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Bharti Enterprises is rolling out a first of its kind corporate initiative to provide legal assistance & aid and awareness / literacy to underprivileged undertrials across the country. In very deserving cases, Nyaya Bharti will help the undertrials by paying the bail and surety amounts. The initiative will be solely focused on District Courts where criminal cases are initiated.

Recently, the Hon’ble Prime Minister had also emphasised the importance of ‘access to justice for all’, as well as the need for free legal aid and assistance to people.

It is estimated that there are over 280,000 undertrials in approx.1387 jails in India constituting nearly 68% of the total prisoner population. This proportion is amongst the world's ten worst (Data Source: NCRB reports). Many of these undertrials have been in custody for periods longer than the prison term had they had been convicted. Most of these undertrials suffer in jails simply because of their ignorance of the law and their rights to liberty, their inability to pay the meagre amounts required for bails and bonds and lack of persons to stand surety.

‘Nyaya Bharti’ aims to help the deserving undertrials exercise their fundamental right to legal defense and present their case before the Courts. The initiative will supplement the good work being done by NALSA and SLSAs under the statutory framework created under the Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987.  It will have a screening committee of independent persons that will identify the cases that need to be taken up.

Nyaya Bharti will be ready to start functioning in the coming months and ensure that the Board, screening committee and the team of young lawyers are all in place to start giving its first grant from 1st April 2016.

Bharti Airtel will provide an annual grant of Rs.10 Crores on an ongoing basis towards this initiative. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, will take a voluntary cut of Rs.5 Crores from his annual salary towards this cause. Several leading lawyers from across the country have extended their support to the initiative and will provide pro-bono services. Top Law firm AZB & Partners and EY will also provide pro-bono legal, administrative and governance support respectively.

The Nyaya Bharti initiative will work under the aegis of Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, and will have a separate Governing Board. It will be headquartered in New Delhi and will be headed by Justice A.S. Anand (Retired Chief Justice of India) [Refer Governing Board details below].

The initiative will focus on Delhi & NCR and Punjab initially and will gradually expand presence to cover the entire North India through smaller regional offices. It will seek partnerships with like-minded corporates to have similar initiatives in the other parts of the country.

Sunil Bharti Mittal said, “Just because a poor individual cannot afford the services of a lawyer or cannot stump up a small amount for bail bond or surety, he or she should not be denied justice. We are making a small start with Nyaya Bharti and hope more people, in particular, from the legal fraternity and Corporate India will come forward to support this noble cause.”

Mr. Fali Nariman, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, said, “Congratulations to Sunil Mittal. John D. Rockefeller’s tutor once told him that “if you do not part with your wealth whilst living you will be crushed by it.”  That was when the world’s richest man got transformed into the world’s greatest philanthropist!  

The Fund that is to be set up will greatly help hundreds of thousands of indigent under trials (languishing in crowded jails in India) whose guilt for the alleged offence for which they are charged has not yet been established.  It is by his munificence that Mittal has now given hope and meaning to that well-worn legal maxim: that you are presumed innocent until proven guilty!”

Mr. Harish N Salve, Former Solicitor General of India and Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, said “The Rule of law, which is the cornerstone of a constitutional democracy, remains a chimera to the poor who languish in jails, at times interned without trial for terms longer than that they would suffer as a sentence upon conviction. The legal aid movement in India remains unequal to the enormity of the task. A corporate initiative to partner the efforts of the State in this area of governance will serve a long standing need and be a step towards achieving the constitutional dream of a just society.”

Vodafone, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers, today committed investments totalling INR 13,000 crore (£ 1.3 billion) for capacity augmentation and new business initiatives. This significant investment was committed to by Mr. Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group Plc‘s CEO, in his meeting with the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in London earlier today.

Since starting operations in India in 2007, Vodafone has already invested over INR 111,000 crore and over INR 100,000cr contributed to the exchequer and is today the largest FDI investor in the country.

Mr. Colao, said, “At Vodafone, we are enthused with the PM’s vision for ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’. Vodafone India serves over 188 million citizens, of which almost 100 million are from rural areas. As the co-creator of the telecom ecosystem, a catalyst of the telecom revolution in India and being committed for the long term, we are ideally poised to partner the Government of India in fulfilling these important initiatives. We are pleased to announce our enhanced commitment to India through this series of significant further investments.”

The committed investment of INR 13,000 crore (£ 1.3 billion) includes:

·         “Digital India” - INR 8,000 crore (£ 800 million) to enhance, upgrade and expand network coverage

·         “Make in India for the World” – INR 4,000 crore (£ 400 million) towards:

o  INR 3000 crores (£ 300 million) to further increase capacity and upgrade its high-end technology centre and IT and customer experience centres in Pune and Ahmedabad. These centres service Vodafone companies globally, exemplifying the “Make in India” opportunity and highlighting its success to the world.

o  INR 1,000 crore (£ 100 million) for setting up a state-of-the-art Tier-4 data centre. This is the first of its kind in the Indian telecom sector and is specially designed to service the evolving communications needs of businesses and enterprises

·      “Financial Inclusion” – INR 1000 crores (£ 100 million) towards the payment bank for which Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd. has received an in-principle license from RBI. This will provide further impetus to M-Pesa’s focus on financial inclusion and accelerate India’s journey into a cashless economy.

The planned capacity expansions and investments in the high-end technology centre and the customer service centres will create opportunities for employment and for skilling and training India’s rich talent pool. Vodafone will accordingly increase its staffing levels to 15,000 employees over the next two years.

Thaicom, one of Asia’s leading satellite operators, today announced its THAICOM 7 satellite is now fully booked following an order from Grant Investrade Ltd (GIL).

