Nokia Purchases The Rest Of Symbian And Forms Symbian Foundation.

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced it has launched a cash offer to acquire all of the shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own, at a price of EUR 3.647 per share. The net cash outlay from Nokia to purchase the approximately 52% of Symbian Limited shares it does not already own will be approximately EUR 264 million.

Nokia has received irrevocable undertakings from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. and Siemens International Holding BV to accept the offer, representing approximately 91% of the Symbian shares subject to the offer. Nokia also expects Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to accept the offer.

The acquisition is a fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, announced today by Nokia, together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. More information about the planned foundation can be found at www.symbianfoundation.org.

"This is a significant milestone in our software strategy" said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. "Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers."

"The wide support for this initiative, uniting the industry around the Symbian platform, reflects the strong gravitational pull it has for application developers and other ecosystem players. We will drive efficient, open innovation by unifying the platform and simplifying the software supply chain, leveraging our experience from mobile devices. Nokia is strongly positioned to realize the benefits of open innovation, as well as accelerating time to market, enabling us to meet and exceed consumer expectations for leading converged devices and experiences", Kallasvuo continued.

Symbian Limited is the software company that develops and licenses Symbian OS, the market-leading open operating system for mobile devices. User interfaces designed for Symbian OS include S60 from Nokia, MOAP (S) for the 3G network and UIQ, designed by UIQ Technology, a joint venture between Motorola and Sony Ericsson. A privately-owned company established in 1998, Symbian has its headquarters in London, UK and other offices in the United Kingdom, United States and Asia (Bangalore, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo).

"Ten years ago, Symbian was established by far sighted players to offer an advanced open operating system and software skills to the whole mobile industry", said Nigel Clifford, CEO of Symbian. "Our vision is to become the most widely used software platform on the planet and indeed today Symbian OS leads its market by any measure. Today's announcement is a bold new step to achieve that vision by embracing a complete and proven platform, offered in an open way, designed to stimulate innovation, which is at the heart of everything we do."

Mobile devices based on Symbian OS account for 60% of the converged mobile device segment (source: Canalys, 12 months to Q1 2008). Symbian OS represented approximately 7% of all mobile device sales in 2007, up from 5% in 2006 (source: Strategy Analytics). To date, more than 200 million Symbian OS based phones have been shipped, over 235 models, from 8 vendors and on more than 250 mobile networks around the world. More than 4 million developers are engaged in producing applications for Symbian devices.

Nokia expects the acquisition to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2008 and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. On a reported basis, Nokia expects the transaction to be dilutive in 2009, approximately breakeven in 2010, and accretive in 2011. On a cash basis, Nokia expects the transaction to be dilutive in 2009 and accretive in 2010 and 2011. After the closing, all Symbian employees will become Nokia employees.
More information can be found at www.symbianfoundation.org.

Tags: AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, Symbian Limited, Panasonic Mobile, Siemens, Samsung, telecom industry, Mobile Business, Nokia, MOAP, Symbian Foundation

Regain Lost Landline Revenue Through Global-IP Services And Innovative Services, Jajah To Telecommunications Companies.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - May 29, 2008) - JAJAH, the world's most innovative global communication company, released its Q2 Telecommunications Industry Issues Index today that identified that the biggest concern for global telecommunications executives is the loss of landline revenue and the threat of emerging IP-based competitors. The study also found that IP-based Value Added Services, international calling and new pricing strategies are seen as the best opportunities to replace lost revenue, though many companies have yet to clearly define their IP strategy.

To gain a deeper understanding of carriers' perceptions of the ongoing shift in the global telecommunications industry and to drive product development, JAJAH conducted delegate research at CTIA and in-person one-to-one briefings with chief-level executives at telecommunications companies in the U.S. and Europe. According to the JAJAH study, new networks, competitors and connectable devices are placing an unprecedented burden on global carriers as they try to remain central to their customers' "connected life."

Consumer behavior mirrors industry trends and pain points. A recent National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control showed that nearly one in six American homes (15.8%) had no home landline, and that nearly three in 10 households have only a cell phone or seldom, if ever, use their traditional phone.

