Russia, Poland to ink agreement on lower roaming rates
The communication ministers of Russia and Poland are planning to sign a memorandum on the reduction of mobile roaming rates in May.
The telecommunications group of the inter-governmental commission for economic cooperation has concluded an agreement on the issue. The Russian government recently signed a similar agreement with Finland and hopes to negotiate reduced rates with the EU as well as more individual countries.
Cell C loses ‘Vodacom Red’ ASA substantiation ruling (South Africa)
The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has dismissed Cell C’s substantiation regarding an adverse ruling related to its ‘anti-red’ campaign.
Vodacom boasted its new red branding three weeks ago, giving the company a distinct Vodafone look and feel. Cell C reacted with an extensive television, print, online and radio advertising campaign poking fun at Vodacom’s new branding.
Vodacom was not happy about some of Cell C’s claims and submitted a complaint to the ASA asking Cell C to substantiate their claim of being South Africa’s number one network, with the fastest broadband speeds in the country and 3 to 5 times the coverage per tower.
The ASA ruled against Cell C, stating that the claims mentioned above are not substantiated and ordered Cell C to remove their advertising campaign with immediate effect. Shortly after this ruling Cell C submitted new information which included a presentation by Finnish operator Elisa that shows 900MHz towers are indeed superior in terms of coverage, indoor coverage and HSPA throughput.
Cell C explained that the new information should substantiate the claims that its HSPA+ 900 MHz network covers 3-5 times more ground and is better indoors with a 10-20 decibel gain. Vodacom responded arguing that as a commercial operator, similar to Cell C or Vodacom, Elisa is not independent and the presentation was not a factual document with substantiated claims but rather a generic case study of a specific network deployment project in Finland, and hence does not qualify as an accepted ASA source.
Vodacom added that it currently has 4,300 3G towers covering 87 percent of the South African population, which is significantly more than Cell C’s 1,550 3G base stations with 43 percent population coverage.
Mobile World supplies Sierra routers to Metsaliitto Group (Finland)
Mobile World Communications is supplying wireless modem manufacturer Sierra Wireless’ AirLink in-vehicle routers for sub-contractors with international forest industry group Metsaliitto Group.
Metsaliitto selected Sierra Wireless AirLink MP895 rugged in-vehicle router to provide 3G connections in its machinery and transport vehicles, enabling real-time transmission of information such as the quantity and location of wood resources.
Sierra Wireless AirLink MP895 router supports four HSPA frequency bands (850, 900, 1900, and 2100 MHz), for compliance across rural areas in Finland, as well as with networks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.
The integrated Aleos embedded intelligence and the AirLink suite of device management software provide Metsaliitto with automated monitoring and control of the AirLink routers, and where necessary, the ability to remotely carry out modifications and software updates.
Elisa offers pre-purchase tickets to Live Nation concerts (Finland)
Elisa partnered event organizer Live Nation Finland will allow its customers to purchase tickets to Live Nation concerts with 24 to 48 hours before the beginning of the public ticket sales.
Customers can buy tickets from www.elisasisapiiri.fi. Registration is required, which can be done via Oma Elisa and Oma Saunalahti self-service channels.
Nokia launches photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas for Ovi Maps (Finland)
Nokia has launched photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas for the web browser based version of its Ovi Maps.
Starting with a bird’s-eye view, people can scale up and down and move around objects such as buildings and trees from their desktop, experiencing a virtual but super realistic perspective of new places. Road-level imagery completes the experience with a detailed 360-degree panoramic view of streets.
With the beta service featuring 20 metropolitan areas, the number of photorealistic 3D models will increase over time. The road-level imagery is now available for five cities, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and San Francisco.
According to Michael Halbherr, Senior Vice President, Nokia, Ovi Maps’ photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas are a significant step towards their vision of bridging the real and virtual world, with location-based services being the glue.
Tecnotree wins long term deal to supply messaging platform (Finland)
Tecnotree, Finland’s developer and supplier of messaging and charging systems has won a long-term contract with a mobile operator in Asia-Pacific to supply Tecnotree Agility Messaging platform.
With the platform, the operator can enhance subscribers’ messaging experience with voice mail and value added features such as Visual Voice Mail and Video Mail. The value of the contract is US$2.7 million.
Tecnotree Agility product suite is grouped into three product lines, including revenue, customer and value, designed to power the digital marketplaces of communication service providers. Revenue consists of products for charging, billing and distribution management.
