In a packed room at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas, Mike Roberts, principal analyst and head of Americas at Informa Telecoms & Media, welcomed attendees of the LTE North America 2010 conference. This year’s event brings together more than 450 members of the wireless ecosystem, 52% of which are senior executives. These individuals represent more than 120 leading carriers, including: AT&T, Cellcom, Cellular South, Clearwire, MetroPCS Communications, Mobi PCS, NTT DoCoMo, Orascom Telecom, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, TeliaSonera, TELUS Mobility, TELUS Terrestar Networks, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless, and Zain Telecommunications Company.

 Roberts’ presentation, which was entitled ‘LTE: Fact & Fiction’, provided a foundation for many of the industry’s LTE questions which are expected to be addressed at this two-day conference. Highlights from the opening session included:

• LTE is here – look at MetroPCS’ recent deployments in Dallas and Las Vegas.

• LTE will NOT take over the mobile market. Operators have other technologies in mind that will work sufficiently for years to come.

• The speed that LTE is expected to bring will not directly equate to more revenue. LTE won’t mean anything to carriers and consumers alike unless services that users want to use are launched on the new network.

• LTE is expected to take off faster in the U.S. due to high mobile broadband penetration.

• The U.S. will be the top LTE market globally through the year 2015.

To learn more about the LTE North America 2010 conference, please visit http://americas.lteconference.com/.

-Stacey Infantino

On October 13-14 in Amsterdam, Bytemobile held its inaugural Mobile Minute Executive Forum for tier-one operator customers and prospects in Europe.

The invitational event focused on mobile internet challenges and opportunities for the next three years and began with cocktails and dinner aboard a yacht cruising the Amsterdam canals. Attendees included management responsible for network operations and content at Life, Orange, T-Mobile, Telefónica, TeliaSonera, and VimpelCom, who shared their views on industry trends, the Bytemobile solutions deployed in their networks, and the company’s product strategy and roadmap.

Guest speakers included Denis McCauley of The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), who presented the results of a Bytemobile-sponsored survey of mobile ecosystem executives in late 2008; Ivan Breton and Johan Hörberg of TeliaSonera, who discussed the group’s Telia SurfOpen strategy for open mobile web browsing; and Ken Hart of Yahoo! Europe, who delivered the internet brand’s perspective on mobile user behavior and its implications for operators.

The Bytemobile management speakers – Joel Brand, Saurav Chopra, Adrian Hall, and Nick Henry – addressed topics ranging from the company’s product portfolio and its value proposition for operators to the market opportunity for mobile analytics solutions and the evolution of data services that personalize the user experience. Chief Marketing Officer Adrian Hall led a panel session on operator feedback regarding Bytemobile products, services and relationships, as well as the event itself.

Attendee comments on the first Executive Forum included the following:

• The discussions with other operators was especially useful
• This has been a very informative and useful event
• Good initiative – I liked best the opportunity to meet with other operators

The interaction among operators was exemplified by a spontaneous white-boarding session in which Orange, T-Mobile and VimpelCom shared their respective ideas on data service implementation. Such ad hoc meetings occurred throughout the day and underscored the true value of the event in bringing Bytemobile customers together on common ground.

The Executive Forum is part of Bytemobile’s Mobile Minute thought leadership program for customers, prospects and partners in the global mobile ecosystem. Currently, the company plans to make the Executive Forum an annual event and expand it to other geographic regions. For more information, please contact me at gcarey@bytemobile.com.

-Graham Carey

In Stockholm, Sweden, Bytemobile honored TeliaSonera Sweden as the site of its 100th customer network deployment.  Bytemobile Executive Chairman Hatim Tyabji presented Kenneth Karlberg, president of Mobility Services at TeliaSonera AB, with an engraved Steuben Glass memento commemorating the centennial installation.  Bytemobile’s first network deployment was at Vodafone UK in 2001.

Today we announced the 100th deployment as well as Bytemobile’s group supply agreement with TeliaSonera AB.

-Tod Bottari

Bytemobile recently presented its new products at the annual SurfPort Interactive Awards, hosted by TeliaSonera AB in Stockholm, Sweden. Because of TeliaSonera’s mobile market leadership in the Nordic countries, the awards dinner is a major industry event that draws customers, content providers, solutions providers, and the media, in addition to TeliaSonera’s key decision-makers and recommenders.

The launch ceremony for TeliaSonera’s new SurfPort portal and SurfOpen off-portal web browsing service was held at Stockholm’s Grand Central Station on February 4. Presenting partners of TeliaSonera included EMI Music, IDG Sweden, JumpTap, SK Telecom, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and Bytemobile. The awards dinner followed the launch ceremony at Berns Salonger, an 18^th-century palace converted into one of Stockholm’s oldest and most prestigious nightclubs.  

Saurav Chopra, Bytemobile’s director of Internet Services, EMEA and Latin America, presented the Content Adaptation, Widget Bar, and Advertisement Targeting and Insertion applications of Web Fidelity™ Suite, with an emphasis on how these solutions will change the ways in which wireless network operators communicate with their customers. The mobile data industry’s reaction to Bytemobile’s new products has been enthusiastic.

In 2005, TeliaSonera launched the SurfPort Interactive wards as a festive evening event at which the most flourishing companies and mobile content businesses could be recognized. In 2008, TeliaSonera extended the SurfPort Interactive Awards with Emote, a conference for the mobile content industry, aimed at strengthening the role of the content provider through networking and knowledge.

To learn more about TeliaSonera’s SurfPort Interactive Awards, go here: http://www.teliasonera.com/surfport_interactive/2008/surfport_interactive.page

- Adrian Hall