Posts Tagged ‘telecom’
Monday, March 7th, 2011
 RESTON, VA – ZoomSafer, which sells software that prevents employees from using mobile phones while driving, has raised $1.1 million in financing from White Birch Capital and SugarOak Holdings. The company says the money will fund expanded marketing and further product development.
“Employees who text, email or browse the web while driving are a ticking-time-bomb in terms of corporate liability, which is why companies must protect themselves,” said Matt Howard, Founder and CEO of ZoomSafer. “This additional financing will enable us to strengthen our existing products, expand marketing, and help more fleets to comply with regulations, reduce crashes and save money.”
The company raised $2 million previously.
Howard told us in an earlier interview that he founded the company after he knocked a neighbor’s child off his bike with his car when he looked down at an incoming text message on his Blackberry. While the child was ok, Howard said, “It was the scariest day of my life.”
An entrepreneur who had previously co-founded CloudProfile, which sells a service to help companies be found and engage with customers on mobile devices, Howard saw an opportunity.
He joined forces with Michael Riemer, ZoomSafer co-founder and CEO, a retired former Nextel executive doing consulting and studied the space, began doing foundation work, and they created ZoomSafter in January 2009.
For fleets equipped with smartphones, the company’s FleetSafer Mobile delivers an active policy enforcement solution that automatically prevents employees from texting, emailing or browsing the web while driving.
For fleets equipped with any type of mobile phone, FleetSafer Vision delivers a one-of-a-kind, cloud-based analytics service that enables corporate management to empirically measure employee use of phones while driving (no on-device software required).
Bob Spass, managing partner at White Birch Capital and founding partner at Capital Z Partners, said, “ZoomSafer’s software meets a growing corporate need to manage employee driving risks.”
“Control and prevention of distracted driving is one of the most difficult challenges that fleet operators face today,” said Sandeep Kar, manager of Commercial Vehicle Research at Frost & Sullivan. “ZoomSafer has pioneered an innovative set of products and is uniquely positioned to help fleet customers address the challenges associated with distracted driving.”
–Allan Maurer
To email TechJournal South Editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournal South dot com.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
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Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Bob Spass, financing, Fleetsafer mobile, Fleetsafter, IT, Matt Howard, mobile, Reston, Sandeep Kar, SugarOak Holdings, telecom, VA, White Birch Capital, ZoomSafer
Posted in IT, Money, Potomac, Virginia | Comments Off
Friday, March 4th, 2011
 SPRINGFIELD, VA – USA Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: USMO), a leading provider of wireless messaging and communications services, has acquired Amcom Software Inc. for $163.3 million in cash.
The acquisition was funded by $110.8 million of cash on hand and $52.5 million through a credit facility provided by Wells Fargo Capital Finance.
Vincent D. Kelly, USA Mobility president and CEO, said, “This acquisition is about combining two leaders in mission critical communications. USA Mobility’s three primary core market segments of healthcare, government and large enterprise are exactly aligned with Amcom’s customer segment focus.”
“USA Mobility is the undisputed leader in paging and wireless messaging — the foundation of mission critical communications today. Increasingly, however, mission critical communication is evolving. Pagers were once the lone device for urgent communications in healthcare, government, and public safety.
“But today’s leading organizations communicate with an ever-increasing diverse array of methods and devices. Amcom Software is a recognized leader in delivering software solutions, which enable seamless, critical communications. Amcom’s unified communications suite connects people across a universe of devices that is constantly expanding.”
Tags: Acquisitions, Amcom Software, government, Healthcare, large enterprise, messaging, Springfield, telecom, USA Mobility, VA
Posted in Acquisitions, IT, Potomac, Telecommunications, Virginia | Comments Off
Monday, February 28th, 2011
 RALEIGH, NC – The Institute for Local Self-Reliance says a proposed North Carolina law would stifle innovation and hurt job creation by halting new community broadband efforts and restricting those already in operation.
It says, “While the rest of the world is working to become more innovative and competitive, the North Carolina General Assembly is considering a bill that will stifle innovation, hurt job creation and slow economic development. The Bill, H129/S87 will effectively prevent any community from building a broadband network and impose onerous restrictions on existing networks, including Wilson’s Greenlight and Salisbury’s Fibrant.
“Greenlight and Fibrant are the most technologically advanced citywide networks in the state, comparative to the best available in the U.S. and international peers, according to a study released by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in November, 2010.”