Customer encompasses products for provisioning, customer care, unified product management and customer lifecycle management. Value category includes messaging, media and entertainment service applications and the enabling service platforms.
Motorola Solutions, Huawei settle legal dispute (US)
Motorola Solutions and China’s Huawei Technologies have announced that they have settled their legal dispute, paving the way for Motorola to complete a deal with Nokia Siemens Networks.
Motorola last year agreed to sell its wireless network business to NSN, a joint venture between Finland’s Nokia and Germany’s Siemens, for $1.2 billion but the deal was held up by the legal tussle with Huawei.
Huawei, a former Motorola partner, had asked a US District Court in Illinois, where Motorola has its headquarters, to block the transfer of Huawei-developed wireless and core network communications technology to NSN.
In January, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman issued a temporary restraining order barring Motorola from turning over confidential Huawai intellectual property information to NSN.
Motorola sued Huawei in July, alleging it used Motorola employees to secure detailed confidential information about its cellular network equipment.
Motorola Solutions and Huawei stated that they have agreed to settle all pending litigation and withdraw all claims.
As per the companies’ statement, the settlement will allow Motorola Solutions to transfer its commercial agreements with Huawei to NSN for an unspecified fee. It will also allow NSN to receive and use Huawei confidential information to service the networks Motorola deployed worldwide using Huawei’s products and technologies.
According to Motorola Solutions President and Chief Executive Greg Brown, they regret that these disputes have occurred between their two companies.
As per Guo Ping, Huawei’s executive Vice President, the Chinese company acted properly and above board at all times and developed its products independently and without the use of any Motorola trade secrets. With the resolution of these cases, and the misunderstandings put to rest, Huawei is pleased to move forward with its efforts to provide innovative solutions to its customers.
Nokia Siemens mulls JV stake sell (Finland)
Nokia Siemens Networks is reportedly considering options to sell a controlling stake in the firm which could be worth about $2 billion.
The company, a 50:50 joint venture between Finnish mobile phone-maker Nokia Corp and engineering giant Siemen AG, is now facing a string of losses and shrinking customer base.
According to reports, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) is considering selling a controlling stake in the four-year-old venture, which could be worth about $2 billion based on a 51% stake.
The report further stated that it is exploring options as private-equity firms renew interest in the company. Nokia Siemens Networks has lost money since its founding, weighing down both its parents. The joint venture officially ends in 2013.
Attributing to spokesperson, the report stated that both Nokia and Siemens are committed to the joint venture until 2013.
Movial launches Communicator on Android, iPhone (Finland)
Movial, an internet software company has launched its Movial Communicator on Android and the iPhone and is working with several operators to launch Android and iPhone VoIP applications.
Movial Communicator, a SIP/IMS (RCS and MMTel) application for operators provides HD voice, HD video telephony, enhanced address book and messaging along with advanced communication user experiences across PCs, mobile, TV and multimedia devices running on MAC OS, Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms.
The company is also working with manufacturers and silicon vendors to enable HD video calling on Android tablets. Movial has launched its Movial Communicator on Android in the Android market in Russia. The Movial Communicator Android and iPhone application integrates the native phone book for intuitive GSM and VoIP calling and messaging.
This enables end users to make IP calls when they are in Wi-Fi coverage. All phone calls and messages are charged to the user’s single phone bill. The Android and iPhone applications are accompanied with PC/Mac applications enabling users with ‘mobile phone’ capacities such as voice calls, SMS, MMS, IM, Presence, and contact list management.
Movial Communicator on Android can be downloaded to Android 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 phones. The application is integrated into Android address books enabling IM and file transfer for access to communications.
Epitiro trials TeliaSonera Finland’s LTE network
Epitiro has completed the independent speed, latency and voice quality-of-experience analysis on a commercially available LTE network.
Tests undertaken on TeliaSonera Finland’s LTE network recorded peak broadband download speeds of 48Mbps (36.1Mbps mean). Mean latency was 23ms.
Epitiro, at the same time, tested TeliaSonera’s legacy 3G network; LTE delivered mean download speeds nine times faster, and its latency was five times faster. Analysis of IP calls to the UK, made using VoLTE, found the quality to be ‘excellent’ on average; measured according to ITU-T PESQ MOS analysis algorithms, with only one call in 298 being of inferior quality.
