Ericsson was selected sole supplier by Serbian mobile operator Mobtel to modernize the company's network introducing its mobile softswitch solution and successfully completed its commercial launch.

Ericsson mobile softswitch will further enhance coverage and capacity in Serbia and will meet operator's need for rapid and cost-efficient growth. The deliveries started on August 2005 and the commercially implementation completed successfully on October.

Bo Anderson, President Ericsson Serbia and Montenegro, says: "As the world leading supplier of mobile technologies, we are delighted to provide our softswitch solution to one of our major partners, strengthening our relationship with Mobtel and, at the same time, leading the way to layered architecture services in Serbia."

Goran Vasic, CTO, Mobtel says: "This solution will enable Mobtel to expand, enhance and further upgrade our network in the most efficient way."

"As Ericsson has proved its leading position in this specific field and as we have a long term cooperation with Ericsson, we once again choose Ericsson as our supplier," he added.

Ericsson's mobile softswitch is the first step in the evolution to an all-IP network. By introducing a layered architecture, with centralized operations and a common flexible core network, Ericsson mobile softswitch ensures a common foundation for new consumer services.

Company signs games deal with Jumbuck for Europe, Israel and South Africa

Selatra, the global distributor of mobile Java games, has announced that it has secured key publishing rights in an exclusive six-game, premium title deal with Jumbuck Entertainment, a leading mobile entertainment provider. 

The deal allows Selatra to distribute the six games to mobile content retailers in Europe, Israel and South Africa as well as to six European network operators.

Four of the six games Jumbuck has created are based on titles licensed from Viacom Consumer Products, two from the highly successful 'Star Trek' stable and two from the world of motion pictures:

The Star Trek games are:
* The award winning_ Star Trek, The Birds of Prey and
* Star Trek, The Cold Enemy

Both Star Trek games combine original music and classic storylines from the series, first-class colour and sound effects and a mix of primitive and advanced alien weaponry to create unique and thrilling game-play.

The motion picture games are:
* Cult film classic, Black Rain - The Revenge and
* Shaft, Sharp Shooter

The deal also includes:
* Ryan Giggs International, starring the popular English Premier League player, Ryan Giggs, licensed from Icons Digital Ltd and
* Indy 500, licensed from ESPN.

Michael Gilley, Content Manager at Selatra, said the high calibre deal emphasised the company's commitment to bring the very best mobile content to an ever-expanding global audience: 

"We help developers big and small, tap into a potential audience of over 200 million subscribers worldwide," said Gilley.  "This deal continues our commitment to offer the highest quality branded games to our customers in the mobile environment."

Adrian Risch, Jumbuck Entertainment CEO, said Selatra was top of his list when it came to exploring European distribution channels for Jumbuck's premium games:

"We chose Selatra because it means our games will be marketed, released and distributed professionally through a vast distribution channel we have previously not had access to," said Risch.  "Selatra's reputation for high quality in the industry is unparalleled and their network allows us to reach our key customers quickly and efficiently," he said.

All games are available on GSM and 3G networks. 

Pricing and complexity are key barriers to mobile data uptake

A new NOP survey in the UK, commissioned by Olista, the service experience assurance company, has revealed that users who encounter problems in using new mobile data services will simply give up rather than seek assistance.

According to the survey of 1000 adults carried out in September 2005, 64% of those who had actually tried to use a mobile data service such as picture messaging, ring tones and gaming downloads confessed that they would give up trying after one or two attempts. A mere 2% claimed that they would actually seek assistance from their operator or content provider and 25% said they would carry on trying until it worked.

The survey follows on from research conducted earlier this year, also commissioned by Olista, that revealed that 77% of phone users have never used any mobile data services, and of those that had, only 12% professed to be completely satisfied with the experience.

The focus of the latest research was on understanding how mobile data users react to poor user experience. According to Oren Glanz, CEO of Olista, "The findings make salutary reading for mobile operators, content providers and ISPs seeking to increase the take-up of mobile data services. The monies that they are investing in call centre and self-care solutions are not working, as mobile phone use is often an impulsive activity and the majority of the public are not prepared to continue trying or seek help when the services fail to work."

