The LTE Awards 2012 took place in the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona

The Telecoms.com LTE Awards 2012 were held this week to celebrate and give recognition to the achievements made by those in the LTE industry.

Now in its third year, the show took place at LTE World Summit 2012 in the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona, this week. The Telecoms.com LTE Awards have now become a symbol of recognition to the industry as a mark of leadership, quality and innovation.

The entries were examined by an independent panel of judges over a two week assessment process.  The judges agreed on the criteria of qualification and marking in the context of these entries, and with advice from Informa. The awards winners were:

Category 1: Best Contribution to R&D for LTE
Winner: Ericsson

Category 2: Best Contribution to LTE Standards (Individual Only)
Winner: Gemalto – Patrice Beaudou

Category 3: Significant Progress for a Commercial Launch of LTE by an Operator
Winner: TeliaSonera

Category 4: Significant Progress for a Commercial Launch of LTE by a Vendor
Winner: Huawei Technologies

Category 5: Best Network / Device Testing Product for LTE
Winner: Alcatel-Lucent for 9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG)

Category 6: Best Enabling Technology
Winner: Gemalto for LTE UICC card with Full-IP OTA platform

Category 7: Best Core Network Product
Winner: Nokia Siemens Networks for SON Suite (Self Organizing Networks)

Category 8: Best Chipset / Processor Product
Winner: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies for the LTE Multi-mode, multi-band chipset – MDM9x00

Category 9: Best LTE Network Elements
Winner: Huawei Technologies for Huawei BTS3900L

Category 10: Best LTE Device / Handset
Winner: Samsung Electronics for the 4G LTE Smartphone

Duato wasn’t pussyfooting around, claiming that operators in Europe “can’t make a success of LTE unless we change the way we roll out networks.” With mobile broadband revenues falling faster than the cost of provision, Duato said Orange Spain was “unable to come up with a solid business case for LTE” if it was required to deploy a standalone network.

The technology itself is not the problem. Duato said that LTE “holds the promise of the future”, and noted that it offers twice the spectral efficiency of 3G, and a 30 per cent improvement on TCO. These improvements don’t make the numbers add up, though, especially as existing second and third generation networks have to maintained at the same time, he said.

The answer as far as Duato was concerned is to move into deeper RAN sharing to further slash the cost of deployment. As it stands, he said, “you have to do a massive  investment to make money from LTE”.

He compared Europe, with 100-odd operators, to the US, which is a comparable size and has only a handful of carriers with pan-regional networks. “It doesn’t make sense to have this many networks [in Europe], we have to move to LTE network sharing,” he said.

Duato called on national and European regulators to do everything possible to support operators intent on building pan-regional shared networks, as well as the vendor community. When asked how he thought vendors would react to the drop in network sales that such widespread sharing would inevitably bring about, Duato suggested they could make up the shortfall through larger managed services deals.

He also intimated that Orange might be prepared to give up spectrum to enable this strategy, given the right circumstances. While the operator has little to spare in urban areas, he said “we don’t need all the spectrum we have in rural areas.” He added that if operators were allowed to pool frequencies, then negotiations would be made easier.

It would be interesting to see what the group comms guys at Orange made of Duato’s take on the industry.

Over in Kenya, you might remember, Safaricom recently threatened to pull out of a JV LTE deployment if the government went ahead and mandated the use of spectrum in the 2.6GHz band. Safaricom wanted to be able to use 700MHz spectrum, which offers significant benefits in coverage and in-building penetration.

This week the Kenyan government told Reuters that the deployment would go ahead, whether Safaricom is involved or not. Deployment is due to start next year, when the Ministry of Finance has approved the $500m budget submitted by the Ministry of Information and Communication.

In other network sharing news, Everything Everywhere, which runs the UK arms of T-Mobile and Orange, said this week that it has completed a signal sharing project, dubbed Smart Signal Share, that allows for seamless movement of devices between the two networks, depending on which signal is the strongest at any point.

Smart Signal Share is part of a £1.5bn network evolution, with £1.4m being invested every day, the firm said. It added that HSPA+ 21, now reaches 95 per cent of the UK population. But if no 3G coverage is available, all Orange and T-Mobile devices will seamlessly switch to 2G signal and back on to 3G when either network comes back into range – even if a customer is browsing the internet. Customer charges remain the same when using the other network’s signal.

