E-Plus Group and Alcatel-Lucent to bring a better mobile broadband experience to E-Plus customers

E-Plus Group and Alcatel-Lucent to bring a better mobile broadband experience to E-Plus customers

Managed Services World Forum, Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2011 – The E-Plus Group and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) are extending their program to increase the speed, performance and selection of mobile broadband offerings available to consumers in Germany. To bring this to fruition Alcatel-Lucent will lead and manage an aggressive program to expand the capabilities of E-Plus’ mobile broadband network.

Under the agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will continue to have overall responsibility for network operations, field maintenance, and build-out of services associated with the next stage of E-Plus’ network upgrade. The project includes a significant expansion of broadband coverage throughout the country to increase the availability of high-bandwidth services like video and music downloads on smartphones. With the goal of enabling superior service, Alcatel-Lucent will be implementing new measures to predict and prevent service degradation in the E-Plus network. These measures will be underpinned by stringent performance indicators that are tied to the customer experience.

E-Plus Group CTO Rafal Markiewicz said: “A positive customer experience is a powerful asset that can inspire loyalty and attract new subscribers. Alcatel-Lucent has a wealth of experience and a powerful set of tools to identify and fix network problems quickly, making them the ideal partner for this endeavor.”

Alf Henryk Wulf, Head of Alcatel-Lucent in Central Europe, said:“We’re delighted with the confidence that E-Plus has shown in us by expanding our relationship. We are absolutely committed to help E-Plus attain its goals by guaranteeing a swift network expansion and a smooth network operation in the years to come.”

This renewed agreement builds on the long-standing Managed Services relationship between the two companies. Alcatel-Lucent initially took over the operational business units, which are responsible for building, running and maintaining the E-Plus cellular network, for a period of three years in March 2007. Previously, the companies extended their contract by a further two years, and are now entering into another two-year extension.

Oberthur Technologies announces LTE CSIM card availability

Oberthur Technologies, the world’s second largest provider of security and identification solutions and services based on smart card technologies, announced today the commercialisation of its multimode CSIM[1]/ USIM[2] cards for CDMA2000[3] and LTE networks. This card is able to handle authentication with current major network technologies such as: GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000 and of course LTE networks.

Oberthur Technologies collaborated with Qualcomm Incorporated to validate interoperability of its new LTE CSIM cardwith Qualcomm’s MDM9600 and simultaneous voice and data over LTE (SVLTE) solutions.

The multimode CSIM/USIM card is a state-of-the-art smartcard that allows maximum connectivity to end-users. With such a card end-users will be able to connect to all GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000 or LTE networks thus benefiting from maximum roaming capabilities and best communication rates.

This card can either be used in a CDMA2000/LTE phone to access CDMA2000 and LTE networks or in an UMTS/LTE phone to access UMTS and LTE networks. When used in a multimode CDMA2000 / UMTS / LTE phone, referred to as “World Phone”, the card truly becomes a universal tool to access any available networks.

“Following the successful tests byQualcomm, Oberthur Technologies is proud to commercially launch its multimode CSIM / USIM cards. This product has been designed to support operators in their migration to LTE and in parallel to enhance end-users’ rich media experience”, said Cedric Collomb, General Manager Cards and Services, Card Systems Division at Oberthur Technologies.

LINK Mobility acquires Aspiro Mobile Solutions

LINK Mobility acquires Aspiro Mobile Solutions

LINK Mobility – leading supplier in mobile marketing, advanced messaging services and mobile applications – acquires Aspiro Mobile Solutions from Aspiro Group listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. With the take-over the group becomes the biggest in the Nordic and Baltic States in mobile payment and advanced messaging services. Next step is to become number one in mobile content services within two years. On the agenda for 2013 is also a stock exchange listing.

LINK Mobility acquires Aspiro Mobile Solutions from listed Aspiro Group. The merged company will be named LINK Mobile Solutions. With the acquisition LINK Mobile Solutions with headquarters in Oslo and offices in Stockholm and Riga will have an even stronger connection to Norway.