It adds, “This bill will protect the aging networks of incumbent cable companies—furthering their effective monopolies—that have refused to invest in newer, faster technologies.”
“This bill is a job and competitiveness killer. I don’t know why North Carolina wants to protect old technology, but if they want to get on the information super highway in a horse and buggy—the world is going to pass them by,” said Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Telecommunications as Commons Initiative.
The bill says it is an act to “protect jobs,” a claim that puzzles Mitchell. “Community owned networks create jobs both directly and indirectly – and there is zero evidence they have resulted in the elimination of any jobs.”
Most communities in North Carolina have access only to cable and DSL broadband, which offers slower speeds and less reliability than that of the more modern fiber-to-the-home technology used by Greenligh and Fibrant. AT&T’s next generation network, called U-Verse, has some fiber-optics but remains limited by its reliance on copper for the connection to houses.
Time Warner Cable has been slow in updating its cable networks to the most recent technology, though even that is not competitive with fiber-optic networks.
Mitchell believes that communities represent the only opportunity for broadband competition in the current regulatory environment. “Private cable companies refuse to overbuild each other, phone companies struggle to compete with cable speeds, and wireless lags greatly behind wired networks in offering broadband. This is why communities are building fiber-optic networks and why companies like TWC fight so hard to outlaw them.”
We have been reporting on North Carolina’s attempts to limit community broadband for more than a year. See:
www.techjournalsouth.com/2010/11/new-analysis-shows-community-owned-broadband-is-cheaper-and-faster/
www.techjournalsouth.com/2010/08/fastest-and-cheapest-us-broadband-systems-are-city-run-in-the-south/
Tags: Chris Mitchell, Community Broadband, Fibrant, Greenlight, Institute for Local Self-reliance, NC, NCbill H129/S87, Raleigh, Salisbury, telecom, Wilson
Posted in Economic Development, Internet/New Media, North Carolina, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Monday, February 14th, 2011
 RESTON, VA – Mobile took a powerful leap forward as an integral part of the personal and business life of many of us in 2010, says the comScore 2010 Mobile Year in Review report. And, it says, 2011 has the potential to see more of the same.
“2010 was a game-changing year for the mobile industry,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “Smartphone adoption, 3G penetration and unlimited data plans drove a surge of mobile media consumption across geographies and deepened the integration of mobile devices into everyday life. And, the coming year has the potential to be even more exciting.”
He added, “As the mobile ecosystem continues to develop, including progress in mobile advertising and commerce, it’s clear that mobile is destined to become an increasingly important platform for digital marketers across all industries.”
Mobile Media Consumption Intensified in 2010
Smartphones aggressively penetrated the mobile market in 2010, driving an escalation in mobile media consumption by subscribers worldwide. Technological innovations enabled an extraordinary number of new capabilities for mobile devices, even expanding the definition of what it means to be ‘mobile’ through the introduction of tablets, e-readers and other connected devices. As more subscribers access the mobile web in 2011, it will become essential for marketers to reach this rapidly-expanding segment of consumers.
comScore’s report provides insight into the year’s most important trends. Key findings highlighted in the report include:
- Smartphone adoption accelerated in both the U.S. and Europe. U.S. smartphone adoption reached 27 percent of mobile subscribers in December 2010, an increase of 10 percentage points from the previous year, while European adoption reached 31 percent, also up nearly 10 points versus year ago.
- Network quality and cost of monthly plan were the top 2 purchase consideration factors for mobile subscribers in the U.S. and UK.
- Nokia was the top OEM in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Samsung took the top spot in the U.S. and France, and also ranked in the top three in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
- 36 percent of mobile Americans and 29 percent of Europeans browsed the mobile web in December 2010, with access through an application reaching 34 percent of Americans and 28 percent of Europeans. Across regions, mobile browsing and application usage is growing in the range of 7-9 percentage points per year.
- More than 75 percent of mobile subscribers in Japan are connected media users (used their browser, accessed applications or downloaded content) far surpassing the U.S. and European countries in this regard. Japan also saw nearly 10 percent of its mobile audience make a purchase with their mobile wallet in December 2010.
- Over the past year the number of mobile users that accessed a social networking site at least once a month via their mobile device increased by 56 percent to nearly 58 million users in the U.S. Even stronger growth occurred in Europe, with a 75-percent increase in the number of users over the last year to 42 million in December 2010.
