Business News Holding

Tag: investment

  • China VoIP & Digital Telecom Virtualization Project Receives Governmental Funds


    Jinan Yinquan Technology has announced that its data center virtualization technology project has received 500,000 yuan from Shandong Economic and Information Technology Committee.

    Following the award, the wholly owned subsidiary of China VoIP & Digital Telecom said it is well positioned to take full advantage of the tremendous economic growth currently being experienced in China.

    The company is currently marketing its NP Soft Switch system in China and is testing stages of other IT products.

    Li Kunwu, chairman and CEO of CVDT

    The Chinese government established the fund to award outstanding energy-saving industrial technology projects in Shandong Province in 2009.

    Li Kunwu, chairman and CEO of CVDT, said the virtualization technology solution provided by Yinquan is in full compliance with the conservation-oriented society and Green IT concepts advocated by the country.

    "Yinquan maintains a leading position in virtualization technology, and the government’s endorsement will accelerate our expansion in the virtualization market in 2009," he said.

    "Also, with the government’s support, industrializing virtualization in China will be expedited. I believe Yinquan should have bright growth prospects in virtualization."

  • T-Mobile Deutschland Reverses VoIP Ban, Levies Surcharge


    T-Mobile has confirmed that it is to end its ban on mobile VoIP applications within its German network – but will charge customers upwards of EURO € 9.95 per month for the service.

    The operator justified the surcharge by explaining that billions of euros invested by operators in the roll-out of networks in recent years were based on rate costings with income from voice telephony and mobile data.

    Georg Pölzl, managing director of T-Mobile Deutschland, said that if this basis is no longer certain, then neither is the operational future of the networks.

    "T-Mobile wants to continue offering its customers state-of-the-art technology in future and needs a reliable basis to do so," he said.

    Vodafone is expected to announce a similar policy for the use of Skype or other VoIP applications on smartphones.

    Pölzl said the T-Mobile VoIP service will be available this summer.

    He said pricing would be staggered and customers would be able to use the VoIP services of different providers.

    "In this way, we are building a bridge between the different customers’ needs for the most competitively-priced and innovative services," he said.

    Pölzl said the charges were necessary because additional investment in the network is necessary for simultaneous, "always on" use of VoIP applications".

    He added: "It would not be fair to customers who don’t use VoIP if these additional costs were to be shared across all customers.

    "For this reason, we are making it possible to use Internet telephony via optional rates, while keeping it otherwise barred."

  • Jajah Attracts $ 2.8M To Expand VoIP services


    Jajah has secured USD $2.75 million from an anticipated USD $5 million fourth round of funding.

    Launched three years ago, the VoIP communication service has grown steadily and now provide a service to millions of users.

    Although the identities of the latest investors haven’t been released, Jajah has been backed by Globespan Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Deutsche Telekom and Sequoia Capital in the past, according to VentureBeat.

    The Menlo Park, California-based company previously raised USD $23 million.

    Last April it signed a deal with Yahoo to provide phone-to-PC calling capabilities to the 90 million people who use the search giant’s messenger product.

    In February, it rolled out software for Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian that allows them to make VoIP calls over WiFi or the cellular network.

    It also released a system that allows any carrier to deliver calling and text messaging services to the iPod Touch, no SIM card required.

    At the start of this month, Jajah began a partnership with Bravestorm, developer of the click-to-call BoldCall product.

    Under the deal, companies using BoldCall will allow visitors to their sites to call live customer service representatives in real time for free via the Jajah IP network.

  • Survey Highlights Key Role Datacentres Play To Ensure Competitiveness


    More than four out of five companies surveyed are planning datacentre expansions within the next two years, according to Digital Realty Trust.

    The wholesale datacentre provider also found that more than a quarter of surveyed companies are actively planning immediate datacentre expansion projects that are commencing in 2009.

    Almost 70 per cent are planning projects that will commence in 12-24 months.

    The findings are part of an independent survey commissioned by Digital Realty Trust.

    The study is based on a detailed survey of senior decision makers who are either directly responsible for datacentres or influence significant decisions related to datacentre operations at large European organisations.

    Bernard Geoghegan, senior vice president at Digital Realty Trust, said that despite the dramatic changes in the economic climate, the results indicate that an even larger proportion of European companies are planning datacentre projects.

    He said these projects are bigger by every measure.

    "These trends corroborate what we are continuing to hear from so many of our customers – that datacentres have become critical corporate assets that ensure competitiveness in difficult times and that will drive growth when economic conditions improve," he said.

    Other key findings of the new study include:

    • Compared to last year’s survey results, there has been a 117 per cent increase in the number of firms that will seek more than 2,500 square metres for their datacentres, indicating that the scope of datacentre projects has grown significantly.
    • Compared to last year’s survey results, there has been a 22 per cent increase in projected average datacentre space requirements from 1,300 square metres to 1,600 square metres – a significant increase that will impact the balance of supply and demand for datacentre space in European markets.
    • A 21 per cent increase compared to last year’s survey in average power capacity per rack (4.7kW v. 5.7kW) that companies are projecting, which is a significant metric for datacentre power requirements.
    • More than 60 per cent of companies plan to use a partner to expand rather than taking a do-it-yourself approach to these large datacentre projects.
    • Companies identified London as the top location for the datacentre projects being planned. Paris was identified as the second most popular location for upcoming datacentre projects.

