Business News Holding

Tag: mobile-operating-system

  • MACH Aims To Offset EU Mobile Roaming Charge Cap Losses


    MACH has announced a range of solutions designed to offset the impact on mobile operator roaming revenues of the recent European Union (EU) pricing regulations.

    The company says its EU Compliance Power Pack will immediately counter the forecast reduction in revenues by implementing smart rating and price optimisation.

    It says this allows mobile operators to reprice certain services such as voice and SMS in order to create new revenue streams offsetting the anticipated effects of the EU regulation.

    The measures introduced by European regulators impose wide-ranging pricing restrictions and administrative obligations on mobile operators.

    Voice, SMS and data service prices will be capped with effect from 1st July 2009, with further reductions in caps becoming effective in 2011.

    Operators will also be required to bill on a per second basis under the new regulations.

    The legislation also requires operators to notify subscribers of high usage to avoid so-called "bill shocks", requiring real-time usage reporting and notification processes.

    European officials said they will monitor changes to other operator charging structures to ensure that these are not increased to compensate for the impact of the new legislation.

    Lodewijk Cornelis, CMO at MACH

    Lodewijk Cornelis, CMO at MACH, said its Power Pack includes a solution to the "bill shock" problem, by triggering timely customer notification whenever a usage threshold is reached.

    He said this solution gives mobile operators the ability to provide customers with timely data usage information while roaming.

    "The regulations approved by the European Parliament, combined with increasing competition both from within the mobile industry and from alternative communications technologies, mean that operators have to continuously monitor and reassess retail and wholesale pricing strategies," he said.

    "MACH solutions turn, what seems at first sight to be, a huge obstacle to growth into an opportunity for operators to differentiate their offerings and reduce their operational costs."

    The EU is also preparing legislation to force carriers to allow VoIP to run on their cellular networks.

    Earlier this month, EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said that "action" should be taken against carriers that use their market power to block "innovative services".

    Cornelis said the new solutions allow operators to use sophisticated simulation techniques to optimise retail and wholesale pricing of non-EU roaming traffic, increasing revenues while at the same time maximising customer value.

    He said The Power Pack also handles the complex task of rating usage data in real time by reference to regulatory capping, and its applications process all of the administrative changes to inter-operator tariff structures to ensure accurate and timely settlement before and after the regulations come into effect.

    MACH clears two out of every three roaming calls on GSM and CDMA networks and settles more than 60 per cent of the inter-operator wholesale invoice amounts.

  • Samsung Selects Streamezzo For Its Rich Internet Portal


    Steamezzo has announced that Samsung has selected its software products and professional services to develop, deploy and run its Rich Internet mobile portal.

    The French company’s Mobile Open Development Platform is already certified on hundreds of handsets and compatible with all mobile operating system.

    By using the paltform, Samsung hopes to encourage the usage of its mobile services as well as to accelerate their deployments on the largest range of devices.

    The Rich Internet application, natively embedded on multiple Samsung devices, allows subscribers to access to a large variety of free and premium services such as news, ringtones, music, video-on-demand, and games.

    Special announcements or latest news from Samsung are also directly accessible from this portal. The service offering is continuously extended and provisioned over the air, without requiring any software upgrade on the devices.

    Dr Anthony Park, director business development at Samsung Telecommunication Europe, said the technology opens up attractive business models that end users will really get excited about.

    "Mobile users want everything perfectly adjusted to the mobile device here and now," he said.

    "And that is precisely what Rich Internet applications are all about."

    The first releases of the Rich Internet Portal were in Russia, Germany and United Kingdom. Several other countries are planned to be rolled-out in the coming months.

  • Microsoft Delays Windows Mobile 7


    Microsoft is not expected to complete a final build of its Windows Mobile 7 operating system until the second half of 2009.

    ZD Net Asia said the software maker has informed some of its partners that it has had to delay the much anticipated update to its cell phone operating system.

    The report describes the delay is a significant blow for Microsoft, which has been counting on the next version of WinMo to enable devices that better rival Apple’s iPhone.

    It points out that the delay also comes as competition steps up in the smartphone market.

    Google is preparing to launch the G1, first phone running its Android operating system, while Apple has its updated iPhone 3G, and new models are also debuting from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.

    While no major update to its core operating system is expected ahead of Windows Mobile 7 other improvements are likely to take place before then, including an improved browser that brings the rendering engine of Internet Explorer 6 onto Windows Mobile.

    That update should allow Windows Mobile phones to display rich Web pages, including those that are home to Flash content and Ajax applications.

  • Android Smartphone To Sell 400k By Year-end


    You might expect sales to be intitially sluggish for a new smartphone with an unproven mobile operating system.

    But that was never going to be the case with the hotly anticipated first Google Android handset from T-Mobile and HTC, which is expected to be officially announced Tuesday.

    Research from Strategy Analytics suggests that the Android operating system will sell 400,000 units by the year-end.

    If accurate, that represents 4 per cent of all smartphones sold in the US during the fourth quarter of 2008.

    Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics, said Android was a relatively late entrant and it will join an increasingly crowded smartphone market alongside Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple, Palm, Symbian and LiMo.

    But he added: "We forecast 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the United States during Q4 2008.

    “We estimate smartphones with Google’s Android operating system, led by HTC of Taiwan, will reach 0.4 million units in the quarter, for a 4 per cent marketshare.”

    Chris Ambrosio, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said Google had the brand power in the US to make a big impact at launch.
    He said the main issue would be operator subsidies. The HTC handset is expected to have a USD $199 price tag.

    “As seen with the iPhone and smart devices in general, retail prices need to be well below USD $200 to be competitive,” he said.

    “Longer-term success will, of course, rest on Android vendor ability to create designs with wow factor and an intuitive user-interface.”

    Ambrosio said Google would do its part to drive growth, and he expected Android to eventually offer a compelling range of mobile applications emphasizing Google’s online assets, such as advertising, mapping and search.