- To download a complimentary copy of The comScore 2010 Mobile Year in Review, please visit: www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2011/2010_Mobile_Year_in_Review
Tags: 2010 mobile year in review, comScore, telecom
Posted in Internet/New Media, Mobile, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -Hold on to that cell phone and if you haven’t already, protect your information with a password. At a time when smartphone use has become engrained in everyday life as a primary way to communicate, work and share, a new survey from Norton by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) reveals that 36 percent of consumers in the U.S. have fallen victim to cell phone loss or theft.
In the new survey commissioned by Norton, Miami is revealed as the city with the highest rate of cell phone loss or theft against the 20 most populated cities in the U.S.
In fact, 52 percent of respondents in Miami have experienced cell phone loss/theft. New York and Los Angeles were the #2 and #3 cities in the survey with 49 and 44 percent of respondents experiencing loss/theft respectively.
Frustration dominant
Frustration was the most dominant feeling consumers experienced when their mobile phone was lost or stolen, likely because 87 percent could neither remotely lock nor remotely wipe their phone’s memory afterwards and more than half (54 percent) of all smartphone users did not password protect their phones.
We know half a dozen people who have lost cell phones, most of them business users who travel. This is not a trivial problem.
An overwhelming majority of respondents contacted their mobile service provider to resolve the situation as the first step and ultimately reported that it cost an average of $125.30 to resolve.
“The survey results are clear: cell phone loss and theft is a significant issue for consumers today,” said Laura Garcia-Manrique, vice president, Consumer Business Unit, Norton by Symantec.
Norton, of course, has commercial motives for conducting the survey. It has just released a mobile security product.
“Norton Mobile Security lets you determine your phone’s location, lock it up, or even wipe it clean in the event you’ll never see the device again,” says Garcia-Manrique. “The response to the offering thus far — with more than 140,000 beta downloads and a 4 out of 5 star Android Market rating — confirms that consumers trust the Norton brand to protect them everywhere, regardless of the platform.”
Other vendors either have or are rolling out cell phone security systems. We wonder how long it will take the majority of consumers to install one?
–Allan Maurer
Tags: mobile, Norton, smartphones, stolen or lost cell phones, Symantic, telecom
Posted in Internet/New Media, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
 Here’s a prediction for you. Over the coming year, we’re going to be hearing a lot about “augmented reality apps.” Augmented reality adds computer graphics, sound, and interactive features to real world environments (see this description at How Stuff Works).
A new report from UK-based Juniper Research has found that an increasing number of leading brands, retailers and mobile vendors are investing in mobile augmented reality (AR) applications and services, with global revenues expected to approach $1.5 billion by 2015.
The report found that the installed base of AR capable smartphones had increased from 8 million in 2009 to more than 100 million in 2010, while at the same time, AR apps — initially the preserve of smaller development companies and/or researchers at technological institutes — were now increasingly created/facilitated by the larger players.
The Mobile Augmented Reality report highlighted several developments that were key in this regard:
- Qualcomm’s release of an AR-software development kit for Android
- Samsung’s decision to preload AR browsers onto several of their handsets in selected markets
- Mobile advertising campaigns from brands such as Carlsberg and Coca Cola which have featured AR elements.
According to report author Dr. Windsor Holden, “One of the key benefits from this heightened activity is the fact that it generates press interest and public awareness: even if consumers don’t necessarily understand how it works, they can see real life examples of AR in action. Likewise, it serves to generate wider interest amongst brands and developers who can see potential applications for AR technology; it educates the market.”
Developers, consumers remain unconvinced
However, the report warned that both developers and consumers had yet to be convinced that AR apps were more than “gimmicks” or offered much in the way of customer retention, given that many early deployments featured an AR element that had been added at the last minute to a pre-existing app, or else the use of AR was limited and failed to engage with the end user.
The Mobile Augmented Video Whitepaper and the Mobile Augmented White Paper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the study ‘Mobile Augmented Reality: Opportunities, Forecasts & Strategic Analysis 2011-2015′.
Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.
