www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Besides settling all the claims between them, ¬Samsung Electronics and Rambus have also signed an agreement licensing Rambus’ patent portfolio covering all Samsung semiconductor products including a perpetual fully paid-up license to certain current DRAM products. As per the agreement, US$200 million will be invested by Samsung in Rambus stock.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has also been sighed between the companies relating to a new generation of memory technologies.

The initial focus will be on graphics and mobile memory solutions. According to Harold Hughes, President and CEO of Rambus, bringing together Samsung’s market and technology leadership with their innovations for high-performance and high-efficiency memory architectures will make possible an exciting new generation of mobile, computing and consumer electronics products.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: HD Voice nationwide will be launched by Orange UK on its mobile network in 2010 exclusively for its customers. The technology will offer crystal clear sound quality as if callers are actually in the same room. The handset manufacturers have already started the work on the development of devices to be rolled out next year.

WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech codec is used by HD Voice. The codec has a wider speech bandwidth of 50-7000 Hz compared to the current narrowband speech codec of 300-3400 Hz, thus providing excellent audio quality. Enhanced sound quality utilizing the same network resources is also delivered by WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate).

According to Tom Alexander, CEO of Orange UK, HD Voice will insert a new level of innovation into mobile phone calls and it will transform the mobile experience for customers in the UK.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: African telecom company Millicom officially launched its mobile operations in Rwanda after receiving the license in December 2008, thus becoming the third operator in the country.  The service will cover almost 50% of the population while there are plans to extend the service in the next three years.

The 3G infrastructure of the firm has been deployed in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda including other key urban centers.
According to Mikael Grahne, President and CEO of Millicom, Rwanda has emerged as a highly lucrative market with the population of 10 million, less than 20% mobile penetration and the country’s status as a highly developing economy.

With its strengths in distribution and innovation, the company feels that it can provide Rwanda’s mass market with mobile voice and value-added services.

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Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob, the mobile advertising company, for $750 million.
Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, DFJ and Northgate Capital will see a huge upside from this investment.
AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers:
Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.
AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.
After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:
*Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.
*Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.
*Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.
*Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.
Google has written its own blog post announcing the Admob deal:
iPhone and Android users browse the Internet more often than anyone else [Morgan Stanley], contributing to Google’s 5x mobile search growth over the past two years
And a quarter of these same iPhone and Android users spend nearly 90 minutes per day using applications on their devices [AdMob]
Google has also set up a website to explain the benefits of the AdMob acquisition, detailing the rapidly growing (and still in its infancy) mobile advertising space. Google has also shown what it has currently vis-a-vis where admob is popular today:

Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob, the mobile advertising company, for $750 million.

Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, DFJ and Northgate Capital will see a huge upside from this investment.

AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers:

Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.

AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.

After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:

  • Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.
  • Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.
  • Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.
  • Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.

Google has written its own blog post announcing the Admob deal:

iPhone and Android users browse the Internet more often than anyone else [Morgan Stanley], contributing to Google’s 5x mobile search growth over the past two years..

And a quarter of these same iPhone and Android users spend nearly 90 minutes per day using applications on their devices [AdMob]

Google has also shown in its press section,  what it has currently vis-a-vis where admob is popular today:

Google -Admob

Google -Admob

As Google points out, the deal follows similar acquisitions by traditional online companies looking to move into mobile:  AOL bought Third Screen Media more than two years ago, Yahoo picked up Actionality and Microsoft bought ScreenTonic.

M-Pesa launches in UK (Kenya)

Vodafone’s group company, Safarikom has launched m-pesa, it’s mobile money transfer and payment service at selected outlets in the UK.

Kenyans in the UK  can now send money to their friends and family in Kenya through M-pesa UK, direct to their mobile phone wallets.

Western Union, Provident Capital Transfers and KenTv were involved in a small pilot before the commercial launch of this service.  A total of 19 outlets with high local kenyan population were selected to trial this service.

To send money using M-PESA, the sender in UK will be required to identify themselves and furnish the agent with the recipient’s name, Kenyan mobile number and the amount being sent in Sterling Pounds. This will be converted at current rates and sent in Kenyan Shillings.  Neither party is charged a registration fee.

A transaction fee ranging from £4 to £6.90 will be charged though.

Following authorisation by the Central Bank of Kenya, Safaricom shall be increasing the locations in the UK from which money can be sent to M-pesa customers as well as launching services across other popular remittance corridors

Currently, the maximum amount that can be sent internationally per transaction through M-pesa is £250 while the total allowable per month from a single sender in the UK is £1,000.

“The successful take-up of M-PESA in Kenya has clearly demonstrated the demand for easily accessible, secure cash payment services in emerging markets,” said Nick Hughes, Vodafone’s Head of International Mobile Payments. “Our partnership with Western Union allows M-PESA subscribers to receive international remittances and builds on the demand we have already seen domestically in Kenya.”

“This program aligns a global leader in money-transfer services, the world’s largest mobile operator group, and arguably one of the most impressive success stories in mobile money,” said Matt Dill, Senior Vice President, Western Union Digital Ventures.  “In offering M-PESA users the opportunity to receive funds from abroad for the first time, these three companies are changing the way money moves around the
globe.”

Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said: “We wish to invite Kenyans living in the UK to take advantage of this service, which presents a real innovation on our M-pesa menu. Through strategic partnerships with Western Union, Provident Capital and KenTV we are giving them an opportunity to convert across two currencies into M-pesa and send money affordably without any hidden costs – directly to the mobile phone of the recipient.”

Roshan reaffirms its position as country’s largest mobile network as it end 2008 with a subscriber base of 3million. In H2′08, Roshan added a million new subscribers to its kitty driven by perfect tariff structure, innovative services and ever expanding coverage. ‘Since its inception, Roshan has been committed to connecting the people of Afghanistan to each other and the world, which means providing choices that meet individual needs and aspirations,’ said Altaf Ladak, chief operating officer at Roshan. ‘The support and trust of Roshan customers has played a pivotal role in growing the Roshan family of subscribers to three million.’

   

TeliaSonera expands Eurasian footprint

Nordic operator TeliaSonera is to acquire US firm MCT, which has controlling interests in three Eurasian GSM carriers and a minority stake in Afghan operator Roshan.

   

 

 

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