Archive for the ‘Carriers’ Category

Here is the current market share for cell phone carriers in the United States.

1. Verizon : 31.2%
2. AT&T : 25.0%
3. T-Mobile : 12.1%
4. Sprint : 12.1%
5. Tracfone : 4.8%
6. MetroPCS : 2.3%
7. US Cellular : 2.2%
8. Boost Mobile : 2.1%
9. Cricket : 1.7%
10. Virgin Mobile : 1.7%
Others : 5.0%

84444.com uses MX Telecom as its aggregator of carrier mobile data traffic.  84444.com congratulates both companies on the acquisition.  We have been told that it is business as usual and are happy that our competent team from MX Telecom will remain intact after the acquisition is completed.

Amdocs a leading provider of customer experience systems, has acquired MX Telecom, a leading mobile payments and messaging aggregator with operations in Europe, US and Australia. Under the terms of the agreement, Amdocs has acquired MX Telecom for approximately $104 million in cash, net of debt and cash.   MX Telecom is the aggregator that provides connections for 84444.com to

MX Telecom will become part of Amdocs’ OpenMarket, a business of Amdocs that operates a market leading mobile transaction hub. The acquisition accelerates OpenMarket’s plans for global expansion into key markets. The joint OpenMarket MX Telecom business will provide a hosted platform to extend mobile payment and messaging capabilities through an integrated network and product portfolio.
Jay Emmet, General Manager of OpenMarket, said, “This strategic acquisition expands OpenMarket’s global footprint and substantially increases our market leadership in the rapidly growing mobile payments market that will extend well beyond messaging in the coming years. In addition, it strengthens our product portfolio with an extensive set of value-added services for merchants.”

Alex Moir, Managing Director of MX Telecom, added: “We are delighted to be joining forces with OpenMarket. OpenMarket’s mobile payments platform is highly synergistic with MX Telecom. This acquisition will enable the combined organization to better serve our customers and accelerate our global growth plans. Our employees are proud of what MX Telecom has accomplished, and we look forward to continuing to shape the industry as part of the OpenMarket team.”

Brian Shepherd, President of Amdocs Interactive, expanded: “Amdocs is committed to the OpenMarket business and its global expansion. Amdocs’ deep relationships with service providers around the world, combined with the OpenMarket MX Telecom mobile transaction platform, have the power to transform the mobile services industry. As a hosted distribution channel for mobile services, OpenMarket enables service providers to efficiently use this channel to monetize emerging mobile services to brands, marketers, enterprises, and digital content providers.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Amdocs has acquired MX Telecom for approximately $104 million USD in cash, net of debt and cash. The impact of the acquisition on Amdocs’ non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be modestly accretive in fiscal 2010. The impact on GAAP results in fiscal 2010 will not be known until after Amdocs completes the purchase price accounting for the acquisition. Amdocs may incur a one-time acquisition-related expense in the quarter ending March 31, 2010 to account for certain costs related to the acquisition.

Type: Carrier maintenance

Partner Impact: Premium MT SMS traffic to Boost/Nextel USA subscribers may be delayed during the maintenance period.

The maintenance work will be carried out on March 9, 2010 from 3 am to 9 am.

MT messages sent to affected subscribers will be queued on the 84444.com SMS Gateway for delivery once maintenance has been completed.

Standard rate and MO SMS traffic is unaffected.

In 2007 Cellular One, previously known as Dobson Communications Corporation, merged with AT&T. As a result of this union, Cellular One will become AT&T in June of 2010.

Moving forward, there will be no new campaigns, migrations, or Short Codes provisioned on the Cellular One Network.  Deprovisioning will be handled as usual on the Cellular One network, while more information will follow in regards to current campaigns that are active.  Until then, all campaigns that are currently active on the Cellular One Network will be serviced normally.

As Cellular One is already part of the shared short code network on 84444.com, this will have no effect on your ability to reach Cellular One customers from today through the final technology merger in June, 2010.

If, however, you wish to use your own short code with the Advanced Telecom Services’ technology, you will be without Cellular One coverage until June 2010.

Sprint / Virgin US / Cellcom / CellSouth and nTelos USA have been suffering intermittent service issues with their SMS platforms since 3 PM EST on 2010-02-15.

Some MO and MT messages are currently being delayed.

MT messages sent to these carriers are being queued on the SMS gateway and will be passed on for delivery as soon as possible. No messages should be lost during this period.

