Vodafone tops subscribers’ addition chart in Feb (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Indian telco Vodafone Essar became the world’s fastest-growing telecom market by adding the highest number of mobile users in the country last month, thus beating the current market leader, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices.
With the addition of over 3 million new users, Vodafone Essar’s total subscriber base in India rose to 97.2 million. However, with 124.6 million subscribers, Bharti remained the largest player, adding 2.9 million last month. 2.8 million New users were signed by Tata Teleservices but slipped to third spot after topping subscriber additions for over six months.
2.8 million New users have been added by Reliance Communications; over 2 million new subscribers have been added by Idea- spice while Aircel added 1.8 million new users. 1.7 million new mobile users were roped in by BSNL and MTNL, both state owned telco.
Wireline segment saw a fall of 1% in the subscriber base to 36.96 million in February led by BSNL and MTNL. However, private players like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices were better off in wireline segment too by adding users.
Renu join hands with NeoMedia for Mobile Barcodes
NeoMedia Technologies and Renu Mobile have agreed to include NeoMedia’s mobile barcode products as part of Renu Mobile’s end-to-end mobile campaign management services.
This deal aims at bringing the power of mobile barcode campaigns to Renu Mobile’s existing clients, enabling those clients to attract and connect with millions of consumers in simple, fun and innovative ways.
According to NeoMedia CEO, Iain McCready, Renu Mobile is already well known for their ability to deliver exciting, successful mobile messaging based campaigns and building robust mobile websites.The company is delighted to enable the creative team at Renu Mobile to now bring even more capabilities to their clients, using their NeoSphere barcode creation and management system.
Vodafone to support British Gas Smart Meters
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: For the roll out of smart metering in the UK, Vodafone UK is working with British Gas. Both the companies have entered into a multi million pound contract. Under the contract, Vodafone will provide nearly 1 million GPRS connections within household meters.
This will help families to monitor the energy they use, leading to cost savings and reduced CO2 emissions. There is no need for anyone to wait for someone to read the energy meter.
Rather, the bill will be received automatically by them for exactly what they’ve used along with the energy use data sent from the in-home smart meter back to British Gas over the Vodafone network.
InfoMedia launches Alps Apps
InfoMedia, mobile content and services firm has unveiled 13 official iPhone applications for ski resorts across the Alps.
According to the Managing Director of InfoMedia, Michael Tomlins, iPhone applications are the perfect vehicle for presenting live information, video content and images in a really usable and useful way, right at the point of need.
In the opinion of Tomlins, the partnership with Skinets.com enables the company to strengthen their position in the app space and it adds to their growing portfolio of clients in this sector.
The apps have been developed in partnership with online Alps information portal Skinets.com and digital agency Powder Blue.
Priced at £2.39, the apps provides information on the latest weather, snowfall depths, piste and resort maps and useful locations and information.
Vodafone UK signs contract with British Gas
Vodafone UK has signed a contract with British Gas on the rollout of smart metering in the UK. This multi-million pound contract will be providing nearly 1 million GPRS connections within household meters.
With this contract, the families will no longer need to wait in for someone to read their energy meter. Instead, they will be getting a bill automatically for exactly what they have used with the energy use data sent from the in-home smart meter back to British Gas over the Vodafone network
According to Peter Kelly, Vodafone’s Enterprise Director, the company is always improving services to make their customers’ lives easier. They are pleased to work with British Gas on this trial to accelerate the roll-out of smart meters into British homes.
AMC accepts Middle East Music Deal
Arab Mobile Content (AMC) has signed an agreement and will now be distributing Aardvark Records’ mobile audio and video content in the Middle East and North America (MENA) region.
The deal with Aardvark covers full tracks, ringback tones, ring tones and music videos proving just how adept AMC is in converting existing content into a mobile format.
MMA set to host Singapore Workshops
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) will be hosting two mobile marketing workshops on April 13, 2010 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront in Singapore. The aim of these workshops will be to introduce interested marketers to the medium and address questions around the metrics behind mobile advertising campaigns.
According to Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC for the MMA, with Asian mobile users constituting approximately one third of the world’s overall market, the region has proven to be a hotbed for innovative mobile marketing campaigns.
With these workshops, the association hopes to provide brands, agencies, network operators, content providers and technology developers across the region with a roadmap for using the mobile channel as an effective marketing tool that produces targeted, measurable results.
The morning workshop will be titled ‘Mobile Marketing 101′ and it will introduce the participants to the various facets and available platforms for mobile marketing. While the afternoon workshop titled ‘Mobile Analytics’ will be facilitating an understanding of customer preferences and the measurement and metrics of mobile advertising.
Openwave launches Smart User Repository
Openwave Systems, a global software innovator delivering context-aware mediation and messaging solutions, has announced the launch of its Openwave® Smart User Repository for operators which is highly scalable and offers high speed.
According to Openwave, the solution is an excellent candidate for operators’ 3GPP user profile repository (UPR) and user data repository (UDR) requirements because of its scalable and reliable architecture.
In the opinion of John Giere, Senior Vice President of Products and Marketing at Openwave, as operators continue to witness unprecedented data traffic volumes, it is incumbent upon them to consider integrated policy management tools that will help them rapidly access user profile and policy information as is common in the web world.
One of the longstanding Tier 1 North American operators has already deployed their repository and is currently processing in excess of 2.5 billion queries a day, Giere informed.
Nokia acquires Novarra
Novarra, the mobile browser and service platform from Chicago has been acquired by Nokia. According to Nokia, the company will use Novarra’s platform to deliver enhanced Internet experiences on Nokia mobile devices.
In the opinion of Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Services, Nokia, connecting the next billion consumers to the Internet will happen primarily on mobile devices and the mission of the company is to deliver an optimized internet experience on their devices.
The company is driving innovation in all segments of their portfolio in order to build one of the largest consumer audiences for web services and content.
Rogers Customers offered GetJar Apps
Independent app store GetJar has announced that it will make its entire library of more than 60,000 free mobile applications available to Rogers customers at no charge. The customers of the network will be able to access GetJar’s applications library via a GetJar link on the Rogers Application page on its mobile Internet portal.
The app includes games, social networking, sports, entertainment and productivity applications.
According to GetJar CEO, Ilja Laurs, the company is thrilled that Rogers is working and cooperating with GetJar to meet the demands of its customers.
This agreement is much like their recent announcement with Sprint Nextel, allows Rogers to immediately connect all its customers with over 60,000 free applications with very little effort, opines Laurs.
