Mobile Services

T-Mobile, Nokia renew deal for mobile web services

Fri, 02 May 2008 06:59:56 -0400

T-Mobile and Nokia announced an agreement to collaborate on new mobile web and social networking services, two months after T-Mobile denied a plot to dump Nokia devices tied to the handset giant's Ovi mobile web service over concerns Ovi would cannibalize the operator's in-house content platform. Per terms of the deal, Nokia will customize its devices to integrate a dedicated suite of T-Mobile services, while the operator will offer the Ovi platform across a range of Nokia devices. The companies will also partner to enhance T-Mobile's MyFaves community service.

For more on the T-Mobile/Nokia deal:
-read this release

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ALSO NOTED: Alltel parnters with Ontela; 73 billion m-banking transactions by 2011; and much more...

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

> ICO Global launches mobile services satellite

> Alltel partners with Ontela for PhotoCopter

> Forecast: 37B annual m-banking transactions by 2011

> Island Def Jam debuts new WAP portal

> Media Layers and uVuMobile team for mobile ads

And Finally... BookMooch has been around for 20 months, but unlike other book swapping social networks--it could actually stick around. Article

Yahoo to launch voice-enabled oneSearch 2.0

Jason Ankeny — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:06:03 -0400

Yahoo continued its aggressive mobile push as the web services giant announced the summer 2008 launch of oneSearch 2.0, an expansion of its mobile search service enabling users to initiate queries via text or voice. Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life division, announced the oneSearch upgrades during a keynote appearance Wednesday at CTIA Wireless 2008, and said the company will open the search platform to publishers to stimulate content integration, simplify search input and make search instantly accessible on device idle screens. "We want to create indispensable mobile services for everyday people--the kinds of services people use many times a day," Boerries said. "We believe the mobile opportunity is too big and too complex to do it alone."

According to Yahoo, improved content integration will yield oneSearch results based more on actual content, not just web links, and provide multi-dimension information--for example, a search for "Italian restaurants" would include traditional results like addresses and phone numbers as well as user recommendations and available reservations. While oneSearch 2.0's Search Assist feature promises faster and easier input, predictive text completion and contextual recommendations, Yahoo will also partner with speech-recognition developer vlingo to enable voice search allowing for users to seek out any and all information without following prompts or adhering to specific search terms. While Yahoo will officially launch the oneSearch 2.0 service later this year, a technology preview is now available for download on BlackBerry devices.

AT&T Experience Stores gain steam

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

Have you tried the AT&T retail experience? It has been one year since AT&T announced its plan to open AT&T Experience Stores to showcase the carrier's offerings across the range of home entertainment, broadband access, voice communications and mobile services and devices. The company's architectural firm just announced the completion of a 5,000-square-foot AT&T Experience store in Houston, and the carrier opened another in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago.

A year ago, the idea to build these stores, in some cases evolving existing Cingular Wireless stores to the concept (Houston is the first such re-branding), sounded like a lame attempt to copy Apple's retail glitz. Traditionally, telco and mobile carrier retail presence tended to stick to a low-key, utilitarian approach (not that we are retail experts). However, the AT&T Experience concept has already won a major design award. Have you been to one of these stores? Post a comment and let us know what you think. -Dan

For more:
- check out this coverage at the St. Louis Business Journal

Related articles:
- Sprint closing 8 percent of its stores Article
- AT&T recently joined a new digital media venture fund

Report: Consumers comfortable banking on mobiles

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:59:54 -0400

According to a recent report from Harris Interactive, consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using their mobile phones to access their bank account information and make payments while out and about. The report is based on a survey that found 16 percent of mobile phone users already use some form of mobile banking services with 60 percent of these people using such services at least once a week. Of those not using mobile banking services, 35 percent said they were open to use such services and 33 percent said they would like to receive text message alerts from the banks.

