Telefonica has launched its Patent Club initiative.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Telefonica has launched its Patent Club initiative. 

                     Telefonica has launched its Patent Club initiative. The project aims to promote the work of Telefonica professionals engaged in the field of innovation, Cinco Dias reports.

 One month after the Patent Club launch in February, the project already has 120 active members, says Luis Ignacio Vicente del Olmo, return on innovation manager at Telefonica I+D. The Patent Club initiative has already been implemented at Telefonica's research and development centers in Barcelona, Granada, Huesca, Valladolid and Madrid, and the company plans to expand it to its subsidiaries in UK, Israel, Silicon Valley and Brazil.                 

MWC 2012: Telefónica unveils smart 4G experience.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Left to right; Ian Miller, director of new access network Telefónica SA, Enrique Blanco, chief technology officer Telefónica SA, Wim Sweldens, president wireless division Alcaltel- Lucent Spain and Celestino García, director telecommunications Samsung.

Telefónica unveils smart 4G experience at Mobile World Congress

- Telefónica’s smarter 4G delivers increased capacity in high data-traffic density areas and greater bandwidth than current LTE networks, as well as superior indoor coverage.

- Small-cell technology speeds up network deployment, reduces costs and makes more efficient use of spectrum use and costs.

- First LTE deployment of its kind at 2.6Ghz band frequency and the first time that real users will be able to experience the benefits of the 4G technology of the future.

Barcelona, 26 February 2012. – Telefónica today announced the first live experience of the world's 'smartest' 4G network, in the most ambitious technological innovation ever deployed at the Mobile World Congress[1]. The network – the world´s first of its kind in the 2.6Ghz frequency band – provides download speeds of 100 Mbps, between 40-60Mbps on upload, vastly improved indoor coverage and can increase capacity by up to 400 per cent in high density data-traffic areas.

Based on Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio technology, Telefónica's network is a revolutionary first step towards a real 'HetNet' network, which greatly improves mobile coverage by bringing small-cell base stations closer to the customer. In this deployment conventional radio base stations co-exist with 4G metro cells (small base stations incorporating antennas and radio) working on the same frequency and with no interference. As a strong supporter for Telefonica's LTE service initiative, Samsung is also presenting the first LTE smart mobile devices for band 7 (2.6Ghz), GALAXY S II LTE smartphone and GALAXY Tab 8.9 LTE tablet, which can be used on this new high-capacity network.

The most significant feature of Telefónica's LTE network is its increased capacity – with each cell comfortably supporting 30 people browsing simultaneously with average speed of 30Mbps. Tests conducted on this network show that a 400% increase in capacity can be made available to users compared to a conventional network design, and that significantly higher capacity gains could be delivered with denser metro-network design. The network supports speeds of up to 10 times those offered by the 3G network, with download speeds of 100Mbps, upload speeds of 40-60 Mbps and with latency times of around 20-25 milliseconds.

'Today the future of mobile networks begins', said Enrique Blanco, Telefónica's Chief Technology Officer. 'The deployment of LTE that Telefónica has brought to the MWC, together with Alcatel -Lucent, gives us a glimpse of a tomorrow where everyone and everything is seamlessly connected, and in superfast time. But the challenge ahead is to ensure that all the technologies currently being deployed – 2G, 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi and Fiber – can co-exist to deliver next generation communications. Telefónica's strategy is to develop intelligent networks that allow these different technologies to co-exist efficiently and cover customers' growing connectivity needs in markets that are at different stages of development'.  

Another key benefit of the advanced feature network is that it utilises the same frequency for several network layers, allowing for far more efficient use of spectrum. This solution would also reduce network deployment costs by as much as 40 per cent, as the installation of small-cells significantly reduces the amount of construction, installation and configuration work needed. Additionally, small-cells use less powerful amplification equipment, resulting in energy savings of up to 35 per cent and a guaranteed reduction in environmental impact.

Wim Sweldens, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Wireless Division said: 'This close collaboration with Telefónica through our co-creation programme is a clear articulation of the future of mobile broadband – rather than merely evolving their current architecture, which was designed for voice and messaging, Telefónica is making fast progress toward building a mobile broadband network designed with the future in mind. The wireless network of the future needs to be lighter, greener and closer to customers and deliver much higher capacity - that is what lightRadio is all about'.

