The Mobile Excellence Awards (MEA) Monsay announced its 2008 Mobile Excellence Awards winners i9n Los Angeles.

The Mobile Excellence Awards were founded to recognize the best in mobile categories including media, marketing and technology within the mobile entertainment industry.

The competition finalists and winners were selected based upon strategic initiatives and objectives, impact of technology used, creativity, ease of use and reach, and execution and proven market success. Judges for the 2008 Mobile Excellence Awards were comprised of an esteemed panel of industry leaders and luminaries.

The 2008 Mobile Excellence Winners are:

• Best Mobile Start Up - EQO Communications

• Best Innovator, Mobile Technology – 2Ergo

• Best Mobile for Original Programming - Sony Pictures TV International, Afterworld

• Best Mobile Music – GracenoteBest Mobile Advertising - GoTV Networks for Crecent Heights

• Best Innovator, Mobile Entertainment – Transpera

• Best Mobile for Adapted Campaign - DirectTV/NFL

• Best Mobile Comeback – FusionOne

• Best Mobile Games - EA Mobile for Monopoly

• Best Mobile Community Fan Content – Vringo

• Mobile Ambassador Award – Jack Hallahan, MobiTV

• Peoples Choice Award – GoTV Networks

“We are very proud of all the 2008 Mobile Excellence Award winners. These companies are visionaries and creative leaders who are driving the transformation of the mobile entertainment industry,” said Jari Tammisto, CEO of Mobile Monday Global.

“We congratulate them all and look forward to seeing them all and other new companies participate in another successful and innovative awards program in 2009.”

AdMob, the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace, today highlighted growing WiFi usage in the US and the UK in its November 2008 Mobile Metrics Report. Worldwide iPhone requests grew 52 percent month over month to 359 million in November, giving the iPhone 6.3 percent of total requests. In the US the iPhone is now the #1 device with 9.9 percent of requests.

The iPhone has by far the most WiFi usage, with 42 percent of requests coming in over WiFi instead of a mobile operator network. The inclusion of WiFi on popular new smartphones such as the G1 and BlackBerry Bold indicates WiFi usage will continue to grow in the coming months. WiFi only devices such as the iPod Touch and Sony PlayStation Portable also generated significant traffic.

AdMob statistics are based on its own service of more than 4.0 billion mobile banner and text ads per month. Other highlights from the November 2008 report:

• In the US, 8 percent of total requests in November were on WiFi networks, up from 3 percent in August. 42 percent of iPhone requests are made from WiFi, notably higher than most other WiFi capable phones which average between 10-20 percent. iPhone WiFi usage is generally higher on iPhone specific sites and applications than on normal mobile sites.

• In the UK, 8 percent of requests in November were on WiFi networks, up from 4 percent in August. After the iPhone and iPod Touch, the Nokia N95 and other N series phones are the leading WiFi devices.

• Worldwide requests were flat in November at 5.8 billion. Requests from North America, Western Europe, Latin America, and Eastern Europe each increased more than 10 percent month over month. These increases were offset by a decline in Indonesian inventory.

• The G1 (HTC Dream) generated 15 million requests in November and already represents 7 percent of all T-Mobile traffic. Android had a 2 percent share of smartphone operating system traffic in the US.

AdMob stores and analyzes handset and operator data from every ad request in its network to optimize ad serving. Each month, the Mobile Metrics Report aggregates this data to provide insights into major trends in the mobile ecosystem.

President Martti Ahtisaari, who received the Nobel Peace Prize last week, will be supporting the efforts of MobileMonday to establish an African research program on the opportunities of mobility.

MobileMonday’s CEO, Jari Tammisto, met Tuesday with Mr. Ahtisaari. Besides bringing the congratulation of the MobileMonday community on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Tammisto also summarized MobileMonday’s plan to establish a research program to understand the needs of Africans, especially among women and children, and how those needs might be met with wireless services and connectivity in Africa.