– The demand for mobile content services is increasing rapidly among both private and business clients, says LINK Mobile Solutions’ CEO and head of Norwegian activities, Glenn Stenholm.

– The market today consists of many small players and is about to mature. With this acquisition LINK Mobile Solutions takes the lead of a consolidation of the market and at the same time strengthen our position as the leading developer and supplier of mobile content, continues Glenn Stenholm.

Through the merger LINK Mobile Solutions will be the largest player in mobile payment services in the Nordic/Baltic region. The acquisition is the first step in a strategy of expansion with the aim to become number one on the market of mobile content services in the Nordic and Baltic States within two years.

– Our plan is to grow and expand by acquisitions of more companies and the aim is also to introduce LINK Mobile Solutions to the stock exchange during 2013, says Glenn Stenholm.

The merged company will have offices in Oslo, Stockholm and Riga. The offices of LINK Mobility and Aspiro Mobile Solutions in Sweden and Norway respectively will join forces. Focus will be on the development of mobile services, mobile marketing, advanced mobile messaging, mobile tickets and payment services.

The company will have 32 employees. Forecast for 2011 is a turnover of SEK 290 million and an operating profit of SEK 8 million.

– The two companies complement each other in terms of expertise, product and market. Aspiro is strong in mobile payment, LINK in mobile marketing, Aspiro has a leading position in the vertical of media and LINK in retail trade, Aspiro is big in Norway, LINK in Sweden. Together we will be a major Nordic player in the forefront of mobile payment, advanced mobile messaging and marketing – and also with integrated solutions for CRM Systems, says CEO Glenn Stenholm.

– Also, Aspiro Mobile Solutions has a strong position in the Baltic States, says Johan Wästlund, managing director since 2002 for LINK Mobility Sweden who now will be head of both Sweden and the Baltic region.

LINK Mobile Solutions is first and foremost a technology company and sales are primarily managed through partners – for example DM Huset, Sergel, Lindorff and Bring Dialog. Among the company’s clients are Aller Group, Finn.no, Norwegian, Folkspel, KappAhl, SEB, Swedish Armed Forces, Coop, ICA, Statoil, Teracom and the Swedish Enforcement Authority (Kronofogdemyndigheten).

Hrvatski Telekom Obtained Approval for Issue of E-Money

T-HT Press - Hrvatski Telekom Obtained Approval for Issue of E-Money

21.9.2011

In accordance with the approval by the Croatian National Bank, Hrvatski Telekom has been authorized to issue e-money and provide financial transaction services related to issuing of e-money. Such services that are used all over Croatia include payment of parking fees and bus or tram tickets via SMS. The approval granted by CNB allows Hrvatski Telekom to continue to provide the current micro payment services (SMS parking and transport), and the method of use as well as the service price remains unchanged.

Moreover, HT has been enabled to provide specific payment services that are not related with issuing the e-money. Therefore, the obtained license serves as a basis for the introduction of new advanced services that will enable the users to pay for various products and services via their mobile handsets.

Bringing Mobile Intelligence to Cloud Computing : Aepona : Aepona and Bubble Motion Launch “Twitter for Voice” Service

Bringing Mobile Intelligence to Cloud Computing : Aepona : Aepona and Bubble Motion Launch “Twitter for Voice” Service

BELFAST, UK. – 22nd September 2011 – Aepona, the award-winning provider of software solutions that unlock the capabilities of the mobile network for application developers, and Bubble Motion, a leader in mobile social communications, today announced a partnership that will allow mobile operators to rapidly generate new revenue streams.Bubbly, best described as a “voice-based Twitter”, is a social messaging service created by Bubble Motion where people share voice and text updates with friends, family, fans and followers via mobile phone. Bloggers record status updates, in their own voice, and their followers are notified to click and listen. The service is enabled by Aepona’s Telecom Application Gateway platform, which allows operators to quickly and easily launch a broad range of value-added voice and data services.

