Ozura Mobile Chosen as Excite Japan’s First International Distribution Partner
Ozura Mobile, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nextnation Communication and a leading international publisher and developer of mobile entertainment, today announced that it has been chosen as Excite Japan’s first international mobile game distribution partner.
Singapore (PRWEB) August 23, 2006 — Ozura Mobile, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nextnation Communication and a leading international publisher and developer of mobile entertainment, today announced that it has been chosen as Excite Japan’s first international mobile game distribution partner.
Excite Japan, one of Japan’s largest web portals and mobile game providers, is granting Ozura Mobile the distribution rights for its premium mobile game titles. Ozura Mobile plans to make these games available through its extensive network of distribution channels consisting of major mobile operators and distribution partners in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, China, India and the United Kingdom.
“Ozura Mobile has been chosen as the preferred international mobile game distributor due to its well established presence in the global mobile gaming industry,” said Ozura Mobile’s Chief Executive Officer, Lion Peh.
Peh added that Ozura Mobile will be effectively offering more than 150 million mobile subscribers in its network the chance to play some of the most sought after mobile games today.
“This partnership with Excite Japan clearly reflects growing international recognition of Ozura Mobile’s cutting edge technology in the development of mobile gaming platforms. Our mobile gaming platform, FunlogiXâ„¢, is one of the most sought after platforms in the mobile gaming industry as it is highly compatible with games from all over the world ranging from Japanese to Russian origin developed using different development tools,” commented Peh.
He further revealed that over the next 3 years, Ozura Mobile expects a boost in revenue of up to USD20 million from global sales via this partnership.
Informa forecasts mobile gaming sales will generate USD$7.2bn a year worldwide by 2011, growing from the USD$2.4bn sold in 2006. The international provider of specialist information also predicts that Asia Pacific, which dominates mobile games sales, will account for nearly half the industry by 2011.
“The rapid revolution in the mobile gaming market, especially in the Asia Pacific, represents a huge potential for us. We have recently launched Indonesia’s first mobile gaming community with Indosat and we are soon to roll out more of our deployment programs in Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, China and Hong Kong. This will be another win for us in tapping into the substantial global gaming market,” said Peh.
To date, Ozura Mobile has published and aggregated an extensive compendium of games through its distribution network worldwide, representing over 2,000 game titles in over 130 countries. With its propriety gaming platform, FunlogiXâ„¢, Ozura Mobile also provides its state- of- the- art community based mobile gaming technology to mobile operators worldwide.
About Excite Japan Co. Ltd
Excite Japan Co., Ltd is one of the leading Japan-based Internet service provider. The Company has five business segments. The Advertising segment is engaged in the sale of advertising space on its Website to enterprises. The Content Service segment offers community services, music download services, online games and others. The Broadband Service segment provides Internet access services, mainly broadband services to general consumers. The Electronic Commerce (EC) segment is engaged in the sale, auction and shopping of commodities through Internet systems. The Others segment is involved in the development of Internet systems, as well as the management of fan clubs and the provision of services for beauty salon services through Internet. Excite Japan is a subsidiary of Itochu Corporation. Headquartered in Tokyo, the Company has three consolidated subsidiaries and three associated companies.
About Ozura Mobile
Ozura Mobile is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nextnation Communication Berhad and is a leading international developer and publisher for mobile games and game developer engine to carriers, aggregators, mobile phone manufacturers and service providers. The company creates games for the mobile phones based on the J2ME, BREW and Symbian platforms. Ozura Mobile’s games are available all over the world through its distribution network of partners spanning across 130 countries. It is expected that the growth of mobile phones supporting these platforms will exceed one billion units worldwide in 2008.
About Nextnation
Nextnation’ a mobile application service provider’ enables businesses and individuals to access’ connect’ and transact across today’s complex global mobile networks. Its core product MINDCEPâ„¢ Platform is a mobile multimedia communication platform’ facilitating and enabling mobile data transmission worldwide using WAP’ MMS’ SMS and Java technologies. MINDCEPâ„¢ is connected to some of the largest premium messaging networks in the world in order to offer a broad range of services from content distribution to mobile m-commerce and place the company at the forefront of this rapidly growing messaging market. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.nextnationnet.com.