Everything Everywhere is also host to a new UK MVNO from China Telecom. CTExcelbiz, which CT said was the first service launch by a Chinese operator outside of China, will cater to the UK’s Chinese population with  Chinese language services and unlimited, on-net free calls.

Ethnic MVNOs have been one of the few niches to find success in the UK market, with Lebara and Lyca among the pace setters in the space.

Meanwhile, in a story of such interest that the level of traffic it was getting actually knocked Telecoms.com over this morning, EE has announced a mobile ticketing partnership with UK transport service provider Stagecoach Group. A trial is already underway in Cambridge and, subject to its success, EE and Stagecoach could deploy nationwide on selected services next year.

Nipping back to Eduardo Duato, he also told LTE World Summit this week that, when Orange Spain held it’s first ever call with Apple about securing a deal to offer the iPhone, Apple insisted that the call take place at 1am Spanish time. To the Informer this is a perfect snapshot of Apple’s approach to the mobile operator community, going out of its way to set its status from the outset.

That said, a couple of the Informer’s Twitter chums have pointed out at 1am is a perfectly sociable hour in Spain, and that perhaps Apple was just trying to be culturally sensitive to the notion of the siesta. Draw your own conclusions.

In any case, Yankee Group this week put forward evidence that offering the iPhone improves an operator’s rep among its customers. While US operators “uniformly report hits to their profit margins due to the device,” Yankee said, “carrying the iPhone immensely improves customers’ overall impression of the operator brand.” Yankee noted that brands such as Android and Samsung did not have the same effect.

Still, customers’ overall impressions won’t put food on the table.

Android may not have the same cachet as Apple, but that’s not putting Google off and the search giant this week rounded the last bend in its race to acquire Motorola’s handset division. The final stumbling block has been the Chinese competition authorities, which had similar concerns to the EC over whether or not Google would try and limit other vendors’ ability to deploy Android in a bid to give preferential treatment to Moto.

It’s difficult to imagine Google doing this, but the Chinese authorities wanted to make sure and so set down a list of requirements for Google. These include: Providing Android on a “free and open basis” for at least five years; treating all original equipment manufacturers on a non-discriminatory basis; and complying with Motorola’s current fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory patent obligations. Google must also commission an independent trustee to monitor fulfilment of these obligations, the Chinese authority said.

The deal should now close over the weekend. Moto’s CEO Sanjay Jha will not be around to see how things progress, as he’s been replaced by Google insider Dennis Woodside, who has managed the acquisition from Google’s side. While Jha will hang around until the integration has been completed, it falls to Woodside to build a new team for Motorola Mobility.

Woodside said that he aims to focus Motorola Mobility’s “remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world.” Woodside has already lined up a number of new execs, including former director of DARPA Regina Dugan, former supply chain VP at Amazon Mark Randall, former CFO of Marsh & McLennan Vanessa Wittman, former head of HR at Visa and Nvidia Scott Sullivan, and former Google VP of consumer marketing Gary Briggs.

“Motorola Mobility has many outstanding leaders, including people who were behind the original RAZR in 2004 and recent successes like the Droid and RAZR MAXX,” said Woodside. “Our colleagues joining the team come from varied backgrounds, from DARPA to Amazon and NVIDIA, but they all share a track record of leading innovation at speed, and a great deal of excitement about the mission ahead.”

One of Google’s biggest successes has been its browser, Chrome. Now there is another contender in the market, as Yahoo has decided to pitch its hat into the ring. Axis, a new browser aimed at iPhones, iPads and desktop PCs is, like all new browsers, designed to improve the user’s experience of searching the web. Yahoo claims it enables users to see and interact with visual search results without having to leave the search page. It also allows users to continue their browsing journey from device to device, the firm said.

Meanwhile Microsoft is making moves into the social networking space, targeting students with a new product called So.cl. The idea is that So.cl will help students share education-related information (hahahahahaha) and Microsoft is not looking to take on Facebook, apparently.

