Devicescape

Arqiva loses its wifi virginity

UK mutliplay telco Virgin Media is hoping to steal a march on bitter rival BT by grabbing Arqiva’s 31,000 UK wifi access points for its business arm.

UK operators reportedly reject network sharing

Despite growing demand for better mobile coverage in rural Britain from the public and the government, UK carriers have rejected national network sharing, an idea trumpeted by the Culture, Media and Sport Minister Savid Javid.

Rok to launch LTE music MVNO in US

Specialist mobile entertainment and streaming music firm Rok Mobile has unveiled plans to launch an LTE MVNO in the US in June bolstered by 20 million on demand audio tracks.

RoI greatest challenge to operator wifi, says survey

Despite the range of recognised benefits available to mobile operators through wifi provisioning, there are clear concerns that the economics might not stack up. When respondents to the Telecoms.com Intelligence Industry Survey 2014 were asked to rank challenges that operators might face in deploying their own wifi networks, return on investment was considered as the most serious obstacle by far. A total of 53.3 per cent of respondents ranked RoI six or seven out of seven in terms of seriousness (with seven being the most serious), with that number rising to almost 57 per cent among operators.

Virgin Media named as Devicescape’s first UK customer

Curated wifi network provider Devicescape has announced a contract win with UK operator and MVNO Virgin Media, the first European deal for the US firm. Devicescape operates a curated network of amenity wifi hotpsots that operators can rebrand as their own wifi offering

Devicescape CVN grows to 20 million wifi hotspots

Wifi offload specialist Devicescape has announced that its Curated Virtual Network (CVN) of amenity wifi hotspots has grown 82 per cent year on year to surpass 20 million hotspots worldwide. The firm added that it is on track for that figure to grow to 100 million hotspots by the end of 2017.

Ofcom consults telcos on wifi availability on 5GHz spectrum band

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom is undertaking a consultation with telcos and other stakeholders over the use of the 5GHz spectrum band for wifi services. The regulator said it is looking to develop a better understanding of the role that shared spectrum access could play in the mobile broadband and M2M sectors alongside cleared spectrum bands.

Arun Sarin joins board of wifi player DeviceScape

The former CEO of Vodafone, Arun Sarin, has joined the board of a wifi offload specialist that claims to be the curator of the world’s largest wifi network. Devicescape offers a rolling curator service that verifies the quality of more than 12 million public and amenity (instore, shopping mall, etc) wifi hotpsots based on feedback from user devices.

Windows Phone 8 users get free wifi

US software firm Microsoft has given Windows Phone 8 users access to a sizeable global wifi network intended to improve the user experience and rein in data costs.