JT selects Telcordia OSS for roll-out of Jersey/Guernsey fibre telecoms network (USA)
Telcordia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson and leading developer of mobile, broadband and enterprise communications software and services, today announced that its network planning, engineering and design platform has been selected by JT Group (formerly Jersey Telecom) to support the rollout of a comprehensive fiber telecom network.
JT the leading telecommunications provider for the UK’s Channel Islands, has selected the Telcordia Plan?to?Provision for Fixed Broadband solution to support the replacement of its existing copper network with a newly-designed fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure.
The FTTH project, known as ‘Gigabit Jersey’, means that all 90,000 people on the island will be able to access the fastest broadband speeds available by 2016, from their home or their business.
The Telcordia OSS solution, featuring Telcordia Network Engineer, will provide JT with a map-based tool to accelerate and optimize their FTTH planning, designing, documenting, and inventory management. Dramatic streamlining of the network planning processes and elimination of its manual system will enable the company to reduce the time and cost of their fiber build out program, and allow for better tracking of the FTTH architectures needed to accommodate variations in housing density.
Dave Newbold, Chief Operations & Technology Officer at JT, said that the ability to automate what is a new and complex design process is critical to the business case and ultimately the success of this exciting broadband rollout. He added that the Telcordia solution proved to be uniquely capable in providing the necessary detail, design automation and ability to handle the complexity of this process to the level they require. The designs will conform to their standards, thereby saving them costs with more consistency for their newly hired field engineers, and they also expect efficiency gains as they continue their FTTH deployments across their operating markets.
Telcordia’s broadband rollout automation has proved extremely effective in supporting aggressive fiber rollout programs such as Gigabit Jersey.
JT will also utilize Telcordia’s Total Perspective Planning business analysis solution which will allow JT decision-makers to correlate all of their geographically-referenced information in the form of interactive maps, reports and charts. Using these tools will help support JT in identifying crucial and sometimes hidden relationships, patterns and trends that can help improve network performance, accelerate service deployment, and speed service restoration.
Vodafone partners with Boston Scientific to transform healthcare through mobile (UK)
Vodafone Global Enterprise – the business within Vodafone which manages the communications needs of its largest multinational customers –announced an agreement with Boston Scientific Corporation, a global leader in the design of medical devices, to develop mobile health monitoring solutions that are set to transform healthcare by providing doctors with real-time information about patients’ cardiac health and certain vital signs remotely.
Remote healthcare monitoring systems, powered by Vodafone’s global world-leading machine-to-machine (M2M) technology, will allow patients to use mobile devices to send health information to their doctor without having to leave their home. This reduces pressure on hospital outpatient and inpatient services and significantly increases the speed with which doctors and consultants can respond to early signs of deterioration in their patients’ cardiac condition.
Vodafone Global Enterprise Chief Executive Nick Jeffery said that the mobile internet has already transformed how people work, share their lives with friends and family and learn about the world around them. Wireless communications are now also set to change how we stay healthy and recover from illness. The new mobile technologies will empower both doctors and patients, enhancing quality of care while reducing costs and inefficiency.
Boston Scientific Senior Vice President and President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Michael Onuscheck, said that with long patient lists and busy schedules, doctors are always looking for solutions that improve patient care while driving clinical efficiencies. Their collaboration with Vodafone allows them to use their mobile expertise and provide wireless remote patient monitoring services that appeal to both patients and healthcare providers.
Vodafone to launch ‘Vodafone Guardian’ app (UK)
Mobile phone operator Vodafone has come out with a new parental control service allowing parents to monitor and restrict unwanted content and misuse of the mobile phone by children. According to reports, the new service to be titled ‘Vodafone Guardian’ will enable parents to blacklist certain numbers, transfer unwanted texts to a secured folder as well as set up an approved list for outgoing calls.
Further, sources claim that the new application would also enable parents to restrict internet use as well as manage access to the phone’s camera. With a large number of children owning a smartphone and spending a lot of time surfing the internet, parents have often raised concerns regarding the content being viewed.
The app will reportedly be free of charge and will be made available in a week’s time in the UK along with Egypt, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Further, Vodafone also plans to launch the app in Italy and Spain under the name ‘Smart Tutor’.
