SKorea sees big demand for fastest mobile network

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is forecasting blistering growth in the use of a network technology that gives the fastest speeds for connecting to the Internet from a mobile device.

South Korea, already known for having the world's speediest fixed-line broadband Internet, was not the first to use the fourth generation mobile technology known as Long Term Evolution. The United States already eclipses South Korea in the number of LTE smartphone users.

But the proportion of the population using it is higher and rising faster in South Korea than in any other part of the world as mobile operators are making a big push to attract subscribers.

Some 7 million South Koreans, or about 14 percent of the population, are already using LTE smartphones. That is forecast to jump to about 30 percent of South Koreans within a few months. The proportion in the U.S. is less than 5 percent.

Based on subscriber targets laid out by South Korea's three mobile operators, the number of South Korean smartphone users accessing the Internet with LTE is expected to reach 15 million by the end of this year.

South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute said the number of LTE smartphone users will surpass 33 million in 2013.

That explosive growth means that by next year, most South Korean mobile phone users will be able to download multimedia content and stream videos at a faster speed than other countries.

Companies offering LTE claim it can stream data as much as five times faster than 3G networks. Those claims are often based on test conditions and the actual performance is likely to be less than that though still noticeably faster than 3G.

South Korea's smartphone market was kickstarted by the iPhone's launch in 2009 and expanded at a furious rate. The number of smartphone users reached 26 million as of April, allowing over half of the population to surf the web and download mobile applications on the go.

Around 20 million of them are still using the 3G mobile communication network, which gives a moderate Internet speed and will work fine for most basic functions, such as web surfing.

Market experts and industry officials believe smartphones that support the 4G mobile communication standard will become mainstream in South Korea as early as the end of this year and well before other countries.

That is not necessarily because South Koreans have insatiable demand for high-speed mobile Internet.

In the saturated mobile market, the main operators SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. are splurging on marketing expenses to attract new subscribers.

They are giving generous subsidies to LTE smartphone subscribers while cutting down on subsidies for older devices.

"South Koreans usually get a new mobile phone in every one and a half or two years. When they get a new handset, they get the latest phone in part because device subsidies are given to the new models only," said Song Young-keun, a senior researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.

With Apple Inc. yet to give access to LTE on its iPhone, most LTE handsets are manufactured by South Korean companies: Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and Pantech Co.

Although Apple's iPad supports LTE in the United States, the tablet computer is not compatible with South Korean LTE networks.

The country's small size also allows quick completion of nationwide network coverage. All three operators completed nationwide LTE coverage earlier this year.

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BCS searches for the Innovative Mobile App of The Year

Rating: Ernest institution wakes up to power of the mobile app

The BCS ( formerly the British Computer Society), which is the Chartered Institute for IT, has begun its search for the most Innovative Mobile App of 2012 as it launches this year’s UK IT Industry Awards, in conjunction with Incisive’s Computing magazine. Judges are looking for mobile apps that run on mobile phones or other devices with built-in 3G or 4G capability. These apps should show an innovative use of the technology in the phones, and possibly of on-line services. They should be publically available – they can be either free or paid-for.BCS has noticed how important mobile apps have become. The body quotes figures from International Data Corporation (IDC) here that predict that by 2015, 182.7 billion mobile apps will be downloaded.

David Clarke, CEO with BCS, observes, “This is a particularly exciting year as it is the first time we are including an award for Innovative Mobile Apps.”

He added, “We are looking for examples of products that highlight the importance of new technology initiatives and have helped change or improve business and public life.”

Entry is via an online application process (naturally) and initial judging will take place in August 2012.

In September, finalists will be invited to give presentations or an interview with an expert panel of judges drawn from across the industry.

BCS doesn’t say who these illustrious judges will be. Nevertheless, the winners will be announced at a gala evening event at the Battersea Park Events Arena, London on November 14 2012.

Details of how to enter the for the (most) Innovative Mobile App are available here.

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Lack of London Underground mobile coverage a national disgrace

Rating: Is there a sinister reason behind it?

Regular readers of GoMobile News will know we’ve long been a harsh critic of the lack of cellular connectivity on London’s Underground rail network (affectionately known as The Tube). As reported previously here and here Virgin Media is deploying Wi-Fi on London Underground stations ahead of this Summer’s Olympic Games. That system will only serve those standing on London Underground platforms. So, Ian Brown, CEO with wireless coverage specialists, Axell Wireless has made an impassioned plea to extend wireless connectivity on-board the trains as well. This would provide coverage for the full range of mobile voice, messaging and data s ervices. Why hasn’t it happen? Well, GoMobile News thinks there’s a sinister reason behind it. And the Chinese could be to blame.You have to concede that the conspiracy theorists have got some really convincing arguments. As Axell says, the company has installed wireless coverage systems in over 80 Metro Networks and its technology has also even been deployed in the Channel Tunnel. But not in London.