Tags: augmented reality, How Stuff Works, iPhone, Juniper Research, mobile, Samsung augmented reality developer kit, smartphone apps, telecom
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Friday, January 28th, 2011
 If advertisers are paying for clicks on their mobile ads, many may be wasting a significant amount of money, according to a new survey. Harris Interactive, on behalf of Pontiflex, a company selling an email, mobile and social aciquisition platform, found in December that 47 percent of mobile app users said they click on mobile ads by mistake more often than they do on purpose.
In a related December 2010 survey, 71 percent of mobile app users stated that they prefer ads that keep them within the app they are using, instead of ads that take them out of the app to a mobile web browser, further reinforcing the need for mobile advertising to move away from a model based on clicks.
With more than 10 billion apps downloaded, both free and paid apps for the Apple and Android platforms have registered explosive growth. According to the Pontiflex survey, 95 percent of mobile app users use free apps and 41 percent use paid apps.
This trend is prevalent even among more affluent demographics — 96 percent of mobile apps users with household income of $75K plus said they use free apps. The strong consumer usage of free apps highlights the importance of mobile app advertising, which has emerged as an important revenue stream for publishers and app developers to help keep apps free.
The findings of this survey have important implications for mobile marketers.
With the high incidence of accidental clicks, advertisers cannot continue to use traditional online ad units and measurement models — namely banners and click-through rates — as a way to deploy and measure the success of mobile campaigns. Furthermore, the survey suggests that advertisers should deploy in-app advertising models to engage consumers in a way that is consistent with their preferences.
Additional findings of the survey include:
- 61 percent of mobile apps users ages 18-34 click/tap on mobile ads by accident more often than on purpose
- Almost two-thirds of mobile app users selected ads that contain coupons, deals or newsletters as their preferred in-app mobile ad type
- Mobile apps are popular across all age groups
- Usage is highest among users 18-34 years old
“People are turned off by advertising that causes them to stop what they are doing and disrupts their experience,” said Deb Swider, director, eMarketing at the American Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). “The mobile advertising solutions that are going to work are those that are respectful of user experience.”
Tags: half of mobile users clicik on ads by mistake, Marketing, mobile, mobile advertising, Pontiflex, telecom
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Friday, January 7th, 2011
 WASHINGTON, DC – Personal Inc., a company developing an online mobile platform for sharing, has kicked up its funding to $7.3 million from investors including Grotech Ventures, Steve Case backed Revolution, and TCS Capital, according to a regulatory filing. We reported in September 2010 that the company had raised $1.2 million of a round targeted at $2 million.
Personal Inc. was founded in 2009 by former Nokia Corp. veterans Shane Green, Doug Wheeler, Edin Saracevic, Tarik Kurspahic and Jennifer Devereux,according to a Washington Business Journal report. Green was previously CEO of The Map Network.
The filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing the new financing includes as principals directors Don Rainey of Vienna, VA-based Grotech; Tige Savage, co-founder of DC-based Revolution; and Erci Semler, of NY-based TCS Capital.
The company is still in closed beta mode.
It sounds as if the startup is riding two hot trends, mobile and social networking, although details are scare at this point.
Email TJS Editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournal South dot com.
Tags: DC, Don Rainey, Eric Semler, financing, mobile, Personal Inc., Revoltion, Shane Green, social networking, Steve Case, telecom, Tige Savage
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Potomac, Telecommunications, Washington, DC | Comments Off
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
 ORLANDO, FL – Summit Broadband, parent company of Orlando Telephone, has closed a $6.4 million offering, and Orlando Telephone an $8.4 million equity round, according to regulatory filings.
Summit Broadband sells Internet, phone and TV service in Orlando, boasting speeds as high as 50mbs, increasing to 100mbs in 2011, which it says is “the fastest in the US.” It competes with larger Internet, phone and TV providers in the Orlando market.
Orlando Telephone had its beginning in 1982 with Orlando Business Telephone Systems. In 1985 it launched Brevard Business Telephone Systems, then 1997 started Gulfcoast Business Telephone Systems and Orlando Telephone Company.
The companies disclosed the fundings in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Email TechJournal South Editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournal South dot com.
Tags: financing, FL, Orlando, Orlando Telephone, Summit Broadband, telecom
Posted in Florida, Internet/New Media, Money, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
By Allan Maurer
 UPDATED! DURHAM, NC – Kill those darn pigs, they’re laughing at me, I thought, loading another bird in its slingshot. I fire the bird, which, screaming a martial arts cry, careens toward a mass of stones protecting three green pigs. And bounces off. The pigs laugh, heh heh heh.
