Business News Holding

Tag: operators

  • Acme Packet SBCs for IMS Chosen by Two Euro Carriers


    Acme Packet has been selected by two European operators to provide them with IMS-based services.

    Telefonica O2 Germany and Telnor Sweden are to use Acme Packet Net-Net 4000 series session border controllers (SBCs) at access and interconnect borders for IMS services.

    Telefónica O2 Germany will use Acme Packet’s SBCs to provide key IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) functionality at its access and interconnect borders.

    The Net-Net Session Director (SD) enables the company to deploy a secure and interoperable IMS network supporting residential retail and wholesale VoIP services and IP interconnects with other service providers.

    Telenor Sweden, the second-largest service provider in Sweden, will also use SBCs to control the access and IP interconnect borders to its IMS data centers.

    Currently Telenor Sweden offers hosted business unified communications using its IMS service infrastructure.

    Seamus Hourihan, VP marketing and product management, Acme Packet

    Seamus Hourihan, vice president of marketing and product management for Acme Packet, said IMS had passed the hype stage but actual deployments had now arrived.

    He said the majority of current deployments of IMS are in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region but in Latin America and North America is growing.

    "Acme Packet Net-Net SBCs provide critical access and interconnect border functions—securing service elements, maximizing service reach and assuring SLAs—that enable service providers to deliver IMS-based services to business and residential customers," he said.

  • West&Central AfricaCOM'09: African Mobile Growth Opportunities Attract Record Numbers


    While the African teleco market may not capture the headlines as much as other parts of the world, that’s not to say it’s being overlooked by the industry.

    So it’s good to see the organisers of West & Central Africa’s largest telco event announcing record pre-registered attendance for the AfricaCOM event in Abuja, Nigeria.

    Ian Hemming, CEO of event organisers Informa Telecoms & Media, said the 554 companies from 53 countries that are attending represent a 44 per cent uplift from last year.

    Getting underway today, the two-day event caters for the region’s whole telecom ecosystem – fixed, mobile, wireless, satellite and integrated operators and service providers, investors, regulators, vendors and analysts.

    Among the companies attending for the first time is Movius, the Atlanta, Georgia-headquartered messaging, collaboration and mobile media solutions specialist.

    Michael Edgett, director of product marketing at Movius, said the company – formed in 2006 with the merger of IP Unity and the Messaging Division of Glenayre – has had a presence in Africa for a long time.

    Its most recent dealings have largely been through channel partners, such as Nortel and Nokia Siemens, and South Africa-based operator MTN, which works throughout the region.

    However, he told smartphone.biz-news they also did some direct sales and, as part of the drive to build on these, Movius representatives are attending the AfricaCOM event for the first time this year.

    "Most of what we have been doing in Africa has been very simple voicemail and a few off-shoots," he said. "But we are seeing more growth opportunities and doing more ourselves."

    Edgett said this meant the company has been able to extend its presence in the area and show off some of its other products.

    For instance, Movius’ Voice SMS enables a user to send and receive an audio message, with a text message alert – allowing longer messages to be left.

    "We are starting to see a lot of interest in Voice SMS in parts of the world where literacy is low or there are multiple languages," said Edgett.

    The Voice SMS suite consists of both clientless solutions as well as Fun Talk SMS, a client solution that includes avatars, ringtones and background music.

    Movius’ Visual Mail Suite includes MessageMe Plus, a clientless visual mail service that functions on any phone using SMS or MMS.

    "There has been a lot of interest in Visual Voice Mail as a clientless solution and Voice SMS in general," said Edgett.

    Another area receiving attention is Community Messaging – which provides a service to people without phones by giving them a personal phone number that can be checked from a public phone.

    Edgett said this was attracting a lot of interest, particularly in rural areas or where people had moved to cities but wanted to contact friends and family in rural areas.

    Edgett said focused shows such as West & Central AfricaCOM have proved to be of real value in developing new markets.