What’s more, Axell is a British company so the-powers-that-be can’t claim to be ignorant of the technology’s existence. (Axell isn’t the only company in this sector with British developed technology, either.)

It’s especially odd since Axell’s equipment has already been installed to provide public safety communications throughout the Tube.

Furthermore, Axell’s technology is designed to support multiple standards (GSM, 3G, LTE).

OK. So we’ve established that there are public services communications on the Tube but no cellular.

Why? Because the public safety networks conform to a specialist standard known as TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio). Which is very definitely not the same as GSM.

If you are going to run GSM in the Underground tunnels, then you are going to need GSM base stations.

But the London authorities even turned down the offer of such base stations for free. Why? Well the official reason is different. But the company which offered to supply said base stations was Huawei.

Not only is Huawei Chinese, it has extremely strong links to China’s Red Army. The thought of a Chinese company installing gear which would make it possible to listen into cellular calls made on the Tube was too much for the British powers-that-be.

Don’t try to deny that listening in over GSM is possible, the conspiracy theorists argue. Britain recently just got back four British hostages in Afghanistan because the UK and USA intercepted a GSM call.

GoMobile News suspects that the London authorities are waiting for the dust to settle after the Olympic Games when everybody has forgotten the feeble excuses put forward against taking Huawei up on its generous offer.

Then we might actually get cellular to work on London’s Underfground. Talking of which, doesn’t cellular work on the Heathrow-Paddington Express? We seem to recall that it does.

Hans Cett is an established freelance author and consultant specialising in the mobile communications industry. He also writes for Countdown2MWC - http://countdown2mwc.wordpress.com/

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McAfee and 2e2 launch cloud-based mobile device management solution designed for service providers

Multi-tenant cloud service offers Telcos easy entry to the mobile security market

Press release

June 11th 2012. McAfee and 2e2 have announced a partnership to globally deliver McAfee Enterprise Mobility Manager (McAfee EMM) software to service providers and large enterprises as a cloud-based managed service. Partnering with 2e2, McAfee will be delivering cloud-based access to highly-scalable, customisable mobile device management and security solutions to large and small commercial customers through Telcos and Service Providers.“Threats to smartphones are becoming more common and the need to secure mobile devices has never been more important,” said Chris Kenworthy, senior vice president at McAfee. “IT security operations want to adopt new technologies and support new mobile platforms, operating systems and architectures, while maintaining corporate security and compliance.

We now have a comprehensive cloud-based managed service offering for Service Providers and corporate customers who can’t or don’t want to build out their own mobile management and security infrastructure.”

McAfee EMM software combines secure mobile application management, anti-malware, strong authentication, high-availability, a scalable architecture and compliance reporting in a seamless system.

It enables companies to leverage the value of mobile, by implementing extended endpoint policies and compliance management, while protecting the corporate network from growing threats from personal mobile devices.

With the 2e2 partnership, McAfee can now offer its McAfee EMM software solution via a cloud-based solution so end-user customers can be up and running quickly with a minimum of up-front architectural work and cost.

“There has been explosive growth in mobile devices across the enterprise over the last few years. This has resulted in an ever increasing need to secure a wide range of mobile devices including iPhones, tablets, Android and Windows devices,” commented Nathan Marke, CTO at 2e2.

“Concerns around cyber-security continue to rise, and, for many organisations, finding the time and budget to deploy an on-premise solution has been difficult. By taking McAfee’s solution and transforming it into a managed cloud-based service we can now quickly and cost-effectively provision and secure mobile devices with no disruption to an organisation’s existing IT infrastructure.”

About McAfee

McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation, is the world’s largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more securely. Backed by its unrivalled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep our customers safe.