  • Intel To Invest $ 7 Billion in US Manufacturing


    Intel is bucking current trends and investing USD $7 billion in upgrading three of its US factories over the next two years.

    The computer chipmaker said the investment is its largest on new manufacturing and represents 7,000 high-wage jobs.

    Based in Santa Clara, California, Intel said its upgrade plans were for existing facilities in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon to manufacture its 32-nanometer products.

    Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel, said the investment decision was to ensure Intel and the US remained at the forefront of innovation.

    He said the manufacturing facilities would produce the most advanced computing technology in the world.

    Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini

    "The capabilities of our 32nm factories are truly extraordinary, and the chips they produce will become the basic building blocks of the digital world, generating economic returns far beyond our industry," he said.

    While more than a third of Intel’s sales are from outside the US, the company does 75 per cent of its semiconductor manufacturing and research-and-development spending in the US.

    Chips makers such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices have experienced a decline in demand as global computers sales wither in the face of the economic crisis.

    Last month, Intel announced the closure of manufacturing sites in California and Oregon, and test facilities in Malaysia and the Philippines, resulting in 5,000 to 6,000 job losses.

  • Mobile WiMAX Revenues Grow – But Freeze Likely


    Worldwide mobile WiMAX infrastructure revenues nearly quadrupled in the third quarter of 2008 over the third quarter of 2007, according to the latest figures.

    Scott Siegler, senior analyst of Mobile Infrastructure research at Dell’Oro Group, said that with LTE still a couple of years away, WiMAX has become the first next generation technology with commercial service.

    “Mobile WiMAX revenues were very strong in the third quarter of last year, and we anticipate revenue for the fourth quarter to set another record," he said.

    "However, as we look into 2009, we expect the WiMAX market to be hit rather hard by the economic downturn."

    Siegler said building out brand new networks from scratch requires tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars of capital.

    He anticipate many network buildouts will be put on hold or delayed into 2010 as a result of the tightening in the credit markets, the increasing cost of capital and the decrease in demand for broadband data as consumer spending weakens.

    "With initial LTE rollouts coming in the 2010 to 2011 timeframe, these delays will shorten the time to market advantage WiMAX currently has over LTE,” he said.

    The report also shows that the top four Mobile WiMAX vendors in the quarter – Samsung, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent and Alvarion – represented nearly 90 per cent of the total market.

  • Palm Gets $100m Lifeline Ahead Of Nova Launch


    Palm has secured a USD $100 million equity lifeline from Elevation Partners just a few weeks before it unveils its new Nova operating system.

    Faced with mounting losses and weak smartphone sales, the success of the new operating system could very well decide the company’s fate.

    The equity investment by Elevation Partners, which already holds a large stake in the handset maker, will help underwrite the cost of launching Nova and the first line of products to run on it.

    Palm has revealed little about the new operating system but reports suggest it will be pitched between RIM’s enterprise-oriented Blackberrys and Apple’s more multi-media iPhones.

    Palm just posted a loss of USD $506 million in its fiscal second quarter and saw both its revenues and the number of smartphones sold drop.

    Earlier this month, Palm announced that Douglas C. Jeffries had been appointed as the company’s Chief Financial Officer.

    Previously chief accounting officer at eBay, Jeffries will join Palm in January as replacement for Andy Brown.

    Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners, which also counts rock star Bono among its investment team, was in no doubt about the potential for Palm.

    "We believe that Palm is in a position to transform the cell phone industry, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to make this additional investment in the company," he said.

    There are many who seriously doubt that.

  • Storage To Buck General Drop in IT Hardware Spending


    Spending on storage is the only area of IT hardware that will avoid a drop-off in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis.

    A newly revised forecast from IDC suggests worldwide investment in information technology will slow significantly next year.

    It will grow 2.6 per cent year over year in 2009, down from IDC’s pre-crisis forecast of 5.9 per cent growth.

    In the United States, IT spending growth is expected to be 0.9 per cent in 2009, much lower than the 4.2 per cent growth forecast in August.

    On a sector basis, software and services will enjoy solid growth while hardware spending, with the exception of storage, is expected to decline in 2009.

    On a regional basis, spending growth in Japan, Western Europe, and the United States will hover around 1 per cent in 2009.

    In contrast, the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America will continue to experience healthy growth, but at levels notably lower than the double-digit gains previously forecast.

    John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC, said although all the economic forecasts went from up slightly to down drastically in a matter of days, the good news was that IT was in a better position to resist the downward pull of a slowing economy.

    "Technology is already deeply embedded in many mission-critical operations and remains critical to achieving further efficiency and productivity gains," he said. "As a result, IDC expects worldwide IT spending will continue to grow in 2009, albeit at a slower pace."

    Looking beyond 2009, IDC expects IT spending to make a full recovery by the end of the forecast period with growth rates approaching 6.0 per cent in 2012.

    Despite these gains, IDC estimates that more than USD $300 billion in industry revenues will have been lost due to slower spending over the next four years.