Brightstar Continues Expansion into Africa through Multi-Service Agreement with MTN South Africa | Press Releases | News Room | Brightstar

Brightstar Continues Expansion into Africa through Multi-Service Agreement with MTN South Africa

MIAMI and Johannesburg – October 13, 2011 – Brightstar Corp., a global leader in services and solutions for the wireless industry, today announced a multi-year service agreement with MTN South Africa (SA). The deal builds upon Brightstar’s recent expansion of operations and services in the region.

Brightstar will provide MTN SA with device portfolio management services, supply chain services and OEM engagement services that will encompass the operator’s full portfolio of handsets, data devices, laptops and tablets. These services will enable MTN to continue its focus on improving efficiencies in the supply chain, enhancing the OEM engagements and ultimately delivering a superior customer experience.

“We are delighted to offer MTN the world class innovative solutions needed to execute its business strategy in South Africa,” said Jeff Gower, head of supply chain services for Brightstar. “This agreement is evidence of our commitment to expanding our reach into this region and becoming a truly global services provider within the wireless industry.”

“Brightstar’s deep understanding of the industry and its global market intelligence complements that of MTN SA and enhances the company’s capacity to administer device management, allowing us to focus on better servicing our customers,” said Brian Gouldie, Sales and Distribution Executive at MTN SA. “Brightstar’s proven innovative suite of services will enable our customers to have the products they want, when they want them. It’s all about accessibility and convenience – a prerequisite for today’s customers.”

Brightstar offers an expansive portfolio of more than 100 services for wireless manufacturers, operators, retailers, government agencies, value added resellers (VARs) and consumers worldwide.

Zain Sudan Chooses Jinny Software for Next-Generation VAS Solutions

Zain Sudan Chooses Jinny Software for Next-Generation VAS Solutions

DUBLIN, October 10, 2011- Jinny Software, a leading global supplier of messaging, call completion and mobile advertising solutions to wireless carriers, today announces a deal to supply Zain Sudan with an expanded suite of VAS solutions. The deal includes upgrades for Zain’s MMSC, ringback tone server, SMSC, message router, SMSC accelerator and WAP Gateway, along with solution management tools.

Zain Sudan (formerly Mobitel) is the pioneer of GSM services in Sudan, being the first to offer mobile operations back in February 1997. Today it serves the largest base of mobile customers in the country with more than 10 million active customers.

“Our relationship with Jinny is very positive. The Jinny solutions we use have delivered a strong return on investment, helped by the excellent support services they provide,” says Magdi Taha, IT Director of Zain Sudan.

The modular approach of Jinny Software solutions was a strong factor in Zain Sudan’s choice of provider. Because the software resides on a standard platform, increasing capacity and adding new applications is simple and fast. Also, Jinny Software is equipped to make the transition into IP networks, as Zain Sudan will be doing with its ringback tone service.

“We are pleased to support Zain Sudan as they build on their success in marketing innovative new services for their customers,” says Richard Choi, Jinny Chief Commercial Officer. “This deal underscores our commitment to mobile network operators in emerging markets.”

animal-2-machine deployment by MTC (Namibia)

Biosphere Expeditions is working with MTC on a leopard research project near Windhoek, with the aim of gathering reliable scientific data on the ecology of cat predators living on private game farms in Namibia.

"This is because we want to gain a better understanding of how leopards, as predators, form an important part of a healthy ecosystem even, on a game farm", says Kristina Killian, the project’s biologist, adding that "in the end we also want to provide straight-forward information to farmers in Namibia and southern Africa to help alleviate predator/game conflicts".

Three leopards have been captured and fitted with a GSM collar with an MTC SIM card, the collar then using the mobile network to send data to a laptop whenever the leopard picks up a signal from a base station. The data is being described as ‘amazingly precise information’ about the leopards’ movements and what they are up to within their home ranges on game farms.

RIM Unveils BlackBerry Tag - Coming Soon to BlackBerry Smartphones

Dubai, UAE – GITEX - During his keynote presentation at the GITEX conference in Dubai, Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) Co-CEO Jim Balsillie today unveiled a new way for BlackBerry® smartphone users to connect with one another and share multimedia content.

BlackBerry® Tag, which will be incorporated in the next BlackBerry® 7 OS update*, will allow users to share contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia content by simply tapping their BlackBerry smartphones together. BlackBerry Tag will also enable friends to instantly add one another as contacts on BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger).

"BlackBerry Tag is an exciting and innovative feature that makes sharing contact information and multimedia content effortless and seamless,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Tag opens a new dimension to the BlackBerry platform that is powerful, simple and intuitive and we think it will be welcomed by both users and developers.”

BlackBerry Tag takes advantage of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology included in the recently launched BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370 smartphones, and these are the first BlackBerry smartphones that will support BlackBerry Tag.

RIM also announced plans to expose BlackBerry Tag through APIs on the BlackBerry platform, allowing software developers to take advantage of "tap to share" functionality from within their own applications.

EION Wireless Launches 4G Mobility Platform at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai

EION Wireless Launches 4G Mobility Platform at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai

DUBAI UAE – October 9, 2011 – EION Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of broadband wireless products today announced the launch of its Star4G Mobile Broadband Platform for 4G service providers. The Star4G platform includes base stations, a Wireless Services Gateway (WSG), and mobile end-user devices that create mobile 4G networks.

EION’s 4G solution, Star4G, is targeted to mobile operators in developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East that need to augment their mobile cellular services with fixed, nomadic and mobile broadband services.

A key demographic for the Star4G platform is large service providers that are starting to plan and build out networks targeting residential and business users with data, voice over IP and video-on-demand services. The introduction of the 4G mobile solution complements the company’s current product portfolio and provides the opportunity to address the needs carrier-class service providers and large enterprises.

“Unlike other LTE platforms on the market that are designed around a cellular voice-centric architecture, Star4G is designed with a data-centric focus for the delivery of voice video and data services,” said Dr. Anand Srinivasan, Vice President of Technology and Product Management. “This Star4G architecture delivers a high Quality of Experience (QoE) for high definition multimedia mobile services.”

“EION is involved in commercial launches, pilots and trials of its mobile 4G solution in diverse parts of the world,” said Guido Curridor, Senior Vice President of Technology and Business Operations “This large installed base of customers represents an opportunity for EION to upgrade these networks to its Star4G solution giving EION a leadership position in data-centric LTE networks.”