RAD's LA-130 was chosen in recognition of its innovative delivery of on-demand service quality.
By MATTHEW KRIEGERTech Watch 88(photo credit: Courtesy)
While February is usually associated with drops in temperature and nasty weather, in the technology industry, the second month of the year is always one of the hottest, as the year's shortest month is chock full of industry award shows, conferences and events.
At last week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, RAD Data Communications of Tel Aviv and its LA-130 DSL cell-site gateway were awarded the GSM Association's 2008 Global Mobile Award for Best Network Quality Initiative. The Mobile World Congress ceremony, the trade show run by the GSMA (Global Service for Mobile Communications Association) is the largest show of its type with more than 700 GSM mobile operators from 218 countries in attendance.
RAD's LA-130 was chosen by a select panel of judges, in recognition of its innovative delivery of on-demand service quality - a mandatory requirement by today's astute mobile consumers.
Part of RAD's full range of multiservice RAN gateways, the LA-130 is the first mobile backhaul solution that combines standardized pseudowire emulation capabilities with xDSL and packet transport support in the same device. It allows operators to ensure the highest level of service quality for real-time voice, video and data transmissions, while converging 2G, 3G and bandwidth-intensive mobile broadband traffic over low-cost packet transport and wholesale DSL links.
ANOTHER ISRAELI participant at the Mobile World Congress, WeFi Inc., creator of the first open, community-based global Wi-Fi network, announced at the MWC their move into the mobile world with the launch of their software for Windows Mobile. WeFi members can now gain fast, automatic and free access to all open Wi-Fi hotspots on smartphones, pocket PCs and other portable media centers based on the Windows Mobile operating system, in addition to their Windows- and Mac-based laptops.
Tel Aviv-based Wi-Fi also announced that their software was now available on Facebook, called the "I am Here Now" application, enabling co-Facebook-WeFi members to locate their friends on the WeFi map of Wi-Fi access points - in real-time. The WeFi application on Facebook further cements the global social-networking trend, as the first of its kind in enabling real-time location of all your friends, anywhere and everywhere around the world through their Wi-Fi connection.
Existing WeFi laptop users are equipped with instant messaging tools and additional community features to help them communicate with their friends.
Leveraging the power of Wi-Fi, WeFi brings free wireless Internet communications to everyone, everywhere, with easy-to-use downloadable software that enables automatic connection to the fastest Wi-Fi hotspot around. WeFi is a social network, whose members benefit from a free, fun and interactive experience, while helping to build a truly seamless global Wi-Fi network by mapping open access points in any given location worldwide.
MEANWHILE, AT this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, XTR, a world-leader in 3D Human-Machine Interaction, will present its "Software Only 3D Human Machine Interface." XTR's software analyzes 3D human motions using nothing more than a simple Web cam, making the technology much cheaper and therefore much more accessible to "gamers." Using the company's technology, the natural hand and body movements of game-users interact in virtual worlds - without the use of a mouse or a keyboard, allowing the game participants to activate a computer process or manipulate figures in a computer game.
XTR software is applicable for a wide range of markets and applications. The company is focused on deployment of its Human-Machine Interface in the worlds of gaming, virtual remote controls, training and simulations and fitness.
At the GDC, XTR will provide conference attendees with the opportunity to test out the company's Human-Machine Interface for computer and console games; it will also be screening a demo of its technology's capabilities.
Two years ago, the Tel Aviv-based company was voted the world's third-best technology company of 2006 by the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds.
ANOTHER PIECE of Israel-technology news coming out of Northern California was that Info Security Products Guide, a Silicon Valley Communications publication and the world's leading publication on security-related products and technologies, named Safend the winner of the 2008 Global Product Excellence Award in Endpoint Security Solutions for its Safend Protector.
Safend, headquartered in Tel Aviv, is an international provider of Endpoint Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) solutions for enterprise computers. Its Safend Protector guards confidential data stored on enterprise PCs and laptops against loss, tampering and theft by monitoring the transfer of sensitive data, and controlling access to removable storage devices and wireless communication ports, including USB, FireWire, WiFi, Bluetooth, Infrared (IrDA) and CD/DVDs. Safend Protector also guards against USB/PS2 keyloggers; it offers additional layers of protection with removable storage and CD/DVD disk encryption and off-line tracking of USB storage devices.
Safend Protector won the award based on votes from customers, channel partners and Info Security Products Guide readers. It competed with six other finalists and hundreds of nominations.
Safend is a leading provider of endpoint data-leakage prevention solutions that protect against corporate data loss via physical, wireless and removable media ports, while ensuring compliance with regulatory data security and privacy standards. Safend's solutions, available through resellers worldwide, are deployed by multinational enterprises, government agencies and small- to mid-sized companies across the globe.
FINALLY, EXPANDING its presence in the Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg (the Benelux region), Tel Aviv-based Atera Networks recently signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Compricon Netherlands, a distributor of data and telecommunications products.
The agreement covers all sales and marketing activities in Benelux. With the Atera Networks products, Compricon will expand its range of products in the area of network security and management for medium-sized businesses.
The partnership will enable Compricon to provide a complete suite of new managed security solutions to its broad range of customers.
WITH ALL of the traveling being done by local CEOs and CTOs, the airport has become a place where travelers do not just wait on long lines, but where the country's movers and shakers in the business world regularly sign significant deals. A reliable communications system can often make the difference for these businessmen. To this end, 012 Smile.Communications, a Tel Aviv-based communications service provider, recently announced that it had won a major competitive tender from the Israel Airport Authority, taking the place of one of its competitors to become the IAA's exclusive provider of international long-distance services.
The contract is for one and a half years, with an option for a two-year extension. It also expands an existing contract under which 012 Smile currently provides Internet access and WiFi services to the IAA, calling for 012 Smile to install Internet infrastructure throughout the authority's headquarters and to a variety of border-crossing facilities throughout Israel. The company estimates that the aggregate revenues associated with these services will reach approximately NIS 500,000 per year.