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Telecommunications news
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INDUSTRYNEWS
Maersk Line and Ericsson bring mobile connectivity to the oceans
The oceans are the last ‘white spot’ for the mobile communication industry to connect. The world’s largest shipping company, Maersk Line, has appointed Ericsson to address this by introducing end-to-end systems integration and deployment of mobile and satellite communication to its entire vessel fleet.
The Maersk Line fleet comprises more than 500 container vessels. Over the next two years, Maersk Line will outfit 400 of these vessels with Ericsson antennas and GSM base stations, with upgrades to be made to the remaining vessels soon after. As part of the agreement, Ericsson will provide seven years of global managed services support, including 24/7 network monitoring and onboard maintenance services in a large number of ports across all major regions.
For the shipping industry, mobile communication provides the opportunity to employ new and efficient ways of addressing fleet management, managing delivery times, improving interaction with vessels, enabling proactive issue resolution, prompt information sharing with customers and even improving energy efficiency. Visit: www.ericsson.com
Personalised services for Vodafone Egypt subscribers
Subscribers of Vodafone Egypt, the country’s largest telecom operator, will soon enjoy a host of customised services. The operator is upgrading its subscriber data management system built on the One-NDS platform provided by Nokia Siemens Networks. This will enable Vodafone Egypt to speed up the process of launching new, targeted services.
Nokia Siemens Networks is upgrading its comprehensive subscriber data management solution, including the One-NDS platform, and providing its Home Location Register (HLR), and Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The One-NDS platform unifies fragmented data into a single repository and is more efficient than having multiple databases for different front-end applications such as HLR and MNP. Visit: www.vodwfone.com or www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
TeliaSonera increases its ownership in Kcell
Sweden’s Teliasonera has signed an agreement with Kazakhtelecom to acquire 49 per cent of the shares in GSM Kazakhstan LLP, operating under the brand Kcell.
“This agreement is another step in the execution of our strategy of increasing ownership in core holdings. Through this transaction TeliaSonera increases its ownership in Kcell, a company where we already have management and operational control. Kcell is a clear market leader in Kazakhstan, the largest market in Central Asia, and has shown remarkable growth over the years. The fact that part of the company will be sold in an IPO will make it even more attractive,” said Tero Kivisaari, president, TeliaSonera Eurasia. Visit: www.teliasonera.com
‘JONAH’ links Italy and Israel
Bezeq International and Alcatel-Lucent have commercially launched a new and superfast submarine cable link between Israel and Italy. This high-speed optical fibre system, named ‘JONAH’, covers 2300 kilometres across the Mediterranean, and is intended to address the growing demands of the highly dynamic Israeli telecom market, which shows one of the highest household broadband and mobile penetration rates in the world.
The new link, which leverages AlcatelLucent’s most advanced submarine communications networking technology, is the first high-speed submarine cable system fully owned by an Israeli operator. It can operate at 100 gigabitsper-second data transmissions to enable data capacity of 7.6 Terabits-per-second (Tbps) between Tel Aviv and Bari, Italy. This ultimate capacity could allow the simultaneous download of 100,000 MP3 files in one minute and the streaming of 15,000 HDTV channels. Visit: www.bezeqint.net or www.alcatel-lucent.com
NEWS
Telefönica partners with Feedhenry to support business app strategies
Matthew Key, chairman & CEO of Telefönica Digital Telefönica Digital has announced an exclusive partnership with FeedHenry – a leading developer of cloud-based mobile application solutions – to launch a platform that enables businesses of any size to build their own mobile apps. The service will be launched by O2 in the UK during Q1 2012 before being rolled out to other Telefönica markets.
The subscription-based platform will enable any enterprise – from SME to multinational corporate – to create apps and deploy them across Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and Nokia operating systems as well as the Mobile Web.
“This partnership will be welcome news for any organisation that recognises the power of mobile apps and how they can drive increased revenue, boost employee productivity and enhance the overall customer experience,” said Matthew Key, chairman & CEO of Telefönica Digital. “We’ve enjoyed great success launching a similar platform in Ireland earlier this year and already list Aer Lingus, Diageo and PWC among our customers.” Visit: www.telefonica.com
Cable&Wireless Worldwide and Equinix collaborate to deliver cloud-based services for global enterprises Nick Lambert, managing director, Wholesale, Mid-Markets and Global Markets, C&W Worldwide
Cable&Wireless Worldwide, a global provider of mission critical communications, is colsuch as co-location, managed hosting and cloud computing services to global customers. laborating with Equinix Inc., a provider of global data centre services, to become a one-stop shop for global enterprises that require best-of-breed data centre services.
