Bite empowers Latvia to be among top 5 European countries with fastest mobile internet

Wanted to include here our press release launched today on the recently launched upgrade on our mobile internet service, reaching speeds and quality not see in Latvia until now. In the coming days I will be publishing a white paper on this topic, covering both the mobile internet development both in Latvia and Lithuania




Also please find some links to some of the media coverage (in Latvian & Russian)
Link to article on pozitivaszinas.lv (Latvian)
Link to article on russina business daily
Link to article on Delfi.LV (Latvian)

Well done Bite!!!!

Press Release 

After modernization of all 3G base stations in Latvia, Bite is launching the fastest mobile internet speed in the country, ranking Latvia among top 5 fastest in the whole Europe. Bite mobile internet speed in urban areas is on average 6 Mbps (download) – doubling the existing available speeds on the market in Latvia and reaching same level of the Mobile Broadband leaders in Europe. Tests carried out for two weeks by a group of active internet users prove that download speeds overreaching even 11 Mbps are available in Riga.

“We are proud to see that our network modernization puts Latvia on the map of fastest mobile internet speeds in Europe. And even more – we hope that our clients will enjoy the ability to download a song just in 1 second or watch a Youtube video with no interruptions on their phones or using mobile internet modems for laptops,” comments Fred Hrenchuk, CEO of Bite Latvia.

 

According to Akamai, the state of the internet report Q1 2010 out of 109 mobile providers operating in Europe, only 4 operators (in UK, Slovakia, Poland and Russia) have average speeds above 3 Mbps. With the mobile network upgrade, Bite is joining the group with average download speed of 6 Mbps. Which means that for example a song in mp3 file format can be downloaded in 1 second, whereas streaming of Youtube video would be without any interruptions.

14 European mobile operators have average connection speeds in the 2 Mbps or above range, while 35 have average measured connection speeds of 1 Mbps or more. Average download speed of mobile internet on Latvian market so far has been ranging from 1 to 3 Mbps.

Latvia is ranking also among the first European countries to have the new generation mobile internet modem on the market. This modem has theoretical capacity of processing 21 Mbps download and 5.8 Mbps upload speed. Whereas previous models available in Latvia and Europe have had capacity till 7.2 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload speed in ideal conditions.

As we’ve already announced, Bite has started most advanced network modernization project in the Baltics. The project is still in process, but all 3G base stations have been already modernized providing the first tangible benefit for Bite customers – higher mobile internet speed. The network modernization investment is using the latest technologies and solutions that will provide Bite customers with wider network coverage, faster data transmission speeds, and a higher signal and voice quality. All new equipment by Huawei is ready for future upgrades to 4G and LTE, if there is customer demand and as soon as it is allowed by the license conditions. New technologies are very environment friendly and will help Bite to reduce its energy consumption (and therefore CO2 emissions).

Dell Streak: my own review

I have been trying different Android lately and I go tmy hands into the Dell Streak lately. Until now most of the alternatives to the Ipad were Chinese Android devices, including the Huawei S7 which I was using for a while. Many of them were good devices, but to beat the Ipad specially when you don't have a brand you need more

So I took the Dell Streak, no expectations but excited (and 1 month later I am still using it quite regularly)


Hardware: beautiful, elegant, slim. Very sexy
Size and weight: Very light (220g). Fits on my trousers back pocket beautifully
Screen: crispy, however size seems like a big phone. No way I can use it to do presentations or prepare documents. Mostly great for web browsing, messaging and email reading 
Software: my unit has Android 1.6. Not enough. It needs at least 2.1 (which supposedly is coming any time on the coming weeks and will be using frodo (2.2) before the end of year).  You notice mostly on the screen transitions. Most of the Android apps are working. What it is nice is that if you are familiar with Android there is no learning curve
Battery: one of the weakest points of the unit. Gives you at the most 2 hours specially if you use the phone functions
Phone: obviously you are not going to use it to talk using it as a normal phone but it does a good job using a bluetooth headset or headphones. The speakerphone is not as good as it could be
Camera: great picture camera, one of the best I have seen but weak video 


