BURLINGTON, USA & MARLOW, UK: Nuance Communications Inc. has acquired SpinVox, a leading provider of voice-to-text services to telecommunications companies across five continents. By integrating SpinVox’s carrier services with Nuance’s advanced speech recognition platform, Nuance will further accelerate the growth of its voice-to-text business and scale to meet the needs of a growing, global customer base.
As the estimated number of operational voicemail boxes in the world has passed one billion, and consumer and corporate activity now generate over 150 billion voicemails a year, Nuance and SpinVox have experienced strong interest in voice-to-text automation.
The two companies helped pioneer solutions that utilize speech recognition and transcription workflow solutions to convert voicemails into text that can be sent to users as SMS or email messages. This transaction marries innovative speech solutions and robust carrier-grade infrastructure to accelerate innovation, and deliver these voice-to-text services to global subscribers.
“Around the world, the voice-to-text market has experienced tremendous growth over the last year, with a variety of innovative services being delivered by carriers and unified communications providers,” said John Pollard, vice president, Nuance Voice-to-Text Services. “With SpinVox’s robust infrastructure, language support and operational experience, we will broaden the reach and capabilities of our platform.”
Through this acquisition, Nuance intends to expand its operations and accelerate growth in three key areas:
* Service quality: The combination of SpinVox’s global infrastructure with Nuance’s proven speech recognition technology provides robust, carrier-grade voice-to-text services with outstanding quality, ISO security certification, and highly-scaled production systems that handle millions of messages per day;
* Global reach: The combination will achieve the broadest language support in the industry, including English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, and Portuguese, and a customer list that includes major carriers throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Australia; and,
* Innovation: By combining Nuance’s sophisticated speech recognition technologies with both companies’ experienced solutions development teams, Nuance expects to accelerate innovation for voice-to-text services. The acquisition creates a voice-to-text platform – comprising full and partial speech automation, Web services integration and advanced features – that is state-of-the-art today, and offers customers and partners the assurance of technological leadership through its robust product and services roadmap.
Under the terms of the agreement, consideration for the transaction is approximately $102.5 million, comprising $66 million in cash and $36.5 million, or approximately 2.3 million shares, in Nuance common stock.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Fluke Networks acquires ClearSight Networks
EVERETT, USA: Fluke Networks, the leader in network installation and analysis, announced today that it has acquired ClearSight Networks, a leading provider of network analysis tools for real-time application monitoring, protocol analysis and troubleshooting. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
ClearSight's industry-leading products provide network engineers deep visibility into their network traffic. Insights into performance, security and anomalies are delivered through the ClearSight Analyzer (CSA) and Network Time Machine (NTM) product lines. ClearSight's leading protocol analysis, deep packet inspection and forensic stream-to-disk technologies further strengthen Fluke Networks' leadership position in network analysis, monitoring and testing.
Enterprise IT managers, network engineers and data center managers are challenged with ensuring that networks maintain high service quality and 24/7 reliability in order to support business critical applications and services. Engineers must monitor, analyze and troubleshoot networks to assure this performance and quickly isolate problems when they do arise.
Whether 1G, 10G or Wi-Fi, local networks pervade all aspects of business operations and Fluke Networks delivers a full line of systems, analyzers and tools that enable engineers to deal with the proliferation of IP-based applications and services, including IP voice and video.
"ClearSight's network analysis solutions maximize network engineers' ability to actively monitor critical links carrying high volumes of network traffic for performance bottlenecks, security anomalies and intermittent disruptions," said Arif Kareem, President, Fluke Networks. "ClearSight's powerful historical analysis, when coupled with deep packet inspection and monitoring, provide the comprehensive visibility needed to isolate, diagnose and resolve problems before they impact network performance."
ClearSight offers CSA, a premium software protocol analyzer, and NTM, a real-time network traffic monitoring solution that employs deep packet inspection and stream-to-disk storage capacity for historical analysis. NTM supports both 1G and 10G Ethernet connectivity in portable and distributed versions. CSA software is a feature-rich and easy-to-use protocol analysis solution for laptops.
ClearSight's NTM monitors and captures every packet in a two-way traffic flow for up to one month of data from a single GbE link. The company's products combine a simple user interface with the ability to capture, index and classify complex network data, providing an extremely intuitive method for managing a network to support business critical applications and high-performance services.
"Fluke Networks' philosophy of providing Network SuperVision, giving users superior visibility and insight into networking infrastructures they can't get anywhere else, is a natural fit with ClearSight," said Sam Li, technology founder of ClearSight.
"Our products have defined ease-of-use in protocol analysis and application analysis visualization. We provide tools that are easy enough for less experienced technicians yet deep enough for complex root cause analysis by senior engineers. FNET delivers similar breakthroughs in ease of use across their entire line -our combination is powerful."
ClearSight's industry-leading products provide network engineers deep visibility into their network traffic. Insights into performance, security and anomalies are delivered through the ClearSight Analyzer (CSA) and Network Time Machine (NTM) product lines. ClearSight's leading protocol analysis, deep packet inspection and forensic stream-to-disk technologies further strengthen Fluke Networks' leadership position in network analysis, monitoring and testing.
Enterprise IT managers, network engineers and data center managers are challenged with ensuring that networks maintain high service quality and 24/7 reliability in order to support business critical applications and services. Engineers must monitor, analyze and troubleshoot networks to assure this performance and quickly isolate problems when they do arise.
Whether 1G, 10G or Wi-Fi, local networks pervade all aspects of business operations and Fluke Networks delivers a full line of systems, analyzers and tools that enable engineers to deal with the proliferation of IP-based applications and services, including IP voice and video.
"ClearSight's network analysis solutions maximize network engineers' ability to actively monitor critical links carrying high volumes of network traffic for performance bottlenecks, security anomalies and intermittent disruptions," said Arif Kareem, President, Fluke Networks. "ClearSight's powerful historical analysis, when coupled with deep packet inspection and monitoring, provide the comprehensive visibility needed to isolate, diagnose and resolve problems before they impact network performance."
ClearSight offers CSA, a premium software protocol analyzer, and NTM, a real-time network traffic monitoring solution that employs deep packet inspection and stream-to-disk storage capacity for historical analysis. NTM supports both 1G and 10G Ethernet connectivity in portable and distributed versions. CSA software is a feature-rich and easy-to-use protocol analysis solution for laptops.
ClearSight's NTM monitors and captures every packet in a two-way traffic flow for up to one month of data from a single GbE link. The company's products combine a simple user interface with the ability to capture, index and classify complex network data, providing an extremely intuitive method for managing a network to support business critical applications and high-performance services.
"Fluke Networks' philosophy of providing Network SuperVision, giving users superior visibility and insight into networking infrastructures they can't get anywhere else, is a natural fit with ClearSight," said Sam Li, technology founder of ClearSight.
"Our products have defined ease-of-use in protocol analysis and application analysis visualization. We provide tools that are easy enough for less experienced technicians yet deep enough for complex root cause analysis by senior engineers. FNET delivers similar breakthroughs in ease of use across their entire line -our combination is powerful."
Ciena receives Investment Canada Act approval of proposed acquisition of Nortel’'s optical and carrier Ethernet assets
LINTHICUM, USA: Ciena Corp. has received regulatory approval under the Investment Canada Act in connection with Ciena’s acquisition of the optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets of Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business.
“Today’'s regulatory approval confirms that the Minister of Industry is satisfied that our acquisition will be of net benefit to Canada,” said Gary Smith, Ciena’s CEO and president.
“In addition to the positive benefits we expect for stockholders, employees, customers and suppliers, we have always believed that our transaction provided a substantial benefit to Canada and the Canadian marketplace and we are pleased with today’s important milestone.”
Ciena has now completed applicable regulatory reviews in the United States and Canada, and expects to close the transaction in the first quarter of calendar 2010.
“Today’'s regulatory approval confirms that the Minister of Industry is satisfied that our acquisition will be of net benefit to Canada,” said Gary Smith, Ciena’s CEO and president.
“In addition to the positive benefits we expect for stockholders, employees, customers and suppliers, we have always believed that our transaction provided a substantial benefit to Canada and the Canadian marketplace and we are pleased with today’s important milestone.”
Ciena has now completed applicable regulatory reviews in the United States and Canada, and expects to close the transaction in the first quarter of calendar 2010.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Nokia requests ITC investigation into Apple patent infringement
ESPOO, FINLAND: Nokia has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple infringes Nokia patents in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers.
The seven Nokia patents in this complaint relate to Nokia's pioneering innovations that are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies. These patented technologies are important to Nokia's success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products.
"Nokia has been the leading developer of many key technologies in small electronic devices" said Paul Melin, General Manager, Patent Licensing at Nokia. "This action is about protecting the results of such pioneering development. While our litigation in Delaware is about Apple's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the ITC case filed today is about Apple's practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation."
The seven Nokia patents in this complaint relate to Nokia's pioneering innovations that are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies. These patented technologies are important to Nokia's success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products.
"Nokia has been the leading developer of many key technologies in small electronic devices" said Paul Melin, General Manager, Patent Licensing at Nokia. "This action is about protecting the results of such pioneering development. While our litigation in Delaware is about Apple's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the ITC case filed today is about Apple's practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation."
724 Solutions brings mobile Internet and mobile broadband solution to India
SANTA BARBARA, USA: 724 Solutions, a leading provider of next generation mobile data solutions that enable seamless access and communications in an IP-based world announced the expansion of its relationship with Xoriant, a product engineering services company focused on the independent software vendor (ISV) market throughout India, to include 724’s Seamless Access solution for India and other Asia Pacific markets.
Built upon a successful partnership with Xoriant since 2002, the expansion of the relationship to include first-line support for customers across the major cities in India will broaden the current functions of development, testing, customization, quality assurance, implementation, professional services and second-line support for Seamless Access.
Mobile internet and 2.5G data services are experiencing rapid growth throughout India. As this demand continues to grow and as 3G licenses are expected to be issued in 2010, mobile operators in India must replace incumbent older generation mobile data infrastructure to accommodate this growth. 724’s Seamless Access solution enables mobile operators to cost efficiently offer 2.5G data services today and seamlessly add on new services such as 3G and mobile broadband without disruption to existing services.
“The upcoming radical growth expected from the Indian market for 3G mobile internet and mobile broadband services will challenge the current data infrastructure and disappoint subscribers,” said John Sims, Chief Executive Officer of 724 Solutions.
“724’s Seamless Access solution coupled with our local dedicated team of Xoriant software and systems deployment expertise can dramatically improve mobile data services and the subscriber experience throughout the country. We are committed to the Indian market and believe our Seamless Access solution addresses not only the immediate growth of the 2.5G market, but also uniquely positions our customers to successfully reap the benefits offered by the explosion of growth offered by 3G and beyond.”
“We believe the highest quality solution for this market is 724’s Seamless Access Solution,” said Girish Gaitonde, Chief Executive Officer of Xoriant. “Our joint commitment to successful mobile internet and mobile broadband deployments extends beyond India into the entire Asia Pacific region.”
Throughout India and Asia Pacific, our India-based Xoriant team, under the full direction of 724 management, support 724’s installed base of customers including deployments in India, New Zealand, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Seamless Access is a comprehensive next generation mobile internet and mobile broadband solution with an extensible architecture, cost effective scalability, intelligent decision making capability and industry leading lowest total cost of ownership. Installed at 14 operators serving over 165 million subscribers, Seamless Access allows mobile operators to meet the challenges they face in driving down the cost per bit of managing data traffic within their mobile networks.
Built upon a successful partnership with Xoriant since 2002, the expansion of the relationship to include first-line support for customers across the major cities in India will broaden the current functions of development, testing, customization, quality assurance, implementation, professional services and second-line support for Seamless Access.
Mobile internet and 2.5G data services are experiencing rapid growth throughout India. As this demand continues to grow and as 3G licenses are expected to be issued in 2010, mobile operators in India must replace incumbent older generation mobile data infrastructure to accommodate this growth. 724’s Seamless Access solution enables mobile operators to cost efficiently offer 2.5G data services today and seamlessly add on new services such as 3G and mobile broadband without disruption to existing services.
“The upcoming radical growth expected from the Indian market for 3G mobile internet and mobile broadband services will challenge the current data infrastructure and disappoint subscribers,” said John Sims, Chief Executive Officer of 724 Solutions.
“724’s Seamless Access solution coupled with our local dedicated team of Xoriant software and systems deployment expertise can dramatically improve mobile data services and the subscriber experience throughout the country. We are committed to the Indian market and believe our Seamless Access solution addresses not only the immediate growth of the 2.5G market, but also uniquely positions our customers to successfully reap the benefits offered by the explosion of growth offered by 3G and beyond.”
“We believe the highest quality solution for this market is 724’s Seamless Access Solution,” said Girish Gaitonde, Chief Executive Officer of Xoriant. “Our joint commitment to successful mobile internet and mobile broadband deployments extends beyond India into the entire Asia Pacific region.”
Throughout India and Asia Pacific, our India-based Xoriant team, under the full direction of 724 management, support 724’s installed base of customers including deployments in India, New Zealand, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Seamless Access is a comprehensive next generation mobile internet and mobile broadband solution with an extensible architecture, cost effective scalability, intelligent decision making capability and industry leading lowest total cost of ownership. Installed at 14 operators serving over 165 million subscribers, Seamless Access allows mobile operators to meet the challenges they face in driving down the cost per bit of managing data traffic within their mobile networks.
Garmin grows in outdoor recreation
OLATHE, USA: Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd, the global leader in satellite navigation, announced the Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 touchscreen GPS devices, the newest of Garmin’s next-generation outdoor handhelds now compatible with the online community at Garmin Connect, and Garmin’s free Custom Maps utility for transferring paper or digital maps onto your compatible handheld.
“More than ever, Garmin offers intuitive touchscreen options for anyone exploring and enjoying the world around them,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 provide a bridge between the slimmed-down Dakota family and the top-of-line Oregon 550t, all of which work seamlessly with Garmin Custom Maps in planning your adventure and Garmin Connect for reliving the experience and sharing the memories.”
Responsive to the touch of a finger, yet resistant to the rigors of nature, Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 simplify navigation through a glove-friendly touchscreen interface. This bright 3” color display is easier than ever to read and use in all conditions.
Other key upgrades include user-selectable dashboards, enhanced track navigation, high-speed USB for faster map transfers with your computer, photo navigation and the 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass, which shows your heading even when you’re standing still, without the need to hold it level.
The new dashboards give users the ability to customize the appearance of various pages on your Oregon, including the geocaching, compass, stopwatch and elevation functions. For hikers, cyclists and trail runners, the enhanced track navigation will prove especially useful.
When navigating to a destination on an active track, users will see the changes in elevation ahead of them as well as where they’ve been. Also, waypoints and other key locations along the active route – such as start, end and high and low elevation points – now appear on the map and active route pages.
The new Oregon units also include a barometric altimeter, paperless geocaching and wireless exchange of tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches with compatible Oregon, Dakota, Colorado and Foretrex devices.
Both units boast a worldwide shaded relief basemap, and Oregon 450t adds preloaded 100K topographic maps for the entire United States and state-of-the-art 3D elevation perspective. Coverage on the 450t includes major trails, urban and rural roads, interstates, highways, coastlines, rivers and lakes as well as national, state and local parks, forests and wilderness areas.
In addition, you can search for points of interest by name or proximity to your location and view descriptive details for terrain contours, topo elevations, summits and geographical points.
Customizing maps for your Garmin outdoor handheld – and downloading your activity afterward - were never easier. Through a few simple steps, Garmin’s Custom Maps can bring the details, labels and landmarks of your existing paper or electronic map to a compatible Garmin Oregon, Dakota or Colorado.
Compatible with both PC and Mac, this free utility complements the myriad of mapping products already offered for Garmin devices, including City Navigator, NT for turn-by-turn directions on city streets, Blue Chart g2, for marine charting, and TOPO US 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail (each sold separately).
The power of Custom Maps is exemplified through paper and digital maps labeled for specific events and purposes, such as a college graduation invitation that lists campus buildings; a roadmap of a parade, marathon, 5K or bike race; a park pamphlet showing trailheads; land-management maps of wildlife and game areas; or a historic illustration of an area as it once stood.
Experiences will live on long after the activity has ended, thanks to Garmin Connect’s newly announced compatibility with Garmin outdoor handhelds, adding an expansive new product line to the free-to-join online community of more than 17 million activities – with more than 38,000 new activities per day – for sharing, storing, analyzing and enjoying. Outdoor and fitness enthusiasts alike can share activities on Facebook and Twitter, export to Google Earth or relive the activity in table view, calendar view or on a variety of maps including our new embedded Google Earth view.
This December 2009 update also allows you to: easily upload to and from next-generation Garmin devices; manually upload .gpx files; send any track found at Garmin Connect in Explore to your Garmin Outdoor device for navigation; and export activity files in .gpx and .tcx format to use on third-party applications.
Weighing only 6.8 ounces, the Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 last up to 16 hours on two AA batteries. Each device has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFixTM, which automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position.
The new Oregon models have 850 MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for photos and optional map data, and you can store up to 2,000 waypoints, 200 routes, 5,000 caches and a tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks.
Geocachers can help the environment and be more efficient by going paperless with Oregon by quickly downloading cache information directly to the device. Oregon stores and displays key information such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description, so that you don’t have to tote printouts with you.
Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 are the latest breakthroughs from Garmin, which has spent 20 years developing technologies and innovations to enhance users’ lives, making Garmin a household name in the automotive, aviation, marine, wireless, outdoor and fitness industries.