When I first heard of this “Angry Birds,” game, I thought, I’ll just try it out and see what all the fuss is about, shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. About 45 minutes later, I was stuck on level 14 and stopped. I couldn’t believe I had played for so long.
Whoever would have thought that sling-shooting red angry birds at towers of rock protecting little green pigs would be so addicting. I sampled the popular “Angry Birds” game while testing a DROID PRO from Motorola for a review I’ll be doing here later. But I’m far from the only one the game hooked.
More than 40 million downloaded
More than 12 million copies of the 99-cent “Angry Birds” game have been downloaded, while 30 million copies of the free version, which includes ads, are on mobile phones. On January 5, 2011, the game became available for Windows XP through Win 7 on teh Intel AppUP store, which targets netbooks.
According to Rovio, the Finland-based maker of “Angry Birds,” the iPhone version is played an average of 65 minutes a day by crazed pig killers. He said the ad-supported free version was projected to earn $1 million a month by the end of 2010. Also, by measuring how many people download updates, the company knows the game has a fairly amazing 80 percent retention rate.
The basic idea is that a bunch of pigs are stealing bird eggs and the birds retaliate.
On a recent train trip to Charlotte, the person sitting next to me was using a different DROID phone model. I was playing the game to kill time and asked him if he had tried it. I handed him the DROID PRO and for the next 20 minutes or so, he was immersed in shooting birds at towers of rock.
When I took the phone back, he looked on his own DROID and found the game. He was a goner for the rest of the trip. I put my phone in my pocket and took out my Kindle to do something a bit more productive.
 One of the levels in Angry Birds The game recently celebrated its one year anniversary and just yesterday Sony announced it would be available on Playstation 3 and Playstation Mobile. It is currently available for the iPhone, iPad, and DROID phones. A Windows Mobile 7 version is in the works.
I’ve always wondered if your brain does the same type of calculus – subconsciously – to figure out the trajectory of the Angry Bird missiles as it does to accurately throw a rock, spear, baseball, football, or basketball. You do learn to improve your shots as you go, although it gets progressively more difficult.
There are a few tricks: if you touch a bird in flight at the right arc, it splits into three missiles, doing more damage than a single hit would to the structures protecting the egg-stealing pigs. I did find the small touch screen on the DROID PRO a problem at times. But it didn’t stop me from playing.
Mighty Eagle upgrade available
A recent update for the game included a special Holiday version and a Great Eagle feature. The “Mighty Eagle” is like the Mighty Mouse of the Angry Bird world and blasts through some of the harder levels that may stymie players, but it has to be purchased.
A recent Associated Press article quoted Thomas Way, a computer sciences professor at Villanova University, who said, “It fulfills some kind of pleasure center in the brain.” He also said the game is oiling the wheels of mobile technology the way video games did for the PC.
Way notes that games and the games industry have been “A driving force behind technological development.”
He points out, too, that games like this that become widely known are common points of social interaction, much like talking about the latest TV show, movie, or news story is.
It certainly proved to be that for me.
Some folks do have a knack for it. While in Charlotte, I handed the DROID PRO to a teenager who managed to zap through more levels within a few minutes at a Christmas party than I had in several days.
She’s not alone either. The famous author Salman Rushdie claims he’s a “master at the game.”
Note: the author is red/green color deficient and mistakenly called the game pigs “pink” prior to correction.
Email TJS Editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournal South dot com.
Tags: Allan Maurer, Angry Birds, Droid Pro, mobile gaming, review, telecom
Posted in Carolinas, IT, North Carolina | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
 FRAMINGHAM, MA – Application developers have churned out more than 300,000 mobile apps in just over three years. In 2010, mobile apps made the leap from the smartphone to media tablets.
In 2011 and beyond, mobile apps will find their way into even more devices, including connected TVs and, by extension, the connected home. According to a new International Data Corporation (IDC) forecast, the market for mobile applications will continue to accelerate as the number of downloaded apps is expected to increase from 10.9 billion worldwide in 2010 to 76.9 billion in 2014. Worldwide mobile apps revenues will experience similar growth, surpassing $35 billion in 2014.
One of the most striking impacts of the extraordinary growth and evolution of the mobile apps space over the past three years has been the “appification” of broad categories of interactions and functions in both the physical and the digital worlds.