    "We have continued to see a lot of growth in Africa and do not expect that to change," he said.

  • HiT Barcelona: Can Mobile Operators' New Openness Change Lose-Lose to Win-Win?

    Mobile operators are finally ditching proprietary operator APIs – so-called "Walled Gardens" – and moving towards exposing network intelligence to third parties.

    Next week’s HiT Barcelona: World Innovation Summit in Barcelona will be discussing the need for open networks in order to engage with the growing community of application developers.

    Representatives from the developer, operator and Internet communities are taking part in a panel discussion to develop the most effective approach for the GSMA’s One API initiative.

    Among them is Michael Crossey, chief marketing officer at Aepona, who spoke to smartphone.biz-news about some of the issues that will be coming under the spotlight.

    Mobile network operators seem to have done their utmost to prevent developers from innovating on the mobile Web.

    They have created barriers by using proprietary APIs – and contractual differences have limited the creation of cross-operator web applications.

    Equally, developers have been barred from accessing rich network capabilities such as authentication, seamless charging, location assistance, push messaging and connection awareness.

    This has undoubtedly been a lose-lose situation for both operators and developers.

    That is changing and according to Michael Crossey, chief marketing officer at Aepona, the whole mobile industry theme has moved towards one of openness in the past year.

    He told smartphone.biz-news that the main catalyst for this has been Apple’s desire to make it easy for developers to create applications for the iPhone by providing them with tools and a route to market for their apps.

    Michael Crossey, CMO at Aepona

    "This has sparked off a flurry of activity in the industry, with a lot of operators and other handset manufacturers announcing open strategies to help them tap into the activity of the developer community worldwide," he said.

    This is a marked change in tactic for carriers, whose expressions of interest in working with developers in the past have been superficial at best.

    "The reality has been that, while they welcomed creative thinking, they wanted to cherry-pick the best apps for themselves and bring them into their own networks to sell," said Crossey.

    This, obviously, hasn’t been in the best interests of developers and everyone from Google to the "two men in a garage" set-ups have found ways of getting around the networks.

    That realisation has finally hit operators, forcing them to "evolve their thinking", according to Crossey.

    Last Bastion Crumbling

    He said this has meant that the mobile operators "last bastion" – opening core network capabilities to developers – is crumbling.

    "Historically there has been a lot of resistance to that," he said. "But they are realising that unless they collaborate, they will get by-passed.

    "They look at the fixed-line world, where operators have lost the battle against over the top providers, and they are determined not to let that happen to them.

    "They realise that if they collaborate rather than close the networks, they can contribute to the process."

    It is widely accepted that one way to do this is to standardise API’s and interfaces within and across operator networks.

    The GSMA is leading the charge to adopt this approach – principally through its One API initiative, phase 2 of which has just been launched.

    Crossey said this strategy is seen as necessary because even if every operator opens its network, developers will still have problems because of the different approaches each carrier adopts.

    This would be both on the technical side and on the commercial one, because every operator’s interface is different – be that with regard to terms and conditions, payment methods, business models etc.

    Huge Breakthrough

    By creating a cross-operator API, Crossey said it is hoped the fragmentation that would otherwise exist between operators will be reduced.

    The GSMA is also proposing a common commercial framework to give developers a market for their apps.

    "The operator can be assured that if it complies with One API, this will be portable between operators – this is a huge breakthrough for operators and developers," he said.

    "If there is fragmentation, the whole ecosystem does not reach critical mass and the addressable market is not big enough.

    "If there is a single set of APIs, the internet model has shown that the developer community is huge."

    Operators may, understandably, be reluctant to embrace One API because of concerns that it would restrict them from differentiating their services from a competitor’s.

    However, Crossey said the technology means that it is possible to do both – have an API model for "commonplace" services such as messaging while still being able to differentiate on, say, video and multi-media capabilities because a particular operator has invested heavily in IMS technology.