'Samsung has been actively collaborating with Telefónica for LTE trial services with a variety of device line-up from LTE dongles to MiFi and LTE smartphones across European markets. I am excited to join Telefónica's breakthrough LTE demonstration with our representative LTE models, GALAXY S II LTE and GALAXY Tab 8.9 LTE', said DJ Lee, executive vice president and head of Sales and Marketing team for Samsung Mobile. 'We are fully committed to supporting Telefónica's LTE roll-out and hopefully will try to expand our LTE partnerships not only for European markets but also including Latin American markets. Our ambition is to become a number one LTE partner for Telefónica'.

Visitors to MWC will be able to experience first-hand the wide range of options generated by this innovative network at the Telefónica stand (Hall 8), where the smallest metro cells in the market and the latest LTE devices from Samsung are being exhibited. A video wall will demonstrate the capabilities of the network by projecting filmed live at the congress and delivered via LTE. The Samsung LTE devices will be used for high-definition videoconferences. This will demonstrate for both applications the improvements in speeds of both links for uploads and downloads. There will be real-ime gaming demonstrations as well as augmented reality and hypermedia applications that highlight the latency and versatility of the network.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of market capitalisation and number of customers. From this outstanding position in the industry, and with its mobile, fixed and broadband businesses as the key drivers of its growth, Telefonica has focused its strategy on becoming a leading company in the digital world. 

The company has a significant presence in 25 countries and a customer base that amounts more than 300 million accesses around the world. Telefonica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

Telefonica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 4.563.996.485 ordinary shares traded on the Spanish Stock Market (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia) and on those in London, New York, Lima, and Buenos Aires.

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU)

The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services. The company is home to Bell Labs, one of the world's foremost R&D organizations, responsible for breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry. Alcatel-Lucent is committed to making communications more sustainable, more affordable and more accessible as we pursue our mission - Realizing the Potential of a Connected World.

With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The Company achieved revenues of Euro 15.3 billion in 2011 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

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[1] Telefónica has not only covered the Fira grounds but also other Barcelona hotspots including the Camp Nou football stadium, the Diagonal 00 tower, and the Ayre and Arts hotels.

Telefonica partnership with cloud expertise Joyent.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Telefonica Digital has become a major backer of (and strategic investor in) Joyent, the company behind Node.js, thought by many observers to be the key to driving development in the cloud 'back end'. By Ian Scales.

Joyent has just completed an $85 million investor round and will see Telefonica Digital (the new Telefonica next gen services arm) put skin in the Joyent game and get access to Joyent's 'technology expertise' as well as its technology.  

Joyent has a range of cloud products and development avenues and is in the process of building a web-scale competitor to Amazon's cloud services.

It has facilities in five data centers in the US, divided into pods to isolate possible failures.  

But the Joyent development that is capturing the tech world's attention now is Node.js - the js stands for Javascript which is the technology buried in most browsers to do the complicated local processing activities that browsers are increasingly called on to do within the Web 2.0 environment.  

Node.js is about setting Javascript to work on the server-side - in the cloud. So real cloud applications where processes are handed off from the client to the cloud (and back again) can be done by one developer with one family of tools. 

Node.js is an open source project 'stewarded' by Joyent and already has backing from the likes of Microsoft

Joyent has built up its knowledge launching and operating cloud services for 12,000 US businesses.

The Spanish incumbent’s venture capital arm handled the investment, which the operator claims will boost its new Digital division’s cloud ambitions by allowing it to leverage Joyent’s expertise to enhance cloud services for small and medium enterprises, and small and home office customers.

“Joyent’s technology fits perfectly with our in-house developed technologies and our cloud services model and enables us to provide more competitive offerings to a broader range of customer segments,” explains Matthew Key, chairman and chief of Telefonica Digital.

Telefonica’s investment forms part of an $85 million (€65.2 million) funding round conducted for Joyent by Weather Investments II. The cloud firm plans to use the monies to roll out new high-performance public clouds for global corporations throughout 2012.