For more on the survey:
- read this press release

SK Telecom and Citigroup ink mobile banking JV

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:59:56 -0500

SK Telecom and Citigroup announced plans to launch a $16 million joint venture called Mobile Money Ventures that will provide users with advanced mobile financial services. Each partner will pay $8 million and maintain 50 percent ownership of the JV, which will be based in San Francisco. The new entity aims to offer services like transaction record-keeping, securities transaction and location-based advertisements.

For more on the JV:
- read this article from Thomson Financial

ROK drops bid to acquire MVNO Xero Mobile

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:59:57 -0500

For the past 14 months MVNO Xero Mobile has planned to launch mobile services in the U.S. that were either free or cheap because of ad-support, but no services were ever launched. Recently ROK Entertainment announced its intent to acquire the MVNO, but the company has now dropped its bid on the MVNO. ROK is a U.K.-based mobile media company centered on on-demand mobile video.

For more on the fate of Xero:
- read this press release from ROK

Related Articles:
SEC probes Xero Mobile. Article
Xero Mobile appoints Allen Brown CEO. Article

Guiding the latest mobile technologies into tomorrow's innovation breakthroughs

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:59:48 -0500

Guiding the latest mobile technologies into tomorrow's innovation breakthroughs

*Promotional content from GSMA*

The Mobile Innovation Marketplace is currently convening in Barcelona with innovation taking center stage.

In June, we're further building on this momentum by bringing together operators, manufacturers, corporations, investors, and early-stage technology firms - the entire continuum of new technology collaborators big and small - to exchange ideas and do business on a global scale.

Join us in Atlanta June 3 - 4 to hear worldwide corporate leaders share their visions and innovators present best-in-class mobile services and applications.

We invite you to participate in this groundbreaking event and help us nurture, guide, and launch the next wave of mobile innovation, culminating with the naming of the GSMA 2009 Mobile Innovation "Americas" World Finalists. These prestigious honorees will advance to compete for the top distinction -- GSMA 2009 Mobile Innovation World Champion -- next year in Barcelona as a part of the GSMA Global Mobile Awards program.

Come help us shape the future!

For additional information on the GSMA Mobile Innovation Marketplace, please visit www.mobileinnovation.org/Events

GSMA 2008 Mobile Innovation "Americas" Finalist Award Submissions will open February 25. Please visit www.mobileinnovation.org/Awards

Want your product or service incuded? Email jason@fiercemarkets.com

SPOTLIGHT: EU to cut SMS, data rates?

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:59:52 -0500

Now that roaming fees for voice calls are capped, the EU may cut roaming costs associated with texting and mobile data services. Article

Verizon Wireless expands mobile banking services

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:59:55 -0500

Verizon Wireless is continuing to leverage Qualcomm's recent acquisition of mobile banking and payments company Firethorn, for mobile banking applications. The carrier now supports mobile banking services from Wachovia, SunTrust, FirstBank and BancorpSouth. The services make use of PIN and device lock-out security measures on top of whatever security the financial institution has built in. Users of the services can check their balances, transfer funds between accounts and pay bills.

For more on the new banking partners:
- read this press release

ALSO NOTED: Meraki funding; Human-powered mobile search; and much more...

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:59:50 -0500

> Mountain View-based free WiFi service start-up Meraki raised $20 million in a second round of VC funding. Article

> Trend: Human guides coming to mobile search services, like ChaCha. Article

> Gartner: Asian users most prolific texters. APAC region sent 1.5 trillion SMS last year. Article

And Finally... Time to revisit the possibility of an Echostar-AT&T merger? Article (WSJ sub. req.)

ALSO NOTED: Financial services; FMC, femtocells and WiFi; and more...

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:59:50 -0500

> Mobile financial services ramped up this year as banks launched their own applications for the mobile phones, carriers launched payment services, some players got acquired and even Google filed a patent for such a mobile payment service.

