Vodafone Fiji : Free M-PAiSA for Six Months

Vodafone Fiji : Free M-PAiSA for Six Months:

Vodafone has announced zero fees and charges on all M-PAiSA transactions for the next six months calling it the “Free for ALL” promotion. Effectively, customers can now use Vodafone’s M-PAiSA service to do any M-PAiSA transactions at no cost to the user. Customers will be able deposit money and withdraw cash from their M-PAiSA account at no cost. They will also be able to send money to any mobile number and receive money in their M-PAiSA account anywhere in Fiji at no cost; there is no sending and withdrawal fee.

Furthermore, M-PAiSA customers will also be able to enjoy free international money transfer service, ie they will be able to receive money from Australia and New Zealand directly on mobile phone at no cost. This is huge boost and big savings this festive season for many families who receive money from their loved ones in Australia and New Zealand. Upon receipt of monies in the M-PAiSA account, customers can visit any M-PAiSA agent and withdraw the full amount received with no deductions and no withdrawal charges. It offers greater convenience because money sent from overseas is received directly on the recipients’ mobile phone within seconds of it being sent.

Also made free for next six months are all business payment options available through M-PAiSA. These include FEA and Water Authority of Fiji bill payments. Customers will be able to pay their bills from home by depositing money in the M-PAiSA account at an agent and using the bill pay option. Today if customers travel just one stage by bus to pay their bills, it costs them 75 cents. With free bill pay service through M-PAiSA customers now have means and convenience to pay their bills on time at no cost.

Other business payments available at no cost to the user includes hire purchase payments for Courts Fiji Limited, PBS TV subscription, FDB and Housing Authority loan repayments , town and city council rate and parking fines , Fijian Holding Unit Trust and Unit Trust of Fiji payments for unit purchases and Judicial department traffic and criminal fines. Also available at no cost to the user is the loan repayment for the clients of SPBD.

“Thousands of customers are already using this revolutionary mobile phone based financial service that is considered very trendy, convenient and cost effective. With zero fees and charges on all M-PAiSA transactions for next six months, we expect all Vodafone customers to trial this service. They will soon realize how easy, safe and convenient it is to use M-PAiSA for sending and receiving money as well as to make bill payment and other business payments” said Mr. Prasad.

“There are no other hidden fee and charges like monthly account maintenance fees. As an example, if you deposited $100 in your account and left it for a year, you can expect to get your money in full at the end of the year with no deduction whatsoever”, The M-PAiSA Manager said.

Telefonica and NEC Start Cloud Computing Services in Argentina(December 8, 2011): News Room | NEC

Telefonica and NEC Start Cloud Computing Services in Argentina(December 8, 2011): News Room | NEC:

Tokyo and Buenos Aires, December 8, 2011 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today that Telefónica has launched "APLICATECA" in Argentina, cloud services using NEC's cloud platform.

In February 2011, Telefónica selected NEC as a strategic partner to promote cloud computing in Latin America. As a result, Telefónica is now approaching its customers with a new option based on the SaaS business system (Software as a Service), designed to facilitate access to a variety of digital applications and services where the customer only pays for the number of licenses that are used.

This project allows Telefónica to boost its innovative services in Latin America by using a more efficient model that reduces time-to-market. Initially, Telefónica aims to support small and medium sized businesses in Latin America by breaking down the current entry barriers to new technologies and IT applications, while encouraging an open environment for developers to launch new applications.

Looking forward, NEC's deployment of platforms for cloud services in Argentina can be applied to a wide variety of areas.

Nokia Siemens Networks inaugurates service delivery center in Mexico | Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks inaugurates service delivery center in Mexico | Nokia Siemens Networks:

Nokia Siemens Networks today inaugurated a new center in Mexico to deliver remote services to operators across Latin America and around the world. The service delivery center – or SDC – will provide network design and planning as well as optimization and assurance for both networks and the services running over them. The new center aims to ensure excellent network performance, and an enhanced customer experience, while reducing operational costs.

The new center joins Nokia Siemens Networks’ existing global network of SDCs for optimizing networks remotely for operators. The company’s four other SDCs are operating from Chennai and Noida in India, Lisbon in Portugal, and from Shanghai in China. The Mexico SDC will provide network planning and optimization services (NPO)* to operators in Latin America and eventually extend these capabilities to other regions. Nokia Siemens Networks currently supports a number of operators with its remote service delivery model.

“With the surge in network traffic due to increasing adoption of smartphones and the use of data intensive services such as VoIP, video download and IPTV, operators are seeking to improve customer experience,” said Jose Luis Garcia, head of global service delivery for Nokia Siemens Networks. “We have increased our focus on optimizing the specific services our customers offer, in addition to providing network optimization, and this new center is part of that effort.”