    Crossey said that Aepona, as a specialist SDP (service delivery platform) provider, enables the operators make their network capabilities – communications, information and intelligence – available to developers.

    The Web Services-based APIs can then be used to telecom-enable both enterprise business processes and web-based consumer services.

    "We provide a technical platform that allows these capabilities to be exposed to developers in a way that they are familiar with on the internet," he said.

    On the web, developers use APIs to create apps that, for example, use Google maps and mash-up with PayPal or Amazon storage services.

    Crossey said that after preaching the message of openness to operators for a number of years, there has undoubtedly been a definite shift in operators’ willingness to embrace the concept.

    The Belfast, Northern Ireland headquatered company’s products have already been deployed by Tier 1 operators such as France Telecom/Orange, Sprint, Vimpelcom, Bharti Airtel, TELUS, TDC, BT and KPN.

    "We are having many other conversations now about operators using our technology," he said.

    Opening Up Potential

    Aepona is also working with developers to help them bring apps they have created to its operator clients.

    This involves showing developers how they can use network capabilities to greatly enhance their apps for use on the platforms Aepona has installed with operators.

    Crossey said a simple example is explaining that, rather than just relying on GPS data from high-end handsets for an app, developers can be shown that operator networks can provide location data for every handset.

    "So we can increase the addressable market to a huge degree," he said. "But very often the developer is not aware of what can be done."

    A shift towards openness has also to include ensuring developers feel they are sufficiently rewarded for their applications.

    If revenue-share models fail to do this developers will keep finding workarounds and alternatives to leveraging network capabilities.

    For more information on the HiT Barcelona: World Innovation Summit: June 17-19 FIRA Barcelona, click HERE

  • INTERVIEW: Carriers' "Sea Change" Towards IP Networks, JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy

    JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy talks to voip.biz-news about the "sea change" currently taking place in the communications industry – and explains how that has resulted in JAJAH itself evolving from a consumer VoIP focus to become a global IP communications platform provider.

    Telecom operators realise their business is shifting – what they do about it is another matter.

    One company that appears well placed to offer an opinion is JAJAH – not least because it is about to sign "three or four" operators globally to use its IP platform.

    Since its launch in March 2006 it has gone from being a web-activated calling solution to a platform of choice for outsourced IP managed services, partnering with a growing number of carriers, telcos and technology companies to white label its services.

    Trevor Healy, CEO of JAJAH, said there is no doubt that mobile operators’ views have evolved over the last two to three years.

    JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy

    He told voip.biz-news that their attitude to a service like mobile VoIP has gone from ‘this is not going to happen’ to ‘it’s a problem on a small scale’ and had now reached ‘it’s going to happen and we have to be involved’.

    "When we started our business we always had these strategy debates internally about whether we should engage the operators," he said. "We knew it would take time for them to get their heads around it.

    "Now we are close to signing three or four operators globally to use our platform."

    Healy said JAJAH is offering carriers a fully serviced data communications platform, from which they can then cherry pick services such as payment and billing, fraud protection and termination engines.

    He said the carriers would use the JAJAH IP platform for a number of different things.

    "Some want to effectively capture more international call traffic, either originating or arising in their country," he said.

    "They now understand that customers are using this tool for long distance calls. But rather than build a platform themselves it’s easier for them to partner us and OEM our platform."

    Healy said operators didn’t only want to capture domestic calls but also those made by displaced internationals.

    "So, for example, it could be an Irish operator trying to capture all Irish callers in the US," he said.

    At the other end of the spectrum were operators such as Japan’s EMOBILE who are working on pure Voice over HSDPA.

    "They are right at the edge of the technology curve," said Healy. "Then there are the WiMAX guys who are coming to us saying ‘we need something to bridge the gap between now and then."

    Another "market" for JAJAH is operators that are experiencing saturation in their domestic markets and who are looking to find new sources of revenue.

    This is the case in Italy, according to Healy, where there are two mobiles for every male in the country.

