Clearwire inks wholesale deal with MVNO Jolt Mobile - FierceWireless Clearwire inks wholesale deal with MVNO Jolt Mobile - FierceWireless
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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Clearwire inks wholesale deal with MVNO Jolt Mobile - FierceWireless

Clearwire inks wholesale deal with MVNO Jolt Mobile - FierceWireless

Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) inked a wholesale mobile WiMAX deal with AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) MVNO Jolt Mobile.

The deal, which will eventually include Clearwire's TD-LTE service when Clearwire launches that network next year, will enable Jolt Mobile customers to add mobile WiMAX broadband to their plans. Jolt, a subsidiary of Net Inc., offers prepaid service using AT&T's network.

Currently, Jolt's plans range from $40 per month for unlimited voice and texting to $60 per month for unlimited voice, texting and 2 GB of data. A Jolt representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the MVNO will price Clearwire's services.

For Clearwire, the Jolt deal is the latest in a string of arrangements meant to expand its customer base. MVNO H2O Wireless, which also works with AT&T, has been reselling Clearwire's WiMAX service since February. In March Cricket provider Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) inked a wholesale deal to use Clearwire's LTE network, which it plans to launch by June 2013. Clearwire is also providing service for Voyager Mobile, a startup MVNO. And FreedomPop is also taking advantage of Clearwire's network for its planned "freemium" mobile data service.

However, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), Clearwire's majority owner, remains by far and away Clearwire's largest wholesale customer.  

For more:
- see this release

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Clearwire Builds on Wholesale Momentum With Jolt Mobile Agreement - Yahoo Finance
  • Clearwire's 4G Mobile Broadband Network to Power Jolt Mobile's Pay-As-You-Go Service
  • Companies Expect to Pursue Agreement to Include LTE Capability In the Future

BELLEVUE, Wash. and LOS ANGELES, June 5, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR - News), a leading provider of 4G mobile broadband services in the U.S., and Jolt Mobile Inc., a full service prepaid wireless solution provider, today announced a wholesale agreement that will enable Jolt Mobile to offer its customers high-speed mobile broadband service using Clearwire's 4G network.

"Clearwire's wholesale 4G services can benefit a broad range of providers including national and regional operators, MVNOs, and non-traditional entrants, to serve a diverse range of customers and product options," said Don Stroberg, senior vice president of strategic partnerships and wholesale at Clearwire. "Clearwire's 4G network is a great fit for Jolt, enabling them to add 4G mobile data plans to their prepaid service portfolio. We're thrilled to continue building momentum as the premier wholesale provider of 4G capacity to carriers in the U.S."

Jolt Mobile offers no-contract pre-paid and pay-as-you-go wireless plans that enable its customers -- consisting mainly of ethnic communities, students and seniors -- to affordably connect with family and friends nationwide and throughout the world. Under its agreement with Clearwire, Jolt Mobile customers will have the option to add 4G mobile broadband service on Clearwire's 4G network to their plans.

"With this agreement, Jolt Mobile customers can have 4G data plans that give them access to the Internet at home, at work, and on the go," said Avi Yroshalmaine, president of Jolt Mobile. "By partnering with Clearwire we aim to give our customers a compelling 4G alternative to higher-priced carriers."

Clearwire is constructing a next-generation 4G LTE Advanced-ready network to address the capacity needs of carriers in urban markets where demand for mobile broadband is high. As Clearwire's LTE network comes online, Jolt Mobile and Clearwire expect to pursue an agreement to offer users even faster speeds on this network.

About Clearwire

Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR - News), through its operating subsidiaries, is a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services offering services in areas of the U.S. where more than 130 million people live. The company holds the deepest portfolio of wireless spectrum available for data services in the U.S. Clearwire serves retail customers through its own CLEAR(R) brand as well as through wholesale relationships with some of the leading companies in the retail, technology and telecommunications industries. The company is constructing a next-generation 4G LTE Advanced-ready network to address the capacity needs of the market, and is also working closely with the Global TDD-LTE Initiative and China Mobile to further the TDD-LTE ecosystem. Clearwire is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. Additional information is available at http://www.clearwire.com.

The Clearwire Corporation logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=8493

About Jolt Mobile, Inc.

Jolt Mobile, Inc., a subsidiary of NET, Inc., is a pay-as-you-go service. They make it easier for retailers to activate new SIM cards and refill them. With Jolt Mobile, Inc. customers enjoy direct International dialing, making it easier to stay in contact with friends and family all over the world without having to worry about being charged outrageous rates. Additional information is available at http://www.joltmobile.com.

