Device Arena

The Enterprise Mobility Solutions Business of Motorola announced today that its point-to-point wireless Ethernet bridges are providing the communication infrastructure for an e-skills initiative launched by South Africa’s Department of Communications. The wireless broadband network connects the five campuses of the Ekurhuleni East College for Further Education and Training (ECC) in South Africa´s Gauteng province in order to centralise operations and share resources to address the shortage of specialised lecturers.

Faced with expensive, low-capacity and unreliable leased line offerings, ECC chose Motorola’s PTP400 Series wireless broadband solution due to its ability to deliver high-quality, long-range communication at a fraction of the cost of alternative technologies. This has enabled a network to be deployed between the main campus of the college and its four satellite campuses – four to 20 kilometres away – with less impact on the allocated budget, allowing funds to be spent on additional facilities.

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Motorola today announced that a total of forty Motorola TETRA Base Stations with fuel cell back-up are now live across Denmark’s SINE public safety network, with approximately 50 planned and commissioned for installation throughout the remainder of the year.

The environmentally friendly, fuel cell-based back-up solution, which was developed with Dantherm Power, was installed to provide mission-critical operations with continuous secure communication across the nationwide SINE network in Denmark. It is the first network of its kind in the world.

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A recent research study commissioned by Motorola found over seven in ten surveyed Information Technology (IT) decision-makers in the manufacturing industry looking to leverage mobile and wireless solutions to streamline operations. The study found manufacturers with mobility applications saved a daily average of 42 minutes per employee.

The Motorola Enterprise Mobility Manufacturing Barometer surveyed manufacturing IT decision makers in 14 countries across four continents, of whom 80 percent cited that mobility was more important for their organizations today than in 2008. This represents a nine percent increase from previous research, indicating that enterprise mobility applications continue to grow in importance as manufacturers look to boost operational efficiencies and increase productivity in the current macro-economic climate.

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The Motorola Foundation today announced the recipients of its 2009 Innovation Generation grants, $5 million in funding to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education for America’s youth. Now in its fourth year, the grants create opportunities for students to experience STEM both inside and outside the classroom, equipping them with the skills essential to their lives today and to their success in the future.

“Science and technology come to life every day at Motorola. With Innovation Generation, we extend that experience to students across the country, so they will be inspired and prepared to embrace – or even create – the inventions of the future,” said Eileen Sweeney, director of the Motorola Foundation. “We support programs that make science, math and engineering compelling – whether that is with real-world role models, exciting out-of-school programming or experiences that are completely out of the box.”

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Packing a wireless phone for vacation is a no-brainer for most summer travelers, but a recent survey from Sprint shows that the majority of those vacationers are not using helpful travel applications because of budget concerns.

From GPS to video/photo sharing to weather and flight information, travelers can untap the power of their phones via Sprint’s powerful 3G network – the nation’s most dependable1 – while on the beach, at an amusement park or while camping. And they can do all of this for one flat monthly rate, thanks to the Sprint Simply EverythingSM plan, which allows customers to save $1,200 over two years vs. comparable plans for the iPhone.2

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Every ten years, the U.S. Census is required by law to collect and count data in an accurate, timely and efficient manner. To further boost accuracy and efficiency, Harris Corporation, the system integrator for the upcoming 2010 Census, has selected Sprint as the exclusive wireless data provider to help automate the process and to provide wireline and wireless data support to collect the information in real-time.

“Sprint provides the best value for the government by offering a cost-effective converged solution for the cellular and landline data needs of the program, while also leveraging a robust portfolio of managed services and their secure and reliable Now Network,” said Mike Murray, Vice President, Harris Census Programs. “As a result of the combined solutions and technology provided by Sprint and Harris, the 2010 Decennial Census is expected to be the most accurate in U.S. history.”

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Sprint today announced Motorola Clutch i465 will be available this summer, in all Sprint sales channels, including Sprint stores, www.sprint.com/nexteldirectconnect and 1-800-Nextel-9 for $39.99 with a new two-year service agreement, $20 instant rebate and $50 mail-in rebate (excluding taxes).

Motorola Clutch i465, fueled by the Nextel National Network, is a rugged device in a slender candy bar form factor, and the first Nextel Direct Connect® messaging-centric device that brings the strength of a full QWERTY keyboard to the iDEN line. Motorola Clutch i465 also offers Group Messaging, which lets customers create groups of up to 20 people to send messages to at the same time.

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Ericsson is paving the way for leading Ukrainian operator Kyivstar to offer its 23.9 million subscribers mobile broadband services under a three-year network modernization deal between the two companies.

While Ukraine awaits the imminent release of 3G licenses, Kyivstar’s customers across 99.9 percent of the country will be able to access multimedia data services and superior voice service thanks to an expansion and modernization of Kyivstar’s GSM/EDGE network. Ericsson will boost capacity and coverage of the operator’s radio access and core network, which serves more than half the nation’s total subscriber base of 55.2 million. By increasing capacity by more than 30 percent, Kyivstar will be able to manage the anticipated uptake of mobile data in the network.

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Alcatel-Lucent today launched a very innovative high-capacity and eco-efficient digital subscriber line (DSL) platform – enabling service providers to deliver tomorrow’s applications over their installed copper base, all while consuming up to 25% less power compared to conventional DSL solutions.

Alcatel-Lucent’s green DSL leverages the reduced power consumption of its latest generation of DSL line cards, the company’s unique distributed DSLAM concept and Alcatel-Lucent’s Smart DSL technology.

“Today, standards exist that allow modems to go in a low-power mode when user traffic is low. However, re-activating these modems causes power fluctuations – resulting in crosstalk and destabilizing the network,” said Jürgen Lison, Vice-President of Alcatel-Lucent’s ISAM product unit. “Alcatel-Lucent’s green DSL provides operators with a unique, end-to-end solution that overcomes these issues – enabling a significant reduction of the modems’ power consumption across a service provider’s subscriber base without causing any line stability issues. This is a value proposition that cannot be provided by any other vendor in the industry today.”

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Alcatel-Lucent announced today it has successfully implemented a contact center for ZON Multimedia, Portugal’s leading Pay TV operator and second largest Internet Service Provider. ZON is now implementing Phase Two of this project, which consists of developing new customer service capabilities and thus contributing to ZON’s Customer Engagement Strategy.

Alcatel-Lucent will create a new customer service platform for ZON Multimedia, using software from its subsidiary Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, to significantly enhance the customer experience. The new platform will integrate all ZON’s inbound and outbound communications and create new self- and assisted-service channels for its customers, incorporating additional types of media, such as email, video and chat. ZON will be leveraging Alcatel-Lucent’s project management capabilities, consulting and design strengths, and software integration experience to support their end-user focused strategy.

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