The research will form a base on which MobileMonday would then pull together industry leaders and NGO’s to support permanent development plans. These will be introduced at the Digital Africa Summit to be held in Kampala, Uganda in May.

Mr. Ahtisaari expressed sincere interest in the MobileMonday’s plan and offered to support this with his personal African contacts.

The Nobel Committee rewarded Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his important efforts on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to “fraternity between nations” in the Alfred Nobel spirit

Throughout all his adult life, whether as a senior Finnish public servant and President of the republic, or in an international capacity, often connected to the United Nations, Ahtisaari has worked for peace and reconciliation. For the past twenty years, he has figured prominently in endeavors to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts.

He played a significant part in the establishment of Namibia’s independence; in 2005 he and his organization Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) were central to the solution of the complicated Aceh question in Indonesia.

The mobile industry has a social responsibility to enable developing countries to become wireless societies. We hope to enhance developments in children and women’s safety, healthcare, mobile banking, creative development, and literacy, commented Jari Tammisto on MobileMonday’s plans.

Annual revenues from the global mobile market will top USD 1.03 trillion by 2013, when the number of subscriptions worldwide will have risen to more than 5.3 billion, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.

From end-2007 to end-2013, the global mobile market will see huge growth, increasing in size by over half (56%), according to the latest edition of Informa Telecoms & Media’s Global Mobile Forecasts to 2013.

It took over 20 years to reach 3 billion subscriptions, but another 1.9 billion net additions are forecast in just six years, with the global total nudging past the 5-billion milestone in 2011. With this extraordinary growth, total annual revenues derived from mobile operators will grow by over a third (33.9%), jumping from USD 769 billion in 2007 to USD 1.03 trillion six years later.

Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts more than three quarters (78%) of global net additions between 2007 and 2013 to come from markets in Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America, which will be the powerhouses of organic growth over the next five years. Astonishingly, nearly half (47%) of the 1.9 billion global net adds will come from just five markets – India, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Russia. By contrast, the mature markets of North America and Western Europe will in total contribute just 8% of global net adds, reflecting the high level of saturation in these markets.

Globally, subscription penetration will approach the 75% mark in 2013, while some countries will push past the 150% barrier – Romania (152%), Russia (153%), Italy (168%), Ukraine (173%) and Greece (183%). Growth in subscriptions (the number of SIMs) will outstrip growth in subscribers (the number of unique users), pointing to greater multi-SIM ownership. The global ratio of subscriptions to subscribers will increase from 1.29 in 2007 to 1.32 in 2013. In Western Europe, the ratio will reach 1.55 in 2013, and even higher (1.75) in Eastern Europe.

The high growth potential of developing markets reflects the entrance of new operators, as well as improvements in regional network roll-out and rising competition, which is expected to lower the barrier for new subscribers.

“Reductions in voice tariffs, the option of very low-denomination prepaid top-ups and the greater availability of cheap 2G and 2.5G handsets will open out mobile services to low-income, low-ARPU subscribers who have never previously owned a mobile phone,” said Chris Stamatakis, research analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and author of Global Mobile Forecasts to 2013.

As the global subscription base expands, total annual revenues will increase to over USD 1 trillion in 2012. Voice revenues will continue to make up the lion’s share of total revenues, but will see slowing growth, and even a decline from 2010 onwards. With regulators worldwide looking to promote competition, forcing operators to push down voice tariffs, Informa Telecoms & Media expects voice revenues to peak as soon as 2009 in Western Europe, and even by end-2008 in North America. In more developing markets such as the Middle East and Asia Pacific, voice revenues will not peak until 2011, and 2012 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Operators globally will be challenged to generate sustainable revenues as average revenue per user (ARPU) continues to drop. To keep annual revenues on the up, operators will need to promote usage of data services. Annual data revenues, unlike voice revenues, will go from strength to strength, and will more than double from USD 148 billion in 2007 to USD 347 billion in 2013. As a result, the proportion of total revenues generated by data services will increase from less than a fifth (19.2%) in 2007 to over a third (33.7%) at the end of the forecast period.