The buy-in is Telefonica’s second in recent months, following its acquisition of Wi-Fi specialist Quantenna in November.

Press Release:

Telefónica boosts cloud capabilities with strategic investment in Joyent, Inc.

- Telefónica Digital through its venture capital arm joins other leading companies and VCs including Greycroft Partners and Intel Capital.

- This investment round was led by major European fund Weather Investment II Group, who gathered other strategic and financial investors to expand Joyent’s global scale.

LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO, January 23, 2012– Telefónica today announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with Joyent, a leader in cloud services and technologies. The partnership sees Telefónica making a strategic equity investment in Joyent that, in turn, gives it access to the latest Joyent technologies and software for the deployment of high performance and cost efficient cloud services.

Cloud-based services are a key focus area for Telefónica’s new Digital unit, and Joyent’s technology expertise will help Telefónica enhance its product offering, particularly for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Small Office Home Office (SoHo) customers. The partnership combines Telefónica’s global scale and infrastructure with the cloud architecture developed by Joyent.

Unlike other cloud technology providers, Joyent has developed its entire cloud software stack from scratch, resulting in significant cost reduction and efficiency, an easy to operate architecture and exceptional operational performance. The company has proven experience in defining, exploiting, commercialising and operating a cloud business with over 12,000 public cloud customers in the US.

“This investment is further proof of our ambition in the area of cloud services and our strategy of working with the most innovative start-ups,” said Matthew Key, Chairman & CEO, Telefónica Digital. “Joyent’s technology fits perfectly with our in-house developed technologies and our cloud services model and enables us to provide more competitive offerings to a broader range of customer segments.”

“This strategic partnership and funding will enable us to expand our product offering to more regions and to evolve our products, taking advantage of the service provider vision brought by Telefonica” said David Young, founder and CEO of Joyent.

Tracy Isacke led the investment in Joyent for Telefónica Ventures, a division of Telefónica Digital, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, Madrid and Israel. This is the second investment since Telefonica Digital was created in September 2011.

Telefónica Digital has been formed to lead Telefónica’s growth strategy in the new digital world. Through a combination of research and development, partnership, investment and acquisition it will bring innovative products and services to market that allow it to drive continued growth in the core telecommunications market, as well as taking a leading role in new digital services such as entertainment, financial services, M2M, cloud computing and eHealth.

About Telefónica Digital

Telefónica Digital is a global business division of Telefónica. Its mission is to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for Telefónica through research & development, venture capital, global partnerships and digital services such as cloud computing, mobile advertising,  M2M and eHealth. Telefónica Digital will deliver these innovative products and services to Telefónica’s 300 million customers as well as leveraging the power of the internet to enter new markets. It is headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paolo, Spain and Tel Aviv. Jajah, Terra, Tuenti and giffgaff are all part of the Telefónica Digital group of companies.

For further information, please contact:

Nick Wilkins                                                       Telefónica Press Office

Telefónica Digital                                              Tel: +34 91 482 38 00

Tel: +44 7712 020937                                     Email: prensa@telefonica.es

Email: nick.wilkins@o2.com                             

About Joyent, Inc.

Joyent is a global cloud computing and systems software provider that offers an integrated technology suite designed for enterprises and developers. JoyentCloud.com delivers public cloud services to some of the most innovative companies in the world, including LinkedIn, Gilt Groupe and Kabam. Node.js, the open source server-side JavaScript project owned and stewarded by Joyent, provides developers and enterprises such as Microsoft with the most powerful runtime for developing data-intensive, real-time apps. Joyent is also the key contributor to and sponsor of Joyent SmartOS, an open source project dedicated to the complete, modern operating system.  SmartDataCenter orchestrates Joyent’s technologies into a cohesive, reliable and distributed system that can stand up to the compute demands of the modern world. A global ecosystem of leading technology partners assists Joyent in enabling customers to leverage the performance, scalability, reliability and security inherent in the company’s cloud solutions. For more information, visit http://www.joyent.com

Joyent Media Contact:                            

Scott VanSickle 

Hoffman PR 

Scott@hoffman.com  

Telefonica and RIM trial NFC payments for BB.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Telefonica has developed a version of its proposed digital wallet to trial with NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones. 

