O2 Claims Exclusive Partner From Rivals

O2 Claims Exclusive Partner From Rivals

o Barclay Communications signs exclusive contract to sell O2 only
o New innovative partnership evolves

O2 today announces that reseller Barclay Communications (Barclay) has ended contracts with the UK’s other major network providers to become an exclusive partner for O2.

In addition to becoming an exclusive O2 partner, Barclay will also become an O2 Centre of Excellence. It will enable Barclay to benefit from a dedicated O2 Business Team providing support across sales, customer service and marketing and better meet the needs of their customers.

Barclay, which specialises in improving business efficiency for customers will now exclusively sell and manage O2’s business products and services throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. O2 and Barclay will operate a revenue-share model, allowing both organisations to improve direction and focus, whilst providing a profitable platform for both parties.

O2 is gaining an exclusive partnership with one of the fastest growing technology companies in Ireland, recognised by its inclusion in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. Barclay’s experience and success in optimising business contracts using the latest mobile technologies has been the foundation of its achievements to date. The company was recently awarded the Mobile News Award for best business-to-business reseller.

Barclay made the decision to become an exclusive O2 partner due to the strength of O2’s products and services, and its innovative approach to partnering. The two organisations have developed a highly successful and unique working relationship, illustrated by the groundbreaking deal to transfer existing O2 SME customers in Northern Ireland to Barclay.

“We are delighted to announce Barclay Communications as an exclusive partner and a Centre of Excellence for business. This deal is testament to the excellent quality of service Barclay provides. Barclay is the perfect partner to help us expand our presence and grow our market share throughout the UK, supplying our entire range of business-to-business solutions across mobile and web. We pride ourselves on our successful partnerships, and have set out our stall to be the number one network to help our partners grow. We see the Centre of Excellence program as the perfect vehicle to achieve those aims and allow our partner & direct channels to collaborate”, said David Plumb, Head of SME Sales at O2.

Britt Megahey, Managing Director of Barclay Communications commented: “We have been astounded by the level of O2’s forward-thinking approach. As an operator, it is streets ahead of the other networks in the way it works with partners. We have built strong personal relationships with O2’s team of experts and enjoy regular high-level contact. Looking ahead, we are excited and impressed by O2’s mobile and fixed-line proposition, positioning us perfectly as convergence becomes an increasingly important area for the industry. The revenue-share model we have agreed with O2 will become an industry standard and, ultimately, made the decision to go exclusive an easy one.”

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Telefónica gives world’s first real LTE demonstration

Telefónica gives world’s first real LTE demonstration

In Madrid today, Telefónica gave a demonstration of how real services work on a 4th generation mobile network using LTE (long term evolution) technology. This is the first time that an LTE prototype network has been connected to the real network (3G & 2G), an indication that applications could be just around the corner.

This first demo included a VOIP call and a video call using the LTE mini-network installed at the HQ for this purpose by Ericsson, a video conference and data & image download with speeds well over 140Mbps: ten times faster than the current speed offered by the 3G network over HSPA technology.

Commitment to technological leadership and innovation is one of Telefónica’s key objectives.

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T-Mobile arrives at Brent Cross Shopping Centre Mobile phone retailer opens new store amidst dance frenzy

T-Mobile arrives at Brent Cross Shopping Centre
Mobile phone retailer opens new store amidst dance frenzy

Key features:

§ Dance competition with fantastic prizes to be won

§ Special appearance by Camilla Dallerup and Ian Waite from Strictly Come Dancing

§ Entertainment from street dancers

London, UK 9 April: T-Mobile today announces the opening of its latest store “ in Brent Cross Retail Centre, North London. Located in the original multi-storey shopping centre, the store will open amid a flurry of activity giving customers the opportunity to win money-can’t-buy prizes by entering their own version of the Life’s for Sharing T-Mobile dance.