The Aepona Telecom Application Gateway (TAG) is at the core of Aepona’s Open IN solution portfolio, which combines best-of-breed third party applications that are tightly integrated with the TAG platform to create end-to-end solutions that solve current operator business challenges. Besides the Bubbly service, Aepona also offers converged charging and roaming solutions as part of its Open IN suite.

“Declining revenue per subscriber is a reality for many operators in fiercely competitive markets, hence the importance of value added services from companies like Bubble Motion,” commented Paul Palmer, VP of sales at Bubble Motion. “By offering features that drive mobile phone usage, operators are able to use Bubbly to drive new sources of revenue, while leveraging existing infrastructure investments that would otherwise remain untapped.”

“The Bubbly service, when combined with Aepona’s TAG, can be delivered into the network quickly, easily and cost-effectively, avoiding the costly network integration costs of typical ‘stovepipe’ solutions” commented Paul Shore, head of Aepona’s Open IN business unit. “In addition, having deployed the TAG platform, operator can then go on to build further Value Added Services as it comes with a complete Java-based application development environment, future-proofing their investment and maximizing RoI.”

u-blox introduces precision timing chip for 4G LTE femtocells

u-blox introduces precision timing chip for 4G LTE femtocells"

Thalwil, Switzerland– September 22, 2011 – u-blox, the Swiss positioning and wireless chip and module company, announces the immediate availability of the UBX-G6010-ST-TM, a precision timing single-chip based on GPS technology with extreme acquisition sensitivity. It is designed for high-volume applications requiring low-cost precision timing with accuracy down to 15 nanoseconds such as femtocell basestations delivering 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution), CDMA and WiMAX services.

Femtocell technology is attractive to telecom service providers as it allows them to deliver mobile communications services via the Internet, for example ADSL or cable. The service is then distributed wirelessly to users in localized areas such as home or office via small femtocell basestations. This approach lowers the cost of serving consumers by eliminating the requirement for large, expensive cellular basestations.

The technology also extends mobile phone coverage to remote or weak signal strength areas while improving battery life and voice quality. It also eliminates the requirement for redundant cordless phones and additional telephone number in the home or office.

Available in a miniature 8 x 8 mm MicroLeadFrame (MLF) package, the chip delivers two precision time pulse outputs at up to 10 MHz frequency, plus complete GPS satellite raw data. The chip is able to operate with only one GPS satellite visible (“single-satellite tracking”). The unbelievable timing accuracy of 15 nanoseconds is achieved using the built-in quantization error compensation. Additionally, an integrated time mark and counter unit can provide precise time measurement of external events.

The chip is qualified according to AEC-Q100, and is manufactured at ISO/TS 16949 certified facilities. It is guaranteed to operate from –40°C to 85°C.

OMA announce availability of API specifications for more than 40 networks

Berlin – 21 September 2011 (OMA)

The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), an international specifications setting body, announces availability of API specifications for more than 40 network and device resources, with various language and protocol bindings. These new standards allow the creation of interfaces to the service infrastructure residing within existing networks and on devices. By deploying these programmable connections, service providers can increase their developer base, reduce time-to-market for new applications and services, and simplify wider deployment of existing applications and services.

“As the applications market has exploded with hundreds of choices of APIs that offer the same functionality, OMA has answered industry demand for standardized access to fundamental resources,” says Musa Unmehopa, Chair of OMA’s Technical Plenary. “By deploying OMA API specifications, operators can now expose their specific assets for the common functions required by every developer of mobile applications – no matter what signaling protocols, platforms or other APIs they use.”

Additional operating systems, development platforms and network capabilities have now become established in the market. This has added new market channels for existing global customers. At the same time, the ever-expanding number of APIs has fragmented the application development and service delivery markets.

“Estimates for the market potential of applications and services are in the range of tens of billions of dollars in the next four to five years,” says Fred Harrison, Chairman of the Board of OMA. “Without standardization to support wide scale market growth, developers may find difficulty in working with a range of service providers, whilst customers and service providers may be limited in their access to the broad developer community.”