    "So because of this they need to go overseas," he said. "As they go international they look at how they can build up their market internationally."

    Healy said he expected to see interest from the Tier 2 operators first, since they were facing far more competition.

    And he said the Tier 1s would probably try and integrate platforms internally initially, a process which he reckoned would see some failures and provide "pickings" for JAJAH.

    "There’s definitely a sea change in the operator landscape – and it will continue to evolve," he said.

    "We are trying to evolve a business model philosophy. The CAPEX model is not going to work.

    "If we do not put a barrier in front of these companies, we will drag them along to our vision."

    That vision has been developing for the past three years, during which time JAJAH has been shifting its focus away from just providing the mobile web VoIP model of free client-to-client calls and low-cost international rates.

    A year ago the Silicon Valley-based company began providing VoIP back-end operations to customers such as Yahoo and Match.com.

    It formed a strategic partnership with Intel to get its technology onboard next-generation PCs and offers a range of software clients to support VoIP calling on WiFi.

    However, the real emphasis has been on becoming a service provider as well as a brand for end-user calls. At the end of February, JAJAH signed a deal with BoldCall to provide online retail customers with JAJAH’s click-to-call services.

    Healy said JAJAH has effectively re-invented itself three times in its corporate life, while staying in the same core market.

    The genesis behind the changes had been seeing the flow of dollars from large companies into enterprises, which then wanted to offer new solutions to their customers – very often their employees.

    "We started as a consumer business. What we did for consumers, we did very well," he said.

    "Then other companies started saying: ‘why not open up your platform on an OEM/white label basis?’"

    The resulting evolution has seen JAJAH design its IP platform to suit three general participants in the market:

    • Enterprises – especially large multinationals such as Pfizer
    • Internet companies – such as Yahoo, that use JAJAH’s platform to carry voice
    • Operators – who want to make a platform for OEMs

    Healy said the initial part of this business model change saw JAJAH offering its services to large companies.

    Then Yahoo asked JAJAH to integrate voice into its messaging platform for its 100 million IM users.

    "More recently we re-invented ourselves again by putting it into the cloud and offering a purely managed service to companies like Yahoo with no upfront fee," he said.

    "We started to see unified communications in the cloud."

    Healy said they saw what the likes of Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle were doing in enterprises and identified a "sweet spot".

    He said they realised that enterprises had a lot of front-end applications but no connectivity.

    So large corporations with offices worldwide were having to organise and invest in UC – effectively replicating JAJAH’s offering.

    "So we reiterated our platform as a full platform for enterprises, moving into UC," he said.

    While enterprises have always featured in JAJAH’s activities – there are more than 5,000 businesses using the platform at any one time – this shift into UC on the cloud is a new niche.

    However, Healy said various factors mean the company is well placed for the change.

    He said JAJAH is global by nature, connecting into 220 countries around the world, and its consumer background means it understands what services and apps people are using outside the office environment.

    This global connectivity is device-agnostic – the company has an "anything in and anything out" philosophy of connectivity – and it has mobile solutions for a wide range of devices.

    In financial terms, the change in emphasis has meant revenues shifting in favor of infrastructure activities.

    Healy said this is increasing every quarter and is nearly at an 80-20 revenue split between the IP platform and consumer sides of the business.

    "Having said that, the consumer business is a very good one and is still important because it’s our sandbox to test a lot of our offerings," he said.

    "When we bring it to a carrier, it’s been seriously tested. A lot of companies are doing their testing in a lab environment and then testing it in an operator’s environment."

    Healy said the VoIP calling business had also proved itself on a small scale – it has more than 15 million subscribers.

    "If our consumer business was in the hands of a bigger brand and with more investment then it would be a huge business," he said. "The model works and consumers are very loyal."

    It has been necessary to concentrate on the platform side at the expense of the consumer business, according to Healy, because JAJAH is a small company and can’t afford to dilute itself too much.