Verdict: I love playing with this unit and doing my newspaper browsing while having breakfast. Or watching some youtube videos. But as one of the bloggers in Latvia asked me the other day "what do you do with it?", there is no clear usage. It could replace my laptop on the weekend, but for that it needs a better battery and android 2.1. Or it could replace my Blackberry on the weekend (even during the week), but it is not that easy to write quickly (having said that after several months I am starting to type rather quickly at the HTC desire unit that I usually play with)
And with a price tag of 500 Eur I believe it can't be a mass market. (it needs to be on the 250-300 Eur range)
furthermore having a unit as the Samsung galaxy coming along

BTW as the Samsung Galaxy gets a lot of press these days, this is a great review and comparison of both the streak and the galaxy (which I hope to be testing very soon)
Link to Know your mobile.com comporison galaxy vs. streak


Product Features
Screen 5'' WVGA (gorilla Glass Display)
1GHZ Qualcomm processor
5.0 MP (rear)/VGA (front) camera
3G (modem 7.2/5.76)
Bluetooth 
Battery 4.7 W
Memory Internal 16gb + Micro SD (external)
Measurements 152.9 x 79.1 x 10 mm

More details on features, I like this site

Link to gsm arena Dell Streak detailed product features

Rumours on the Indian 35 USD iPad (even if still at least a year away from hitting the shelves)

Yes, you read that right. Nope, it's not a typo. £25 (actually, £23 on current rates). Rumoured features include colour, multi-touch 10.5" screen, 2Gb memory, Flash compatibility, Wifi, Ethernet connection, camera and an optional extra of a solar charger.
That means word processing, video conferencing, web browsing and yes, the ability to play Flash videos, games for less than the cost of the AppleCare warranty on an iPad (3 times less, if we're counting).
The Indian technology sector is developing a name for itself for throwing out the rule book when it comes to the cost of consumer technology. Witness the £1,900 Nano car from Tata and for roughly the same price, how's about open heart surgery.


The caveats? The device is still a prototype and the government is on the hunt for a manufacturer. Their aim is to have the tablet on-sale in 2011.
Finding a company to produce the device on what must be wafer-thin margins might be a challenge, although with a potential home market of 1bn people, there should be plenty of opportunity to make profit on volume sales.



Link to Chinwag blog posting

Link to Android Tablet forum including YouTube demo video

Thoughts while flying Tablets + Mobile Operators role?

I was just reading Wired magazine (July UK edition) and I run into a print add of the dell streak tablet advertised jointly between carphone warehouse + o2

It raises the question (in my mind) of what should be mobile operators approach to tablets? Taking into account that most of small countries mobile operators (aka like Lithuania and Latvia) will never be on the radar screen of Apple (and 90% of our users can’t afford an iPAd nor they may not have a reason why), should we mobile operators offer other alternatives, mostly around Android based devices and also create a local (language and topics/themes) android ecosystem around smartphones and tablets, which are in my opinion about to exploit in Eastern Europe ?

will love to hear from you

New Android Tablets coming up: time to start testing devices, thus first testing impressions

Probably since the WMC this past February there has been as much talk around the Ipad as it was around all other device manufacturers, from mobile phones (&network vendors) ones to PC and even some start-ups, working on creating different tablet concepts all running Google's android platform as OS


It is good to read several ZDNet articles on the topic
Link to ZDNet's Android tablet army starts to form), which clearly puts it "The big difference with the Android tablet army is that the Apple iPad doesn’t have much of a head start..." as it did on the case on the iPhone. Get used to this ideas as many of these tablets will be “...poor man’s iPads” on deck. Note these devices won’t be iPad killers or anything, but Apple legitimized the tablet form factor and the followers are lining up. There will be multiple Android tablets waiting in the wings". Price point seems to be around 199 USD (150 Eur) and I am sure that a number of mobile operators will subsidize the unit price around 12 to 18 months contracts

For an end subscribers I still remain a bit skeptical, in fact I think that I could share some of ZDNet blogger Christopher Dawso, Would I buy an Android Tablet?

