Amidst frenzied media coverage and hopes for changes to the nation’s wireless infrastructure, the 700MHz auction came to a close this week after raising $19.59 billion. Much like a political election, the incumbents won, and talk of change will likely remain just that — talk. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone, won the majority of the C block with a bid of $4.74 billion and AT&T picked up 227 licenses in the B block of regional licenses, the FCC said this afternoon.

Full Story: GigaOM

Next-generation mobile advertising company Ringleader Digital, announced the mounting success of its creative, mobile click-to-call campaign designed to promote Magnolia Pictures’ latest horror movie, “The Signal.” By using the one feature every phone has, the ability to make and receive phone calls, Ringleader’s viral campaign has yielded a 16 percent response rate within its target demographic, meaning that thousands of people to date have clicked to hear “The Signal.” Approached by Magnolia Pictures’ media agency, Media Storm, Ringleader seized the opportunity to use the hottest new marketing medium, mobile, to spread the word—or in this case, the sound. Seeking an innovative campaign that would grab the attention of movie goers, the agencies toyed with the idea of a click-to-video campaign. However, to maximize reach, Ringleader advised a click-to-call campaign—offering a creative solution that soon had mobile phone users interacting to create movie buzz.

“The mobile medium is undoubtedly one of the most useful and, simultaneously, underutilized channels available to marketers today,” said Craig Woerz, Managing Partner of Media Storm. “Much like TVs are in nearly every home, most people now carry a mobile device. With the right partner, like Ringleader, you can reach those people and engage them on the spot. The success and high response rate we’ve experienced through Ringleader’s campaign has encouraged us to recommend mobile advertising elements as part of future projects.”

The campaign initially relies upon a mobile banner that invites fans to click the ad, an action that sends them to the movie’s mobile Web site. Created by Ringleader, this site offers people a chance to hear the signal, send the sound to a friend or read a film synopsis. Moments after clicking on the “Listen to the Signal” option, a call comes through the user’s handset. When answered, the call plays the same noise responsible for chillingly transforming the movie’s characters into mass murderers.

Also through the ad site, users can read a film synopsis or send the mesmerizing signal noise to their friends. The independent film tells the story of innocent people transformed into sociopathic killers after listening to sounds and viewing images transmitted through their television sets.

“’The Signal’ project exemplifies how innovative advertising campaigns can and should cross from one screen to the other,” said Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader. “And, the beauty of it is how easily that capability grows your opportunities to capture minds. The mobile element complemented other online components—it didn’t mirror them. The click-to-call program gave Media Storm the next medium through which to reach tech savvy people with a catchy, viral campaign.”

In addition to managing the click-to-call element, Ringleader Digital sourced ad inventory on mobile Web pages frequented by Media Storm’s target demographic as well as created the WAP site. The click-to-call program hit the third screen on February 19 just in time for the February 22 movie release.

SMS is taking off in the Americas, mobile e-mail continues its strong growth in developed regions, subscriber growth is driving messaging adoption in Asia-Pacific, and social networking is lifting the messaging boat across nearly all regions. The combination of these factors is expected to grow revenues from mobile messaging to $212 billion by 2013, according to a new study from ABI Research. Messaging services growth will have different regional specific drivers. Despite the differences, however, the common growth denominator is that messaging services provide a timely, cost-effective, customer-specific communication and information capability. Principal analyst Dan Shey says, “You will not find many customers worldwide who don’t find messaging cost-effective and valuable for communications and delivery of information. The range of capabilities, services and pricing options can be fit to the economic and social differences of each region, and the result quite simply is steady growth over the next five years.”

But the benefits driving messaging growth go beyond its obvious economic, social and convenience advantages relative to voice calling. The next stage of messaging growth will be strongly influenced by new input and access capabilities, and integration across mobile and fixed-line platforms. According to Shey, “Innovation in messaging input, including touch screens, voice-to-text, and advanced keyboard designs, makes initiating a mobile message very easy. By combining input options with greater ease of communicating across mobile and fixed platforms regardless of messaging service, messaging providers serve customers’ needs very well in both the consumer and business domains.”