The Jolt Mobile, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=13137

Forward-Looking Statements

This release, and other written and oral statements made by Clearwire from time to time, contain forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events made with information that is currently available. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, management's expectations regarding future financial and operating performance and financial condition; proposed transactions; network development and market launch plans; strategic plans and objectives; industry conditions; the strength of the balance sheet; and liquidity and financing needs. The words "will," "would," "may," "should," "estimate," "project," "forecast," "intend," "expect," "believe," "target," "designed," "plan" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Clearwire's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from such statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ are:

  • We have a history of operating losses and we expect to continue to realize significant net losses for the foreseeable future.
  • If our business fails to perform as we expect or if we incur unforeseen expenses in the near term, we will require additional capital to fund our current business. Also, we will need substantial additional capital over the long-term. Such additional capital may not be available on acceptable terms or at all. If we fail to obtain additional capital, our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations will likely be materially and adversely affected, and we will be forced to consider all available alternatives.
  • Our current plans and projections are based on a number of assumptions about our future performance, which may prove to be inaccurate, such as our ability to substantially expand our wholesale business and implement various cost savings initiatives.
  • Our business has become increasingly dependent on our wholesale partners, and Sprint in particular. If we do not receive the amount of revenues we expect from existing wholesale partners or if we are unable to enter into new agreements with additional wholesale partners for new wholesale commitments, our business prospects, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected, or we could be forced to consider all available alternatives.
  • We regularly evaluate our plans, and we may elect to pursue new or alternative strategies which we believe would be beneficial to our business, including among other things, expanding our network coverage to new markets, augmenting our network coverage in existing markets, changing our sales and marketing strategy and/or acquiring additional spectrum. Such modifications to our plans could significantly change our capital requirements.
  • We plan to deploy LTE on our wireless broadband network, alongside mobile WiMAX and we will incur significant costs to deploy such technology. Additionally, LTE technology, or other alternative technologies that we may consider, may not perform as we expect on our network and deploying such technologies would result in additional risks to the company, including uncertainty regarding our ability to successfully add a new technology to our current network and to operate dual technology networks without disruptions to customer service, as well as our ability to generate new wholesale customers for the new network.
  • We currently depend on our commercial partners to develop and deliver the equipment for our legacy and mobile WiMAX networks, and will be dependent on commercial partners to deliver equipment and devices for our planned LTE network as well.
  • Many of our competitors for our retail business are better established and have significantly greater resources, and may subsidize their competitive offerings with other products and services.
  • Our substantial indebtedness and restrictive debt covenants could limit our financing options and liquidity position and may limit our ability to grow our business.
  • Sprint owns just less than a majority of our common shares, is our largest shareholder, and has the contractual ability to obtain enough shares to hold the majority voting interest in the company, and Sprint may have, or may develop in the future, interests that may diverge from other stockholders.
  • Future sales of large blocks of our common stock may adversely impact our stock price.

For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please refer to Clearwire's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the information under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 16, 2012 and subsequent Form 10-Q filings. Clearwire assumes no obligation to update or supplement such forward-looking statements.



Jakarta Great Sale Is Up and Running - thejakartaglobe.com

Shopaholics and tourists are expected to flock to Jakarta as the capital hosts the annual Jakarta Great Sale Festival with special offers and discounts at shopping centers and stores across town.

Governor Fauzi Bowo opened the festival on Friday. The event wraps up on July 14 and hopes to help turn the capital into one of the major shopping destinations in the region and the world.

This year, 73 malls and shopping centers will take part in the festival to celebrate Jakarta’s 485th anniversary, offering discounts of up to 70 percent.

The annual event, which is organized by the Indonesia Shopping Center Association and Jakarta municipality, is expected to rack up Rp 10 trillion ($1.1 billion) in sales, which would be a 22 percent increase from last year’s Rp 8.2 trillion.

Previous festivals lasted only a month, in the weeks leading up to June 22, when Jakarta celebrates its anniversary. But this year’s event has been extended for two weeks, which should help organizers reach the higher sales target.

Fauzi praised the partnership between the provincial government and retailers as a key to the event’s success.

“If we [the government] did it just by ourself, I doubt the festival would be a success,” the governor said.

The Jakarta Great Sale Festival also includes cultural events, said the shopping center association’s chairman Handaka Santosa. “Aside from boosting transactions for the retail, entertainment and recreation sectors, we want to promote Jakarta to international tourists,” he said.

