Vodafone relies on Verizon as profit from Europe declines (USA, UK)
Telecom operator Vodafone Group Plc will have to rely on its U.S. wireless venture to meet profit estimates and cover up declining sales in the European markets, largely Spain and Italy, according to a report by BN.
Vodafone said that operating profit excluding some items may rise as much as 3.2 percent in the 12 months ending March 2013. Profit on that basis slipped 2.4 percent last year to $18 billion after the sale of a stake in its SFR French unit. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile carrier, accounted for 42 percent of the total, an increase of 9.3 percent.
As per the report, Vodafone, which relies on western Europe for most of its revenue, is no longer the world’s biggest mobile-phone company as China Mobile Ltd. boosted sales last year to $81.7 billion. While profits and sales at Verizon Wireless are rising, Newbury, England-based Vodafone still needs to negotiate dividends every year with U.S. partner Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), which controls 55 percent of the venture.
Telefonica launches single pan-European mobile data tariff (Europe)
Telefónica banishes bill shock with the announcement of its first standard pan-European data roaming tariff – giving smartphone customers 25MB of high-speed Internet usage anywhere across the 27 European Union member states for just $2.54 a day.
Telefónica’s EU-wide tariff means mobile customers – on Movistar or O2 networks – will no longer have to worry about the cost of sending or receiving emails, updating their Facebook status or browsing the web on their smartphones when travelling or holidaying abroad.
For $2.54 a day, Telefónica is giving its smartphone customers travelling in the EU a data volume of 25 Megabytes – which translates to 250 visits to essential websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google or BBC Online and up to 500 emails.
Additionally, customers will only pay for days they choose to use data, and will not be charged should they wish to switch off their phone.
The Telefónica tariff weighs in at a fraction of new price caps announced by the European UnionFacebook, Twitter, Google – which ruled that as of 1 July, one data megabyte should cost no more than $0.9, or $22.25 for 25 MB. On a per megabyte basis, Telefónica’s European tariff works out considerably cheaper than the EU’s regulated rate.
José María Álvarez-Pallete, Chairman and CEO of Telefónica Europe, said that users no longer need to switch off their smartphones when travelling within the EU, and neither do they need to worry about bill shock when they get home. Further, their European data tariff gives smartphone customers great value while allowing them to do what really matters – to stay connected wherever they are in a simple and transparent way and with complete peace of mind.
Smartphone customers use on average around 6MB in a day, but any Telefónica customers exceeding 25 MB will be immediately notified. The Pan-European tariff launched in Germany in May and will be available this summer to O2 and Movistar customers in Spain, United Kingdom, Ireland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Telefonica announces major mobile content play with EA (Spain)
Telefónica Digital unveiled its latest play in its global gaming strategy by entering a strategic relationship with EA Mobile, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., which will allow customers to access its world leading games on their mobiles. The service will be available first through O2 in the UK followed by other Telefónica markets.
The deal will give Telefónica’s operating businesses the ability to create innovative gaming promotions using titles from the EA catalogue of consumer favourite brands such as The Sims, FIFA or MONOPOLY. The objective is to make it easy for customers to find the games that they are familiar with and to drive the uptake of mobile gaming, particularly amongst feature phone users.
In the UK, O2 will offer its customers three months of free access to all EA Mobile games following their first download. It is then examining a number of potential promotions or special ‘gaming subscription’ services to offer customers.
Matthew Key, Chairman & CEO of Telefónica Digital, said that their relationship with EA Mobile puts them as the epicentre of mobile gaming – which accounts for the highest percentage of downloaded Apps and is the largest paid mobile content market today. By making a differentiated play in this most emotive and immersive entertainment medium we are fostering a much deeper connection with their customers – another significant step in becoming a true aggregator of experiences.
Bernard Kim, Senior Vice President, Global Social and Mobile Publishing of EA Mobile said that their mission is to deliver games that consumers love – anywhere, anytime, and on any platform they want to play. They know that at least a quarter of mobile users in Europe are playing games on their phones. Their relationship with Telefónica helps more people discover their games, and removes barriers for subscribers to enjoy an entire library of our most beloved titles.
Industry analyst IHS Screen Digest predicts continued impressive growth in the mobile games business. Fuelled by rapid expansion in 3G adoption, smartphone and tablet gaming, the global mobile games market will be worth almost $ 11.8 billion by 2015.
