Category Archives: Mobile Operators
Tweakker helps Doro’s old foggies get their SMS settings OTA
Rating: Cloud-based mobile configuration service replaces call centres
Globally, mobile network operators probably spend unknown millions of dollars on marketing campaigns to attract new subscribers but then turn to the age-old mechanism of call-centres to provide tech support. What they need is a fast track mechanism to get consumers swiftly up and running with ARPU-enhancing services like Internet, MMS and SMS. Thats where Tweakker fits in with its cloud-based mobile configuration service. The technology enables new handset owners to connect to the mobile net in near real-time in order to get the requested parameters for SMS and MMS, etc. Now Doro has become the first device manufacturer to licence Tweakker’s Over-the-Air (OTA) mobile phone connectivity service. Continue reading
i2O Water shows power of M2M comms
Rating: Whole business based on GPRS data
M2M (Machine-to-Machine) communications is definitely the future for mobile operators. If nothing else because there’s no middlemen to take a cut of the revenues such installations generate. Talking to i2O Water last night, GoMo News realised that a business such as theirs would be feasible if it wasn’t capable of being able to harness M2M communications and GPRS data in particular. i2O is focussed on solving one particular problem – reducing leakage in order to save money. You might have thought that such technology is only relevant in developing economies but almost the opposite is true. In the UK, Veolia Water has seen savings of almost £100,000 a year by saving 1.5 million litres of water a day. And as for Kuala Lumpur, the city is almost dependent on i2O’s technology for its water supply. There must be hundreds of business which could follow i2O’s example and utilise M2M to solve industry specific problems. Continue reading
Everything Everywhere upsets the whole UK 4G applecart
Rating: Is it 2G? 3G? or 4G? it’s certainly not what 3 has got
This latest fight over 4G in the UK highlights an essential piece of technology which everybody seems to have forgotten. You can be literally anywhere in the world and if you pick up a telephone, you can talk to everybody, everywhere. Now we have Everything Everywhere (formerly Orange/T-Mobile UK) in the UK proving that the exact opposite is true with mobile technology. They are proposing to use spectrum supposedly provided for 2G to offer 4G services. It’s a harsh business climate out that and GoMo News doesn’t blame Everything Everywhere at all for trying to get a commercial advantage over its rivals. It does, however, make something of a mockery of the whole mobile industry when yet another yawning chasm is opened in the quest for a truly global telephone network which would actually work. Continue reading
Pyramid identifies mWomen as crucial sector
Rating: Operators will ignore the existence of mWomen at their cost
You’ve heard of m-commerce, well now we have the emergence of mWomen (mobile women) as a serious force in the mobile eco-system. Hence, Pyramid Research has decided to produce a report that looks at the impact that the availability of mobile phones to women can have on today’s societies. As the significance of mobile phone technology to women is gradually documented and verified, Pyramid predicts that those mobile network operators who are early to participate in the process of making breakthroughs for mWomen will reap the benefits sooner than their late-arriving competitors. The report is entitled ‘mWomen: A Win-Win Opportunity for Mobile Operators’ see here. Continue reading
tyntec rolls out virtual numbers to UK and Germany
Rating: Easily integrate voice and text into your mobile apps
Here’s an interesting development. tyntec – which has previously concentrated on the US market – is rolling a new service in the shape of tt.One – to the UK and Germany. Basically, the company is able to offer ‘virtual’ mobile numbers that support the transmission of both voice and SMS. However, because this service is IP-based, it can offer easy integration with digital services such as social networks as well as in-app facilities for app developers. The company claims its virtual numbers “enjoy widespread consumer acceptance and are more cost effective and simpler to set up and operate than short codes.” Continue reading
What’s the deal with micro SIMs in the UK?
Rating: We could get voice to work on three out of the four we tried
We’ve got a beautiful bit of kit on loan in the shape of the latest RAZR Android smartphone from Motorola. Unfortunately, this US-based company (now owned by Google) may be attempting to push the boundaries too far with this handset’s technology. [...]
Mobixell and Commtouch help operators battle porn
Rating: Joint solution to keep porn off kiddies’ phones
The UK government along with authorities in Ireland and Australia are promoting legislation which would make mobile phone network operators responsible for protecting children from pornography or other unsuitable web content. Compliance with such laws could be challenging for operators, since web pages and their content are constantly changing, and new sites are registered daily. Hence Mobixell Networks and Commtouch have put together a solution aimed at mobile operators to enable them to comply with proposed web content regulation. For example, it is designed to make certain types of content available only if users opt-in to receive it. It also builds on Commtouch’s GlobalView URL Filtering technology which offers advanced content filtering capabilities. This is especially useful for blogs which might contain a mixture of family-friendly and inappropriate content. Continue reading
Software analysis could be mobile operators’ secret weapon
Rating: Location based services could well be the trigger
The subject of software analysis and measurement wouldn’t have attracted anybody’s attention in the mobile sector, had it not been for the recent three day outage suffered by RIM. This showed that software is just another component in a complete solution, according to Lev Lesokhin of specialist [...]
