The Prepaid Press - November 15, 2007 - (Page 20)

TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY November 15 · 2007 - 20 MySpace and Skype Ink Deal Free Internet Voice for MySpace Global Community LOS ANGELES & LUXEMBOURG (October 17, 2008) MySpace, a popular social network, and Skype, an Internet communications company, will partner to empower the MySpace community with voice communications. With more than 110 million monthly active MySpace users and 220 million Skype registered users around the world, this partnership connects two of the most popular communications platforms on the Internet to create a worldwide, voice-connected community. The announcement unveils MySpaceIM with Skype, a new product that integrates MySpace’s popular IM client with Skype’s free voice-calling capability. The partnership will also enable users to link their MySpace profiles and photos or avatars to their accounts on Skype. Both products will be available to users starting in November. MySpaceIM with Skype will enable millions of users to place free Skype Internet calls to other MySpace or Skype users when it launches in 20 countries where MySpace has localized communities,. The addition of Skype voice-calling to MySpace’s instant messaging feature gives users more ways to easily connect with friends and family around the world, and does not require MySpace users to download any additional Skype software. “MySpaceIM with Skype is a truly groundbreaking product integration and partnership,” said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace. “Skype has the leading technology in Internet voice communications and an enormous international user base that we’re thrilled to connect with our existing community. Our network has no geographical boundaries—Internet calling is the natural next step for how our members communicate with each other.” The ability for Skype users to link their Skype accounts to their MySpace profiles will be available globally, except in Japan, China and Taiwan. In addition to free Skype calling, MySpaceIM with Skype will also allow the users of the MySpace network to optionally select Skype’s premium fee-based products. Source: MySpace (www.myspace.com) Skype (www.skype.com) Tadiran Announces New Loyalty Incentive Program Designed to Increase Sales and Margins for Reseller Partners PORT WASHINGTON, NY (October 26, 2007) IP solutions provider Tadiran Telecom has launched a new loyalty incentive program, Accelerate for Success. The company said the program is designed to encourage and reward top performing reseller partners, and is geared towards driving Tadiran’s growing base of resellers to improve proﬁtability, enhance margins and increase their sales of Tadiran’s products. The Accelerate for Success Reseller Loyalty Program provides dollar savings to customers as well as reward programs for the reseller’s staff, accroding to Tadiran. Tadiran’s IP communications solutions and telephones allow businesses and organizations of all sizes to migrate to the world of IP in stages, all while continuing to leverage existing network and legacy investments. Tadiran Telecom’s V.P. of Marketing Pat Lennon said, “Channel partners can offer customers the beneﬁts of an easy, cost-effective move to IP communications, while taking advantage of Tadiran’s high-quality channel support, training and commitment to success. By partnering with resellers through this new program, Tadiran will grow its market presence with deeper penetration into vertical sectors where reliable Enterprise-wide communications and mobility are critical, such as ﬁnance, healthcare, real estate, education, retail, manufacturing and state and local government.” The Accelerate for Success Reseller Loyalty Program gives resellers access to tools, product information and incentive/reward programs. It is designed to build higher levels of customer satisfaction and reseller expertise to increase proﬁtability. Source: Tadiran Telecom (www.TadiranAmerica.com) Oblio Telecom Launches New Prepaid Products Prepaid Calling Cards Target Latin-American Market Octasic Announces New Media Gateway DSP Vocallo’s Licensing Enables New Business Model MONTREAL, CANADA (October 16, 2007) Octasic, Inc., a provider of media processing solutions, has launched a next generation multicore gateway DSP platform for voice, video and data over IP applications. The Vocallo expandable media gateway solution enables a ﬂexible business model for OEMs designing media gateways. The company said its business model enables an OEM to design a cost-reduced gateway to handle today’s Voice over IP (VoIP) needs with licensable performance to accommodate future applications. OEMs can defer the costs of additional performance capacity until they deliver and charge for an application that requires it, according to the release. “Because requirements are constantly changing, there is a need for greater ﬂexibility and expandability in media processing devices. Vocallo is the only solution today that allows OEMs to pick their features, add-in their own software and upgrade,” said Frederic Bourget, director of product management at Octasic. “Vocallo is powerful and ﬂexible. It is a comprehensive solution for current and future applications.” Ocastic said Vocallo is based on Opus, Octasic’s DSP core architecture, which provides a “rich instruction set that allows for expandability into new applications.” Source: Octasic (www.octastic.com) $5 TArjEtA PRepaGAdA TArjEtA PRepaGAdA Pactolus Selected by Global Crossing For Delivery of Next-Generation Event Call Services MARLBOROUGH, MA (October 30, 2007) Pactolus Communications Software Corporation has been selected by Global Crossing to enable delivery of next-generation Event Call services. The Pactolus RapidFLEX Service Creation and Delivery Platform and SIPware Event Audio Conferencing application on the new Pactolus platform now riding on Global Crossing’s Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network, uses IP for scale, economy, service feature innovation and reliability. Pactolus makes SIP applications and service creation/delivery solutions. Wainhouse Research Partner and CSP Practice Manager Marc Beattie noted: “The industry needs IP-based solutions that exceed those of routine peer-to-peer and PBX-level IP services to aggregate thousands of users on a single call, achieve scale and stability through geographically distributed networking, and safeguard call states and service resiliency.” “By integrating Pactolus’ solutions and RadiSys’ media server technology with our global IP network that includes Sonus gateways, we’ve enhanced the scalability, robustness, resiliency, and monitoring and reporting capabilities of our operator-assisted audio conferencing architecture,” said Greg Wallace, Global Crossing’s vice president of network architecture, planning and development. “This will enable greater operational efﬁciencies and accelerate new service creation to enhance our customers’ experience and support capacity as subscriber demand grows.” Global Crossing’s Event Call platform now includes three primary elements: 1) the service delivery platform, including the object-based Pactolus RapidFLEX Service Creation Environment, the RapidFLEX Application Server, and the RadiSys Convedia Media Server, 2) the Pactolus SIPware Event Conferencing Application, and 3) the Pactolus Event Conference Manager (ECM). The conferencing platform service is delivered through a Sonus Gateway to PSTNbased users. The Event Call platform marks the first large-scale deployment of the Pactolus Event Conference Manager (ECM), an innovative management Web interface for Global Crossing’s operational staff. The Global Crossing Event Call platform is also one of the industry’s ﬁrst to integrate the use of media servers on operator-assisted calls, allowing the creation and implementation of robust features. To date, the use of media server-driven features has been conﬁned to smaller-scale reservationless calling services. Source: Global Crossing (www.globalcrossing.com); Pactolus (www.pactolus.com) RICHARDSON, TX (October 23, 2007) Oblio Telecom, a unit of Titan Communications, has launched four additional brand-name prepaid calling card products targeting the Latin-American market. The company said the products will be powered by the Company’s Starttalk division. The two new brand-name products that Titan is launching are Obliotel Mexico and ToDo MX. The company did not identify the other two products that will be launched under private labels . Bryan Chance, President and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer of Titan Global Holdings, said, “We will continue to work closely with our distribution channels and customers to quickly develop and deploy trusted products to market. Based on the economies of scale in our Starttalk division, these incremental revenues will provide increased shareholder returns as we accelerate planned launches in the coming weeks and months.” Starttalk, Inc., a unit of Titan’s Communication Division, owns, leases and operates switching equipment that terminates international long distance calls. Titan’s customers access Starttalk equipment directly to complete international long distance calls. Starttalk has strategic agreements with wholesale carriers to terminate customer calls in a high quality, cost effective manner, according to the release. “We are always looking to expand our reach into vibrant markets with high growth opportunities,” said Kurt Jensen, President of Titan Communications Division. “Our legacy Hello Asia brand terminates significant traffic to Southeast Asia and our legacy Picante brand terminates heavy trafﬁc to Latin markets. The launch of these new products will help balance termination trafﬁc and generate incremental revenues in new targeted markets. The launch of these products marks the beginning of a new product push of prepaid phone cards which will expand our product portfolio and reach a larger consumer base of ﬁrst and second generation Americans.” Source: Titan Global Holdings (www.titanglobalholdings.com) Total Call Enha http://www.TadiranAmerica.com http://www.myspace.com http://www.skype.com http://www.octastic.com http://www.titanglobalholdings.com http://www.totalcallusa.com http://www.globalcrossing.com http://www.pactolus.com http://www.totalcallusa.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Prepaid Press - November 15, 2007