Jack Kent, Mobile Media Analyst at IHS Screen Digest, said that mobile games have been driving the wider mobile applications business, with games the largest content category on all leading application stores. As the mass appeal of mobile games increases, consumers are embracing new forms of content and business models, with free games monetised by micro-transactions – such as in-app purchases – driving growth.
Telefónica Digital has not only underlined its commitment to O2 customers by offering the best gaming experience – through a combination of exclusive promotions and unbeatable value subscription services – but also opened significant new revenue growth opportunities through in-game advertising and media partnerships.
Telefónica and Intel launch an innovative pilot for hybrid clouds (Spain, USA)
Telefónica Digital and Intel have developed a joint pilot to demonstrate that enterprises can easily scale up their computing capacity by moving or growing applications from their internal data centers to the external public or third party cloud.
Telefónica Digital, Intel Labs and the Intel Architecture Group announced that they have successfully conducted the first phase of a joint innovative research program to prove technologies that will allow large, small and medium enterprises to seamlessly migrate computing workloads from their local data center to a third-party public cloud. This solution demonstrates the concept of a cloud-bursting hybrid cloud service.
This solution allows enterprises to move as much of their applications and information technology as they wish to the public cloud, allowing them to keep their important applications (or parts of applications) running internally. This flexibility allows enterprises to meet temporary spikes in demand for business continuity, and to optimize their data center use and capacity.
Companies can now seamlessly interact between their internal cloud and the external public cloud, with no portability or interoperability issues between these two different environments.
The public cloud provides an integrated portal where enterprises will be able to manage their internal data center resources and the resources deployed on the public cloud. Enterprises will be able to interoperate transparently between these two environments. The hybrid cloud provides complete IT capabilities to IT managers in a quick, secure, efficient and flexible manner.
This joint pilot has demonstrated successfully the cloud-bursting exchange from a local private cloud (played by the Intel Cloud Builder facility) to the public cloud (played by the Telefónica Virtual Data Center public cloud service). Cloud resource provisioning across the hybrid cloud is achieved under the OpenStack framework, proving the feasibility of distributing workloads from private to public clouds on top of this open source platform.
The next phase of activities are planned to illustrate the trustworthy enforcement of infrastructure management policies across cloud service boundaries. Operational parameters such as power management policies will be deployed using Intel Trusted Execution Technology, Intel Node Manager and Intel Data Center Manager.
Jim Blakley, Intel Architecture Systems Integration Division Director at Intel, said that this capability brings a previously unavailable level of transparency and federation between cloud consumers and Cloud providers, helping preserve the service policies across cloud boundaries down to the hardware platform level. Cloud consumers will have an easier time assessing service quality and SLA compliance. Cloud providers will be able to offer differentiated cloud services even when their offering is part of a larger service.
Moisés Navarro, Cloud Global Director for Telefónica Digital said that innovations like ‘GoToCloud’ or ‘Real Elastic Cloud’, developed by Telefónica, show their clear commitment on taking care of clients’ needs as well as providing value to the cloud service model. From the Telefónica Digital perspective, the hybrid cloud will contribute to the data-center operator’s ‘Go to Cloud’ strategy that aims to boost the migration of corporate applications to the cloud, as an evolution of its Virtual Data Center cloud product.
FMP Samsung wins two awards at the Mobile World Congress 2012 (Spain, South Korea)
Handset maker Samsung’s main distributor for mobile devices, Future for Modern Products (FMP), was quite successful at the Mobile World Congress 2012 recently held in Spain. According to reports, the South Korean manufacturer was awarded two awards for the year by hosts GSMA of Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona as, ‘Device Manufacturer of the Year’ and ‘Best Smartphone’.
Samsung was awarded best smartphone for the Galaxy SII which is considered to be its most successful smartphone yet. Both FMP and Samsung have reportedly been involved in discussions during the event, charting out future growth possibilities and opportunities.
As per reports, Shehab Rashad, Commercial Director of Future for Modern Products said that they have always been proud of their association with Samsung over these years and recognitions like these for the brand and its products reinforce their belief and commitment to Samsung. Through their partnership, they have expanded the market share for Samsung products in the region, thereby creating a formidable combination of best products with impeccable sales and after sales network.
Telefonica and Boku unveil global mobile payments partnership (Spain)
Telefónica Digital has announced a strategic agreement with BOKU, the global leader in online mobile payments, to enhance its payments capabilities. The agreement, which also sees Telefónica participate as a strategic investor in BOKU’s latest funding round, is a significant development as Telefónica gears up for the launch of its mobile wallet services. The partnership opens up access for BOKU to Telefónica’s global footprint of 25 markets and 300 million customers, while providing Telefónica with access to BOKU’s expertise in secure and reliable online mobile payments.