Judged by Strictly Come Dancing’s Camilla Dallerup and Ian Waite, shoppers can record their moves on video in the Dance Diary Room in the heart of the shopping centre, from 15 April. Winners will be invited back on Saturday 18 April, for front-row seats to a dance show and to win fantastic prizes. These include a day for five people at Pineapple Dance Studios, a Sony Ericsson W705 handset, Guitar Hero game and console, a shopping spree and personal stylist at Brent Cross as well as a Ministry of Sound DJ academy experience. Featuring performances from the Strictly Come Dancing duo and T-Mobile dancers from the infamous TV advert, Brent Cross will be dancing all day!

There will be some fantastic opening offers and customers will receive a £50 high street voucher when they join selected pay monthly plans in-store, plus free T-Mobile cupcakes and coffee located outside the T-Mobile store. John Steven, T-Mobile Area Manager said: This is an exciting opportunity for us to show customers at Brent Cross what the T-Mobile experience is all about.

The Brent Cross store features the latest in T-Mobile design: floating window display cubes promoting innovative handsets make it our most exciting shop front to date. For ease of use, the store is divided into dedicated zones: customers can browse T-Mobile’s range of pay as you go and pay monthly tariffs, and explore sections dedicated to business, music and the internet. The store also includes a relaxation area where shoppers can try out mobile broadband services including laptops and USB modems, and the innovative Sharedock that allows several users to share a single mobile broadband stick.

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ORANGE EXTENDS FREE BLACKBERRY INTERNET SERVICE FOR BUSINESS CUSTOMERS

ORANGE EXTENDS FREE BLACKBERRY INTERNET SERVICE FOR BUSINESS CUSTOMERS

BlackBerry Internet Service promotion during April and May on selected tariffs

London, April 08, 2009: Orange is extending its free BlackBerry® email and web browsing offer to help business customers in these challenging economic times. Customers who sign up to the BlackBerry® Internet Service (BIS) in April and May will be able to receive and reply to emails as well as browse the web on their BlackBerry device; all for free for the duration of their mobile voice contract.

“As the recession continues to bite, the last thing we want is to see is our customers worrying about their phone bill at the end of the month, so this move will hopefully alleviate some of the worries they are facing,” commented, Martin Lyne, Director of small and medium business, Orange UK.

The offer is available on all Blackberry devices to new and existing customers on select Orange business tariffs, making it much easier and cost-effective for customers to stay in touch when on the move. The service for both business and personal use means that access to data and people is available whenever the user wishes.

Until 31st May 2009, Orange customers can take up the offer with Business Solo or Business Infinity, subject to a minimum12 month contract.

For further information, please visit: http://www.orange.co.uk/business/bis

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NEW ORANGE DATA BUNDLE ACCOMODATES EMPLOYEE DOWNTIME HABITS : orange.co.uk

NEW ORANGE DATA BUNDLE ACCOMODATES EMPLOYEE DOWNTIME HABITS

London, April 7, 2009: With more than three quarters (77%) of employees admitting to jumping online, either on their PC or mobile device, to entertain themselves during gaps in their working day, Orange hopes to ease the pressure on small and medium businesses with a new data tariff.

Priced at £4.25 per month for 500MB of data, Orange hopes to ease the pressure on small and medium businesses by giving them enough data to accommodate all their business needs plus more – without incurring any nasty hidden costs.

“In today’s economy, businesses and their employees need a break. We know everybody’s working hard so there’s enough capacity in our new data bundle to combine work with some fun such as social networking and entertainment that doesn’t penalise either staff or the bill payer,” said Martin Lyne.

He continued, “this bundle also serves as the perfect package for an increasingly growing customer base who are adopting a variety of multimedia services.”

According to the YouGov research, commissioned by Orange, a quarter of women would spend work downtime catching up with friends and family via social network sites and email, while one in ten would use the time to shop online. In contrast, half of men would fill a lull in their working day surfing the internet.