With voice revenue streams diminishing, industry players will encourage data spend among subscribers by innovating in non-voice services and differentiating their data service offerings from those of their competitors. While 2G will remain the dominant technology generation by subscription numbers until 2013, its market share will fall from over two thirds (66.9%) in 2007 to less than one third (32.7%) in 2013, as 3G+ technologies continue to gain ground. 3.5G technologies accounted for just 1.2% of total subscriptions in 2007, but will represent nearly a quarter (22.9%) of the global subscription base by 2013 and exceed the number of 3G subscriptions.

“As more next-generation networks roll out, 3G and 3.5G traffic will grow vigorously and the number of global HSDPA subscriptions will increase exponentially in the short term,” said Stamatakis.
“Furthermore, with migration to next-generation technologies already under way, with operators increasingly favouring HSDPA as they jump on the LTE bandwagon, Informa Telecoms & Media expects operators to focus increasingly on fulfilling consumers’ growing demand for mobile broadband – which is becoming the long-sought killer app for mobile operators.”

MobileMonday the global mobile networking community announced its Mobile Peer Awards competition for 2009 will take place in the exquisite Petit Palau at the Palau de la Musica on February 16, 2009 from 16H till 20H.

The Mobile Peer Awards Barcelona are amongst the most influential events in the mobile industry and the point of reference in startup innovation during the Mobile World Congress.

Participation is free of charge and open to any startup willing to pay their way to the event. Innovative startups active in mobile technology or startups with a mobile product are invited to register to participate at mobilepeerawards.com before the December 31 deadline.

Each of the 68 MobileMonday Chapters (cities) will select their local startup nominee which will be announced on January 19, 2009. The Chapter organizers will look at three criteria when making their decision:
• originality, creativity and innovativeness
• technical and operational feasibility
• economic and financial viability

An international jury of renowned industry experts, investors and entrepreneurs (to be announced soon) will then select the 20 finalists that will present on stage in Barcelona on February 16, 2009. Last year’s jury included representatives from Telefónica, Vodafone, Google, Yahoo!, AdMob, MobHappy, GoMoNews, Nexit Ventures, and Xtract.

Those interested at becoming a partner or a sponsor to the Mobile Peer Awards during Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, can download the latest sponsorpack, or contact info AT mobilemondaybarcelona DOT com.

The MobileMonday Peer Awards are organized by MobileMonday Barcelona in collaboration with the entire MobileMonday Community. Previous Peer Awards winners included Realeyes 3D, Mobile Complete (now Device Anywhere) and Plazes in 2007; Buzzd, Funambol, Taptu and Kimia in 2008.

Ericsson and 3 Scandinavia have signed a contract to upgrade the operator’s HSPA network to 21 Mbps downlink speeds. This will raise mobile broadband speeds in Scandinavia to a new level by dramatically improving quality and capacity.

The upgrade will give 3’s customers improved access to mobile broadband services, including Internet and downloading of music and video.

Peder Ramel, CEO of 3 Scandinavia says: “We were the first to launch Turbo 3G in the Nordic region and now we are proud to be one of the first operators in the world to offer a speed of 21Mbps.”

Mikael Bäckström, President of Ericsson Nordic and Baltic region, says: “With the upgrade to 21Mbps, 3 is one of the first operators to offer customers new and richer services at this speed. We are proud to contribute to 3’s great ambition to launch high-speed mobile broadband services in Scandinavia.”

Ericsson will provide the enhanced speed in selected parts of the network in Sweden and Denmark. Ericsson and 3 will continue to extend network coverage and upgrade to higher mobile broadband speeds throughout 2009. The commercial launch is planned for the first half of 2009.

Under the agreement, Ericsson will deliver radio base stations, RBS6000, enhanced core network features and a mobile backhaul including Redback SmartEdge 1200, Marconi OMS 1400 and MINI-LINK TN.

