SK Telecom announced today its intention to invest in U.S. upstart wireless operator LightSquared, the 4G-LTE/satellite venture backed by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners. (more…)
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SK Telecom joins LightSquared LTE/satellite team
Cisco’s latest data center evolution — just more hype?
Not too long after its announcement that SingTel will introduce enterprise cloud-based virtual data center services with technology from the Virtual Computing Environment coalition created by Cisco, EMC and VMware, Cisco launched another announcement about “evolving” its data center architecture.
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It’s time OSS/BSS vendors speak out more publicly, like Openet has
Openet today issued an official comment on the Google/Verizon Net neutrality plan. This is not surprising, as companies like Openet are positioning themselves as enablers to ensuring operators maintain profitability through traffic controls that de-incentivize abusive users while incentivizing profitable users with personalization and quality of service guarantees.
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Amdocs sues Openet in BSS/OSS tussle
Outside the occasional flamed-out “transformation” project, the billing and operations market is generally a pretty dry place to do business. Adding some excitement, though, was news today (originally reported by Light Reading) that Amdocs is suing Openet, claiming it infringed on its patents in the mediation area. “Mediation and core event processing” is indeed an arcane area, but the capabilities are crucial as telecom operators move into delivering and billing services on a more dynamic basis.
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Will customers really upsell themselves with U-verse self-service?
If you’ve called in to a telco or cable customer service line any time recently, there’s no doubt that whatever your question you’ve been hit with a plethora of special offers and upsell pitches. After years of less-than-stellar call center processes and siloed databases, voice and video carriers have gotten much better at this type of customer engagement. Which makes AT&T’s move this week into more full-featured, on-screen customer self-service on its U-verse service all the more interesting.
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RIM buys app store — to boost its app store
BlackBerry devices are holding their own — even with the lackluster Torch launch — against RIM and Android devices in almost all areas but one: the app store. BlackBerry-maker RIM has already implemented carrier billing for apps as part of its efforts to boost its app store offering. Today, it took another step and basically bought an independent app store, Cellmania, to further boost its efforts.
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More sunny outlooks for the cloud — time for a reality check
The hits keep on coming for the cloud market. Today, Yankee Group detailed a new survey that found that although infrastructure-as-a-service cloud offerings are not yet mainstream, they are starting to “find a home in early adopter enterprises.” Meanwhile, PricewaterhouseCoopers (courtesy of Computerworld) is pushing the idea that cloud infrastructure not only cuts costs, but can be an engine for IT innovation, as well, when compared with traditional, rigid IT systems. Is there anything the cloud can’t do?
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IBM jumps into advertising with Unica acquisition
The tech giants obviously want to achieve economic recovery and extend into new verticals. It is fun to watch as Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, and others appear do the “Hollywood-we-are-friends” thing, while fiercely competing and reaching into each other’s spaces. The winners will be those who offer the best “one-stop-shop” for (yes, I hate the term, too) computing, network, and software needs. And so these vendors will compete to make it all centralized and efficient enough to allow growth in sales and profits without more costs.
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Amdocs glitch slowing new Clearwire billing system
Clearwire looks like they got bit by the big billing system bug. According to the company’s recent 10Q filing (as reported by Business Week), “defects in Amdocs software code” will push the launch of a new customer billing system at Clearwire into next year. Clearwire’s WiMax-based wireless broadband services have been growing, with a net gain of 127,000 new subs for its own branded service in the second quarter alone. Clearwire inked a seven-year deal with Amdocs, spending $47.7 million on development of the new billing platform in the first six months of this year, according to reports.
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Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile eye turning smartphones into credit cards
In their most aggressive mobile payments move yet, three mobile operators are reportedly ready to launch broad trials that would let consumers use their smart phones to charge purchases. The report from Bloomberg said the trials would include Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile and could represent the biggest threat yet to the established credit card industry. (more…)