The subsidiary of Hinduja Ventures Ltd., part of the global Hinduja Group, confirmed the order for the C-band transponders on the satellite, which it will use to provide digital cable TV services through a Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) system.

The HITS service – branded ‘NXT DIGITAL’ – will help the distribution fraternity smoothly transition to digital and allow customers to choose channels through a satellite multiplex across India.

“It is one of India’s national missions to roll out Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) of broadcasting all over the country and we believe ‘NXT DIGITAL’ is a significant step towards this goal,” said Tony D’Silva, Managing Director at GIL. “Thaicom is a trusted and experienced satellite provider which has played a vital role in this initiative and the substantial number of satellite transponders we have at the time of launch will continue to grow as we expand our portfolio.”

“We are proud to be able to contribute to India’s broadcast and media development and thank our Indian partners for their trust in us. This latest deal is particularly exciting for Thaicom as it marks an important milestone for us not only in regards to THAICOM 7 now being 100 percent booked, but also in bringing our platform for content distribution to India which sets us in good stead for the launch of THAICOM 8,” said Thaicom’s CEO Paiboon Panuwattanawong.

The technology program manager for ‘NXT DIGITAL’ is Castle Media which has set up several world class operations in broadcasting and digital networks in India and overseas.

“THAICOM 7 being a recently launched satellite exhibits strong parameters to facilitate a high-quality digital HITS service in India. We’ll continue to work closely with Thaicom to upscale our transponder requirements as our business grows over the next few years, on the back of a strong push by the government to make India a digital nation,” said Vynsley Fernandes, Executive Director at Castle Media.

Openet, a global leader in the supply of real-time BSS (business support systems), today announced that it has been awarded the 2015 Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan Global Technology Innovation Award in CSP Billing. This award recognises Openet’s ability to help CSPs understand and engage with their customer base, and also to directly monetize that understanding and engagement.

The award highlights Openet’s innovation in delivering solutions combining mediation and real-time rating & charging functions with customer usage analysis, enabling CSPs to monetize insights into their customer’s behaviour through smarter customer engagement.

As part of the process, Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan interviewed and examined the technological innovations of more than 100 suppliers covering the end-to-end CSP billing marketplace. The Global Technology Innovation Award for CSP Billing is judged based on ten criteria; five associated with technology attributes and five centred on future business value. Openet achieved high marks across both sections of the technology attributes and future business value scorecard.

As an example of innovation, Openet’s Real-Time Offer Manager solution (RTOM) was highlighted in the report. Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan described RTOM as “one concrete example of Openet's approach to a new way of helping its CSP customers find additional revenue streams by offering differentiated services in otherwise cost-competitive markets”.

Openet’s diversity of solutions was also praised, with the Award particularly highlighting the company’s Audience Measurement Solution, which helps operators better understand broadcast-specific customer behaviour. The solution uses customer usage patterns to improve video content matching and advertising focus, and within network optimising processes to fine-tune network performance. This can help open new revenue streams for operators as they begin to roll out TV and entertainment services.

“Openet provides CSPs with the ability to not only gather insights about their customers,

but it provides a means for CSPs to monetize those insights,” commented said Karl Whitelock, global director operations, orchestration, data analysis, and monetization strategy at Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan. “One of the most significant issues facing CSPs today is declining revenues; Openet has provided a way to reverse that trend, through its solutions such as Real-Time Offer Manager and the Openet Audience Measurement Solution. This moves Openet’s business solution innovation for the CSP marketplace to a level matched by only a few.”

The Internet of Things (IoT) trend will add US$1.7 trillion in value to the global economy by 2019, according to a Business Insider Intelligence report – which is exactly why the upcoming CommunicAsia2016 and EnterpriseIT2016 – held from May 31 to June 3, 2016 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore – will showcase the latest and most innovative of connectivity and mobility technologies.

Both key enablers of IoT and Smart Cities, connectivity and mobility are the bedrocks of a Smart Future. Asia contains nearly half of the world’s Internet users and countries in the region are eager to implement these technologies to connect their cities. A recent Research and Markets report states India, for example, has allocated INR 70.6 billion (US$ 1.2 Billion) to create its first 100 smart cities, while Singapore’s Smart Nation Programme is well underway.

“CommunicAsia – Asia’s pinnacle ICT trade event – remains the top platform for international industry professionals to network with leading companies and see first-hand the latest technologies, connecting attendees with more than 22,000 business opportunities,” said Victor Wong, Project Director at Singapore Exhibition Services. “We are well-poised to address the growing value chain of the IoT and Smart City ecosystem and are very eager for visitors to see what we have in store, especially at the new and improved NXT@CommunicAsia.”

NXT@CommunicAsia – Spotlight on IoT solutions and Smart City innovations

Returning to the event for the third consecutive year, NXT@CommunicAsia on Level 3 will focus on IoT and Smart City innovations.

Exhibiting in the exclusive NXT@CommunicAsia area is Singapore-based SME and IT System Integrator, SC Soft, which will be demonstrating its products, presenting its company credentials and highlighting its presence in the regional markets.

“CommunicAsia is a hub for niche technologies from new and established local and regional players, and it provides us with the opportunity to meet with industry leaders as well as potential partners from emerging markets,” said Dr Joule Lee, CEO at SC Soft. “During last year’s event, we gathered a high volume of interest from our booth visitors as we launched a manual bike-sharing station prototype and branchless banking machines. Our participation proved worthwhile with quick returns and even today, SC Soft’s marketing activities are still centred on business contacts gathered at the 2015 show.”

Lee added: “At CommunicAsia2016, SC Soft hopes to be recognised by major players as a trusted partner for projects in Transportation, Banking, Surveillance and Smart City thematic solutions through the portfolio of new hardware and software products that we will showcase.”