This collaboration will strengthen C&W Worldwide’s existing cloud capabilities and will be a springboard from which the company will deliver a comprehensive suite of data centre services, “Telcos are natural providers of enterprise-class infrastructure services. Our ambition is to create an ecosystem of best-of-breed solutions from different service providers that can deliver a flexible and risk free cloud computing roadmap for customers,” said Nick Lambert, managing director, Wholesale, Midmarkets and Global Markets, C&W Worldwide. Visit: www.cw.com or www.equinix.com
LIME targets SME businesses with ‘Cloud’ services
The Caribbean business of Cable & Wireless Communications, LIME, is targeting more business from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Caribbean by extending its suite of cloud-based services. The LIME Cloud offers customers access to a bank of virtual computer servers which enable them to host IT infrastructure online. This provides SMEs with a flexible and cost-effective alternative to maintaining servers within their offices. For example, IT teams sometimes want to test new software on a separate server before rolling it out across their company. Previously they would have needed to to purchase, house and maintain a permanent server for that purpose. Due to the popularity of the LIME Cloud amongst Jamaica SMEs the product will now be sold across 13 Caribbean markets alongside a range of complementary cloudbased services. Visit: www.cwc.com
Telecom Italia and the Stevanato Group at Piombino Dese (Padua), the leading company in producing glass pharmaceutical containers, have signed an agreement enabling the Veneto company to adopt advanced computer solutions that will improve performance and costs, thanks to the Nuvola Italiana (Italian Cloud) platform utilising modern Cloud Computing technologies and the Telecom Italia infrastructures for broadband.
In particular, under the agreement the Stevanato Group will adopt a solution involving the outsourcing of their computer systems in the Telecom Italia Data Centers, ensuring the management of data recovery and service continuity. The project also provides for the creation of an optical fibre link with very high transmission capacity, and the activation of a high definition video communications platform based on Cloud architecture designed to link the various facilities of the group. Visit: www.telecomitalia.com
INDUSTRYNEWS
France Telecom-Orange enters into partnership with Bouygues Telecom
France Telecom-Orange and Bouygues Telecom have concluded a partnership agreement to share Fibre to the Home networks (FTTH) deployed by France Telecom-Orange across France.
Through this partnership, France Telecom-Orange will provide a service for sharing its optical fibre networks in very densely populated areas with Bouygues Telecom for the horizontal network segment leading to the foot of buildings. In doing so, France Telecom-Orange optimises its deployment costs by sharing the available resources of its optical fibre networks. Within the buildings, Bouygues Telecom will have to build its own networks or subscribe to available cable-sharing offers. In this zone, the partnership potentially covers 1.7 million homes. Visit: www.orange.com
MTS launches first 3G network in Russia in the 900 MHz range
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, has announced the first commercial launch in Russia of the 3G network in the 900 MHz range in Moscow and the Moscow region. This will enable MTS to improve its 3G coverage and offer significantly faster speeds for subscribers.
MTS has already introduced more than 500 base stations in the 900 MHz range in the Moscow region and plans to increase this number by the end of 2012. Primarily, the new 3G network will cover southern and south-western Moscow as well as main transportation arteries across the city.
Andrei Ushatskiy, vice-president and chief technology officer of MTS, commented, “The launch of 3G base stations in the 900 MHz range complements networks already deployed in the 2100 MHz range. This allows us to increase 3G coverage and provide greater speeds in the areas where this was impossible due to the scarcity of higher-band frequencies.” Visit: www.mtsgsm.com
Andrei Ushatskiy, vice-president and chief technology officer of MTS
Staples Europe selects BT as its primary European network services provider
BT has announced a four-year networked IT services contract with Staples, the world’s largest office products company serving businesses and consumers in 26 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The contract provides Staples with a cost-effective, highly resilient network connecting 325 offices and stores across seven European countries into a single, secure wide area network (WAN) environment.
Kevin Milliken, senior vice-president and head of Information Technology at Staples, Europe said: “We chose BT as our primary European supplier because of their reliability, flexibility and ability to offer us a high-bandwidth, cost-effective wide area network – regardless of underlying technology or office location.”
BT will be providing Staples with an intelligent IP Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) service, running on the global BT IP Connect platform, across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. Visit: www.btplc.com
Deutsche Telekom and Groupon have formed a strategic partnership to deliver Groupon’s hallmark local commerce deals in multiple European countries within the Deutsche Telekom network. The partnership marks the first time Groupon will partner with a multinational service provider to distribute its products and services across a wide international network. It is also significantly enhancing Deutsche Telekom’s position as a leading provider of the latest applications for its customers.
“Groupon is one of the global leaders in the online and mobile commerce business,” says Heikki Makijarvi, senior vice-president Business Development at Deutsche Telekom. “Our partnership with Groupon allows us to strengthen our stake in this rapidly expanding and exciting new market segment, while diversifying our portfolio and accelerating our time to market for innovative products and services at the same time.” Visit: www.telekom.com
