www.tmcnet.com/2646.1
Motorola (News - Alert) Announces Mobile Commerce Solutions and First Deployment in China
Motorola announced the launch of a comprehensive mobile commerce solution for financial and retail merchandising needs that offers an enhanced user interface with security and reliability built in. The solution has been deployed by Union Mobile Pay (UMPay), a mobile payment company established by China Mobile (News - Alert) Communications Corporation (CMCC) and China UnionPay. The company’s services include Mobile Wallet, Financial Messaging, Top-up and Mobile Ticketing.

Motorola’s M-Wallet solution allows consumers to personalize financial needs such as account inquiries, money transfers, bill payments, utility payments and e-ticketing on their mobile phones, thereby reducing the need to go to banks or carry bank cards. Additionally, the platform also provides business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions for merchants covering merchant membership cards, electronic coupon and prepaid cards.
www.motorola.com
www.umpay.com.cn



www.tmcnet.com/2647.1
Huawei (News - Alert) Trials LTE 4G Network in Spain
Upon completion of long-term evolution, or “LTE” mobile field trials in Spain, officials at Huawei Technologies reported they had achieved speeds of up to 173 Mbps — more than 10 times as fast as the peak speeds available from 3G networks such as a high-speed packet access.

Huawei deployed end-to-end LTE (News - Alert) solutions including base stations, SAE System Architecture Evolution and self-developed LTE terminals. The company’s LTE trial reportedly successfully delivered sustained high-volume content and steady transmissions across the urban areas of Madrid while also recording the maximum data speeds available with LTE technology.
www.huawei.com




www.tmcnet.com/2648.1

Ericsson (News - Alert), 3 Scandinavia in European HSPA Network Upgrade Ericsson and 3 Scandinavia have entered into a contract to upgrade the operator’s HSPA network to 21 Mbps downlink speeds. This will enhance mobile broadband speeds in Scandinavia, giving 3’s customers improved access to mobile broadband services, including Internet and music and video downloads.

Currently, Ericsson will offer the improved speed in selected parts of the network in Sweden and Denmark. However, Ericsson and 3 will continue to expand network coverage throughout 2009. According to the agreement, Ericsson will provide radio base stations, RBS6000, core network features and a mobile backhaul like Redback SmartEdge 1200, Marconi OMS 1400 and MINI-LINK TN.
www.ericsson.com



www.tmcnet.com/2649.1
Cisco (News - Alert) Delivers Advanced Network-Based Media Processing Platform
Cisco recently announced a media processing platform designed to simplify live and on-demand media sharing across PCs, mobile devices and other digital screens, by seamlessly formatting video and rich media for viewing on any device.

The first product being introduced within the Cisco Media Processing portfolio is the Cisco Media Experience Engine (MXE) 3000, which delivers the ability to transform a single source of content so that it is playable on any device. It also delivers real-time post production and processing capabilities such as watermarking, voice and video editing, text and image overlays and noise reduction to create customized broadcast quality video experiences.

According to the company, the Cisco MXE 3000 joins a new class of media-optimized technologies and solutions that enable better video experiences, faster delivery of rich media content and simplified media sharing across the network.
www.cisco.com



www.tmcnet.com/2650.1
Telecom New Zealand (News - Alert) Selects Pactolus SIPware
Pactolus Communications has announced that its SIPware Prepaid Service has been selected and deployed by Telecom New Zealand International. Telecom New Zealand International will use the SIPware Prepaid Service to add ‘white label’ services to its offering. This will allow retail MSO and IP service providers to brand and offer subscribers affordable, feature-rich services.

TNZI has collaborated with many MSOs to roll-out new international services, which transparently layer prepaid international long distance “bucket-of-minutes” plans that are rated in real time until used up, and are supported by existing VoIP services.

The solution enables MSOs to more successfully compete against free and flat rate VoBB international calling services to prevent subscriber attrition, and integrates easily with pre-existing core VoIP services. It also lets subscribers add value-priced international dialing capabilities to their current post paid VoIP accounts, and use the service without additional dialing or account authentication processes.
www.pactolus.com
www.tnzi.com



www.tmcnet.com/2651.1
EtherSpeak Intros New Pricing for ShoreTel (News - Alert) SIP Trunking
EtherSpeak Communications has introduced unlimited pricing plans for its SureTrunk service, the first-of-its-kind native SIP Trunking for the ShoreTel platform. With the new unlimited pricing plans, known as Freedom plans, EtherSpeak hopes to boost the adoption of next-generation IP telephony by the ShoreTel community. The Freedom plans have already been implemented and include a monthly rate as low as $32.50 per trunk for local and long-distance calling in the continental U.S. and Canada. Customers of ShoreWare-based IP phone systems are also being offered BurstaTrunk service options along with the SureTrunk solution.