“When combined with the wide and growing number of service delivery platforms, OMA APIs will enrich telecom services across networks globally,” says Liliana Dinale, Chair of the OMA Architecture Working Group. “The wide variety of OMA APIs offer modularized control to service providers in order to facilitate application development in an efficient way. The scope of OMA’s API work enables traditional connection scenarios among applications and services. This directly supports the emerging class of Web 2.0 and mass market developers – who are extending network services to web-widgets and mash ups on both the client and server sides.”

Nokia appoints Henry Tirri Chief Technology Officer and member of Nokia Leadership Team

Nokia appoints Henry Tirri Chief Technology Officer and member of Nokia Leadership Team

Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced today that Henry Tirri has been appointed executive vice president, Chief Technology Officer and a member of the Nokia Leadership Team, effective September 22, 2011. He reports directly to President and CEO Stephen Elop.

As Chief Technology Officer, Tirri assumes responsibility for the CTO organization, charged with setting Nokia's technology agenda both now and in the future, and driving core innovation to enable business development opportunities.

Previously, Tirri was Head of Nokia Research Centre (NRC), Nokia's forward looking research facility. He joined Nokia in 2004 as a Research Fellow before leading NRC Systems Research laboratory in 2007. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Tirri will be based in Sunnyvale, California.

Richard Green, who was appointed Chief Technology Officer in May 2010, and was a member of the Nokia Leadership Team since February 11, 2011, has elected to depart Nokia. Effective September 22, 2011, he is no longer a member of the Nokia Leadership Team. Green will be returning full time to the U.S. to pursue new opportunities.

"During his time at Nokia, Henry has provided Nokia technical leadership and challenged us to explore forward-looking technologies. In his new role, Henry will have the opportunity to make a greater impact and set the course for Nokia and our role in the mobile industry," said Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop. "The company would also like to thank Rich Green for the key role he played in assisting Nokia through a major transition. We wish him all the best success in his future ventures."

ZTE Improves ZSmart BSS/OSS Efficiency with Major Upgrade

ZTE Improves ZSmart BSS/OSS Efficiency with Major Upgrade

21 September 2011, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has demonstrated the latest version of its comprehensive ZSmart BSS/OSS at the Managed Service World Congress 2011 in Berlin, Germany.

ZTE’s updated ZSmart BSS/OSS is a new-generation full network business support system / operation support system (BSS/OSS) that can be customized according to each operator’s needs.

The ZSmart-iNOC and ZSmart-xMAN solutions that are part of the ZSmart BSS/OSS suite offer major new management capabilities. Besides traditional BSS/OSS functions, ZSmart-iNOC focuses on improving efficiency for field engineers, and integrating a wide range of resources to provide powerful support for field engineers. The handheld terminal function enables field engineers to scan materials, process electronic work orders, remotely locate problems, trace geographical locations, query mini-knowledge bases and remotely take pictures/sign in. This significantly improves outdoor work efficiency.

Tests show that ZSmart-iNOC can lower average troubleshooting time (MTTR) by as much as 75 per cent, and is able to reduce required operator maintenance staff by up to 21 per cent.

ZSmart-xMAN is a full lifecycle solution for FTTx networks. It covers the Assurance and Fulfillment domains of an eTOM (enhanced Telecoms Operations Map) and involves product lifecycle management in SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), which provides an open and intelligent business operation platform for operators, reduces operation and maintenance costs and significantly improves O&M (Operations and Maintenance) efficiency.

"ZTE’s ZSmart BSS/OSS integrated solution has provided customized services for more than 50 operators around the world, covering more than 350 million end users,” said Zhou Yong, vice general manager of international markets at ZTE BSS/OSS. “We believe that, based on global experience and major improvements to the system, we can help operators improve operation and maintenance efficiency and reduce business operation cost by margins that really impact their bottom line."

Tektronix Communications Selected by Avea for Real-Time Mobile BroadBand Network and Service Assurance

Tektronix Communications Selected by Avea for Real-Time Mobile BroadBand Network and Service Assurance

Plano, Texas, September 21, 2011 – Tektronix Communications, a leading worldwide provider of communications test and Network Intelligence solutions, announced the selection of its Iris suite of products by Avea, Turkey’s fastest growing 1800 GSM provider with nearly 12 million subscribers as of the first quarter of 2011. The Iris suite of products will provide Avea with greater insight and visibility into how their network and services are performing, ultimately enabling Avea to provide a better end user experience for their customers.