We started with LTE this week and we’ll come back to it in conclusion. Bharti Airtel has agreed to acquire 49 per cent of Qualcomm’s Indian BWA spectrum holdings for $165m. Qualcomm bought BWA spectrumin four Indian states in 2010 for $1bn, with the express intention of blocking the deployment and uptake of WiMAX services. It’s lost a bundle on the spectrum, but secured future revenues in the country when TD-LTE services are deployed.

Bharti is acquiring its stake by purchasing a 26 per cent share held by two Indian partners in the Qualcomm broadband venture, Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom and by subscribing to fresh equity. Once commercial operations are launched, subject to certain terms and conditions, the plan is for Bharti to assume complete ownership and financial responsibility for the BWA entities by the end of 2014.

Qualcomm’s aims have been met where Augere Wireless is concerned, at least. The aspiring WiMAX operator fronted by former Orange and LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja has said it is leaving the Indian market, and disposing of the spectrum licences it holds in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, according to local press reports.

And that’s about it for this week.

Take care

The Informer

Pakistan's Mobilink has had its bank accounts frozen by the FBR

­Pakistani operator Mobilink has had all of its bank accounts frozen by the country’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), as the operator allegedly owes Rs8.6bn ($93m) in taxes to the authority.

The amount is owed to the exchequer on account of mis-declaration of sales tax and federal excise duty, the authority said in a statement.

The FBR claims that Mobilink collected the sales taxes from consumers but failed to pass them on to the government. It is now seeking to “recover the amount from the company through attachment of Bank accounts, blocking of imports and recovery through suppliers of the company, which include other telecom companies as well as the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.”

Responding to FBR’s action, Mobilink said it has clarified that the FBR’s ruling on Sales Tax and federal excise duty is still under consideration.

In its statement, the firm said that it is one of the largest corporate tax payers in Pakistan, and has “always remained at the forefront of making its due contribution to the nation’s exchequer”, noting that it paid Rs34bn in taxes in 2011 alone.

“Over its 17 year history of operations, Mobilink has remained committed to Pakistan, and respectful of all laws, including tax laws, which govern over Pakistan”, Mobilink’s statement concluded.

Bharti acquires 49 per cent stake in Qualcomm's India unit for a mere $165m

India’s Bharti Airtel has signed an agreement with Qualcomm to acquire 49 per cent of its Indian BWA entities.

Qualcomm acquired the wireless broadband service permits in India for four states in the country in 2010 for $1bn. The purchase was made in a deliberate bid to block the progress of WiMAX as an alternative 4G technology in the country, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said at the time. Now, it has sold the 49 per cent stake to Bharti for just $165m.

Bharti is acquiring its stake by purchasing a 26 per cent share held by two Indian partners in the Qualcomm broadband venture, Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom and by subscribing to fresh equity. Once commercial operations are launched, subject to certain terms and conditions, the plan is for Bharti to assume complete ownership and financial responsibility for the BWA entities by the end of 2014.

“This partnership will combine the strength of Bharti’s national telecom footprint and Qualcomm’s technological leadership in the LTE TDD space,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel.  With a broadband ready network across India, Bharti is well positioned to lead the next phase of Indian’s telecom revolution.”

Paul Jacobs added that one of the firm’s key objectives has been to include a strong partner in the Indian venture with the scale, experience and resources to deploy LTE TDD networks.

“GHC and Tulip have been great partners in facilitating this transaction. Qualcomm remains dedicated to the continued progress and success of the BWA venture and to fulfilling our commitment as a key equity stakeholder,” he said.

Qualcomm’s licences cover Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala, and Bharti already has BWA licences of its own in four circles: Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra, as well as and 3G licences in thirteen circles. It has already launched 4G services in Kolkata and Karnataka.

Qualcomm said that it expects to provide technical assistance to Bharti in connection with network architecture and optimization, infrastructure and device testing, as well as continuing to develop and support the underlying technology and the LTE TDD ecosystem.

Its broadband operations netted revenues of PHP 5.8bn ($133m) in the three-month period, up 34 per cent from one year earlier, with its DSL services generating around half of this total (PHP 2.6bn), its wireless network Smart providing PHP1.7bn, and the Digitel group delivering the remaining PHP 800m.

PLDT is approaching the end of a two-year PHP 67bn network modernisation programme this is scheduled to be completed later this year, improving the speed and quality of services for around 50mn subscribers.