Apps can turn a smartphone into a physical trainer that keeps track of exercise levels and even your heartbeat, help cook a meal by walking you through the meal prep and then tell you when it is fully cooked, monitor your driving and offer tips to increase gas mileage, turn your phone into a flashlight, connect you with friends through social networking, find your location through mapping, offer early forms of virtual reality, automatically upload and share pictures, scan physical goods through barcode readers, wirelessly transfer files by physically bumping two devices together, and provide a whole range of business support from fleet management to payroll.
“Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds,” notes Scott Ellison, vice president, mobile and wireless research at IDC. “The extension of mobile apps to every aspect of our personal and business lives will be one of the hallmarks of the new decade with enormous opportunities for virtually every business sector.”
Tags: IDC says mobile apps revenue to see 60 percent compound growth to 2014, telecom
Posted in Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
 MCLEAN, VA - Primus Telecommunications Group Inc. (OTCBB: PMUG), a global facilities-based integrated provider of advanced telecommunications products and services, has agreed to acquire Arbinet Corp. (NASDAQ: ARBX), a leading provider of wholesale telecom exchange services to carriers, for $28 million in an all-stock transaction.
Primus is a provider of advanced communication solutions, including, traditional and IP voice, data, mobile services, broadband Internet, collocation, hosting, and outsourced managed services to business and residential customers in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Brazil.
Arbinet is a provider of international voice, data and managed communications services for fixed, mobile and wholesale carriers. With more than 1,200 carrier customers across the globe.
Primus says the combination of its global wholesale business with Arbinet should enhance global competitive positioning by allowing customers to access more global routes at competitive rates and diversifies the product portfolio of international voice and data services across all existing customer segments.
The company expects that the combination will improve gross margins and resulting EBITDA by eliminating operating redundancies and adding the benefits of increased scale.
Founded in 1994, Primus is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. Founded in 1997, Arbinet is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.
Tags: Acquisitions, Herndon, McLean, telecom, VA
Posted in Acquisitions, Internet/New Media, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
 In its first report on the use of “geosocial” or location-based services, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project finds that 4% of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are nearby. On any given day, 1% of internet users are using these services.
This is the second survey of the Pew Internet Project to ask about such “geosocial” or location-based services. The current number shows little change from the first time this question was asked, in a May 2010 survey, when 5% of adult internet users said they had used such a site.
Key findings:
- 7% the adults who go online with their mobile phone use a location-based service.
- 8% of online adults ages 18-29 use location-based services, significantly more than online adults in any other age group.
- 10% of online Hispanics use these services – significantly more than online whites (3%) or online blacks (5%).
- 6% of online men use a location-based service such as Foursquare or Gowalla, compared with 3% of online women.
These numbers suggest that location based services are just at the very beginning of whatever impact they may have. New figures from comScore shows smartphone use is steadily increasing, and location-based services may see a concurrent increase in use.
Localization and location-based services are among the topics that will be discussed at the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh Nov. 17-18. Chad Reed of Seattle-based Pelago, makers of location-based service Whrrl, is slated to join more than 100 other Internet thought leaders and up to 1,500 attendees at the event. See: Whrrl along into the real world with Pelago’s mobile app
Tags: Chad Reed, Foursquare, Gowalla, Internet Summit, location based services, mobile, Pelago, Pew report, telecom, Whrrl
Posted in Carolinas, Events, Internet/New Media, North Carolina, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
 ATLANTA - Cbeyond Inc. (NASDAQ: CBEY), a provider of IT and communications services to 55,000 small businesses across the country, has acquired the assets of MaximumASP and its affiliated companies, as well as the outstanding stock of privately held Aretta Communications in a combined cash deal valued at $40 million.
MaximumASP provides cloud services such as managed virtual servers and dedicated servers, and Aretta Communications provides cloud services such as cloud PBXs (private branch exchange) and SIP (Session Internet Protocol) trunking. Both companies target small- and medium-sized businesses throughout the U.S.
“The acquisition of MaximumASP and Aretta Communications is an important step forward for Cbeyond’s business,” said Jim Geiger, chief executive officer of Cbeyond. “We believe these acquisitions will provide significant growth opportunities, leverage our existing channels of distribution, and expand our innovative technology and expertise.”
