift towards greater enterprise adoption. On the other hand, Japan shows signs of marginal enterprise adoption over the forecast period according to IDC as its market remains almost entirely consumer-centric.

IDC believes that growing enterprise adoption worldwide will be driven by organizations realizing the advantage of connectivity options to reduce telecom spending and enhance mobile worker productivity. IDC believes corporate purchasing of CMDs will increase as investing in mobile and wireless solutions becomes high priority for IT. Thus, IDC foresees a greater need for IT departments to exercise more control over these same devices.

“One of the key drivers for the expected growth in enterprise adoption of CMDs lies in the power to use these devices, beyond basic telephony, to access corporate email, the Internet/Intranet, and securely link to corporate databases,” says Sean Ryan, research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Enterprise Devices program. “As CMDs become more tightly coupled with enterprise networks, IT mobility initiatives will trend towards standardization, security, and control — resulting in enterprise procurement of such devices.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

 PRWeb writes….Yesterday’s pioneer’s march ahead to become tomorrow’s leaders. India’s leading travel portal, Travelmartindia.com announces the launch of the country’s first end-to-end mobile telephony flight booking and payment solution. Travelmartindia.com is the only travel portal in India, to launch the end-to-end Mobile Travel Solution.

Mr. Manoj Gursahani, Chairman, Travelmartindia says, “The solution is unique, wherein the customer book and pay for their flight bookings over their cell phone and it offers them a browsing experience that’s optimized specifically for PDA and smartphone users.”
TravelMartIndia.com… has achieved the distinction of being the first Indian travel portal to port its entire Web site onto the .mobi domain using J2ME technology making it easier to browse from handheld device
Futuristically it’s a smart move by Travelmartindia.com as, according to recent media reports, Smart phones and PDA’s accounted for a good 4% of the 65 million handsets sold in India in 2006 and the sales are only expected to double this year.

In addition to giving users a more convenient way to plan travel, Travelmartindia’s solution caters to growing demand for innovative services in the wireless operator segment. The Indian mobile subscriber base has crossed 113 million mark , with approximately 5 million new users being added every month. Despite the high volumes in the Indian telecom segment, however the margins are low- demanding innovation on the part of both telecom providers and mobile commerce companies like Travelmartindia.

The Mobile value Added Services (MVAS) segment allows higher margins for telecom operators, at the same time offering mobile subscribers a better choice of services. According to MVAS report prepared jointly by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) and IMRB international, MVAS will bring in nearly $1 billion by the end of 2007, rising from Rs. 2850 crore to Rs. 4560 crore.

Travelmartindia is all set and geared up to service the huge and growing customer base in India at the same time giving India’s nascent mobile commerce industry added impetus. With analyst’s reports citing India’s total market for handsets at Rs. 8.05 billion in 2005 and a projection of a whopping increase of 62% surge to approx 100 million subscribers nationwide by 2007.

Travelmartindia is thus set to become, a 360 degree service provider into the travel business with India’s first end-to-end mobile travel solution.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News