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  • VoIP Innovations Launches Canadian Origination

    VoIP Innovations, a provider of wholesale VoIP service, is introducing Canadian origination this week, giving customers the ability to receive calls, purchase DIDs, and port telephone numbers in Canada.

    The company plans further growth with Canadian termination coverage, with service in Puerto Rico and Hawaii to follow later this quarter, making for a complete North American service package.

    According to the VoIP Innovations, “customers will be able to enjoy a full array of domestic VoIP services from a single wholesale provider,” including origination, termination, local and toll-free number porting, and features such as CNAM and T.38 faxing.

    "Through our tremendous growth, it has become very clear who we are and who we want to be," says Jason Tapolci, Product Manager at VoIP Innovations. "We are a wholesale VoIP provider with an unparalleled aggregation model. Our goal is to become the premiere VoIP carrier in North America."

    The company now offers an origination footprint covering most of the United States and Canada. They have 7,500 rate centers and boasts a DID warehouse with over 110,000 numbers.

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  • WAC Accelerates Delivery of Open Applications Platform

    The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), an alliance of telecommunications companies committed to building an open applications platform, has announced its formation as a corporate entity, as well as the organisation’s leadership and board of directors.

    They also outlined the business models and technology evolution path that will enable developers, operators and other commercial organisations to monetise applications and services.

    Launched in February 2010, WAC wants to unite a fragmented applications marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits the entire ecosystem, including applications developers, handset manufacturers, OS owners, network operators and end users.

    The company announced that Peters Suh has been named the CEO of the WAC. Most recently Peters was the CEO of the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), a joint venture between China Mobile, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone. Prior to JIL, Peters held a number of executive positions at Vodafone, Fremont Communications and AirTouch.

    “Our goal is to create a wholesale applications ecosystem that will establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world. We’re focused on establishing WAC as the first choice for brands and developers in the mobile ecosystem, ultimately delivering greater choice and value for the end user, the consumer,” said Suh.

    The company also announced that Michel Combes, Vodafone Chief Executive Europe has been elected Chairman of the WAC, and Jean-Philippe Vanot, Deputy CEO, France Telecom has been named as Vice Chairman.

    At launch, WAC will allow operators to distribute applications through their respective application storefronts and charge users through their existing phone bill. In this model, developers will set the application price and will receive a revenue share for the transaction.

    The revenue share will be defined on an operator-by-operator basis. According to the company, this will ensure that revenue shares will be competitive in today’s application market. WAC is a not-for-profit organisation and will receive a small transaction fee for each application to cover its operating costs.

    In the future, WAC wants to offer business models that enable additional purchases from within an application; leverage network capabilities, such as location, to enhance an application; and facilitate the serving of advertisements to end users.

    "Developers will see great benefit in a single process through which they can create, distribute and profit from their applications on multiple retail outlets," said John Delaney, Research Director for Consumer Mobile with industry analysts IDC.

    "Unification with JIL will prove a significant boost for the Wholesale Application Community’s efforts to achieve a global, open development platform."

    WAC will publish its initial specification and components of its SDK to developers in November. The specification will be based on W3C standards.

    WAC will also provide backwards compatibility for devices based upon the current JIL and BONDI specifications. Details of the developer roadmap and a preview of the WAC specifications will be available in September.

  • Consumer LBS Market – a Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity

    New analysis from Frost & Sullivan , 2010 North American Consumer Location-based Services (LBS) Market – The Wireless Carrier Opportunity, finds that the wireless carrier-generated segment of the North American consumer LBS market amounted to on-deck application software revenues of approximately $718 million in 2009 and forecasts this to reach $1.58 billion in 2015.

    The consumer location-based services sector has experienced tremendous change during the past eighteen months, forcing North American wireless carriers to cope with a vastly different competitive landscape.

    According to the research group, carrier dominance in the North American consumer LBS sector, which was carefully developed during the past decade, is now being directly assaulted by smartphone application storefronts and free off-deck solutions.

