France: Virgin Mobile becomes full Orange France MVNO .

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

France: Virgin Mobile becomes full Orange France MVNO .

France Telecom-Orange will allow Virgin Mobile to run on its network in France as full MVNO. Omea Telecom-owned Virgin Mobile will begin to operate on the network in a few months.

 Virgin Mobile will use its own core network components and interconnection equipment while using the Orange radio network. Virgin Mobile previously ran on Orange’s network as a light MVNO using solely Orange’s infrastructure.

Nokia, Orange and Deutsche Telekom partner for apps store

WorldWide Tech & SCience. Francisco De Jesús.



Nokia announced its “Ovi Store operator app store concept” in partnership with Orange France and Deutsche Telekom, which it said provides operators with “a familiar branded channel on Ovi Store, and global opportunities to differentiate and build revenues with their own content collections and consumer-convenient operator billing.”


 Intended to deliver operators worldwide “new ways to differentiate and compete,” the programme enables these partners to create their own apps and services with tools such as connectors, Ovi App Wizard, and a set of APIs – including cloud social and location interfaces.


 Operators can also use marketing, promotional and content spotlight opportunities inside Ovi Store to promote specific apps and content, along with easy one-click access to the operator app store from the Ovi Store's mobile home page.


In a statement, Nokia said that “with daily downloads topping 5 million per day, Ovi Store is a rapidly growing destination for apps, games and other content.” It also offers operator billing support with 112 operators in 37 markets. 


The company’s plans for Ovi Store moving forward are not totally clear, as the company said that it intends launching a Nokia branded global application store that leverages the Windows Market place infraestructure as part of its wide-ranging partnership with Microsoft.


Rainer Deutschmann, SVP of Mobile Products for Deutsche Telekom, noted: "customers are increasingly overwhelmed by the rapidly growing number of apps. Deutsche Telekom's shelf within Nokia's Ovi store represents an integral part in our approach to give customers easy access to relevant own and partner apps – including freemium and exclusive offers."

France: Orange to roll-out NFC payments across Europe

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Orange, France announced a major rollout of NFC-based contactless mobile payment technology across its European footprint. Announced at a meeting with mobile handset manufacturers held in Paris this week, new NFC-enabled SIM cards will be introduced for Orange postpaid customers beginning in the second half of 2011. Its home market of France appears to be its initial focus, with the operator planning to equip at least 500,000 of its French customers with compatible devices by the end of next year. 

Orange, told handset vendors that it is aiming for over half of new smartphone models that it buys to be compatible with the technology. “Orange is the first European operator to make such a clear commitment to the development of mobile contactless services,” said CEO Stephane Richard  in a statement. "To make it a reality for our customers, Orange is working with other operators, banks, retailers, transport and service providers to create an eco-system which will stimulate the development of services adapted to everyone’s needs."

Orange said the new technology will enable users to validate transport tickets, pay for concerts or make purchases in local shops by swiping their phone over an electronic reader. Coupled with mobile applications, mobile contactless services can also give users information such as transport timetables, opening hours or directions. In France, the latest announcement builds upon the ‘Cityzi’ commercial payments pilot running since May 2010 in Nice, in which Orange is involved.

 This service will be launched commercially across France in 2011, making it one of the world’s first mass-market commercial contactless services. The 'Player One Cityzi' handset will be sold across France from January, and further models will follow.