iPass Ups Ante with Device Protection Online Service

On July 16th iPass announced the availability of its Device Lockdown Protection Online service, designed to protect remote and mobile devices. Key features include Internet lockdown, USB lockdown, pre-VPN enforcement, Web-based policy management, application protection and adaptive policy enforcement. The new service is based on Symantec’s policy-based device protection platform.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Fiberlink should point out that iPass’ claim that it can unify connection, protection and management of remote and mobile devices is not unique to iPass. Similar to iPass, Fiberlink too can provide similar services through the Fiberlink Extend360Mobility platform.

► Given the partnership between Orange Business Services and iPass, Orange Business Services should work towards reducing the lag for incorporating features of the iPassConnect client with its Business Everywhere client. Otherwise, Orange Business Services will always trail iPass in terms of service portfolio.

► Verizon Business Services and BT Global Services need to pay significant attention towards incorporating more security services with their respective RAS offerings. While the service providers’ offer extensive managed security services as part of their wireline portfolios (i.e., managed VPNs) they need to package them with their RAS offerings to take on players such as iPass and Fiberlink.

► Global RAS players can find a strong partnership with Alcatel-Lucent with its Omni SecureAccess offering and mobile operators (such as Vodafone and T-Mobile), service providers (such as BT Global Services and AT&T), as well as aggregators such as iPass and Fiberlink should evaluate the product. Alcatel-Lucent should point out that while popular RAS clients require internet access for updating and policy enforcement, Alcatel-Lucent’s USB-based Omni SecureAccess pushes the update to the device through a SMS, therefore updating the device and enforcing policies even when the user has not booted the device.

| Client Access - Enterprise Mobility - Europe |

New Vodafone Messenger Debuts in Portugal

On July 11th Vodafone Portugal launched Vodafone Messenger, enabling users to access Microsoft Windows Live messenger on their mobile phones. Vodafone Portugal customers will now be able to enjoy unlimited chat with their Windows Live Messenger contacts in the same way as on a computer. To access the service, customers can download an application to their phone from an SMS short-code, or from the Vodafone live! portal. The Vodafone messenger download is free. As a launch promotion, usage of the service will be free until the end of October.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► All competitors should expect to see the new Vodafone Messenger service launch in other key European markets in the coming months. Vodafone Messenger is a significant Vodafone Group initiative, and its appearance in Portugal is just the first of several service launches to come. Competitors should, furthermore, anticipate a mass-market service positioning.

► Orange must make sure that its own Orange Messenger initiative (also in partnership with key IM messenger clients) is in alignment with its strategy to flesh out the number of mid-to-low market signature devices, as a high level of handset compatibility will be key to driving IM into the mass market. Orange should note that Vodafone will position its new IM service to the mass market.

► All competitors should note Vodafone Portugal’s post-promotion pricing model of around EUR 3 per month for unlimited IM, incremental to any other Vodafone subscription, such as Vodafone live!. It is likely that other Vodafone operating companies will adopt a similar, incremental flat-rate model.

► Competitors with their own IM initiatives should consider reducing or abolishing roaming fees for IM usage abroad altogether. Although Vodafone’s plans for pricing IM in a roaming context are currently unknown, we believe the Vodafone Group could take a highly aggressive stance on this issue.

| Client Access - Wireless Services - Europe |

Best Practice From Abroad: What Hotspot @Home Can Teach Us Europeans

By Emma Mohr-McClune
Principal Analyst, Wireless Services Europe

T-Mobile USA’ interpretation of Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) service modeling is distinctly different from anything we’ve seen so far in Europe. With no broadband network of its own, T-Mobile USA has deployed its T-Mobile@home service over ‘any’ broadband connection, including legacy home WiFi routers in the field and hotspots abroad.

Ultra-simple option-based pricing, a clear Family Tariff alignment and a markedly aggressive competitive agenda combine for one of the strongest UMA service propositions to date, anywhere. Until now, UMA has been a strictly European affair, but BT, Orange, TeliaSonera Denmark and Telecom Italia now need look to the US market for UMA service best practice.

Current Analysis Perspective

T-Mobile USA’ Hotspot @Home creates a new benchmark for UMA service innovation, and European operators need to take note of several aspects of this service for insights into how to refine and improve their own UMA-enabled service propositions.

In a nutshell, Hotspot @Home is a UMA-based dual-mode phone service which allows end-users unlimited calling from the home hotspot or any other T-Mobile or public WiFi point to US fixed and mobile numbers for a fixed monthly charge, modeled as an ‘option’ on top of an existing T-Mobile package. The promotional launch offer is US$10 monthly for individuals and US$20 for families (up to five lines), with a choice of two routers (D-Link and Linksys) for $49.99 (free after rebate).

The service offers a choice of two dual-mode handsets, the Nokia 6086 and Samsung t409 at US$49.99 a piece, together with a two-year contract. For us Europeans, however, the really interesting elements of Hotspot @Home lie in its entirely new interpretation of the existing UMA business model.

UMA: FMS, As Opposed to FMC

A key lesson we Europeans can draw from Hotspot @Home is the way in which UMA technology can be deployed by a mobile-only operator as part of an FMS (fixed-mobile substitution) strategy. In Europe, the first adopters of UMA service technology have been broadband or integrated fixed-and-mobile players with a vast broadband customer base to protect.

Perhaps this is why that the European interpretation of UMA service technology has been as an FMC-centric (Fixed-Mobile Convergence), broadband defensive initiative. European service providers have leveraged their respective UMA-enabled services to ‘put hooks’ into their existing DSL customer bases, and offset broadband churn. This broadband focus has led European service providers to emphasize the ‘FMC’ nature of the product, to underline the message that service ownership requires both a wireless and wireline element.

In their effort to ‘launch FMC,’ European service providers have tended to treat UMA services as exceptional cases, special service entities within their own rights, largely forgetting the wider market in which they play, and the standard GSM services with which they undoubtedly compete. Hotspot @Home teaches us how a different strategic agenda for the same wireless technology can help a service provider re-focus on competitive service modeling. It teaches us that UMA may also hold relevance for a mobile-only operator, and it shows us how. For, T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home is designed to run over ‘any’ broadband connection: it uses second-party broadband as the transport mechanism.

UMA Over Second-Party Broadband

Ultra-Simple Pricing

Hotspot Access Abroad: UMA, The Roaming Killer

| Client Access - Wireless Service - Europe |