But let's look at some of my impressions testing one of the upcoming devices (Huawei S7 Tablet, which it seems will be available in Australia by year end, and is already available for pre-order at Expansys websites in UK and US
 

Not all feedback on Ipad from me is negative - 'He was wrong about the Ipad and he admits it"

I did buy an iPAd when I was in the US in april for my good friend and former colleague at Bite Group Manju Kesani Manju Linkedin Profile
All I asked him in return (being a super geek guy) was a in depth review on the iPAD. And he has way deliver on my expectations. He was negative before testing the product, but now he is a convert :-) On my side, I am playing with a "rival" tablet that I believe does address some of the current iPAD gaps. In the mean time, please read Manju's assessment. Really interesting one


Manju wrote "I’ve been a gadget guy for a long time.  Any new gadget that comes out, I have to test and play with.  Usually own.   Having tested almost every smart phone and innovative mobile device in the last two years, I tend to be very opinionated and a harsh critic.  This is why when the iPad was first announced, I like many people (including Cristobal), jumped on the bandwagon and became a “doomsayer”, prophesizing the impending demise of this product and potentially Apple itself in the long run…all without even touching the device.  I questioned how many times a single company can keep creating revolutionary devices that change the way we do things?  Surely they must fail at some point…and the iPad felt like it may be it.  Like many,

More on the iPAD: time to laugh

Yes, I am bias but you have to admit this is funny

Mobile Broadband across the Ocean – Notes from my trip

I have spent a little bit less than a week on the US and I have tried as usual  to try to be quite observant of mobile usage ecosystem, from people handsets to shops, commercial and the impact of the app world on daily life.
I come to 2 observations through the trip Android vs. iPhone penetration and then also on speeds on experienced broadband and mobile broadband (US vs. Europe)

Some more insights on the Ipad (II) and records sales to prove me wrong again?

With the iPhone we witnessed an interesting twist on PR. Case in points was the usage of the iPhone on a completely different manner (and intensity) did start creating notable problems to mobile networks. The cases of AT&T in the US and O2 in the UK did get lots of coverage. This was mean to explain how superior was the iPhone and how people did change their usage patterns and how unprepared the industry was. While there is some truth on the latter I always wondered how efficient was the iPhone on using mobile networks and/or WIFI resources.

This come to my mind again as I read just weeks after the iPad launch about some universities were having their networks collapsing with the arrivals of the Ipads on Campus. 

Some more insights on IPAD (I)

Before I start I want you (I am sure you are aware of if you read my blog) that I am not a huge fan of Steve Jobs and the PR around his products (and how they change industries on the supposed benefit of the end customer), even if I recognized its overall quality product portfolio and have some used some of them (mainly its laptops) in the past.

This week while in the US I have bought an iPad as a request from a friend of mine which gave me a very good excuse to try the product extensively on the store (furthermore I will ask him to write an extensive review for me to publish here). Once more I was drawn to my initial conclusion. It is an expensive toy for browsing. I don’t believe it is seen as a tablet at all but just a browser and viewer. It is just a complement and not a supplement by all means.

It is a large iPhone (So the big question is if you need another bigger one? –if you already have an iPhone. AS a pure media consumption device),

Mobile Broadband Market in CEE post for huge growth ? But contribution margin?

Interesting article from Frost & Sullivan in terms of Mobile Broadband development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region (the cover 5 countries Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia)

Frost and Sullivan full article

In their opinion and although CEE markets differ considerably in terms of mobile broadband penetration, technologies, and network coverage, the common point would be significant market growth expected within the next five years.