Global carriers face a new style of competition where anytime, anywhere, interconnected voice and data services put significant strain on networks and product innovation. With domestic markets heavily penetrated, international markets will play a bigger role in future revenue and market growth. Whilst IP-based operators can enter markets with little or no infrastructure the JAJAH research shows many carriers remain without a go-to-new-market strategy.

Key findings from the Q2 Telecommunications Industry Issues Index include:

--  Landline churn: The biggest fear amongst fixed line telecommunications
  companies is the loss of landline connections. Four out of five companies
  put landline replacement revenue at the top of their agenda.

--  Value Added Services the savior? The majority of carriers rank the
  addition of Value Added Services to their portfolio as a higher priority
  than their network. Two-thirds of chief-level executives state Value Added
  Services are the single most important factor for increasing customer
  loyalty and revenue.

--  Talkifying the Web: It is unclear how to deal with the perceived
  threat from "new-style" competitors, with two-thirds more concerned about
  IP-based competitors than new triple-play competitors.

--  IP telephony strategy gap: Many companies identify significant room
  for advancement in IP telephony strategy. Two-thirds stated IP telephony
  represented the future of telecommunications and are looking to carrier-
  friendly companies like JAJAH to partner with to quickly advance its IP
  offering and IP backbone.

--  The future is international: International markets hold enormous
  potential; Ninety percent expect significant revenue growth abroad, rather
  than in domestic markets in the next five years.

--  Infrastructure investment black hole: With a lack of funding for
  infrastructure investment, more than 60 percent of the executives
  questioned believe they will outsource a greater proportion of
  infrastructure development by 2009.

--  Triple play boom: Service expansion by telcos will lead to an increase
  in triple play offerings in the U.S. and Europe in the next twelve months.
  More than one-third of single and dual play companies plan to launch a
  triple play offering within the next 24 months. Of those companies looking
  to expand into IPTV, more than half will do so via acquisition.
  

Where once it was a race to lay pipes, JAJAH's report outlines the goals in the new battlefield -- Value Added Services, preservation of customer base and diversification of revenue.

"Service bundles, technology convergence, increasing global competition and decreasing margins are driving a major shift in the telecommunications industry," said JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy. "It is really encouraging that the biggest companies in the industry are embracing the concept of IP-telephony as a source of revenue protection and growth. With our open IP platform and managed services, JAJAH is working with a number of companies in the industry to help them embrace IP and turn competition into cooperation."

"Convergence has been the key word for the past decade, but now IP platforms are coming to maturity and many traditional organizations have yet to define their go to market strategy," said independent telecom analyst Jon Arnold. "As consumers crave new forms of communication and voice-bundled services, it's not surprising to hear many CEOs are putting these issues front and center. JAJAH's findings are a dramatic example of how under-prepared many companies are to deal with the industry shift."

JAJAH is partnering with technology companies, carriers, mobile and cable companies, including Yahoo!, eMobile and Deutsche Telekom, to provide a range of cutting edge IP telephony solutions. JAJAH's managed services platform helps its strategic partners stay at the forefront of global communications and provide their customers with simple and efficient new services. These partnerships, strengthened by its growing base of 10 million customers across 200 countries, confirm JAJAH as the world's leading open and scalable IP telephony network.

Tags: telecom industry, Jajah, Telecommunications Industry Issues Index, CTIA, JAJAH study, Landline churn, Talkify, IP telephony strategy, Triple play

Alcatel-Lucent Grabs NXTcomm Eos Awards For Its Technology Innovation And Achievement In Three Categories

Paris, June 2, 2008 — Alcatel-Lucent has won NXTcomm Eos Awards for its technology innovation and achievement in three categories by a NXTcomm panel of judges.

Two of the awards were in the Technology Innovation segment. Alcatel-Lucent won the NXTcomm Eos Award in the Backbone/Edge category for its FP2 IP Service Routing and Traffic Management Silicon, and in the Wireless Mobile Technologies and Applications category for its Geographic Messaging Services Platform.