Also exhibiting at NXT@CommunicAsia will be first-time CommunicAsia exhibitor Linear Technology Corporation.

“We’re very much looking forward to participating at CommunicAsia2016,” said Joy Weiss, President of Linear Technology's Dust Networks product line. “With the emerging opportunities in the Industrial IoT market, we’re looking forward to engaging with companies interested in our SmartMesh® wireless sensor networking products, which provide the lowest power, most reliable connectivity for industrial and smart city IoT applications.

Weiss continued: “SmartMesh products are being used in more than 50,000 customer networks in more than 120 countries for a wide range of applications that require ultralow power and wire-like reliability in harsh RF environments. Smart parking, data center energy management, railcar monitoring, environmental monitoring, and industrial process applications represent some of the varied uses of SmartMesh products.”

In addition, new topics of focus for CommunicAsia2016 and EnterpriseIT2016 include Consumer IoT, Enterprise Digital Transformation, and Enterprise Cyber Security.

Vodafone India, one of the leading total telecommunication service providers in the country announced its Half Year results (IFRS) for the six month period ended September 30, 2015.

Key Financial Highlights: Vodafone India Standalone figures Strong Financial Performance • Consistent and robust revenue growth; service revenue (excluding regulatory impact) of INR 22,902 crores in H1FY16 vs. INR 20,601 crores in H1FY15, a growth of 11.2% • Revenue performance driven by customer additions, stable ARPU and robust growth in data revenues • EBITDA at INR 6,534 crores in H1FY16 vs. INR 6,121 crores in H1FY15; a healthy EBITDA margin at 29.7%, led by higher data revenue and scale benefits • Strong Operating Free Cash Flow (OFCF) at INR 2,922 crores in H1FY16 vs. INR 830 crores in H1FY15 • Sustained capital investments of INR 3,627 crores in H1FY16; (16.5% of revenues) driven by significant investments in new site roll-out to deliver superior customer experience and growth in key focus areas

Good Momentum in Operations • A base of 188.2 million customers (growth of 8.2% YoY) serviced through a network of 132,446 total sites, of which 39,774 are 3G sites • Substantial rural presence with a customer base of over 99 million in H1FY16 (53% of total customer base) • Consistently growing Revenue Market Share (RMS) at 22.4% (Q1FY16); gain of 0.4% YoY • Service Revenue ARPM at 49.4 paise and Voice ARPM at 33.4 paise (both Q2FY16) • Stable Service Revenue ARPU at INR 204 (excl. regulatory impact) in Q2 FY16; supported by good quality of subscribers with active subscriber base (VLR) at 94.6% (Aug ‘15 exit) • Robust performance by strategic business areas with Data (Browsing) revenues contributing to 18.9% and Vodafone Business Services now contributing to around 15% of Service revenues (both Q2FY16)

Vodafone Business Services (VBS) –a Robust, fully structured, Total Telecommunications Service Provider • Expanding customer base to ~7 million mobility customers (Sept ’15exit) • VBS growing at double the industry growth YoY, led by strong growth in fixed line and in SME business • Making strong foray into Machine-to-Machine solutions and investing in Cloud Infrastructure • Actively engaged with Public Sector Enterprises and State Governments contributing to the vision of Digital India and setting up of smart cities

Robust Performance in Data Driving Growth • Data (Browsing) revenue at INR 3,979 crores in H1FY16, 55.9% growth YoY • Strong uptake of Data continues with 42.6 million Data users with greater than 1MB usage (Sept ’15 exit) • 75% growth in 3G users to 23.8 million (Sept 15 exit) from 13.6 million (Sept 14 exit), reflecting the focus on 3G • 3G revenues grew by 102% YoY, contributing to over 62% to data (browsing) revenue and volume • Data usage/sub (for users >1MB) at 618 MB/month and 3G usage/sub at 754 MB/month (both Q2 FY16) • Data ARPU (for users > 1MB) at INR 161 in Q2 FY16 v INR 147 in Q2 FY15 • Data usage and revenue growth led by higher smartphone penetration at 28.3% of total customer base, growth of around 57% YoY (Sept ‘15 exit) • Continued to drive data usage through strategic partnerships with handset manufacturers and application providers to provide innovative value propositions and better customer experience

M-Pesa, a new currency for India - Driving Financial Inclusion • Pan-India footprint, largest business correspondent in the country with around 97,000 authorized agents (greater than 80% of all bank branches in India), of which 58% are in rural areas (Sept ’15 exit) • A base of over 3.9 million registered accounts/customers, doing over 160K transactions/day. • Money Transfer transactions contribute over 65% of overall transactions • M-Pesa App with over 300,000 downloads acting as a key business differentiator, to enable convenient payment of bills & recharging on the move • Engaged with Government bodies and enterprises enabling financial inclusion and e-commerce o M-Pesa pension disbursements in Haryana to retired Government employees o Tie-up with Rajasthan Grameen Aaajeevika Vikas Parishad (RGAVP) to empower women in Village Orgn/Self Help Groups • RBI’s in-principle Payment Bank license will enable Vodafone M-Pesa to offer a more comprehensive portfolio of banking and financial products and services, accelerating India’s journey into a cashless economy

Other Highlights • Geared up to launch new 4G services on the superior 1800 MHz band in 5 Circles (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala and Karnataka) beginning Dec 2015 • Offering customers the best offer on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with fully built Vodafone RED 1299 plan free for six months from time of purchase, voice and data benefit of INR 8885 • Launched Vodafone Doubles – Double Data and Double Validity offering great value to customers • Vodafone India is now amongst the largest retailers in the country with 9,880 branded retail stores, covering over 1.56 million sq. and attracting more than 115million footfalls annually • Launched ‘Connected Farming in India’ Report and Farmers’ Club initiative ‘KisaanMitr’ to enhance productivity of small landholders.