About 2e2

2e2 is an ICT Lifecycle Services Provider; providing end-to-end next generation IT services. The company’s primary focus is on solutions and managed services for medium and large private and public sector organisations, delivered in varying architectures, including on-premise, cloud, hosted, and managed service. 2e2 works with many companies within local and regional government, telecommunications, financial services and the commercial sector. 2e2 has been providing IT services for around15 years, with 2,200 employees in the UK, USA, Ireland, Spain, Benelux, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

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Why mobile absolutely needs IPv6 Net addresses

Rating: M2M big driving force behind it

Today [June 6th 2012] has been named World ‘IPv6 launch day’. Now that might seem totally irrelevant to the world of mobile but the exact opposite is true. It’s all about giving every device connected to the internet a unique ID number or address. What you are almost certainly using today is Ipv4. Which allows for a mere 4.3 billion unique addresses. Sound enough until you realise that Ericsson (which is still world leader in providing mobile network infrastructure) has worked out that there will be around nine billion mobile devices in five year’s time [2017]. So we desperately need IPv6 which offers a mere 340 undecillion addresses (that’s 340 followed by 36 zeros). In order for this to work the networks need to switch it on. And guess what M2M (machine-to-machine) comms is one of the biggest driving forces behind IPv6?
Here at GoMobile News we’re grateful to Orange for providing us with a useful infographic on the importance of IPv6. You can find it here.

Now Orange talks about the ‘emerging markets’ as driving IPv6. Initially we thought they meant developing countries but what they mean is the new mobile markets such as mobile and M2M.

Take this example … only six million out of the 15 billion electricity meters in the world were ‘smart’ in 2008. By 2020 that figure will have risen to 825 million.

Incidentally, we haven’t noticed anyone else mention this but has anyone calculated just how much money the SIM card manufacturers are going to be making out of this? Just a thought.

Anyway, in theory we still have plenty of room to play with Ipv4's 4.3 billion addresses. But does anyone remember the bad old days of landline telephone numbers?

There were theoretically plenty to spare but the big conurbations kept running out of them and you can’t give a Leeds number to someone in Clapham, can you really?

Same with Ipv4, so we really do need Ipv6's greater address support. The only catch is that all the operators – not just the mobile ones – need to implement and offer IPv6 for it to work efficiently.

Hence IPv6 launch day which is a commitment by some big players to turn IPv6 on and – more importantly – keep it switched on.

With IPv6 there will be more than enough addresses to go around. So as Orange says, “Even your toaster can have one.”

Tony is currently Editor of GoMobile News. He has taken over this role from Bena Roberts.

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Direct mobile link to your brain is nonsensical says Meisel

Rating: Some-one’s taking this all too seriously

Talk about overreactions of time – Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates, has sent us his reply to a recent pronouncement from Intel courtesy of consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton. Apparently, the pair have concluded that, As convergence continues across device types, functions, and capabilities, the melding of mobile technologies directly into the human body becomes the logical next step.” Meisel also mentions a Wall Street Journal had a feature article. This was written by sci-fi writer, Daniel H. Wilson and entitled, “Bionic Brains and Beyond: High-tech implants will soon be commonplace under our skin and inside our skulls, making us stronger and smarter.” Meisel has taken these guys literally and outlined why brain implants are both dangerous and nonsensical.Meisel leaps straight into this debate by citing defective wires made by St. Jude Medical to connect heart-shocking defibrillators which caused at least 20 patient deaths due to short-circuiting.

So, he argues that people won’t voluntarily opt-in to a connexion between their brains and mobile phones because it is too dangerous.

That’s probably true right now but in many years time, it will probably become a routine operation.
Hence, it might prove the case that parents opt to have the units inserted to their children at birth.

This naturally leads to other obstacles. What form will the input data take? If it is 1s and zeros, how will the brain interpret that data, Meisel asks?

Even if the incoming data is pure image or pure voice, how can the brain send reponses back, Meisel wonders?

GoMobile News reckons that Meisel is taking all of this too literally. Direct input from the phone into the human body doesn’t have to go straight to the brain.

We can forsee the technical capability to insert a Bluetooth headset under the skin (near the ear, perhaps?) which would help improve connectivity.

It would be ideal for fighter pilots and Formula One drivers initially and could then become more commercialised. Taxi drivers might fit one, for example.

Then there are other parts of a mobile device which could be fitted into the body. A GPS receiver, for example, would be extremely useful.

So both parties are probably right. No-one will get a phone planted in their brain as Meisel argues but as Intel predicts – components of a mobile phone might well be implanted.

You can read the Meisel-on-Mobile blog here.

