Declare Your Cellular Independence!

In honor of America’s Independence Day, which we will celebrate tomorrow with hotdogs, burgers and fireworks, some lucky folks can declare their cellular independence.

Mobile subscribers that use Orange UK’s Signal Boost service or T-Mobile US’ Wi-Fi Calling can rely on Wi-Fi for calls and texts in areas they use their phones the most.

That’s why Kineto has teamed with UK technology site MoDaCo in a contest to give away an HTC One X equipped with Signal Boost, powered by Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi technology. Find out how to enter on the Signal Boost contest page.

With London preparing for the Olympic onslaught of an estimated five million visitors, most armed with smartphones, clever people who can make the most of the Wi-Fi on their mobiles will have a leg up. Wi-Fi has become a critical part of the network capacity solution. Virgin Mobile is deploying Wi-Fi in the Underground. Plus, fixed-line provider BT has pledged it will make 500,000 Wi-Fi access points available.

It will be great. But don’t just take my word for it. The technology continues to get rave reviews.

“I used it on the first Orange San Francisco and the Monte Carlo, and it’s a fantastic app,” commented Christian E. on a recent MoDaCo article. “I really can’t understand why every operator doesn’t have a version for every phone. It saves them money/bandwidth and gives the customers better service, it’s not often you get such a win-win.”

Happy 4th of July!

Amplifying Orange UK's Signal Boost

Did you read about the event, Amplify 2011, we hosted in June in London for media and analysts? It was an opportunity for us to talk about Smart Wi-Fi and for Orange UK to talk about it's successful Signal Boost service.

Watch this video from the event:

I've written before about some of the highlights from the presentation by Orange UK's Director of Product Marketing Paul Jevons. Read more about them in my previous post about the event.

Some other highlights from the evening that you can watch and hear for yourself in the video include:

- Kineto showcased some of the nearly 30 Android devices on which our Smart Wi-Fi application is available, including smartphones from Huawei, HTC, Samsung and LG.

- Jevons talks about how "brilliantly simple" Signal Boost is because of the Smart Wi-Fi app

- Jevons talks about Everything Everywhere's plans to "roll that [Signal Boost] out across the T-Mobile base in the UK later this year."

- Orange UK reports "genuine and material improvements" in customer satisfaction and retention

- 80% of customers say it is easy to set up and really easy to use; and more customers say it's becoming an influence in their decision of handsets

Watch the Amplify 2011 video for more. After you see it, come back here and let me know what you think. Did you learn anything new?

Boosting Signal Boost

This week Kineto held an event in the UK to announce the availability of new Android smartphones with Orange’s Signal Boost service.

Signal Boost, as the name implies, uses Wi-Fi to boost the mobile signal of Orange customers when they are at home or in the office. Signal Boost was quietly introduced to the market a couple years ago, and has become key service offer.

Director of product marketing Paul Jevons said a few words about the success of the Signal Boost service. Here are some of the highlights:

• The Signal Boost customer base has grown by more than 50% in the last 6 months, carrying millions of calls every month.
• Signal Boost has “positive customer retention,” and customers say that “there is an improvement in coverage and call quality” when using the service.
• Customers appreciate Signal Boost. 50% say the Signal Boost feature influenced their handset choice, and 80% rate it as “easy to set up.”
• A “large portion” of active Signal Boost customers consider it “an essential feature.”

The event was hosted at Tutton’s in Covent Garden. Their private, underground “vault” rooms were an ideal place to highlight how Wi-Fi and Orange’s Signal Boost service can bring mobile services anywhere.

The event resulted in a lot of great coverage in Telecom TV, Total Telecom, Recombu, Pocket Lint, CNET and more.