The Prepaid Press - November 15, 2007 Online Wireless Recharge It's a Wrap for Gift Cards Contents GENERAL PREPAID Prepaid 101: Merchandising Regulatory Rundown: Wireless Broadband, LNP, Internet Taxes, and Stored Value Legislation Guest Editorial: Honest Minutes: "The Times They Are A-Changing" 5 Minutes With Daniel Neal, CEO of kajeet The Legal Line Prepaid Wireless Roundup WIRELESS Wireless in Brief 011 Mobile Launches Mobile International Dialing Hop-on Adds GSM Phone to Product Line Virgin Mobile USA Launches New Services kajeet Adds to Handset Line MarketStar Publishes Mobile Phone Usage Study Nokia and Cellfire Team Up Verizon Selects Firethorn iVisionMobile Launches Messaging Platform Sprint Expands "Unlimited by Boost" INTERNATIONAL Spot Rates NOMAD Brings MasterCard EMS to Europe R&M Finds Potential in Africa International in Brief TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY Caveat Emptor When Negotiating IP Licensing T&T in Brief MySpace and Skype Ink Deal Octastic Announces New Media Gateway DSP Pactolus Selected by Global Crossing Tadiran Announces New Loyalty Incentive Program Oblio Telecom Launches New Prepaid Products Total Call Enhances Prepaid Calling Cards PAYMENTS A Gift Card Technology Guide Pinnacle and PaySpot Roll Out POS/Prepaid Solution TIO Networks Announces Membership Program TransFund$ Partners with TruckersB2B AMR Finds Retailers Returning to Main Street Payments in Brief Diebold to Offer Prepaid Gift Card Technology InComm to Sell nFinanSe Discover Cards iVisionMobile Offers Retailers Mobile Payments i2c to Offer Stored Value Webinars Mobilians Starts U.S. Mobile Payments Operation NetSpend Increases Savings Program Interest EXTRAS Classifieds Contact Us Our Advertisers

The Prepaid Press - November 15, 2007

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