Orange, the French telco giant, unveiled the first 6 startups in its inaugural accelerator program, including startups building hardware and software for the developing world, and startups using data to make clouds and online identities secure. Read more »
Orange’s Skype-and-WhatsApp rival is gaining functionality and reach for users around the world, with particular benefits for customers of certain Orange carriers. Read more »
France plans to spend up to $27 billion on fiber connectivity. Yet, the plan so far doesn’t detail how operators will fund deployment in rural areas, a sticking point that torpedoed a previous attempt. Read more »
The link between Paris and Lyon is the first operational deployment of long-distance 400 Gbps wavelength fiber connectivity, with its first tester being France’s educational and research network, Renater. Read more »
Mobile operators have treated Skype as a threat for years. Now they’re going to profit off it by allowing customers to buy Skype Credit directly through their phone bill or pre-paid allowance and taking a cut. Read more »
Paris-based eNovance will resell Inktank’s Ceph services and the two companies apparently already have a mystery customer. And, quelle surprise! eNovance is also deeply involved in a government-sponsored project to rival Amazon Web Services. Read more »
It turns out that Google, the great proponent of net neutrality, is paying Orange to handle its traffic on the carrier’s mobile networks. That’s an unwelcome development, and here’s why. Read more »
The country’s smallest operator, 3, just grew significantly through the acquisition of number-three player Orange. However, regulatory approval was conditional on a new entrant taking hold later this year, and number-two player T-Mobile is also deeply unhappy about aspects of the takeover. Read more »
After users complained about bad online video experiences, France’s telecom regulator launched an investigation trying to figure out if a local ISP was blocking YouTube or if it was just underinvesting in its network. A decision is expected soon, and could have worldwide repercussions. Read more »
The three biggest mobile operators in Spain have all launched Joyn, the consumer-facing brand name for Rich Communications Services. But, with entrenched over-the-top rivals such as WhatsApp, is this long-gestating platform too late? Read more »
The France-based operator group is the latest to deploy an app that competes directly with the likes of Skype and WhatsApp, but also potentially steals away its own paying customers. Apart from evolving because it has to, what does it hope to gain? Read more »
Consumers are gravitating to an ever expanding array of OTT services – much to the chagrin of telecom operators. Andreas Bernström, CEO of Rebtel, argues that not partnering up means missing out on big revenues and the control of their market. Read more »
This year’s top 20 in terms of total connections looks very much like last years, according to Wireless Intelligence. There’s, however, evidence of a subtle shift in the rankings in favor of Asian operators versus Western operators. Read more »
Whether it’s the iPhone 5, the importance of LTE, or BYOD trends disrupting the enterprise, there are always technologies, trends, and companies changing the way we define mobile. Here are some noteworthy segments to watch in the coming months, from location-based shopping to apps to wireless networks. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Ouch. France’s top mobile network, Orange, has been suffering from a bug that left a huge chunk of users unable to access their voicemail — just a few weeks after a software glitch rendered vast parts of the company’s network unusable. Read more »
After little more than six months of operation, Xavier Niel’s French mobile operator Free.fr seems to be having a serious impact on the local market. Not only is it stealing millions of customers from bigger rivals, but it’s forcing them to radically alter their price plans too. Read more »
Global No2 video service Dailymotion is expanding its white label streaming service to try and capture a greater share of the market. Can its new features draw in more users and help the company meet its targets? Read more »
Discussions about the cloud now involve more than just the IT department. New developments in hardware architectures, more-energy-efficient data centers, regulatory concerns and simplifying analytics are all discussions currently circling through the industry. Here’s what to consider when thinking about your business in the cloud. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Has one single Android phone outsold the iPhone 4S? Apparently so, at least at Verizon, where the Motorola Razr and its 4G LTE radio is tops. Acer is taking on Apple’s iPad with a $449 tablet while an Intel phone — yes, Intel — gets a nice review. Read more »