BOKU has pioneered the use of mobile as a payments mechanism, creating a network of merchants and a method of quickly and easily paying for virtual goods via the customer’s mobile phone bill. Its recently launched BOKU Accounts service expands this, enabling offline purchases in physical stores.
Under the terms of the agreement, BOKU will become Telefónica’s preferred mobile payments partner and Telefónica will extend its relationship with BOKU across its operating businesses. The partnership will provide Telefónica with access to BOKU’s merchant network, expanding the number of places customers will be able to use their Telefónica mobile wallet for purchases. It will also enable an enhanced user experience for online and offline payments, while also improving Telefónica’s own direct to bill capabilities.
Matthew Key, Chairman & CEO, Telefónica Digital, has said that payments are going mobile and they want to be at the forefront of this trend. BOKU has quickly established itself as a true innovator in the mobile commerce space and this investment and partnership gives access to their tools, infrastructure and know how, ideally complementing their own mobile payments expertise. Working with BOKU will allow them to both enhance their operator billing capabilities and the overall payment experience through their future mobile wallet services.
Mark Britto, CEO, BOKU Inc said that BOKU is proud to partner with Telefónica to increase the adoption of mobile operator billing amongst consumers and merchants across the World. They are excited to be working closely with Telefónica to develop an optimal mobile payments solution. This partnership will benefit consumers in several ways, giving them a quicker, easier way to pay across all their connected devices and a better deal at their favorite merchants.
T-Mobile to launch HTC One S in the U.S. (USA, Spain)
At the Mobile World Congress 2012, HTC announced the upcoming availability of the HTC One S, with T-Mobile as the premier launch partner in the U.S. Expected this spring, the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s thinnest smartphone (7.95mm), featuring an ultra-sleek, aluminum unibody design. The next smartphone to take advantage of 4G technology (HSPA+42) running on America’s Largest 4G Network, the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s first product to ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and HTC Sense 4.
With access to T-Mobile’s fastest network speeds, the HTC One S allows for a high-quality entertainment experience, which is also enhanced by Beats By Dr. Dre technology. The Beats Audio integration in the HTC One S is enabled for richer, more authentic sound when consumers listen to music. The HTC One S also makes it simple to get and listen to music, with Google Music pre-loaded on the device for easy cloud-based access to the user’s personal music collection.
Andrew Sherrard, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA, has said that they’re thrilled to partner with HTC on the launch of its new HTC One series of smartphones and to bring the HTC One S to the U.S. He added that with the HTC One S, they’re not only delivering on their promise to bring leading-edge technology to market but are continuing to provide customers with the best 4G entertainment experiences from listening to high-quality music to streaming high-resolution movies.
Consumers increasingly expect smartphone camera technology that offers the ability to capture life’s moments with high-quality photos and videos – and the HTC One S delivers. Joining T-Mobile’s best-in-class lineup of advanced camera smartphones from HTC, the arrival of the HTC One S marks the introduction of HTC’s new amazing camera experience that rivals traditional digital cameras. With the introduction of HTC ImageSense, improvements are brought to every part of the 8-megapixel camera, including lens, the sensor and the software.
Jason Mackenzie, president, global sales and marketing, HTC Corporation says that people take photos on their phone more than any activity other than making phone calls, which is why they improved every part of the camera experience on HTC One S.
MWC 2012 sets new record for event attendance (Spain)
The Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain has proven to be extremely successful. According to a report by the GSMA, the event played host to over 67,000 visitors, setting a new record for the number of attendees. The event was covered in four days and integrated the different players in the telecom industry on one platform.
According to reports, John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd., said that the 2012 Mobile World Congress was a phenomenal success, by any measure. The record numbers that attended this year’s event underscore how central mobile is to the lives of people around the world. He added that this is also illustrated by the breadth of companies that participated at Mobile World Congress, with representation from not only the traditional mobile industry players, but companies from vertical sectors such as automotive, health and finance, among others. It’s exciting to see the powerful role mobile has in driving innovation in new markets.
Further, reports reveal that the MWC helped inject over US$ 395 million to the Spanish economy, an increase of US$ 33 million from the past year. Hoffman added that the Mobile World Congress is an important contributor to the Barcelona economy, and as a key pillar of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona, it is a positive factor in driving new opportunities for companies and individuals in the city and region.