“More than ever, Garmin offers intuitive touchscreen options for anyone exploring and enjoying the world around them,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 provide a bridge between the slimmed-down Dakota family and the top-of-line Oregon 550t, all of which work seamlessly with Garmin Custom Maps in planning your adventure and Garmin Connect for reliving the experience and sharing the memories.”
Responsive to the touch of a finger, yet resistant to the rigors of nature, Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 simplify navigation through a glove-friendly touchscreen interface. This bright 3” color display is easier than ever to read and use in all conditions.
Other key upgrades include user-selectable dashboards, enhanced track navigation, high-speed USB for faster map transfers with your computer, photo navigation and the 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass, which shows your heading even when you’re standing still, without the need to hold it level.
The new dashboards give users the ability to customize the appearance of various pages on your Oregon, including the geocaching, compass, stopwatch and elevation functions. For hikers, cyclists and trail runners, the enhanced track navigation will prove especially useful.
When navigating to a destination on an active track, users will see the changes in elevation ahead of them as well as where they’ve been. Also, waypoints and other key locations along the active route – such as start, end and high and low elevation points – now appear on the map and active route pages.
The new Oregon units also include a barometric altimeter, paperless geocaching and wireless exchange of tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches with compatible Oregon, Dakota, Colorado and Foretrex devices.
Both units boast a worldwide shaded relief basemap, and Oregon 450t adds preloaded 100K topographic maps for the entire United States and state-of-the-art 3D elevation perspective. Coverage on the 450t includes major trails, urban and rural roads, interstates, highways, coastlines, rivers and lakes as well as national, state and local parks, forests and wilderness areas.
In addition, you can search for points of interest by name or proximity to your location and view descriptive details for terrain contours, topo elevations, summits and geographical points.
Customizing maps for your Garmin outdoor handheld – and downloading your activity afterward - were never easier. Through a few simple steps, Garmin’s Custom Maps can bring the details, labels and landmarks of your existing paper or electronic map to a compatible Garmin Oregon, Dakota or Colorado.
Compatible with both PC and Mac, this free utility complements the myriad of mapping products already offered for Garmin devices, including City Navigator, NT for turn-by-turn directions on city streets, Blue Chart g2, for marine charting, and TOPO US 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail (each sold separately).
The power of Custom Maps is exemplified through paper and digital maps labeled for specific events and purposes, such as a college graduation invitation that lists campus buildings; a roadmap of a parade, marathon, 5K or bike race; a park pamphlet showing trailheads; land-management maps of wildlife and game areas; or a historic illustration of an area as it once stood.
Experiences will live on long after the activity has ended, thanks to Garmin Connect’s newly announced compatibility with Garmin outdoor handhelds, adding an expansive new product line to the free-to-join online community of more than 17 million activities – with more than 38,000 new activities per day – for sharing, storing, analyzing and enjoying. Outdoor and fitness enthusiasts alike can share activities on Facebook and Twitter, export to Google Earth or relive the activity in table view, calendar view or on a variety of maps including our new embedded Google Earth view.
This December 2009 update also allows you to: easily upload to and from next-generation Garmin devices; manually upload .gpx files; send any track found at Garmin Connect in Explore to your Garmin Outdoor device for navigation; and export activity files in .gpx and .tcx format to use on third-party applications.
Weighing only 6.8 ounces, the Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 last up to 16 hours on two AA batteries. Each device has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFixTM, which automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position.
The new Oregon models have 850 MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for photos and optional map data, and you can store up to 2,000 waypoints, 200 routes, 5,000 caches and a tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks.
Geocachers can help the environment and be more efficient by going paperless with Oregon by quickly downloading cache information directly to the device. Oregon stores and displays key information such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description, so that you don’t have to tote printouts with you.
Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 are the latest breakthroughs from Garmin, which has spent 20 years developing technologies and innovations to enhance users’ lives, making Garmin a household name in the automotive, aviation, marine, wireless, outdoor and fitness industries.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
3Com, Spirent showcase next-gen network architecture for high performance data centers
SUNNYVALE & MARLBOROUGH, USA: 3Com Corp. and Spirent Communications, the leader in enterprise network testing solutions, today announced a live data center proof of concept demonstration that showcases the industry-leading capabilities of 3Com’s flagship H3C S12500 and S5820X data center switches under a host of rigorous next-generation data center scenarios.
Showcased at the Spirent Proof of Concept (SPoC) Lab in Sunnyvale, Calif. through January 2010, the demonstration allows data center operators to visualize the design and performance capabilities of a next generation multi-terabit data center.
Built around the 100 Gbps-ready H3C S12500 core switch and the H3C S5820X 10 GbE top-of-rack access switch, the SPoC demos showcase 3Com’s advantages in delivering twice the performance and scale, 20 times faster recovery and up to 50 percent lower cost and energy usage verses competing legacy solutions.
Visitors to the SPoC Lab will also see H3C’s innovative Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF®) technology in action. Unlike legacy technologies, IRF technology enables unprecedented scalability, allowing network operators to seamlessly manage thousands of GbE and 10 GbE ports as single virtual IP address.
In addition, IRF technology enables network-based In-Service-Software-Upgrades (ISSS) to ensure network and business continuity by extending the switch fabric control plane across multiple active switches, providing a rapid, sub 50-millisecond recovery in the event of network disruption verses up to several seconds for traditional Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)-based network designs.
“Our powerful H3C S12500 is raising the bar on data center networking, transforming the way next generation data centers are built and run,” said Saar Gillai, senior vice president, Worldwide Products and Solutions, 3Com.
“With the H3C S12500, customers now have the option to leverage a dramatically simplified network design that reaches unprecedented levels of performance, scale and resiliency. Our H3C data center solutions help customers cost-effectively accelerate the deployment of new services such as video streaming, virtualization and cloud computing.”
The Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics test module also tests the performance, latency and resiliency of the H3C data center network design under various traffic and protocol conditions including layer 2 and layer 3 switching, IPv4, IPv6, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing, streaming video, and other advanced multicast services.
“The complexities of tomorrow’s data centers present critical performance, resiliency and security challenges that need to be validated across all data center infrastructure elements,” said Michel Lynge, marketing communications manager at Spirent.
“Spirent’s holistic data center test architecture allows customers to benchmark this performance from network servers to storage systems, 10 GbE to 40/100 GbE, iSCI to FC to FCoE, layer 2 to layer 7, helping enterprises better design solutions that achieve their next generation data center vision.”
Showcased at the Spirent Proof of Concept (SPoC) Lab in Sunnyvale, Calif. through January 2010, the demonstration allows data center operators to visualize the design and performance capabilities of a next generation multi-terabit data center.
Built around the 100 Gbps-ready H3C S12500 core switch and the H3C S5820X 10 GbE top-of-rack access switch, the SPoC demos showcase 3Com’s advantages in delivering twice the performance and scale, 20 times faster recovery and up to 50 percent lower cost and energy usage verses competing legacy solutions.
Visitors to the SPoC Lab will also see H3C’s innovative Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF®) technology in action. Unlike legacy technologies, IRF technology enables unprecedented scalability, allowing network operators to seamlessly manage thousands of GbE and 10 GbE ports as single virtual IP address.
In addition, IRF technology enables network-based In-Service-Software-Upgrades (ISSS) to ensure network and business continuity by extending the switch fabric control plane across multiple active switches, providing a rapid, sub 50-millisecond recovery in the event of network disruption verses up to several seconds for traditional Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)-based network designs.
“Our powerful H3C S12500 is raising the bar on data center networking, transforming the way next generation data centers are built and run,” said Saar Gillai, senior vice president, Worldwide Products and Solutions, 3Com.
“With the H3C S12500, customers now have the option to leverage a dramatically simplified network design that reaches unprecedented levels of performance, scale and resiliency. Our H3C data center solutions help customers cost-effectively accelerate the deployment of new services such as video streaming, virtualization and cloud computing.”
The Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics test module also tests the performance, latency and resiliency of the H3C data center network design under various traffic and protocol conditions including layer 2 and layer 3 switching, IPv4, IPv6, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing, streaming video, and other advanced multicast services.
“The complexities of tomorrow’s data centers present critical performance, resiliency and security challenges that need to be validated across all data center infrastructure elements,” said Michel Lynge, marketing communications manager at Spirent.
“Spirent’s holistic data center test architecture allows customers to benchmark this performance from network servers to storage systems, 10 GbE to 40/100 GbE, iSCI to FC to FCoE, layer 2 to layer 7, helping enterprises better design solutions that achieve their next generation data center vision.”
Getfugu receives $800,000 in funding
WEST HOLLYWOOD, USA: Getfugu Inc., the next generation mobile search tool, announced today that it has received $800,000 in gross proceeds from the closing of the first tranche of its $10 million financing commitment from Hutton International Investments, Ltd. and the private placement of restricted common stock to an accredited investor at $0.20 per share.
“We are pleased to continue expanding our opportunities for business development through our relationship with Hutton,” said Getfugu Co-Founder Carl Freer.
“We remain very excited about the growth potential of Getfugu and its new ‘See It, Say It, Get It’ mobile search technology,” commented Hsin-Hau Lu, Managing Director of Hutton. “We look forward to assisting Getfugu in its expansion efforts, particularly in the substantial Asian market where we believe it will be adopted quickly.”
“We are pleased to continue expanding our opportunities for business development through our relationship with Hutton,” said Getfugu Co-Founder Carl Freer.
“We remain very excited about the growth potential of Getfugu and its new ‘See It, Say It, Get It’ mobile search technology,” commented Hsin-Hau Lu, Managing Director of Hutton. “We look forward to assisting Getfugu in its expansion efforts, particularly in the substantial Asian market where we believe it will be adopted quickly.”
Sorrento receives Brocade Data Center Ready status for 8G Fibre Channel card
DENVER, USA: Sorrento Networks’ new 8Gbit/second Fibre Channel card for the GigaMux 1600/3200 optical transport system has been verified by Brocade Communications Systems Inc. as compatible with Brocade-based storage area networking (SAN) infrastructures.
The card successfully met the testing requirements of the Brocade Data Center Ready Program, an initiative designed to foster interoperability in multi-vendor Brocade-based data center environments.
Testing was conducted at the Brocade Data Center Ready labs, which are state-of-the-art facilities supporting end-to-end interoperability and performance testing of SAN products in multi-vendor and large fabric environments. Sorrento Networks’ GigaMux dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) metro optical access system has already been verified by the Data Center Ready Program.
“As organizations continue to deploy high-bandwidth SANs between data centers, they can trust that our new 8G Fibre Channel card, as well as our entire GigaMux family of products, are fully interoperable in Brocade SAN environments,” said Jim Nevelle, CEO of Sorrento Networks. “With mounting requirements for higher I/O availability between data centers, we’re seeing a strong demand for 8 Gigabit Fibre Channel to help satiate SAN speed and bandwidth needs.”
Sorrento recently released the 8Gbit/second Fibre Channel card for its GigaMux 1600/3200, an optical transport system that supports a variety of WDM architectures. The card enables high bandwidth connectivity of SANs between data centers and meets new bandwidth demands driven by cloud computing applications like storage virtualization.
“We are pleased that Sorrento Networks has successfully completed the Data Center Ready testing with Brocade switches and directors in multi-vendor SAN environments,” said Patric Chang, director of Strategic Alliances at Brocade.
“Storage area networks are being deployed worldwide at a rapid rate as a scalable, high-performance networking foundation for storage environments. The Brocade Data Center Ready program is an example of our continued commitment to delivering end-to-end interoperability to customers.”
The card successfully met the testing requirements of the Brocade Data Center Ready Program, an initiative designed to foster interoperability in multi-vendor Brocade-based data center environments.
Testing was conducted at the Brocade Data Center Ready labs, which are state-of-the-art facilities supporting end-to-end interoperability and performance testing of SAN products in multi-vendor and large fabric environments. Sorrento Networks’ GigaMux dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) metro optical access system has already been verified by the Data Center Ready Program.
“As organizations continue to deploy high-bandwidth SANs between data centers, they can trust that our new 8G Fibre Channel card, as well as our entire GigaMux family of products, are fully interoperable in Brocade SAN environments,” said Jim Nevelle, CEO of Sorrento Networks. “With mounting requirements for higher I/O availability between data centers, we’re seeing a strong demand for 8 Gigabit Fibre Channel to help satiate SAN speed and bandwidth needs.”
Sorrento recently released the 8Gbit/second Fibre Channel card for its GigaMux 1600/3200, an optical transport system that supports a variety of WDM architectures. The card enables high bandwidth connectivity of SANs between data centers and meets new bandwidth demands driven by cloud computing applications like storage virtualization.
“We are pleased that Sorrento Networks has successfully completed the Data Center Ready testing with Brocade switches and directors in multi-vendor SAN environments,” said Patric Chang, director of Strategic Alliances at Brocade.
“Storage area networks are being deployed worldwide at a rapid rate as a scalable, high-performance networking foundation for storage environments. The Brocade Data Center Ready program is an example of our continued commitment to delivering end-to-end interoperability to customers.”
More consumers shop mobile this holiday
SAN JOSE, USA: Holiday shopping went mobile this season, with eBay seeing a surge in buyers tapping their eBay iPhone app and other eBay mobile applications to find a great deal while on the go.
The number of items bought via eBay mobile apps this year was triple last year’s holiday volume. In 2009, eBay buyers and sellers are generating more than half a billion dollars of transactions via mobile, with strong momentum this holiday season.
Nearly 6 million people have eBay on their iPhone and shoppers are making 750,000 unique visits a day to eBay via mobile apps. Mobile purchases this season range from designer handbags to a $75,000 1966 Chevrolet Corvette.
"Mobile is changing the way people shop this holiday season," said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplaces. "With eBay on your iPhone, great deals are available anytime, anywhere. We see consumers taking advantage of that freedom to find great holiday gifts and deals without sitting at their computer or being stuck at the mall. eBay buyers and sellers have rapidly embraced mobile commerce this year, and this holiday season has been a mobile commerce tipping point. Shopping will never be the same again."
Dawn of mCommerce Era: OMG I just bought a boat on my iPhone LOL
According to an IDC report earlier this year, mobile Internet users will double in number by 2013 to surpass 1 billion. Here are some mobile eBay trends:
* Nearly six million people are carrying eBay around in their pocket.
* Users from more than 165 countries visited the eBay mobile Web site and iPhone application.
* 1.5 million items were bought on eBay using mobile phones worldwide this holiday.
In 2009, an item sold every 2 seconds via eBay mobile applications worldwide with luxury items a favorite of shoppers this holiday season; some recent mobile transactions in the US include:
* $19,108 for a 23-foot deck boat.
* $10,025 for 250 grams of pure gold bullion.
* $10,000 for a Boston grand piano made by Steinway.
* $3,888 for a Hermes Kelly bag.
* $770 for a Jean Paul Gaultier wool and leather coat.
* $600 for a pair of Christian Louboutin camel colored patent leather pumps.
In the US, the early adopters in mobile commerce are the Texans.
The number of items bought via eBay mobile apps this year was triple last year’s holiday volume. In 2009, eBay buyers and sellers are generating more than half a billion dollars of transactions via mobile, with strong momentum this holiday season.
Nearly 6 million people have eBay on their iPhone and shoppers are making 750,000 unique visits a day to eBay via mobile apps. Mobile purchases this season range from designer handbags to a $75,000 1966 Chevrolet Corvette.
"Mobile is changing the way people shop this holiday season," said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplaces. "With eBay on your iPhone, great deals are available anytime, anywhere. We see consumers taking advantage of that freedom to find great holiday gifts and deals without sitting at their computer or being stuck at the mall. eBay buyers and sellers have rapidly embraced mobile commerce this year, and this holiday season has been a mobile commerce tipping point. Shopping will never be the same again."
Dawn of mCommerce Era: OMG I just bought a boat on my iPhone LOL
According to an IDC report earlier this year, mobile Internet users will double in number by 2013 to surpass 1 billion. Here are some mobile eBay trends:
* Nearly six million people are carrying eBay around in their pocket.
* Users from more than 165 countries visited the eBay mobile Web site and iPhone application.
* 1.5 million items were bought on eBay using mobile phones worldwide this holiday.
In 2009, an item sold every 2 seconds via eBay mobile applications worldwide with luxury items a favorite of shoppers this holiday season; some recent mobile transactions in the US include:
* $19,108 for a 23-foot deck boat.
* $10,025 for 250 grams of pure gold bullion.
* $10,000 for a Boston grand piano made by Steinway.
* $3,888 for a Hermes Kelly bag.
* $770 for a Jean Paul Gaultier wool and leather coat.
* $600 for a pair of Christian Louboutin camel colored patent leather pumps.
In the US, the early adopters in mobile commerce are the Texans.
Monday, December 28, 2009
BroadLight, Ralink deliver breakthrough wireless performance with integrated GPON plus 802.11n residential gateway
SANTA CLARA, USA: BroadLight, the leading supplier of GPON Semiconductors and software, today announced the successful integration of BroadLight’s leading BL2348 GPON Residential gateway device and Ralink’s RT3062 300 Mbps 802.11n Wi-Fi solution.
The integrated reference design provides a high-performance, cost optimized Residential Gateway solution that enables next generation “triple play” voice, video, and data services to the home over a combined GPON plus Wi-Fi network.
Ralink has recently joint BroadLight’s Synergy+ partners program which establishes strategic alliances with industry leaders that deliver best-in-class solutions complementing BroadLight’s product offerings. As a strategic partner, Ralink’s customers can enjoy the fast time-to-market and best-in-class performance of the Ralink device software driver integrated with BroadLight’s GPON residential gateway Wi-Fi acceleration engine.
“The combination of Ralink and BroadLight technologies creates a compelling solution for customers and enables them to quickly bring to market wireless-enabled GPON home gateways,” said Doron Tal, vice president of business development and product management for BroadLight.
