O2 Becomes Second UK Operator To Turn On LTE; Will Go Live August 29, Starting At £26/Month

TechCrunch

O2 Becomes Second UK Operator To Turn On LTE; Will Go Live August 29, Starting At £26/Month

Looks like the honeymoon period for EE and LTE in the UK is over. This morning, Telefonica’s O2 announced that it would turn on its LTE network on August 29, becoming the second operator to offer 4G in the country. Initial cities will be London, Leeds and Bradford, with 10 more cities to come by the end of the year. The first move at the end of this month will cover 5 million people.

The end of the honeymoon also signifies the beginning of the price wars. Initial tariffs will start at £26 per month, O2 says. In comparison, a contract-free, data-only, mobile broadband rate from EE is currently priced at £15 per month, and a voice-and-data tariff starts at £21 per month. There will likely be different allowances included in these figures — for example the voice-and-data service is SIM-only and you bring your own device. EE’s plans that include devices also start at £26 per month.

EE’s LTE network, which launched in October 2012, has a big head start. It is currently live in 95 cities and aims for 110 cities covering 60% of the population by the end of the year. In June of this year it announced 687,000 customers and is aiming for 1 million by the end of this year.

It looks like O2 made a point of acting as fast as it could; it notes that the news comes a day after Ofcom cleared the use of spectrum for 4G services. “It’s great that I am able to announce O2 4G the day after the spectrum has been cleared for use,” noted Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefónica UK, in a statement. “Digital connectivity will be made ubiquitous by 4G and become the oxygen of modern life. It is our intention to use 4G to inspire the nation through the possibilities of technology, encouraging people to live more, do more and be more with O2.”

Back in February 2013, O2 was part of a group of operators — the five were BT, EE, O2, Three and Vodafone — who were all awarded spectrum for 4G services at a total cost of £2.3 billion, falling short of the £3.5 billion that Ofcom had anticipated it would raise from the auction and well short of the £22.5 billion raised during 3G auctions a dozen years ago.

More to come. Release below.

O2’s 4G network to switch on from 29th August

· O2 outlines plans for its 4G launch and fastest growing UK 4G network

· Network to switch on in London, Leeds and Bradford with ten additional cities to follow by

· the end of the year

· Plans to reach 98% UK population indoor with 2G, 3G and 4G

· 4G on O2 will be available to all new and existing customers on a range of tariffs from £26

· a month

· Multi award-winning act to headline at the O2 4G London Launch Gig

01 August 2013 – O2 today sets out its plans for its 4G network launch later this month, which will make it the fastest growing 4G network in the UK. The superfast 4G network will be switched on in

London, Leeds and Bradford on 29th August, reaching up to five million people from launch. O2’s ambitious rollout plan aims to make 4G available to an additional two million people per month, culminating in O2’s 2G, 3G and 4G network reaching 98% of the UK population both indoor and outdoor.

By the end of the year, O2’s 4G network will be live in 13 cities. Further detail relating to the specific switch-on dates will be announced over the coming weeks.

London | Leeds | Bradford | Birmingham | Newcastle | Glasgow | Liverpool |

Nottingham | Leicester | Coventry | Sheffield | Manchester | Edinburgh

To allow as many people as possible to experience and enjoy the benefits of 4G, O2 is launching a range of tariffs starting at £26 a monthi, which come complete with a 30 day Happiness Guaranteeii for customers who sign up direct from O2. Business customers will also be offered tariffs for tablets and mobile broadband from launch and Mobile Wifi (Pop Up Office) in the coming weeks.

4G networks will provide faster data speeds (up to 5 times faster than 3Giii) and a more seamless mobile experience, marking a new generation for the mobile industry. O2 has invested £550m to secure one of the highest proportions of the UK’s lowest frequency spectrum (800Mhz), which was released to O2 at the end of May and was fully cleared by Ofcom this week. This frequency reaches further than any other, delivering the best indoor penetration and outdoor reach.

Data usage on the O2 network has more than doubled in the last twelve months, demonstrating the ever growing appetite for mobile data services. 4G will complement O2’s current network offering, which includes 9,000 free O2 Wifi hotspots and the more recently launched TUGo, which uniquely allows O2’s consumer customers to make calls over wifi and use their tablet or laptop to make and receive calls and texts.

From today, O2 is introducing a new in-store and social media campaign encouraging everyone to be ‘#O24G’ Ready, inviting people to get their 4G-ready handset and free 4G SIM now, either in an O2 store or via an O2 business account manager.