This competitive new tariff will replace the 10MB and 250MB (currently priced at £5.00 and £6.38 respectively) packages and will be available to pay monthly business customers with new or existing voice packages.

So what does 500MBs of data get you? Well this can be a maximum of either:

· 25,000 average webpages; or

· 175,000 emails; or

· 125 music downloads; or

· Over 48 hours of web browsing; or

· 192 hours of IM chat

For further information on the 500MG data bundle, please visit: http://www.orange.co.uk/business/owb

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Orange Award for New Writers Announces 2009 Shortlist

Orange Award for New Writers Announces 2009 Shortlist

The Orange Award for New Writers, launched in 2005, announces this year’s shortlist today.

Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist: 21 April 2009

Awards Ceremony: 3 June 2009

The Orange Award for New Writers, launched in 2005, announces this year’s shortlist today.

All first works of fiction, including novels, short story collections and novellas, written in English by a woman of any age or nationality and published as a book in the UK, are eligible. The emphasis of the award is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential. The winner will receive a £10,000 bursary funded by Arts Council England which is intended to help the winning writer pursue their work with greater freedom.

The 2009 shortlist is:

Francesca Kay – An Equal Stillness

Nami Mun – Miles From Nowhere

Ann Weisgarber – The Personal History of Rachel DuPree

The judges for the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers are:

Mishal Husain (Chair), Presenter, BBC World News

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent, Evening Standard

Diana Evans, Author and winner of the inaugural Orange Award for New Writers

“We were deeply impressed by the tremendous quality of this year’s new writers,” said Mishal Husain, BBC World News presenter and Chair of judges, “it was a very competitive field and therefore an excruciating process to choose just three of the 80 books we read. The shortlist we eventually decided upon reflects the dynamism and diversity of the entries, showcasing three authors with very different voices but an outstanding talent. We believe their extraordinary novels will appeal to a wide range of readers and also inspire the writers of tomorrow.”

She continues,” We would also like to commend two other authors, Tania Hershman and CE Morgan, whose work stood out for its remarkable quality. We look forward to seeing more of their writing in the future.”

The Award was launched in 2005 in partnership with Arts Council England. Renewing their commitment to the partnership with Orange, Arts Council England has committed a further £30,000 over the next three years (£10,000 per year) for bursary awards for the winners of the Orange Award for New Writers. By offering a bursary to a novelist or short story writer for her first publication, the Arts Council is able to support the professional development of a writer at a crucial stage in her career.

Authors who have written their first work of fiction can be entered for both the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Award for New Writers in any given year.

Moira Sinclair, Executive Director of Arts Council England, London said: “The Orange Award for New Writers showcases and rewards the best contemporary writing by women today. Arts Council England is delighted to continue its partnership with the Orange Prize, investing in emerging literary talent. Prize money buys freedom, as Rose Tremain said in her Orange Prize winning speech last year, and we hope that the award in 2009 will offer a new literary voice the opportunity to develop in the most favourable conditions.”

Diana Evans took the first ever Orange Award for New Writers in 2005 for her debut novel, 26A. She subsequently went on to win the Decibel Award 2006 at the British Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award 2005. Naomi Alderman won the Orange Award for New Writers in 2006 and has since gone on to win The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year (2007) for her first novel, Disobedience. Canadian writer, Karen Connelly, took the Award in 2007 for her novel, The Lizard Cage and most recently, Joanna Kavenna won the Award in 2008 for her debut novel, Inglorious.

Ian Smith, Head of Partnerships at Orange UK said, “Supporting and rewarding a new generation of fresh and emerging talent is at the heart of what Orange believes in. The ensuing success of our past winners demonstrates the importance of investing in the future of female fiction, which would not be possible were it not for our partnership with Arts Council England.”

The winner will be announced at the Orange Prize for Fiction award ceremony which will take place on 3 June 2009 in The Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, central London.

