MySpace & Cingular Team Up

Online communities are all the rage these days and Cingular has just inked a deal with the biggest --- MySpace. The pair have signed an exclusive agreement that will allow MySpace users access to the portal from their Cingular phones. This comes right on the heels of the Verizon Wireless / YouTube announcement earlier this month.

And while Cingular users rejoice, this is bad news for Helio, the Cingular MVNO, whose whole business model was predicated on being the phone of choice for MySpace users.

Here's the announcement from Cingular:

http://cingular.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1801

The Middle East Is Ready For Video Mail

LogicaCMG says the middle east is ready for next generation messaging technologies. In fact, and I quote, "Almost 80 per cent of those surveyed at GITEX said they expect Instant Messaging Service and videomail – the 'next generation technology' – to fully replace existing messaging delivery methods in the next two years. Close to a third of those expect it will take less than a year for the switch. "

Here's the article from Albawaba.com:

http://www.menareport.com/en/business/207606

BT Launches First FMC Solution For Small Business

After a less than stellar run with consumer FMC, BT has set it's sights on small business. BT Fusion for small business is essentially a dual-mode phone with seamless Wi-Fi to GSM hand-off capabilities. Leveraging a wireless hub at the office and BT's network of over 2000 hotspots on the go, small businesses who use Fusion will enjoy a substantial savings over traditional mobile calling. While this is the first small business FMC solution to hit the market from a major provider, expect to see offers from Sprint, Cingular and T-Mobile roll out in 2007.

Here's the release from BT:

http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/ShowArticle.cfm?ArticleID=81e3a4df-56bc-4005-b964-1389d8612c23

One Voice Deploys With RINA

Back in November, I mentioned that RINA had selected One Voice for enhanced moble messaging services. Today, it looks like they're announcing the deployment.

Here's the release from One Voice:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061219/20061219005718.html?.v=1

Voice Mobility Secures Funding

Voice Mobility latest round of funding brought an additional $3,425,500 CDN into the company today. The messaging company, which has a strategic channel relationship with Avaya, has earmarked the funds for continued wireless growth.

Here's what Voice Mobility had to say:

http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=628060

The New Year Brings Convergence At Cox

Cox Communication announced a host of new phone features and capabilties that will roll out in 2007 for their residential customers, including:

- Web Access To Voice Mail & Calling Features
- Voice Mail To Email Forwardiing
- TV Caller ID
- TV Call Transfer To Voice Mail
- TV Call Transfer To Another Number

Here's what Cox had to say via BusinessWire:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061213005343&newsLang=en

Apple Mulls MVNO Play

This is a little off topic, but.... rumors about an iPhone from Apple have been running rampant in recent months. New to the rumor mill is the notion that Apple is starting their very own MVNO. Still unconfirmed, the idea has merit and one can only imagine how many hipsters would flock to the fruity new phone company.

Here's what Light Reading had to say:

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=112841

A Christmas Miracle: IP Unity Buys Glenayre Messaging

IP Unity has acquired Glenayre Messaging in a deal worth 25M dollars. The new company will be called "IP Unity Glenayre" -- a choice that speaks volumes about the creative minds behind this deal. Despite the assurances of IP Unity CEO Arun Sobti, it's hard to see how the new combined company is any better positioned to compete, especially in wireless, then Glenayre or IP Unity were by themselves.

Here's the release from IP Unity:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061214005753&newsLang=en

Seven: Old Friends Are The Best

Seven announced today that Ross Bott would be joining the company as CEO, replacing Kent Thexton who will now becomes the start-up's executive chairman. This is a happy reunion of sorts for Bott and Seven founder and chairman, Bill Nguyen. The pair founded OneBox.com together and sold it for 800 Million to OpenWave (then Phone.com) in 2001.

Here's what Seven had to say:

http://www.seven.com/news/press_releases/SEVENGrowsLeadershipTeam.html

Talkster: Mobile IM -- With A Twist

Talkster is a new service that allows users to place free calls from their mobile phone to IM clients. The service is currently compatible with MSN Messenger, Google Talk and Gizmo Project IM buddies. What's great about Talkster is that is offers nice alternative to texting those clients -- voice! It also helps to differentiate Talkster from services like Jajah and MINO -- which offer comparable call bridging capabilties without the IM angle.

Check it out:

http://www.talkster.com

Comverse Nabs Leadership Award With Converged Messaging

Frost & Sullivan selected Comverse as the recipient of its 2006 Technology Leadership Award for its ability to continuously adapt to the growing demands of the dynamic telecom market as demonstrated by its Converged Messaging solution.