O2 plans to go beyond what has already been offered in the 4G market and bring to life the digital experience for its customers, starting with 12 months free music content for those who buy a 4G consumer tariff direct from O2. Next generation office applications and services powered by 4G will enable O2 business customers to be more collaborative, more efficient and more productive.

Further details on O2’s 4G portfolio will be unveiled in the coming months.

All O2 customers will also be offered free 4G advice and guidance from an O2 Guru from launch, either in-store or via web chat, to explore the possibilities that 4G will unlock. Business customers can receive a consultation with their O2 business account manager to discuss how their organisation could benefit from 4G.

Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefónica UK (O2) said: “It’s great that I am able to announce O2 4G the day after the spectrum has been cleared for use. Digital connectivity will be made ubiquitous by 4G and become the oxygen of modern life. It is our intention to use 4G to inspire the nation through the possibilities of technology, encouraging people to live more, do more and be more with O2.

“The full potential of 4G is as yet unexplored, but what we can be sure of is that it will allow for a whole new world of opportunity that people are now ready for. Over half of our customers say they use more data than two years ago and even more use wifi wherever they go, to always stay connected. Given this trend, there is no doubt that 4G will transform our lives, be it as consumers, in business or through public sector services.”

eBay recently commissioned research into the value of 4G for UK retailers. Olivier Ropars, eBay, said: “The arrival of universal 4G presents a huge opportunity for UK businesses. For retailers, it will enable delivery of a more immersive, instant and intimate shopping experience than ever before – putting the most exciting features of mobile retail into high definition. Our research shows there’s a potential £1.8bn of consumer spending up for grabs thanks to arrival of 4G. Now’s the time for businesses to take action and turn this opportunity into an exciting reality.”

To celebrate its launch, O2 is hosting a gig in London at its iconic music venue, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. A headline artist, to be announced in the coming weeks, will perform an exclusive set, which will also be streamed live to screens and billboards across the city, as well as on O2’s social media channels. All tickets will be available from O2 Priority at http://www.o2priority.co.uk/tickets. O2 customers will have the opportunity to get their tickets 48 hours before general release.

Ronan Dunne concluded: “The mass-market arrival of 4G marks a new generation for the digital age and we want to celebrate the occasion with our customers. This summer, as well as inviting people to join us at our launch gig, we will also be hosting Europe’s biggest tech festival, Campus Party at The O2, which will be powered and brought to life by 4G. We plan to cement what is a truly momentous time and encourage our nation’s collective endeavours to make Britain truly digital.”

For more information on O2 4G, please visit http://www.o2.co.uk/4g

Customers can register their interest ahead of launch at http://www.o2.co.uk/4g/register

more info...

Eyeing Potential Growth In Asia, Fab Raises $10M From Singaporean Telecom Giant SingTel

TechCrunch

Eyeing Potential Growth In Asia, Fab Raises $10M From Singaporean Telecom Giant SingTel

Amidst layoffs, and shortly following a new $150 million round in new funding, Fab is announcing an additional contribution to its Series D round of financing. Singaporean telecommunications giant SingTel Group has put $10 million into Fab, and according to the design-focused ecommerce company, the Asian company will will be a key partner wIn helping Fab explore expansion opportunities in Asia.

CEO and co-founder Jason Goldberg explains that SingTel will be instrumental in helping Fab expand to Asian markets. He writes: SingTel has a lot in common with Fab – they serve a growing, young, and sophisticated population of consumers who are looking for lifestyle products to reflect their optimistic, dynamic and vibrant approach to life. That matches well with the predominantly 25-45-year-olds who come to Fab to browse and buy unique and compelling items they’ll live with in their homes, wear, and gift.

He also addressed some of the changes taking place at the company, namely the layoffs and ditching the flash sales model: Most importantly, we announced the centralization of our operations at our New York headquarters, underscoring our shift from a flash sales model to more of a comprehensive global online lifestyle shop. We have momentum, we have growth, we have a solid team in place, and we have millions of customers worldwide that we want to continue to fall in love with Fab.

Fab, which was valued at $1 billion in this round, is going to be raising around $100 million more as part of  its Series D (Goldberg said in tonight’s post that more Series D investors will be announced in the future and he will share the news as it happens).

Part of this new financing is going towards Fab’s next pivot as an international design powerhouse. In May, Fab debuted its new design store, which makes it more of an integrated e-commerce site. The company is also experimenting with brick and mortar stores.