EE is trialling a mobile ticketing service in the UK

Network operator Everything Everywhere is deploying a mobile contactless transport ticketing service in the UK, which could lead to a nationwide roll out across select bus and rail services in 2013.

The operator, formed by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, announced its partnership with transport firm Stagecoach Group to launch the country’s first commercial deployment of such a service.

A trial of the service is already underway in the county of Cambridgeshire and has enabled a small sample group to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their mobile phone.

The operator has given each participant in the trial an NFC-enabled Quick Tap handset installed with an app to make them compatible with the local bus network’s smartcard readers, allowing them to travel on Stagecoach buses in the county.

The trial uses the Department of Transport’s Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) smart ticketing technology, and aims to monitor the levels of customer convenience the Quick Tap service provides.

The UK Government is working to deliver, along with transport operators and public sector bodies, the infrastructure to enable most public transport journeys to be undertaken using smart ticketing by December 2014.

According to Informa Telecoms and Media, sales of NFC-enabled devices are expected to accelerate from 2013 onwards, with the availability of a larger range of mobile NFC handsets and an improved contactless POS infrastructure. Total NFC handset shipments are expected to grow from almost 44 million in 2011 to over 630 million in 2015, representing 40 per cent of all new handsets, up from 3.5 per cent at present.

“Smart phones are playing an increasingly important role in helping people manage their busy lifestyles and are already used across many areas of life,” said Stagecoach Group Finance Director Martin Griffiths. “We believe this technology can also make public transport easier and more convenient to use. Once this trial is complete, we will carry out a review of the findings and assess the potential to expand the scheme further for our passengers.”

The games are seen as a major driver for mobile roaming

At the recent Roaming World Congress hosted by IIR an animated panel session highlighted a number of challenges and opportunities imminent in the forthcoming London Olympics. These Olympics have been heralded as a major opportunity for medals to be won and sport to be celebrated but there are also a number of reasons to celebrate the games as a major driver for mobile roaming.

Millions of inbound roamers (forecast at around seven million) will enter the UK market as a result of the games while the countries operators will see their networks having to deal with billions of additional voice minutes and MB of data over the duration of the games and within the relatively small footprint of London and a number of regional centres. This demand is also likely to be ‘bursty’ being tied to particular events (finals) and the respective national sporting obsessions of the Olympic visitors. This issue was highlighted at a recent IIR Roaming Summit held in Barcelona when discussing the last roaming mega event, the World Cup held in South Africa. At key points during this event operator’s experienced dramatic increase in demand related to key matches and specific events within them. Jaques Bonifay CEO of Transatel, went on to state that it would have been better from a roaming perspective if France had won as international calls were expected to have ‘gone through the roof’. This aside there are serious ramifications of mega-events, like the Olympics for roaming service providers and London 2012 is of particular concern as the first mega-event in which smartphones and data will be an integral part.

Operators have taken a proactive stance in preparing for the event with capacity planning and additional cell tower support. However the panellist were quick to point out that when Germany hosted the UEFA European Football Championship (2008) Deutsche Telekom was somewhat over-prepared with an abundance of repeaters and portable cell towers but a decided lack of roaming. This approach has been emulated with London 2012 with temporary cell towers popping up at both staging centres and sporting sites. In respect of the UEFA experience the consensus was that roaming prices were still prohibitively high when the event was held which would have dissuaded use. However, it was felt that this would be less of an issue with London 2012, at least if roamers were from the European Union, due to the price cuts legislated in this region.

The agreements reached on May 10 regarding Roaming III regulation have come at a particularly fortuitous time. The radically reduced roaming rates will provide a strong incentive to experiment with roaming at the London 2012 event with both roaming voice and data service set to benefit.

It was the panellists view that cellular use would be huge over the period of the Olympics, indeed panellist member Duncan Hill of Europa technologies stated they were rolling out additional support for their coverage mapping service to clients and end customers in Olympic hotspots; as Europa’s main customers are operators there is obviously some concern regarding coverage. Duncan went on to share the fact they are also providing wifi mapping adding further credence to this assumption. Paolo Silvi of Keynote SIGOS argued that coverage for roamers during the Olympics was the tip of the iceberg. He argued that without demonstrable quality of service roamers would simply not make use of cellular services claiming that QoS as well as coverage needed to be guaranteed to facilitate such mega-events.