Hans Cett is an established freelance author and consultant specialising in the mobile communications industry. He also writes for Countdown2MWC - http://countdown2mwc.wordpress.com/

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ADG offers mobile marketing to the Indian market

Rating: Apparently, the number of mobile users exceeds the world population

Here at GoMobile News we try hard not to be completely European/NorthAmerican-centric. Especially since it is well-know that the major growth over the next few years in the smartphone sector will be driven by the BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China, countries. So when we had a request from ADG or the Allied Digital Group for publicity for its mobile marketing services, we just had to oblige. Especially when we saw the company’s opening gambit – “Mobile Marketing: – with the number of mobile users exceeding the world population.” Um guys, that’s impossible. Did you mean mobile phones exceeding the world population? Anyway, ADG is an Indian operation and judging from the company’s infographic, ADG has definitely got the India mobile market well and truly covered.The first thing which struck us here at GoMobile News is the range of mobile OS which they claim to cover.

The list includes Apple’s iOS and RIM’s BlackBerry OS as well as Nokia’s good old Symbian OS.

It was interesting to see Samsung’s bada OS included but no mention of Google’s Android. Strange that.

ADG offers its clients – which not only includes large enterprises but also small businesses, three approaches (or modules as it prefers to call them.)

There’s the direct approach; the mobile OS module; and the regional telecom players module.

All the major players in the Indian market are covered by ADG including Aircel, AirTel, Idea, Reliance, and Vodafone. The range of clients quoted is also impressive. The list includes: – Belkin, Cisco, NEC, Samsung, Sharp and Trend Micro.

ADG boasts it has a ‘rare combination’ of experts from different areas such as online marketing, search engine optimisation and marketing research.

The group also has links to a number of key Indian sites: – ITvoir – (ranked as the fifth most clicked IT site in India); Technisia – (which it claims is the first tech blogging site in India); and Gadgetnext – ( a highly regarded gadgets reviewing site).

As ADG says, these days almost everyone has a mobile phone and the open rate is astronomical. We think we’ll be hearing more from ADG in future.

Hans Cett is an established freelance author and consultant specialising in the mobile communications industry. He also writes for Countdown2MWC - http://countdown2mwc.wordpress.com/

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Mobile Marketing Live – registration now open

Business Design Centre
52 Upper Street
Islington
London N1 0QH
England, UK
October 1st-2nd 2012
GoMo News readers receive 25 per cent off tickets. Quote GOMO25
Mobile Marketing Live is a new, two-day exhibition and conference designed to educate brands and agencies in all aspects of mobile marketing.The event encompasses an exhibition, conference programme, training sessions and one-on-one meeting opportunities, bringing together brands and agencies with mobile experts who can help them put mobile to work in their business.
Delegates will hear from leading brands, including Debenhams, The Guardian and RBS, explaining what they have done in the mobile channel, and how it has worked for them, as well as from disruptive start-ups such as Zeebox and Zappit, who are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with mobile technology.
What marketers will learn:-
• How to use mobile advertising and location-targeted offers to drive footfall into their retail outlets
• How to build an opted in database of customers and prospects, happy to receive regular communications from the brand on their mobile phone
• How to build a transactional mobile website that looks great on any handset, and enables customers to shop on the go
• How to build branded apps that offer real value to customers, that will not only be download, but used frequently
• How to use text and voice shortcodes, QR codes and, going forward, Near Field Communication tags to make offline promotion material such as posters and print ads interactive, creating an immediate response channel to enable consumers to request more information
• How to harness the power of social media through mobile
For tickets please call Lisa Slavin on +44 (0)207 183 5285 or email her at Lisa.Slavin@mobilemarketingmagazine.com – Quote GOMO25 for 25% discount!
About Mobile Marketing Live
Mobile Marketing Live is organised by Dot Media, the company behind Mobile Marketing magazine, which has been online since November 2005, and is also available on mobile, in print, and on the iPad.
Tony Dennis is now editor of GoMo News. It was previously owned by founder - Bena Roberts until she sold her shares recently.
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AdMaxim recruits advertising and media industry leaders to enhance mobile marketing