Mobile handsets to soon be operated by touchless hand gestures (South Korea)
In what could revolutionize the way customers use their mobile handsets, Korean handset manufacturer Pantech has reportedly announced that it plans to launch an Android handset which offers users a touchless gesture recognition technology which will in turn be provided by the Israeli firm ‘eyeSight’. As per reports, Pantech has said that the handset will enable users to perform tasks such as answer incoming calls, activate their MP3 players and play games by using simple hand gestures.
Sources claim that the LTE handset will come with a 4.5 inch screen and will be powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor. Further, the device is expected to include an 8 mega-pixel camera, 16 GB of internal memory with a 1GB RAM. Gideon Shmuel, CEO, eyesight has reportedly said that Pantech users will be able to enjoy a completely new user experience by controlling their device with their natural and intuitive hand gestures. Further, mobile phone giant, Samsung has also announced that it plans to launch new smartphone devices next year that will feature a flexible display screen.
HTC joins the board for supporting UnionPay’s mobile payment (China)
An agreement between High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), China UnionPay and F-ROAD has been signed on August 9 that will see UnionPay’s mobile payment and associated business promoted.
There are two standards across China, led by UnionPay and China Mobile Ltd. respectively.
In addition, China Mobile boasts of over 20 million registered users for mobile payment, of which the figure for active users on a monthly basis stands at 2 million while the transaction value hit $469.19 million for 2010 as compared to more than $62.55 million ending March 2011.
On the other hand, the standard adopted by UnionPay is apparently popular with financial institutions and banks. 157 banks had signed business agreements with UnionPay as on June 2011, while 60 banks are currently availing of the non-card payment platform of UnionPay.
At the moment, UnionPay just has 400,000 POSes in support of mobile payment, although, this figure is expected to reach 600,000 to 700,000 units before the close of this year. In addition, HTC is known to be bracing up to launch a model of smartphone that will come with inbuilt support for UnionPay’s mobile payment standard. Meanwhile, China Mobile is also planning the release of devices those will support both the existing standards.
ZTE records 35 million handsets for 2011 first half (China)
China based ZTE stated that the handset manufacturer has recorded shipment of 60 million terminal products, of which 35 million devices constitute handsets for the first half of 2011. In the process, the company has seen an approximate 30 percent rise in handset shipments on a year-on-year basis. Interestingly, ZTE has seen a 400 percent increase in smartphone sales, in addition to a 300 percent increase in the USA.
Meanwhile, ZTE’s Blade has emerged as one of the best selling smartphones across the globe. In partnership with about 80 operators worldwide, the Blade is available in about 50 countries, including regions. In China, Blade happens to be biggest selling Android smartphone in China, in terms of daily sales, accounting for 16,000 units per day. So far, there are 2.5 million Blade handsets sold worldwide, primed to hit the five million milestone within this year.
In addition, ZTE is looking at shipping some 12 million smart terminals in the second half of the year, while the company has increasingly captured market shares in China, North America, Europe and Latin America.
Across Europe, ZTE has smartphone partnership deals with more than 65 operators on the back of rising handset sales of more than 30 percent in this part of the world for the same period. Meanwhile, ZTE has seen its Brazilian market share increase by 46 percent, in addition to the company securing investment for a high-tech industrial park, touted to become the country’s biggest telecommunications research, production and training centre; ZTE’s first R&D location in Latin America.
According to ZTE Executive Vice President He Shiyou, they are pleased with the success of the Blade worldwide and of their other handsets in other major markets. In addition, they are aiming to launch over 30 smart terminals during the remainder of 2011, including mid to high-end smartphones such as the ZTE Skate, a smartphone harnessing Windows Phone 7 and TD-LTE dual-module and dual-waiting models.
Facebook leads the pack in terms of adoption as non-voice use of mobile phones soars
Across Europe, Facebook is increasingly becoming the preferred platform as far as mobile phone users are concerned. On top of being one of the top three messaging/email service providers, Facebook is poised to emerge as a major destination for viewing video clips, according to a study. Services offered by Facebook are being seen to be well placed to gain more popularity than its rivals in Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Emergence of Facebook stands to put pressure on local social networks across all markets. In Spain, Facebook has twice as many mobile users as Tuenti while Facebook users in Germany constitute three times the number of mobile users compared to local sites. Although, Hyves in the Netherlands is the major local player in Western Europe, Facebook is predicted to challenge it as well.
Increasing number of smartphones across Europe has see new ways by which mobile users use their phones. Survey respondents who participated in the study were understood to listen to music, play games and browse the Web on their mobile phones, while e-mail and social networking also constituted major indulgences.