Awards and Recognitions • Ranked No 1 in Telecom and in Top 25 ‘India’s Best Companies to work for’ - Great Places to Work • VBS recognized as ‘Best Enterprise Service Provider’ for the 5th year in a row –Frost & Sullivan Telecom Awards 2015 • Awarded ‘Client of the Year’ across different brand and marketing categories - Big Bang Awards 2015 • Recognition for ‘Driving customer empowerment through gamification’ – 

Meizu, one of the leading smartphone brands in China, today announced its fourth consecutive open sale for the Meizu m2.

The first three open sales for the m2 saw a robust response with the batches selling out in the span of a day. The fourth round of open sales for the Meizu m2 commence on Tuesday, November 10th, 11 am, exclusively on Snapdeal.

Registration link: http://www.snapdeal.com/offers/meizu-m2

Meizu India’s dynamic Facebook page, offers the best insight to the brands commitment. With over 506,610 likes and a healthy online engagement, Meizu fans have stamped their ‘acceptance’ for the m2 with their positive feedback.

The Meizu m2 offers ‘Quality for Young’ through its rich mix of high tech hardware and customized Flyme OS 4.5, at an af-fordable price point. On the hardware front, the Meizu m2 comes with a unibody design and a metal like finesse to offer superior user experience, backed by a seamless product design. With an expandable storage capacity of 144 GB (Internal memory 16GB + Expandable memory 128GB), the m2 offers its customers maximum flexibility for carrying data, music and videos on the go.

Bharti Airtel Limited (“Bharti Airtel”), the third largest mobile services provider globally with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced that its carrier agnostic mobile application ‘Wynk Music’ has crossed a momentous feat of 12 million downloads in little over 12 months of its launch. Over two-thirds of these downloads have been by non-Airtel customers reinforcing Wynk’s popularity as one of the most preferred streaming services in the country today. With the average Wynk user playing over 5 hours of music each month, the first-of-its-kind OTT app by a telecom operator in India now clocks 5 million music streams and downloads per day. 

The award winning music app now enables a smoother listening experience and optimizes usage on 2G data. Additionally, non-airtel customers can enjoy ad free music and free downloads for the first month. The latest version also features a ‘Save Data’ mode that enables users to save up to 70% on data charges. Wynk Plus subscriptions that allow for unlimited downloads have also grown substantially on the back of bundling with Airtel data packs. 

Kartik Sheth, CEO Wynk Music said “The recent announcement of bundlin​g Wynk Music subscription worth Rs. 99 with data plans from Airtel will go a long way in making music affordable and also help curb piracy for millions of music lovers in the country.” 

With an exhaustive library of over 2 million HD songs (Indian and International) that is growing every day, Wynk is a proud host to over 500 music labels. In addition to the ever popular ‘Moods’ section, users can now find expertly curated music sections of ‘Instrumental’, ‘Classics’, ‘Remixes’, ‘Flashback 90s’ and more on the app. 

Airtel today also announced that it has launched a Windows version of the Wynk app, adding to its presence on Android, iOS and WAP, thus enabling more and more music lovers to experience the app. An exclusive association with Airtel Delhi Half Marathon will also see the introduction of a new fitness feature on the app soon. 

Openwave Mobility, a software innovator enabling mobile operators to manage and monetize encrypted and unencrypted mobile data, announced that its Secure Traffic Manager (STM) solution won the Network Management Excellence accolade at last night’s prestigious Telecoms.com Awards. The event was attended by over 200 industry luminaries and the first-prize award was presented to Openwave Mobility by Scott Bicheno, Editorial Director of Telecoms.com.

STM was chosen as overall winner by a panel of six judges that included analysts from respected organizations such as Ovum and Strategy Analytics. Other shortlisted companies included Amdocs, Procera Networks and Virgin Media.

“Encrypted traffic on mobile networks has risen fivefold and has now reached 60%,” said John Giere, CEO of Openwave Mobility. “In several regions this will exceed 80% within 12 months. STM helps operators effectively manage this trend and monetize mobile data. It’s wonderful to see that the industry is now recognizing the problem and simultaneously recognizing our solution.”

Deployed by some of the world’s leading operators, STM from Openwave Mobility optimizes encrypted mobile video streaming traffic. Carriers benefit from a comprehensive solution that optimizes not just the TCP transport layer, but also the application layer to maximize network utilization. Operators can achieve 40-70% data savings on the delivery of encrypted video content while preserving Quality of Experience and their subscriber’s privacy. STM enables operators to understand and manage encrypted traffic.

John Giere concluded: “We are honored by this prestigious recognition. Our engineers worked tirelessly to develop a robust carrier-class solution that would meet the needs of operators. This award is a testament to their hard work and innovative spirit.”

Nuage Networks, the Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) venture focused on software-defined networking (SDN) solutions, and Telefonica Business Solutions, a leading provider of a wide range of integrated communication solutions for the B2B market, today announced the successful completion of evaluation and testing surrounding service chaining of virtualized network functions (NFV) in a multi-vendor SDN environment. This evaluation marks a big step for Telefonica Business Solutions toward automating delivery of value-added services and dramatically improving time to market in serving its enterprise customers.

Provisioning network and application services – such as firewalls and security gateways – can be among the most time-intensive and error-prone tasks when deploying applications. Service chaining makes it possible to automatically insert physical or virtual network service appliances with the appropriate configurations and policies as part of cloud-based offerings. Nuage Networks automates the complex networking and service insertion processes to enable Telefonica Business Solutions to adapt cloud services on demand.