“802.11n Wi-Fi is an essential technology for residential gateways enabling wireless distribution of new high-speed services such as multimedia in the broadband connected home, and we are confident that Ralink’s 802.11n solutions provide a superior wireless networking experience for the lowest cost.”
Ralink Vice President Cashew Chen said: “802.11n is the clear choice for wirelessly distributing media content and services throughout the digital home. GPON significantly increases broadband performance on the LAN, driving the need for similarly robust wireless capabilities.
“New home gateways based on BroadLight’s GPON combined with Ralink RT3062 Wi-Fi can deliver the performance and reliability that consumers demand when streaming media and latency-sensitive content.”
The integrated reference design provides a high-performance, cost optimized Residential Gateway solution that enables next generation “triple play” voice, video, and data services to the home over a combined GPON plus Wi-Fi network.
Ralink has recently joint BroadLight’s Synergy+ partners program which establishes strategic alliances with industry leaders that deliver best-in-class solutions complementing BroadLight’s product offerings. As a strategic partner, Ralink’s customers can enjoy the fast time-to-market and best-in-class performance of the Ralink device software driver integrated with BroadLight’s GPON residential gateway Wi-Fi acceleration engine.
“The combination of Ralink and BroadLight technologies creates a compelling solution for customers and enables them to quickly bring to market wireless-enabled GPON home gateways,” said Doron Tal, vice president of business development and product management for BroadLight.
“802.11n Wi-Fi is an essential technology for residential gateways enabling wireless distribution of new high-speed services such as multimedia in the broadband connected home, and we are confident that Ralink’s 802.11n solutions provide a superior wireless networking experience for the lowest cost.”
Ralink Vice President Cashew Chen said: “802.11n is the clear choice for wirelessly distributing media content and services throughout the digital home. GPON significantly increases broadband performance on the LAN, driving the need for similarly robust wireless capabilities.
“New home gateways based on BroadLight’s GPON combined with Ralink RT3062 Wi-Fi can deliver the performance and reliability that consumers demand when streaming media and latency-sensitive content.”
China new battle field for mobile Internet technology
SHANGHAI, CHINA: Hosted by China Mobile Communications Association and Global Leaders Institute, the China Mobile Internet 2010 Summit will be held on April 7th-8th, 2010 in Beijing, China, officially supported by China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.
It has attracted world-leading organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union, Mobile Marketing Association, Mobile Entertainment Forum, Hongkong Wireless Development Center and TD-FORUM to be involved as international endorsers this time.
The vendors show great interest in investing in China, the largest potential market in the world, after China's government issued the 3G licenses to the three main telecom operators there. The organizing committee has received hundreds of inquiries and registration calls since they opened sales in December and now confirmed two sponsors for its event.
In January 2009, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology formally declared its blueprint for mobile Internet development and injected 280 billion RMB into the 3G industry. China Telecom was then allocated operating permit under the standard of CDMA2000. China Unicom gained a WCDMA license, which is deemed to be the most advanced 3G technology now. China Mobile has put more effort into its own TD-SCDMA technology, as it enjoys the largest user base in China.
"I'm very pleased to see MEF has already been confirmed as an endorser and the partner for the event. For our company, we're very interested in the Chinese market and hope we are involved in the developing plan," said Mathias Prussing, CEO for Comfone AG and Chair EMEA for Mobile Entertainment Forum.
Comfone has registered as panel sponsor at the summit and hopes to expand business into the Asia Pacific region through the CMIS 2010 platform.
It has attracted world-leading organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union, Mobile Marketing Association, Mobile Entertainment Forum, Hongkong Wireless Development Center and TD-FORUM to be involved as international endorsers this time.
The vendors show great interest in investing in China, the largest potential market in the world, after China's government issued the 3G licenses to the three main telecom operators there. The organizing committee has received hundreds of inquiries and registration calls since they opened sales in December and now confirmed two sponsors for its event.
In January 2009, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology formally declared its blueprint for mobile Internet development and injected 280 billion RMB into the 3G industry. China Telecom was then allocated operating permit under the standard of CDMA2000. China Unicom gained a WCDMA license, which is deemed to be the most advanced 3G technology now. China Mobile has put more effort into its own TD-SCDMA technology, as it enjoys the largest user base in China.
"I'm very pleased to see MEF has already been confirmed as an endorser and the partner for the event. For our company, we're very interested in the Chinese market and hope we are involved in the developing plan," said Mathias Prussing, CEO for Comfone AG and Chair EMEA for Mobile Entertainment Forum.
Comfone has registered as panel sponsor at the summit and hopes to expand business into the Asia Pacific region through the CMIS 2010 platform.
Record iPhone game downloads, usage predicted in post holiday week
SAN MATEO, USA: PlayHaven, an online universe of fan communities for iPhone games, and Mobclix, the industry's largest targeted mobile ad exchange, released data today predicting that iPhone game usage is likely to set records in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, soaring to levels 28 times greater than the same weekly period last year.
"The week between Christmas and New Years has become the great 'Game Rush' for iPhone games - essentially what Black Friday is to brick and mortar retailers," said Raymond Lau, co-founder and CEO of PlayHaven. "This soaring increase in iPhone game downloads is even more spectacular when you consider the slow holiday sales this year for console game titles."
From January through November, sales of console titles were down 12 percent from the same time frame last year, according to retail analysts.
Lau said consumers are looking to their iPhones increasingly for entertainment. With more than 15,000 game titles available to-date in the App Store, the popularity of Apple's mobile device continues to soar even in the face of renewed competition from Android.
PlayHaven also predicted that in the coming year, discovery of games and applications is increasingly going to originate outside the App Store. By the end of 2010, Lau said up to 25 percent of iPhone app purchases may originate at some location other than iTunes or the App Store as companies like PlayHaven seek to capitalize on the increasing complexity of app discovery in a universe of more than 125,000 titles.
"Consumers are looking to personal devices as a key source of entertainment and the game app market is seeing a surge," said Sunil Verma, co-founder of Mobclix. "With the data from last year and information on this year's trends, it's clear that a lot of time and money will be spent on iPhone games this week. Developers are in a good position to monetize their games through smart marketing and ad decisions."
The Mobclix PlayHaven "Game Rush" forecast is based on analysis from across the Mobclix mobile ad exchange. Mobclix used historical app download data and calculated a projection based on the increased number of Apple mobile devices sold during the year.
"The week between Christmas and New Years has become the great 'Game Rush' for iPhone games - essentially what Black Friday is to brick and mortar retailers," said Raymond Lau, co-founder and CEO of PlayHaven. "This soaring increase in iPhone game downloads is even more spectacular when you consider the slow holiday sales this year for console game titles."
From January through November, sales of console titles were down 12 percent from the same time frame last year, according to retail analysts.
Lau said consumers are looking to their iPhones increasingly for entertainment. With more than 15,000 game titles available to-date in the App Store, the popularity of Apple's mobile device continues to soar even in the face of renewed competition from Android.
PlayHaven also predicted that in the coming year, discovery of games and applications is increasingly going to originate outside the App Store. By the end of 2010, Lau said up to 25 percent of iPhone app purchases may originate at some location other than iTunes or the App Store as companies like PlayHaven seek to capitalize on the increasing complexity of app discovery in a universe of more than 125,000 titles.
"Consumers are looking to personal devices as a key source of entertainment and the game app market is seeing a surge," said Sunil Verma, co-founder of Mobclix. "With the data from last year and information on this year's trends, it's clear that a lot of time and money will be spent on iPhone games this week. Developers are in a good position to monetize their games through smart marketing and ad decisions."
The Mobclix PlayHaven "Game Rush" forecast is based on analysis from across the Mobclix mobile ad exchange. Mobclix used historical app download data and calculated a projection based on the increased number of Apple mobile devices sold during the year.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Comba Telecom enables wireless coverage for Rio de Janeiro metro
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL: Comba Telecom Systems Holdings Ltd, a leading wireless solutions provider, has been selected to supply a comprehensive wireless solution to enable ubiquitous mobile communications for Brazil's Rio de Janeiro Metro mass-transit railway network.
With 33 stations covering 42 kilometers, the Metro Rio serves the city of Rio de Janeiro and carries on average, more than half a million passengers per day and is a key transportation system for the city. As such, Comba will deploy turnkey systems to enable wireless coverage for passengers within tunnels and to enhance existing network coverage within stations.
Under the agreement, Comba will supply and install RF equipment including repeaters, antennas, cables and accessories alongside engineering services. In addition, upgrades of existing wireless networks will be carried out through deployment of network optimization solutions to enhance coverage within the station concourse and platforms. The project is expected to be completed by March 2010.
Patrik Westfalk, Comba's General Manager for the Caribbean and Latin (CALA) region said: "We are delighted to be selected for the supply of turnkey wireless systems for the Metro Rio. With unrivalled experience in supplying in-building and metro solutions in the world, the deployment of Comba's solution ensures that passengers will enjoy seamless and ubiquitous communications on their mobile phones within tunnels and stations in the future."
With 33 stations covering 42 kilometers, the Metro Rio serves the city of Rio de Janeiro and carries on average, more than half a million passengers per day and is a key transportation system for the city. As such, Comba will deploy turnkey systems to enable wireless coverage for passengers within tunnels and to enhance existing network coverage within stations.
Under the agreement, Comba will supply and install RF equipment including repeaters, antennas, cables and accessories alongside engineering services. In addition, upgrades of existing wireless networks will be carried out through deployment of network optimization solutions to enhance coverage within the station concourse and platforms. The project is expected to be completed by March 2010.
Patrik Westfalk, Comba's General Manager for the Caribbean and Latin (CALA) region said: "We are delighted to be selected for the supply of turnkey wireless systems for the Metro Rio. With unrivalled experience in supplying in-building and metro solutions in the world, the deployment of Comba's solution ensures that passengers will enjoy seamless and ubiquitous communications on their mobile phones within tunnels and stations in the future."
Thursday, December 24, 2009
E-EDGE: A mobile network wildcard
NEW YORK, USA: E-EDGE could be big, if it fulfils its potential. The “Evolved” enhancement of today’s widespread EDGE mobile networks could be generating nearly $3.7 billion in CAPEX for cellular base station upgrades in 2015, if operators and handset makers adopt the technology. However, that is by no means certain.
Although the spectrally-efficient Evolved-EDGE includes data features and faster data speeds, no E-EDGE networks exist today, and the existence of the required E-EDGE-enabled handsets is officially still just a rumor.
According to ABI Research analyst Xavier Ortiz, E-EDGE is a classic “chicken and egg” problem: “Handset vendors don’t want to make E-EDGE phones unless there’s a market guaranteed by E-EDGE networks. And operators won’t upgrade their EDGE networks unless they are confident handsets will be available.”
RIM, he reports, says it is “pushing the egg to see if the chicken pops out.” The BlackBerry maker has been a driving force in establishment and promotion of the standard, which it sees as having the potential to bring mobile broadband to rural and suburban areas poorly covered by 3G and 4G networks. RIM believes E-EDGE’s speed and efficiency will translate to a good user experience that won’t saturate network capacity.
With 3G networks quite prevalent in industrialized nations and 4G soon to make its grand entrance, is E-EDGE facing a closing window of opportunity? That may be the case in regions enjoying good broadband coverage, but much of the world does not. That’s why decisions by China Mobile and operators in India are crucial to the future of E-EDGE. If they decide it’s worth adopting, E-EDGE will take off rapidly.
The relative newness of those nations’ cellular infrastructure may work in E-EDGE’s favor, because while older GPRS/GSM base stations will require a hardware upgrade, more recently-built ones can be upgraded in software as part of regular maintenance.
Although the spectrally-efficient Evolved-EDGE includes data features and faster data speeds, no E-EDGE networks exist today, and the existence of the required E-EDGE-enabled handsets is officially still just a rumor.
According to ABI Research analyst Xavier Ortiz, E-EDGE is a classic “chicken and egg” problem: “Handset vendors don’t want to make E-EDGE phones unless there’s a market guaranteed by E-EDGE networks. And operators won’t upgrade their EDGE networks unless they are confident handsets will be available.”
RIM, he reports, says it is “pushing the egg to see if the chicken pops out.” The BlackBerry maker has been a driving force in establishment and promotion of the standard, which it sees as having the potential to bring mobile broadband to rural and suburban areas poorly covered by 3G and 4G networks. RIM believes E-EDGE’s speed and efficiency will translate to a good user experience that won’t saturate network capacity.
With 3G networks quite prevalent in industrialized nations and 4G soon to make its grand entrance, is E-EDGE facing a closing window of opportunity? That may be the case in regions enjoying good broadband coverage, but much of the world does not. That’s why decisions by China Mobile and operators in India are crucial to the future of E-EDGE. If they decide it’s worth adopting, E-EDGE will take off rapidly.
The relative newness of those nations’ cellular infrastructure may work in E-EDGE’s favor, because while older GPRS/GSM base stations will require a hardware upgrade, more recently-built ones can be upgraded in software as part of regular maintenance.
E-Plus Group, KPN Group Belgium to significantly expand 3G networks in co-operation with ZTE
SHENZHEN, CHINA: The E-Plus Group and KPN Group Belgium have selected ZTE Corp. to supply HSPA-enabled 3G equipment for further expansion and technical upgrade of their mobile networks.
The Chinese telecoms equipment provider will support both operators in all aspects of their customer-oriented voice and data network expansion strategy, focussing investment in the right technology at the right time.
In co-operation with the supplier ZTE, E-Plus Group and KPN Group Belgium plan to further expand their 3G networks over the next years. With ZTE's future-proof technologies the operators will offer mobile data services at speeds up to 21.6 MB per second and ensure a faster roll-out of mobile broadband coverage at significantly lower costs.
Furthermore, ZTE’s technology affords an easy and fast integration of future data acceleration standards in the new network infrastructure in Germany and Belgium.
For the E-Plus Group the selection of ZTE as new telecoms equipment provider means a faster increase of HSPA-availability for their customers. Today, the E-Plus network already offers 90 percent of the German population with mobile broadband, primarily based on EDGE and 3G.
To meet the growing mass market demand for mobile data communication the company consequently continues to upgrade the 3G network with HSPA. The customers will also continue to benefit from highly attractive pricing. “ZTE is a challenger in the European market and as such fits very well with E-Plus’ Challenger strategy,” says Thorsten Dirks, CEO of E-Plus Group.
For KPN Group Belgium (formerly known as BASE nv/sa) this contract with ZTE will allow the company to plan a faster roll-out of HSPA in Belgium. “In August 2009, we have announced the kick off of the roll out of HSPA on our network to offer commercial services to the Belgian population,” comments Libor Voncina, CEO of KPN Group Belgium.
For ZTE, one of the worldwide leading providers of telecoms equipment and network solutions the co-operation with E-Plus Group and KPN Group Belgium marks a significant milestone in their expansion to the European market.
“ZTE serves the world’s top mobile operators based on our ability to consistently deliver high-quality and high-capacity network performance. We are very happy to establish this strategic partnership with KPN Mobile International and together build a future-proof network,” said Yin Yimin, CEO and President of ZTE.
ZTE will provide KPN Mobile International the products and tools to deliver the best quality network and most innovative services in the market, which should support them to compete in the market.
The Chinese telecoms equipment provider will support both operators in all aspects of their customer-oriented voice and data network expansion strategy, focussing investment in the right technology at the right time.
In co-operation with the supplier ZTE, E-Plus Group and KPN Group Belgium plan to further expand their 3G networks over the next years. With ZTE's future-proof technologies the operators will offer mobile data services at speeds up to 21.6 MB per second and ensure a faster roll-out of mobile broadband coverage at significantly lower costs.
Furthermore, ZTE’s technology affords an easy and fast integration of future data acceleration standards in the new network infrastructure in Germany and Belgium.
For the E-Plus Group the selection of ZTE as new telecoms equipment provider means a faster increase of HSPA-availability for their customers. Today, the E-Plus network already offers 90 percent of the German population with mobile broadband, primarily based on EDGE and 3G.
To meet the growing mass market demand for mobile data communication the company consequently continues to upgrade the 3G network with HSPA. The customers will also continue to benefit from highly attractive pricing. “ZTE is a challenger in the European market and as such fits very well with E-Plus’ Challenger strategy,” says Thorsten Dirks, CEO of E-Plus Group.
For KPN Group Belgium (formerly known as BASE nv/sa) this contract with ZTE will allow the company to plan a faster roll-out of HSPA in Belgium. “In August 2009, we have announced the kick off of the roll out of HSPA on our network to offer commercial services to the Belgian population,” comments Libor Voncina, CEO of KPN Group Belgium.
For ZTE, one of the worldwide leading providers of telecoms equipment and network solutions the co-operation with E-Plus Group and KPN Group Belgium marks a significant milestone in their expansion to the European market.
“ZTE serves the world’s top mobile operators based on our ability to consistently deliver high-quality and high-capacity network performance. We are very happy to establish this strategic partnership with KPN Mobile International and together build a future-proof network,” said Yin Yimin, CEO and President of ZTE.
ZTE will provide KPN Mobile International the products and tools to deliver the best quality network and most innovative services in the market, which should support them to compete in the market.
Aberdeen report evaluates CFOs and CIOs ability to reduce telecom spend in 2009
ORANGE, USA: As 2009 comes to a close and businesses look toward 2010, communications services and infrastructure will remain areas for increased scrutiny for savings and operational efficiencies.
This month, Aberdeen released research, underwritten by Tangoe, that reported that some large, enterprise organizations were able to successfully reduce telecom costs by 25 percent over the course of 2009.