    The analysts think that wireless carriers must become more creative and aggressive in leveraging their unique assets if they want to successfully carve out and keep a significant portion of this sector’s potential revenue. Powerful technology and greater customer awareness are driving the consumer LBS market and providing even more opportunities for carriers to partner with top-tier application developers and create, launch, and promote new LBS solutions.

    "In tandem with smartphone advances, carriers are making their networks and locationing capability more accessible to LBS application developers," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Jeanine Sterling. "Partnerships with location aggregators, open application programming interface (API) platforms, and simpler, quicker certification reviews make it easier for LBS developers to stake a claim to the market."

    However, new monetization models and higher channel fragmentation encourage smartphone users, in particular, to bypass wireless carriers and download LBS solutions directly from the phone’s application store. The majority of location-based applications available through smartphone storefronts are free or available for a one-time fee. In such an environment, carriers will have to strategize cleverly to justify their monthly subscription model. They will also have to find ways to appeal to a smartphone user population that is quickly growing in terms of size and demands.

    According to Sterling, wireless carriers have to bring a strong marketing sensibility to the consumer LBS sector. Their gatekeeper role and control over products and partners have disappeared in the smartphone sector and has been weakened with feature phone users. Carriers need to decide where they can compete successfully in this sector.

    "Some LBS solutions – such as the kid finder services – are just an automatic and perfect fit. Other applications and capabilities may not be as obvious. To thrive in this market, carriers have to be real marketers – monitoring customer needs, identifying product voids, working with creative partners, and publicizing the distinct benefits that carriers bring to today’s mobile user," advises Sterling.

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  • IBBS to Acquire SinglePipe

    Integrated Broadband Services  (IBBS), a provider of managed communications services for cable companies, has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire SinglePipe, a provider of voice over IP solutions for cable.

    Combined under the IBBS brand, the company is said to offer “fully integrated voice and data solutions for cable companies that seek to expand their residential and commercial service offerings.”

    IBBS provides back office systems, technical support services and data and voice applications to cable operators.

    SinglePipe offers voice over IP- enabled communications through its owned and operated facilities-based network to cable companies throughout the United States.

    According to the companies, with the acquisition, IBBS will deliver “a fully integrated platform combining the industry’s leading back office systems and technical support services with a robust portfolio of voice and data services.”

    Supported by the proprietary Broadband Explorer (BBX) operational support system, IBBS will offer a single platform from which cable providers can launch and manage their services for residential and commercial customers. IBBS will back its services with its advanced Network Operations Center and 140-person U.S.-based Technical Support Center.

    The IBBS/SinglePipe deal is expected to satisfy cable operators’ demands on multiple fronts. According to IBBS’ 2010 annual customer survey, finding new revenue streams and creating additional service opportunities ranked as top priorities. Nearly 70 percent of customers polled seek new services and support to penetrate business markets. Forty percent of customers stated that tapping new revenue opportunities is a strategic priority, with commercial services and VoIP identified as top drivers for growth.

    “We have heard our customers loud and clear. They seek a single source of expertise to launch new services and accelerate bottom-line growth with a proven company they can trust. Our acquisition of SinglePipe and the addition of voice services to our portfolio will enhance our ability to support operators as they deploy voice and commercial services – two of the fastest growing opportunities in cable,” said Dave Keil, CEO of IBBS. “With the addition of a superior voice service, we are even better equipped to develop innovative solutions and to support operators in their quests to be market leaders.”

    “SinglePipe and IBBS have collaborated during the last two years to serve our common customers with individual expertise in voice and data,” said Jeff Carr, CEO of SinglePipe. “Now, with the combination of our companies, customers will be well-served with united capabilities and an innovative approach.”

  • TELES Adds Media Gateway to Portfolio via New Tech Partner NewGrid

    TELES, the Berlin based Next Generation Networks and Access Gateway vendor, has announced its technology partnership with Korean converged network solutions provider NewGrid for their carrier-grade, low-power-footprint, and high density media gateway.