Green Network Deployment & Management

One of my objectives on taking over the network management at Bite is to manage to get our company as the most sustainable one in the Baltics and Scandinavia, both in terms of energy consumption, waste management and usage of alternative energy

Obviously all vendors are looking at these development across different MNOs and have understood that for these propositions to be successful there has to be a win / win, aka they have to have a positive impact on the operators results while helping the world one way or another

Extracting from Jupiter research study 'Green Mobile Networks & Base Stations: Strategies, Scenarios & Forecasts 2009-on this topic, "... the green mobile base stations report which utilised scenario-based models to derive estimates of base station power consumption, CO2 emissions and implied electricity costs, found that under the 'transformational model' – wherein operators invest substantially in power reduction in the base station, and place greater emphasis on addressing issues such as cooling, network planning and power management – total base station emissions would peak in 2010 and fall to 15.6Mt by 2014, achieving a 30% reduction”

A very simple view on 3 developments that help society in different ways is the following (off Grid population, bad access to grid population, good access)

IPad - Who are you looking for? I don't think you know (II)- A netbook?

If Mr. Jobs is going to insist that netbooks suck (Steve just remember there were 33 Million Netbooks sold in 2009, so I hope you are going o beat that eyes close) and iPads are better, you can't seriously expect people not to test that claim by comparing the two. You let's try on my side
I like how Adam Turner's on his column "Gadgets on the go" at the Sydney Herald Tribune put it
"...If I'm going to spend north of AU$650 (aka 500 USD, 400 Eur) on any product, I think I'm entitled to ask how it fits into my current computing environment. If I already own a smartphone and a desktop/notebook, I think I'm entitled to ask what problems a third computing device will solve and how its features will overlap with the devices I already have. I'm also entitled to ask what alternatives are available and how they measure up in terms of price, performance, features and usability...." I really love his assessment and I can most agree with all his points. Well Done Adam

So which needs are the ones that netbooks have tried to cover / satisfy? The segment of the market where surfing, reading, game playing and emailing dominate the usage model at a very affordable price and very easy to carry with you device

So why I think at least this version of the Ipad misses the point as an netbook

IPad - Who are you looking for? I don't think you know (I)

I am sure most of you were expecting me to say something about the recently launch Ipad and probably you expected me not to be too enthusiastic about it

Well I may say that it was impossible for the IPad to meet expectations. There has been so much talk in the market, so much hype (most of it feed it from Apple) that no matter how amazing the product would have been it would not have meet expectations

Furthermore I don't think Apple has gotten this right. Don't get me wrong there is enough Apple fanatics and sexy gadget lovers that I am sure they will do well in sales at least on the first year. However if the Ipod and the Iphone did change their industry or even create a totally new segment, the IPad won't
The product tries to be too many products in one and fails to excel on any

Out of the 3 options they chase (e-reader, netbook and tablet), let me comment today on e-reader and the comparison with the Kindle:
Mr. Jobs was probably not too happy with Mr. Bezos reinventing an electronics field (vs. him doing so) as the Kindle is the first "real" successful e-reader. I believe the Kindle is still far from being a market segment "creator" but so far they have done well and their improvements over several devices says that they keep listening and learning
Amazon(.com) have focused on what matters for an e-reader and what many e-readers fail to capture in the past
- Great screen to read for a long period of time
- Long Battery
- Lightweight
- Easy to use and easy to download
- Right pricing (not being too expensive so people will be willing to try)
- Great collection
Just analyzed the Ipad against on some of those key pillars (sexy screen but not good for continuous reading (are books printed in colour?), only 6 hours battery (you can't even read one whole book on that time), heavier and too expensive to try "just" as an e-reader and you will see Ipad will be far from killing the Kindle and dominate or re-invent this space

I could not disagree more with Ben Elowitz writing on Techcrunch about Top 10 Reasons The Apple iPad Will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business (just check the comments on the article to see that I am not alone on this assessment). And I love one of the comments "...but this device is not made for real ebook readers, its really made for fanboys, that want others to think they read"