Nokia Siemens Networks’ SDCs combine the traditional network optimization services with services optimization. Network optimization services ensure network performance for more consistent and reliable services with improved call connection ratio and data speed. Services optimization improves the overall performance of different services, applications and devices to enhance the customer experience.

“The telecom market in Latin America is growing rapidly with increasing demand for higher value services,” said Eduardo Araujo, head of Nokia Siemens Networks in the Latin America region. “We already have strong partnerships with operators across the continent. Mexico is a high growth market and we estimate it is the region’s second largest with more than 23%** share of the Latin Americans market in 2011. Our new Mexico SDC will help us further strengthen our position in the region to serve our customer base across the Americas.”

“We have already set up a Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) for network operations in Brazil, which was inaugurated earlier this year. The new SDC in Mexico further enhances our global service delivery in the Latin American market,” said Araujo.

The global network of five SDCs supports multi-technology, multi-vendor networks for operators. These centers support radio (2G, 3G and 4G technologies), transport, core and IP networks, as well as an increasing range of services, applications and devices.

Telefónica launches "Movistar One" in Latin American to revolutionise the smartphone market in the region

Telefónica launches "Movistar One" in Latin American to revolutionise the smartphone market in the region

Madrid, 7th December 2011.- Telefónica will launch its Movistar ONE smartphone in Latin America during the 2011/12 Christmas campaign. The high-end smartphone uses the Android Gingerbread operating system and is available from the Movistar catalogue at a very competitive price, thereby offering a greater number of customers access to the latest in mobile technology.

Users in Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua will be the first to enjoy the new Movistar ONE with sales of the device being extended to the rest of the region during the first quarter of 2012.

Movistar ONE is perfect for users wanting to surf the net, keep in touch with their personal and professional contacts by email, use instant messaging (Whatsapp or Gtalk) or social networking (Facebook or Twitter) sites, use location services or create and watch multimedia content (photos, audio and video), among other possibilities.

To offer an even more rewarding user experience, the handset also boasts Movistar's own services and content (such as Diversión Movistar, Sonora and Terabox), while applications and games can also be downloaded from its application store.

The Movistar ONE also boasts a range of high performance features such as a 2.8 inch capacitive touch screen, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, a 2 Mpx camera and high download speed (up to 7.2Mbps).

The new Movistar ONE handset is the result of the collaboration agreement forged between handset manufacturer ZTE and Telefónica in Latin America, initiated in early 2010, and which has seen the successful marketing of over a dozen Movistar devices in the region.

Smartphones represent an increasing percentage of the handsets being commercialised in Latin America. According to Pyramid Research, smartphones account for 17.9% of the total amount of devices purchased in the Region, a figure expected to grow up to 24.5% and 32.3%, in 2012 and 2013, respectively. On the other hand, Android is the predominant operating system in Latin America and according to Strategy Analytics it has been the operating system chosen by more than 50% of the smartphones buyers during the third quarter of 2011, versus 20.3% the previous year.

UNE and Huawei to Deploy its First LTE Commercial Network in South America

[Bogota, Colombia, 11 November, 2011]: Huawei, a leading global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions provider, announced today that it will deploy its first LTE (Long Term Evolution) commercial network in South America for UNE Colombia.

UNE is the largest fixed broadband operator in Colombia. To keep its industry's leadership in broadband, UNE has decided to provide Mobile Broadband (MBB) based services enabled by a best of breed LTE network. As such, UNE selected Huawei as its preferred technology partner and Huawei's end to end future oriented SingleRAN LTE solution, evolved packet core network solution and LTE terminals.

Throughout this first stage of project, UNE will deploy the network in Bogota and Medellin using Huawei's LTE leading edge solution. Also the entire core network will be geared with Huawei equipments. Furthermore as for now, Huawei will provide terminal devices for UNE, including the world's first LTE five-mode USB dongle –E392 and other models.

"We are pleased to partner with Huawei for the deployment of Colombia's first commercial LTE network for the first stage" said Juan Ignacio Palacio, VP international business, UNE. "UNE is committed to providing its customers the best and fastest possible Mobile Broadband Internet experience. We believe that Huawei's cutting-edge SingleRAN LTE solution will enable us to rapidly achieve our objective of building one of the largest and best next-generation mobile networks in Colombia."

Ying Weimin, President of GSM&UMTS&LTE Network, Huawei, said:" We are pleased that UNE Colombia has chosen Huawei as its partner of choice for its LTE commercial network deployment. This underscores Huawei's top position in the LTE field and highlights its leading advantages in the MBB solutions delivery. The cooperation between UNE and Huawei will accelerate the LTE commercialization progress in South and Latin America's MBB market."

According to the latest GSA's (the Global Mobile Supplier Association) LTE Evolution Report released on October 12, 2011, there are 35 commercial LTE networks globally - 18 of them are using Huawei's end-to-end SingleRAN LTE solution. Huawei ranks No.1 worldwide with over 50% market share.