Seamless integration with Alcatel-Lucent service routers for Datacenter connectivity

Nuage Networks and Telefonica Business Solutions executed the proof of concept evaluation with Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) working with Alcatel-Lucent’s 7750 Service Router (SR) and Virtualized Service Router. The companies also demonstrated seamless integration with Telefonica’s existing third-party IP Edge Routing platforms in the roles of Datacenter Gateway and Datacenter Provider Edge, including integration between the automated value-added applications in the Datacenter and WAN connectivity services. The hybrid solution will provide Telefonica’s enterprise customers the flexibility to make use of automated value-added services together with the optimal WAN service depending on needs for bandwidth, control, cost and quality of service.

Nuage Networks VSP provides the automated overlay networking for Telefonica’s existing VMware virtualization environment as well as a test environment based on OpenStack® and the open source Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor.

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, will attend ADIPEC 2015, the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference, from 9 – 12 November (booth # 1132). The Group will showcase its comprehensive product portfolio specifically designed for the Oil and Gas industry.

An extended product portfolio for the Oil and Gas industry.

Prysmian Group’s product portfolio at ADIPEC 2015 will focus on a wide range of cable solutions that link the Oil and Gas industry from top to bottom and incorporates complex and integrated power, control and instrumentation systems for chemical, petrochemical, power or industrial plants. The showcase will include innovative solutions for offshore and on-shore applications such as Bostrig™ Type P cables; tailor made cable assemblies and accessories; enhanced service loops for drilling application top drives and exclusive specialties such as Drylam™ and Airguard™ Cable Systems, specially designed for critical environments. To complete the available portfolio SURF products (Subsea Umbilicals, Risers and Flowlines) - both Steel and Thermoplastic, as well as flexible pipes for offshore oil and gas extraction - and Submarine cable solutions will also be on display.

Recently Prysmian Group has received their first patent for its Bostdrive™ Cable Service Loops range of products, thus confirming the Group’s leadership in product design innovation. Service loops are electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic supply lines that provide service to a top drive drilling motor in oil and gas drilling applications and represent the top drive’s vital connection in any drilling rig, both onshore and offshore. Prysmian specialists have designed the Bostdrive™ families of top drive service loops and components by applying the extensive Group’s manufacturing and technical expertise of similar applications such as elevators, robotics, mining and cranes, custom designed to each drilling operation’s needs and engineered to reduce or eliminate failures common with the hose style loops standardly used on oil rigs for drilling.

In addition, following the success of Airguard™ Cable Systems for Medium Voltage application, Prysmian’s Research & Development group has extended its capabilities in terms of mechanical, chemical and installation performance to low voltage cables and has introduced their new line of Low Voltage Airguard™ cables - designed for power, control, signal, and instrumentation applications in heavy industrial and offshore markets. Prysmian’s patented Airguard™ Polymeric layer provides far greater protection against water ingress and chemical attack than traditional armored cables. It also offers ease of installation, while providing superior mechanical and environmental protection, reduced installation costs in the field while improving the overall cable performance and increased installation personnel safety.

The acquisition of Gulf Coast Downhole Technologies complements and strengthens the Group’s presence and offer in the sector of downhole equipment for the O&G industry

Last but not least, ADIPEC 2015 comes at a very important time for the Group, following its recent acquisition of Gulf Coast Downhole Technologies (GCDT). GCDT fits fully into the Group’s expansion strategy in the business of Subsea Umbilicals, Risers and Flowlines (SURF) and complements its Draka-branded DHT offered product range. The acquisition of GCDT allows a further increased differentiation of the product offer, namely thanks to an enhanced portfolio of protectors and the patented Safety-Strip® technology for faster and safer installation of intelligent completion systems.

Based in Houston, GCDT is active in the design and supply of innovative downhole equipment for the Oil & Gas industry. GCDT products are installed in oil and gas wells around the world and consist of integral components in the systems that provide downhole control, injection, flow assurance and monitoring. GCDT's customer base covers a diverse range of oil field service companies including Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford and Schlumberger. GCDT products are ultimately installed in completions operated by major oil and gas producers like ADMA, ADCO, ZADCO, Chevron, ExxonMobil, PDO, Shell and Saudi Aramco around the globe.

GCDT fits fully into the Group’s expansion strategy in the business of Subsea Umbilicals, Risers and Flowlines (SURF) and complements its Draka-branded DHT offered product range. The acquisition of GCDT allows a further increased differentiation of the product offer, namely thanks to an enhanced portfolio of protectors and the patented Safety-Strip® technology for faster and safer installation of intelligent completion systems.

“Thanks to the integration between our SURF-DHT business and GCDT, Prysmian Group will be able to accelerate growth in an attractive high-value, high-ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) business and increase exposure to high-tech segments,” states Prysmian Group CEO Valerio Battista. “We also aim to improve customer proximity by leveraging our global footprint and bringing GCDT’s innovation capabilities to a broader customer base. Integration of the two brands is key for the development of an enhanced and versatile supply chain,” he adds.

Roy Torrance, President of GCDT comments: “The acquisition of GCDT by the Prysmian Group recognizes the unique know-how and expertise developed within GCDT and by using our combination of strengths it presents a great opportunity for the continued growth of GCDT which will benefit our customers on both domestic and international levels.”

In the last years Prysmian Group has been continuously investing to expand its presence in the SURF business. Headquartered in Houston, the Group’s SURF business can now count on new dedicated production facilities in Brazil and North America and on commercial offices in Middle East, Far East and Europe. Prysmian Group can offer a wide range of products and services, including umbilicals, risers, flowlines and DHT (Downhole Technologies) perfectly integrated with the Company core business of power and telecommunications cables.

