February 13, 2006

Motorola: Busy In Barcelona

By DAVID SIMS

TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

Motorola's been burning up the PR wires with press releases from Barcelona, let's see what they've come up with in the midst of one of the most beautiful cities in the world:

Motorola has signed what company officials have called a "major deal" with Orascom Pakistan (Mobilink) to replace its existing legacy home location register with Motorola's home location server. The HLS is a next generation home location register that simplifies the network, resulting in "lower capital and operating expenses than a traditional switch-based product," according to company officials.

This implementation on the Mobilink network follows a trial and represents what Motorola officials are characterizing as the company's largest ever HLS order, ultimately giving Mobilink a capacity to manage up to 20 million subscribers. Mobilink currently serves almost 13 million customers.

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They're also announcing two new handsets designed to expand Bluetooth functionality to business focused mobile phone users. The ultra-thin Motorola L2 and V195 handsets are described by Motorola officials as providing "the best of the basics coupled with Bluetooth functionality."

Motorola's L2 is an effort to balance personal and business communications at an economical price, according to company officials: "Taking its design cue from the SLVR L7, as one of the thinnest candy bar designed handsets offering Bluetooth, the L2 provides Class 2 Bluetooth wireless communications along with hands free speakerphone, scratch resistant display and 10 MB of user memory space. This versatile handset provides up to 350 minutes of talk time and 345 hours of stand-by time."

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The company's also announcing a contract with vistream, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the telecommunications specialist Materna Information & Communications, to supply its IP core network solution to deliver mobile services across Germany.

Vistream, who expects to launch its service with several MVNOs in the second quarter of 2006, selected Motorola's core network solution to enable its mobile service offering and allow the company to more rapidly introduce new services without relying on the host operator network.

Vistream will be implementing an IP-ready core product that includes the Motorola SoftSwitch, Home Location Server, Mobile Number Portability and associated network services. The MSS-G provisions legacy and IP mobile networks, providing MVNOs with network and service flexibility. The Motorola SoftSwitch shares a common core platform with the Motorola IP Multimedia Subsystem.

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And of course, Motorola needs at least one wickedly cool demo: In Barcelona they've teamed with Yahoo! Inc. to demonstrate the use of Yahoo! Podcasts on a mobile device, showcasing the future of how consumers access entertainment on the go.

As part of the continuing Motorola and Yahoo! relationship, this mobile application would allow consumers to not only drag and drop podcasts directly from the PC straight to their mobile phone through the Yahoo! Music Engine, but would also let consumers directly download podcasts over-the-air to their handset using an integrated application.

Demonstrated on a Motorola RAZR V3x, the application may be made available on a variety of Motorola handsets.

"Motorola is committed to delivering 'wickedly cool' products and solutions that make always-on entertainment and communication a reality for consumers," said Chris White, senior director, Global Product Marketing, music category at Motorola.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.