However, the report also found that a majority of businesses experienced increases in telecom costs over the course of the year, which was particularly difficult given the continuing economic slump. Research showed that even with what they considered “best planning” for 2009, businesses were still not doing everything they could to ensure that their telecom costs remained well-managed and under control.
Entering 2010, the Aberdeen report reminds businesses that the key to reducing significant communications spend is uncovering hidden costs from multiple areas within the communications budget.
Since the landscape of telecom management has changed so dramatically over the past year, enterprises often carry unnecessary operator charges, device costs, and additional communications expenses—all of which can be significantly streamlined when the proper management plan is in place.
As the leading provider of complete communications lifecycle management solutions—for fixed and mobile—Tangoe helps businesses worldwide reign in telecom expenses, improve operational efficiencies, and establish enterprise-wide visibility and control of their voice and data communications.
Heading into 2010, Tangoe recommends the following three strategies for uncovering unnecessary telecom costs and proactively preventing them from occurring in the New Year.
1. Mobility management is essential: Mobile devices are an invaluable and rapidly expanding component of an enterprise's short- and long-term plan to optimize and/or boost worker productivity and create a cost-efficient and effective mobile workforce.
If not properly managed, mobile devices create more expense liability associated with data and device security. Businesses should tackle device complexity, complicated service charges, and decentralized device management head-on, before its mobile workforce becomes too diverse and dispersed to manage effectively and securely.
2. Proactive carrier negotiations: Many carrier contracts were negotiated before the economic crisis reached its current intensity and scale. As a result, companies may fall short of their expected carrier usage commitments due to downturns in their expected business volume.
In this situation, companies must first understand if they will meet existing carrier commitments and what the financial implications are of any shortfall. With that understanding, the organization can then take preemptive measures to mitigate financial impacts to the enterprise. Similarly, contracted rates and mid-contract negotiations may hold significant opportunities for savings. In this market, proactive negotiations often hold big potential for additional savings.
3. Be smart about managing global telecom expenses: Telecom Expense Management has become THE standard tool for gaining true visibility, understanding, and control of an organization’s fixed and mobile spend dollars in North America.
However, multinational corporations must have a global approach to cost reduction in order to maintain consistency and most efficiently reduce costs. Start by establishing a centralized global telecom invoice process and make sure there is a process for tracking any mobile expenses incurred, such as international roaming.
Increasingly, global corporations are centralizing the management of their communications and achieving dramatic savings as a result.
This month, Aberdeen released research, underwritten by Tangoe, that reported that some large, enterprise organizations were able to successfully reduce telecom costs by 25 percent over the course of 2009.
However, the report also found that a majority of businesses experienced increases in telecom costs over the course of the year, which was particularly difficult given the continuing economic slump. Research showed that even with what they considered “best planning” for 2009, businesses were still not doing everything they could to ensure that their telecom costs remained well-managed and under control.
Entering 2010, the Aberdeen report reminds businesses that the key to reducing significant communications spend is uncovering hidden costs from multiple areas within the communications budget.
Since the landscape of telecom management has changed so dramatically over the past year, enterprises often carry unnecessary operator charges, device costs, and additional communications expenses—all of which can be significantly streamlined when the proper management plan is in place.
As the leading provider of complete communications lifecycle management solutions—for fixed and mobile—Tangoe helps businesses worldwide reign in telecom expenses, improve operational efficiencies, and establish enterprise-wide visibility and control of their voice and data communications.
Heading into 2010, Tangoe recommends the following three strategies for uncovering unnecessary telecom costs and proactively preventing them from occurring in the New Year.
1. Mobility management is essential: Mobile devices are an invaluable and rapidly expanding component of an enterprise's short- and long-term plan to optimize and/or boost worker productivity and create a cost-efficient and effective mobile workforce.
If not properly managed, mobile devices create more expense liability associated with data and device security. Businesses should tackle device complexity, complicated service charges, and decentralized device management head-on, before its mobile workforce becomes too diverse and dispersed to manage effectively and securely.
2. Proactive carrier negotiations: Many carrier contracts were negotiated before the economic crisis reached its current intensity and scale. As a result, companies may fall short of their expected carrier usage commitments due to downturns in their expected business volume.
In this situation, companies must first understand if they will meet existing carrier commitments and what the financial implications are of any shortfall. With that understanding, the organization can then take preemptive measures to mitigate financial impacts to the enterprise. Similarly, contracted rates and mid-contract negotiations may hold significant opportunities for savings. In this market, proactive negotiations often hold big potential for additional savings.
3. Be smart about managing global telecom expenses: Telecom Expense Management has become THE standard tool for gaining true visibility, understanding, and control of an organization’s fixed and mobile spend dollars in North America.
However, multinational corporations must have a global approach to cost reduction in order to maintain consistency and most efficiently reduce costs. Start by establishing a centralized global telecom invoice process and make sure there is a process for tracking any mobile expenses incurred, such as international roaming.
Increasingly, global corporations are centralizing the management of their communications and achieving dramatic savings as a result.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Omne Agate bags order from Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam to implement India’s first GPRS-based metering system
BANGALORE, INDIA: Omne Agate Systems, a Chennai-headquartered technology solution provider focusing on Online Energy Management Solutions, today announced the winning of a prestigious order from Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd (UHBVN) to implement India’s first GPRS-based Metering System.
Omne Agate has been chosen by UHBVN to conduct Online Energy Audits for 19,000 Distribution Transformers for the next three years.
This contract is in compliance with the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) of the Ministry of Power. With a budget of about Rs. 55,000 crores, R–APDRP is a Government of India initiative for reduction of AT&C losses through automated processes.
Distribution Transformer Metering and Automated Meter Reading are the primary steps towards reduction of AT&C losses, and use of GPRS technology is the latest advancement in the Metering domain.
Omne Agate is an established market leader in the Automated Meter Reading (AMR) space with an existing installation base of more than 35000 AMR units, and another 18000 units under implementation across various utilities in India. The company’s innovative and cost-effective solutions have helped many utilities improve power quality, reduce losses and move towards Clean Development Mechanism/ Carbon Credit.
K.R. Ilanghovan, Managing Director, Omne Agate Systems, said: “Over the last decade, we have built a strong customer base among electricity boards across the country and have emerged as a market leader in the AMR space. GPRS-enabled Metering is a revolution in the AMR space and a timely technology solution to address India’s power deficit issue. We are proud to be pioneers in the building and implementation of this technology. In the forthcoming financial year, we will look at growing our footprint in the private sector.”
UHBVN project details
The project with UHBVN involves Supply, Erection, Installation and Commissioning of LT/CT Electronic Trivector Meters, LT/CT’s and GPRS Modem/Router for Distribution Transformer Metering in Urban and Rural areas under UHBVN.
The project is expected to be completed in nine months.
Omne Agate has been chosen by UHBVN to conduct Online Energy Audits for 19,000 Distribution Transformers for the next three years.
This contract is in compliance with the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) of the Ministry of Power. With a budget of about Rs. 55,000 crores, R–APDRP is a Government of India initiative for reduction of AT&C losses through automated processes.
Distribution Transformer Metering and Automated Meter Reading are the primary steps towards reduction of AT&C losses, and use of GPRS technology is the latest advancement in the Metering domain.
Omne Agate is an established market leader in the Automated Meter Reading (AMR) space with an existing installation base of more than 35000 AMR units, and another 18000 units under implementation across various utilities in India. The company’s innovative and cost-effective solutions have helped many utilities improve power quality, reduce losses and move towards Clean Development Mechanism/ Carbon Credit.
K.R. Ilanghovan, Managing Director, Omne Agate Systems, said: “Over the last decade, we have built a strong customer base among electricity boards across the country and have emerged as a market leader in the AMR space. GPRS-enabled Metering is a revolution in the AMR space and a timely technology solution to address India’s power deficit issue. We are proud to be pioneers in the building and implementation of this technology. In the forthcoming financial year, we will look at growing our footprint in the private sector.”
UHBVN project details
The project with UHBVN involves Supply, Erection, Installation and Commissioning of LT/CT Electronic Trivector Meters, LT/CT’s and GPRS Modem/Router for Distribution Transformer Metering in Urban and Rural areas under UHBVN.
The project is expected to be completed in nine months.
Tanla commences operations from Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD, INDIA: Tanla Mobile Private Limited (TMPL), subsidiary of Tanla Solutions Ltd (TSL) commences operations from DLF Cyber City in Special Economic Zone, (SEZ) in Hyderabad.
TMPL shall at this centre develop expertise in mobile application development domains including: Symbian, Apple iPhone, MIDP Java, and Microsoft Windows based mobile application solutions. TMPL will develop innovative mobile applications, products and services for mobile handset manufacturers and independent software vendors with a focus on business applications, media and entertainment.
TMPL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tanla Solutions Ltd. Tanla Solutions Ltd has signed a 5 year frame agreement with Nokia, the largest handset manufacturer, covering License Management, Mobile Payments and related professional services. This agreement is being executed by TMPL from its’ delivery centre at DLF Cyber City, SEZ in Hyderabad.
This delivery centre, which also provides mobile payment services across 160 countries, has connectivity with multiple payment gateways and mobile operator billing platforms all over the world. Considering the critical nature of the products and services provided to TMPL customers, this centre has security and redundancy built into all facilities including protection from seismic activity etc. The centre and its processes are compliant with PCI-DSS and ISO 27001 guidelines.
Tanla Mobile Pvt Ltd has appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Hyderabad as its statutory auditor.
TMPL shall at this centre develop expertise in mobile application development domains including: Symbian, Apple iPhone, MIDP Java, and Microsoft Windows based mobile application solutions. TMPL will develop innovative mobile applications, products and services for mobile handset manufacturers and independent software vendors with a focus on business applications, media and entertainment.
TMPL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tanla Solutions Ltd. Tanla Solutions Ltd has signed a 5 year frame agreement with Nokia, the largest handset manufacturer, covering License Management, Mobile Payments and related professional services. This agreement is being executed by TMPL from its’ delivery centre at DLF Cyber City, SEZ in Hyderabad.
This delivery centre, which also provides mobile payment services across 160 countries, has connectivity with multiple payment gateways and mobile operator billing platforms all over the world. Considering the critical nature of the products and services provided to TMPL customers, this centre has security and redundancy built into all facilities including protection from seismic activity etc. The centre and its processes are compliant with PCI-DSS and ISO 27001 guidelines.
Tanla Mobile Pvt Ltd has appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Hyderabad as its statutory auditor.
LTE drives news but WCDMA drives base station deployments
SCOTTSDALE, USA: Despite a poor worldwide economy, demand for smartphones, regular phones, and wireless broadband services continues to drive the base station market, according to In-Stat.
The number of newly deployed macro cellular base stations will grow over 10 percent in 2009.
Of new macro cellular base station shipments, WCDMA base station shipments will make up the lion’s share of all base station shipments worldwide, accounting for about 50 percent of the total base station revenue. By 2013, In-Stat forecasts that the percent that WCDMA contributes to total base station revenue will exceed 70 percent and LTE base stations will account for another 20 percent of the total.
“WCDMA/HSPA base stations will be the work horses of wireless data networks,” says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. “Many operators, worldwide, are in the process of rolling out, or enhancing, their current CDMA networks, including a very large rollout of CDMA by China Unicom. China Unicom was awarded the WCDMA contract to provide services in China. WCDMA will gain the most subscribers, with CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA taking the distant second and third positions.”
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
* From 2008 to 2013, total base station revenue is forecast to decrease by almost 3 percent CAGR. Not only do base stations continue to drop in price, but also the mix of base stations is changing in favor of smaller base stations and LTE base stations.
* While there is no growth for GSM in areas that are transitioning to WCDMA, there is growth of GSM subscribers in Africa, India, China, and Latin and South America.
* TD-SCDMA base station technology is demonstrating the fastest growth.
* LTE is rolling out! The majority of the committed operators have roll-outs scheduled for 2012 and 2013. In the US, Verizon is in the process of deploying LTE with Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent equipment, Alcatel-Lucent supplies most of their existing CDMA equipment.
The number of newly deployed macro cellular base stations will grow over 10 percent in 2009.
Of new macro cellular base station shipments, WCDMA base station shipments will make up the lion’s share of all base station shipments worldwide, accounting for about 50 percent of the total base station revenue. By 2013, In-Stat forecasts that the percent that WCDMA contributes to total base station revenue will exceed 70 percent and LTE base stations will account for another 20 percent of the total.
“WCDMA/HSPA base stations will be the work horses of wireless data networks,” says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. “Many operators, worldwide, are in the process of rolling out, or enhancing, their current CDMA networks, including a very large rollout of CDMA by China Unicom. China Unicom was awarded the WCDMA contract to provide services in China. WCDMA will gain the most subscribers, with CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA taking the distant second and third positions.”
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
* From 2008 to 2013, total base station revenue is forecast to decrease by almost 3 percent CAGR. Not only do base stations continue to drop in price, but also the mix of base stations is changing in favor of smaller base stations and LTE base stations.
* While there is no growth for GSM in areas that are transitioning to WCDMA, there is growth of GSM subscribers in Africa, India, China, and Latin and South America.
* TD-SCDMA base station technology is demonstrating the fastest growth.
* LTE is rolling out! The majority of the committed operators have roll-outs scheduled for 2012 and 2013. In the US, Verizon is in the process of deploying LTE with Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent equipment, Alcatel-Lucent supplies most of their existing CDMA equipment.
PacketVideo’s TwonkyMedia offers seamless digital media sharing with Windows 7
SAN DIEGO, USA: PacketVideo (PV) announced that its award-winning TwonkyMedia server software has successfully completed the highest standards of compatibility, reliability and performance testing to obtain the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo from Microsoft Corp.
TwonkyMedia server now integrates seamlessly with Windows 7, marking a major milestone for the solution that has been adopted by dozens of leading consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers to enable digital media sharing on compatible home and mobile devices.
TwonkyMedia server embraces and extends beyond the Windows ecosystem for media sharing among multiple connected devices throughout the home. PV’s software supports more media files and syncs with a wider range of devices – including PCs, gaming consoles, and DLNA- and UPnP-compliant hardware – than any other media server software on the market.
It also maintains a higher degree of resource efficiency, including lower code size, memory consumption and CPU usage, making it the ideal choice for routers, network-attached storage (NAS) devices and other home networking products.
“Obtaining the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo ensures our CE partners and their end-user customers that TwonkyMedia server works exceptionally well with a wide range of devices that are compatible with Windows 7,” said Neil Sharma, senior vice president, marketing, PV.
“Windows 7 is all about making life easier for consumers. We have been working with Microsoft to remove compatibility hurdles, making media stored on a standard network easily accessible on multiple devices throughout the home.”
By integrating TwonkyMedia server software, CE manufacturers benefit from customizable interface, skin and navigation structure options, enabling a unique, out-of-the-box branded experience. Advanced content search and discovery capabilities, in addition to user-friendly menu options, ensure the product meets stringent consumer demands.
Additionally, support for multiple languages and the widest range of music, video and photo file formats in the industry rounds out the most complete media server software product on the market.
TwonkyMedia server is now shipping on, or bundled with, a variety of new and soon-to-be-launched CE devices from leading manufacturers including Buffalo, Cisco-Linksys, Denon, Fujitsu Siemens, H-P, LaCie, Phillips, TEAC, Western Digital and many others. A downloadable consumer version of PV’s software, TwonkyMedia manager, is available at www.twonkymedia.com.
PV will demonstrate TwonkyMedia server at CES.
TwonkyMedia server now integrates seamlessly with Windows 7, marking a major milestone for the solution that has been adopted by dozens of leading consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers to enable digital media sharing on compatible home and mobile devices.
TwonkyMedia server embraces and extends beyond the Windows ecosystem for media sharing among multiple connected devices throughout the home. PV’s software supports more media files and syncs with a wider range of devices – including PCs, gaming consoles, and DLNA- and UPnP-compliant hardware – than any other media server software on the market.
It also maintains a higher degree of resource efficiency, including lower code size, memory consumption and CPU usage, making it the ideal choice for routers, network-attached storage (NAS) devices and other home networking products.
“Obtaining the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo ensures our CE partners and their end-user customers that TwonkyMedia server works exceptionally well with a wide range of devices that are compatible with Windows 7,” said Neil Sharma, senior vice president, marketing, PV.
“Windows 7 is all about making life easier for consumers. We have been working with Microsoft to remove compatibility hurdles, making media stored on a standard network easily accessible on multiple devices throughout the home.”
By integrating TwonkyMedia server software, CE manufacturers benefit from customizable interface, skin and navigation structure options, enabling a unique, out-of-the-box branded experience. Advanced content search and discovery capabilities, in addition to user-friendly menu options, ensure the product meets stringent consumer demands.
Additionally, support for multiple languages and the widest range of music, video and photo file formats in the industry rounds out the most complete media server software product on the market.
TwonkyMedia server is now shipping on, or bundled with, a variety of new and soon-to-be-launched CE devices from leading manufacturers including Buffalo, Cisco-Linksys, Denon, Fujitsu Siemens, H-P, LaCie, Phillips, TEAC, Western Digital and many others. A downloadable consumer version of PV’s software, TwonkyMedia manager, is available at www.twonkymedia.com.
PV will demonstrate TwonkyMedia server at CES.
IndiaLD celebrates anniversary with Call India Cheap program
BEVERLY HILLS, USA: To celebrate the first anniversary of its web site, IndiaLD has launched a special calling card program that offers customers 5,000 minutes to call India for $35.
IndiaLD is about quality of life—yours and ours. The company knows what it's like to be far from your families—to not see them like you used to.