In July, SureTrunk earned the distinction of being certified as a ShoreTel Technology Partner Program (TPP) solution. The SIP Trunking service allows ShoreTel customers to enjoy all the advantages of IP-enabled communications. It also eliminates the requirements of additional hardware, firewalls or gateways.
www.etherspeak.us
www.shoretel.com



www.tmcnet.com/2652.1
Veraz Deploys SBC for Dollar Phone
Veraz Networks (News - Alert) recently announced that Dollar Phone has selected the company’s session management and security solution for its wholesale transport network. The solution, which includes Veraz’s next-generation session border controller (SBC), the Network-adaptive Border Controller (N-aBC), will provide Dollar Phone with an advanced security platform integrated into their core network designed to handle both TDM and IP based security threats.

The N-aBC is designed to provide cost-effective and secure interconnection capabilities for both SS7 and SIP services. By separating the signaling security from the media security, the N-aBC also enables a single point of signaling security management across multiple endpoints in the network. In addition, because the N-aBC is built into Veraz’s ControlSwitch softswitch platform, security and routing policies can be fully integrated and managed centrally, simplifying operations and improving network security. www.veraznetworks.com



www.tmcnet.com/2653.1
NatGeo Chooses LifeSize (News - Alert) HD Video Conferencing
LifeSize Communications announced that National Geographic has selected its HD video conference and telepresence solutions. Under the terms of this new agreement, National Geographic will use LifeSize HD video conference and telepresence solutions to connect the Society’s offices and reduce the environmental impact of inter-office air travel.

According to National Geographic’s Manager of Presentation Facilities, Eddie Dornack, they selected LifeSize because they delivered a true-to-life video experience that is an effective travel replacement.

“Our goal is to inspire people to care about the planet, and our environmental principles are of the upmost importance to the scores of writers, producers, editors, photographers, and staff members who make the Society what it is today. LifeSize helps us meet our operational needs in an environmentally friendly way,” explained Dornack.

National Geographic deployed a combination of more than 15 LifeSize Room, LifeSize Team MP, and LifeSize Express systems across the globe, with plans to increase the number of LifeSize endpoints over the coming months. The LifeSize Networker product was also chosen for seamless ISDN to IP connectivity in those locations using ISDN connections.



www.tmcnet.com/2654.1
Emerging Markets, Data Services to Fuel Mobile Growth
Bucking downward economic trends and predictions, a London-based IT market analysis firm is calling for emerging markets and data services to fuel global mobile growth. Officials at Ovum (News - Alert) predict that there will be 5.63 billion mobile connections by 2013. The figure marks a 43 percent increase from this year.

According to Steven Hartley, a senior analyst at Ovum, and author of the report titled “Global Mobile Market Outlook: 2008–2013,” the mobile market is seeing a shift in the global balance of operator power. Specifically, Hartley said, an increasing share of customers in emerging markets will go to new, rapidly expanding players such as Zain (News - Alert) and Orascom.

The firm says its forecast takes current market conditions into account. Global penetration in 2008 is estimated at 59 percent and is predicted to rise to 80 percent by 2013, according to the firm.
www.ovum.com



www.tmcnet.com/2708.1
Boingo Inks WiFi Deal with Skype (News - Alert)
Skype users can now access more than 100,000 Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide, and pay using Skype Credit thanks to a new deal inked between the company and Boingo (News - Alert) Wireless. The new offering, called Skype Access, will be embedded into Skype as a central feature, first in the Skype for Mac 2.8 Beta software released in early January and then in versions of Skype for other operating systems later this year.

With Skype Access, users can connect to a Boingo Wi-Fi hotspot with a single click of their mouse and pay per minute for the Internet time used. Skype Access periodically looks for available Boingo hotspots and provides the price per minute to use the Boingo network using Skype Credit in the forum of a pop-up dialogue box.
www.skype.com
www.boingo.com

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