As we’ve said in the past, international is a huge potential growth area for the company, particularly in Asia. Tencent and Itochu invested in the first part of the Series D and it comes of no surprise that additional money is coming from Asian investors as well.

In the past, Fab has been expanding via acquisitions as well so it should be interesting to see if the company scoops up an startups in Asia for its big push into the region. Stay tuned.

more info...

The Pinterest Roadmap Revealed

TechCrunch

The Pinterest Roadmap Revealed

The rise of Pinterest wasn’t all cocktails and cupcakes. It conquered huge scaling challenges to become the world’s keepsake box. Now as the we ditch the desktop for mobile, how will Pinterest evolve to connect us with the things we love? Today Pinterest’s head of engineering Jon Jenkins gave a surprisingly candid look at the past and future of Pinterest journey to build the interest graph.

Now Pinterest is a team of 140, with 70 engineers, $338 million in funding, and a massive headquarters in San Francisco. But at the start, it was just the three co-founders Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, Paul Sciarra, and a single engineer.

2010: “The Year Of The Creation Of The Business”

Pinterest began as a few guys with a mission “To help people discover the things they love and then do those things in real life. With only one engineer, it was almost lucky that Pinterest didn’t become popular yet or the whole thing could have come crashing down.

2011: “The Year Of Scaling Challenges”

Jenkins says that “traffic was doubling every month and half” and provided this traffic graph, though with no X axis about exactly how many page views the site receives. He explained that the site wasn’t exactly built to last at first. “It was originally written in Python, but when you build a website [for a small user base] you don’t think about modularity very much. And when a million people show up on your door step you’re just trying to keep the thing from falling down.”

2012: “The Big Year Of Mobile”

In August it released new versions of its iOS and Android apps that would serve as the modernized foundation of the future of its business on the small screen. Pinterest began learning how people used the service differently depending on their device. For example, in the daytime it sees a lot of phone use as people try to discover new things. They might walk around the grocery store with a recipe pin open on their phone to help them find ingredients. “Then in the evening we see tablet usage increase significantly as they’re trying to make that recipe” Jenkins says.

2013: “The Year Of Adding A Lot More Value To Pins”

Pinterest this year began showing related pins when you pinned something, and providing pin recommendations via email. It also launched expanded pins so recipes would show ingredients, movies would show reviews, and products would show prices. Most recently, it began using the feed editor to recommend more content to you. With big plans afoot, Pinterest also rewrote its entire site — not to handle traffic, but to let multiple engineers enhance it simultaneously without tripping over each other and causing non-stop bugs. “How can we create modules that let engineers go in and work without screwing over the other developers?” He’s convinced that the new modular Python architecture “will allow the organization to scale.”

The Future

Looking forward, Pinterest has five big projects its working on:

Building The Interest Graph:  Unlike other social networks, Jenkins says that “Pinterest isn’t fundamentally about connecting people to other people. It’s about connecting people to interests.”

For years you had little but your own brain and the boards you browsed to find pinspiration. But now Pinterest is lending a helping hand thanks to a ton of data analysis. “Pins can’t exist unless they’re assigned to a board. Out of those boards, we try to identity interests through collaborative filtering, associative rule mining, natural language processing to provide discovery. I can pin five shirts I like and Pinterest derives my interest in fashion.” Recommendations could make Pinterest even more addictive for hardcore users, and help it retain newbies until they’re hooked.

Scaling Big Data: “Figuring out how we’re going to scale the data repositories for pins will only become more complicated as we grow internationally” Jenkins said. That why he says “we’re hiring pretty aggressively” in areas including machine learning, data mining, operations, and infrastructure.

Making Pins More Useful: Expect more pin types to gain expanded information like recipes did. “Useful” could also end up as a euphemism for “buyable”. Pinterest is renowned for driving traffic to ecommerce sites. If it could bring more of the shopping experience inside its site and apps, it could provide value to users while also arguing that it deserves a revenue share or commission from merchants.

Bringing The Grid Onto Mobile: Pinterest’s best known and most frequently copied element is its masonry grid design which allows for rapid intake of visual information. Now it’s trying to get the infinite scroll part of the grid to work on small screens with limited storage. “It’s easy to load things but your phone gets very angry with you if you don’t unload things”, Jenkins says. There’s also be a bit of bringing the mobile onto the grid, as Pinterest tries to take what it’s learning on mobile back to its website. That could include touch capabilities for touch-enabled laptops like the Chromebook Pixel.