Under Special Technology Achievement, Alcatel-Lucent earned the NXTcomm Eos Award in the Strategic Support Solution category for its IMS-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for consumers that it deployed, including network design and integration, with a major service provider.

The Eos Awards will be presented at NXTcomm (exhibits June 17 – 19), where Alcatel-Lucent will demonstrate all three technologies in booth 3116 in the Upper South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“Earning Eos Awards in three categories highlights the breadth and depth of Alcatel-Lucent’s portfolio and experience in developing new technologies, software and services and bringing them to market to solve our customer’s business challenges,” said Tim Krause, chief marketing officer, Americas business, Alcatel-Lucent. “Our thanks to the NXTcomm organizers and the Eos Awards judges for the time and consideration they gave to this selection. We are very honored that they selected Alcatel-Lucent, recognizing our leadership in these rapidly developing areas of network technology.”

Named for the Greek goddess of dawn, the NXTcomm Eos Awards honor those exhibiting companies that have developed the most promising new technologies or provided the best new network services and strategic support and for ongoing achievement.

“This year’s Eos winners demonstrated the best and most promising advancements to the network-enabled voice, video and data ecosystem,” said Wayne Crawford, NXTcomm Executive Director. “We congratulate Alcatel-Lucent for its leadership, innovation and role in driving our industry forward.”

Alcatel-Lucent’s winning submissions were the following:
FP2 IP Service Routing and Traffic Management Silicon

Announced in March 2008, the new FP2 chipset is a breakthrough in silicon innovation. The result of a three-year development effort, and representing the fourth-generation chipset from one of the industry’s most experienced teams, Alcatel-Lucent’s FP2 silicon delivers sophisticated and optimized network processing and traffic management at speeds up to 100Gb/s and provides a clear path to 100 Gigabit Ethernet, vastly improving Return on Investment (ROI). The Alcatel-Lucent FP2 silicon also provides the foundation for one of the most advanced service routing portfolios on the market delivering an unrivalled combination of bandwidth, performance, feature depth and scalability in a single routing platform, effectively providing the fabric for IP network and service transformation for all of our customers.

Geographic Messaging Services Platform
The Geographic Messaging Services Platform (GMSP) is a next-generation location-driven platform and set of applications that leverage the advanced functionality of today’s mobile networks and devices. Following user opt-in, GMSP tracks the user’s locations and preferences, based on fixed and moving ‘GeoFences’, and automatically delivers location-relevant multi-media content, where and when appropriate. Featuring innovative Bell Labs algorithms, GMSP is ideal for next-generation mobile applications such as location-based marketing and social networking, ‘kid tracker’ applications, and other opt-in mobile applications developed by service providers and third parties. GMSP was invented by Bell Labs, commercialized within Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, and will become part of the award-winning Messaging Suite in Alcatel-Lucent’s applications portfolio.

IMS Consumer VoIP
Alcatel-Lucent partnered with a major service provider to integrate and deploy an IMS-based solution that enables new Consumer VoIP service that unifies the subscriber’s communication experience across triple play services (voice, broadband and TV) over IP. Alcatel-Lucent provided the technology and network design, deployment, integration and maintenance services. The service is commercially deployed, providing a differentiating triple-play service in a competitive market. The IMS solution, which implements attractive subscriber applications, economic scaling, and proven interoperability, also enables the creation and launch of additional advanced services.

Alcatel-Lucent, globally, has more than 30 IMS customers and has supplied more than 60 customers with IMSapplication servers and services.

InfoComm08, the leading audiovisual business-to-business marketplace. For more information, go to www.NXTcommShow.com.

Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Contact the Alcatel-Lucent Press Office: press@alcatel-lucent.com

Tags: telecom industry, NXTcomm Eos Awards, Alcatel-Lucent, IMS-based VoIP, IP Service Routing, Traffic Management Silicon

LiPS ( The Linux Phone Standards) gets closer to your lips with standard for Linux-based phones.

