First Hop, the mobile service control company, has recently announced that Blyk, a pan-European free mobile operator for young people funded by advertising, selected First Hop’s Mobile Advertising Solution. Blyk will launch its service in the UK in mid-2007 with plans to extend its coverage into more countries. [Read more…]

First Hop, the mobile service control expert, has launched its Intelligent Promotion Solution, and announced that it has already been deployed by five mobile operators in Europe and Asia. The Intelligent Service Promotion Solution gives mobile operators the ability to drive additional premium service revenues from its existing subscriber base. Operators can now identify cross-selling and up-selling opportunities and launch targeted or personalised usage-stimulating campaigns. [Read more…]

First Hop has announced the launch of the mobile value added services (VAS) Business Intelligence Solution at CommunicAsia. The new solution gives the operator a complete view across their portfolio of in-house and external content provider services, subscriber usage patterns, as well as the revenue that each service brings in.

Timo Laaksonen, the Chief Executive Officer of First Hop, remarked: “The operators are like supermarkets, they want the shelves to be stacked full of goods for people to buy. Unlike supermarkets they are not aware of customer preference and real purchasing behaviour, and don’t fully exploit mapping CRM details. Real-life traffic paints a different picture compared to market surveys.”

The solution is the latest addition in the First Hop Wireless Broker suite of products, introducing the ability to accurately monitor the business performance of VAS. The solution comprises of a data warehouse and reporting system targeted and optimised for VAS usage analysis and business management. The market intelligence is based on the transaction data retrieved from the traffic and service management modules of the product suite. [Read more…]

First Hop announced today that it has appointed industry veteran Keith Gibson as the company’s new Chairman. Keith’s appointment marks a period of rapid development for First Hop, as mobile operator interest in its business solutions continues to grow.

Keith Gibson, Chairman of First Hop said: “This is a very exciting time to join the Board of First Hop, as it moves into a new phase in its international growth and development. First Hop is proving to be really popular in fast growth markets, such as Asia. We are getting in at the ground level and becoming the focal point of operator business decisions. I look forward to being able to make a significant contribution to the growth of the company around the world.”

Keith Gibson has nearly three decades of experience in the telecommunications industry. He has been instrumental in developing profitable international strategies and leading management teams in Europe and the USA. He began his career at GPT/Marconi Ltd and went on to hold senior management posts at WSI, Fujitsu and Comverse Technology. As EMEA MD at Coherent Communications, Keith grew the business at a rate of 40% per annum. He currently serves on two boards and chairs a public service council. [Read more…]