When quizzed on what would encourage them to use more mobile data services, lower prices and easier to use services were top of the list with 53% and 43% of respondents, whilst 32% also felt that better help and advice at point of sale would influence them positively.

"The survey highlights the need for a proactive approach to customer care. Operators need to be able to discover a mobile data problem before the customers know about it and contact them to solve the issue or they face them never returning to the service again" states Glanz. For example by contacting a subscriber about a failure such as a MMS that did not reach its destination and explaining how to fix it before the subscriber is even aware of the problem the operator can turn the customer's experience into a positive one. It should never be too late to assure service experience and understanding the mobile content experience from the end user's point of view can be the key to ensuring customers use your service again".

Users of data services on GSM/EDGE mobile networks are generating increased monthly revenues (ARPU) for operators. New GSA research confirms that ARPU for EDGE-enabled device users is typically 20% higher than for GPRS users, and in some cases reaching 33% and up to 100% higher. The pattern of higher ARPU for EDGE users is consistently higher over a period of several months.

These are some of the key conclusions from GSA’s Survey of Commercial GSM/EDGE Operators, which was completed in October 2005. The survey, which collected information from EDGE operators worldwide with at least 6 months commercial experience, also showed how services requiring higher data rates are benefiting from EDGE capabilities, such as video streaming – including mobile TV, video and audio clip downloads, etc. Higher speed using EDGE is preferred by laptop users for mobile office applications, with access to corporate intranet systems being a key point. EDGE speed, flat rate pricing and packaging are a winning combination and strategy.

EDGE is attracting more customers to become mobile data users. Operators agree that EDGE helps to prepare the market for 3G where WCDMA is not yet available, and improves the user experience when deployed as a complement to WCDMA.

Alan Hadden, President, GSA commented on the survey conclusions: "Focusing on the quality of the user experience is the key to success in data services. EDGE users consistently spend more than on GPRS. Data ARPU for EDGE users grew 3 times faster than on GPRS on some networks. EDGE users are more likely to subscribe to an unlimited data price plan to enjoy a better Internet and intranet experience, thereby boosting ARPU. As GSM/3G evolves to HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access) and wireless broadband, we expect the same effect to be repeated."

Many operators also reported continuously growing data usage, with EDGE network’s capabilities heavily contributing to this. EDGE is boosting high-speed data usage especially for mobile broadband services, and mobile TV over video streaming. Some operators reported 17- 20% off total data traffic. It was also seen how EDGE is impacting on network traffic, with transmission expansion already foreseen by some operators.

GSM/EDGE is mature and global. According to recently-released GSA analysis, more than half (169) of 290 commercial GPRS operators globally have committed to EDGE. Commercial services enabled by EDGE have been launched on 116 networks in 70 countries. EDGE is operational, under deployment, or planned, in 91 countries.  At least 55 operators offer or plan delivery of 3G services on combined EDGE/WCDMA networks ensuring lower capital cost, optimum flexibility and efficiencies and the best user experience; 23 networks offer commercial services today on combined EDGE-WCDMA networks.

Saab Group and Finnish outsourcing company,TietoEnator, have agreed on strategic IT partnership. TietoEnator will during the agreement period 2005 -2009 deliver IT infrastructure services for Saab Group in all of its operating countries. At the same time, TietoEnator and Saab have decided to pursue a joint venture called TietoSaab Systems Oy in Command and Control business in Finland by combining TietoEnator's current Defence business and Elesco Oy, owned by Saab.

The strategic partnership with Saab strengthens TietoEnator's position as one of the leading outsourcing IT service providers in the Nordic countries and at the same time opens up new business possibilities. This agreement also deepens and broadens the cooperation between TietoEnator and Saab. TietoEnator's integrated global service model will be in international use, since Saab has operations in Europe, South Africa, Australia and the United States.
 