Creating A Platform Foundation: “People keep asking ‘When are you going to release an API?’” Jenkins wouldn’t give a firm answer but did reveal a bunch of details. “We are working very closely with a very select set of partners to figure out what the API is that we should release. We are going to work with content providers to offer extended functionality so they can understand how the content they produce is being used in the Pinterest system. Content providers want distribution. If we can help them understand what resonates they’ll be happier, and Pinners will be happier as well.”

Don’t expect it to be rushed out “I might be overly rigorous in how I think about APIs. I want them to be extremely high quality” Jenkins says. Taking a dig at Facebook and Twitter, and following a similar thought pattern as Google+’s Vic Gundotra, he says ”I don’t want to make mistakes other companies have made where they release APIs and then have to pull them back. I wouldn’t be proud of that.”

Today, Jenkins says that depending on what external traffic monitoring site you look at “we’re a top 15 site in the US and higher than that in terms of apps.” comScore currently pegs it at 48.7 million global monthly users. And while you might think Pinterest is a big popularity contest, Jenkins says that if you talk to long-time users, “many of them pin for themselves. They’re not using Pinterest to put on a show or posture externally. People view it as an act of self-expression.”

Just because our world is being digitized doesn’t mean we’ve lost our desire to collect. If Pinterest executes on this roadmap, it could build tree big enough for us all to nest in.

more info...

ProfitBricks Drops Prices, Makes Big Claims About AWS And Its High Costs

Cloud provider ProfitBricks has dropped the price of its CPU cores and RAM by 50 percent, making the claim that essentially it is far cheaper to use its service over Amazon Web Services (AWS).

I’m not sure if I should be impressed or not with their analysis, which looks at a variety of factors, ranging from AWS requirements for temporary storage to the different pricing plans they offer. They cite AWS lack of flexibility with its instance sizes. The list goes on.

In the end I’m impressed with ProfitBricks, but not for its claims of how much cheaper they are or how much more AWS could actually drop its own prices. More so, it’s the power of its platform and how the company is approaching the market that is most impressive. Here’s what I wrote about the service a few months ago:

ProfitBricks raised $19.5 million in March and now has a total of $38.3 million in funding. Founders Achim Weiss and Andreas Gauger built 1&1 Internet, one of the world’s largest web-hosting providers with 70,000 servers and 10 million customers. The company has some muscle not only in funding, but also what it can offer in terms of scaling out and up. Scaling up allows for new apps to be deployed in an environment similar to AWS and means building out vertically to one stack with up to 62 cores.

ProfitBricks charges only for compute and storage, and customers pay for what they consume, which speaks to the company’s pricing claims. They strive to be a pure-play service with InfiniBand networking, which makes their offering super fast.

But AWS is valued for exactly what ProfitBricks derides. AWS has a wide selection of pricing and a correlating list of services that customers value.

So in the end, ProfitBricks is trying to exploit AWS pricing models, claiming in comparison they have a superior, fast and flexible service. I can dig that. But it by no means seems to affect the reasons why people choose AWS. They’re not using AWS just because of its pricing but because of everything about it, including cost, its community and its scrolling list of services and features.

more info...

Zynga's Threatened At Least One “… With Friends” Startup Before, And It Went Nowhere (So Far)

TechCrunch

Zynga's Threatened At Least One “… With Friends” Startup Before, And It Went Nowhere (So Far)

The news broke this morning that Zynga is suing the makers of the Bang With Friends app for allegedly infringing its With Friends trademark.

There’s been plenty of media discussion about the case (I was particularly amused by Will Oremus’ suggestion that Zynga has become “the Lindsay Lohan of Silicon Valley startups“), but one thing that I haven’t seen mentioned is the fact that Zynga has tried to stop other companies from using “With Friends” names in the past. Specifically, its lawyers sent a letter earlier this year to a startup called Apartment 7 saying that it had to change the name of its Cupid With Friends dating website, and that it had until May 24 to comply.

Well, May 24 has come and gone, and today’s news reminded me to check in with Apartment 7 co-founder Jared Tame. Cupid With Friends is still up and running, and Tame told me:

We didn’t hear back from Zynga. We told them no and it’s been a little over 2 months now. We mentioned in our response that their non-response would signal a mutual agreement that we would not enter the gaming space and they would not further pursue legal action against us.

Back in May, I reached out to Zynga and Bang With Friends, because it seemed like any complaints that Zynga had with Cupid With Friends would apply to Bang With Friends too, but neither company commented.