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Orange Award for New Writers Announces 2009 Shortlist

Orange Award for New Writers Announces 2009 Shortlist

The Orange Award for New Writers, launched in 2005, announces this year’s shortlist today.

Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist: 21 April 2009

Awards Ceremony: 3 June 2009

The Orange Award for New Writers, launched in 2005, announces this year’s shortlist today.

All first works of fiction, including novels, short story collections and novellas, written in English by a woman of any age or nationality and published as a book in the UK, are eligible. The emphasis of the award is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential. The winner will receive a £10,000 bursary funded by Arts Council England which is intended to help the winning writer pursue their work with greater freedom.

The 2009 shortlist is:

Francesca Kay – An Equal Stillness

Nami Mun – Miles From Nowhere

Ann Weisgarber – The Personal History of Rachel DuPree

The judges for the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers are:

Mishal Husain (Chair), Presenter, BBC World News

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent, Evening Standard

Diana Evans, Author and winner of the inaugural Orange Award for New Writers

“We were deeply impressed by the tremendous quality of this year’s new writers,” said Mishal Husain, BBC World News presenter and Chair of judges, “it was a very competitive field and therefore an excruciating process to choose just three of the 80 books we read. The shortlist we eventually decided upon reflects the dynamism and diversity of the entries, showcasing three authors with very different voices but an outstanding talent. We believe their extraordinary novels will appeal to a wide range of readers and also inspire the writers of tomorrow.”

She continues,” We would also like to commend two other authors, Tania Hershman and CE Morgan, whose work stood out for its remarkable quality. We look forward to seeing more of their writing in the future.”

The Award was launched in 2005 in partnership with Arts Council England. Renewing their commitment to the partnership with Orange, Arts Council England has committed a further £30,000 over the next three years (£10,000 per year) for bursary awards for the winners of the Orange Award for New Writers. By offering a bursary to a novelist or short story writer for her first publication, the Arts Council is able to support the professional development of a writer at a crucial stage in her career.

Authors who have written their first work of fiction can be entered for both the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Award for New Writers in any given year.

Moira Sinclair, Executive Director of Arts Council England, London said: “The Orange Award for New Writers showcases and rewards the best contemporary writing by women today. Arts Council England is delighted to continue its partnership with the Orange Prize, investing in emerging literary talent. Prize money buys freedom, as Rose Tremain said in her Orange Prize winning speech last year, and we hope that the award in 2009 will offer a new literary voice the opportunity to develop in the most favourable conditions.”

Diana Evans took the first ever Orange Award for New Writers in 2005 for her debut novel, 26A. She subsequently went on to win the Decibel Award 2006 at the British Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award 2005. Naomi Alderman won the Orange Award for New Writers in 2006 and has since gone on to win The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year (2007) for her first novel, Disobedience. Canadian writer, Karen Connelly, took the Award in 2007 for her novel, The Lizard Cage and most recently, Joanna Kavenna won the Award in 2008 for her debut novel, Inglorious.

Ian Smith, Head of Partnerships at Orange UK said, “Supporting and rewarding a new generation of fresh and emerging talent is at the heart of what Orange believes in. The ensuing success of our past winners demonstrates the importance of investing in the future of female fiction, which would not be possible were it not for our partnership with Arts Council England.”

The winner will be announced at the Orange Prize for Fiction award ceremony which will take place on 3 June 2009 in The Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, central London.

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ORANGE LAUNCHES NEW SALES ACADEMY TO DELIVER OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

ORANGE LAUNCHES NEW SALES ACADEMY TO DELIVER OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

• Extensive talent development programme aimed at delivering a superior customer experience
• Orange Sales Academy transforms career development for entire salesforce
• Significant investment in attracting and inspiring the best talent

London, 6th April 2009: Orange today announced the launch of the Sales Academy, an ambitious talent and development programme that redefines the way Orange attracts, evaluates, trains, coaches and rewards the best talent in Sales. Orange Sales Academy is part of the new vision to deliver outstanding sales performance and customer satisfaction by the Orange Sales and Loyalty team, led by Vice President Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke. Orange is making a substantial investment in the programme further to the commitment made by CEO Tom Alexander for the company to become the best-loved communications brand in the UK.