 The two companies will initially run a trial for 350 Telefonica employees at the operator's headquarters in Spain in collaboration with local banks and retailers. 

Those involved in the trial will be able to make payments by tapping their BlackBerry against a reader and Telefonica employees will also be able to use their smartphones instead of a pass card to enter the operator’s head office. 

The operator is moving towards wider scale NFC-based launches in 2012 according to an announcement of the trial. Matthew Key, chairman and CEO of Telefonica, said the operator will launch wallet services commercially in several markets next year.

The Telefonica wallet is supported by the following BlackBerry smartphones: the Bold 9900, Curve 9360 and 9380 all three of which run on the latest BlackBerry 7 OS.

 The trial is based on SIM-based NFC technology.  The application looks like a physical wallet illustrating the various cards available to the user. Once a card is selected then users have a range of options including making a payment or seeing an account balance.

Telefonica and Bouygues Telecom announced strategic partnership

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Europe and Latin American operator group Telefonica announced an alliance with French number three Bouygues Telecom, which is set to join the Telefonica Partners Program. In a statement, the Spain-based group said that it will work with Bouygues to offer improved roaming services, and to provide services to large corporate accounts, including multinationals. 

Bouygues will also gain access to Telefonica Global Services, its global procurement business, and the two will also cooperate on devices. The agreement also includes “the possibility of extending the cooperation into other areas.”

Telefonica has highlighted growth through a community of partners and alliances as part of its future strategy, alongside organic growth and “selected acquisitions” to bolster its position in key markets. 

It said that its Partners Program is “based on the experience of its current industrial partnerships with China Telecom and Telecom Italia.” Bouygues stands to benefit through access to a large, international telecoms group partner – its key rivals in its home market are France Telecom/Orange, and media group Vivendi’s SFR.

Telefonica inks encrypted voice deal.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Telefonica inked a deal with Cellcrypt, which describes itself as “the leading provider of encrypted voice calling on mobile phones,” to offer secure voice services in the 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where the Spain-based giant operates.

 The technology is “used by governments and corporations globally,” with a downloadable app for smartphones providing end-to-end encryption of voice over 2G, 3G, WiFi and satellite networks.

Spain: Telefónica and ZTE presented the new Light Pro tablet.

WorldWide tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Movistar will sell exclusively the new device  in Spain from May . ZTE  the fourth largest manufacturer of mobile phones  in the Spanish market with a high value product through Telefonica, which seeks to extend the use of tablets to all customers.

This device equipped with the Android ™ 2.2 operating system., Has great multimedia capabilities and an unbeatable price (between 0 and 39 euros), making it especially attractive to all audiences.

Telefónica and ZTE today launched the new 'Tablet Light Pro', which combines Wi-Fi and 3G multimedia high capacity at an attractive price so far unprecedented for such devices.

Movistar will market exclusively since May between 0 and 39 euros, thereby opening the market to all customers of Residential Customers and Business.

With this launch, the company oriental includes a product in the high-end phones, of great strategic value to the operator.

 The ZTE Light Pro is a 7-inch tablet with Android OS ™ 2.2, the first of a series of high quality products at unbeatable prices, with the Movistar wants to popularize the use of tablets and publicize their chances all applications.

Both new clients, such as those from other companies to behave or to move from prepay to contract can purchase the new tablet for 0 € hiring a flat-rate Internet Maxi (49 € / month) or 19 with flat rate Internet Plus (39 € / month).

 Also for business segment customers, the price of new device range from 0 to 119 euros depending on the type of voice and data contract are signed.

Those who are already customers of Movistar, thanks to customer loyalty program points of the company, may acquire the terminal on very favorable terms depending on the points accumulated and contracted fees.

ZTE, technological partner of Open-Masters Madrid Mutua 1,000 of tennis in the ATP circuit, the device has built an application specifically developed for this sporting event, which provides official statistics, player information and schedules time competition real.Thus, tennis fans and sports information professionals have in the new Light Pro an ally to get all the documentation they need right away and keep abreast of developments in the tournament.