More tomorrow: Ipad as a netbook, Ipad as a tablet

Total Telecom Coverage: mmCHANNEL launches its own B2B API

We have just got some coverage on Total Telecom Website, really exciting stuff
Read full article on Total Telecom


mmCHANNEL just launched our own API that allows to build your digital entertainment store and it provides a zero cost deployment solution so no new platforms or costly migrations

Visit our special website

Next wave in Smartphones: Google's Nexus and RIm's new devices

I have several topics to cover in the coming days as I have been out for a while. but after having had the chance to use the latest 2 RIM's devices (Curve and Bold) and having today played with Googgle / HTC Nexus I thought I will voice my opinion and put some interesting links to several analysis over the Nexus (mostly from the US)

Let's start first with the least exciting but always improving RIM devices as I have been using the Curve 8520 and the Bold 9700 in the past 2 months. Both the new Bold and the new Curve do come using the new device design started by the initial Bold (and then the Storm) but on a much lighter from (mainly the bold as the curve is very similar to the 8310). Both are very attractive, good quality screen, good keyboard (although I found the bold one a bit more responsive and fast). However I did have trouble integrating gmail over the Curve and the speed and the OS responsiveness on Curve was not great. The Bold (which I may say used integrated with normal BB email) does work beautifully and gives a good performance. While the curve uses one of the 2 standard batteries used by RIM lately the RIM boys have decided to keep destroying the environment and our pockets by designing a new battery for the Bold. However and on their benefit I may say that the new battery gives a much better performance
The BB app store is still on its infancy and clearly RIM is not getting much traction on this area. They be thinking on dedicating real brain power to how to push this area and its ecosystem. Overall good upgrades on the RIM portfolio and it you are thinking about a change from your BB today, I will go for the Bold 9700

Google (HTC) Nexus: As you may remember and before going back to the BB I was using HTC Magic with Android. I ws quite happy about the device. However with Nexus, the HTC boys on the hardware side and google on the software side have done an excellent job. Somehow some technical info on the HTC Nexus. The HTC-built and (soon to be) Google-sold device runs Android 2.1 atop a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 3.7-inch, 480 x 800 display, has 512MB of ROM, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB microSD card (expandable to 32GB). The phone includes the standard modern additions of a light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer. The Nexus One has a 5 megapixel camera (way better than the iPhone or the RIM ones) with LED flash, and we have to say so far the pictures it snaps look pretty decent (and the camera software is much faster than the same component on the Droid).
I like the form factor. A bit taller than other devices, the display is large (very) and crispy. The software and OS performance is impressive and extremely quick (as much or more than the iPHONE). Finally something were they have really improve from the Magic is on the tactil Keyboard. Kudos here
So the battle is on. Clearly the Google label and the push in Europe by initially Vodafone is going to make this phone on my opinion this year's best seller. With this and the other android additions the scale is here for the apps on google to start battling Apple app store

A couple of links worth your attention if you want more info on the Nexus:


Engadget Blog on Nexus Google (HTC)

WJS WALTER S. MOSSBERG Blog on Nexus Google (HTC)

350 Million users - Enough for facebook to make money?

Part 1
I attended last Friday an event in London from NMA (New Media Age) Magazine, "Marketing to young people through social media" http://www.nmalive.co.uk/, where among other interesting speakers was David Parfect, agency sales group head from Facebook

See David's profile on Linkedin

First It was interesting to have a good glance at the latest metrics from facebook (mostly focus on the UK market) and find out facts such as:

• there are 23 million active users in the UK (350 Million worldwide)
  
• During the last year the average time spent on the site (25 minutes per day) has almost triple and now doubles the time people spend in MySpace (BTW lots of discussion around about if MySpace is dead or is not) or Bebo and finally
• the largest segment is the 25-34 years old, with the 15-24 just 1% behind
• and 83% of the 15-25 years old segment perfers to use facebook more than email to communicate
  

The rest of David presentation focus on the different tools out there in facebook (and they are in the process to rol out a number of new ones in the coming months) to allow companies and advertising agencies to develop interactive campaigns in order to become a real advertising preferred channel
Will that be enough to be profitable?