The panellists agreed that capacity planning for the summer months already incorporated expected increases based on vacationing patterns but they were divided as to whether this would be enough to cope with both holidaymakers and the inspected influx of Olympic visitors. Edward Van Kuijk, EVP Sales and Marketing Hub services for Vodafone roaming was relatively downbeat on the potential for roaming during the Olympics. His assertions came on the back of his own analysis of the number of international roamers expected and their likely avoidance of high tariff international roaming charges.

A challenge from an unexpected quarter was highlighted by Jaques Bonifay who stated MVNOs could potential impact the roaming opportunity at London 212. Bonifay highlighted a particular approach his company was taking in cooperation with the Chinese Olympic delegation in which they are partnering with China Unicom. Transatel will be setting up an MVNO for the duration of the event providing a local calling alternative for the Chinese Olympic delegation and Chinese nationals. The service is being marketed via China Unicom. Fielding questions Jaques agreed that while he sees this approach as a highly attractive one for users visiting international mega-events it does require a pre-existing relationship to be in place between the roamers home network operators and any potential partner MVNO. Without this it is not a cost effective based on the setup costs, COA and relatively short time in which the MVNO can generate revenues.

Whether the Olympics will be a great opportunity for all roaming players bearing in mind preferred partners and steering will be remain in place is debateable.  Whether roaming data use will increase over the Olympics or impact the consumption habits of roaming users is also unknown. What is known is the London 2012 Olympic Games will be an important testing ground for data roaming in a regulated market and an opportunity for data usage profile testing within an international mega-event.

Senior analyst Michael Inouye said: “On the CE side, TVs, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes are expected to lead in shipments. As pay-TV operators continue to push new services and features, such as multiscreen initiatives and whole home DVRs, connectivity will increasingly come to the forefront of the digital living room.”

Wifi is expected to remain the most common technology used to connect these media devices (in most cases greater than 60 per cent), although other wired networking technologies such as MoCA, G.hn, power line communication, and HomePNA, are expected to start gaining additional traction.

The growing popularity of these devices with pay-TV and broadband operators looking to extend the delivery throughout the home is expected to increase consumer acceptance of them.

“The market vision is to enable a seamless networking environment that will rely on a number of technologies,” adds Mr. Inouye. “A consumer, for instance, might start a file transfer to a media tablet using 60GHz wireless technology, then switch to a 5GHz technology as the device moves about the home, and then again, unbeknownst to the consumer, switch to MoCA to finish the download as the tablet is docked.

“Even with working groups such as P1905.1 building toward a connected networking environment, this future will still need the support of all companies throughout the value chain, considering the large number of consumers who in past primary studies have shown a general lack of awareness about the networking technologies currently in their homes.”

Connected cars have been getting a lot of attention in 2012 so far

Connected cars are fast becoming the topic that has the telecoms industry’s tongues wagging excitedly. This year, Ford’s chairman gave a keynote presentation at Mobile World Congress, RIM showcased a connected Porsche at its BlackBerry World 2012 event, and Google secured the first ever self-driving car licence in the US. And as the connected car market continues to evolve, mobile operators are finding that they have a key part to play in the ecosystem, and are having to invest time and resources to ensure they are not overlooked as the connected car market matures.

In-car connectivity can be enabled for a range of applications, such as navigation, safety, such as for emergency calls, usage based insurance to monitor how safe a driver you really are, entertainment and even congestion charge or toll payment.

Currently, revenues that operators are seeing from the connected car market are modest. Both 3UK and the Netherlands’ KPN told Telecoms.com that the income they receive from their efforts in the connected car market are “negligible”. However, the telecom industry will benefit from the growth in connected cars although the size of the opportunity will depend on the type of connectivity that prevails in the car.

There are two different approaches to providing in-car connectivity; the built-in approach and the brought-in approach. The built-in approach involves the automobile-OEM embedding all of the hardware required for the connectivity into the vehicle at the point of manufacture. With the brought in approach, the user is required to bring in their own device, whether its phone to tether or a broadband dongle to plug in.