With this release tablets Telefónica gives prominence within their portfolio and recognizes the important role that they will acquire in the coming years in the connectivity market, a sector in constant and rapid growth in the explosion of new services and technologies that will improve the life of users and increase business productivity.

The Tablet Light Pro is a sophisticated design and offers the best experience to be a compact, comfortable and with a touch screen HVGA 7 ', which provides a constant web browsing and can be placed on the home screen large numbers of applications and widgets easily access them.

The Tablet Light Pro offers high performance and unlimited multimedia entertainment options, thanks to more than 150,000 applications for Android. It also has a 3 mega pixel camera and built-in GPS for use with a browser.

The user will see all their needs constant entertainment and social networking connection, it comes preloaded with YouTube, Facebook or Twitter and installed by default brings the most popular Google ™ applications such as YouTube ™, Gmail ™ and Google Maps ™ .All this can be enjoyed at any time by the user through the connectivity that provides the Wi-Fi and 3G connection built into the equipment.

It can synchronize with a personal computer using the USB cable in the box, exchanging emails, calendars and tasks. In addition to allowing users to share photos with friends, songs, videos and other using Bluetooth ®.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world by market capitalization and number of customers. Its activities are centered mainly in business fixed and mobile telephony, with broadband as the key tool for the development of both.

It operates in 25 countries and has a customer base of more than 280 million accesses around the world. Telefonica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, the latter region where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

Telefónica is a fully private company. It has more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital is currently divided into 4,563,996,485 ordinary shares traded on the continuous market on the Spanish stock exchanges (Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bilbao and Valencia) and the London, Tokyo, New York, Lima, Buenos Aires São Paulo.

About ZTE

ZTE, a global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, operating in over 140 countries worldwide. Founded in 1985, offers a wide variety of products such as smartphones, tablets, routers, modems, 3G and the provision of broadband services.ZTE, with a turnover of 8,000 million euros in 2010, the company is China's largest telecommunications market capitalization, operating both on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as of Hongkong. Recently, ZTE has been recognized as the world's fourth largest mobile phone sales (last quarter of 2010).

ZTE's mission is to provide high value products purchasable at a price to final consumers.With over 80,000 employees and 15 R & D centers in the world, growth in Europe and especially in Spain is considered a strategic objective for the company in 2011.

Telefonica and Microsoft Bring BlueVia to .NET Framework Developers

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Alliance extends BlueVia’s reach, providing Microsoft’s 6 million-strong .NET Framework

developer community with easy access to Telefonica’s network capabilities for the creation of new communications-enabled applications.

LONDON — 28 March, 2011 — Today, Microsoft Corp. and Telefonica S.A.

announced a collaboration that creates new possibilities for application development across PC,TV, mobile and beyond, powered by Telefonica’s new BlueVia developer platform. BlueVia software development kit (SDK) for .NET offers a range of rich developer tools, including the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, specifically enhanced for the design and creation of applications that integrate BlueVia APIs, such as short message service (SMS), advertising and user contextual information.

The SDK includes Windows Azure, Microsoft’s open cloud platform, for the creation of Internet-scale applications with no initial investment in infrastructure required by developers.

This collaboration project combines telco functionality from Telefonica with Microsoft’s experience in Web development and the cloud, to help drive innovation in applications and services in a simple and frictionless way.

“BlueVia is looking to revolutionize the world of communications by opening up

Telefonica’s network capabilities to the world’s largest established community of software

developers familiar with .NET Framework,” said Vivek Dev, director of Global New Services, Telefonica.

 “Our partnership with Microsoft will accelerate BlueVia’s reach and extend our presence

beyond mobile into PC, TV and gaming platforms. Combining our assets will create applications that bring valuable entertainment and productivity to 280 million Telefonica customers worldwide,” Dev added.

BlueVia SDK for .NET is a set of drag-and-drop controls and templates for Visual Studio

2010 that provides an intuitive development environment for developers.

 Windows Azure allows developers to host their applications in the cloud and supports multiple developer languages including .NET, Java, PHP, Ruby, and Python. Apps hosted on Windows Azure can also be published to Windows Phone 7, Windows 7-based PCs, slates and netbooks, Internet Explorer 9, Xbox 360, and other device platforms.