“We know all about the challenges of doing business in foreign lands, where a phone call is the best face to face you can get,” says Chris Furlong of IndiaLD. “Our philosophy is simple. We partner with the best, drive a hard bargain, and put the savings back into our product. You won’t see us wasting money on celebrity endorsers. You won’t find us trying to fool you with crazy pricing ideas. We don’t need to. Our service sells itself.”
The special rate is 0.007 per minute to call all of India. Calls can be made via landline or mobile. This “call India cheap” program includes a 45-day window to use the minutes with no administrative fees or extra charges (excluding tax).
The card will include all of the company’s usual calling features such as pinless dial, easy dial, free SMS to India, and more. Pinless dial is limited to two phones. The special offer is available to US customers only and is available for a limited time only.
IndiaLD is about quality of life—yours and ours. The company knows what it's like to be far from your families—to not see them like you used to.
“We know all about the challenges of doing business in foreign lands, where a phone call is the best face to face you can get,” says Chris Furlong of IndiaLD. “Our philosophy is simple. We partner with the best, drive a hard bargain, and put the savings back into our product. You won’t see us wasting money on celebrity endorsers. You won’t find us trying to fool you with crazy pricing ideas. We don’t need to. Our service sells itself.”
The special rate is 0.007 per minute to call all of India. Calls can be made via landline or mobile. This “call India cheap” program includes a 45-day window to use the minutes with no administrative fees or extra charges (excluding tax).
The card will include all of the company’s usual calling features such as pinless dial, easy dial, free SMS to India, and more. Pinless dial is limited to two phones. The special offer is available to US customers only and is available for a limited time only.
Irdeto acquires Philips white box cryptography IP suite to boost security offering
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS: Irdeto, a leading expert in content and business model protection solutions and services, has acquired Philips Electronics' full suite of white-box cryptology patents, patent applications, software and knowledge, to significantly booster its existing IP portfolio for its Irdeto Cloakware solution.
In the ever-evolving software security space, white-box cryptography is emerging as a key technology to combat hacking and intellectual property theft in unsecure, untrusted environments, which is a common problem for PCs, set-top boxes and other devices involving DRM and conditional access applications.
Irdeto's acquisition of Philips’ patents, patent applications and knowledge improves the competitive strength of its Irdeto Cloakware solutions and complements its own existing IP, white-box cryptography products, skills and new discoveries.
The Philips team has a strong reputation for standard crypto development, including how to adjust it for white-box attacks. Irdeto’s Cloakware is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this knowledge to provide strong coverage of an already-important commercial technology and to offer more robust white-box cryptography-based solutions.
In addition, the acquisition enhances Irdeto’s toolset to meet growing market demand from software developers at large technology enterprises who are already starting to use white-box cryptography solutions to protect critical software applications.
"This acquisition allows us to even further bolster Irdeto Cloakware’s considerable IP portfolio, boosting our current white-box IP portfolio to the benefit of our customers,” said Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto. “It demonstrates Irdeto's continued dedication to and investment in software security, reinforcing its lead in innovation and ensuring our customers are protected to the highest level.”
"Irdeto is spearheading the fight against piracy and hacking as the threat intensifies in an increasingly digital world. The advancement of white-box cryptography is important in helping to combat attacks by addressing a more severe threat model where the attacker can observe everything, access all aspects of the target system or application and may have the black-box knowledge of the crypto algorithm," added Kill.
"By combining its existing skills and expertise with Philips IP, Irdeto can truly take the lead in the white-box crypto security market," stated Ruud Peters, CEO of Philips Intellectual Property and Standards.
With over one billion deployed applications on PCs, set-top boxes (STBs), mobile phones and media players, Irdeto’s Cloakware product is the security cornerstone of many of the world’s largest, most recognizable and technologically-advanced companies.
Irdeto’s Cloakware provides trusted security software and services to top-tier companies to protect their core digital assets that create revenue-generating business models. By keeping their core digital assets “cloaked” throughout creation, distribution and consumption, companies can protect their existing business models and create new sources of revenue.
Irdeto’s Cloakware protects billions of digital assets across servers, desktops and embedded devices that are deployed worldwide using our proven software security and services. It is the security cornerstone of many of the world's largest, most recognizable and technologically advanced companies.
In the ever-evolving software security space, white-box cryptography is emerging as a key technology to combat hacking and intellectual property theft in unsecure, untrusted environments, which is a common problem for PCs, set-top boxes and other devices involving DRM and conditional access applications.
Irdeto's acquisition of Philips’ patents, patent applications and knowledge improves the competitive strength of its Irdeto Cloakware solutions and complements its own existing IP, white-box cryptography products, skills and new discoveries.
The Philips team has a strong reputation for standard crypto development, including how to adjust it for white-box attacks. Irdeto’s Cloakware is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this knowledge to provide strong coverage of an already-important commercial technology and to offer more robust white-box cryptography-based solutions.
In addition, the acquisition enhances Irdeto’s toolset to meet growing market demand from software developers at large technology enterprises who are already starting to use white-box cryptography solutions to protect critical software applications.
"This acquisition allows us to even further bolster Irdeto Cloakware’s considerable IP portfolio, boosting our current white-box IP portfolio to the benefit of our customers,” said Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto. “It demonstrates Irdeto's continued dedication to and investment in software security, reinforcing its lead in innovation and ensuring our customers are protected to the highest level.”
"Irdeto is spearheading the fight against piracy and hacking as the threat intensifies in an increasingly digital world. The advancement of white-box cryptography is important in helping to combat attacks by addressing a more severe threat model where the attacker can observe everything, access all aspects of the target system or application and may have the black-box knowledge of the crypto algorithm," added Kill.
"By combining its existing skills and expertise with Philips IP, Irdeto can truly take the lead in the white-box crypto security market," stated Ruud Peters, CEO of Philips Intellectual Property and Standards.
With over one billion deployed applications on PCs, set-top boxes (STBs), mobile phones and media players, Irdeto’s Cloakware product is the security cornerstone of many of the world’s largest, most recognizable and technologically-advanced companies.
Irdeto’s Cloakware provides trusted security software and services to top-tier companies to protect their core digital assets that create revenue-generating business models. By keeping their core digital assets “cloaked” throughout creation, distribution and consumption, companies can protect their existing business models and create new sources of revenue.
Irdeto’s Cloakware protects billions of digital assets across servers, desktops and embedded devices that are deployed worldwide using our proven software security and services. It is the security cornerstone of many of the world's largest, most recognizable and technologically advanced companies.
Assessment of enabling technologies for LTE
DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "Assessment of Enabling Technologies for LTE" to its offering.
This research service provides an assessment of the 3GPP LTE platform.
Research overview
This Frost & Sullivan research service titled LTE -- Insights on Technology Adoption provides an assessment of long-term evolution (LTE) based on its features, benefits, capabilities, and commercialization prospects.
This research service provides an analysis of LTE by offering in-depth insights into how the technology caters to the rising needs of the end user. Drivers and challenges influencing the LTE market are analyzed, and prioritization of these challenges is carried out using a challenge-assessment grid. This research service also provides strategic recommendations for countering these challenges.
This analysis is available through our Technical Insights program. With this program, clients receive industry-leading market research along with comprehensive, objective information that allows your company to mitigate risk, identify new opportunities, and drive effective strategies for growth.
Technology overview
4G technologies to significantly boost mobile and wireless industry
Next-generation wireless technologies such as LTE are set to spur the growth in the mobile and wireless industry. Service providers and mobile operators globally are upgrading their networks to accommodate fourth-generation (4G) technologies.
Stakeholders are working toward optimizing the existing assets to enhance their return-on-investment (ROI) in this industry. "Operators are constantly looking at interlinking existing technologies with long-term evolution (LTE) in the most efficient manner," notes the analyst of this research. "They are expected to focus on delivering value added data services prior to maintaining their telephony services, rather than undifferentiated broadband connectivity."
An important concern for operators is legacy migration. Operators in the wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) and evolution data optimized (EV-DO) networks have a compelling need to migrate to the LTE networks. High-speed packet access (HSPA) and HSPA+ operators have the flexibility to scale to LTE networks after the mass commercialization of LTE, when the adoption rates are higher.
Key operators, despite investing in LTE, intend to try third-generation (3G) HSPA+ wireless broadband before delivering LTE capabilities. Considering the huge capital expenditure (CAPEX) that LTE entails, most service providers are likely to migrate to LTE through deployments in HSPA and HSPA+ networks.
Service providers and operators have shown significant interest in LTE - an evolutionary technology from 3G. Competing technologies such as worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) are disruptive to the current carrier investments. However, the momentum is gradually shifting in favor of LTE becoming the mainstream 4G technology.
In that case, both next-generation mobile networks (NGMN) and 4G initiatives will provide LTE with optimum industry momentum to sustain itself over the long term. The mobile subscriber base is growing globally year-on-year. It is anticipated that there will be 1,800 million subscribers of mobile services for both voice and data by 2010.
The traffic on mobile networks has increased each year by almost 40 percent, mainly due to the wide reach of rich media applications on mobiles.
Mobile operators to consolidate investments in networks and rollouts
However, the most significant obstacles for the adoption of LTE are legacy migration and cost. In addition to infrastructure as well as operating or handset costs, it is also important to take into consideration the cost associated with the deployment of newer data-driven services.
"From the operator's perspective, there has been huge investment in 2G and 3G networks," explains the analyst. "Stakeholders in this domain are keen on first recovering the investment that has gone into 3G infrastructures before migrating to the LTE networks, despite benefits such as enhanced network efficiency and performance."
With buyer confidence steadily decreasing, it is understandable that stakeholders have concerns about the impact of the current economic problems on mobile operators' LTE rollout plans. As expected, based on the current market uncertainty, mobile operators have begun to consolidate their investments in networks and rollouts.
"Nevertheless, the new wave of popularity and industry consensus on LTE has helped several providers and operators renew their interest in the emerging technology," concludes the analyst. "Over 15 service providers globally have showcased their efforts for a commercial LTE rollout in the next two years."
This research service provides an assessment of the 3GPP LTE platform.
Research overview
This Frost & Sullivan research service titled LTE -- Insights on Technology Adoption provides an assessment of long-term evolution (LTE) based on its features, benefits, capabilities, and commercialization prospects.
This research service provides an analysis of LTE by offering in-depth insights into how the technology caters to the rising needs of the end user. Drivers and challenges influencing the LTE market are analyzed, and prioritization of these challenges is carried out using a challenge-assessment grid. This research service also provides strategic recommendations for countering these challenges.
This analysis is available through our Technical Insights program. With this program, clients receive industry-leading market research along with comprehensive, objective information that allows your company to mitigate risk, identify new opportunities, and drive effective strategies for growth.
Technology overview
4G technologies to significantly boost mobile and wireless industry
Next-generation wireless technologies such as LTE are set to spur the growth in the mobile and wireless industry. Service providers and mobile operators globally are upgrading their networks to accommodate fourth-generation (4G) technologies.
Stakeholders are working toward optimizing the existing assets to enhance their return-on-investment (ROI) in this industry. "Operators are constantly looking at interlinking existing technologies with long-term evolution (LTE) in the most efficient manner," notes the analyst of this research. "They are expected to focus on delivering value added data services prior to maintaining their telephony services, rather than undifferentiated broadband connectivity."
An important concern for operators is legacy migration. Operators in the wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) and evolution data optimized (EV-DO) networks have a compelling need to migrate to the LTE networks. High-speed packet access (HSPA) and HSPA+ operators have the flexibility to scale to LTE networks after the mass commercialization of LTE, when the adoption rates are higher.
Key operators, despite investing in LTE, intend to try third-generation (3G) HSPA+ wireless broadband before delivering LTE capabilities. Considering the huge capital expenditure (CAPEX) that LTE entails, most service providers are likely to migrate to LTE through deployments in HSPA and HSPA+ networks.
Service providers and operators have shown significant interest in LTE - an evolutionary technology from 3G. Competing technologies such as worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) are disruptive to the current carrier investments. However, the momentum is gradually shifting in favor of LTE becoming the mainstream 4G technology.
In that case, both next-generation mobile networks (NGMN) and 4G initiatives will provide LTE with optimum industry momentum to sustain itself over the long term. The mobile subscriber base is growing globally year-on-year. It is anticipated that there will be 1,800 million subscribers of mobile services for both voice and data by 2010.
The traffic on mobile networks has increased each year by almost 40 percent, mainly due to the wide reach of rich media applications on mobiles.
Mobile operators to consolidate investments in networks and rollouts
However, the most significant obstacles for the adoption of LTE are legacy migration and cost. In addition to infrastructure as well as operating or handset costs, it is also important to take into consideration the cost associated with the deployment of newer data-driven services.
"From the operator's perspective, there has been huge investment in 2G and 3G networks," explains the analyst. "Stakeholders in this domain are keen on first recovering the investment that has gone into 3G infrastructures before migrating to the LTE networks, despite benefits such as enhanced network efficiency and performance."
With buyer confidence steadily decreasing, it is understandable that stakeholders have concerns about the impact of the current economic problems on mobile operators' LTE rollout plans. As expected, based on the current market uncertainty, mobile operators have begun to consolidate their investments in networks and rollouts.
"Nevertheless, the new wave of popularity and industry consensus on LTE has helped several providers and operators renew their interest in the emerging technology," concludes the analyst. "Over 15 service providers globally have showcased their efforts for a commercial LTE rollout in the next two years."
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Ybrant partners LiveVana and Lepton Software to offer mobile marketing services
MUMBAI, INDIA: Ybrant Digital, the leading provider of digital marketing solutions, today announced its plans to introduce Location-Based Advertising (LBA) into its gamut of services.
Towards this, the company is into a partnership with LiveVana Innovations & Lepton Software in launching a Location-Based Mobile Advertising Platform for Mobile Service Providers.
The platform will enable a host of options for Mobile Service Providers and Advertisers including the ability to send advertisements & discount coupons to mobile subscribers, based on subscriber’s location. Simultaneously, LiveVana & Lepton Software are in advanced stages of discussions with various Mobile Service Providers in India for deploying this platform.
Suresh Reddy, Chairman & CEO of Ybrant Digital, said: "Location-Based Advertising (LBA) is a new form of advertising using location-tracking technology in mobile networks to target consumers with location-specific advertising on their mobile devices. Along Ybrant’s growth, this is yet another breakthrough.
"This platform will enable a host of options for Mobile Service Providers and Advertisers; will also empower big & small brands to target the consumers in all segments effectively, using mobile medium and the location of mobile subscribers. With the estimation of mobile marketing in Asia-Pacific region to see an accelerating growth of $7.7 billion (and more than $16 billion globally) by 2011, this partnership is our best opportunity to power Ybrant’s soon-to-come local-search initiative for India."
"The Mobile Operators are looking at Innovative VAS including rich-content and information services. With this partnership with Ybrant Digital, Lepton Maps is ideally positioned to provide both static and dynamic content to mobile subscribers," added Dr. Rajeev Saraf, CEO of Lepton Maps.
“Use of consumer’s location for targeted advertising is missing on Web, TV and other traditional media. Our platform provides advertisers a medium to deliver targeted ads to consumers using their current location, leading to a better ROI in campaigns,” noted Mandeep Singh, CEO of LiveVana Innovations.
Towards this, the company is into a partnership with LiveVana Innovations & Lepton Software in launching a Location-Based Mobile Advertising Platform for Mobile Service Providers.
The platform will enable a host of options for Mobile Service Providers and Advertisers including the ability to send advertisements & discount coupons to mobile subscribers, based on subscriber’s location. Simultaneously, LiveVana & Lepton Software are in advanced stages of discussions with various Mobile Service Providers in India for deploying this platform.
Suresh Reddy, Chairman & CEO of Ybrant Digital, said: "Location-Based Advertising (LBA) is a new form of advertising using location-tracking technology in mobile networks to target consumers with location-specific advertising on their mobile devices. Along Ybrant’s growth, this is yet another breakthrough.
"This platform will enable a host of options for Mobile Service Providers and Advertisers; will also empower big & small brands to target the consumers in all segments effectively, using mobile medium and the location of mobile subscribers. With the estimation of mobile marketing in Asia-Pacific region to see an accelerating growth of $7.7 billion (and more than $16 billion globally) by 2011, this partnership is our best opportunity to power Ybrant’s soon-to-come local-search initiative for India."
"The Mobile Operators are looking at Innovative VAS including rich-content and information services. With this partnership with Ybrant Digital, Lepton Maps is ideally positioned to provide both static and dynamic content to mobile subscribers," added Dr. Rajeev Saraf, CEO of Lepton Maps.
“Use of consumer’s location for targeted advertising is missing on Web, TV and other traditional media. Our platform provides advertisers a medium to deliver targeted ads to consumers using their current location, leading to a better ROI in campaigns,” noted Mandeep Singh, CEO of LiveVana Innovations.
CMAI welcomes eGOM’s move on 3G auction
NEW DELHI, INDIA: CMAI (Communication Multimedia And IT ) Association of India, the only Integrated Association in India for Telecom, Multimedia and IT Sector having all stake holders as its members, today welcomed the decision by empowered Group of Ministers (eGOM’s) to simultaneously provide 3G spectrum to all successful bidders of 3G auctions in August 2010. This is in contrast to the earlier proposal of auctioning of three slots and release of spectrum in phased manner.
Mr. Ravi Sharma, Executive Chairman, CMAI Association of India said: “I welcome the recent announcement of eGOM on 3G auction, this move will first clear the air of ambiguity over the auction and distribution process, and make prospective operators bid with conviction, as it would provide a level playing field. Moreover, this will give the consumers choice of choosing between alternative 3G services, thereby empowering them to take better informed decision.”
