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Telecom Italia to offer m-payment service in 2010

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:17:14 -0400

A plan to support mobile payments (m-payments) has been unveiled by Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) in association with the Italian Movincom Consortium. The operator said that it would launch the scheme next year to enable its subscribers to make a range of purchases from the 650 services of the Movincom Consortium - soon to be increased to over 1,500 in seven different market sectors.

According to TIM, the service will use a SIM-based application that would display specific menus to guide customers through the payment process. Orders placed for goods or services would be triggered by a text message generated automatically by the application. The text message includes the purchaser's cellphone number but no sensitive data about the selected method of payment.

"We know that security and a user-friendly purchase experience are vital to the development of mobile commerce via mobile phones. This agreement with Telecom Italia is a major step in that direction," said Enrico Sponza, deputy chairman of the Movincom Consortium. "Banks will have access to an integrated set of operational processes and be able to fast track their entry into the mobile payment business."

While TIM is one of the first operators in Europe to launch m-payments in association with a merchant consortium, others, including Google, Nokia, eBay and Facebook are keen to enter the market. However, the sector remains fragmented due to a variety of technology options, and the ongoing reluctance of mobile operators and financial institutions to co-operate - or, in truth, to share customers and revenues.

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Cellular News

A quarter of young people are social networking on mobiles every day, claims survey

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:16:23 -0400

Over a quarter of young people are using social networking sites on their mobiles every day, a CCS Insight report has claimed. The growth in mobile internet usage is so strong, said the report, that operators are relying on it to fill revenue gaps as profit margins fall.

CCS found that consumers are increasingly using the mobile internet as a force of habit, with one in five respondents admitting that they log on to their preferred social networking site ‘several times a day'. Facebook is still the star attraction of social networking on the mobile internet, with hits outnumbering Twitter, MySpace and Bebo combined.

However, there is room for further improvement on overall mobile internet usage, with around a quarter of respondents still not using the internet on their mobiles at all. Paolo Pescatore, head of mobile content at CCS Insight, said: "The phenomenal growth in mobile internet usage is removing the strain on voice and text for operators. The web is revolutionising the way people use their mobiles and big brands are starting to invest huge amounts in it." Article

INQ plans more handsets, and looks beyond 3UK

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:47:35 -0400

Following the success of its Skype handset, INQ has announced it plans to release three new phones in 2009 and is in talks with several operators on distributing its social mobile handsets by 2010. The company maintains its sub-£150 handsets have proven their ability to boost data revenues among younger Facebook users.

According to INQ's CEO, Frank Meehan, the company is already negotiating with other UK operators and by 2010 plans to sell phones on operators other than 3UK--albeit that INQ is owned by 3's parent company, Hutchison Whampoa. Meehan claims Windows Live Messenger usage is around four times greater than on other 3G phones on the 3UK network, with around 50 per cent of INQ1 customers accessing the service every month. Skype is used by 19 per cent of the INQ1 base.

The company said it also plans to broaden its handset range in 2010 and intends to expand into Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Meehan added: "We are doing well--the Skype phones and INQ device have sold 700,000 so far. The next Skype phone will do well based on that."

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Mobile Today

INQ Mobile promises Twitter phone by Xmas

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:52:17 -0400

Provoked by the uptake of the Twitter micro-blogging service, INQ Mobile has revealed it plans to introduce a handset in time for the pre-Christmas sales rush that will be especially designed for the service. INQ said it has sold 700,000 phones since it launched its first model, the Skypephone, with 3UK in 2007, and is looking for the new US$140 Twitter phone to achieve a similar success.

The company, owned by Hutchison, said it had lead the drive to making the mobile Internet experience easier and cheaper by developing handsets optimised for specific applications. The company's CEO, Frank Meehan said, "This can really help open up and drive Twitter use on mobile when usage becomes part of your data package like on the PC."

However, the INQ Twitter phone plans to use Internet connections for sending the 140-character messages, called Tweets, not text messages as in Twitter's own service.

According to 3UK, which has heavily promoted the INQ1 Facebook handset, traffic on the INQ1 was typically three to four times higher than on other 3UK phones, with 65 per cent using Facebook regularly, while the phone is three to four times cheaper than the more famous web traffic generators like the iPhone.

For more on this story:
ReThink Wireless and EE Times

New mobile social networking platform unveiled

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:34:49 -0400

Looking to differentiate itself from such giants as Facebook and MySpace has prompted the Italian mobile content developer, Buongiorno, to limit its new mobile social networking platform to support just 20 people. The company maintains users of social networks don't want hundreds of people involved, but would rather limit it to the 20 people most important to them.

The new platform, labelled Peoplesound, has been running as a beta service under the Blinko brand with more than 30,000 users. Following this trial, Buongiorno said it has used the feedback to develop the final version so users can access Peoplesound through pplsnd.com. The service is free, but the company has not detailed how it plans to generate revenue through the service, but does mention "exciting monetisation opportunities" created by the 10 channels it plans to include within Peoplesound. These channels are currently under development but plan to provide updates on music, sport, movies, news events, etc-- with the content designed to be shared amongst the 20 people on the network.

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MoCo News

SMS spam epidemic on its way, warns security expert

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:45:49 -0400

SMS-generated spam will become a significant problem in the future with the first-ever SMS virus worm making its appearance in Q1/09, according to the chief research officer of F-Secure, Mikko Hypponen.