    As part of the TELES NGN Solution, the NewGrid Compact Media Gateway will serve as a scalable and reliable building block for carriers and providers looking to deploy high-density, high availability VoIP systems.

    According to the companies, combined with the TELES C4 softswitch and its extensive and comprehensive standards of protocol conformity, providers can expect “smooth and seamless” integration with the media gateway thanks to the rigorous interoperability tests conducted successfully prior to the agreement.

    The Compact Media Gateway offers either 16 or 32 E1s or an STM-1, provides carrier-grade reliability, and complies with industry standard protocols (MEGACO, SIGTRAN, etc.) Its compact size is also an important factor, with lower power consumption requirements and less rack space required, it combines with the TELES NGN solution to reduce not just costs, but also environmental impact and carbon footprint, as the companies claim.

    TELES C4 Softswitch meets all carrier-grade requirements including full component redundancy, multi-protocol support, and five-nines availability. TELES says that the C4 Softswitch is “one of the most highly scalable solutions available” – suitable for small and large-scale configurations alike, offers cutting edge performance, and is ideally suited to high peak loads and short call duration value-added services.

    NewGrid’s Marketing director, J.S. Park, is confident that the partnership with TELES will be very productive: “We are really impressed with the TELES solution, and it was clear to us from the beginning, that our Compact Media Gateway would fit nicely into their solution. The broad flexibility the TELES C4 softswitch with its proven outstanding reliability makes it the perfect match for our Compact Media Gateway.”

    TELES Product Marketing Director, Thomas Haydn, is strongly encouraged by the new technology partnership: “Our partnership with NewGrid, and the inclusion of their excellent Compact Media Gateway alongside a TELES NGN softswitch, will see our carrier and provider customers benefit from a major increase in its price-performance ratio in addition to improved services for growing traffic. NewGrid’s media gateway only takes up a single unit of rack space, and together with our softswitch represents an ideal solution for conserving power and resources. It fits perfectly into the gap between the small and mid-sized media gateways in our NGN portfolio, so that we are now in an excellent position to meet the requirements of a whole host of scenarios.”

  • Four out of Five Cell Phones to Integrate GPS by End of 2011

    With cell phones increasingly becoming the nexus of the burgeoning markets for navigation and Location Based Services (LBS), the use of GPS technology in such platforms is set to explode during the coming years, according to iSuppli.

    In the fourth quarter of 2011, 79.9 percent of cell phones shipped—amounting to 318.3 million units—will incorporate GPS functionality, up from 56.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009—or 187.8 million units—iSuppli predicts.

    The research group says the adoption of GPS in mobile handsets is being driven by smart phones.

    “The smart phone is the key product driving the technology industry today—and social networking services and applications spurred by GPS-related features are critical elements in the smart phone market today,” said Dr. Jagdish Rebello, director and principal analyst for iSuppli.

    “This is illustrated by Google’s decision to make turn-by-turn navigation, LBS and mobile ads the central features in its bid to take on Apple in the smart phone market, and make up the central pillars of its strategy to increasingly monetize mobile search.”

    Rebello said that smartphones are taking over from Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs) as the major platform for navigation. By 2014, usage of navigation-enabled smart phones will exceed that of PNDs.

    Furthermore – he continued – the smart phone is likely to generate many innovative LBS apps in the next five years. Apple’s iPhone already has more than 6,000 LBS apps available.

    Meanwhile, both Apple and Google are focusing on mobile advertising as a key source of revenue used in association with LBS.

    Apple’s new iAd platform, part of the company’s updated iPhone OS 4 operating system, enables the embedding of advertisements into applications, allowing iPhone users to interact with the ad without leaving the app. Similarly, Google in May acquired leading mobile ad provider AdMob.

