O2 apologize for snag in London network
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The head of O2 has apologized for the problems the customers faced due to mobile operator’s London network being overwhelmed with bandwidth-hungry smartphones.The customers were disappointed with O2′s network performance in London since summer. However the company started experiencing major network difficulties during the second half of 2009 when
customers with Apple’s iPhone ramped up their use of applications that repeatedly pull data off the internet at short intervals.Without missing the opportunity Vodafone, the second largest operator is claiming that its network will cope far better with the growing number of smartphones.
According to the company the rising demand of data services on smartphones have caused difficulties in the O2 network. Many O2 customers could not make or receive calls and download material to their handsets because of the clogged network by smartphones
However the head of the company has assured that any short term blip in O2′s network Reputation will be addressed by three solutions. Firstly O2 has been working with Nokia Siemens Networks, its infrastructure supplier, on software modifications that will ensure it can better manage the combination of voice and data traffic on its network.
Secondly, the installation of 200 additional mobile base stations in London will increase the traffic load the network can bear.And thirdly O2 is liaising with handset manufacturers, including Apple and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, to learn about applications which might result into heavy demand on the network.
iPhone 3G most used handset in the USA
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The USA is celebrating third generation with iPhone 3G becoming the most used mobile phone in the country.
Ruling over 4 percent of an “embedded base of all subscribers” of US market from January to October, the bestselling device of Apple tops the list of several other competing handsets such as RIM’s BlackBerry and mobile phones made by LG, Motorola, and Samsung.
iPhone 3G’s accumulative sale is just past the BlackBerry 8300 series which has 3.7 percent of the market share, followed by the RAZR V3 series with 2.3 percent and the LG enV2 with 2.1 percent.
Android taking over smartphone market in the USA
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Google’s Android’s popularity is taking over the market of smartphones with 17 percent of the users in the USA considering the purchase of an android-supported device in next three months. iPhone
continues to set the bar with its App Store and passionate user base with 20 percent of the users indicating their plans to purchase an iPhone.
While Android is gaining momentum among developers and consumers, RIM remains the leader among the business set. Android’s share of the smartphone market has doubled by 3.5 percent.
Apple and Android-supported devices were more likely to engage with mobile media than an average smartphone user. 94 percent of Apple iPhone users, 92 percent of Android device users, predominantly T-Mobile G1 users engaged in mobile media activities in September 2009, which is 12 percent more than smartphones users.
87 percent of the iPhone users engage in e-mail as compared to 63 percent of the Android users. Otherwise, Apple and Android users are likely to engage with news via their browser and nearly identical in their mobile application engagement.
Zong, Alcatel-Lucent and RIM join hands to provide Blackberry solution in Pakistan
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zong, the first international brand of China Mobile, launched its Blackberry solution in Pakistan, in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent and Research In Motion (RIM). By using the Blackberry smartphones; wireless sending and receiving of emails, making phone calls, browsing Internet, sending text messages and accessing a wide range of corporate and lifestyle applications while on the move will become possible for the users.
BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Bold smartphones and a choice of BlackBerry Internet Service or BlackBerry Enterprise Server will be offered by Zong initially. ZONG’s postpaid packages will immediately provide the solution besides it will also provide a range of monthly packages tailored to meet customers’ needs.
According to Salman Wassay, Head of Marketing, ZONG, in order to have remote access to their email and calendar information, there was a huge demand for the solution by the subscribers in both the enterprise and consumer markets. BlackBerry Enterprise Server has been offered to corporate clients while individuals and smaller businesses are offered BlackBerry Internet Service.
US operators lose market share for not promoting femtocells
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bad marketing of femtocells, a mini-base stations intended to improve poor cellular coverage and capacity indoors, has resulted in the loss of significant portion of the market of the telecom operators in the USA.
According to a recent online survey of 1000 consumers in the United States, half of US Mobile subscribers are interested in femtocells. Although US operators like Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T have femtocell services on offer, they lack initiative in marketing femtocells or educating consumers on a mass-market scale.
The finding of the survey shows that more aggressive marketing and consumer education campaigns by carriers can produce positive outcomes for the market. However, there are operators who are already experimenting with bundled packages that could alleviate consumers’ price concerns.
Vodafone contracts Clarity Systems for financial reporting process
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone contracted reporting systems provider, Clarity Systems to automate the ‘last mile’ of its financial reporting process.
According to James Oehmke, Finance Executive, Head of External Reporting, Vodafone Group Plc, the data warehouse receives and consolidates tremendous amounts of financial information from the company and from its subsidiary undertakings and joint ventures across the world. The transfer of all these information into annual and quarterly reports, earnings’ press releases and other financial statements involved manual proofreading, re-keying and formatting.
Clarity FSR is designed to help companies deal with increasingly complex statutory and regulatory reporting requirements. Besides, it is the only enterprise software that automates the external reporting process like annual and interim reports and announcements.
The software links the report to the source data, enabling auto-generation of the latest version of the report in multiple formats including XBRL, PDF, Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign.
RIM and China Mobile join hands to expand BlackBerry service
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: China Mobile and Research In Motion will expand the services of BlackBerry to smaller companies and individual users. This will allow RIM to boost use of the “smartphones” in the potentially huge market.
The co- operation between the two also includes the plans to support TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE technologies for BlackBerry devices used in China.
World’s biggest phone carrier by subscribers, China Mobile has been providing BlackBerry services in China since 2006 but the use was limited mainly to employees of a few major corporations.
RIM is also planning to use the national distribution network of Digital China to extend its reach inside the Chinese mainland. According to Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of RIM, extensive knowledge and market presence of Digital China will further expand the opportunity for RIM in China.
China Mobile was awarded the long-awaited Chinese-developed standard, TD-SCDMA from Chinese government early this year.
Nokia EVP claims they might sell their handset manufacturing business. (updated)
Nokia‘s EVP, Anssi Vanjoki in an interview to a German publication (Wirtschaftswoche) admitted that Nokia may look to sell it’s hardware manufacturing unit.
After all, RIM (blackberry), Apple and Google don’t make their own handsets, they have all outsourced the hardware bit of it. Then, Why shouldn’t Nokia?
Interestingly, the smartphone segment is different from the mass market phone segment, but then there is pretty stiff competition there too.
As we all know, in Q3 2009, Apple did knock Nokia off to become the Most profitable handset vendor.
(Update) After the comments from Vanjoki, Nokia is in damage control mode now and Nokia spokesman Thomas Jonsson has issued a statement claiming that the “Logistics and Manufacturing network” are a very important “competitive advantage” for them (Nokia) and a core part of their business, and that they have no plans to change their business model.
iPhone’s rival smartphones to cost more in the UK
The cost of contract smartphones may rise in the UK if a price war erupts between operators over the iPhone.
Orange announced on September 28 and Vodafone on September 29 that they have successfully forged an alliance with Apple to launch the iPhone on their respective networks in the UK. T-mobile and 3 may be announcing something shortly too.
In an attempt to lure customers to the data-happy iPhone, mobile operators will have to increase subsidies on the iPhone. Meanwhile, the cost of other handsets will have to rise as a result. Operators could shift subsidies from other vendors, such as RIM, HTC and Samsung, thus increasing their handset prices.
Orange will be selling the iPhone before Christmas, while Vodafone will only be able to launch it early 2010.
O2 has been bit hard by Apple’s decision to remove its exclusivity after two years. It is thought the network may now look at alternative devices, such as the Palm Pre or Motorola’s android based range of phones to boost revenues.