To further consumer interest, CMAI Association of India has recently set up a body to pursue the formation of Mobile Consumer Courts to address consumer grievances, and Hon’ble Minister of Law and Justice, Veerappa Moily, has agreed to consider the demand of creation of such consumer courts.
CMAI Association of India is working closely with Ministry of Law and Justice and other bodies for the formulation and creation of consumer friendly policies and institutions, keeping in view the burgeoning mobile subscriber base.
Mr. Ravi Sharma, Executive Chairman, CMAI Association of India said: “I welcome the recent announcement of eGOM on 3G auction, this move will first clear the air of ambiguity over the auction and distribution process, and make prospective operators bid with conviction, as it would provide a level playing field. Moreover, this will give the consumers choice of choosing between alternative 3G services, thereby empowering them to take better informed decision.”
To further consumer interest, CMAI Association of India has recently set up a body to pursue the formation of Mobile Consumer Courts to address consumer grievances, and Hon’ble Minister of Law and Justice, Veerappa Moily, has agreed to consider the demand of creation of such consumer courts.
CMAI Association of India is working closely with Ministry of Law and Justice and other bodies for the formulation and creation of consumer friendly policies and institutions, keeping in view the burgeoning mobile subscriber base.
Digicable signs 10-year strategic outsourcing agreement with IBM
INDIA: IBM today announced that Digicable, a leading cable and broadband distribution player in India, has signed a 10-year strategic outsourcing agreement with the company at an initial outlay of Rs. 380 crores (U.S. $83 million). This is one of the most significant deals signed by a Media and Entertainment company in India.
As part of this agreement, IBM will support the integration of Digicable’s digital media content delivery and value added services applications with its core business technologies and processes. This integrated approach will enable Digicable to provide superior and personalized service to its subscribers.
With a strong focus across all segments of the media and entertainment industry, IBM has the deep business insights and technology know-how to help Digicable solve complex business problems and build a more intelligent enterprise by accelerating the transformation of their business. The deal with IBM will see alignment of key strategic business and IT objectives to ensure greater leverage of technology investments for the exponential growth planned by Digicable.
More specifically, IBM will enable Digicable to manage its business processes better and help enhance revenue per subscriber by facilitating the launch of Value Added Services (VAS) such as Video-On-Demand, Push-VOD, Interactive TV, Internet Service on TV, and gaming and telephony. Digicable’s digitization initiative will also provide its customers with access to more channels with better picture quality and sound.
As part of the agreement, IBM will provide IT infrastructure services, network support, application maintenance services and security services. IBM will leverage its strength in hardware and software solutions - to assess and help optimize operations for Central/Remote Head Ends and physical/digital assets.
IBM will also implement and manage core applications and services, including B2B/B2C and employee Portals, voucher and credit management systems, EBPP (Electronic Bill Presentation & Payment), Intellectual Property Management (IPM) and ERP.
Commenting on the deal, Jagjit Singh Kohli, Managing Director and CEO, Digicable said: "The business landscape is changing continuously, competition is getting intense and customer demands are increasing exponentially. It is hence imperative to differentiate ourselves by constantly evolving new and exciting service offerings to attract and retain customers, ably supported by a partner who understands our business and provides significant value-add.”
He added, “IBM has a strong track record in the media and entertainment space and we are confident that this agreement will enable us to accelerate growth, while ensuring utmost customer satisfaction.”
Asif Khan, Chief Technology Officer, Digicable said: “We believe in leveraging the latent advantages of the cable networks and latest technological innovations to derive new services to meet our customer expectations and facilitate our franchisee partners.”
“The partnership with IBM will help us focus on our core business, reduce time-to-market for new services and adapt quickly to meet future market requirements at an optimum cost.”
K.S. Raghunandan, Director – Solutions, IBM India and South Asia said: “IBM is excited to partner with a progressive and growing company like Digicable. We will help Digicable capitalize on market opportunities efficiently and drive additional revenues by facilitating accelerated launch of new value-added services.”
“We are confident that our understanding and expertise in M&E industry, coupled with proven capabilities in IT services delivery, will provide Digicable the necessary impetus for future growth.”
The contract was signed in December 2009.
As part of this agreement, IBM will support the integration of Digicable’s digital media content delivery and value added services applications with its core business technologies and processes. This integrated approach will enable Digicable to provide superior and personalized service to its subscribers.
With a strong focus across all segments of the media and entertainment industry, IBM has the deep business insights and technology know-how to help Digicable solve complex business problems and build a more intelligent enterprise by accelerating the transformation of their business. The deal with IBM will see alignment of key strategic business and IT objectives to ensure greater leverage of technology investments for the exponential growth planned by Digicable.
More specifically, IBM will enable Digicable to manage its business processes better and help enhance revenue per subscriber by facilitating the launch of Value Added Services (VAS) such as Video-On-Demand, Push-VOD, Interactive TV, Internet Service on TV, and gaming and telephony. Digicable’s digitization initiative will also provide its customers with access to more channels with better picture quality and sound.
As part of the agreement, IBM will provide IT infrastructure services, network support, application maintenance services and security services. IBM will leverage its strength in hardware and software solutions - to assess and help optimize operations for Central/Remote Head Ends and physical/digital assets.
IBM will also implement and manage core applications and services, including B2B/B2C and employee Portals, voucher and credit management systems, EBPP (Electronic Bill Presentation & Payment), Intellectual Property Management (IPM) and ERP.
Commenting on the deal, Jagjit Singh Kohli, Managing Director and CEO, Digicable said: "The business landscape is changing continuously, competition is getting intense and customer demands are increasing exponentially. It is hence imperative to differentiate ourselves by constantly evolving new and exciting service offerings to attract and retain customers, ably supported by a partner who understands our business and provides significant value-add.”
He added, “IBM has a strong track record in the media and entertainment space and we are confident that this agreement will enable us to accelerate growth, while ensuring utmost customer satisfaction.”
Asif Khan, Chief Technology Officer, Digicable said: “We believe in leveraging the latent advantages of the cable networks and latest technological innovations to derive new services to meet our customer expectations and facilitate our franchisee partners.”
“The partnership with IBM will help us focus on our core business, reduce time-to-market for new services and adapt quickly to meet future market requirements at an optimum cost.”
K.S. Raghunandan, Director – Solutions, IBM India and South Asia said: “IBM is excited to partner with a progressive and growing company like Digicable. We will help Digicable capitalize on market opportunities efficiently and drive additional revenues by facilitating accelerated launch of new value-added services.”
“We are confident that our understanding and expertise in M&E industry, coupled with proven capabilities in IT services delivery, will provide Digicable the necessary impetus for future growth.”
The contract was signed in December 2009.
Nolato focuses telecommunications operations on Asia
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: Nolato intends to focus its telecommunications operations on Asia, gradually winding down Nolato Alpha’s production in Kristianstad during 2010. This will affect around 60 employees. Union negotiations are due to begin.
“Volumes within our Swedish telecommunications operations have gradually fallen over the course of the last decade, as our customers have chosen to carry out production in low-cost countries, particularly in Asia,” explains Hans Porat, President and CEO of Nolato. “This trend is continuing, and we are acting in order to maintain and strengthen our customer relationships.”
As a result of these staff reductions, Nolato Telecom’s operating income is expected to be affected by approximately SEK 20 million during the fourth quarter of 2009, with around SEK 6 million of this affecting cash flow.
The Nolato Group is a high-tech developer and manufacturer of polymer product systems for leading customers in medical technology, telecom, hygiene, automotive products and other selected industrial sectors. The Group has 4,500 employees. Nolato’s shares are quoted on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange, Stockholm Small Cap, Information Technology.
“Volumes within our Swedish telecommunications operations have gradually fallen over the course of the last decade, as our customers have chosen to carry out production in low-cost countries, particularly in Asia,” explains Hans Porat, President and CEO of Nolato. “This trend is continuing, and we are acting in order to maintain and strengthen our customer relationships.”
As a result of these staff reductions, Nolato Telecom’s operating income is expected to be affected by approximately SEK 20 million during the fourth quarter of 2009, with around SEK 6 million of this affecting cash flow.
The Nolato Group is a high-tech developer and manufacturer of polymer product systems for leading customers in medical technology, telecom, hygiene, automotive products and other selected industrial sectors. The Group has 4,500 employees. Nolato’s shares are quoted on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange, Stockholm Small Cap, Information Technology.
Globalstar acquires SPOT Satellite GPS messenger and M2M device manufacturer Axonn
MILPITAS, USA: Globalstar Inc., a leading provider of mobile satellite voice and data services to businesses, governments and consumers, announced that it and its wholly owned subsidiary, Spot LLC, have acquired substantially all of the assets of Axonn, LLC. (Axonn).
Axonn is a leading developer and manufacturer of high quality and affordable satellite GPS asset-tracking and messaging products including Globalstar's award-winning consumer retail device, the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger. Axonn also designs and markets enterprise products, which utilize the highly reliable Globalstar Simplex data network, including the AXTracker and SMARTONE asset-tracking solutions.
"This agreement is significant for it will effectively secure the critical long-term supply chain and associated intellectual property rights and technical design for the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger retail consumer product as well as a number of Simplex data machine-to-machine (M2M) enterprise solutions," said Peter Dalton, CEO, Globalstar.
"With the economics of this acquisition, we expect to increase our equipment margin for the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger by approximately 100 percent. We also expect that contracting directly with Simplex device manufacturers and working with Axonn's talented team of R&D, design and contract manufacturing personnel will enable Globalstar to deliver future innovative products, already planned for introduction, in a much more cost effective and timely manner."
Axonn is the designer and manufacturer of the STX2 Simplex data transmitter which is the world's smallest industrial-use satellite Simplex transmitter. The STX2 provides developers of asset tracking, data monitoring and messaging solutions with a small but affordable way to integrate Globalstar satellite data network connectivity into their product solutions. The STX2 is an integral piece of every current M2M Simplex data device that utilizes the Globalstar network.
Dalton continued: "Axonn's broad-ranging intellectual property and engineering expertise coupled with Globalstar's network capability provides us with the ability to offer developers, on an open-source basis, the technologies needed to integrate SPOT's proven messaging technology and global tracking into their M2M products. This agreement also provides Globalstar with the ability to directly deliver customized and affordable Simplex data hardware solutions to customers."
Globalstar and Spot LLC acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of Axonn in exchange for $1.5 million in cash, subject to a working capital adjustment, $5.5 million in shares of the Company's voting common stock and up to an additional $11 million for earnout payments based on sales of existing and new products.
Axonn is a leading developer and manufacturer of high quality and affordable satellite GPS asset-tracking and messaging products including Globalstar's award-winning consumer retail device, the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger. Axonn also designs and markets enterprise products, which utilize the highly reliable Globalstar Simplex data network, including the AXTracker and SMARTONE asset-tracking solutions.
"This agreement is significant for it will effectively secure the critical long-term supply chain and associated intellectual property rights and technical design for the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger retail consumer product as well as a number of Simplex data machine-to-machine (M2M) enterprise solutions," said Peter Dalton, CEO, Globalstar.
"With the economics of this acquisition, we expect to increase our equipment margin for the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger by approximately 100 percent. We also expect that contracting directly with Simplex device manufacturers and working with Axonn's talented team of R&D, design and contract manufacturing personnel will enable Globalstar to deliver future innovative products, already planned for introduction, in a much more cost effective and timely manner."
Axonn is the designer and manufacturer of the STX2 Simplex data transmitter which is the world's smallest industrial-use satellite Simplex transmitter. The STX2 provides developers of asset tracking, data monitoring and messaging solutions with a small but affordable way to integrate Globalstar satellite data network connectivity into their product solutions. The STX2 is an integral piece of every current M2M Simplex data device that utilizes the Globalstar network.
Dalton continued: "Axonn's broad-ranging intellectual property and engineering expertise coupled with Globalstar's network capability provides us with the ability to offer developers, on an open-source basis, the technologies needed to integrate SPOT's proven messaging technology and global tracking into their M2M products. This agreement also provides Globalstar with the ability to directly deliver customized and affordable Simplex data hardware solutions to customers."
Globalstar and Spot LLC acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of Axonn in exchange for $1.5 million in cash, subject to a working capital adjustment, $5.5 million in shares of the Company's voting common stock and up to an additional $11 million for earnout payments based on sales of existing and new products.
Globaltel Media bringing concept of converged SMS to CES 2010
SAN DIEGO, USA: Globaltel Media Inc., an SMS technology firm based in San Diego, Calif., is using CES 2010 to challenge the notion that common SMS messages are just about text.
The GTM booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center, upper South Hall 4, will be touting the concept of "converged SMS," or as company CEO and President Robert Sanchez explains, the meeting of rich media with simple SMS text messaging technology.
GTM's converged SMS solutions aim at closing the gap between everyday wireless cellular devices and web-based rich media and text without the need for special hardware or software, registration, downloads or smart devices. GTM products Alirti and Cherple, both to be showcased at CES, are prime examples of converged SMS solutions.
Alirti technology enables the delivery of any rich electronic content such as images, music clips, video, data and executable files from the Web to mobile devices with little more than a click of a mouse.
As the rich content is sent via a patent-pending protocol within the body of a text message, Alirti is the ultimate solution for sending any media without the need for data plans, the Internet or high-cost carrier premiums for multimedia.
Cherple is GTM's other Web-to-mobile solution challenging the notion of how we view text messaging. This two-way text communication application is a free Internet-based widget that works like instant messenger (except using standard SMS) and is available for use from the Web site at www.cherple.com or as a download.
It works to any US mobile cell phone from any Internet-connected computer in the world to provide instant, two-way communication without the need for a cell phone data plan or downloads of any cell phone software. Unlike other Web-to-mobile SMS applications, there is no cost for the PC user, no registration required and works across all US carriers.
The GTM booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center, upper South Hall 4, will be touting the concept of "converged SMS," or as company CEO and President Robert Sanchez explains, the meeting of rich media with simple SMS text messaging technology.
GTM's converged SMS solutions aim at closing the gap between everyday wireless cellular devices and web-based rich media and text without the need for special hardware or software, registration, downloads or smart devices. GTM products Alirti and Cherple, both to be showcased at CES, are prime examples of converged SMS solutions.
Alirti technology enables the delivery of any rich electronic content such as images, music clips, video, data and executable files from the Web to mobile devices with little more than a click of a mouse.
As the rich content is sent via a patent-pending protocol within the body of a text message, Alirti is the ultimate solution for sending any media without the need for data plans, the Internet or high-cost carrier premiums for multimedia.
Cherple is GTM's other Web-to-mobile solution challenging the notion of how we view text messaging. This two-way text communication application is a free Internet-based widget that works like instant messenger (except using standard SMS) and is available for use from the Web site at www.cherple.com or as a download.
It works to any US mobile cell phone from any Internet-connected computer in the world to provide instant, two-way communication without the need for a cell phone data plan or downloads of any cell phone software. Unlike other Web-to-mobile SMS applications, there is no cost for the PC user, no registration required and works across all US carriers.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Spiralight enhances service reliability with Sorrento’s DWDM
DENVER, USA: Sorrento Networks announced that Spiralight Network LLC, an optical transport service provider based in the upper Midwest, has selected Sorrento’s GigaMux 6400 to enhance service reliability and high-speed transport services for its customers based in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Spiralight’s services include Lightwave, SONET, Ethernet, Fast/GIG E and basic TDM.
Sorrento’ GigaMux 6400 offers a significantly smaller capital outlay and fewer management requirements than other optical networking products, enabling Spiralight to deliver what customers need now for increased revenue, accelerated service delivery and reduced transport costs.
The GigaMux 6400 will also support Spiralight’s network expansion plans to additional states by extending its existing dense wavelength division multiplexing- (DWDM) based fiber optic infrastructure.
“Our focus is to ensure our customers experience up-time all the time, no matter what the circumstance. Sorrento’s GigaMux 6400 reinforces our ability to offer full redundancy across our entire network,” said Jake Brown, CTO of Spiralight.
“In addition, as our network continues to support more and more end-users and our points of presence increase, the GigaMux 6400 will support this growth while also enabling us to offer more high-speed services. It’s a perfect complement for our growing DWDM-based network.”
Sorrento’s metro optical product offering is ideally suited for metro, metro core and regional WDM applications. Sorrento’s GigaMux portfolio simplifies the establishment of new networks and enables customers to seamlessly add capacity to existing WDM infrastructure without interrupting traffic signals.
“Spiralight is in a great position. The company continues to gain traction in the Midwestern region, which requires them to consider longer-term expansion plans now,” said Jim Nevelle, CEO of Sorrento Networks. “The GigaMux 6400 meets their network requirements today and offers the flexibility to support their future growth. It’s the ideal solution for growing service providers that want to gain the benefits of DWDM technology.”
Sorrento’ GigaMux 6400 offers a significantly smaller capital outlay and fewer management requirements than other optical networking products, enabling Spiralight to deliver what customers need now for increased revenue, accelerated service delivery and reduced transport costs.
The GigaMux 6400 will also support Spiralight’s network expansion plans to additional states by extending its existing dense wavelength division multiplexing- (DWDM) based fiber optic infrastructure.
“Our focus is to ensure our customers experience up-time all the time, no matter what the circumstance. Sorrento’s GigaMux 6400 reinforces our ability to offer full redundancy across our entire network,” said Jake Brown, CTO of Spiralight.
“In addition, as our network continues to support more and more end-users and our points of presence increase, the GigaMux 6400 will support this growth while also enabling us to offer more high-speed services. It’s a perfect complement for our growing DWDM-based network.”
Sorrento’s metro optical product offering is ideally suited for metro, metro core and regional WDM applications. Sorrento’s GigaMux portfolio simplifies the establishment of new networks and enables customers to seamlessly add capacity to existing WDM infrastructure without interrupting traffic signals.