    “Nonetheless, Apple recently upped the ante in the smart phone GPS segment with the addition of a gyroscope to its latest iPhone model. Used in combination with GPS, an accelerometer, a compass and the gyroscope can be used for in indoor navigation with floor accuracy,” as the analysts claim.

    iSuppli also sees an increased penetration of embedded GPS in a range of consumer and compute electronic devices by 2014. For example, iSuppli estimates that 18 percent of laptops and 42 percent of portable handheld video game players will have embedded GPS in 2014.

    According to the research group, altogether, the boom in mobile handset navigation will benefit suppliers of GPS semiconductors such as Texas Instruments, Broadcom Corp., Infineon Technologies and CSR.

    “GPS is not the only embedded connectivity technology that will be increasingly embedded in consumer and compute electronics devices. With the ratification of the Bluetooth 4.0 standard supporting the Bluetooth Low Energy profile, iSuppli expects increased penetration of Bluetooth in wireless mice, keypads and other interface devices for the mobile and desktop market—an area that has been dominated by proprietary technologies,” said Rebello.

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  • Skype for iPhone Now Supports Multitasking, No Charges for Calling Over 3G

    In May, Skype upgraded their iPhone app to allow users to make calls over 3G data connections. Yesterday, the company introduced a new version of the app that now supports multitasking.

    This means users can receive Skype calls while other apps are running, even when the iPhone is locked. And during a call, users can keep the conversation going while they switch to another task, such as checking a movie listing or reading an email.

    Skype has also updated the app’s graphics to support iPhone 4’s Retina Display.

    “At Skype, we believe that better call quality and better availability (which is achieved with an app capable of multitasking and/or making calls over 3G) lead to increased call frequency and longer calls. We also believe that the mobile world is in a period of significant change, for example, with some operators starting to move to tiered pricing models,” said Peter Parkes on Skype’s blog.

    In light of that, Skype no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G. “We’re delighted to make it easier for you to talk for even longer and do even more together using Skype,” a post reads.

    Skype’s multitasking requires iOS 4 and an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, or a third-generation iPod touch.

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  • Click & Call Advertising with Skype Now Available

    Skype has expanded its pay-for-call offerings for advertisers: Click & Call Advertising with Skype supported by Marchex, is an advertising program which provides an “efficient and measureable” way to acquire new customers by using Skype to drive inbound calls.

    Skype is launching this offering for the first time in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe through a partnership with Marchex, a call advertising company, which will help manage, operate and sell Click & Call Advertising with Skype.

    Participating advertisers can have their phone numbers highlighted with a blue Free Call button anywhere online their numbers are displayed. When the button is clicked, the Skype software launches and the call is connected – at no cost to the caller.

    Advertisers pay for qualified inbound calls via Skype on a pay-for-call basis. Call volumes are tracked by Marchex so advertisers can monitor the results of their campaign and also view detailed call analytics.

    Click & Call Advertising relies on a user having Skype software installed on their PC and Skype’s browser plug-in which is downloaded automatically in Skype for Windows 4.0 or later. The service is currently not available on Mac or mobile versions of Skype software.

    Skype has informed that Click & Call Advertising commences with an initial group of customers, including agencies like Razorfish, national advertisers like DISH Network and Extra Space Storage, and channel partners like PRIMEDIA.

    The company says the program is available to all advertisers, agencies and marketing services providers, including companies that have a large number of local and/or national business advertising customers, such as Yellow Pages companies, Certified Marketing Representatives (CMRs), independent local advertising services providers, direct marketing providers and newspapers.

    “Working together with Marchex, our objective for Click & Call Advertising is to deliver a performance advertising tool that turns the Web surfing behavior of Skype users into calls to advertisers,” said Andy Sims, Skype’s director of advertising.

    “Businesses will now have the opportunity to acquire potential new customers by using Skype in a highly efficient and measureable way. The experience is also beneficial for Skype users because it’s fast, convenient and the calls are free,” he added.