And is there a third stage of growth for mobile messaging? Says Shey, “Some very creative companies are finding unique ways to incorporate advertising in mobile messaging. If done right, advertising will completely change the mobile messaging market.”

By partnering with Greystripe, MeYou users are now able to browse through the catalog and download desired games, recommend them to other users, or share them Web-to-mobile or mobile-to-mobile with one click for free. Friends receive mobile message recommendations that contain a message from users, a download link for the content and a link to install the MeYou(TM) application.

“Mobile social networks are an ideal place for users to discover and share ad-supported mobile games and we are thrilled to provide MoConDi’s users with our catalog,” said Alvaro Bravo, VP of Business Development at Greystripe. “By implementing our AdWRAP Catalog Platform, they are joining a worldwide movement of shifting from for-pay mobile content to one that is entirely ad-supported.”

Ad-supported content, as offered by Greystripe, has proven to increase user stickiness while providing a new, scalable revenue source. MoConDi will now be able to offer its MeYou users the largest collection of mobile games from top tier publishers such as Vivendi Games Mobile, Hands-On Mobile, Skyzone, Punch Entertainment, and Digital Chocolate. Greystripe’s games, in turn, will benefit from the viral distribution of mobile content through the users of the MeYou social network. The partnership allows Greystripe to extend their products and services into an on-device portal exposing free games to more consumers that traditional off-deck markets.

“We are thrilled to enter into a partnership with Greystripe. They are pioneering ad-supported mobile games and provide the best quality and quantity of entertainment for our audience,” said JT Klepp, CEO of MoConDi. “The initial response from our community is overwhelmingly positive.”

Cutting through the quad-play hype and speculation to identify the market preconditions, the mix of technologies and the customer benefits which will drive the roll-out of successful quadruple play offerings.

Quadruple play services – where subscribers receive phone, mobile, broadband and TV from a single service provider – have been the subject of much speculation and considerable industry hype in recent years. Yet there is little consensus on the defining characteristics of a quadruple play and many untested assumptions about the readiness of particular national markets for the emergence of quadruple play.

In this report, the author introduces some rigour into the debate about quadruple play services. We have done this by defining clearly the mix of technologies and services which we believe make up a valid quadruple play. We have also surveyed a representative sample of operators around the world to see who is currently offering quadruple play, who is actively considering it and who has the potential to launch it during our five-year forecast horizon. We have examined national markets and key operators to arrive at a formula which defines the preconditions that must exist in any market before a quadruple play can succeed. Based on our analysis, we have also forecast the subscriber numbers and service revenues for quadruple play globally and by region. We also make numerous observations about the prospects for quadruple play in important markets such as the US, Japan, France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Canada, China and India.

This Mobile Forecast on Canada provides over 65 operational and financial metrics for the Canada wireless market. We cover quarterly historical data starting in 2Q2003 and ending in 2Q2007. We also provide four-year forecasts at the operator level going out to 2010. Operators covered for Canada include: Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless (incl. Microcell), Telus Mobility, MTS, and Other Bell Affiliates. Our Mobile Forecasts are updated quarterly and are available for one-time delivery or through regular updates.

Our country-based forecasting models deploy multiple regression analysis and cross-impact matrices. We estimate relationships between subscriber data, technology use and deployment data, overall economic and demographic changes expected in a particular country; and relate these to company operational and financial metrics.

The wholesale GSM termination service is a wholesale access service that enables mobile subscribers to receive calls from other mobile subscribers and fixed-line callers. This market has been the most profitable voice market for the three carriers involved. Fixed-to-mobile calls are in most instances more expensive than international calls to Europe or the USA. Australia may be in breach of its World Trade Organization commitments due to excessively high international mobile termination charges. A review of the charges was launched in 2003. In 2004 the regulator tabled its report, a drop in fees by 50% over three years, but no regulated pass-on to consumers. Very little action has been seen since that time until June 2007 when the ACCC issued a draft determination on pricing principles for the period from 1 July 2007 to 31 December 2008 and proposed a further reduction in the indicative MTAS rate to 9 cents per minute (from the current 12 cents per minute). The report also included analyses and comments from ATUG. This report also includes mobile pricing statistics and trends. The average retail mobile termination prices have been more than doubled their underlying costs for some time, even in the context of lower termination prices.