    He fully expects the company to reap the rewards from this approach.

    "In the long term, enabling others to do what we do is the better strategy," he said.

  • ADVERTORIAL: WiMAX Forum MENA '09 – Explore and Resolve the Commercial and Strategic Challenges


    Operators in Middle Eastern and North African markets are starting to make progress with acquiring spectrum and finance for WiMAX networks.

    At the same time they are beginning to encounter challenges associated with identifying profitable business models and the practicalities of operating a WiMAX network.

    So it’s a crucial time for the region’s operators – which makes attending this year’s WiMAX Forum MENA on 23-24 June in Dubai all the more essential.

    This highly commercially-focused two-day event has been thoroughly researched to address the key strategic and technical issues that are pertinent to all Middle Eastern and North African operators investing in WiMAX in 2009 and beyond.

    Top industry experts, including 20 leading regional operators and vendors, are among the 30 plus speakers.

    Attendees will be able to hear keynotes and take part in discussions on a wide range of topics, including the business case for WiMAX and assessments on the technological roadmap for WiMAX.

    This year, the conference features a number of leading speakers from North Africa, including Mohsen Ebeid, Director of implementation, Egynet, and Kai Wuff, CEO, Kenya Data Networks, Kenya, as well as Jatem Bamatrof and Dr Ahmed Abbas Sindi, CEO, GO Ethiad Atheeb Telecom ( Saudi Arabia) who will share their experiences and insight with the participants.

    Helen Ponsford, conference manager for the WiMAX Forum Congress Series, said that, as in other emerging markets, the low level of fixed-line broadband penetration in the MENA region provides a strong opportunity for WiMAX.

    Informa forecasts that there will be 1.85 million portable WiMAX subscriptions and 650,000 mobile WiMAX subscriptions in the MEA region in 2012.

    There are now over 12O 802.16d and 16e based WiMAX networks deployed or in planned deployment across the Middle East and Africa regions.

    "Informa Telecoms & Media are bringing together regional representatives of the whole WiMAX community to explore and resolve the commercial and strategic challenges that lay ahead at this year’s WiMAX MENA event," she said.

    "This event is sure to provide a much needed forum for regional operators, regulators, investors and equipment vendors to come together to share experiences, formulate strategies to support the commercial launch of services, plan for network infrastructure evolution and exchange valuable new contacts across the industry."

    WiMAX Forum Mena is the only event supported by the WiMAX Forum, dealing with WiMAX deployment realities and allowing delegates to learn from the most advanced operators in the Middle East, North African and Persian Gulf region.

    Among the many issues being discussed this year are the commercial imperative to launch WiMAX sooner rather than later in MENA, the impact the global credit crisis having upon an operator’s ability to secure funding for WiMAX, and optimising all elements of a go to market strategy.

    There will also be panel discussions of issues such as what rollout strategy makes the most sense for WiMAX operators and the lessons that have been learnt about delivering indoor coverage in different environments.

    Full details on the conference and how to register are available here.

    WiMAX Forum Mena
    23-24 June 2009, Movenpick Bur Hotel, Dubai
    Day 1: 9 – 5.30pm
    Day 2: 9 – 4.45pm

  • WiMax Forum Announces Interoperability and Roaming Trials


    The first ever commercial WiMAX interoperability and roaming trials are to be carried out by 14 companies involved with the Next Generation wireless technology.

    Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum, said the testing of networks and equipment will demonstrate to all WiMAX operators that they can easily provide roaming services to their customers.

    Among the operators, device manufacturers, equipment vendors, and clearing houses taking part are Aicent, Alvarion, Bridgewater Systems, Cisco, Clearwire, Comfone, DigitalBridge Communications, Intel, iPass, Juniper Networks, MACH, Motorola, Syniverse and Transaction Network Services.

    Resnick, speaking at the Forum’s global congress in Amsterdam, said the trial represents an end-to-end test of roaming over live WiMAX networks.