The Wireless Innovation Network of BC (WINBC) has announced that senior executives from MobileMonday will be visiting Vancouver in search of partners for Vancouver to host the MobileMonday Global Summit 2010. The visit will take place December 10-13th.

Jari Tammisto, President and CEO of MobileMonday Global and Lars Cosh-ishii, Founder of MoMo Tokyo, commenting on the decision, “

This event has never been held in North America and Vancouver was a strong contender due to the growing strength of the wireless industry in BC. MoMo GS is the annual meeting of MobileMonday (MoMo) chapters from around the world, drawing 1,500+ delegates, commented Tammisto, President and CEO of MobileMonday Global.

In October 2008, WINBC9 and its local partners submitted the Vancouver bid in an effort to form the Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit (PNWS) into a true global event for wireless and mobile new media. Along with the buzz generated by the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paraolympic Games, Vancouver is well positioned through this event to grab the spotlight as a global mobile hub from its rivals in New York and Toronto.

Michel Bid, Executive Director of WINBC said, “We are very excited to work with the world’s leading mobile community. Bringing MoMo GS to Vancouver in May 2010 represents an unprecedented opportunity to showcase Vancouver and its wireless community to the influencers and decision makers in the global industry. It also represents a chance to market brand Vancouver to the world and to attract investment and world class talent to our city.”

Speaking about the build-up to the event Tammisto said, “We are throwing the support of our global organization behind MoMo Vancouver and GS 2010, and are visiting to meet with local partners to understand how best to promote the event. I look forward to the visit.”

The bid has received the highest support from Premier Gordon Campbell, the city of Vancouver and others. “As Premier of the Province of British Columbia, I am pleased to support WINBC’s proposal to host the 2010 Mobile Monday Global Summit in Vancouver. We appreciate your consideration and want to assure you that Vancouver is an ideal location to hold your event.” WINBC is working in close partnership with Tourism Vancouver, Vancouver Economic Development Commission, the BC Innovation Council as well as industry partners TELUS, NOKIA, Alcatel-Lucent, Sierra Wireless, Wavefront, NAVTEQ and others.

The final announcement will be made at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2009.

Wireless Innovation Network of BC (WINBC) is the industry association representing more than 250 BC wireless technology companies generating in excess of $1 billion in revenues.

The MoMoVan Chapter was founded in January 2006 by a group of wireless and Internet entrepreneurs and fans of the MobileMonday global community. It welcomes anybody interested in the wireless space to the fun and informative community events it holds on the first Monday of the month.

Buzzd, a location-sensitive mobile city guide has announced new content partnerships that aim to bring the city to your fingertips now including everything you need to eat, play or meet friends in cities. Buzzd has inked deals with AEG Live, Zagat Survey, and Upcoming, and now has over 1.7 million listings on its service accessible to anyone with an Internet capable cellphone. 



AEG Live, a subsidiary of Anschutz Entertainment Group, is one of the leading providers of live entertainment and sports in the world. Goldenvoice, the company’s Southern California-based regional division, hosts the most critically acclaimed music festivals in the U.S. Goldenvoice created and operates the award winning annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival as well as Stagecoach: California’s Country Music Festival. In addition, AEG Live, now co-produces both the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Bumbershoot: Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival.

Buzzd, answers the question “What’s going on around me right now?” and delivers location-sensitive, event and venue information, along with up-to-the-minute reviews and ratings from friends and other members of the Buzzd community. 



Users can also browse and search continuously updated event feeds which include pricing, location and event details as well as the firsthand ratings and reviews posted from the venue by other members.

Events and locations are aggregated through Buzzd existing partnerships like ones with Citysearch, Flavorpill and TimeOut New York, and now from providers AEG Live, Zagat Survey, and Yahoo’s Upcoming. Additionally user-generated feedback (or “buzzes”) offers real-time activity surrounding venues and events and is aggregated at the top of event listings throughout the platform. 