 Controls for Windows Live enable developers to access key functionality such as user identity and contacts, to allow for the creation of real-time, programmable voice and data communications services that leverage social-networking capabilities.

Select independent software vendors have tested BlueVia SDK for .NET ahead of launch,

and apps already created include these:

• Medianet, in partnership with Tweetalondoncab, has developed TAXISTOP, a

passenger booking and fleet management app for smartphones using the .NET

Framework and Windows Azure, and extending functionality to include feature

phones by leveraging BlueVia’s SMS API while cutting typical development lead

times by up to 30 percent.

• Schakra has developed GoGoStat Connect, an app for managing how different

people reach you at different times or in different locations and situations, whether

through phone, text, social media or email. GoGoStat Connect is built for Windows

Phone 7, hosted on Windows Azure, and uses SMS from BlueVia to blend social

media activity with mobile communications and Web services.

• Cooliris has developed LiveShare, a new, live and hyperpersonal way to

communicate within shared groups using media streams on mobile and Web. The

LiveShare app is designed to fully leverage the capabilities of Windows Phone 7 and

Windows Azure within the BlueVia SDK for .NET, along with SMS from BlueVia,

for unique media-sharing experiences at scale to Telefonica network users worldwide.

“This relationship with Telefonica is an incredible opportunity for our worldwide

community of developers to build mobile applications that serve millions of customers,” said Tony Mestres, vice president, Consumer Channels, Communications Sector at Microsoft.

“Given the combined capabilities — and richness — of Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft Silverlight, Internet Explorer, Windows Azure, Windows Phone 7, Windows 7 and Windows Live services, we believe there are huge prospects for innovation in connected consumer experiences and the cloud. We can’t wait to see what our developer community comes up with.”

España: Orange, Telefónica y Vodafone firman un acuerdo de colaboración sin precedentes para impulsar el despegue del NFC móvil.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Telefónica España, Vodafone y Orange, aprueban un acuerdo de colaboración para favorecer el desarrollo del NFC móvil en España.

Las tres operadoras líderes de telefonía móvil en España, Telefónica España, Vodafone y Orange, han firmado un acuerdo pionero de colaboración para favorecer el desarrollo del NFC (Near Field Communications) móvil en España.

En concreto, el objetivo del acuerdo es lograr la máxima compatibilidad y homogeneidad tanto en la experiencia de cliente como en la tecnología utilizada para así simplificar la adopción de los servicios NFC por parte de los clientes, terceras empresas y proveedores de tecnología.

Este acuerdo coincide además con el reciente impulso de la GSMA a la estandarización de las soluciones NFC por parte de los operadores de comunicaciones móviles.

Los trabajos conjuntos de las tres operadoras se centrarán en el uso del teléfono móvil y más específicamente en utilizar la SIM como elemento de seguridad de las transacciones con NFC (por ejemplo accesos en transporte, ticketing, pagos en proximidad, etc).

Los avances en el marco de esta colaboración permitirán ofrecer a los usuarios y a terceras empresas una experiencia de uso y un desarrollo de los servicios NFC sencillo y homogéneo, con independencia de la operadora que preste el servicio de telefonía móvil.

De este modo, se generará un ecosistema estable que evite la fragmentación del mercado.

En cualquier caso, el acuerdo, que está abierto a otros operadores que deseen adherirse al mismo, no contempla los modelos de negocio y los planes de comercialización de los servicios NFC móvil, que dependerán de cada operadora.

NFC es una tecnología de interconexión de dispositivos que se considera ya como el  sistema del futuro para ticketing en transportes o pagos. El uso es sencillo ya que basta acercar el teléfono móvil al lector de validación. 

 Los servicios NFC permiten llevar en el móvil todas las tarjetas y llaves que usan en la vida diaria, siendo sus  usos más comunes los servicios que permitan acceder a información, realizar actividades de validación de tickets para acceder a transporte o recintos de ocio como cines o museos, pagos en proximidad en general, como el transporte urbano o el aparcamiento público, acumulación de puntos en tarjetas de fidelización, uso de cupones en entornos de fidelización, etc.