As part of the sales transformation programme, launched late last year, the extensive initiative aims to motivate and inspire team members, while empowering them with the skills to maximise their potential. The Sales Academy defines a personal career path for individuals whilst managing progress through every step of their journey to deliver top performance.

The launch of the Orange Sales Academy marks a unified approach to talent and development across all channels within the Sales and Loyalty team, which includes sales teams from retail, online, portal advertising, telechannels, indirect and B2B direct. Orange is also revising pay plans and incentives, as well as introducing new reward and recognition schemes as part of the plan.

Orange Sales Academy provides an objective and detailed evaluation of the skills, knowledge and behaviours of sales staff and managers. Training is enhanced by working closely with the internal Talent and Development team as well as external experts in sales performance. Silent Edge has been chosen to be our partner in delivering some key elements of the Academy vision. The focus is on giving managers the skills to become performance coaches and to develop a strong and sustainable in-house training team.

The Sales Academy will kick off with evaluation and training for all Sales and Loyalty staff, and will be followed by ‘sustainability sessions’ that will help to ensure adoption and understanding of the best practice and learnings from the initial training.

The programme provides a personalised training and development experience, and gives staff better visibility of the career opportunities open to them. New initiatives under the Sales Academy include streamlining sales processes and providing sales teams with the skills and techniques to talk customers’ language. This further builds on Orange’s commitment to effectively serve the 21st century customer.

Early last year, Orange created the Retail Centre of Excellence programme which supported a record breaking performance by Orange Retail despite the economic climate. The Centre of Excellence delivers training to sales advisors in Orange stores, starting with a full week induction for full time employees and followed by an eight week fast track programme to become a store manager. It provides an opportunity for all sales advisors to receive up to ten hours of training every quarter. The Sales Academy will complement this programme and take it on another level.

Last week marked the launch of Sales Legends, a programme that recognises outstanding achievements and awards the top 50 performers – the top one per cent – across Sales and Loyalty every month. The top 50 performers for the first half of 2009 will be crowned ‘Sales Legends’ and invited with their partners, to an exclusive VIP event on 16th July. The top three Sales Legends will be exclusively revealed at this event and they’ll walk away with fantastic prizes and the pride of being known across the business as the ‘best of the best’.

Jean Pascal Van Overbeke, VP for Sales and Loyalty at Orange UK commented: “Our vision is to build a world class sales team that is motivated and inspired, and knows how to deliver the right customer experience and return for Orange. We’re making a serious investment in our people and Orange Sales Academy reflects our desire to attract and develop the best salespeople. The Academy will be the place where great sales people are made, and with the tools and guidance from Orange become sales legends.”

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Students of King’s College London to Benefit from Motorola Foundation Grant

Students of King’s College London to Benefit from Motorola Foundation Grant

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) has today granted £20,000 to King’s College London to help support the College’s world class software testing and research centre, CREST (Centre for Research on Evolution, Search and Testing).

Professor Mark Harman, CREST, King’s College London, commented: „This grant will be key to helping our team continue and expand its research, positioning King’s College as one of the foremost facilities for software testing worldwide. We have worked extensively with the team at Motorola on the optimisation of software features for mobile phones and on issues relating to the testing of their products. We look forward to a continued and close collaboration in future.”

The centre currently hosts 25 resident researchers who are led by world-leading expert in software evolution, Professor Mark Harman. Work includes software analysis, testing and search-based software engineering for software optimisation. CREST is part of the Department of Computer Science and is located in a purpose-refurbished lab on the main central London Stand site of King’s College.