Cbeyond offers more than 30 productivity-enhancing applications including local and long-distance voice, broadband Internet, mobile, BlackBerry, broadband laptop access, voicemail, email, web hosting, fax-to-email, data backup, file-sharing and virtual private networking.
Tags: Acquisitions, Aretta Communications, Atlanta, Cbeyond, GA, MaximumASP, telecom
Posted in Acquisitions, Georgia, Internet/New Media, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
 HICKORY, NC -DC-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire Hickory, NC-based ComScope, (NYSE: CTV) which makes infrastructure products for wireless carriers, in a deal worth $3.9 billion that will take the company private.
The Carlyle Group will pay $31.50 a share for CommScope, a 36 percent premium over its closing price Friday.
Cam Dyer, a Carlyle principal, said, “With strong leadership and clear secular growth drivers, CommScope’s long-term prospects are excellent. Carlyle will support CommScope’s continued investment in next generation solutions, more integrated product and service offerings, and superior customer service levels.”
CommScope’s current executive team is expected to continue leading the company, Carlyle said.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011. It requires CommScope stockholder approval, although the company board unanimously approved the deal.
Tags: Acquisitions, CommScope, telecom, The Carlyle Group, wireless carriers
Posted in Acquisitions, Carolinas, North Carolina, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
 WASHINGTON, DC – CardStar, a Boston-based company with offices in McLean, VA, has raised $750,000 of a $1 million mixed securities offering with participation by two DC-based venture firms, according to a regulatory filing.
The company, which sells a mobile application that lets users of membership and loyalty programs in one place on an iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Android phone, disclosed the funding in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing cites DC-based Amplifier Ventures and Acta Capital as investors. Both firms also participated in the company’s $1 million first round of funding, which included MA-based LaunchCapital.
Founded in 2008, the company says 2,000 merchants and 700,000 people use the service.
Tags: Acta Captial, Amplifier Ventures, CardStar, financing, loyalty programs, mobile app, telecom
Posted in IT, Money, Potomac, Telecommunications, Virginia, Washington, DC | Comments Off
Monday, October 11th, 2010
 REDMOND, WA – Microsoft introduced its Windows Phone 7 today in an effort to enter the lucrative smartphone market. During a morning press conference, Microsoft and its partners demonstrated the phone’s features, which do bring a number of innovations to airwaves.
“We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”
Windows Phone 7 will be available in a variety of sleek form factors from device-makers such as Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone.
Tiles instead of apps
It uses an operating system that is different from the current trend toward app-focused phones. Instead it provides active and configurable interface elements called tiles that update on the fly with real information, allowing users to place the tiles that interest them most where they want on their Start screen.
Facebook photos, music and contacts are pulled into the phone and distributed appropriately across Hubs. It also brings together many of Microsoft’s offerings from other platforms, including Xbox, Zune, Office and Bing.
The new phone is an important step for Microsoft in three ways. To begin, it is a completely fresh start for Microsoft in smartphones. Second, it represents a new approach from Microsoft toward integrating products and services from across the company into the phone to create a richer experience and greater productivity.
Hence the presence of Office, Zune and Xbox LIVE and their integration within the Hub model. And finally, the new phone approach is critical to Microsoft’s efforts to make new gains in the huge smartphone market, which despite the success of the iPhone and Android is still relatively untapped globally.
Hubs pull in live updates
The phone’s interface features Hubs for categories such as People, Music and video, Photos, Games and Office. These Hubs are never more than a few screens away, no matter how deep the user navigates within the phone.
The People Hub, for example, pulls in Facebook status updates from friends as well as providing the more obvious contact information and phone numbers. Users can take actions like responding to updates or sending a text message right from the People Hub rather than having to find and launch a particular app.
The Hubs also update live, pulling in pictures and information so that in many cases a glance and a couple of clicks will be all that users need to bring themselves up to date with phone messages, e-mail and what is happening with friends and colleagues.
The company also says it marks a new era in mobile gaming as the first phone1 to put the power of Xbox LIVE into the palm of people’s hands with a blockbuster lineup of game titles from award-winning publishers. In addition to the titles already announced earlier this year, Electronic Arts Inc. today announced the first wave of EA games coming to Windows Phone 7 this fall.
For lots more information about it, see the Windows news room.