Spain: Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone have signed an unprecedented partnership to boost the uptake of mobile NFC.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Spain Telefonica, Vodafone and Orange, approved a cooperation agreement to promote the development of mobile NFC in Spain.

The three leading mobile operators in Spain, Telefonica Spain, Vodafone and Orange have signed a groundbreaking agreement for collaboration to promote the development of NFC (Near Field Communications) mobile phone in Spain.

Specifically, the agreement aims to achieve maximum compatibility and uniformity in both the customer experience and the technology used in order to simplify the adoption of NFC services by customers, other companies and technology providers.

This agreement coincides with the recent momentum in the GSMA to the standardization of NFC solutions by mobile operators.

Joint work of the three operators will focus on mobile phone use and more specifically to use the SIM as a security for NFC transactions (eg transport access, ticketing, proximity payments, etc).

Advances in the framework of this collaboration will allow users to provide or third party user experiences and development of NFC services simple and consistent, regardless of the operator to provide mobile phone service.

This will generate a stable ecosystem to avoid market fragmentation.

In any case the agreement, which is open to other operators who wish to join it, does not include business models and marketing plans mobile NFC services, which depend on each operator.

NFC is a device interconnect technology that is already considered as the future system in transport ticketing and payments. The usage is simple and is sufficient to bring the mobile phone to the validating reader.

 NFC services carried on the phone all the cards and keys that are used in daily life, and its most common uses services that provide access to information, carry out validation tickets to access to transportation or entertainment venues such as cinemas ormuseums, proximity payments in general, such as transport or public parking, accumulation of points on loyalty cards, coupons using loyalty environments, etc..

Spain: Telefonica chooses fonYou for cloud telephony

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

fonYou, the Barcelona-based cloud telephony pioneer, today confirmed the first introduction of its innovative Online Mobile Telephony (OMT) platform by a Tier One global telecoms operator.

Telefonica, one of the five largest telecom operators worldwide, has announced the launch of a virtual mobile number service using fonYou’s carrier-grade OMT-9000 platform.

Called “Second Line”, the Telefonica service will offer customers a second mobile phone number on their existing phone and SIM card. It will give them access to a new range of cloud-based “over-the-top” services such as visual voicemail, real-time call register and advanced filtering and blocking functions for incoming calls.

The introduction of the Second Line service by a major telco is further evidence of the increasing interest and importance of cloud-based telephony services. It follows quickly on the launch last month of the “MyTools” service by challenger South African operator Cell-C. MyTools is also based on the OMT-9000 platform from fonYou.

At last month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona it was apparent that there was growing interest in the link between “The Cloud” and the mobile market and, according to fonYou CEO Fernando Núñez-Mendoza, Telefonica’s launch of cloud-based services is a highly significant move by a Tier One operator.

“Mobile operators have seen the trend and reacted,” he said. “They know that they must not leave this field open to new and challenging competitors such as Google Voice or Skype. They must get involved and compete themselves.”

Núñez-Mendoza had previously warned about the dangers of largely ignoring new competitors to the telco and wireless market. Skype’s share of international call traffic doubled to around 25 per cent in 2010, he said, and SMS traffic, although still strong, is facing increasing competition from instant messaging services fuelled by the growth in smartphone usage and wifi hotspots.

Nevertheless, Núñez-Mendoza had a strong positive message for operators.

“Ultimately,” he explained, “it is the mobile operators who are in the best position to offer customers high-quality cloud services. They control the access networks, they can build on existing payment relationships, and they have already secured a position of trust with the customers regarding confidential information etc. They are in a good place to compete and succeed in the provision of cloud-based services.”

Having secured two major contracts in quick succession, Núñez-Mendoza and fonYou are naturally in a buoyant mood.

“The opportunity to work with a major telco and to help make our services available to a user base as significant as Telefonica’s in Spain is naturally exciting but,” he added, “so is the opportunity to introduce consumer cloud services in a market such as South Africa where PC penetration is relatively low.”

“However, there is no doubt that the launch of Second Line in Spain marks the beginning of a new stage in the development of our company and demonstrates the huge potential that fonYou’s Cloud Telephony Services have for mobile operators.”