AirG’s Mobile Community Hits 10 Million Users; Becomes World’s Fastest Growing Mobile Social Network

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — (MARKET WIRE) — August 28, 2006 — AirG, the global leader in powering mobile communities and wireless social networking, announced today that as of May 1, 2006, its mobile community reached a new milestone by surpassing more than 10 million unique users, making it the fastest growing mobile social network in the world. The rapid growth of AirG’s community is evidence that wireless social networking is becoming a mass market phenomenon and will soon rival the popularity of social networking on the Internet.AirG has been successfully powering social networking on mobile phones since 2000, and has built a mobile community that is interconnected to more than 85 mobile operators globally, including Sprint Nextel, Cingular, Boost Mobile, Orange and Virgin Mobile. Many of AirG’s millions of unique users are in the coveted 18-25 demographic and spend an average of 59 minutes per day in the community. Based on these numbers, it is no surprise that mobile operators, media companies, consumer brands and advertisers alike are taking notice.

“AirG’s social network is the only mobile application in the market today where users are captive in a live and interactive environment on their phones for an average of an hour each day,” commented Frederick Ghahramani, co-founder of AirG. “This provides a tremendous opportunity for mobile operators, brand holders and advertisers to engage customers and communicate with them directly.”

To demonstrate the power of mobile communities to reach consumers directly, AirG recently conducted a survey in its community where over 30,000 users responded in just 90 minutes and provided valuable insights into their spending habits and behaviors. The survey found that the majority of users would rather chat on their phone than watch TV, do not own a PC, spend more than $80 each month on their mobile phone, and spend more than $100 each month on clothes and entertainment. In fact, the response rate to advertising in AirG’s mobile community is on average more than ten times as effective as online.

AirG’s comprehensive suite of mobile community products includes the Community Marketing Engine, Community Patrol, Community Storefront, Community Marketing Toolkit and Micro-Community Interface, and is available for licensing by mobile operators, media companies and consumer brands. By combining instant critical mass, recurring revenues, 24×7 monitoring and support, and the ability to target market directly to users in the community with a patented cutting edge user interface; AirG has the most feature-rich, interactive and fastest growing mobile community solution available in the market today.

About AirG

AirG powers mobile communities and wireless social networking. The company’s products and services have a proven track record of increasing customer affinity for leading mobile operators and media companies globally including Sprint Nextel, Cingular, Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Orange and MTV Asia. AirG’s mobile community has more than ten million registered users worldwide and is available on more than 85 mobile operators. Based in Vancouver, Canada, the company also has offices in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, the Philippines and India.

Source- http://www.marketwire.com

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Siemens to build mobile phone network in Kabul

FRANKFURT, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Germany’s Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) has won a deal to build a mobile phone network in Kabul, the capital of war-torn Afghanistan, the company said on Thursday.The industrial conglomerate said it would build a third-generation (3G) W-CDMA network and supply second-generation equipment to the Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), the country’s first mobile phone company.AWCC is owned by U.S.-based Telephone Systems International (TSI), a company incorporated in 1998 for the sole purpose of establishing a commercial telephone system in
Afghanistan.Siemens said in a statement that about 1.5 million people or 4 percent of the population use mobile telephony in
Afghanistan, where fighting is at its worst since a U.S.-led coalition drove the hardline Islamist Taliban from power in 2001.

“In addition to voice communications, we want to deliver mobile Internet access and mobile TV to our customers over the 3G network,” TSI Chief Financial Officer Dan Florentine said in the statement.

Source- http://today.reuters.com

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Meridian Mobile launches Fly Mobile Phones

Meridian Mobile, which is part of the UK based Meridian Group and pioneered the FMCG distribution in many parts of Europe, now launches its flagship brand for GSM phones “Fly” in India. Fly was launched about two years ago in East and Central Europe and has since emerged as a strong player in that market. It has in a short span also carved a credible market in these countries and is now ready for a launch in UK, Spain, Germany and South Asia. Meridian Telecom is now poised to become one of the fastest growing companies in mobile telephony today.

Product development is a key strength of Meridian. Sourcing professionals from the German office of Meridian Telecom have selected models for the Indian market that are both at the cutting-edge of features, design and incorporate the best of international styling. Also, Meridian Telecom has over a period of one year carried-out extensive and rigorous testing and customization of Fly products for the Indian market.

Fly is being launched with a variety of exclusive and differentiated mobile phones. Stated Rajiv Khanna, CEO, India Operations, “It is important to have fully loaded phones as the replacement market gets stronger. This is likely to result in huge demand for feature rich and stylish phones. Meridian will offer the critical buyer with smart value choices.”

Further stated Mr. Khanna, “Our marketing strategy is to focus on store branding and forging alliances with retailers. In the 1st phase our focus is on placement. We hope to reach 5000 premium counters by the end of 1st quarter, which will together account for 70% of the over-all retail sales.”

