Telecom NZ makes ’1 Mobile’ trademark its own
Telecom New Zealand has registered a trademark for its new mobile brand. Telecom had registered the trademark “1 Mobile” in November last year and it is now under consideration by the Intellectual Property Office.
According to sources, it was unlikely that Telecom would dump its XT brand and stated that it is likely a second brand to sit alongside XT in the consumer market.
Vodafone NZ offers Wi-Fi to National Children’s Hospital
Vodafone New Zealand is providing free Wi-Fi to National Children’s Hospital patients.
The move is a result of a deal with the Starship Foundation. Besides free Wi-Fi on three levels of the hospital, the partnership will increase funds for Starship’s National Air Ambulance Service by inviting Vodafone customers to regularly donate $5, $10 or $20 via their monthly Vodafone bill.
Vodafone first formed a relationship with the Starship Foundation through the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal – an ongoing campaign supported by the telecommunications industry whereby Kiwis donate unused mobile phones to Starship for recycling.
Telecom NZ introduces promotion for business smartphone plan
Telecom New Zealand has rolled out a promotion for the $69.96 Business Smartphone plan.
The company is providing the Motorola Defy for $346.96 to customers signing up to the plan on a 24-month contract.
The plan embraces 200 minutes of talk time, 300 SMS messages, and 1 GB of data. Telecom is also offering the Samsung Galaxy 550 when customers sign-up for the plan.
SCE, SNEI to offer security measures to restore PSN service
Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI) will start a phased restoration by region of PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.
The phased restoration will be on a country by country basis beginning in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.
The first phase of restored services for North America and Europe will include sign-in for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords, restoration of online gameplay across PlayStation 3 and PSP, playback rental video content, if within rental period, of PlayStation Store Video Store on PS3, PSP and Media Go.
The restored services will also include Q Music Unlimited, for current subscribers, on PS3 and PC, access to third party services such as VidZone and Mubi, access to ‘Friends’ category on PS3, including friends list, chat functionality, and trophy comparison and access to Playstation Home.
Working closely with several outside security firms, the company has implemented additional security measures that safeguard it against unauthorised activity, and provide consumers with protection of their personal information.
The company has made enhancements to the data security, including updating and adding advanced security technologies, additional software monitoring and penetration and vulnerability testing, and enhanced levels of encryption and additional firewalls.
The company also added a variety of other measures to the network infrastructure including an early warning system for unusual activity patterns that could signal an attempt to compromise the network.
As an additional measure, Fumiaki Sakai, president of Sony Global Solutions (SGS), has been appointed acting chief information security officer of SNEI.
In addition to his current role at SGS, Sakai, in his role at SNEI, will work to reinforce overall information security across the company’s network infrastructure.
Sakai will lead the recruiting effort in finding a permanent CISO for SNEI. As CISO, Sakai will report to Tim Schaaff, president, SNEI, and to Shinji Hasejima, CIO, Sony.
The restoration of the services across the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East are beginning, and consumers will be able to access some of the online functionality provided by both the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. The company expects to have the services restored by the end of May.
The company will be offering customers a ‘Welcome Back’ package of services and content to all registered PlayStation Network and Qriocity account services. The details of this programme will be available at eu.playstation.com shortly. In restoring PSN, Sony has introduced a safety measure which means user will need to update your PlayStation Network account password before user can start using PSN again.
If the user has got a PlayStation 3, he can also do this by updating to system software version 3.61 and then signing in to PlayStation Network from the XMB (XrossMediaBar) Menu once the service is restored in the country. Otherwise, user can change the password by visiting store.playstation.com.
TomTom boosts real time traffic products in US
TomTom is expanding its portfolio of real time traffic products for the US market to industry partners.
By expanding coverage of these real time traffic products to the US, TomTom will enable its industry customers in hardware, wireless, enterprise and government markets deliver services based on the traffic information.
The TomTom real time traffic products for industry partners can act as stand-alone traffic monitoring and reporting systems or be incorporated into their navigation services or routing tools developed to enable manage traffic.
The real time traffic portfolio includes Enterprise Traffic, HD Flow, and HD Route Times. Enterprise Traffic provides precise locations and delays caused by congestion on the road network, allowing routing programmes to provide the route based on current travel times.
HD Flow delivers a real time, detailed view of traffic speeds on the entire road network, designed for integration into traffic management systems or calculating routing travel times.
HD Route Times provides accurate real time travel and delay times for a specific route either on a temporary basis or for permanent services.
Real time traffic products are already available to industry partners in thirteen other countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Additional countries will become available to partners in the course of this year.
2degrees offers LG Optimus 2X smartphone (New Zealand)
2degrees Mobile has introduced the LG Optimus 2X smartphone. The Android 2.2 phone features Tegra 2 Dual-Core 1GHz processor and is upgradeable to Android 2.3 Gingerbread by the end of October.
The LG Optimus 2X features a 4-inch TFT LCD screen, with HD video capture, ULP GeForce GPU, 8GB on board memory, with MicroSD (up to 32GB), HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 5.7Mbps, an 8-megapixel camera with HDMI-outport. The phone comes in a black colour finish.
The LG Optimus 2X will be available through all 2degrees retail stores and through selected outlets around New Zealand in the coming weeks for $999. It can also be purchased online at 2degreesmobile.co.nz.
2Degrees offers data roaming bundles (New Zealand)
2degrees has lowered the cost of mobile data roaming in Australia and also launched international data roaming bundles.
The company now charges US$1.98 per MB for customers roaming in Australia and also dropped the costs of calling New Zealand to US$0.34 per minute.
According to 2degrees, it dropped the price as it has been able to negotiate a better roaming agreement. The operator also launched its first international data roaming bundles starting at US$15.48 for 10 MB of data. The bundle can be used in Australia, the UK, and the US for thirty days.
208 operators in 80 countries currently investing in LTE- Report
A recent report by Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has revealed that around 208 operators are now investing in LTE, which is 98 operators more than in June 2010.
According to the report, the number of countries and territories where LTE systems are deployed or planned has increased by 32 in the same period.
The report confirms 154 firm LTE network deployments are in progress or planned in 60 countries, including 20 networks which have commercially launched. A further 54 operators in 20 more countries are engaged in LTE technology pilot trials or tests.
Taken together, it means that 208 operators in 80 countries are now investing in LTE. The report covers both LTE FDD and LTE TDD systems. The 60 countries and territories having firm LTE network commitments are Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong S.A.R., Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore , South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, UAE, UK, Uruguay, USA, and Uzbekistan.
LTE networks are launched in 14 countries, namely Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, USA, and Uzbekistan. GSA forecasts that at least 81 LTE networks will be in commercial service by end-2012.
Vodafone NZ starts mobile broadband plan promotions
Vodafone New Zealand has introduced a mobile broadband promotion.
Mobile users who sign-up for a 2 GB or 4 GB postpaid mobile broadband plan before 30 June, will get the first six months for their broadband plan at half price.
Customers will also get a free Vodem. The 2 GB broadband plan costs US$40.52 per month and the 4 GB plan is priced at US$56.76 per month.
Kordia considers upgrading rural network to LTE (New Zealand)
Kordia’s Chairman David Clarke has stated that the company is mulling over to upgrade its rural wireless broadband service to 4G technology.
The company missed out on the government’s Rural Broadband Initiative tender and instead could upgrade its own broadband service, which is mainly used by farmers.
In 2003, Kordia built a US$19.81 million rural wireless broadband network called Extend with backing from Telecom and Federated Farmers. The company could upgrade the network with LTE technology using the spectrum it already owns in the 2.3 GHz band.
