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NEWS UNIFIED COMMS FORTNIGHTLY REPORT Panasonic equips Lufthansa


A380s with onboard WiFi • First time connectivity has been fitted at Airbus plant


ByPádraig McGarrigle


Panasonic Avionics has fitted its first Airbus A380 with inline WiFi for Lufthansa Airlines. It is the first time WiFi connectivity has been fitted as standard to the commercial aircraft and not added later. A further 11 line-fitted A380s will be fitted


at the Airbus


production plant over the next 12 months.


Panasonic claims its Global Communications Services platform offers the greatest coverage of any


connectivity provider with more than 99.6 per cent


aviation of


commercial flights covered. It has been retro-fitting in-flight WiFi since November 2011. “For the first time, A380 passengers will be able to experience truly


global, full


broadband connectivity that’s only available from our Ku-band


Bruner: Passengers enjoy a similar service to on the ground


Global Communications Service,” said Panasonic vice president of Global Communications Service David Bruner.


“Our unique service lets passengers browse the internet, access their VPN, and send email at high speeds, giving


them a service similar to what they would expect on the ground.”


The aircraft will also be fitted with Panasonic’s live television service which provides feeds from BBC World News,


Jazeera, Sky News Arabia and other channels.


Wimax boosts staff with bank cash Continued from back page


currently


the odds and we’re one in 678 million-to-one against having a dual failure, which works out at one failure in 128 years,” commercial manager Alex Villa told Mobile News. Uban Wimax Networks employs 20


individuals, had a turnover of £2.84 million and posted net losses of £315,000. The company achieved


healthy Ebitda of


£476,000 and attributes its losses to the investment in its network. For 2014, it is forecasting 22 per cent growth in turnover to £3.45 million, with Ebitda of £476,000 and net losses of £419,000.


The company is well


financed, plans to grow outside of its inner-London base, increase the functionality of its network and grow its marketing and technical teams. “We’ve got new kit which


moves the network up into a new broadband spectrum, so we’re carrying a greater capacity with an additional level of data management embedded in there,” adds Villa. “We’re looking at bringing in another level of technology which will allow us to manage the core network, so we’ll tie that into giving the end user the ability to review data as it’s being consumed live, and be able to manage that on a minute-by-minute basis.


Al


Firms over-paying for the cloud Continued from back page


strategy for cloud services. Some 300 UK IT decision makers from small, medium and large enterprises were interviewed for the survey. Claranet’s UK managing director Michel Robert used the findings to warn that the flexibility of a PAYG service doesn’t always mean cheaper costs.


“Our research revealed that 87 per cent of organisations surveyed cited flexibility


of


computer resources (ability to scale up or down) and access to applications as a key objective


when migrating to the cloud. “Yet 75 per cent said that their computer usage


@mobilenewsmag


MobileNewsMagazine


www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk


was


predictable,” he said He added: “A PAYG model


may provide value for money if you are frequently using the ‘burst’ facility of your cloud service. “However, if a company’s particular workload is largely predictable


it may end up


paying more than it needs to.” Instead,


Robert believes


it should be possible for companies to fix at least some of their costs to match their recurring requirements.


Exertis Micro-P makes Bray general manager


Distributor Exertis Micro-P has bolstered its server and storage team by


promoting Gareth


Bray to general manager. Bray, who was formerly a business unit manager, began his new position earlier this month and the company says it will allow head of commercial Daniel Lenan to focus on “growing and developing” relationships with the larger server manufacturers. Exertis says the cloud storage division is seeing significant growth and it has increased the number of specialists and the sales-force numbers in the business unit from eight to 12. It


sells a range of goods


including Dell’s PowerEdge VRTX and EqualLogic server and storage products.


It Wimax: Plans to expand got


“So all of a sudden they’ve a


massive telephony


requirement, it’s not going to kill any of their video linking or streaming and also allow them to maintain good voice connection over the network.”


Videonations and StarLeaf join forces for cloud-based VC service


Video conferencing and AV


specialist Videonations has formed a partnership


with


StarLeaf to offer a cloud-based VC service. StarLeaf supplies


video


hardware and software for the VC market which the company claims require no end user training. The system is operated


by a touchscreen interface and all calls made through it are authenticated and encrypted. The partnership


will see


Videonations’ customers being offered VC services via the cloud, meaning users can drive down the cost of initial hardware and software investments. Videonations managing


director Ian Carter says the service will be targeted at the mid- market sector and claims StarLeaf approached the VC market in a different way from everyone else. “It delivers scheduled conferencing and a true on-demand,


anyone-to-anyone


solution that is as far reaching as the telephone and as easy to use as a smartphone,” he said. “StarLeaf approached the video conferencing and collaboration market by starting with the user experience and a belief that if you can make a phone call then you should be able to make a video call.”


Video conferencing: Up in the cloud with Videonations and StarLeaf


The StarLeaf platform is compatible with Cisco, Microsoft Lync, Lifesize, Polycom, as well as all SIP and H.323 devices. There is a charge for the initial end-point during installation and a recurring monthly fee over the course of the contract.


also offers financing and warranties and can provide product installation on a white label basis. The company is also running a reseller promotion this month that will see £15,000- worth of prizes given away during April.


Prizes include tablets, digital cameras,


hotel


breaks, Lamborghini driving experiences and a host of other incentives. To enter, resellers need to purchase any


product from


Exertis Micro-P, record the invoice number and go onto the distributor’s online prize portal to see if they have won. Anyone who enters during the course of the qualifying period will be entered into a draw at the end of the month to win any unclaimed prizes, plus £1,000 capital bond vouchers.


Lenan: Focus


YouView TV guaranteed by partners until 2019


The future of the YouView TV platform has been guaranteed after all seven TV partners agreed to fund the project for the next five years. The


BBC, Channel


well over one million homes regularly


using 5, BT,


TalkTalk, ITV, Channel 4 and media infrastructure company Arqiva will continue to finance the broadband-based service, which was launched in July 2012.


The BBC Trust had reportedly


been concerned the platform could be in breach of its charter that states all services must be free at the point of access, as some ISPs were bundling the service as part of its broadband package.


Strategy


Other partners such as ITV and Channel 4 were said to be considering a multi-device strategy but it appears that those concerns have now been laid to rest. “We have achieved a significant milestone with


the service


and high levels of usage and satisfaction as key indicators of success for the future,” said YouView chief executive Richard Halton.


He also said that the service


would now concentrate on hitting long-term targets of having 10 million customers connected via a “range of devices”, suggesting a multi- platform future could be in the offing.


Halton: Significant milestone


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