Comverse Converged Messaging enables seamless interworking across various messaging services, networks and terminals so that users enjoy a simple and intuitive experience for all their messaging needs. The Converged Messaging solution ensures that messages are delivered by the optimal delivery method in accordance with recipients' device and network capabilities, presence status, and pre-defined preferences - increasing message completion. The standards-based solution is IMS-compliant, ensuring future-proof migration to next-generation IMS networks.

Here's the press release via finanznachrichten:

http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2006-12/artikel-7444217.asp

Gartner: SMS Messaging Volume To Double By 2010

According To Gartner: "Wireless messaging is the most successful mainstream mobile data service to have emerged during the 30-year history of the cellular telecoms industry"

Here's what Gartner had to say via YahooNews:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061212/tc_nm/mobile_messages_dc_1

LogicaCMG: Consumers Want Spam, We Have Proof

LogicaCMG announced the availability of MessagePlus -- a new product (read: gateway) that works in tandem with existing messaging infrastructure to deliver "personalized" services to consumers. Logica is careful to point out that they've done extensive research in order to learn which services consumers want most. High on the list is apparently -- "sponsored messaging" or SMS Spam. Auto-reply and copy-to-email are another two that Logica cites.

Here's the release from LogicaCMG via Sys-Con Media:

http://www5.sys-con.com/read/312238.htm

NEWSFLASH: Teenagers Like IM

Hard to believe, isn't it? According to a AOL/AP/PEW Reseach initiative, it's true. And what's more, their stodgy parent prefer email -- OMG, that's so 1999.

Here are the highlights from AOL:

http://press.aol.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1138

AOL/AP/PEW did a similar study that focused on mobility earlier in 2006. It is interesting to see how the earlier study's findings line up with the IM research. Seems that parents just don't get SMS either.

Here's the mobility study from earlier in 2006:

http://press.aol.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=964&section_id=15

Nuance Buys Mobile Voice Control

Nuance announced it has snatched up Mobile Voice Control. MVC allows BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Mobile users to easily dictate and send email or text messages, dial a contact, create calendar entries, and search Web content entirely with their voice. No word on whether Nuance and MVC will look to bring that functionality into the network, but one can assume that is on the horizon.

Here's what Nuance has to say via YahooNews:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061207/20061207005324.html?.v=1

Mass Market Email From Seven & Sprint

Seven and Sprint have partnered to deliver a mass market email solution for consumers. The solution uses a Java-based client and SMS to create a Push-like experience. This means the solution will work on most Sprint phones and be billed like SMS.

Here's what Sprint had to say:

http://biz.yahoo.com/indie/061206/473_id.html?.v=1

iPeria Sails Into The Big Blue

Looks like iPeria and IBM are partnering in the enterprise market.

Here's what iPeria had to say:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061206/20061206005672.html?.v=1

OZ Goes Social

OZ Communications, a mobile IM comer who recently announced 34M in second round funding, has plans to bring some the most popular social networking sites on the Web to your mobile device. Building a bridge between mobile operators and these vast online communities seems like a slamdunk and not-so-unlike what OZ has done with IM.

Here's what OZ has to say via BusinessWire:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061206005499&newsLang=en

IP Unity Announces Mexican Cable Win

IP Unity has been selected by Cablemas to provide voice messaging services to their growing base of over 15K VoC users. You may recall that IP Unity also has relationships with US cable providers Comcast and CableVision.

Here's what IP Unity had to say via YahooNews:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061205/20061205005027.html?.v=1

Comverse Sees The Big Picture

Comverse has now expanded their converged communications portfolio to include an IPTV solution for service providers. NetCentrex, which was acquired by Comverse earlier this year, developed the solution.

According to the Comverse website and press release, Comverse IPTV will be an end-to-end solution encompassing Live TV, Video on Demand, Digital Rights Management, STB Middleware and Value-Added services integration.

Learn something about Comverse IPTV:

http://www.netcentrex.com/solutions/iptv.php

Here's the announcement from Comverse:

http://www.comverse.com/press_releases.aspx?newsId=664

iPeria Takes It To The Next Level

iPeria has joined Level 3's Technology Alliance Program (TAP) and certified their ActiveEdge platform in Level 3's operating environment. iPeria and Level3 share a customer in hosted VoIP provider, deltathree.

Level 3's TAP program also boast participation by other VoIP feature and application server vendors such as Sylantro, Tekelec, Pactolus and Broadsoft.

