NTT DOCOMO to bid for mobile app provider Buongiorno (Japan)
NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced that it has launched a tender offer to acquire all shares in Buongiorno S.p.A., one of the largest providers of mobile internet content and apps in Europe and beyond. The tender offer will be conducted by NTT DOCOMO’s German subsidiary, DOCOMO Deutschland GmbH. Mauro Del Rio, owner of approximately 20 percent of the company’s stock, has entered into an irrevocable undertaking with DOCOMO Deutschland GmbH to tender all of his shares for the offer. DOCOMO Deutschland GmbH has issued a public notice in Italy to announce the tender offer.
Buongiorno is a worldwide leader in the development and management of paid apps and services that maximize consumer experiences with mobile devices. The company has steadily grown its business through the direct delivery of a broad portfolio of content and services to some two billion customers in 57 countries across four continents. DOCOMO decided to conduct the public tender in consideration of the potential positive impact on the growth of both companies.
The acquisition will combine DOCOMO’s innovative mobile business and services know-how in Japan and other countries with Buongiorno’s advanced mobile technologies and extensive global customer base. As part of expanding the businesses of both companies, DOCOMO expects to strengthen the foundation of its mobile platform businesses overseas.
RIM introduces the BlackBerry Curve 9320 (Canada)
Research In Motion announced a stylish new smartphone for socially-connected customers. The new BlackBerry Curve 9320 smartphone features all the core BlackBerry messaging and social-centric features that keep people connected, and it offers global 3G connectivity backed by long battery life to allow users to make the most of their day.
Carlo Chiarello, EVP, Smartphone Business at Research In Motion, said that the new BlackBerry Curve 9320 is designed to make it incredibly easy for users to stay socially-connected. The new BlackBerry Curve 9320 will be especially popular with customers upgrading to a smartphone for the first time and existing Curve customers looking for a step up in speed and functionality.
The BlackBerry Curve 9320 has everything a customer needs to stay in touch with the people and things that matter most to them. It features a dedicated BBM key, bringing the power of RIM’s popular mobile social network up in an instant, as well as the best keyboard in its class for quick and easy typing. It includes a built-in FM radio, allowing users to tune into their favorite local stations, and listening to the FM radio does not require a data plan or use data services. Designed to allow both 3G connectivity and long battery life, customers can get up to 7 hours of talk time or up to 30 hours of FM radio listening or music playback with headphones.
Customers can easily interact with their social network in real time, using preloaded apps for Facebook and Twitter. The new Social Feeds 2.0 app is also preloaded, allowing users to post updates to multiple social networks simultaneously and capture updates from news sources (RSS), social apps and instant messaging apps all in one consolidated view. The integrated camera includes a flash and supports video recording, and pictures can be tagged with their location thanks to the smartphone’s built-in GPS.
The BlackBerry Curve 9320 comes with the new BlackBerry 7.1 OS, which supports features such as Mobile Hotspot and Wi-Fi calling where available. Parental Controls is a brand new, on-device feature that provides parents and guardians with simple options to help protect children by restricting access to specific functions, features and applications.
Mobile data accounts for 10% of worldwide internet usage
The share of web traffic in Asia that comes from mobile devices has almost tripled in the pat two years, according to a recent blog post by pingdom. In fact, in some countries, close to half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. India is very close to mobile traffic breaking 50 percent of all web traffic, as are several other countries in Asia as well as Africa.
As per the post, the countries with the highest share of mobile traffic as part of total web traffic are India at 48.87 percent, Zamibia at 47.09 percent, Sudan at 44.95 percent, Uzbekistan at 42.36 percent, Nigeria at 40.65 percent, Zimbabwe at 37.95 percent, Laos at 35.46 percent, Brunei at 34.66 percent, Ethiopia at 31.79 percent and Kenya at 29.2 percent.
The data reveals that Africa and Asia split the list between them. Africa amassed six countries, which left Asia with four. The first European country is the United Kingdom with 10.71 percent, and the U.S. showed 8.61 percent mobile web traffic as share of all web traffic.
Europe scored a 183.43 percent increase in mobile browsing share over this period, not that far behind Asia. But with the mobile share only increasing from 1.81 percent to 5.13 percent, Europe is still far behind both Africa and Asia when it comes to the percentage of users accessing the web using mobiles.
Worldwide, mobiles only account for about 10 percent of web access, but it’s a figure that is growing fast. With some countries already closing in on 50 percent of web traffic coming from mobiles – with India in the lead – it’s safe to assume this development will only continue.
Clearly, people are taking to their mobile devices all over the world to get on the Internet, but more so in Africa and Asia than elsewhere.
Telstra launches network intelligence for business segment (Australia)
Businesses and large organisations will now have comprehensive visibility of applications using their data networks with the launch of Australia’s first in-network intelligent reporting service.
The Telstra Application Assured Networking service will provide organisations with a clear view and more control over the increasing number of financial, relationship management, IP telephony, video conferencing and other business applications on their network.
The new service will initially allow an organisation to produce reports on how networks are being used by applications which can be viewed via an easy-to-use secure online portal on the Telstra Business and Enterprise website. Coupled with this is a consultancy service desk to provide expert advice with regards to application and network performance.