Source- http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb427786.htm
Technorati : Japan, Mobile, Ozura
Ice Rocket : Japan, Mobile, Ozura
Hutch returns to profit on better business in India, Israel
(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications returned to profit in the first half of this year, boosted by an improvement in its businesses in India and Israel.
Net profit for the six months ended June was HK$2 million ($257,100), a turnaround from a net loss of HK$370 million ($47.6 million) in the first half last year.
Hutchison Telecom, a unit of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa, said its first half revenue rose to HK$15.67 billion ($2.01 billion), from HK$10.59 billion ($1.36 billion).
The company attributed the improvement in its profitability in the first half to strong performance in the Indian and Israeli markets.
The company’s Indian operation, Hutchison Essar, was the largest revenue contributor. It reported a first-half revenue rise of 51% to HK$7.09 billion ($1 billion), while its subscribers doubled to 17.5 million.
In Israel, Hutchison’s Partner Communications had a 5% rise before taxes to HK$1.51 billion ($148 million), on a “healthy increase” in its customer base and average minutes of use.
“Customer growth in the first half was in line with our expectations and, provided there is no slowing of the momentum in India, we expect that to continue in the second half,” Hutchison Telecom said in a statement.
The company’s business in the second half will depend largely on the timing of operation launches in Indonesia and Vietnam, both of which are scheduled for the second half of 2006, the company said.
Source- http://www.telecomasia.net
Technorati : Hutch, India, Israel, Mobile
Ice Rocket : Hutch, India, Israel, Mobile
After China, Ericsson Moves Into Indonesia and Bangladesh
An Ericsson statement said the company has signed a deal with
Indonesia’s largest cellular phone operator Telkomsel to provide a 3G/WCDMA network. Another statement said it has been given a managed services contract by Warid Telecom for a GSM/GPRS network in
Bangladesh. Under a three-year agreement signed with Telkomsel, Ericsson will deliver a 3G/WCDMA radio and core network, including HSPA, with deployment beginning immediately. The contract also includes three years of managed services, with Ericsson providing a comprehensive services offering including establishing, operating and managing the operations of Telkomsel’s 3G network. Bengt Thornberg, Country Manager of Ericsson
Indonesia, said: “We have had a longstanding cooperation with Telkomsel for more than 10 years and we are honored to be selected to deliver its 3G network in
Indonesia. Our solutions will allow Telkomsel to introduce new and advanced services in the country.”
Telkomsel is 65 percent owned by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk and 35 percent by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.
The
Bangladesh contract covers the operation, management and maintenance of Warid Telecom’s core GSM/network, backbone transmission and real-time charging/Value Added Services (VAS). This agreement is an extension to the contract signed earlier this year where Ericsson was chosen by Warid Telecom to supply and implement the complete core and backbone transmission equipment for its nationwide GSM/GPRS network. Ericsson will now also manage Warid Telecom’s radio network in the western part of the country, covering the areas of Rajshahi,
Khulna, and
Barisal.
Muneer Farooqui, Warid Telecom CEO said: “By having Ericsson to manage and operate our network, we are able to focus our resources on building our branding, sales and marketing activities, strengthening our customer services and developing more services that meet our subscribers’ needs and expectations.”
Jan Signell, President, Ericsson South East Asia, added: “We are proud of being selected by Warid Telecom in this contract. We have enjoyed a fruitful managed services partnership with them in
Pakistan, where Warid has exceeded its own expectation. We are committed to ensure that Warid Telecom repeats similar success in
Bangladesh.” The GSM expansion contracts with China Mobile together worth $550 million were signed during the first half of 2006. They include projects in 17 regions of
China. Ericsson has already started deliveries of network equipment which it claims will be able to support nearly 200 million subscribers across the 17 regions. Under the contracts, Ericsson will provide China Mobile with core and radio networks, together with related technical support and services. It will also deploy its Mobile Softswitch Solution in the contracted regions.