France’s Bouygues Telecom is working with virtual hotspot network Devicescape to give its smartphone customers seamless access to 8 million open Wi-Fi access points globally, replicating – at least fractionally – one of the key differentiators Iliad’s Free Mobile has on the competition: a 4 million-node offload network. Read more »
After weeks of trying to find out why Orange mobile censored GigaOM for millions of mobile users in Britain, we finally have an answer: it’s because the company’s crude child protection blocks anything that looks like a blog by default. Read more »
British mobile operators have come in for criticism recently for ‘overblocking’ — incorrectly identifying sites as adult content and censoring them from ordinary web users. After GigaOM fell foul of one network’s filters, we asked for answers. And now they’re trickling in. Read more »
Vodafone and O2 are joining forces in Britain to share their grid and try to roll out 4G services faster than planned. It’s being painted as a great deal for consumers — but it’s actually being driven by the actions of their rivals. Read more »
British mobile firms are often accused of “overblocking” — censoring the web for their users in the name of child protection. But after GigaOM was blocked, we’ve discovered first hand how dangerous bad filters can be… and how hard it is to get answers from operators. Read more »
France’s mobile market has been upset by the innovative approach of Xavier Niel’s low-cost operator, Free. But after an initial boost of customers, rivals say the company’s growth is slowing. Is its momentum in danger of draining away before it’s even really started? Read more »
France’s Free Mobile launched with enormous hoopla in January, but it sat on a key component of its innovative mobile strategy until today. Free has opened up 4 million Wi-Fi hotspots to its smartphone customers, creating the world’s largest carrier-run mobile data offload network. Read more »
Orange is having a run at the nascent second-screen social-TV space already occupied by the likes of GetGlue, Miso, Zeebox and Intonow. Read more at paidContent »
At MWC executives of two prominent operators said the industry has significant challenges in the form of over the top providers commoditizing their revenue streams without those companies putting any significant investment of their own into the network. Here’s what operators should do. Read more »
Mobile World Congress just became Intel’s mobile coming out party. On Monday Orange will debut the first smartphone powered by Intel’s Atom processor at the show, giving Intel a key foothold in the European market as well as a critical endorsement from a major carrier. Read more »
Last month we reported on the wireless revolution Iliad’s Free Mobile was leading in France. Now the first casualty reports are in. France Telecom’s Orange reported on Wednesday it lost 201,000 net subscribers in a little more than a month, fleeing to Free’s ultra-cheap plans. Read more »
This report outlines the myriad issues at play in Facebook’s move, from examining how CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to rewire the world to understanding the company’s infrastructure dependency. But from every angle, it’s clear the effects will ripple throughout the startup and tech communities. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Orange has struck a deal with Wikipedia to make its digital encyclopaedia available free of data charges to millions of mobile phone users a… Read more at paidContent »
When Free.fr launched its revolutionary new wireless service last week, it put French mobile operators on notice, and they have all responded. The problem is they’ve come nowhere near close to matching the deep data and voice discounts Free is offering. Read more »
While some operators in some countries (like the U.S. and Japan) have already celebrated birthdays for their LTE services, 4G in the UK hasn… Read more at paidContent »
As expected, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has started to send out invitations to an event in New York, and now we know what it will be about: educatio… Read more at paidContent »
CES, currently in full swing in Las Vegas, promises to bring out another wave of Android tablets, to add to the 40+ that were on the market… Read more at paidContent »
MobiTV, one of the more established mobile TV companies in the market today with deals in place with several major U.S. mobile operators, to… Read more at paidContent »
Xavier Niel, the maverick founder of Free.fr broadband service, will redefine the mobile landscape with Free Mobile, a new approach thanks to a cutting-edge network that blends Wi-Fi, HSPA+ 3G, femtocells and its all-fiber backbone, offering unlimited voice, texting and data for cheap. Read more »
China presents one of the single biggest opportunities for mobile companies looking for more growth, and it’s no surprise that companies lik… Read more at paidContent »
With the growth of over-the-top services that let users access the video they want over the internet (and often, for free), those companies… Read more at paidContent »