> The fixed-mobile convergence sector also saw its first big carrier launches in 2007: Sprint's Airave femtocell launch and T-Mobile USA's Hotspot @ Home service were the most notable launches for the U.S.

And Finally... Here is our most popular Web slideshow of the year. Our walkthrough of Google's Android OS. SlideShow

Households spend more on mobile than landlines

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:59:55 -0500

While the dominance of residential landline telephony services has been on the decline for some time, U.S. households have never spent more on their mobile phone services than on landline ones until this year, according to industry and government officials. Back in 2001, U.S. households spent three times as much on landline phone services than they did on mobile phone services, but last year the popularity of mobile services bridged that gap significantly. Households spent $524 on mobile phone services in 2006, while they spent about $542 during the course of the year on landline phone services. While the metrics for 2007 have yet to be compiled, analysts and government officials are confident that spending on mobile services has outstripped spending on landline telephony this past year.

"Frankly, I'd be shocked if (households) don't spend more on cell phones at this point," said Andrew Arthur, vice president of market solutions at Mediamark Research & Intelligence.

For more on the trend:
- read this article from AP

M-Commerce gets real

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:59:56 -0400

Since the CTIA Wireless 2007 conference last March, the mobile financial services sector has come of age. Verizon Wireless teamed with peer-to-peer mobile payments company Obopay to launch a mobile payment offering and most of the major banks in the U.S. have launched mobile services whether carrier-specific or agnostic. This year the MFS sector will continue to speculate about the market opportunities that lie ahead, but it will finally be able to point to hard data from real commercial launches.

Pragnesh Shah, CEO of Mobilian and former vice president of product innovation at Sprint Nextel, said that the right ingredients for mobile financial services are "percolating" as mobile carriers explore the various areas of mobile commerce with "real announcements, real services and real deployments."

While mobile banking value proposition is clear, the industry is still weighing the benefits of mobile payments and peer-to-peer services, but Verizon's partnership with Obopay has certainly lent some credibility to the market prospect there. The real question mark for the U.S. market, however, is when near field communications-enabled services like contactless payments will be available.

"We're continuing to see evolving elements around contactless payments," Shah explained. "But that will continue to be a very slow, gradual evolution because the ecosystem, infrastructure and investment required with NFC chipsets, backend systems and point of sale terminals makes for a lot to sort out--not to mention the task of finding a business model that works between banks, carriers and card associations."

Another key issue that remains uncertain is the business model. Both the carriers and the financial institutions want to control the billing relationship. It's a sticky wicket that won't go away soon. Shah's company, Mobilians, which is announcing the launch of its U.S. operations at CTIA next week, aims to solve that problem for mobile commerce. Expect the MFS conversation to get heated next week. -Brian

AT&T buys $2.5B worth of 700 MHz

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:59:57 -0400

AT&T has inked a deal with Aloha Partners to buy 12 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum covering 196 million people for $2.5 billion in cash. The spectrum covers 72 of the top 100 markets in the U.S. Aloha is the parent company of HiWire, a mobile TV company that had plans to launch a nationwide mobile TV service. HiWire had a trial with T-Mobile USA in Las Vegas.

"Customer demand for mobile services, including voice, data and video, is continually increasing," said Forrest Miller, group president-corporate strategy and development. "Aloha's spectrum will enable AT&T to efficiently meet this growing demand and help our customers stay connected to their worlds."

For more on the spectrum deal:
- read this press release from the carrier

Nokia to buy Navteq for $8.1B

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Nokia announced its acquisition of navigation software developer Navteq for $8.1 billion. Nokia will pay $78 in cash for each Navteq share, including outstanding options--the acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each firm. Navteq's digital map services span 69 countries across six continents--in 2005, the firm teamed with Nokia to create mobile search solutions for the handset giant's smartphone range. In addition to Nokia, Navteq's corporate partners include automakers like Chrysler, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.