Smartphone integration and tethering will lead to greater data consumption in the car, according to industry body the GSMA, but will effectively restrict the value of telecom operators to selling more data. Embedded telematics, however, provides telecom operators with a much broader opportunity to provide more advanced M2M support to vehicle manufacturers.

Research conducted by automotive technology consultancy and research firm SBD on behalf of the GSMA concurs that today, the global total revenue for the automotive embedded telematics market stands at around €1.5bn. But the association’s research forecasts that it will grow at CAGR of 24.6 per cent over the next 15 years to reach €20bn by 2025, by which point all cars on the road are expected to have broadband connectivity.

The bulk of this revenue is expected to be from the sales of vehicle-related services and content. However, SBD also forecasts that connectivity revenues alone will increase to almost €4bn by 2025.

For the operators, this requires ensuring that geographically, their network coverage is extended.

“We’re investing in expanding our coverage,” explained KPN’s strategic partnership manager Alan Beveridge. “Covering the population is one thing, but cars go to places where people don’t live, such as motorways, so we need to ensure that we can provide coverage in these areas.”

This involves spending large volumes on infrastructure and venturing into new markets. Although KPN’s mobile business operates in Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, the operator is taking a global approach to the connected car market. Beveridge explained that, because consumers often take their cars across national borders and car manufacturers don’t always tailor their vehicles to specific markets, operators cannot be too narrow in their approach to connected cars.

“This means that we have to reach roaming agreements with operators abroad – it’s much the same way as we facilitate roaming for handsets,” he added.

Another challenge lies in the fact that operators are dealing with a new type of manufacturer, not just handset and tablet manufacturers. Automobile manufacturers are new entrants to the telecoms market, and according to Toyota’s general manager for telematics and special projects, Derek Williams, ascertaining value for money is no easy task.

“We can only pick operators to work with based on the tenders that they bring to the table. We select operators based on the offers they submit, so at this stage, we don’t really know whether we’re getting value for money.”

He added that the firm is also having to venture into unchartered territory, by agreeing SLAs with operators, using its own IT departments expertise to ensure network security in the cars and dealing with customer complaints when there are network issues.

In addition, the GSMA believes that car manufacturers will need to begin setting up app stores for the applications that will be delivered in-car. Renault is one example of a car manufacturer that has set up its own app store, R-Link.

The Android based in-dash control, communications and entertainment system can download apps for drivers to run in their cars. Initially, 50 apps have been made available and the open philosophy of Android is clearly a major feature when deciding which platform to run its future portfolio on.  

RIM too, could have a part to play in the delivery of software to cars, since its QNX platform is used in 60 per cent of the cars on the road today, the firm claims.

Regardless of the software players that take the lead in the car space, operators will still have to compete for business of car manufacturers. And while the future looks bright for operators, with the forecasted revenues suggesting that it will become a lucrative revenue stream for them, KPN’s Beveridge warns that they must act today or risk losing out to rivals.

“Although the revenues from telematics that we’re currently seeing are negligible, we have to invest today. We need to invest for the connected car market to take off. We can’t wait for customers to demand these services first, because they don’t know what capabilities will be available – there’s nothing to demand yet.”

Yahoo has launched Axis, a web browser for iPhones, iPads and desktop PCs.

Yahoo has launched a web browser for iPhones, iPads and desktop PCs.  Axis aims to improve how people search and browse the web, and according to Yahoo, offers a search experience that allows users to enter their search and see and interact with visual results, without leaving the page they are on.

Axis is currently downloadable only for iOS devices and as a desktop plug-in for HTML5-enabled browsers.

“Our search strategy is predicated on two core beliefs: one, that people want answers, not links and two, that consumer-facing search is ripe for innovative disruption,” said Shashi Seth, senior vice president, Connections, Yahoo.

“With Axis, we have re-defined and re-architected the search and browse experience from the ground up.”

Yahoo said that Axis gives users instant answers and visual previews in a way that keeps people moving forward rather than “constantly returning to a page of endless blue links”. Once on a search results site, Axis lets people simply swipe or click to the next result.

It also allows users to move seamlessly across devices. Upon downloading Axis, people can start a search on their computer, flip through the results while out on their iPhone, and finish the search at home on their iPad.