“To handle the rapid growth in data traffic following the launch of their 3G network, Avea required a turnkey solution as well as a partnership that would enable market readiness,” said Mark Driedger, vice president, Network Management, Tektronix Communications. “Our Iris suite of products provides Avea a real-time view of end-to-end network and service performance for data services, which facilitates faster resolution of customer-impacting issues.”

Tektronix Communications’ Iris suite of products will allow Avea to monitor their entire mobile network end-to-end to detect any capacity bottlenecks, characterize the traffic and enable faster resolution of network and service issues before they impact customer experience. Despite the challenges brought forth through the surge in mobile data traffic, these products will enable Avea to better understand how their network resources are being utilized through the use of real-time and historical statistics and pre-defined KPIs.

“We initially selected Tektronix Communications’ because of the strength of their Iris suite offering and it’s ability to collect and correlate data and turn that data into actionable information to better manage our networks, services and customers more efficiently and profitably,” said Avea’s Senior Network Director, Mr. Cemal Baki. “Since our decision to purchase, the team at Tektronix Communications has taken a proactive approach to partner with us to quickly and efficiently get the solution up and running across four of our sites in Turkey.”

Avea has installed the turnkey solution which includes IrisView, the Iris analyzer toolset and the Iris Performance Intelligence solution in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara to monitor data service traffic across their network. With Tektronix Communications’ solution, Avea should be able to leverage their investment to process raw data collected from their network to generate an enhanced CDR that can be used by customer experience management (CEM) systems and third party OSS/BSS applications now and into the future.

Huawei Introduces GigaSite Solution to Meet Gigabit Traffic Demand

Berlin, Germany, 21, September, 2011: Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today introduced its GigaSite solution at the Global MBB Forum 2011 in Berlin, Germany.

Making the announcement, David Wang, President of Wireless Network, Huawei, said “GigaSite is the first of three key mobile solutions that will be announced in the context of what Huawei sees as a Giga World.”

The GigaSite solution has been specifically designed to enable operators to improve network capacity and meet the challenges of growing in a mobile industry where traffic is now measured in gigabytes.

Huawei’s GigaSite utilizes future-oriented technologies to realize higher spectrum efficiency and increased throughput and peak speeds. The GigaSite supports multi-band, multi-mode and multi-sector for increased total capacity. The power amplifiers offer the highest power output possible for the smallest possible volume. GigaSites also offers simplified site management and a reduction in the total cost of ownership. Based on Huawei’s widely-deployed SingleRAN solution, GigaSite supports the convergence of GSM/UMTS/CDMA/WiMAX/LTE and evolution to LTE-Advanced.

David Wang concluded, "Network capacity is the principle problem faced by operators in the mobile broadband era. Based on deep understanding of operators’ needs, Huawei introduces the GigaSite solution as the first in a series of solutions. Our cooperation with customers around the world and our continued investment in research and development led Huawei to introduce GigaSite, to help operators achieve success in the mobile broadband industry’s new Giga World."

The 2nd Global MBB Forum was held in Berlin from the 20-22 September, 2011 with supporting partner GSMA. The event attracted more than 200 attendees from across the ecosystem, including operators, vendors, device providers, chipset providers, content providers, analysts , regulators, and standards bodies.

Vodafone invests in tomorrow's mobile internet - Vodafone

Vodafone today acknowledged and rewarded three start-ups at the forefront of mobile internet service innovation. The start-ups are the winners of an international competition established by Vodafone to help identify and support the next generation of leaders in the global application development community.

The winners of the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 are:

1st place (€150,000 prize): FrogTek (Spain) is a simple and intuitive point-of-sale inventory management application with the potential to transform how shopkeepers in the developing world manage their businesses. The application uses basic Android smartphone and barcode reader functionality to enable retailers to access sophisticated stock control and analysis systems, in turn maximising profitability and helping support business growth.