The contract is based on flexibility in volumes and thus offers Saab high quality and cost efficient IT operations in different stages of development of the core business. The total order value based on the current estimate of volume growth is close to EUR 80 million. The annual value will grow in stages during the agreement period. Of Saab's close to 12,000 end users TietoEnator currently serves 6,000. Cooperation starts by building a common scalable platform for Saab's core IT services and continues by transferring Saab's internal IT services onto the new platform as separately defined projects during 2006. The agreement is for four years starting November 2005 with a rolling option to extend it by two years.
 
"This is an important step for Saab to further improve the cost efficiency of our IT Systems", says Roger Sundberg, Corporate IT Manager at Saab.
 
"Through this agreement we have succeeded in guaranteeing Saab the freedom to develop its business while controlling its IT support and costs also in a changing business environment. Saab is a strongly internationalising company which allows us to apply TietoEnator's fully integrated global service model", says Ari Karppinen, President, TietoEnator Processing & Network.

Danish operator TDC Mobil has extended the 3G network contract it originally signed with Ericsson in 2002. Ericsson continues to be TDC Mobil's primary supplier of WCDMA network solutions and related services.

Robert Puskaric, President  of Ericsson Denmark,  says: "We are  very proud of the trust we have  built with TDC, which is demonstrated  in TDC Mobil's decision to extend  our cooperation in 3G. Together  with TDC, we will continue working on  3G solutions that bring the  latest services to the users in the Danish market."

The contract  extension confirms  Ericsson's leadership  in  3G/WCDMA networks; Ericsson has a 35 percent  market share in the GSM  family, including WCDMA. Ericsson is also  the market leader in Denmark,  and is the only vendor to supply all three WCDMA networks in the country.

Company signs exclusive deal for Scandinavian and Russian markets

Selatra, the global distributor of mobile Java games, announced today that it had secured key publishing rights to ‘Behind The Lines’ in an exclusive deal with the developers of the game, GMedia. Both companies are based in Ireland.

A compelling, adventure war game, Behind the Lines has been very well received in advance previews to the gaming community, offering fluid, yet surprisingly deep gameplay, rated head and shoulders above its peers. 

Sean Cronin, CEO of Selatra, confirmed that as well as the exclusive distribution deals signed for the Scandinavian and Russian markets, Selatra would also be distributing the game on a non-exclusive basis to over 50 countries around the world:

“GMedia’s Behind the Lines fits in neatly with our strategy of releasing only the highest quality branded and non-branded games to our retail partners,” said Cronin.  “We help developers big and small, tap into a potential audience of over 200 million subscribers worldwide.”

Matthew Lynch, Managing Director of GMedia, said he was delighted to offer the company’s first premium game to Selatra for distribution and that he believed it would be the beginning of a long relationship between the companies: 

“We chose Selatra for their high selection standard, speed of game release, range of distribution and professional reputation in the industry,” said Lynch. “This will give our game an important edge in generating early revenues’.

Behind the Lines is available on all GSM and 3G networks. 

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Formula Telecom Solutions, a leading provider of Billing and CRM solutions for the telecom industry, and a member of the Formula Group, has announced it has signed a multi-million dollar agreement with BakCell, Azerbaijan's second-largest cellular network operator, to provide it with FTS' advanced Leap CRM platform.  Leap CRM will offer Bakcell a fully user-customizable solution for managing relationships with its half-million subscribers.

"We needed a CRM package that is both easy to customize and completely reliable, and we believe we found the answer with FTS' Leap CRM," said Natalya Bantsereva, Customer Care & Roaming Director of BakCell. "FTS offered us a flexible and easy to implement solution which matches our particular billing system. Beyond that, we were impressed with FTS' record of on-time and on-budget delivery."

"FTS' Leap CRM enables BakCell to have complete visibility into its subscriber base, giving them the ability to be one step ahead of churn and to continually monitor customer satisfaction levels," said FTS' CEO, Amos Sivan.  "Our proven ability to provide integrated and scalable customer management and billing solutions makes our products attractive to service providers in growing markets around the world."

Leap CRM gives wireless and wireline operators a real-time customer care, order management, sales and marketing solution. Through its in-depth analysis of customer behavior, operators can achieve improved response rates, higher qualified leads, increased customer value and lower churn. Leap CRM enables Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to convert every customer contact into a selling opportunity.