Here's what iPeria via YahooNews had to say:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061204/20061204005069.html?.v=1

Yahoo Is All "Mixd" Up

Bridging the gap between social networking and messaging, Yahoo announced the launch of Mixed, a new messaging service targeting the party-going set . Mixd lets users organize a group of friends for a "Mixer" (a party or night out) and coordinate the group through text and picture messages.

Learn something about MIXD from Yahoo:

http://mixd.yahoo.com/

Goodbye, Lucent....

The coffee stain of innovation is no more. As of tomorrow morning, Lucent Technologies Inc. will cease to exist. While some hold out hope that Pat Russo's first act as CEO will be to put Freedom Fries on the menu in Paris headquarters, the entire industry acknowledges that this marks the end of an era for the US telecommunications industry.

One Voice Scores With RINA

The Rural Independent Network Alliance, an association of smaller wireless carriers in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, today announced they have signed a multi-year agreement with One Voice to offer One Voice's MobileVoice(TM) service to their wireless subscribers. The MobileVoice service includes Group Conference Calling, Mobile E-mail and Voice-to-Text SMS Messaging capabilities.

This marks yet another win for One Voice as they continue execute successfully against their VASP market-entry strategy. Recent wins for One Voice include: Carolina West Wireless, Cellular 29, Lyrix Wireless and Telmex.

Here's what One Voice has to say via YahooNews:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061030/20061030005491.html?.v=1

Move Over Mozart -- Comverse Deploys Ringback in Austria

With the global manhunt for their CEO over, Comverse decided pump some good news into the market. Namely that they sold their FunDial ringback solution to T-Mobile in Austria.

Here's what BusinessWire via YahooNews has to say:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061129/20061129005041.html?.v=1

YouTube and Verizon Wireless

YouTube, a Google company, annouced a distribution arrangement with Verizon Wireless today. Did they get the deal because of Google or did Google buy them because of the deal? In any case, a deal with the nation's most conservative wireless carrier is a big affirmation that YouTube's legal woes will be short-lived.

Here's what The Hollywood Reporter has to say:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ib31cec84f9bcdcbaa56769a2274ac992

Cable Goes Wireless

Comcast will be the first cable provider to bring wireless service to the triple-play bundle. For an extra $33 a month, Comcast customers can now add a cellular phone to their account with 200 minutes of airtime.

Cox, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Advance/Newhouse Communications have all been engaged in bundled wireless trials since last November's announcement of a $200 million partnership with Sprint. Time Warner has been testing dual-mode service that allows seamless roaming between home VoIP Wi-Fi and Sprint's mobile network.

You may recall this same cast of characters, under the name SpectrumCo (original), gobbled up a heftly chunk of spectrum at a recent FCC AWS auction - technically enough to make them the nation's fifth largest wireless provider.

So what does it all mean? Well, given that Verizon, BellSouth, Qwest and SBC all have their own wireless bundles in market today, it seems clear that cable is still trying reach parity. However, the investment they've made in spectrum and with Sprint give them ample room to grow.

Here's what Reuters says:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-11-28T213732Z_01_N28279743_RTRUKOC_0_US-COMCAST-WIRELESS.xml&WTmodLoc=TechNewsHome_C2_technologyNews-1

Skype Goes Both Ways...

...not that there's anything wrong with that. In all seriousness, Skype has introduced a handset that wirelessly connects a user to their Skype account or a tranditional landline. Convergence, it's a beautiful thing.

Here's what Yahoo News had to say:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20061128/bs_nf/48297

Git Yer Game On

IP Unity will add real-time voice, messaging and presence capabilities to the Exit Games Neutron multi-player gaming platform. I like the idea of high-tech trash talk.

Here's what they put out this morning over BusinessWire (via Broadcast Newsroom):

http://webcast.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=84738

Much Ado About Mobile Instant Messaging

Mobile instant messaging is still a real prickly pear. How does a service provider launch it without cannibalizing their precious SMS revenues? That's what Ovum estimates is the 10B question... in 2009, anyway.

Take a gander at OZ -- a company that has made giving IM a mobile makeover their mission in life. Today they announced raising 34M in their sophmore round of funding. This comes on the heals of over 21 announced deals with mobile providers including Bell Mobility, Sprint, Cingular, AllTel and Telus. Take that Comverse.

Learn something about OZ...

http://www.oz.com/

But wait, there's more... same day, Neustar buys FollowWap for 139M. Another mobile instant messaging provider, another huge payday. Neustar claims that FollowWap was sitting on revenues of about 25M for 2006 and a customer list that includes the Vodafone group.

Learn something about Followap...

http://www.followap.com/