    He said it will provide a baseline for establishing roaming services and agreements for WiMAX worldwide.

    "Roaming with interoperability is important in order to expand the availability of WiMAX services by enabling users to automatically access networks when traveling outside the geographical coverage area of their home network," he said.

    To date, the Forum tracks more than 475 WiMAX network deployments in 140 countries.

    The WiMAX Forum board of directors has also voted unanimously to change the pricing fee setup for its WiMAX Forum Certified program.

    It is to become a market pricing model at all six of its certification labs.

    The WiMAX Forum has 106 certified products in the market today, with a projection of at least 1,000 certified products available by 2011.

  • NDS Chosen For Germany's First Cable HD DVR Service


    Germany’s two largest independent cable operators, Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, have selected NDS’ DVR solution XTV to launch the country’s first cable HD DVR service across their networks.

    The two operators serve some 3.5 million cable-connected households and operate a large number of independent networks.

    They had previously deployed UK-based NDS’ VideoGuard content protection and its MediaHighway middleware.

    Markus Schmid, CEO of Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, said they had decided to also select NDS’ XTV DVR technology as the logical complement.

    He said this maximised the capability of their infrastructure and service options for subscribers.

    The technology infrastructure will also allow Tele Columbus and PrimaCom to launch new integrated service enhancements across all existing and future devices.

    This could include Video on Demand (VOD) or push VOD.

  • EU Mobile Roaming Charge Caps Will "Increase Traffic and Revenue"

    INTERVIEW: As mobile operators in Europe rush to comply with legislation to protect consumers from massive roaming and SMS/MMS bills, Amit Daniel, vice president of marketing for Starhome, tells smartphone.biz-news about the challenges – and the advantages – the new rules will bring.

    One result of the European Commission’s new measures to cap mobile roaming charges will be the end of what has become known as "bill shock".

    This well publicised term describes the phenomenon of opening your mobile bill with no clue as to what the cost will be – and getting hit with massive charges for those calls made abroad.

    As a first step to ending this, new caps on roaming charges come into force in July.

    By then, carriers in Europe must ensure they have the appropriate technology in place to comply with the data usage regulations.

    Not surprisingly this has led to a significant increase in interest roaming solutions – including those offered by Israel-based Starhome.

    The company is the largest supplier of roaming solutions for mobile operators, with more than 160 clients around the world, including Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and Telefonica.

    Amit Daniel, VP marketing, Starhome

    Amit Daniel, vice president of marketing for Starhome, told smartphone.biz-news that operators are understandably concerned about finding and implementing solutions without incurring penalties, disrupting existing operations or inconveniencing customers.

    She said that aside from the legal requirements, consumers are also demanding clear information about roaming costs to avoid becoming victims of "bill shock".

    "We are seeing extreme demand for these kinds of solutions from all over the world," said Daniel. "Data is one of the hottest topics at the moment and this coming year there will be lots of implementations."

    Two-Stage Legislation

    European mobile operators have to meet two legislative deadlines to comply with the European legislation.

    The first is the adoption of the Roaming II Regulation, which is set to commence on July 1.

    It will significantly affect the roaming industry, especially the provision limiting the Euro-SMS tariff. Subscribers sending SMSs abroad must not be charged more than Euros €0.11 cents, and those receiving SMSs in other EU countries cannot be charged.

    The Commission also proposed a safeguard limit (per megabyte) for wholesale data roaming fees.

    A second phase of Roaming II Regulation states that by March 1, 2010, operators must enable customers to pre-determine the amount they wish to spend before service is "cut-off".

    While the new rules require operators to change their systems, Daniel said her impression was that the industry realised it would be offering something of value and simplicity to users.

    She said the most obvious was control over mobile costs while roaming.

    "It’s a major issue for operators but it will eventually increase traffic and revenue," she said.

    "Consumers are reluctant to use their mobiles while roaming at the moment because pricing is too complex and they are worried about suffering from bill shock.
    "So many people turn off their handsets and only use them in emergencies.