Part 2

Well let's listen first to the opinion of John Naughton, from the Observer, on an article that he published this past sunday which I found very relevant and containing some interesting and documented opinions on his side "Facebook now has 350m users - and there's no point in advertising to them"
Some excerpts from his article(

Read John's full article on The Observer

• "...But even Zuckerberg must be wondering how he can monetise the little darlings (referring to their 350 million users)...It can't go on like this, can it? The software-engineering and server-farm infrastructure needed to support 350 million users burns money, and so does the bandwidth they use"

• "...Facebook is the most glaring example of an unsolved puzzle: how to convert social networking into a sustainable business. Twitter, the micro-blogging service that is now in a runaway growth phase, poses the same puzzle....The truth is that investing in social networking represents the triumph of hope over experience"
• "The conventional wisdom used to be that the key to online revenues was advertising.... Google is a special case because it specialises in search, the only area where online advertising really works....Everyone who uses the web has experience of the ineffectiveness of online advertising"
• The inescapable conclusion is that anyone who thinks advertising is the key to sustainable online businesses in any field other than search should think again.

Clearly John does not think facebook is going to be making much money in the coming year

So where do you think lies the answer? David, John,...

Part 3

My opinion is that indeed just traditional online advertising is not how facebook is going to make money. However John fails to see that facebook is not really trying to focus on traditional online advertising but on interactive advertising
There are 2 areas where I think facebook can make money:
- Online: their rankings, third party develop applications and companies running interactive campaigns (rankings, competitions, multiplayer games,...) in facebook can really boost their revenue. This is today's facebook focus, however the big question is how well they are executing and how fast can they go, as there are other companies battling their space
- Mobile: with the arrival of smartphones a lot of interactions, engagement and conversations can happen on their mobile. However it is quite amazing I have failed to hear from facebook a clear strategy around mobile

So I believe facebook can make money, probably even lots of money.
However I remain skeptical on their execution capabilities and mobile strategy

More to come and will love to hear your opinion

Gazing into 2010 (I)

Imagine Steve, Bill, Google Boys, Warren (Buffet) and myself get together to chat about 2010 and the Telco space. Warren is not really in the mood for TMT investments but he is listening. Bill believes that Windows will finally make a play in the mobile space with their first good mobile product Windows Mobile 7.0. The rest smile and say to him good luck because being good most of your handset suppliers like HTC are now with the Google Boys and Android.
Google boys look puzzled but excited. They brought to the chat more than 50 devices with Android for 2010. However not enough apps and transactions yet (why is Steve managing to do just with one device?) and it is still unclear how long it will take for mobile advertising to become a reality. There is still not enough money on mobile search, “… no worries we just bought AdMob and there is lots of room for smaller companies to play on this space and find interesting niches and then we will buy them. How many companies will they buy in 2010?
Warren is observing the Advercontent (advertising based games and applications) space, but just watching and learning and maybe China, India, Brazil and South Africa is where real scale will happen for this (pair with finally fast enough networks and accessible medium end handsets, we can see the big smiles on Huawei and ZTE fellas). The internet boys don’t make any money on social media but he does believe mobile in these territories may be the place to monetize social media (content, analytics, location based). He also took several calls to listen to some interesting ventures on m-payments and micro-transactions in Africa and the Middle East. Hmmmmm
Why we did not invite Nokia to the meeting? They are too busy sorting out their house. It is true, first they shout OVI for president, now Symbian is not good enough, and now instead of embracing Android or buying Palm OS you are going to create another Linux based OS!!! Now we start understanding why they did not come today or they are not going to WMC 2010
Hey the RIM boys got to the meeting late. The rest has already divided the mass market application space between them and some upcoming startups. However vertical oriented apps is going to be an upcoming segment and the blackberry device is king here. Can their OS and their app store be a business oriented apps thriving space and take upcoming tech young companies on the ride. Warren is listening and nods
Where is Steve? Did he leave to launch another apple phone (model) or they were just getting ready to open up the app store next year. We agree on gave him the 2009 champion, will he win again in 2010?
As we were walking out the room, Warren said what about the operators? I said we need together again for lunch to analyze that one