Source- http://news.tmcnet.com
Technorati : Bangladesh, Ericsson, Indonesia, Mobile
Ice Rocket : Bangladesh, Ericsson, Indonesia, Mobile
Indonesia finally gets 3G; Telkomsel leading the pack
The country’s largest cellular operator, PT Telkomsel, launched its third-generation (3G) service Tuesday, marking the first commercial introduction of 3G to
Indonesia.”Today marks the start of a new era in the world of Indonesian cellular telecommunications,” said Telkomsel president director Kiskenda Suriahardja. With its advanced technology, 3G allows its users to combine voice, text, pictures and video-streaming, plus broadband internet connection operating on mobile interfaces that are equipped for 3G. All these services can be accessed at a much faster pace than is the case with the existing 2.5G technology. During the kick-off ceremony, Telkomsel signed contracts for network deployment with vendors Nokia and Ericsson, and will do so later with Siemens, to support the rollout of Telkomsel’s 3G network. Telkomsel also signed collaboration agreements with 4 initial content providers — SCM, Metro TV, Bizcom and Elasitas — in order to provide a large selection of content through live mobile TV services, video-on-demand streaming and video downloading. In addition, Kiskenda said that Telkomsel had also entered into collaborative arrangements with another 162 local and foreign content providers. “During the initial stage, 3G services will be available in nine big cities:
Medan,
Palembang, Batam,
Jakarta,
Bandung,
Semarang,
Yogyakarta,
Surabaya,
Bali,
Makassar and
Balikpapan,” Kiskenda said. “At the end of the year, they will be available in 20 cities,” he added.
Kiskenda explained that the rollout of 3G around the country over the next three years would cost Rp 3 trillion.
“We are optimistic that by 2009, we will have arrived at breakeven point for the overall investment,” he said. Regarding charges, Kiskenda said that these would be determined by the type of services required, the data capacity of the downloaded content, roaming expenses and basic costs. Also on Tuesday, Telkomsel launched a customer pre-registration program through which Telkomsel customers who already have a 3G-equipped phone can sign up by simply sending a text message for the chance to become part of the initial group of 10,000 early adopters to experience Telkomsel’s 3G services firsthand. Kiskenda explained that before launching its 3G services, the company had conducted numerous trials and evaluations to make sure that everything would run smoothly. He said that as of the second week in August, the number of Telkomsel customers stood at 31.5 million and that this figure was expected to reach 35 million by the end of the year, accounting for about 55 percent of the country’s total cellular users.
In addition to Telkomsel, PT Exelcomindo Pratama, PT Indosat, PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler (Lippo Telecom) and PT Cyber Access Communications also hold 3G licenses.
Source- http://www.thejakartapost.com
Technorati : 3G, Indonesia, Mobile, PT Telkomsel
Ice Rocket : 3G, Indonesia, Mobile, PT Telkomsel
Hutchison Shows Small Profit
Hutchison Telecommunications’ (HTX) first half results show operating profit more than doubled and the company recorded ts first profit attributable to equity holders of the company.Commenting on the results, Dennis Lui, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Telecom said: “I am delighted to report record results for the first half of 2006, which includes a profit for the period of HK$644 million. This confirms that the strategies we implemented in 2005 have successfully resulted in sustained growth and improved performance during the period. Together with our stringent cost policies, aggressive network expansion plans and commitment to leading-edge customer service, we are driving profit improvements which position us to achieve our targets for 2006.”
The increase in turnover was driven primarily by the growth in India, which contributed 45% of the Group’s turnover of HK$15,666 million. EBITDA increased 61% to HK$4,759 million, while the EBITDA margin improved to 30.4% compared to 27.9% in the corresponding period in 2005.Operating profit for the period more than doubled to HK$2,302 million. This impressive performance was a result of greater contributions from the Group’s operations in India and Israel, the return to profitability for the mobile operation in Hong Kong and the reduction of loss from the operation in Thailand.Profit for the period was HK$644 million compared to a loss of HK$220 million last year.
Customer growth in the first half was in line with expectations and the company expects that to continue in the second half. Its network expansion is continuing at a rapid pace, particularly in India. The company says it maintains their outlook of capital expenditure of HK$13.5 billion to HK$14.5 billion for the full year although there may be some lag in booking capital expenditure that may result in some of the planned capital expenditure flowing over into 2007.The company achieved a small profit attributable to equity holders in the first half of 2006. The extent to which this is sustained in the second half of 2006 will depend on the timing of the launch of operations in Indonesia and Vietnam, both of which are scheduled for the second half of 2006.
Source- http://www.chinatechnews.com
Technorati : Hutchison, Mobile
Ice Rocket : Hutchison, Mobile