Oranges texts us to say we can save £48 per annum
Rating: & Virgin Mobile UK users can now utilise the Orange network
It’s not every day that a utility company (which is what mobile network operators effectively are) get in contact to say that they can reduce your monthly bill. Well, that’s exactly what’s just happened. We signed up for Orange Best Plan service and every six months the company reviews our existing plan to see if we could be getting a better deal from Orange. Apparently we could. However, you have to go online to review your Best Plan review – through ‘Your Account’. That wasn’t easy. We should also mention that Virgin Mobile (UK) contacted us to say that we can now use the Orange network as well. Continue reading
To dongle or not to dongle? That is the question for operators
Rating: Strand examines the pros & cons of chasing mobile broadband
Here at GoMo News, we just love mobile consultancy firms that are prepared it tell it like it is. And Strand Consult fits into that category perfectly. The firm has just published a new report entitled ‘Successful Strategies for the Mobile Broadband Market’. It has a sub-text which is: – small screen versus large screen – which screen size will be most profitable for mobile operators? Strand has grasped completely the apparently no-win situation over mobile broadband in which mobile operators find themselves at present. Do you chase the PC dongle brigade which will inevitably consume more and more of the available data bandwidth or do you try to entice more and more smartphones onto the network? Strand seems to have assessed this situation well by indicating that there are no simple answers to this dilemma. Continue reading
Debate rages over “too expensive” W7 Mango comments
Rating: Telefónica’s Simon Lee-Smith stirs up hornets’ nest
A Telefónica executive, Simon Lee-Smith, has opened up a can of worms by telling Telecoms.com that he thinks the forthcoming W7 Mango phones “too expensive”. The European general manager for devices with Telefónica also complained that Nokia’s premium devices are “not yet at the right price point.” This has sparked a great debate as to where exactly the fault lies with Nokia wanting €420 for the Lumia 800 and Lee-Smith obviously not happy at paying such a price. Should Lee-Smith’s beef really be with Apple, not Nokia? And can Nokia really charge a premium price for Mango when the Microsoft OS clearly doesn’t merit it at the moment. Continue reading
London Olympics will leave cellular networks paralysed warns Ruckus
Rating: The base stations won’t be able to handle it, Captain
There’s an extremely high chance – as the UK prepares for one of the largest influx of tourists it has seen during recent years in the run up to the Olympics – that the UK’s mobile networks will go into meltdown. That’s the opinion of Ruckus Wireless based on recent research published by infrastructure supplier, Ericsson, here. Total smartphone traffic is expected to triple during 2011 alone, according to Ericsson. So by late 2012 it will be even worse. One of the major culprits will be 3G ready culprits as well. Continue reading
Ethnic MVNOs should offer sending money home
Rating: Forget just cheap calls to Asia says QiComm
More and more MVNOs [Mobile Virtual Network Operators] are emerging to cater for customer segments that can be overlooked by the major mobile network operators. The real growth area – according to Pat Nabhan, CEO of QiComm, is the ethnic MVNO market. But it’s not just about offering cheap calls. QiComm has established a way for its subscribers to make credit transfers to friends and relatives in their home markets; effectively allowing calls to be reverse charged. The trick is to ensure that any MVNO SIM card remains the prime card, QiComm asserts. Continue reading
Lumata Mobile Marketing Consultancy from Buongiorno and Francisco Partners is born
Lumata has been born.
What?
Lumata is a new mobile marketing consultancy for the B2B space created by Francisco Partners and Buongiorno.
Buongiorno and Francisco?
Well we all know Buongiorno as the king of mobile content. It seems that bits and bobs of its B2B business have been sold – or blended within this new business Lumata with Francisco Partners.
I had a quick look at the Francisco Partners website and it looks like they are VERY big fish in the creating successful business space.
What does this mean?
Continue reading
GoMo News discovers why DNS matters for operators
Rating: As data traffic grows, so do the threats
Here’s something which GoMo News hardly ever considers – the Domain Name System (DNS) – a key element to the whole internet. Initially, we weren’t quite sure why F5 Networks sent us a Press release on its carrier-grade DNS services which enable CSPs “to scale their DNS infrastructures more efficiently, significantly reduce costs, and more quickly deploy critical new revenue-generating services.” Then we realised that CSPs include mobile network operators. It appears that smartphones may be capable of wreaking far more havoc on the internet than we might first have assumed. And there’s a growing threat from mobile malware. Continue reading