Handaka, vice president of property developer Agung Podomoro Land, is also chairing the organizing committee for this year’s festival. “In addition to retailers, the festival is also being supported with special offers from Garuda Indonesia, restaurants, hotels, travel agencies and other recreational facilities in Jakarta,” he said.

The goal, he said, is to make the Jakarta Great Sale Festival one of the most famous shopping events and compete with similar festivals in the region.

“Other events in the region, like the Singapore Great Sale, have higher prices compared to the Jakarta Great Sale Festival, so we have an advantage,” he added.

Handaka said the organizing committee, with the help of state-owned toll operator Angkasa Pura, has promoted the festival as far as the Middle East.

Investor Daily



Mystery shopping uncovers guest satisfaction - Hotel News Now

Over the years, I’ve heard management company representatives ask the same questions when it comes to mystery shopping: Do we really need to perform mystery shops? What is mystery shopping going to tell us that we’re not already finding out through our existing measurement components? How will mystery shopping fit in with our current approach to measurement?

One of the easiest ways to determine whether you really need to perform mystery shops is to ask yourself what your quality inspections and guest satisfaction surveys are already telling you.

Quality assurance inspection programs tend to focus on your brand elements and the fundamentals of your property. Is the logo/signage current and compliant? Are you using the specified products? What is the condition of the facility with regard to brand initiatives or brand-wide updates? Quality assurance inspections measure your compliance within the brand or collection of which you are a part.

Guest satisfaction surveys tell you how satisfied your guests are with the elements of your brand, and, more specifically, with what your individual property delivers. The results let you know what it is that matters most to your guests. Is it cost, location, amenities or quality of service? Guest satisfaction survey results make it easier for you to identify the types of guests that frequent your property and what it is they really want and expect.

Mystery shopping delivers
What quality assurance inspections and guest satisfaction surveys don’t do a great job of telling you is how your brand elements are being delivered. A well-designed and well-implemented mystery shopping program fills in the blanks and allows you to gain a real understanding of how a typical guest experiences the products and services you offer at various points.

Mystery shopping uncovers what truly drives guests to return and recommend, or, what I like to call “brand positive indicators.”  While some brand positive indicators can be measured through quality assurance inspections and guest satisfaction surveys, many can only be identified through mystery shopping.

Let’s say your quality assurance inspections tell you a location stocks all the wares and food items that are required for breakfast, but your guest satisfaction survey scores show low guest satisfaction when it comes to the location’s food-and-beverage service. If you haven’t performed a mystery shop, it is going to be very hard to uncover the reasons for the low guest satisfaction scores. A mystery shop will tell you things such as whether the items being served are fresh, whether breakfast is being served during posted hours, whether the attendant is greeting guests appropriately, and other important details pertaining to service delivery.

Bridging the gap
Mystery shopping tends to be the final measurement component hotel management companies incorporate, but it is more like the component that bridges the gap between inspections and surveys. If quality assurance inspections prove all your brand elements are in place, but guest satisfaction surveys show your guests are unhappy, a mystery shop not only can confirm the problem is execution, but also it can tell you the specifics about what’s wrong that will enable you to pinpoint trouble spots and develop and implement solutions. 

When you have a three-pronged measurement program in place, it becomes much easier to expand your measurement arsenal and incorporate tools such as intercept visitor satisfaction surveys, employee opinion surveys, and social-media management technology. The key to developing a successful quality assurance program is having your bases covered by quality assurance inspections, mystery shopping and guest satisfaction surveys. Once these three measurement components are in place, you can build upon them as you improve upon and expand your business.

Patrick O'Bryan is COO at FreemanGroup, a customer service solutions provider that serves premier hospitality and tourism organizations around the world. Clients range from government and tourist boards to hotels, casinos, cruise ships, and airlines. In addition to offering a number of proprietary training workshops and follow-up training programs, FreemanGroup offers instructor certification programs and workshops specifically designed for human resource departments, leadership, and supervisors.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HotelNewsNow.com or its parent company, Smith Travel Research and its affiliated companies. Columnists published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.



The Talent Shopping Network Launches “Promotion by Contest” Free Marketing Platform - PRLog (free press release)
PRLog (Press Release) - Jun 05, 2012 - TAMPA, Florida, June 5, 2012 – Calling it “the future of online contest management,”The Talent Shopping Network (TTSN.co)  has announced the launch of its “Promotion by Contest” tool for businesses and industry entertainment organizations to promote company events, products and services “American Idol” style.