“Spiralight is in a great position. The company continues to gain traction in the Midwestern region, which requires them to consider longer-term expansion plans now,” said Jim Nevelle, CEO of Sorrento Networks. “The GigaMux 6400 meets their network requirements today and offers the flexibility to support their future growth. It’s the ideal solution for growing service providers that want to gain the benefits of DWDM technology.”
Orbital receives contract for HYLAS 2 commercial communications satellite from Avanti
DULLES, USA: Orbital Sciences Corp. has signed a contract with London-based Avanti Communications Group plc for a new geosynchronous (GEO) communications satellite.
The spacecraft, to be named HYLAS 2, will be based on Orbital’s industry-leading STAR 2.4 satellite platform. The satellite is scheduled for delivery in early 2012. When the HYLAS 2 satellite is placed into commercial service following its launch and in-orbit testing, Avanti will more than triple the satellite capacity that it will offer with its first Ka-band satellite, HYLAS 1, which is scheduled to be launched in the first half of 2010. Specific financial terms of the contract were not disclosed; however the Export-Import Bank of the United States will provide funding for the project.
“With this most recent communications satellite order, Orbital has again demonstrated our position as the world’s leading provider of small-class GEO commercial satellites,” said Michael Larkin, Orbital’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of its Space Systems Group.
“From the world’s largest satellite operators, including Intelsat and SES, to regional operators such as Telenor, Optus, and now Avanti, Orbital provides the highest levels of product reliability, the most comprehensive support, and the best overall value to all our customers. These same attributes are also designed into our higher-power Star 2.7 spacecraft that has evolved from our current product line and which will serve as our entry into the market for satellites that generate up to 7.5 kilowatts of payload power.”
The HYLAS 2 satellite will carry 24 active Ka-band user beams and four gateway beams, and will produce approximately 5.0 kilowatts of payload electrical power. The Ka-band spot beams will provide two-way communications services to facilitate high-speed delivery of data to end-user applications such as corporate networking, broadband Internet access, business continuity services and video distribution.
Using the HYLAS 2 spacecraft, Avanti will provide its data and video services to Northern and Southern Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In addition, the spacecraft will be equipped with a steerable spot beam, also operating at Ka-band, which can provide coverage anywhere on Earth that is visible to the satellite.
David Williams, CEO of Avanti, said: “We are very pleased to be working with Orbital to provide Avanti with our second broadband satellite, which will clearly establish Avanti as the first provider and clear leader in broadband services via Ka-band satellites throughout Europe and large portions of Africa and the Middle East. Together with our well established network of distribution partners and telecommunications service partners, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the best value of broadband services via satellite.”
The contract with Avanti for the HYLAS-2 satellite is the second order this month for Orbital’s GEO communications spacecraft. Last week, the company announced that Intelsat, S.A. had awarded it a contract for the IS-23 spacecraft, the 10th Orbital-built spacecraft that will be deployed into the Intelsat fleet.
Since 2001, customers around the world have ordered a total of 29 GEO communications satellites from Orbital. Including the order from Avanti, Orbital currently has nine GEO satellites in various stages of design, manufacturing, testing and pre-launch preparations, and has options for three additional satellites that could be exercised in the future.
The spacecraft, to be named HYLAS 2, will be based on Orbital’s industry-leading STAR 2.4 satellite platform. The satellite is scheduled for delivery in early 2012. When the HYLAS 2 satellite is placed into commercial service following its launch and in-orbit testing, Avanti will more than triple the satellite capacity that it will offer with its first Ka-band satellite, HYLAS 1, which is scheduled to be launched in the first half of 2010. Specific financial terms of the contract were not disclosed; however the Export-Import Bank of the United States will provide funding for the project.
“With this most recent communications satellite order, Orbital has again demonstrated our position as the world’s leading provider of small-class GEO commercial satellites,” said Michael Larkin, Orbital’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of its Space Systems Group.
“From the world’s largest satellite operators, including Intelsat and SES, to regional operators such as Telenor, Optus, and now Avanti, Orbital provides the highest levels of product reliability, the most comprehensive support, and the best overall value to all our customers. These same attributes are also designed into our higher-power Star 2.7 spacecraft that has evolved from our current product line and which will serve as our entry into the market for satellites that generate up to 7.5 kilowatts of payload power.”
The HYLAS 2 satellite will carry 24 active Ka-band user beams and four gateway beams, and will produce approximately 5.0 kilowatts of payload electrical power. The Ka-band spot beams will provide two-way communications services to facilitate high-speed delivery of data to end-user applications such as corporate networking, broadband Internet access, business continuity services and video distribution.
Using the HYLAS 2 spacecraft, Avanti will provide its data and video services to Northern and Southern Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In addition, the spacecraft will be equipped with a steerable spot beam, also operating at Ka-band, which can provide coverage anywhere on Earth that is visible to the satellite.
David Williams, CEO of Avanti, said: “We are very pleased to be working with Orbital to provide Avanti with our second broadband satellite, which will clearly establish Avanti as the first provider and clear leader in broadband services via Ka-band satellites throughout Europe and large portions of Africa and the Middle East. Together with our well established network of distribution partners and telecommunications service partners, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the best value of broadband services via satellite.”
The contract with Avanti for the HYLAS-2 satellite is the second order this month for Orbital’s GEO communications spacecraft. Last week, the company announced that Intelsat, S.A. had awarded it a contract for the IS-23 spacecraft, the 10th Orbital-built spacecraft that will be deployed into the Intelsat fleet.
Since 2001, customers around the world have ordered a total of 29 GEO communications satellites from Orbital. Including the order from Avanti, Orbital currently has nine GEO satellites in various stages of design, manufacturing, testing and pre-launch preparations, and has options for three additional satellites that could be exercised in the future.
Mobile device shipments will nearly double before 2015
NEW YORK, USA:2009 will see a total of 1.2 billion mobile devices shipped, according to the latest data from ABI Research. That includes all categories of wireless devices including cellular handsets, MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices), netbooks, mobile consumer electronics products, and cellular modems.
Shipments of these devices will have nearly doubled in 2014 to a total of 2.25 billion, according to the firm’s new forecasts.
“The next five years will see a shift in the breakdown between types of mobile devices shipped,” comments industry analyst Michael Morgan.
“Today, wireless handsets rule the roost, with other mobile devices accounting for only 40 million shipments and cellular modems only 60 million. While handset shipments did actually decrease between 2008 and 2009 due to the global recession, the other two segments in fact grew very aggressively.
“Handset sales are growing at only 4 percent, while cellular modem shipments are expected to grow by 40 percent annually, and ultra mobile devices by 67 percent. These newer categories represent very attractive market opportunities and new revenue streams for operators.”
These developments put smartphones in direct competition with a variety of other device segments for consumer’s dollars. As Morgan says, “The convergence period for cellular communications is coming to an end, and now we’re entering a period of divergence. For many devices the technology is already in place, it’s just the business and billing models that need to be built.”
This means that some handset vendors may need to seek a greater part of their business in the low cost and ultra-low cost segments, while MIDs and netbooks will have to better define their unique use cases and value propositions. The same will apply to cellular modems, and operator subsidies will also have an important influence on the sale of these devices.
Shipments of these devices will have nearly doubled in 2014 to a total of 2.25 billion, according to the firm’s new forecasts.
“The next five years will see a shift in the breakdown between types of mobile devices shipped,” comments industry analyst Michael Morgan.
“Today, wireless handsets rule the roost, with other mobile devices accounting for only 40 million shipments and cellular modems only 60 million. While handset shipments did actually decrease between 2008 and 2009 due to the global recession, the other two segments in fact grew very aggressively.
“Handset sales are growing at only 4 percent, while cellular modem shipments are expected to grow by 40 percent annually, and ultra mobile devices by 67 percent. These newer categories represent very attractive market opportunities and new revenue streams for operators.”
These developments put smartphones in direct competition with a variety of other device segments for consumer’s dollars. As Morgan says, “The convergence period for cellular communications is coming to an end, and now we’re entering a period of divergence. For many devices the technology is already in place, it’s just the business and billing models that need to be built.”
This means that some handset vendors may need to seek a greater part of their business in the low cost and ultra-low cost segments, while MIDs and netbooks will have to better define their unique use cases and value propositions. The same will apply to cellular modems, and operator subsidies will also have an important influence on the sale of these devices.
Saudi Arabian telco drives unprecedented growth with BMC Software
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: In an industry where rapid expansion is the norm, Saudi Arabian telecom provider Mobily still manages to set itself apart through its impressive growth.
Recognizing that success requires IT to be a business driver rather than a cost drain, Mobily turned to BMC Software to reduce costs, cut the time needed to fix problems and continue to deliver improved services to their customers.
“Whichever area of Mobily’s business you examine — compliance, cost control or efficiency — BMC’s Business Service Management solutions are helping the company expand their offerings and grow their customer base.”
Taking just four months to implement, BMC’s solutions have delivered a 60 percent reduction in problem ticket resolution time, a 40 percent decrease in the mean time to repair faults and a 20 percent cut in service support and service assurance costs.
Mobily operates an extensive and complex IT system, encompassing a number of Windows and UNIX servers, a quarter of which are virtualized. IT services, however, were not aligned to the company’s ambitious business objectives to solidify their position as Saudi Arabia’s leading mobile operator. Mobily looked to BMC’s Business Service Management (BSM) to automate a manually-managed and paper-based IT service environment that suffered from inefficient problem management, slow launch services and excessive service assurance and support costs.
“BMC is one of our most valued and trusted partners,” said Dr. Ahmed Altheneyan, VP IT Operations at Mobily. “Our BMC implementation has helped IT move up the business value chain by becoming better aligned with the company’s key performance indicators and enabling operations across the organization, from cost control to compliance.”
Recognizing that success requires IT to be a business driver rather than a cost drain, Mobily turned to BMC Software to reduce costs, cut the time needed to fix problems and continue to deliver improved services to their customers.
“Whichever area of Mobily’s business you examine — compliance, cost control or efficiency — BMC’s Business Service Management solutions are helping the company expand their offerings and grow their customer base.”
Taking just four months to implement, BMC’s solutions have delivered a 60 percent reduction in problem ticket resolution time, a 40 percent decrease in the mean time to repair faults and a 20 percent cut in service support and service assurance costs.
Mobily operates an extensive and complex IT system, encompassing a number of Windows and UNIX servers, a quarter of which are virtualized. IT services, however, were not aligned to the company’s ambitious business objectives to solidify their position as Saudi Arabia’s leading mobile operator. Mobily looked to BMC’s Business Service Management (BSM) to automate a manually-managed and paper-based IT service environment that suffered from inefficient problem management, slow launch services and excessive service assurance and support costs.
“BMC is one of our most valued and trusted partners,” said Dr. Ahmed Altheneyan, VP IT Operations at Mobily. “Our BMC implementation has helped IT move up the business value chain by becoming better aligned with the company’s key performance indicators and enabling operations across the organization, from cost control to compliance.”
PlasmaTech executes definitive agreement with RF Wireless Solutions
LAS VEGAS, USA: PlasmaTech Inc. has executed an Intellectual Property Purchase Agreement relating to its acquisition of substantially all of the intellectual property of RF Wireless Solutions, LLC, a privately-held developer, designer and manufacturer of wireless equipment and solutions.
With this acquisition, PlasmaTech owns fully-developed, advanced radio frequency (RF) wireless technologies, devices and related equipment backed by over 80 copyrights. These integrated solutions deliver some of the fastest, most secure and reliable transmission of wireless data communications available in the industry.
Since 2005, RF Wireless's products have demonstrated success in applications for international and domestic industrial, government and commercial customers. RF Wireless's Diamond Sentry Platform is the first fully integrated equipment to combine various technologies such as ZigBee/802.15.4, cellular, Wi-Fi and Ethernet and Satellite connectivity into a single unified system for WAN, LAN and PAN Security.
PlasmaTech President, Marvin Williams, noting that the acquired portfolio of technologies is highly adaptable to both legacy systems and the most sophisticated emerging IP protocols, said management of the Company foresees potential for future growth in a variety of vertical industries. Williams called the transaction “a major turning point” for the Company, indicating that the acquisition will equip PlasmaTech with valuable core competencies and intellectual properties.
“By combining existing product lines with OEM relationships, access to capital markets and management resources, PlasmaTech will be in a prime position to exploit market opportunities in the global $120 billion wireless access card reader market. We have devoted substantial effort in seeking out the acquisition of a business to enhance shareholder value and believe this acquisition to be an unparalleled opportunity for PlasmaTech,” Williams said.
The products included in the acquisition are designed to equip security solution service providers, automation specialists, and data and IP service providers with the tools to build previously limited and unimaginable, multi-revenue producing networks that deliver high-speed, state-of-the-art data transmission, card access control and video surveillance services offering maximum reliability utilizing RF instead of wires.
Terms of the transaction provide for payment by PlasmaTech of a total of $485,000 cash and 4 million shares of PlasmaTech common stock over a three-year period.
With this acquisition, PlasmaTech owns fully-developed, advanced radio frequency (RF) wireless technologies, devices and related equipment backed by over 80 copyrights. These integrated solutions deliver some of the fastest, most secure and reliable transmission of wireless data communications available in the industry.
Since 2005, RF Wireless's products have demonstrated success in applications for international and domestic industrial, government and commercial customers. RF Wireless's Diamond Sentry Platform is the first fully integrated equipment to combine various technologies such as ZigBee/802.15.4, cellular, Wi-Fi and Ethernet and Satellite connectivity into a single unified system for WAN, LAN and PAN Security.
PlasmaTech President, Marvin Williams, noting that the acquired portfolio of technologies is highly adaptable to both legacy systems and the most sophisticated emerging IP protocols, said management of the Company foresees potential for future growth in a variety of vertical industries. Williams called the transaction “a major turning point” for the Company, indicating that the acquisition will equip PlasmaTech with valuable core competencies and intellectual properties.
“By combining existing product lines with OEM relationships, access to capital markets and management resources, PlasmaTech will be in a prime position to exploit market opportunities in the global $120 billion wireless access card reader market. We have devoted substantial effort in seeking out the acquisition of a business to enhance shareholder value and believe this acquisition to be an unparalleled opportunity for PlasmaTech,” Williams said.
The products included in the acquisition are designed to equip security solution service providers, automation specialists, and data and IP service providers with the tools to build previously limited and unimaginable, multi-revenue producing networks that deliver high-speed, state-of-the-art data transmission, card access control and video surveillance services offering maximum reliability utilizing RF instead of wires.
Terms of the transaction provide for payment by PlasmaTech of a total of $485,000 cash and 4 million shares of PlasmaTech common stock over a three-year period.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Nortel Enterprise Users Group poised for transition to Avaya
CHICAGO, USA: The International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA) confirmed its support and readiness for the integration of Nortel and Avaya, which marks the first full day that Nortel products and services operate within Avaya.
“We have engaged with Avaya to ensure that the needs of Nortel customers are met,” said Brad Tompkins, INNUA President. “We are encouraged by what we have seen and heard so far regarding Avaya’s plan to integrate Nortel systems within the Avaya family of products and introduce Nortel users to Avaya’s product base. After this period of uncertainty over the past several months, we are ready and eager to build a strong relationship with Avaya.”
Avaya is currently moving forward with the development of a strategy and roadmap for Nortel products, which will be released within the next 30 days. The company has brought over several key Nortel executives, who have intimate knowledge of Nortel products and customer needs.
“The onboarding of so many high-level Nortel executives to Avaya is very reassuring,” said Victor Bohnert, INNUA Executive Director. “These individuals will bring much to Avaya’s leadership, and will play an important role in building a product roadmap that makes this transition as easy as possible for Nortel customers.”
Additional insight into Avaya’s Nortel product strategy will be a major focus of INNUA’s 2010 Global Connect annual conference, taking place April 18-22, 2010, in Denver, Colorado.
INNUA is also working closely with the International Association of Avaya Users (InAAU) and INSIGHT 100, the group representing users of Nortel’s SL-100/CS2100 product line, on the co-location of Global Connect with InAAU’s conference to meet the needs of all Nortel and Avaya product users in one city at one time. It is expected that the combined event will bring upwards of 4,000 Nortel and Avaya users, vendors, and Avaya executives to Denver.
“It will be very exciting to have such a significant segment of the enterprise communications market together in one place,” said Cindy Phillips, INSIGHT 100 President. “With new networking opportunities, great education, and news regarding Avaya’s product transition plans, this will be one of the most important events in years for both Nortel and Avaya customers.”
Proposals for workshop presentations are currently being accepted for Global Connect 2010.
“We have engaged with Avaya to ensure that the needs of Nortel customers are met,” said Brad Tompkins, INNUA President. “We are encouraged by what we have seen and heard so far regarding Avaya’s plan to integrate Nortel systems within the Avaya family of products and introduce Nortel users to Avaya’s product base. After this period of uncertainty over the past several months, we are ready and eager to build a strong relationship with Avaya.”
Avaya is currently moving forward with the development of a strategy and roadmap for Nortel products, which will be released within the next 30 days. The company has brought over several key Nortel executives, who have intimate knowledge of Nortel products and customer needs.
“The onboarding of so many high-level Nortel executives to Avaya is very reassuring,” said Victor Bohnert, INNUA Executive Director. “These individuals will bring much to Avaya’s leadership, and will play an important role in building a product roadmap that makes this transition as easy as possible for Nortel customers.”
Additional insight into Avaya’s Nortel product strategy will be a major focus of INNUA’s 2010 Global Connect annual conference, taking place April 18-22, 2010, in Denver, Colorado.