What ever Google did with Google Phone and subsequent Android and OHA seem to have shaken the communication world a bit. Just like the Google's interest in wireless spectrum bid did make wireless providers run for court rooms and open spaces, like Verizon and AT&T.
The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum, which is 2 year old now and unlike industry groups such as the OHA and LiMo (Linux Mobile Foundation), which are writing actual code for cross-licensing among members, LiPS has taken on the ambitious goal of defining real standards, but was dormat for a while, I was wondering at one time if they were dead. No I think the it is very alive now!.

LiPS Executive Director Bill Weinberg explains, "Our goal is to create a freestanding, actual specification that exists as a real standard, and is not beholden to any one implementation."
Weinberg admits that the challenge is in moving from paper standards to real implementations and then to widespread adoption. One turning point could come if operators were to mandate specification compliance. Weinberg said, "The most powerful adoption will come from operators, such as [existing LiPS members] France Telecom, Telecom Italia, and British Telecom. They want to roll out their services on LiPS's API enabler specification."

In theory, standard APIs for Linux-based mobile phones, if widely adopted, could enable operators to roll out services faster, while enabling handset manufacturers to produce compatible new phones faster. Other beneficiaries could be ISVs (independent software vendors), mobile phone software stack providers, and of course, phone consumers, who after buying a new phone could re-install purchased applications and continue with existing services. Additional LiPS views on real vs. de facto standards can be found in a whitepaper comparing LiPS to Android, here.
There is a longer article on Linux Devices where I got my information.

Tags: LiPS, Google Phone, Android, OHA, Verizon, AT&T, LiMo, Linux Mobile Foundation, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, British Telecom

EU seeks harmony in VoIP Regulations

BRUSSELS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The European Union's 27 national telecom regulators want harmonised rules governing voice conversations over the Internet in the 27-nation bloc, the chair of the regulators' group said on Tuesday.

"Voice over IP has been identified as a key area for harmonization," Roberto Viola, chair of the European Regulators' Group said at a briefing on Tuesday over the group's general assembly earlier this month.

Companies like Ebay Inc's Skype compete with traditional phone operators by offering voice over Internet conversations. VoIP call providers say they are Internet services, not telecom operators, thus not obliged to offer services like emergency calls.

more...

Tags: European Union, telecom regulators, VoIP, Skype

Huawei and Bain Buys 3COM

Networking company 3Com announced Friday that it will be acquired by private equity company Bain Capital and former joint-venture partner Huawei Technologies in a $2.2 billion cash deal. The transaction, will give China's Huawei a minority stake in the Marlborough, Mass.-based company.

Under the terms of the agreement announced Friday, private-equity firm Bain Capital will take a stake of more than 80% in 3Com, based in Marlborough, Mass., and founded in 1979. Huawei Technologies Co. of China is purchasing the rest, say people familiar with the matter. The deal was struck at $5.30 a share, a 44% premium to 3Com's closing price Thursday, yet far from the heights where its stock traded during the 1990s.

According to WSJ, the 3Com deal reflects a burgeoning trend for Chinese companies: engaging in overseas mergers and acquisitions by purchasing strategic stakes instead of complete corporate control. By leaving majority control to others, the Chinese companies hope they can help mitigate political concerns that have sunk big Chinese takeover attempts before, most notably Cnooc Ltd.'s failed bid in 2005 for Unocal Corp.

Such political concerns are especially significant in the telecom industry, given the advanced technology involved. And the 3Com transaction is expected to get a thorough vetting in Washington, where federal officials are wary of foreign access to U.S. telecom and networking infrastructure.

Huawei has grown quickly since it was founded in 1988 by Ren Zhengfei, a former Chinese army officer and the company's current chief executive. The closely held company, which doesn't publicly report complete financial data, now claims some 62,000 employees and says its sales rose 45% last year to 65.6 billion yuan ($8.73 billion) from 45.3 billion yuan in 2005.

Sramana has an analysis on the same deal according to a comment left.

Tags: 3com, bain, huawei, telecom industry, Ren Zhengfei