Beecham Research, an internationally recognised thought leader in IoT market development, is warning companies planning to get into the Internet of Things (IoT) market not to believe all the hype and over optimistic predictions. Some industry commentators are forecasting the number of connected devices at anywhere between 10 billion and 50 billion by 2020, and trillions of dollars in new revenue by 2025. The top analyst and consulting firm that has specialised in the M2M and IoT markets for 15 years, believes these numbers to be ’unrealistic’ and ’potentially damaging’ to the industry if they are believed and companies building their business plans and funding expectations on such ‘false promises’.

“There is no doubt that the M2M and IoT markets are moving quickly and there are great new business opportunities, but with unrealistic predictions around the growth of connected devices, there is also the risk that companies will run out of time and money before they see a return on their investment,” said Robin Duke-Woolley, CEO at Beecham Research. “We know that today, excluding mobile phones and general purpose devices like tablets, there are significantly less than 1 billion connected devices worldwide. To suggest that growth rates exceeding 50% per annum are credible when the long term growth in this market has been consistently in the range 20-30% per annum prompts the question – why and what is likely to accelerate the overall growth rate so spectacularly? There is no answer to that. Equally problematic, even if those numbers could be achieved in shipments, there is not nearly enough resource available to install and implement them.” He continued, “Beecham Research’s main business is providing client-specific support for IoT business development where realistic forecasts and implementation plans are essential”

Proponents of ‘many billions by 2020’, often suggest that the really big numbers will come from connected devices in homes and workplaces such as heating and air-conditioning systems, security alarms, fridges, freezers, washing machines and office equipment, for example. However, Beecham Research believes the benefits and monetisation of these devices are still not clear. “While some households may have a dozen or more connected devices there is no evidence yet of connected devices in the home taking off in a big way,” says Duke-Woolley

Beecham Research does point to new low power, low data rate, long range network technologies such as Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) to provide a growth spurt to the IoT market. “We expect this to deliver up to 5 million connections by the end of 2015 and increasing quickly thereafter,” said David Parker, a Senior Analyst at Beecham Research who recently authored a report on this subject. “This is coupled with new cellular technology becoming available within the next two years termed LTE-M or Narrowband IoT and derived from 4G technology. Many now believe it is this that will provide the real growth momentum for low data rate applications.”

Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecom service providers and Grow-Trees.com, the exclusive Indian Planting Partner for United Nation’s Environment Program’s Billion Tree Campaign, today announced the successful completion of Phase 1 and 2 of their joint project to improve the wildlife corridor between Kanha - Pench wildlife reserves by planting 200,000 trees on 200 hectares of forest land. Launched in August 2014, this project will by next year have a total of 300,000 trees planted over 300 hectares of forest land between Kanha Tiger Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Pench in Maharashtra. In phase 1, 100,000 saplings were planted near Rata village last year and in phase 2, another 100,000 saplings were planted near Devdara village earlier this year. Both the villages are located in Mandla district.

The successful completion of Phase 1 and 2 was formally announced by Manish Kumar, Business Head – Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Vodafone India and Mr. Bikrant Tiwary, CEO, Grow-Trees.com, at a special press meet organised in Jabalpur today.

Sharing details about Vodafone’s support to the project, Manish Kumar – Business Head, MPCG, Vodafone India, said, “Vodafone India is committed to supporting sustainable initiatives that benefit all – the organisation, the community and the environment. Madhya Pradesh is endowed with rich and diverse forest resources. With 9 national parks and 25 wildlife sanctuaries, almost 25% of the state is covered with forests.  With this initiative, we are able to add to its green cover, support the conservation of its flora and fauna and facilitate habitat connectivity in tiger breeding areas. In addition, we will also create livelihood opportunities for local communities, enable reforestation and offset carbon footprint generated by our offices every year for 3-years.”

This project will create about 25,000 workdays of direct jobs mainly for women and tribals inhabiting the area in addition to supporting several allied livelihood generating activities such as farming, fruit and honey gathering etc. on a sustained basis. The site is in Sijhora Range and would be jointly protected by three villages- Majhipur, Jogisoda and Chandiya. A variety of trees, including Karani, Harra, Baheda, Bamboo, Khamer, Ladiya, Mango and Amla, that are local to the region will be planted. Saplings of these were grown in the special nurseries funded by Grow-Trees.com.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Bikrant Tiwary, CEO, Grow-Trees.com, said, “Approximately 45% of India's land is degraded primarily due to deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices, mining and excessive groundwater extraction. More than two thirds of this can be regenerated and our endeavour is to facilitate this by providing planting opportunities to individual and corporate customers. We are delighted to have Vodafone India as our corporate partner to support this novel project of wildlife corridors for enlarging wildlife habitats. The size and scale of this private corridor reforestation initiative is the biggest till date in the country.  The planting process on site will be led by our on ground partner FES.”

About Kanha and Pench Tiger reserves

Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and Pench Tiger Reserve straddling Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are important habitats for the tiger population in central India. As tigers need large home ranges to ensure population viability, it is important to ensure habitat connectivity between different breeding areas. The Kanha– Pench corridor therefore gains high importance in the efforts to save the tiger and other wildlife. Such a corridor is vital for the long term survival and viability of tigers as it connects smaller tiger populations in Pench to larger populations such as at Kanha.

Without these linkages tiger populations isolated within individual tiger reserves face a higher risk of extinction due to poaching and loss in genetic vigour over generations. A tiger straying out of a forest also has to confront a range of challenges such as hostile villagers, retaliatory poisoning for livestock kills, poaching, and electrocution by live wires, apart from road and rail traffic that cause further fragmentation of forest cover.  The trees planted will help improve the forest connectivity between Kanha and Pench and provide a sheltered corridor for tigers and animals to traverse between the two reserves.