Building products organisation Peer Industries is the first Telstra customer to use the Application Assured Networking service.
Philip Jones, Telstra Executive Director, Data, IP and Network Applications and Services said the new service gives control back to IT executives. The launch of Application Assured Networking is a first for Australia and represents the leadership of Telstra in this area through our ongoing investment in their networks such as the intelligence built into their core IP network.
As global business IP traffic is predicted to grow three-fold, more and more organisations are looking to ensure business-critical applications can perform at their peak while not compromising their network.
The new Application Assured Networking service provides their customers with detailed application performance reporting and gives IT executives the knowledge they require to manage the delivery of traffic across their network, particularly as applications move to the cloud. With Application Assured Networking built into their network, they can offer a feature-rich application service based on an OPEX model.
Jones added that in essence, Application Assured Networking enables an organisation to get more performance and value from their network which in turn helps with business productivity. A planned future release of Application Assured Networking will enable customers to control the bandwidth for specific applications in real time.
T-Mobile selects Ericsson and NSN for $4 billion 4G network plan (USA)
T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced multi-year agreements with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to support T-Mobile’s $4 billion 4G network evolution plan, including network modernization and deployment of long term evolution (LTE) service in 2013.
As part of the agreements, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks will provide and install state of the art, Release 10 capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile’s 4G network, increasing signal quality and enhancing performance beginning in 2012. T-Mobile also expects to be the first carrier in North America to broadly deploy antenna integrated radios, enabling accelerated deployment and reduced site loading.
Last week, T-Mobile secured the AWS spectrum licenses from AT&T which were agreed to as part of the breakup of the proposed merger between the two companies. This new spectrum, in addition to the refarming effort, enables the launch of LTE in AWS spectrum and up to 20 MHz of LTE in 75 percent of the top 25 markets.
Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA, said that they are making great progress on their four billion dollar 4G network transformation. With these partners on board and the AT&T AWS spectrum secured, they are on track to enhance their 4G experience this year and deliver nationwide LTE in 2013.
The company’s timing for LTE allows T-Mobile to take advantage of the latest and most advanced LTE technology infrastructure, improving the overall capacity and performance of its 4G network, while optimizing the company’s spectrum resources. T-Mobile will also apply deep LTE technology experience gained from its parent, Deutsche Telekom, a recognized global leader in LTE development and standardization.
As part of the company’s network modernization effort, T-Mobile also plans to launch 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band in a large number of markets by the end of the year. Network modernization trials have shown up to a 33 percent increase in HSPA+ data speeds as well as improved in-building coverage. Rolling out 4G HSPA+ services in the 1900 MHz band will also provide customers with the ability to use a broader range of devices, including the iPhone, on T-Mobile’s 4G network.
T-Mobile also announced that its nationwide HSPA+ network has expanded to deliver a competitive 4G experience to well over 220 million people in 229 markets. In addition to an expanding 4G footprint, the 4G experience T-Mobile provides is pervasive among its customer base.
Ray said that in contrast to their competitors, nearly half of T-Mobile’s postpaid smartphone customers are using a 4G device. Not only are they delivering a fast 4G experience to a higher percentage of their customers, they are also making it more affordable to step up to 4G.
Beginning today, customers in Little Rock, Ark.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Springfield, Mo. and Madison, Wis. can experience the fast speeds available on America’s Largest 4G Network. Customers in Fayetteville and Little Rock, Ark.; Lake Charles, La. and Springfield, Mo. can experience the faster speeds offered by our HSPA+ 42 network with devices such as the recently launched HTC One S. Current customers are experiencing average speeds approaching 8 Mbps with peaks up to 22 Mbps using T-Mobile’s HTC One S.
Wireless carriers request for more data capacity (USA)
Mobile operators in USA have spoken out at an industry conference regarding the limited data capacity and its long term effect on the industry. According to a report by Total telecom, executives from Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA said the future of data use, such as streaming video and photos, is at risk if more airwaves, or spectrum, aren’t put to use.
Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Dan Mead, speaking at the CTIA conference in New Orleans, said the largest carrier will be maxed out in some markets as early as next year and most others by 2015. The carrier is seeking regulatory authority to buy $3.9 billion worth of spectrum from a group of cable companies. He said that they will put this spectrum to use quickly.
T-Mobile’s CEO Philipp Humm said that they require more spectrum, more technologies to manage capacity. The carrier had hoped to be bought by AT&T Inc. last year as part of a $39 billion bid that was ultimately stopped by regulators. Humm said average monthly data use on T-Mobile’s network has risen more than five-fold over the past two years.
Softbank and PayPal form joint venture for mobile payment services (Japan)
Softbank and PayPal have come together to offer mobile payment services in the country. According to reports, the venture is worth $25 million and will be headed by the director of Softbank Mobile, Hiroaki Kitano.
As per a report by the register, John Donahoe, president and CEO of PayPal parent eBay, said that their Our Softbank partnership and launch of PayPal Here will make it easier for millions of merchants in Japan to grow their businesses and for consumers to easily pay anytime, anywhere.
Further, customers will receive the newest Japanese version of the PayPal app, which helps users locate shops that accept PayPal Here payments and transfer the cash with a quick tap on their phone. The business will then receive the customer’s name and picture so that it can verify the payment.