As part of a combined academic and industrial drive to develop a game-changing shift in testing, CREST is working to develop cheaper, quicker, ways to assess innovative new software so that cutting-edge products get to consumers faster.

Graeme Hobbs, UK country manager and chairman Motorola Ltd commented: “With an 80-year tradition of innovation, we are focused on delivering for our customers today, whilst keeping a careful eye on what’s next. The work done by the CREST team is pushing the boundaries for software testing and this work will help provide the next generation of user experience to advance the way the world connects.”

The Motorola grant of £20,000 will add to funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the European Union. The grant will specifically help CREST work with other national and international universities and businesses via state-of-the-art display and conferencing facilities. This investment builds on Motorola’s existing involvement as a member on the Industrial Advisory Board for the King’s College Computer Science Department.

About King’s College London

King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2008) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries. King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $30.1 billion in 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.motorola.com.

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Motorola Wins TETRA Terminal Tender in Berlin Terminal tender for digital public safety radio communications including the delivery of end terminals, accessories and services

Motorola Wins TETRA Terminal Tender in Berlin
Terminal tender for digital public safety radio communications including the delivery of end terminals, accessories and services

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), world leader in the development and deployment of TETRA communication solutions, today announced that it has won the terminal tender for delivering digital public safety radio communications in Berlin.

The Federal State of Berlin has confirmed the order of 1000 TETRA digital two-way radios – including accessories. Around 750 digital two-way radios will be distributed to the police, responsible for the “Berlin Mitte” district, and approximately 250 devices will be used by fire departments. A range of services, such as maintenance and training is also included in the order.

“We are delighted that the Federal State of Berlin as well as over 45 customers in the private sector throughout Germany have selected our TETRA systems,” said Alexander Burghardt, MSSI vice president, Central Europe & Russia, EMS, Motorola. “We hope that this success is a platform for us to work with other Federal States throughout the country.”

The compact, lightweight MTP850 handheld radio device and the CM5000 mobile radio unit have been selected by authorities. Both devices ensure safe and reliable voice and data communications in the most difficult environments. They are equipped with a large graphic color display and an integrated WAP browser for secure access to databases. A GPS receiver automatically shows the location of task forces guaranteeing optimum manpower planning.

The CM5000 is equipped with Direct Mode Operation Gateway and repeater functionality and expands the digital radio network’s reach to extend the application in locations with a weak signal. In addition, the CM5000 offers a wide range of installation options and can easily be integrated into vehicles, motocycles and control points of any kind. A special feature is an option to use migration solutions, which support the parallel operation of two analog and two digital TETRA mobile radio devices.

Motorola won the tender process against several other competitors. “After a technical assessment of all the offers, extensive tests of the devices and a precise cost analysis, we decided to choose Motorola,” explained Dr. Charlotta Flodell, project manager for Digital Radio BOS Berlin. “Motorola has a long tradition in wireless technology and is one leading provider of TETRA digital two-way radio solutions. We are confident that Motorola’s TETRA terminals will fulfill the requirements of our public safety task forces.”

The services negotiated in the contract include hands-on training sessions run by Motorola for future users of the new TETRA devices. The company will also be responsible for repair and maintenance of the products. Motorola will cooperate with its Berlin-based public safety distributor Niemann Elektronik to assist with services.

Motorola offers an extensive portfolio of end terminals and accessories to official authorities and organizations entrusted with public safety tasks. Motorola also has reliable local presence at its disposal with its BOS partner program. There will be at least one BOS partner available to customers for questions regarding sales, service and technical implementation in each federal state. Motorola has shipped recently its 1millionth TETRA terminal which marks a major milestone and highlights Motorola’s leadership in this market.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications. The company develops technologies, products and services that make mobile experiences possible. Our portfolio includes communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility solutions, digital set-tops, cable modems, mobile devices and Bluetooth accessories. Motorola is committed to delivering next generation communication solutions to people, businesses and governments. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $36.6 billion in 2007. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com.

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