The Navteq negotiations represent Nokia's latest move into the mobile services market--in early September, the company Nokia introduced Ovi, a new Internet services brand developed to expand its focus beyond mobile devices and platforms to embrace a range of web services. Ovi--"door" in Nokia's native Finnish--promises to enable consumer access to social networks, communities and content as well as provide a gateway to Nokia services. Its Nokia Maps navigation service also falls under the Ovi aegis.

"Location-based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia's Internet services strategy. The acquisition of Navteq is another step toward Nokia becoming a leading player in this space," said Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in a prepared statement. "By joining forces with Navteq, we will be able to bring context and geographical information to a number of our Internet services with accelerated time to market. We also look forward to maintaining and enhancing the services and support provided to Navteq's existing and future customers."

For more on the Nokia/Navteq deal:
- read this release

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Disney Mobile shutters its doors

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Another one bites the dust. The Walt Disney Company announced today that it is closing the operations of its Disney Mobile MVNO, which launched early last year. The company shut down its other MVNO, Mobile ESPN in September 2006, a mere eight months after it launched. Disney Mobile commercially launched in June 2006. While the financials surrounding the Disney Mobile closure have not been disclosed, Disney said it had invested $150 million into Mobile ESPN prior to its closure, and the closure cost an additional $30 million, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Disney Mobile offered branded services to both kids and their parents. While the kids enjoyed various Disney-themed services, ringtones and games, parents were given advanced monitoring tools like a GPS-enabled Family Locator. Like Amp'd Mobile before it, Disney plans to offer some of these mobile applications through other carriers. Disney already has such a deal in place with Verizon Wireless through its Mobile ESPN brand.

Disney's decision comes after Amp'd Mobile's bankruptcy filing earlier in the year, but just one week after SK Telecom invested an additional $150 million in its MVNO, Helio, to keep it afloat. SK co-owns Helio with Earthlink, but Earthlink did not opt to invest in Helio this time around.

For more on Disney's decision to shutter its MVNO:
- read this press release
- read this article from the WSJ

VeriSign and Clairmail ink mobile banking deal

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:59:54 -0400

Clairmail announced that it has been working with VeriSign to offer financial institutions various mobile banking solutions. The vendors were surprised at the high level of interest from large banks for the services, according to a report from RCR News. VeriSign is making use of Clairmail's platform to offer mobile banking services that make use of messaging, the mobile Internet or a native client.

For more on the deal:
- read this press release
- read this report from RCR News

Ofcom to free up 2G spectrum for 3G use

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:59:56 -0400

The U.K.'s telecom regulator, Ofcom announced it wants to loosen up restrictions on the spectrum currently used for 2G mobile services. The spectrum includes two tiers: 900 MHz and 1800 MHz. O2 and Vodafone use the 900 MHz slice while O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange make use of the 1800 MHz portion. The current restrictions dictate that these spectrum blocks can only be used for 2G, but Ofcom wants them to be used for 3G services as well. That way, carriers could augment their 3G networks' download speeds, rural coverage and reception inside buildings. Ofcom plans to hold an auction for the spectrum but is currently seeking consultation from interested parties through November.

For more on Ofcom's plans:
- read this report from the BBC

Missouri case may change cell phone taxes in U.S.

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:59:54 -0400

After six years, Missouri state court may finally decide whether municipal telephone license taxes, which apply to landline phone services, apply to mobile phone services, too. As subscribers move away from fixed-line services in favor of wireless, the courts are considering whether cell phones can be taxed the same as regular landline phones, which pay special utility taxes. Many states already charge sale and excise taxes for mobile services to guarantee universal coverage and e911, and carriers are unsurprisingly balking at the notion of more taxes for their subscribers. A Sprint spokesman, John Taylor estimated that 17 percent of the carrier's bills are made up of taxes. Depending on the state, however, taxes for a cell phone service range from 4.1 percent to 21.1 percent of the total bill.

For more on the tax issue:
- read this report from the WSJ (sub. req.)