Runner up (€50,000 prize): ParcelGenie (UK) is the world’s first ‘Instant Gift Messaging’ service that makes giving gifts such as chocolates, wine or novelty badges to friends and family as simple and spontaneous as sending a text message to the recipient. Gifts can be selected - and the recipient notified - in seconds, with physical delivery the next day. ParcelGenie is the only service of its kind globally and is based on a highly scalable technology platform.

Runner up (€25,000 prize): Wunderlist (Germany) is the first cross-platform task and list management application to support over-the-air synchronisation across multiple devices together with free and unlimited collaboration and data sharing between multiple users.

Drawn from a field of almost 200 entries, each of the winning applications takes a complex IT or internet process and greatly simplifies it for mobile. Once widely available to smartphone users around the world, these efficient, practical services will further enhance their mobile internet experience.

Lee Epting, Director of Content Services at Vodafone Group said, "The mobile internet is transforming people's lives, and we at Vodafone are committed to stimulating both the innovation and the investment needed to keep bringing new and compelling content to our customers."

Allot Service Gateway Deployed in Tier 1 European LTE Rollout

Allot Service Gateway Deployed in Tier 1 European LTE Rollout

Boston, MA – September 20, 2011 Allot Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALLT), a leading supplier of service optimization and revenue generation solutions for fixed and mobile broadband service providers worldwide, announced today the deployment of its Allot Service Gateway solution, in a major European operator’s 4G rollout, which will enable the operator’s vision of providing a fixed network alternative. The LTE rollout incorporates network intelligence built-in from the ground up as an integral part of the LTE architecture. This will enable optimized delivery of data at rates up to 100Mbps and the implementation of value-based charging and innovative service plans.

As a committed member of the 3GPP, Allot is vigorously leading the push to evolve standards to keep pace with commercial realities. Allot’s 3GPP compliant solution accurately identifies OTT (over-the-top) application traffic in real time at speeds of up to 160 Gbps per platform. This provides subscriber, application and network intelligence previously unavailable to policy and charging systems. With granular usage information, operators can better monetize network traffic in ways that reflect its true value for both the operator and the subscriber. Services enabled through the Allot solution include premium video-caching and optimization, as well as tailored packages, where particular application traffic is zero-rated against the subscriber’s data cap.

“LTE network operators have learned a lesson from their 3G predecessors," said Rami Hadar, Allot’s President and CEO. “Rather than upgrading, they are now building out their networks as smart pipes from the outset. The requirement for value-based charging models is amplified by subscribers’ unquenchable demand for bandwidth and a new generation of data-hungry applications, as well as the service providers’ need to find new ways to monetize their networks Allot’s access-agnostic solution is designed to allow the operator to seamlessly maintain the same innovative approach to charging across all of access, including 3G, LTE and fixed networks.”

Sonim announces the XP1301 Core NFC (rugged NFC phone)

NFC World Congress, Sophia Antipolis, France – Sep 19, 2011 – Sonim Technologies announces the XP1301 CORE NFC, the world’s first ultra-rugged Near Field Communications (NFC) mobile phone. Designed especially for markets in cleaning, security guarding, facilities management, equipment maintenance and home visit healthcare. The XP1301 CORE NFC enhances services delivery quality assurance, provides real time business intelligence right from the client site and can improve the safety of field staff through indoor location positioning. Key applications supported by the XP1301 CORE NFC include Guard Tour Verification, Proof of Activity and Real Time Attendance reporting.

At NFC World Congress, Sonim is demonstrating the XP1301 CORE NFC, which is now available across Europe, at its stand 25B, Ground Floor – Agora Einstein.