About Grow Trees

Investment and startups are a key focus for this year’s Apps World event at London Excel on the 18th and 19th November 2015. Budding entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to meet with leading digital industry figures and given the opportunity to secure investment for their business.

London has been named the number one city in Europe for digital entrepreneurs, startups and scale-ups and this success will be evident at this year’s event with an exciting agenda of speakers, workshops and activities.

The Apps World Startup Launchpad on the 18th November will give a selected group of digital entrepreneurs a once in a lifetime opportunity to pitch their ideas directly to a panel of industry experts and investors. Interest in the Launchpad has understandably been extremely high and following an overwhelming response, the initial group of eight chosen startups has been increased to 14. Panelists include Stefano L Tresca who is a bestselling author and mentor of startup companies and also consults for corporations on innovation and investments.

One of the pitching startups is TreatNOW – an application designed to help men and women find really good last minute health, hair and beauty appointments. Founder of TreatNOW, Sara Hill, said: “I'm very excited that TreatNOW has been selected to be part of the Apps World 2015 Startup Launchpad. It's a fantastic initiative to help new startups get to the next stage. There's an incredible line up of speakers and exhibitors this year and I can't quite believe I'll be amongst them. ExCeL is going to be buzzing - bring it on!”

Another of the pitching startups is the much talked about Kerv, the world’s first contactless payment ring which allows wearers to make payments with a single gesture wherever the contactless symbol is displayed, with no need to carry a wallet or a purse.

In addition to the Startup Launchpad, Apps World is also hosting an Investment Clinic on the 19th November, giving attendees the chance to ask leading investors for their advice on how to secure investment at different levels and stages of business. The investment clinic will include a presentation from a leading UK investor, Russell Buckley of Spring Partners.

Mr Buckley said, “Cities should be nurturing their up and coming talent and tech events such as Apps World, which can really make a difference to a business that is just beginning their journey. London has been at the forefront of growth and innovation for years so it makes perfect sense for some of the best entrepreneurs in the industry to be present at Apps World in London. I wish all of the participants the very best of luck with their pitch.”

With the event now just a few weeks away, North America’s largest and only LTE-focused event, LTE North America(17-19 November 2015) will return and play host to the 6th Annual LTE Awards, which this year highlight more triumphs and innovations than ever before.

A recent GSMA report revealed North America to be the leader in the global adoption of new mobile technologies, with many operators already launching LTE-A and VoLTE services. Reflecting the increasingly high level of innovation in products and services within the LTE industry, this year was witness to a record amount of entries. The Awards are renowned as a mark of industry excellence and will this year be judged by a panel of senior analysts who are experts on the North American LTE market: Iain Gillott, President, iGR Research; Joe Madden, Principal Analyst, Mobile Experts; Monica Paolini, President, Senza Fili Consulting; Emil Olbrich, Vice President, Network Technologies, Signals Research Group and Berge Ayvazian, Principal Consultant, Wireless 20/20.

“The wide range of nominees for the LTE Awards this year shows the healthy state of the LTE industry”, said Iain Gillott, President of iGR Research, a market research consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile industry. “The companies and solutions nominated clearly demonstrate how the LTE ecosystem is evolving as more networks are deployed worldwide”.

Berge Ayvazian, Principal Consultant at Wireless 20/20 added: “Given this year’s standard of talent and innovation, it was very challenging to arrive at a shortlist for the LTE Awards this year. This reflects the rapid pace of technology innovation for the LTE industry. I congratulate the finalists and look forward to announcing the winners in Dallas this month.”

The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at the InterContinental Hotel on November 18th. Congratulations to the full shortlist:

Best LTE Core Network Product

·         Ascom Network Testing – TEMS Monitor Master

·         NIKSUN – NIKSUN NetMobility

·         SevOne – SevOne Performance Appliance Solution Version 5.4

Best Test/Measurement Solution

·         InfoVista – Xeus

·         PRISMA Telecom Testing – UeSIM

·         SIGOS GmbH – SIGOS SITE Test System

·         CommScope – Optical PIM tester

Best LTE Roaming Product

·         iBasis – InVision, iBasis LTE Roaming Monitoring and Reporting Tool

·         xCom Global – LTE Roaming Mobile Hotspot

·         UROS – Goodspeed 4G mobile hotspot by UROS – Uni-fi roaming solutions

Most Innovative LTE Application/Service:

·         Polystar – Polystar’s ODIN Solution

·         Parallel Wireless – Parallel Wireless Public Safety (Band 14) LTE Network for MACC Base, NH

·         Gemalto – Gemalto Cinterion ELS31 M2M Module

·         KORE – KORE’s global network

NFV Innovation of the Year

·         Dialogic – PowerMedia XMS

·         Argela – ProgRAN

Innovation in HetNet Development

·         Cisco & SpiderCloud Wireless – Cisco & SpiderCloud, Integrated 3G/LTE/Wi-Fi System

·         Radisys – TOTALeNodeB LTE Small Cell Software for the Cloud-RAN

·         Airvana – OneCell C-RAN Small Cell System

·         Kathrein – Kathrein Canister Antenna

Also speaking ahead of the Awards dinner, Monica Paolini, President of Senza Fili Consulting added: “Exciting new developments are emerging in the North American LTE industry as operators expand, add new functionality to 4G networks and explore the future of 5G. As a result, we have seen brilliant innovations from the mobile ecosystem well represented in the LTE awards submissions. We would like to thank all of the participating companies for their ongoing commitment to the LTE industry, and to congratulate the shortlisted finalists. The awards dinner will be a momentous occasion for celebrating North America’s leadership in this field.”

This year’s LTE North America will be co-hosted with a new event, 5G World North America, which is set to be hosted by 4G Americas, a 5G leading organization. In a recent whitepaper produced by 4G Americas titled, 5G Technology Evolution Recommendations, 4G Americas sets out how the industry has already started laying the foundation for 5G and examines the use cases and corresponding key challenges and requirements for wireless beyond 2020.