“Getting these kinds of partnership deals really expands our reach,” said Nihal Mehta, CEO and Co-founder of Buzzd. “The Buzzd network, which currently has over 1.7 million listings, now has a stronger presence in cities between the coasts, such as Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Des Moines and all over the Midwest.”

In addition to their many content partnerships, Buzzd’s service is free to consumers and advertising supported by brands such as Jim Beam, Nokia and Bonnaroo, the world’s largest music and arts festival. Currently, Buzzd can also be accessed from any Internet-enabled cellphone or can be found as featured offerings on-deck with Virgin Mobile USA.

A new report from Portio Research focused on mobile messaging suggests that SMS will continue to be the cash cow of mobile data revenues for some time to come. Traffic volumes and revenues continue to confound predictions and are expected to keep growing throughout the global economic downturn.

The whole mobile messaging industry worth USD 130 billion in 2008 is predicted to be worth USD 224 billion by 2013, 60 percent of non-voice service revenues. The report, ‘Mobile Messaging Futures 2008 – 2013’ ventures that there is nothing likely to stop continued growth of mobile messaging in the short term, driven by a cocktail of ubiquitous SMS, media rich MMS, enterprise based mobile email and youth conscious mobile IM.

SMS remains ‘King’ because there is no cheap, easy to use alternative that will work with all phones and across all networks, it is loved the world over. Indeed in the US market, where SMS was a comparative slow starter, use per subscriber per month is now almost double the European average. In China average users send over 100 messages each month whereas the Filipinos continue to be the leading exponents with 755 messages each month.

Portio also predict a bright future for mobile email even though Japan is the only market where consumer mobile e-mail has surpassed the use of SMS. Email is still the most popular form of business communication and the report suggests that mobile e-mail users worldwide will quadruple from approximately a quarter of a billion users in 2008 to over a billion users by the end of 2013.

The rising star in the mobile messaging constellation is mobile instant messaging (MIM), which is still beset by the technical problems of interoperability. Portio however predict exponential growth in mobile IM users, surging from a worldwide total of 111 million users in 2008 to hit a massive 867 million users by the close of 2013. This massive growth in users will be accompanied by an equally impressive 5-fold increase in revenues from approximately USD 2.5 billion in 2008 to approximately USD 12.4 billion in 2013.

Since MMS hit the mainstream in 2004 the press and analysts have been critical about its level of success. Back then, they wanted to MMS reach the same value as SMS, USD $30bn, for it be considered a success; finally in 2009 this will be a reality. MMS is growing fast and certain countries, such as China and the United States, are becoming very big markets. Worldwide MMS traffic of 75 billion messages in 2008 is impressive, and the future growth looks very good in Asia, as affordable camera-equipped handsets flood the market with China leading the way.

‘Mobile Messaging Futures 2008 – 2013’ provides detailed discussion of all mobile messaging technologies including SMS, MMS, MIM, E-mail, Videomail and Unified Messaging as well as business models, network technology impacts, value chain shifts and advice for operators backed by a wealth of charts and statistics.

Nokia Siemens Networks and China Mobile Group Fujian Ltd. (Fujian Mobile) have teamed up to provide an eCommerce platform that promises an important link between rural consumers and urban businesses. The unique solution allows affordable access to a wide range of consumer products to villagers in Fujian province, while opening up a vast market to urban retailers and product distributors.

The eCommerce solution is an integrated end-to-end service, which contains an online Catalogue Sales Platform (CSP), on which urban businesses can upload their products for marketing to rural customers. The service is delivered to villagers through local entrepreneurs, who provide shared internet access to the online shopping platform tailored to the rural environment

Small and medium-sized retailers and distributors, in particular, can improve their business efficiency, and offer a wider product range.

According to the NSN press release The business model has been successfully piloted over five months at two counties in Fujian province of southeast China in partnership with Fujian Mobile and local retail suppliers. Nokia Siemens Networks has collaborated closely with Fujian Mobile and provided extensive consulting services in identifying this new opportunity.