At a class-leading range up to 4 centimetres, the XP1301 CORE NFC can read or write information to a contactless tag placed at various key locations at a client site, such as on:

an access gate that must be verified by a security guard to be locked

a wall of room that must be cleaned by cleaning service staff

a wall of an Alzheimer patients home to indicate they were visited by a nurse

on air conditioner to indicate it was inspected and serviced on a certain date

the ID badge of a worker to register who was on duty and when they started work

Data collected by the XP1301 CORE NFC is sent over the mobile network to a server that generates reports and alerts that can be used to optimize the efficiency, consistency and quality of service operations. Data returned to the phone and displayed on the screen can remind the worker of the next action to be taken. Since the position of the tags is known, the nearest worker or security guard can be mobilized to the location where immediate attention is needed.

“The XP1301 CORE NFC will withstand hard use every day for three years or more, has battery life under heavy use longer than the longest work shift and comes with enterprise level service and support”, said Sanjay Jhawar, VP/GM of Marketing and Applications at Sonim. He continued, “This kind of extreme reliability delivers a total cost of ownership that allows every front-line worker to be included”.

Inside Secure is Sonim’s key technology partner for NFC solutions. Philippe Martineau, EVP, NFC Business Line at Inside Secure said “INSIDE is proud to announce the integration of MicroRead™ and Open NFC™ with the ultra rugged Sonim XP1301 CORE NFC for vertical industry applications”.

Sonim is working with industry leading application partners and system integrators across Europe that specialize in NFC applications for security companies, cleaning and facilities management companies and home visit healthcare providers.

Opera acquires Handster Inc.

Opera acquires Handster Inc

San Mateo CA, USA and Oslo, Norway — September 19, 2011

Opera Software announced today that it has acquired Handster Inc., a leading mobile application store platform company.

Handster, based in Northbrook, Illinois, with operations in Odessa, Ukraine, has assembled the world’s largest independent Android content library and offers services to mobile operators, device manufacturers and application stores globally. The company’s offerings include a white-label app store platform, content management, developer tools, content curation and financial settlement services.

The Handster platform supports Google Android, Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, netbook and tablet applications. Handster customers include some of the world’s largest mobile operators, mobile platform providers and device manufacturers such as MTS, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei and LG.

Launched in March this year, the Opera Mobile Store is now a top 10 mobile app store globally, serving consumers on virtually every mobile platform, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Java, and Symbian, as well as web content.

“Opera is evolving from being a browser company into a fully integrated mobile services company and this acquisition is an important step in that direction. We are delighted to welcome the Handster team into the Opera family. Handster will enable us to strengthen our mobile store offerings to consumers, mobile operators and handset manufacturers,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

“Handster could not have found a better suitor,” said Handster Founder and CEO Victor Shaburov. “The combination of our platform, along with Opera’s position in the market, will make a big impact on the mobile ecosystem, benefiting developers, publishers, operators and handset manufacturers around the world.”

Shaburov will join the Opera Mobile Consumer and Publisher management team based in San Mateo, California, USA.

u-blox acquires Fusion Wireless

u-blox acquires Fusion Wireless

Thalwil, Switzerland and San Diego, California – September 19, 2011 – u‑blox, the Swiss positioning and wireless chip and module company, announces the acquisition of San Diego based Fusion Wireless, a provider of CDMA wireless modules for consumer and M2M applications in North America.

“The acquisition of Fusion Wireless immediately gives u-blox new, cutting-edge wireless module products plus access to the huge embedded CDMA market in North America for both consumer and M2M applications. It also expands our wireless module technology roadmap to cover all popular standards used in the Americas based on a layout-consistent form factor. This will allow our customers to easily adapt their products to match geographical requirements as well as overcome network coverage limitations,” said Thomas Seiler, u‑blox CEO.

Key terms of the transaction include:

Technology and modules in the area of CDMA wireless technology in several form factors

Integration of the Fusion Wireless business into u-blox’ existing activities to leverage and further strengthen the mutual commercial activities as well as capitalize on technological synergies

CDMA2000 is a mobile telephone standard deployed extensively in the US, and has the highest number of subscribers. It includes high-speed data channels that are used for consumer devices such as notebooks and tablet computers, as well as lower data transmission rates for machine-to-machine applications such as remote metering, remote monitoring and control, fleet management, point-of-sales terminals and remote patient monitoring systems.