The company said the SymbOS/Yxe worm was the most significant threat to emerge this year, and, although mainly confined to China, the potential remained for similar attacks elsewhere around the world. According to Hypponen, the worm spreads by sending an SMS promising a "sexy view," with links to a malicious site prompting the user to download the malware. It will then use the victim's contact list to spread.

"Sexy View is the first text message worm ever. It's also the first mobile phone worm that circumvents the signature checks that are meant to secure the latest smartphones," said Hypponen. "The motive behind it seems to be to collect information for mobile phone spamming purposes. Mobile phone spam is already a big problem in some parts of the world, and eventually it will be an issue everywhere."

Finland-based F-Secure also warned that the rise of social networking sites makes them an increasingly attractive target for online fraudsters, as the number of users grows ever larger. "When you get a message via Facebook from a friend, you tend to trust the message to be real," said Hypponen. "And when people follow an amusing link to a video and are prompted to 'update' their player, they easily fall for these attacks." The company highlighted the Koobface worm, which spreads through Facebook stealing user credentials, as one of the most high-profile threats over the period.

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VNUnet

TeliaSonera unveils Facebook service using SMS/MMS

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:48:59 -0400

Given the unstoppable boom in social networking, the Scandinavian operator TeliaSonera has announced its subscribers will be able to access the Facebook service using SMS and MMS from any of its handsets. The company said text messages (with the first 20 being free) could be used by users to update their status and receive messages from other Facebook users. By sending an MMS users can also add images to their Facebook account.

According to Jonathan Arber, a research analyst with IDC, there is a growing trend toward offering means to get access to mobile services without using a high-end smartphone application or a Web browser. "It's a great way of starting to introduce users with lower-end devices to mobile Internet services."

However, TeliaSonera will need to think carefully with regard to the charges users could rack-up using SMS/MMS to access and update the Facebook service--especially as the fixed-line offering is perceived as being provided for free. "The difficulty might be that consumers have to feel they are really getting value out of this. Otherwise they will quickly feel they're getting ripped off," said Arber.

According to the online market researcher Nielsen, Facebook--the world's most popular social network--saw a 168 per cent growth in visitors during 2008 and it also a staggering 566 per cent increase in the total amount of time spent on the site. Social networking also dominated the mobile web, especially in the UK which saw a 249 per cent increase in mobile access to social networking sites in 2008.

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PC World

Facebook and Nokia discuss in-depth partnership

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:22:43 -0500

Speculation that the leading social networking provider Facebook has been in talks with Nokia has proven to be correct as sketchy details emerge about how the Facebook website would be integrated directly into Nokia handsets.

Whilst Facebook is also said to be meeting with Palm and Motorola about a similar partnership, the idea of linking with Nokia must be significantly more appealing given the turmoil currently being experienced by these two US-based companies. The discussions between Facebook and Nokia are thought to be centred around the management and storage of Facebook contact information directly into Nokia handsets. This would enable users to check to see if friends were online or send messages through their phone's contact list.

Current Facebook mobile applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry make it relatively easy to call or text a Facebook contact whose phone number is in the system, but users cannot sync their contacts with a phone's main system.

In the UK, social networking site Bebo announced that O2 would be its first partner for its Bebo Open Mobile programme, which offers mobile networks a suite of tools to deliver Bebo to mobile handsets.

For more on this story:
Brand Republic and Cnet

Facebook's mobile service goes global with Telefonica

Paul Rasmussen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:43:09 -0400

Mobile social networking has taken a significant step forward following a global agreement that will enable Telefonica cellphone subscribers to access Facebook's mobile services and applications. The deal expands the current UK-only relationship into a worldwide contract.

The agreement calls for a phased roll-out of the new network which will see services firstly deployed in Ireland, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, with the second deployment including Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Central American countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Every participating country may include a link in the browsing menu of its mobile handsets to Facebook's mobile service, allowing customers to send digital content (photos and videos) through integrated MMS services. Currently, more than 24 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook each day.

Mobile social networking is being hyped by the providers of such services as the next logical extension of their existing PC/laptop-based platform. Operators are keen to forge deals such as the above in anticipation of greater data usage.

For more on this story:
- go to The Unwired

Related articles:
MySpace, Facebook widen mobile social networking lead. Social networking story
Facebook for Mobile Operators debuts on Vodafone. Vodafone story

Nokia plays iPhone catch-up, and looks for future investments

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:41:44 -0400

The launch of remote synchronisation and file management by Nokia is an attempt by the company to offer similar applications to Apple's iPhone. This step-by-step approach to upgrading Nokia's Ovi service -- albeit still far behind Apple's MobileMe offering, is being promoted by the company as a safer route forward than Apple's bug-ridden big-bang approach.

Nokia's VP of product and portfolio management, Jussi Nevanlinna, said, "Our stepwise approach to rolling out and integrating these and other elements of Ovi lets us learn and adjust according to the feedback we receive from people."

The company has also made clear it wants to broaden its working relationship with the social media site Facebook, while admitting it was also talking to many large social networking firms to enable and improve access to their sites from Nokia phones.

While Nokia has not declared subscriber numbers for its Internet services, the revenues generated in Q2/08 were nearly €120 million, up 42 per cent from the previous quarter. Given this growth, the company is strongly rumoured to be looking for further acquisitions to speed up the deployment of new services and improve the overall features and capability of its mobile Internet offering.

For more on this story:
- go to The Register

Related articles:
App Store frustrations bedevil iPhone developers. MobileMe story
Nokia to Demonstrate Latest Elements of Ovi. Nokia Ovi story