    How it Works

    There are four steps to the program:

    1. Advertisers agree to pay a fixed amount per call, along with a budget. Rates are determined based on advertiser categories.
    2. Users with Skype software installed on their PC and Skype’s browser plug-in enabled see participating advertiser phone numbers graphically highlighted as a blue “Free Call” button across the entire web.
    3. Users who see the blue “Free Call” button respond by placing calls to the advertiser by clicking on the “Free Call” icon.
    4. Advertisers pay only for completed phone calls.

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  • Blu-ray Player Shipments to Exceed 62.5 Million in 2011

    Worldwide Blu-ray player shipments are expected to more than double between 2009 and the end of 2010, and the numbers from ABI Research forecast continued growth next year, for a total of more than 62.5 million shipments in 2011.

    In North America standalone Blu-ray players are expected to reach almost 18% penetration among TV-owning households, up from just over 7% in 2009.

    As interesting as this estimate is, it is just part of a larger picture. According to industry analyst Mike Inouye, “The solid growth in Blu-ray player shipments highlights a trend within the wider consumer electronics market. Larger, fixed-location devices such as Blu-ray players and flat panel TVs are enjoying rapid adoption relative to many classes of small, portable devices. Specifically, portable gaming devices are leveling out, while we are seeing actual declines in shipments of portable audio players. Digital picture frames are showing only mild growth, and compact digital camera shipments are declining in North America and Japan, though they continue modest growth elsewhere.”

    What is behind these shifts? “In addition to price declines, the greater growth potential of TV-centric devices may be due to some of the recent exciting innovations in TV technologies: larger, flatter panels, Internet connectivity, and 3D,” says Inouye. “Aside from the economic/job environment it could be that dedicated portable device markets are simply maturing, or it could be due to the greater competition they face from smartphones and other multi-function portable devices.”

    ABI Research believes that CE device vendors can improve their chances of success in this very competitive marketplace by, on one hand, continuing efforts to educate consumers about what they can do with the latest devices, and on the other by striving to keep the user-experience as seamless and painless as possible.

  • Mercury Technology Delivers “Green” Cloud for Oracle EBusiness Suite Using RamSan Flash Storage

    Texas Memory Systems and Mercury Technology today announced that the Mercury Technology ultra high performance “Enterprise Cloud” hosted solutions for Oracle-based applications are powered by Texas Memory Systems’ RamSan PCIe-based solid state disks (SSD).

    Users of the RamSan SSD-enabled servers see significantly higher performance so their Oracle applications can handle very high transaction volumes and more simultaneous users than is possible with hard disk-based systems.

    “We added solid state disks to win additional new business with a premium enterprise cloud-based hosting service for large users of Oracle-based applications,” said Brian Day, Vice President of Sales at Mercury Technology. “We also wanted to maintain our cost advantage by building a more energy-efficient, lower-maintenance and greener, data center. The Texas Memory Systems RamSans allowed us to do that.”

    The RamSan PCIe Fault Tolerant Flash-based SSD cards are easily inserted into a server’s PCIe slot to deliver up to 120,000 sustained I/Os per second (IOPS) with a mere 50 microsecond latency and just 15 watts of power. This industry-leading latency is key to RamSan’s ability to accelerate transactions and improve user response time, resulting in productivity gains for users. .

    “We chose Texas Memory Systems because it is the only company that has such a long history in this technology,” continued Mr. Day.

    ”The other vendors are newer players, none of whom have been working in the Oracle world. It’s important to have a partner that is not only knowledgeable, but who also has first-hand experience with other customers running Oracle software, a company that develops its own products based on the feedback it gets from customers. We wanted to offer our clients the stability that only Texas Memory Systems offers today.”

    “Some of the biggest, most demanding Oracle customers are hosted with Mercury Technology so we were delighted that it chose our RamSan solid state disks over all competing alternatives,” said Jamon Bowen, Director of Sales Engineering at Texas Memory Systems. “RamSan solutions are a proven way to turbo charge Oracle performance.”

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