Given the contemporary styling of Fly phones, the diva Malaika Arora has been signed-on as the brand ambassador. Malaika Arora has been selected from among other contenders to be the brand ambassador, and is very excited to be associated with Fly. She would personally kick-off the launch of Fly both in print and electronic media. Fly phones, which reflect the best of trendy & glamorous styling, would be aptly showcased by the style icon Malaika Arora.

Fly SL 500M is a chic and very thin slider phone, has 1.3 Mega-Pixel camera with expandable memory, video ring tones with MPEG 4 and IRDA, Bluetooth and every other conceivable feature such as video recorder and player, MP3 player and 64 tone polyphonic and MP3 tones. This model would be available at Rs 10,990/- ( MRP ).

Fly SL 300M is a very smart slider camera phone and comes in a very attractive black color. Fly SL 300M will lead ‘Fly’ positioning in the media blitz to follow. It has features like MP3 player, video player and recorder, 64 tone polyphonic and MP3 ring tones and expandable memory.This model would be available at Rs 8,990/- ( MRP ).

Fly MP 330 – The Stereo Phone, is the only phone in the market that can enhance equivalent volume of 40 Watts. It has features like 1.3 Mega-Pixel camera with woofer and speaker console, which is yet to be launched even in the West. It also has video recorder and player, 64 tone polyphonic and MP3 tones. This model would be available at Rs 10,490/- ( MRP ).

At only 9.2 mm width, Fly 2040 is one of the slimmest phone in the market that can easily fit into a wallet. It comes laden with features like 1.3 Mega-Pixel camera with Flash, Bluetooth enabled ( voice, data and music ), MP 3 player, continuous video recording and playback, 262K TFT display, Video Ringtones, 60 MB Internal Memory ( Nand Flash ), Micro SD Card Slot and IrDA connectivity. This model would be available at Rs 8,490/- ( MRP ).

Fly MX 300 is a slim clamshell phone, with 262K TFT main LCD display and 65K CSTN sub-LCD display. It is one of the slimmest in its category at only 14.9 mm. It has features like video ringtones, 1.3 Mega-Pixel camera with Flash, Bluetooth enabled (voice, data and music), MP 3 player, continuous video recording and playback, 60 MB Internal Memory ( Nand Flash ), Micro SD Card Slot and IrDA connectivity. This model would be available at Rs 9,990/- ( MRP ).

MARKETING PLANS
Our key success is getting more value with targeted marketing. Regular promotions reinforce our brand values. Stated Mr. Khanna, “Our product roadmap is very vibrant and will differentiate us easily.”

The marketing spend in the first year is likely to be USD $2 Million.

The trade has shown an unprecedented enthusiasm for Fly phones, which can be seen from the fact that it is the first time that any new brand of mobile phones has been presold, and it reflects the attractive product value proposition of Fly.

Fly is known internationally for its distinctive, chic styling and features that appeal to all segments of the youth. Indeed in Europe, Fly has received a fantastic fan-following from the youngsters and commands a leading position in this segment. Fly has a range of models that are smart value and packed with features and have unique styling, which gives them a differentiated edge over other key players.

Meridian enjoys a 3-5% market share in the market we operate from. We aim to get the same market in India.

SERVICE SUPPORT
States Mr. Khanna, “At Meridian, we believe that superior sales service in an intrinsic part of our business model. For our mobile phones we have a tie-up with two blue chip service partners, AFL which is an affiliate of DHL worldwide for Logistics and Accel for after sales service, which has over 50 locations in India.”

Source- http://www.agencyfaqs.com

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Excessive handset subsidies in Netherlands come to an end

Following T-Mobile’s recent announcement, market leader KPN has also decided to cut the commissions it pays to retailers for selling mobile services in The Netherlands. From September, KPN will gradually reduce handset subsidies and sales commissions. The handset subsidies and excessive sales commissions have been a thorn in the side of operators in recent years amid an increasingly saturated Dutch mobile market. The handset subsidies and sales commission contribute to very high churn rates, reaching 30 percent, but do not add to service revenue growth, putting pressure on profit margins. A reduction was inevitable, but the question was which operator dared to take the first step and risk giving the competition an advantage? The first move by T-Mobile and the recent success of E-Plus in Germany may have helped KPN take the decision to pull the plug on handset subsidies in The Netherlands.

Source- http://www.telecompaper.com

MVNO deal signed by Tele2 in Germany

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement has been signed between Tele2 Telecommunications Services GmbH and VIAG Interkom in Germany as per which Tele2 will use Interkom’s wireless network to provide the air interface for Tele2′s fixed line customers.

With over 1 million residential and business fixed telephony customers, Tele2 is one of Germany’s largest Indirect Access Operators.

According to Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, President and CEO of Tele2 AB, Germany is the largest telecoms market in Europe and this MVNO will enable Tele2 to offer an attractively priced offering of both fixed and mobile services on one bill to its customers.

The MVNO is expected to be operational in Q2 2002.