The age group between 24 to 35 years who are mostly likely to own multiple devices and are tech-savvy and have more disposable income to spend on the latest services; usually, taken for the most niche target for mobile services. However, the over-35 years of age users are also believed to deserve greater focus now.
In the hindsight, for years the industry has been obsessed with 16 to 24 year olds, but rapid adoption of smartphones by an older audience means it is time to focus an older demographic for mobile services.
Close to one-third adults use smartphone – report (UK)
Ofcom, the telecoms regulator released a report that revealed that nearly one-third adults use smartphones in the UK.
The most popular brand happens to be Apple’s iPhone although, RIM’s Blackberry devices are much favored by the teenagers.
It has also been noted that a drastic increase in mobile internet use is a corollary of the increasingly high adoption of smartphones.
As well, Facebook ranks at the top in terms of the most visited website on handheld devices; 43 million hours were spent on it in December 2010.
The regulator’s own research combined with the work of other analysts in the industry form the annual Communications Market Report furnished by Ofcom.
This report provides a detailed snapshot of the TV, radio, internet and telecommunications consumption across the UK.
Regarding mobile ownership, 58% and 42% constitute male and female owners respectively.
Meanwhile, this trend is reversed with regard to teenagers between 12 years of age to 15 years, where it was seen that 52% smartphone owners constitute girls in comparison to 48% boys.
When the popularity of Apple’s iPhone is compared to that of RIM’s Blackberry, it was seen that 32% adults prefer the former in comparison to 37% teenagers who vouch for the latter brand.
Among the participants in the survey conducted by Ofcom, 37% of the adults, in addition to 60% of the teenagers labeled themselves as addicted to the smartphone.
7.4 billion Mobile connections in 2015 across the globe forecast
Over the next four years, the mobile data revenue across the world will rise to $552 billion, so the analyst firms say.
An 11% increase on the previous year’s 5 billion mobile connections has been predicted for 2011, which will see the number of connections reaching 5.6 billion across the world.
And by 2015, this figure has been forecast to reach 7.4 billion whilst it will depend on the growth rate of the world’s population, in addition to meaning that the mobile penetration will stand at more than 100% on a global basis.
Global mobile data revenue for 2011 has also been predicted to soar to cross $314.7 billion on the back of steady growth, representing an increase of 22.5% from $257 billion in 2010. In addition, mobile data revenue is expected to reach $552 billion globally.
However, revenue from mobile data is expected to grow at a rate much slower than the one for mobile data traffic thereby predictably putting pressure on the finances of the operators.
In view of the proliferation of connected devices on the back of extra network capacity needed to accommodate them all, operators are warned of the probable rise in cost of delivering mobile data traffic to $370 billion by 2016.
On the other hand, operators are advised to save costs by offloading more data traffic from their macro mobile networks, working on generating more revenue from their data services by rolling out tier-pricing and usage-based payment plans while ensuring that operators manage the increase in data traffic in a way that does not risk degrading the user experience.
UN-backed scheme ropes in private sector to provide poor people with mobile phone numbers (UK)
For about three million people that constitute the poorer section across Africa and South Asia, it will now be easy acquiring low-cost mobile phone numbers. The United Nations in collaboration with a technology firm Movirtu will roll out an initiative that will rope in the private sector in the fight against poverty. As part of this scheme backed by the UN, the majority of the beneficiaries would be women.
The Movirtu provided cloud phone number will enable the owner to use any mobile phone to log in with their unique number to make and also, receive individual calls instead of sharing a phone number with family members and so forth. These unique numbers will also help the users gain access to critical information and services in the form of banking or agriculture support.
The Business Call to Action (BCtA) is a global initiative under the aegis of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Global Compact which is the corporate responsibility scheme, in addition to few other organizations and governments, as part of which the UN-backed scheme is being undertaken.
Movirtu is based in the United Kingdom, and the company is looking to usher in the phone technology to minimum 12 markets across Africa and South Asia by early 2013. This move will facilitate access to the technology, to at least 50 million people across both the continents. In addition, the target for the technology’s usage on a regular basis would be 3 million.
By way the unique personal mobile identity, users stand to get access to network applications that provide information about employment opportunities, promote access to mobile payment systems or banking services, and help keep users up-to-date on a variety of health and market topics.
Women in rural communities across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are the primary targets of this scheme.
Movirtu has been instrumental in implementing these phones across Africa; Madagascar being the first market entry point while additional country launches will be announced later this year.
