Vodafone to launch super-fast 4G mobile network - The Australian

Vodafone to launch super-fast 4G mobile network - The Australian

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Nokia working hard to extend Windows Phone - this time, DLNA - HEXUS.net

When you buy a Nokia Lumia phone, you don't just receive Windows Phone 7.5, what you receive is something more complete, more, well, Apple-like.

Whilst Windows provides owners with Bing Maps, Xbox Live Hub, Office Applications and a Marketplace, Nokia bundles a lot of value-added and more robust features, such as Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Contacts Transfer, Nokia Music & TV and, more recently, Nokia Camera Extras, offering advanced camera functionality.

This time around, the firm has released, free to download for Lumia users, Nokia Play To, an app that brings DLNA streaming to Nokia's Windows Phone devices, plugging a large hole when up against the likes of competitor Samsung's GALAXY S series. Nokia Play To allows users to stream various types of content direct from their Lumia phone, wirelessly to any DLNA-compatible device, typically a Smart TV.

Were Nokia's goodwill targeting devices that ran Google Android, we'd perhaps be less impressed by the firm's offerings, with the Android Play store already containing a myriad of useful, functionality extending apps, however, with Windows Marketplace still far less vibrant and diverse, at least until Windows Phone 8 that is, Nokia is undoubtedly providing a great service to its customers and we look forward to seeing the firm continue to extend the functionality of its devices.

Vodafone 4G Arrives 2013, HSPA+ this September - Computerworld Australia

Vodafone has targeted the end of the year to complete rollout of its new mobile network supporting HSPA+ and 4G LTE. The carrier said the $1 billion, 2-year investment would result in better mobile coverage, increased data speeds and better network reliability.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia will turn on 3G+ (dual carrier - High Speed Packet Access+) in “selected metropolitan areas” this September and start rolling out LTE “in selected areas from 2013.” The telco will confirm exact timing of the LTE rollout “after working through the required tender process and contract negotiations,” it said.

Also by year end, Vodafone said it would install new transmission equipment and upgrade thousands of its base station connections to IPv6.

Vodafone has completed rolling out the new network in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Canberra, it said. “Vodafone reports significant improvements in the performance metrics it uses to assess customers’ call quality and continuity of smartphone, tablet and mobile broadband data sessions in all upgraded states and territories.”

Deploying the network in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne is in progress, Vodafone said. The carrier aims to finish the upgrades “to all sites on the Eastern Seaboard later this year.”

Customers’ current mobile phones, tablets and mobile broadband devices will work with the new, higher-speed network, Vodafone said. Coverage will be further enhanced by a proposed joint venture with Optus, covering 96 per cent of the Australian population starting April next year, the carrier said.

“Vodafone went through a very severe period of customer loss because the network wasn’t performing adequately,” Gartner analyst, Geoff Johnson, told Computerworld Australia. This latest announcement “is one of several periodic attempts that you’re going to see now to soothe the nerves of the market.”

Vodafone “can never move fast enough to recover [its] lost reputation,” Johnson said. Fixing “the reputation is going to take a period of probably a year or two beyond when the network’s technically complete.”

The new network brings much-needed improvements to the Vodafone network, making the carrier more competitive with market leader Telstra, which already has 4G, Telsyte analyst, Chris Coughlin, said. Vodafone has 30 MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band, twice as much as each Telstra and Optus. That wealth of spectrum could allow Vodafone to roll out LTE at higher speeds and with greater capacity than its competitors, he said.

Vodafone has had a “challenging couple years” integrating the Vodafone and Hutchison networks while building a new, faster network, Coughlin said.

Vodafone announced the network upgrade one day after an Optus official revealed a $2 billion investment in 4G. In an ironic twist, Vodafone customers in six states experienced data outages earlier in the day.

Follow Adam Bender on Twitter: @WatchAdam

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

Vodafone NZ and BlinkMobile team up on mobilisation initiative - IT wire

Using Blink Mobile’s mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP), which enables businesses to mobilise information across their organisation on a variety of internet capable devices, including smartphones and tablets, Vodafone says its business customers will benefit from the partnership through use of the “innovative and unique solution”.  

According to Vodafone Director of Sales, Grant Hopkins, “Vodafone customers on the Blink Mobility Platform will be able to abandon paper systems in favour of remotely submitting reports, accessing applications and completing job sheets while they’re out in the field.   It’s a future-proof and more simple way for our business customers to work wherever they are.

“This is a hugely exciting collaboration for Vodafone and BlinkMobile.  Organisations around the world are discovering the benefits of mobilising their workforce, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of this innovation in New Zealand.”

BlinkMobile Director, Tony Harris, said the partnership with Vodafone New Zealand was the first the company had signed with a telecommunications provider anywhere in the world.  “BlinkMobile is excited with the visionary approach Vodafone New Zealand is taking in providing their business customers with a complete mobile solution beyond devices and data plans, and additionally how those employees access just those components of their business systems that add massive value to their mobile work day,” Harris concluded.