Social Media African Way - AKA Mobile, UGC and Local - Special AfricaComm 2009

The number of South Africans who use their cell phones to access the internet now exceeds the number of those who rely on traditional desktop means of connecting to the World Wide Web. This is a trend that we seen very much across the entire African continent—PC and broadband penetration rates are very low while mobile penetration keeps growing.

In Opera Software's October 2008 edition of the State of the Mobile Web report, South Africa ranks 6th and Egypt ranks 8th in the global Top 10 for mobile internet usage, ahead of many Western countries. Today almost 29% of South Africans use mobile UGC services/content on a daily basis and by the end of 2013, the total South African mobile UGC revenue will reach a total of $476 million (JBB Research).

The mmCHANNEL team believes that the African social media scene will continue be mobile with the PC acting as a complement for only a small minority of the population. Which companies are leading the way? Although Facebook is the most popular mobile South African site today (case in point for other African countries population penetration of Facebook is 1,5% in Egypt, 0,17% in Nigeria to name a few (Unanimis March 2009), two local names MXit and The Grid have become a driving force for the South African mobile UGC services market today

MXit, which stands for message exchange, provides a free instant messaging application for both computers and mobile phones. It has also recently tried to extend the brand into what they call MXit lifestyle including music, social networking, and more. Their latest innovative entertainment product has been the launch of their first instant messaging book, ‘Emily and the battle of the veil’, which sells for an equivalent 50 euro cents. Since its launch in 2005, MXit has attracted more than 15 million users across the developing world. South Africa is by far their largest market with over 7 millions users.

The Grid is a location-based social network, enabling subscribers to locate their friends on a map, chat via instant messaging, and share geo-tagged content. Lately it has been focusing on creating social interactions around content. Although Vodacom Ventures is the The Grid’s main funding source, it is wisely open to use by all South African operators and is actually being launched in countries where Vodacom is not present. Today it has more than a million users after less than a year in operation and is expanding into Tanzania and Nigeria, among other African countries

The future? At mmCHANNEL we believe and invest in Application Protocol Interface (API) connectivity and building social interactions around content for these and similar social media sites (take a look at East Africa’s first mobile social media community, Sembuse). In our opinion, these social media sites are going to become key outlets for mobile advertising, customer surveys, content consumption, and financial services in the near future. Location-based services, pricing flexibility, and viral marketing make the mobile social media space an African story. Stay tuned.

Some of my colleagues, Damien Saunders and Pedro Domingues will be at AfricaComm this week in Cape Town and I hope they can meet with many of you and find ways to keep being part of this new and evolving African mobile landscape

Send them an email to arrange a meeting: damien.saunders@mmchannel.com & pedro.domingues@mmchannel.com

An interview with Mr. Murat Gurkas, Director of VAS and Marketing Division in Eagle Mobile on our recently launched 3D goals product

Please find attached a copy of the newspaper interview of Mr. Murat Gurkas, Director of VAS and Marketing Division in Eagle Mobile, published in sports newspapers “Sporti Shqiptar” today.

“Sporti Shqiptar” Newspaper is the best selling sports paper in the Albanian Market, mostly used by the young sports fans. It is the first published newspaper in Albania.

This is part of the coverage our joint recently product launch 3D video goals for Spanish and Italian league for SMS subscription

We have the full translation to English if interested