Press release
May 31st 2012. This week sees the UK and EMEA launch of AdMaxim, the first of a new generation of mobile advertising technologies capable of integrating every possible mobile format and creative option, within a powerful real-time optimisation and precision audience targeting system.Developed over five years in the USA, by a group of leading advertising technology developers drawn from global companies such as Netscape, AOL and eBay, AdMaxim’s proprietary technology enables agencies to simplify the often complex process of constructing and managing mobile campaigns.
AdMaxim is led by founders, Sultan Khan, and Shishu Bedi, along with a senior management team including former Clear Channel Group Sales Director Steve Atkinson, who is joining as VP Sales EMEA, Mark Weeks, VP Operations, formerly VP Retail and Wholesale Banking at BT Global Services and Steve Tapping, CFO, who was formerly Partner specialising in technology at PwC.
AdMaxim has secured Series A backing from AdStream, the world’s leading player in digital advertising management technology and has attracted involvement from senior advertising and mobile industry figures including Andrew Edwards, UK Group Chairman and Chief Executive of Leo Burnett, who is a member of the AdMaxim board.
AdMaxim enables agencies to integrate multiple creative approaches from simple banner ads to multi-page interactive rich media executions and direct mechanisms. Capable of delivering large-scale global campaigns, the technology can optimise every campaign strand in parallel maximising ROI and performance management.
AdMaxim has begun working with a range of brands including Budweiser, GSK, Pepsico, Unicef, HMV, Johnnie Walker and media agencies such as MediaCom and PHD.
Sultan Khan, CEO, AdMaxim, says “The future of mobile marketing is integration, but the current complexity of the mobile sector is a barrier to entry for brands; it is holding back mobile advertising spend. We deliberately set out to create a mobile platform that can offer brands the flexibility to use any kind of mobile format or creative approach, combined with precision data optimisation.”
Steve Atkinson, VP Sales EMEA says, “Agencies are investing in mobile strategic planning and creative expertise as brands increasingly look to integrate mobile into their media and marketing strategies. AdMaxim will cut through the complexity of mobile because it is the first platform to bring all the options together and is driven by a bespoke optimisation system that out-performs the competition.”
Andrew Edwards UK Group Chairman and Chief Executive of Leo Burnett, comments: “The mobile advertising sector is awash with nascent technologies that solve just part of the challenge for brands, this is often because early venture capital support has required them to focus their capabilities.
“AdMaxim’s development story is different because the team are experienced advertising software and data architects, used to creating global integrated advertising platforms. They self-funded the original design and build, so having launched in the US, AdMaxim is coming to the EMEA market fully-formed, and we think it will change the mobile advertising sector for good.”
About AdMaxim
Our technology was built for brands. We are the first mobile marketing platform to deliver a complete, through-the-line range of mobile marketing options combined with a powerful real-time optimisation and precision audience targeting system.
Based in Silicon Valley, California (USA) and London (UK), we provide agencies and advertisers with a complete end-to-end, global mobile campaign management system combined with real-time optimisation technology enabling research, planning, creative development, delivery and optimisation in one straight forward system.
About AdStream
AdStream is the world’s leading player in digital advertising technology services and connects the global advertising community by streamlining the management, organisation, validation and distribution of multichannel content.
Our collaborative solutions enable brands, media owners, agencies and production companies to achieve higher efficiency, transparency and profitability throughout the advertising cycle across TV, Radio & Print medias and Workflow platforms.
We currently manage more than 4 million advertising-related assets per year across more than 90 countries, worldwide. We are the largest operational, international service and the only one offering a cross-media portfolio of solutions designed to work in different markets and to integrate seamlessly with locally designed components.

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Springboard launches Europe’s first mobile accelerator bootcamp

Press release

June 6th 2012. Springboard, the London and Cambridge based accelerator programme, has announced the launch of Europe’s first three month mobile accelerator bootcamp. Springboard Mobile will accept the Ten Best mobile founders in any area of mobile services and technology. The programme is founder-centric and will leverage the broad mobile ecosystem of platforms, operators, technologies and devices.Springboard Mobile is entirely funded by ten angel investors, most of whom have built landmark mobile companies. The Springboard Mobile angels include mobile entrepreneurs such as Russell Buckley (Admob – sold for $750 million),  Harry Dewhirst (Amobee – sold for $321 million) and Ben Barakas (co-founder Admeld – sold for $400 million), with support from over a hundred leading mobile, technical, financial and business mentors from around the world.

Springboard Mobile’s terms will remain founder friendly. Teams that participate in Springboard will receive over $150K of free services, seed capital of up to £15K – all for 6 per cent founder equity. However, Springboard has introduced a new option for teams that are already funded or have revenue. These teams can participate in Springboard with all the free services for only 3 per cent founder equity.

Since the completion of Springboard 2011, six of the ten teams have raised an average of £300K investment capital with more to follow. Springboard London is currently in session – with its investor day planned on July 5th in London.

Mobile entrepreneurs have until July 8th [2012] to compete for one of ten places on the programme. Please visit the Springboard Mobile site here.

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