Verizon has informed us that they are continuing to experience issues on their binary SMS platform. We are monitoring this issue and are pressing Verizon for further details.

Premium and Standard Rate MT and MO traffic to and from the Virgin USA network may be delayed during the maintenance period.

The maintenance work will be carried out at the following time:

2010-02-02 01:00 EST to 03:00 EST

The response by the American people to make a text message donation for the ravaged people of Haiti has been nothing short of phenomenal.  Reports today indicate that over $30 million has been

raised through premium SMS text message donation services for Haiti.

First Lady Michelle Obama has appeared in prime time commercials promoting viewers to Text HAITI to 90999 and donate $10.  The Obama campaign knows a thing or two about mobile marketing; it helped launched President Obama into the White House during the 2008 election.

“Raising this amount of money $10 at a time is a true testament to the American spirit,” Jeffrey Towers, American Red Cross chief development officer, said in a statement. “The success of the mobile campaign shows the powerful impact and opportunity this channel can have on fundraising.  The needs in Haiti are tremendous and we want to thank the people who continue to donate and help the American Red Cross meet that need.”

84444.com and Advanced Telecom Services has announced that it will donate 20% of all net revenue received from text message donation programs in February 2010 to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

The following is an updated list of relief organizations that are accepting Haiti relief contributions via SMS:

In the US:

• Text the word “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 On behalf of the American Red Cross in the U.S.
• Text the workd “HAITI” to 864833 to donate $5 On behalf of the United Way
• Text the word “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5, or text the word “Yele10” or “YeleTen” to 501501 to donate $10 On behalf of the Yéle Foundation, the leading contributor to rebuilding Haiti founded by Wyclef Jean
• Text the word “QUAKE” to 20222 to donate $10 On behalf of The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
• Text the word “Haiti” to 20222 to donate $10 On behalf of the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund
• Text the word “Haiti” to 52000 to donate $10 On behalf of the Salvation Army
• Text the word “Hope10” or “UNICEF” to 20222 to donate $10 On behalf of UNICEF
• Text the word “Haiti” to 40579 to donate $10 On behalf of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB)
• Text the word “Save” or “Safe” to 20222 to donate $10 On behalf of Save the Children Federation, Inc.
• Text the word “Give” or “World” to 20222 to donate $10 On behalf of World Vision Inc.
• Text the word “Haiti” to 85944 to donate $10 On behalf of the International Medical Corps
• Text the word “Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5 On behalf of the International Rescue Committee
• Text the word “Oxfam” to 25383 to donate $10 On behalf of Oxfam America, Inc.
• Text the word “PP” to 25383 to donate $10  On behalf of Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc. (CARE)
• Text the word “Americares” to 25383 to donate $10 On behalf of Americares, Inc.
• Text the word “Habitat” to 25383 to donate $10 On behalf of Habitat for Humanity
• Text the word “Give” to 25383 to donate $10 On behalf of the MTV telethon
• Text the word “AJWS” to 25383 to donate $10 On behalf of the American Jewish World Service
• Text the word “LWR” to 40579 to donate $10 On behalf of Lutheran World Relief

In Canada:

• Text the word “Haiti” to 30333 to donate $5 on behalf of the Plan Canada
• Text the word “Hope” or “Monde” to 45678 to donate $5 on behalf of World Vision Canada
• Text the word “CAHAITI” to 20222 to donate $5 on behalf of the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative
• Text the word “Haiti” to 45678 on behalf of the Salvation Army in Canada

T-Mobile has informed us of an issue on their SMS platform between December 17th and December 30th, 2009 which meant that a significant proportion of Delivery Reports were not correctly routed. Because of this, the billing transactions for PSMS traffic were not correctly completed; however, it is likely that the end users did receive the content correctly.

We will be working with T-Mobile to rebill these users correctly.

Because these messages will be rebilled in January, T-Mobile will outpay for the billing transactions as part of the January settlement. Partners should therefore be aware that the December settlement will be lower than expected, and the January settlement will be correspondingly higher.

Dear 84444.com customer,

Sprint/Nextel/Boost/Virgin Mobile USA/Cellular South/Cellcom/nTelos USA have informed us of planned maintenance on their SMS and billing platform.

Type: Carrier maintenance.

Partner Impact: Premium and Standard Rate traffic to and from these carriers will be delayed during the maintenance period.

The maintenance work will be carried out at the following time:

2009-12-16 01:00 EST to 03:00 EST