    "The EU legislation will give customers the possibility to control expenses and determine what they want to spend in the future."

    Benefits beyond Pricing

    Another benefit of the changes, according to Daniel, is that they offer operators the potential to stand out from the competition in terms of the packages they offer.

    This extends beyond just pricing to include revenue-generating services that can be offered as part of a bundle.

    However, Daniel said carriers were having to ensure their systems – both hardware and software – were capable of determining users’ real time usage status and how much calls were costing.

    "Current systems can do calculations of usage offline after a transaction has been made and record data consumption rates," she said.

    "But it’s not in real time. The main issue is to be able to do real time billing, which most operators do not have the capacity to do."

    Daniel said that the legislation essentially requires traffic usage to be monitored and measured to keep check on how much is being consumed.

    She said this then had to be correlated with a user’s subscription package and specific billing plan.

    Operators could then, for example, send a "roaming" user an SMS telling them how much they are going to be charged for using their mobile abroad.

    Credit Limit Warning 

    For the second phase of the EU legislation, subscribers will have the option to purchase packages from operators which are then monitored by companies like Starhome.

    As part of these, users will be notified if they are going to exceed agreed credit limits when using their phones internationally.

    To do this the operators again need to be able to access real time information on users’ mobile consumption.

    "This is a solution we are providing to give roaming control, both in Europe and beyond," said Daniel.

    A benefit for Starhome’s extensive client base was that they can use their existing platforms, according to Daniel.

    These are already connected to signalling and billing systems, so there is no need to integrate a new supplier – a major project in itself.

    Starhome offers the solution in a managed service mode, a popular option since there is a high level of liability on the operators’ side of the service.

    She said the company’s global operations centre carriers out 24/7 monitoring of its clients’ networks.

    "If something goes wrong with connections and so on, we are capable of seeing that in real time and alerting the operator," she said.

    "In terms of providing a service that’s really liable and always working, this is one of the areas where we have an advantage over competitors."

    The new rules will undoubtedly make knowing the cost of using mobiles abroad much simpler for consumers – whether the operators stand to gain from the changes remains to be seen.

  • Skype Announces iPhone App,Video Calling Coming Soon?


    STORY UPDATED: see below

    Skype is now available for the iPhone – and will be coming to BlackBerry in May.

    The VoIP app on the iPhone will only work over Wi-Fi and not 3G.

    It will allow iPhone subscribers to use phone numbers in their existing iPhone address book – without the need for duplicate lists.

    As always, it allows free calls between Skype users and charges for calls to landlines or mobiles.

    The free application began appearing in the app store early on Tuesday.

    UPDATE: Since being released on Tuesday it has emerged that Skype on iPhone does works over 3G, despite being intended only for use with WiFi.

    Users report it working over the 3G data connection if the beta 3.0 firmware is being run.

    Since VoIP over the 3G cellular is clearly forbidden in the SDK rules, it’s obviously due to a bug on 3.0 that it works.

    This raises the question of how long it will be before Apple closes the hole?

    But also, how did was the app "approved" and certified by for the App Store without first "testing" if Skype would work on the 3G connection?

  • Skype Deal With Nokia Stokes Operators' Fears Over Lost Revenue












    Operators O2 and Orange have reacted to plans by Nokia to embed Skype in handsets and may refuse to stock the N97.

    Skype is linking up with Nokia to embed its calling software in the Finnish company’s new handsets.

    Initially this will be the N97 by Q3 2009 and also, later, in other N-series devices.

    However, the deal, which was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, has angered UK operators Orange and O2, according the Mobile Today.

    It reports that the two operators are considering refusing to stock the N97 unless Nokia strips out the Skype client.

    Key to their concern is ownership of the customer and potential lost revenue from calls from Skype’s VoIP service.

    Rival operators 3 UK and T-Mobile UK are said to be backing Nokia and Skype’s partnership.