Tags: smartphones, telecom, tiles instead of apps, Windows Phone 7 debuts
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Monday, October 4th, 2010
 RESTON, VA – LightSquared, a wholesale-only integrated wireless broadband and satellite network, has closed on $850 million of debt, which represents the initial round of a syndicated secured credit facility arranged and led by UBS AG. With this additional $850 million, LightSquared has obtained an aggregate of more than $2 billion in equity and debt proceeds and in commitments.
The term of the credit facility will be four years, non-callable in the first year. LightSquared will use the proceeds of the financing for general corporate purposes which include constructing its world-class, 4G-LTE-wholesale network.
Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared, said: “We are extremely pleased that we have secured this significant amount of financing and believe it endorses our overall business model, while providing LightSquared with a solid step forward to execute our strategy and begin building out our 4G-LTE-wholesale network.”
LightSquared also announced it has signed its first wholesale agreements and is in advanced negotiations with numerous potential customers.
It says that given this strong early indication of demand for capacity on its 4G-LTE-wholesale network, it intends to accelerate the implementation of Phase 2 of the Inmarsat Cooperation Agreement to the fourth quarter of this year. By doing so, LightSquared will obtain increased access to spectrum controlled by Inmarsat.
Upon providing notice to Inmarsat of its intent to accelerate implementation, LightSquared will owe Inmarsat annual spectrum lease payments. The first lease payment will be due upon delivery of notice by LightSquared to Inmarsat.
Ahuja noted, “By accelerating Phase 2 of the Inmarsat Cooperation Agreement, we will be able to utilize and deploy additional spectrum earlier than anticipated, further enhancing the capacity of LightSquared’s 4G-LTE-wholesale network.”
The company says that through its wholesale-only business model, those without their own wireless network or who have limited geographic coverage or spectrum can develop and sell their own devices, applications, and services using LightSquared’s open 4G network—at a competitive cost and without retail competition from LightSquared.
Tags: 4G, debt, financing, Lightsquared, Reston, telecom, VA, wholesale broadband network
Posted in Internet/New Media, Money, Potomac, Telecommunications, Virginia | Comments Off
Friday, October 1st, 2010
 ATLANTA & HUNTSVILLE, AL – EarthLink Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK), one of the nation’s leading Internet service providers, and ITC^DeltaCom Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ITCD), a provider of integrated communications services to customers in the southeastern United States, have agreed to merge in a deal valued at $516 million.
The acquisition will enable EarthLink to create a leading IP infrastructure and solutions company by combining its existing ISP and IP-focused businesses with Deltacom’s integrated communications business.
Deltacom has 16,400 miles of fiber optic infrastructure in the Southeast.
Deltacom currently serves over 32,000 small and mid-size businesses, multi-location enterprises, government agencies and wholesale customers in the southeast with services including Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) and IP-based products. Together, the companies will offer customers a comprehensive suite of Internet, telecommunications and managed services.
Tags: Acquisitions, AL, Atlanta, Deltacom, Earthlink, Huntsville, telecom
Posted in Acquisitions, Alabama, Georgia, Other SE, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
 Ray Carey RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC -NeoNova Network Services Inc., a provider of managed broadband services for Telcos, has named Ray Carey CEO and Chair. Carey has been on the NeoNova board for the past three years.
Current CEO, John Carlson, will remain on NeoNova’s board.
For the last decade, Carey was a General Partner with Azure Capital Partners, where he will remain as a Venture Partner. During that time, Carey focused on leading companies that provide technology and solutions to the telecommunications market.
Carey has been actively involved in NeoNova since early 2008 when he led Azure’s investment in the company alongside Bridgescale Partners.
While at Azure Capital Partners, he was also involved with other leading companies in the broadband market including Calix Networks, Cyan Optics, Vapps, Inc., and World Wide Packets.
Prior to Azure, Carey worked at Credit Suisse First Boston where he provided strategic advice to several companies including ADC Telecommunications, Cerent (acquired by Cisco), Juniper Networks, and Zhone Technologies.
“We see a huge market opportunity with the future of broadband and realize that Ray has had a tremendous impact on the industry to date,” said Paul Weinstein, General Partner, Azure Capital Partners. “We are thrilled that he can take his knowledge and make this seamless transition to the CEO role.”
Tags: Azure Capital Partners, broadband, NC, NeoNova Network Serivces, Ray Carey, Research Triangle Park, telecom
Posted in Carolinas, IT, North Carolina, People, Telecommunications | Comments Off
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