Nuage Networks, the Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) venture focused on software-defined networking (SDN) solutions, is expanding its Nuage Networks Partner Program with the launch of a self-service certification initiative. With a focus on Layer 4-Layer 7 application delivery and security, the initiative provides a simple, fast way to assure enterprise customers that the micro-segmentation security policies, components and services they choose will deploy and operate automatically in a Nuage Networks SDN environment.

The first security partner technologies to be certified are CounterTack® Sentinel, Fortinet® FortiGate-VM Virtual UTM Firewalls, GuardiCore® Data Center Security Suite, Palo Alto Networks® VM-Series and vArmour DSS Distributed Security System. The first application delivery partner technologies to be certified are Citrix NetScaler VPX and F5 Big-IP LTM. These Nuage Networks partners will demonstrate their technologies in a cloud environment during the OpenStack Summit in Tokyo October 27-30.

"SDN overlays must automate IT across cloud datacenter infrastructure while preserving control, visibility and freedom of choice. They must also integrate seamlessly with advanced security services to protect workloads in the cloud,” said Sunil Khandekar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nuage Networks.”By validating that our technology works alongside those of our partners – including leaders in network security – Nuage Networks provides peace of mind as our customers move their business applications to the cloud.”

With experience from deployments at leading enterprise and cloud service provider customers, Nuage Networks has built reference architectures based on OpenStack and Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP). The Nuage Networks Partner Ecosystem makes this architecture available as a pre-designed and public-facing environment that enables self-certification of the elements of the architecture in as little as two weeks.

“From the outset of BBVA’s implementation of a true cloud infrastructure to serve our customers, it has been clear that we need the best possible solution – including extensive security services – at all networking levels,” said José María San José, Global Head of Innovation in Technology, BBVA. “Our experience with Nuage Networks Partner Program has shown that we can easily integrate new technologies into our SDN platform. As such, we know our security needs will be met today and as they evolve.”

A certified technology will meet the following criteria:

·         It is deployable in a Nuage Networks supported environment

·         Its ability to communicate with the Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Directory (VSD) is verified

·         It can be inserted into the datapath in commonly used deployment models

Nuage Networks is a member of the Red Hat Connect for Technology Partner program and certifies its products with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform. Additionally, Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) has received Citrix Ready® certification.

To apply and join the Nuage Networks Partner Program, please contact [email protected].

SUPPORTING QUOTES

Citrix “The Citrix NetScaler Application Delivery Controller platform powers some of the largest enterprise and cloud infrastructure systems in the world today. The certification with Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform, in conjunction with OpenStack, will allow customers to rapidly build their own cloud infrastructure and operate it at scale using the best available components.” -- Nand Mulchandani, Vice President of Market Development, Delivery Networks, Citrix

CounterTack “CounterTack is excited to embark on this new partnership with Nuage Networks to deliver enterprise-class, endpoint detection and response technology to customers in a self-contained VSP. The Nuage Networks self certification approach in providing enterprise-ready technology to customers, along with integrating innovative solutions to cover specific enterprise needs, is the next wave of packaged solutions. OpenStack is pushing the boundaries of delivering value to enterprise customers in cybersecurity and beyond.” -- Michael A. Davis, Chief Technology Officer, CounterTack | MCSI

Fortinet “Fortinet is pleased to partner with a networking innovator like Nuage Networks to help lead the migration to SDN and the cloud while making security a priority. Working with Nuage Networks is an important piece of our SDN strategy to further innovate and disrupt the networking and network security markets in a way that offers meaningful value to large enterprise and carrier end-customers.” -- Michael Xie, Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer, Fortinet

GuardiCore “We are proud to integrate seamlessly with the Nuage Networks VSP,” “As data center networks evolve to optimized fabrics, security protection must now also evolve to become part of the network fabric. Together, Nuage Networks and GuardiCore deliver just that.” -- Ariel Zeitlin, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder, GuardiCore

Palo Alto Networks “Cloud and SDN use cases are driving new requirements for next generation security solutions. We are pleased to be working closely with Nuage Networks to simplify deployment of our VM-series firewall and to incorporate the flexibility of SDN with dynamic security policy for our mutual customers.” -- Chad Kinzelberg, Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development, Palo Alto Networks

ETL Systems, a global designer and manufacturer of Radio Frequency (RF) distribution equipment for satellite communications, has provided online global enterprise satellite monitoring service SatSignature with carrier monitoring switches.

SatSignature combines state-of-the art software and hardware to allow users access to real-time satellite spectrums, enabling them to get live feeds of any satellite at any time over the web. It will be utilising ETL’s 32x1 IF/L-band LS series monitoring switch to continuously monitor satellite RF feeds located in various parts of the world for verification, qualification, and carrier monitoring purposes.

“At SatSignature, our aim is to provide a simplified satellite monitoring system that engineers and executives will trust and have confidence in,” said Kevin O'Neil - Co-Founder of SatSignature. “In order to do this, we need a reliable and high-quality monitoring solution and ETL’s monitoring switch has met and exceeded our specifications.”

ETL’s LS series monitoring switch features improved performance for carrier monitoring with fast switching time and excellent RF performance for return loss and isolation. Resilience is provided by dual redundant power supplies and the unit can be monitored and controlled remotely via a web browser interface or locally via the front panel.

“With monitoring being such a critical aspect of SatSignature’s service, it is essential for reliable and appropriate equipment to be in place,” said Andrew Bond, Sales Director at ETL Systems. “We are delighted that our monitoring switches have been selected to help provide this valuable service to SatSignature’s customers.”