LCC International, Inc. (NASDAQ:LCCI),  has recently received contracts totaling over $21 million for its TotalView Optimization and Benchmarking services in the Middle East, Europe and America. TotalView is a unique services delivery platform based on integrating software tools and RF engineering processes to deliver enhanced network services including optimization and benchmarking. Optimization is the process of maximizing the performance of a wireless operator’s network to maximize network efficiency and quality of service at a reduced total operating cost. Benchmarking services provide a quantitative and qualitative comparison of the operators’ network and end-user experience against other wireless operators to maximize total carrier performance.

In recent weeks, LCC’s European region has received contracts for TotalView’s Optimization and Benchmarking services. Contracts have been awarded from large operators and equipment manufacturers in Spain, France, and Italy. Spain has been providing its benchmarking expertise to the region since 2004 and is seeing continued renewals of several long standing contracts.

LCC’s Emerging Markets region, specifically Pakistan, is realizing continued success in leveraging an integrated services solution. The Company has secured a large managed services contract covering pre and post launch optimization services with Telenor Pakistan (a 100% owned entity of Telenor) and a strategic consulting contract with telecom services provider Mobilink.

“We are now seeing our strategy of entering specific emerging markets come to fruition and we have been able to garner real growth as we continue to reduce the internal operating expenses of our customers while enhancing the quality of wireless networks,” said Dean Douglas, LCC President and CEO. “These recent contracts and our expanded presence in Pakistan speaks to the value we bring to our customers as they continue to focus on increased market penetration and reduce customer turnover.”

Large contracts for WiMAX design and optimization, 3G/4G benchmarking services and UMTS and GSM network design and optimization services were recently secured within the America’s region. These agreements include WiMAX design and optimization services from large North American wireless operators, service providers and equipment manufacturers. Additionally, recent contracts for UMTS/GSM design, optimization and benchmarking were awarded.

“As carriers continue to migrate from a ‘make internally’ to ‘buy externally’ decision for obtaining network optimization and benchmarking services, we are pleased to be in the unique position, based on our size and scale, to provide advanced offerings that have real OpEx savings for our customers. Based on the increased adoption of our TotalView® services, LCC is well positioned to deliver premium value for our clients around the world and we believe these recent announcements are indicative of our strength in the marketplace,” concluded Mr. Douglas.

Research and Markets has added a new report: Q4 Mobile Forecast: Hong Kong, 2007 - 2010 to their offering. This Mobile Forecast on Hong Kong provides over 65 operational and financial metrics for the Hong Kong wireless market. We cover quarterly historical data starting in 2Q2003 and ending in 2Q2007. We also provide four-year forecasts at the operator level going out to 2010. Operators covered for Hong Kong include: CSL/New World, Hutchison, SmarTone, New World, Sunday, and People. Our Mobile Forecasts are updated quarterly and are available for one-time delivery or through regular updates.

Our country-based forecasting models deploy multiple regression analysis and cross-impact matrices. We estimate relationships between subscriber data, technology use and deployment data, overall economic and demographic changes expected in a particular country; and relate these to company operational and financial metrics.

For the time being, voice will remain the killer application for mobile with some data services included as support services and niche market services. WiMAX and 4G are the real solutions for mobile data but by then it will be known as personal wireless broadband. By 2015 it is expected that mobile revenue will mostly come from data.

While the technology issues regarding the delivery of mobile data have still not been resolved, the industry in 2008 continues to move forward, particularly in the development of more user-friendly and interactive mobile devices. The mobile operators also need to watch out as mobile manufacturers and Internet Media companies (i.e. Google) attempt to move into this space. This report includes an overview and analysis of developments in the mobile data industry. It also provides a brief overview of the dominant technologies competing for wireless broadband and statistics on the value of the mobile data sector.