INNUA is also working closely with the International Association of Avaya Users (InAAU) and INSIGHT 100, the group representing users of Nortel’s SL-100/CS2100 product line, on the co-location of Global Connect with InAAU’s conference to meet the needs of all Nortel and Avaya product users in one city at one time. It is expected that the combined event will bring upwards of 4,000 Nortel and Avaya users, vendors, and Avaya executives to Denver.
“It will be very exciting to have such a significant segment of the enterprise communications market together in one place,” said Cindy Phillips, INSIGHT 100 President. “With new networking opportunities, great education, and news regarding Avaya’s product transition plans, this will be one of the most important events in years for both Nortel and Avaya customers.”
Proposals for workshop presentations are currently being accepted for Global Connect 2010.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Huawei successfully launches BSNL’s rural WiMax project in Rajasthan
BANGALORE, INDIA: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. announced the launch of the first rural WiMax project by Huawei’s esteemed customer – BSNL’s in Ajmer, Rajasthan on December 13, 2009.
The launch was conducted by Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Telecommunications, Sachin Pilot, who was accompanied by BSNL CMD, Kuldeep Goyal and Huawei India CEO, Max Yang.
Achieving yet another milestone for itself, Huawei has provided BSNL with the latest state-of-the-art Mobile Broadband Solution – Wimax 802.16e. The 802.16e solution is a portable mobile access solution, which supports roaming and handover. The version offers whole E2E solution, seamless network architecture and convergence capability with other networks.
BSNL, who has been a leader in pioneering new technologies for the Indian market, is the first company to have launched WiMax for rural audiences. WiMAX represents a shift from ICT to IT, with an original architecture based on All-IP. Because of the uncluttered operating frequency band, low cost, rich frequency spectrum resources and great availability, BSNL’s WiMAX services in Rajasthan will give BSNL, enhanced abilities to provide better and innovative services.
Yang said: "This next generation of wireless communication will revolutionize the way services are rendered to consumers using internet/data and will develop the future of Indian telecommunications. It is a proud moment for Huawei to partner with BSNL in this prestigious WiMAX project."
Kuldeep Goyal added: "It is our vision to provide broadband coverage to all public healthcare centers and village panchayats including citizen services to 1 Lakh community service centers in Rajasthan. We are happy to join hands with our reliable partner, Huawei."
Huawei's solution for BSNL will ensure a high-quality network with reduced TCO and OPEX, improved user experience and a faster network launch. Huawei WiMAX will also provide comprehensive coverage solutions, including excellent Network Plan& Design, high performance products, professional operational consultancy which will help BSNL realize successful business opportunities with an optimal coverage network.
The launch was conducted by Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Telecommunications, Sachin Pilot, who was accompanied by BSNL CMD, Kuldeep Goyal and Huawei India CEO, Max Yang.
Achieving yet another milestone for itself, Huawei has provided BSNL with the latest state-of-the-art Mobile Broadband Solution – Wimax 802.16e. The 802.16e solution is a portable mobile access solution, which supports roaming and handover. The version offers whole E2E solution, seamless network architecture and convergence capability with other networks.
BSNL, who has been a leader in pioneering new technologies for the Indian market, is the first company to have launched WiMax for rural audiences. WiMAX represents a shift from ICT to IT, with an original architecture based on All-IP. Because of the uncluttered operating frequency band, low cost, rich frequency spectrum resources and great availability, BSNL’s WiMAX services in Rajasthan will give BSNL, enhanced abilities to provide better and innovative services.
Yang said: "This next generation of wireless communication will revolutionize the way services are rendered to consumers using internet/data and will develop the future of Indian telecommunications. It is a proud moment for Huawei to partner with BSNL in this prestigious WiMAX project."
Kuldeep Goyal added: "It is our vision to provide broadband coverage to all public healthcare centers and village panchayats including citizen services to 1 Lakh community service centers in Rajasthan. We are happy to join hands with our reliable partner, Huawei."
Huawei's solution for BSNL will ensure a high-quality network with reduced TCO and OPEX, improved user experience and a faster network launch. Huawei WiMAX will also provide comprehensive coverage solutions, including excellent Network Plan& Design, high performance products, professional operational consultancy which will help BSNL realize successful business opportunities with an optimal coverage network.
Satellite operators welcome new EU regulatory framework
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: Members of the European Satellite Operators’ Association (ESOA) today unanimously welcomed the publication of the European Telecoms Reform Package, which marks a clear recognition of the satellite sector’s role in contributing to the EU’s upcoming Digital Agenda.
“We operate global networks that transcend national and regional boundaries to deliver vital yet delicate communications signals from outer space to people everywhere,” said Romain Bausch, Chairman of ESOA.
“The references in the reformed package to the international framework set by the ITU (the international body that allocates orbital slots to satellite operators along with a set of associated frequencies they have the right to use) and the exemptions to technology neutrality are both vital to ensure that those services are protected against interference, and that users can continue to enjoy a decent quality of service. These aspects are crucial to the long-term business of the sector.”
“We have come a long way since the first proposals were made in November 2007 and this is thanks to the openness of the Commission and Parliamentarians to engage in a constructive dialogue with our sector,” said Aarti Holla, Secretary General of ESOA.
“The remaining challenge is now to make sure that member states adopt an implementation in line with the objectives of the EU directives, and do not go for a too 'liberal interpretation' of the directives.”
ESOA will be closely following the establishment of the European Body of Telecoms’ Regulators “BEREC” foreseen for Spring 2010, and the national implementation of the package in the 27 EU member states to happen by May 2011.
“We operate global networks that transcend national and regional boundaries to deliver vital yet delicate communications signals from outer space to people everywhere,” said Romain Bausch, Chairman of ESOA.
“The references in the reformed package to the international framework set by the ITU (the international body that allocates orbital slots to satellite operators along with a set of associated frequencies they have the right to use) and the exemptions to technology neutrality are both vital to ensure that those services are protected against interference, and that users can continue to enjoy a decent quality of service. These aspects are crucial to the long-term business of the sector.”
“We have come a long way since the first proposals were made in November 2007 and this is thanks to the openness of the Commission and Parliamentarians to engage in a constructive dialogue with our sector,” said Aarti Holla, Secretary General of ESOA.
“The remaining challenge is now to make sure that member states adopt an implementation in line with the objectives of the EU directives, and do not go for a too 'liberal interpretation' of the directives.”
ESOA will be closely following the establishment of the European Body of Telecoms’ Regulators “BEREC” foreseen for Spring 2010, and the national implementation of the package in the 27 EU member states to happen by May 2011.
CSR’s Bluetooth low energy qualification supports leadership position in Bluetooth
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND: CSR announced that immediately following the Bluetooth SIG’s adoption of the Bluetooth low energy specification, it has qualified its BlueCore7 multifunction wireless Bluetooth solution for Bluetooth low energy products.
Bluetooth low energy wireless technology is predicted by independent market analysts to be widely adopted in a range of new applications that can benefit from its ultra low power and low cost wireless connectivity. Possible applications include personal healthcare and well being, sports and fitness, security, smart energy and home entertainment, to name but a few.
The Continua Health Alliance has already selected Bluetooth low energy wireless technology for inclusion in the next version of its guidelines. In addition, CSR believes the benefits of Bluetooth low energy technology will also play a role in indoor positioning for boosting location technologies.
"CSR is playing a central role in driving this standard, and has a unique perspective on wireless technologies and a strong track record," commented Michael Foley, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Bluetooth SIG.
"Bluetooth low energy technology is going to expand existing ecosystems and create opportunities for new use cases and devices, the possibilities of which are exciting for a large variety of consumers with vastly differing needs for using wireless connectivity. We will start to see these devices everywhere, from the home to the handbag, the car to the golf course.”
CSR was one of the pioneers of Bluetooth low energy technology. In April 2008, at a Continua Health Alliance medical conference in Luxembourg, CSR gave the first public demonstration of Bluetooth low energy technology. CSR developed BlueCore7, launched in July 2008, to be ready to support this new ultra low power technology.
CSR is continuing to play an important role in driving the Bluetooth SIG’s ratification of the Bluetooth low energy specification, with CSR’s Robin Heydon acting as co-chair of the Bluetooth SIG Ultra-Low Power Working Group.
“This fourth incarnation of the Bluetooth specification is another step forward towards our vision of continually delivering the benefits of connectivity to consumers,” said Kanwar Chadha, CSR’s Chief Marketing Officer.
“The real excitement behind Bluetooth low energy technology lies in the new wireless experience that CSR believes it will deliver: the convenience of wireless connectivity and ultra long battery life in all manner of gadgets and appliances. That’s the beauty of this technology and we look forward to seeing Bluetooth low energy implemented in exciting new products for mainstream consumers.”
CSR’s strategy is to establish an ecosystem of Bluetooth low energy devices. CSR’s scalable, modular BlueCore architecture is designed to support both single and dual-mode Bluetooth low energy devices. The immediate focus is on delivering dual-mode Bluetooth low energy platforms to include the low power capabilities on mobile phones, PCs and netbooks.
Dual-mode Bluetooth technology means the device will support classic Bluetooth technology (the current 3Mbps EDR technology) as well as the new low energy specification. Products embedding CSR’s dual-mode Bluetooth low energy products will therefore offer the full range of classic Bluetooth technology and Bluetooth low energy technology, as well as the enhanced performance of Bluetooth high speed technology.
In supporting Bluetooth low energy technology in its products, CSR will give end users of BlueCore-enabled products the ability to enjoy an entirely new wireless experience, including for example, a battery life measured in years and an operating range greater than 50m.
Bluetooth low energy wireless technology is predicted by independent market analysts to be widely adopted in a range of new applications that can benefit from its ultra low power and low cost wireless connectivity. Possible applications include personal healthcare and well being, sports and fitness, security, smart energy and home entertainment, to name but a few.
The Continua Health Alliance has already selected Bluetooth low energy wireless technology for inclusion in the next version of its guidelines. In addition, CSR believes the benefits of Bluetooth low energy technology will also play a role in indoor positioning for boosting location technologies.
"CSR is playing a central role in driving this standard, and has a unique perspective on wireless technologies and a strong track record," commented Michael Foley, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Bluetooth SIG.
"Bluetooth low energy technology is going to expand existing ecosystems and create opportunities for new use cases and devices, the possibilities of which are exciting for a large variety of consumers with vastly differing needs for using wireless connectivity. We will start to see these devices everywhere, from the home to the handbag, the car to the golf course.”
CSR was one of the pioneers of Bluetooth low energy technology. In April 2008, at a Continua Health Alliance medical conference in Luxembourg, CSR gave the first public demonstration of Bluetooth low energy technology. CSR developed BlueCore7, launched in July 2008, to be ready to support this new ultra low power technology.
CSR is continuing to play an important role in driving the Bluetooth SIG’s ratification of the Bluetooth low energy specification, with CSR’s Robin Heydon acting as co-chair of the Bluetooth SIG Ultra-Low Power Working Group.
“This fourth incarnation of the Bluetooth specification is another step forward towards our vision of continually delivering the benefits of connectivity to consumers,” said Kanwar Chadha, CSR’s Chief Marketing Officer.
“The real excitement behind Bluetooth low energy technology lies in the new wireless experience that CSR believes it will deliver: the convenience of wireless connectivity and ultra long battery life in all manner of gadgets and appliances. That’s the beauty of this technology and we look forward to seeing Bluetooth low energy implemented in exciting new products for mainstream consumers.”
CSR’s strategy is to establish an ecosystem of Bluetooth low energy devices. CSR’s scalable, modular BlueCore architecture is designed to support both single and dual-mode Bluetooth low energy devices. The immediate focus is on delivering dual-mode Bluetooth low energy platforms to include the low power capabilities on mobile phones, PCs and netbooks.
Dual-mode Bluetooth technology means the device will support classic Bluetooth technology (the current 3Mbps EDR technology) as well as the new low energy specification. Products embedding CSR’s dual-mode Bluetooth low energy products will therefore offer the full range of classic Bluetooth technology and Bluetooth low energy technology, as well as the enhanced performance of Bluetooth high speed technology.
In supporting Bluetooth low energy technology in its products, CSR will give end users of BlueCore-enabled products the ability to enjoy an entirely new wireless experience, including for example, a battery life measured in years and an operating range greater than 50m.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Personal climate activism made easy with Volvo Group´s CO2 calculator
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: In connection with the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Volvo Group unveiled Commute Greener, a service which transforms your mobile phone into a personal CO2 calculator with connections to Social Networks like Facebook.
People world-wide have already started using the service and are competing to reduce CO2 emissions. The most frequent CO2 reduction target set by the users is 20%, which is equivalent to changing your commuting behaviour during one working day per week.
After signing up for the service, it is easy for commuters to use their mobile phones, or a web site, to keep track of how much CO2 emissions are reduced, or increased, using different means of transportation, for example car, car pooling or bus. Tests show that individuals can be motivated to cut their CO2 emissions by 30 percent when using Commute Greener.
“We immediately received positive feedback from the people on the streets of Copenhagen. People appreciate the possibility to use their mobile phones to reduce their personal carbon footprint and contribute to a positive change in commuting behavior,” says Magnus Holmqvist, Commute Greener´s managing director.
The story behind Commute Greener begins in 2008, when an employee at Volvo IT´s Innovation Centre came up with the simple idea of an application for mobile phones that calculates the user’s carbon emissions while travelling.
“It was initially planned as an internal initiative to further enhance our work within environmental care. We wanted to come up with a new and fun way to involve our own people in dealing with climate change. Selling the service outside the Volvo Group was a very distant idea,” Magnus Holmqvist recalls.
After internal tests and an internal launch, this idea is now in the process of becoming reality. Commute Greener is being launched to external companies, cities and to individuals around the world.
“Companies save money, as their employees take the most effective means of transport rather than getting caught in traffic jams. The environment benefits and the burden on the road network is reduced”, says Magnus Holmqvist.
Holmqvist believes it is only natural that the Volvo Group, the world´s second largest producer of heavy-duty trucks, is launching a service like Commute Greener.
“We are part of the problem of carbon emissions, but we are also part of the solution. We have the expertise to create modern transport solutions for the whole of society,” he concludes.
Facts about Commute Greener
• Commute Greener is accessed through a mobile phone or an Internet web site.
• A commuter who downloads the application can use the mobile telephone to register the methods of transport that are used for commuting. The application calculates how much carbon dioxide emissions are reduced or increased using different means of transportations, for example bus, car, car pooling, train, boat or bicycle. The application also contains examples of the impact you can make, such as the fact that it takes a tree one month to absorb a kilo of CO2.
• The service provides an online community for exchanging experience and for competitions between colleagues, friends and family members about the possible size of reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
• A GPS function opens the possibility to compare the size of CO2 emissions on different routes and using different means of transport.
• At present, individuals can download Commute Greener as an application for the iPhone from the Apple App Store. To download the application to other mobile phones, a city, company or organisation first need to order access for its inhabitants, customers or employees.
• So far, Commute Greener has registered users in the US, France, UK, Ireland, Australia, Japan, Sweden and elsewhere around the world.
People world-wide have already started using the service and are competing to reduce CO2 emissions. The most frequent CO2 reduction target set by the users is 20%, which is equivalent to changing your commuting behaviour during one working day per week.
After signing up for the service, it is easy for commuters to use their mobile phones, or a web site, to keep track of how much CO2 emissions are reduced, or increased, using different means of transportation, for example car, car pooling or bus. Tests show that individuals can be motivated to cut their CO2 emissions by 30 percent when using Commute Greener.
“We immediately received positive feedback from the people on the streets of Copenhagen. People appreciate the possibility to use their mobile phones to reduce their personal carbon footprint and contribute to a positive change in commuting behavior,” says Magnus Holmqvist, Commute Greener´s managing director.
The story behind Commute Greener begins in 2008, when an employee at Volvo IT´s Innovation Centre came up with the simple idea of an application for mobile phones that calculates the user’s carbon emissions while travelling.
“It was initially planned as an internal initiative to further enhance our work within environmental care. We wanted to come up with a new and fun way to involve our own people in dealing with climate change. Selling the service outside the Volvo Group was a very distant idea,” Magnus Holmqvist recalls.
After internal tests and an internal launch, this idea is now in the process of becoming reality. Commute Greener is being launched to external companies, cities and to individuals around the world.
“Companies save money, as their employees take the most effective means of transport rather than getting caught in traffic jams. The environment benefits and the burden on the road network is reduced”, says Magnus Holmqvist.
Holmqvist believes it is only natural that the Volvo Group, the world´s second largest producer of heavy-duty trucks, is launching a service like Commute Greener.
“We are part of the problem of carbon emissions, but we are also part of the solution. We have the expertise to create modern transport solutions for the whole of society,” he concludes.
Facts about Commute Greener
• Commute Greener is accessed through a mobile phone or an Internet web site.
• A commuter who downloads the application can use the mobile telephone to register the methods of transport that are used for commuting. The application calculates how much carbon dioxide emissions are reduced or increased using different means of transportations, for example bus, car, car pooling, train, boat or bicycle. The application also contains examples of the impact you can make, such as the fact that it takes a tree one month to absorb a kilo of CO2.
• The service provides an online community for exchanging experience and for competitions between colleagues, friends and family members about the possible size of reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
• A GPS function opens the possibility to compare the size of CO2 emissions on different routes and using different means of transport.
• At present, individuals can download Commute Greener as an application for the iPhone from the Apple App Store. To download the application to other mobile phones, a city, company or organisation first need to order access for its inhabitants, customers or employees.
• So far, Commute Greener has registered users in the US, France, UK, Ireland, Australia, Japan, Sweden and elsewhere around the world.
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