TTSN’s “Promotion by Contest” program allows businesses to create talent contests that double as viral marketing and advertising tools, while providing opportunities for talented individuals who enter the contests.

The Promotion by Contest tool is offered free to organizations interested in learning more about how promotion by contest translates to increased web traffic, brand awareness and profits. Participating organizations manage the contest process from start to finish online, using TTSN’s state-of-the-art contest management system.

Each business runs its contests entirely from its own website. Voters invited through contestants’ email contacts and social networking sites become instant viewers of the business’s uploaded banner advertisement. This clickable banner ad, provided free through TTSN’s contest management system, drives voters back to the participating business’s website of choice. No pay-per-click involved, and businesses create their own custom marketing banner ad featuring their unique promotions, whether it’s an event, products, services, TV show, new movie or music release, concert, radio station, or corporate advertiser.

Each 900W x 320H banner can be customized with the individual promotional message that the sponsor wants to convey. Contestants, their friends and families will view each banner regardless of whether they enter the contest or vote, which means guaranteed exposure for the sponsor’s banner.  

Businesses and entertainment industry organizations can post unlimited online contests at no cost;  the TTSN contest management system is designed to make the process easy, organized, and efficient to encourage businesses to give it a try.  Sponsor businesses can also create a company profile utilizing their logo, promo pictures, audios and commercial videos, and set up live auditions online with up to four contestants at a time through video conferencing. Embedded codes for each contest are created automatically, and can be cut and pasted to promote the contest anywhere – your company website, social networking pages, and online classified ads for instance.

The TTSN platform allows sponsor organizations to manage and view all contestant submissions from one location, contact contestants directly, sort contestants by talent or industry rating (provided by agents), by votes or views, best performances and more. The system eliminates email inundation from thousands of contestants;  contest sponsors determine the prizes, declare winners, and can create their own talent network from the contestants that enter the contest.

“The ’Promotion by Contest’ tool is all about how a business owner or manager can turn talent that auditions for their promotional contests into marketers for their company, “says William Quinones, The Talent Shopping Network founder and president.  “Contestants are motivated to win the contest, and since votes determine the winner, contestants happily send their voting page link to all of their email contacts, friends and family on the social networks.

“Before long it’s doubling as viral marketing,” Quinones says. “As friends and family open or click the link to vote, the first thing they will see is the sponsor’s banner advertisement.”

Quinones says that he expects the TTSN audition and contest Management system, the first of its kind for entertainment industry professionals, to transform the way the entertainment industry conducts auditions, casting calls, and contests. At the same time, and in keeping with Quinones’ vision, it will serve as a platform for talented individuals to gain exposure, and serve as a catalyst toward launching careers.

For more information on The Talent Shopping Network’s Promotion by Contest” tool, visit  The Talent Shopping Network's Promotion by Contest web page,..

About The Talent Shopping Network:

The TTSN.co platform is for agents, managers, and anyone in the business of auditioning and finding talent. The Talent Shopping Network's/  audition management system provides industry agents with a state-of-the-art program that streamlines the traditional audition process with an intuitive online strategy that includes tools for viewing and scoring each talent, managing the call-back and elimination process and more.

TTSN audition management system was designed to transform the way the entertainment industry conducts auditions and casting calls, without the expense and time sink that defines the traditional casting and management process.

Three years in the making, TTSN.co is the brainchild of William Quinones, a former dancer and later manager of a singing group who experienced firsthand the challenges of breaking into show business and accessing the opportunities that lead to a successful career in the entertainment industry.

With more than 50,000 active auditions on TTSN.co right now, the site provides talent with the ability to download audition scripts directly, video record their audition performance and submit it directly to the hiring agent. The site also offers access to a video voice-over recorder and demo song recording capabilities, and the first 10 auditions through TTSN are free.

Quinones calls TTSN.co an audition networking system for the entertainment industry, geared toward agents who are provided a comprehensive management system for auditioning for talent and networking with other industry insiders.

In addition to the TTSN.co audition/contest management system, agencies are invited to become part of the TTSN.co strategic partnership revenue sharing program, free for one year, and earn additional revenue as a partner by using TheTalentShoppingNetwork.com to conduct auditions and castings, run contests, and perform other functions.

For more information about all The Talent Shopping Network programs and opportunities, or to learn more about the strategic partnership program, visit The Talent Shopping Network (TTSN.co).

Photos:
http://www.prlog.org/11892210/1
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http://www.prlog.org/11892210/3
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http://www.prlog.org/11892210/5


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