Now it seems that they were already discussing the issue. Zynga’s lawsuit, which I’ve embedded below, doesn’t offer a specific timeline about communication between the two companies, but it does say that after “significant” efforts by Zynga to get in touch with the Bang With Friends’ then-anonymous founders, “Defendant engaged in discussions with Zynga about changing the name from ‘Bang With Friends’.” However, it says those discussions were either “a ploy” or that Bang With Friends has reconsidered.

The lawsuit also acknowledges that Bang With Friends isn’t the only company that Zynga has taken legal action against:

Zynga has diligently policed its rights in the WITH FRIENDS Family of Marks against such would-be infringers, including through the use of cease-and-desist letters, by instituting opposition proceedings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, by direct outreach to infringers, and through other means.

So why is Zynga suing one company but not the other? Well, a Zynga spokesperson declined to comment on Cupid With Friends, and Bang With Friends hasn’t responded to my request for comment either. One obvious difference is that Bang With Friends is much better-known — in fact, the lawsuit cites several examples where the press compared Bang With Friends to Zynga’s With Friends family of games. Plus, in contrast to Tame’s statement that he has no intention to go into gaming, Zynga’s suit suggests that Bang With Friends has more competitive plans:

In the weeks since [May], Defendant’s plan to expand its infringing activities aggressively was revealed by a person identified as a “Bang With Friends” investor. To Zynga’s great surprise, this investor stated that Defendant intends “to go from ‘Bang’ to ‘Hang’ to ‘Tennis’ to ‘Games’ to other activities.”

Business Insider noted that Zynga was granted the “With Friends” trademark in relation to “computer game software” and “entertainment services” in June of this year (it already had the trademark on specific titles like Words With Friends), so I suppose there could be more legal action in the works.

Zynga v Bang With Friends by TechCrunch

more info...

NSA Responds To New Reports On Top-Secret Spying Program, XKeyscore

The National Security Agency thinks we have been misled by The Guardian‘s report of a new tool, XKeyscore, that allows agents to read the content of email and private social media chatter.

“Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true,” reads a press release issued by the agency today. “Access to XKEYSCORE, as well as all of NSA’s analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks.”

Earlier today, The Guardian released details about the previously top-secret surveillance tool, which reportedly allows authorized analysts to search the name, date, and content of internet communications (picture above). The Guardian argues that this power requires no warrant and was given to scores of analysts, such as their informant, Edward Snowden.

“Our tools have stringent oversight and compliance mechanisms built in at several levels,” continues the report. “Not every analyst can perform every function, and no analyst can operate freely. Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law.”

However, outspoken critic and Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden implied that the executive branch has been dishonest in its reporting. After the White House declassified the order requiring Verizon to hand over telephone meta-data, Wyden issued this statement:

“The newly declassified briefing documents released today show that the executive branch repeatedly made inaccurate statements to Congress about the value and effectiveness of the bulk email records collection program that was carried out under the USA PATRIOT Act until 2011. These statements had the effect of misleading members of Congress about the usefulness of this program.”

So, should we believe the NSA? If you trust them.

more info...

Salesforce.com Doubles Mobile Packs, Adds Design Templates For Design-Challenged Developers

TechCrunch

Salesforce.com Doubles Mobile Packs, Adds Design Templates For Design-Challenged Developers

Salesforce.com is doubling the mobile packs it makes available, adding design templates for developers and a feature for syncing data.

It’s all part of an effort for Salesforce to help clients use its platform to build apps that foster productivity during those hundreds of, what the company calls, “micro-moments” that we face every day. Yes — if it smells like marketing, it usually is. But there is some meat on the bones of this new release even if it is packaged with that trademark Salesforce spin. Here are a few of the highlights.

First, Salesforce is making available four new app frameworks in its mobile pack: Knockout.js, Appery, Sencha Touch and Xamarin. All are well-known app frameworks in the developer community.

The company is also offering new templates for the design-challenged developers. More than 20 open source HTML5/CSS templates are available that connect with customer data in Salesforce through the mobile packs.

Salesforce is also launching sample mobile design templates for developers to try:

A new syncing feature is part of the company’s Mobile 2.0 SDK release, allowing developers to sync offline data they have created when they go back online:

Salesforce.com is pushing this concept of the micro-moment so expect to hear more about it from them in the coming months. I can see it now — CEO Marc Benioff, onstage at Dreamforce, pacing in his usual way, talking about all the apps for those micro-moments in your life. That’s fine with me as long as they keep adding substance behind the marketing message.

more info...