Author: BWild

Mobile entertainment service under development at AT&T

According to the telecom company’s CEO, Randall Stephenson, it will soon be taking this big step.

Telco giant, AT&T currently has a mobile entertainment service in the works, according to its CEO and chairperson, Randall Stephenson, who recently spoke on the subject at an investor conference.

Stephenson discussed the company’s intentions to launch a service to compete with Go90 from Verizon.

The CEO also stated that AT&T plans to use this new mobile entertainment service as a part of an aggressive effort to provide an OTT content bundle for people who are not satellite television subscribers and who have either a single home television or who prefer to view their entertainment media over mobile. He pointed out that there are currently an estimated 30 million homes in the country that don’t subscribe to pay television services.

Through mobile entertainment services, AT&T is “very interested” in reaching more cost-conscious consumers.

Mobile Enteratinment - at&tStephenson also said that the company would soon be discussing this mobile media service in much more detail. That said, it was not at all made clear whether or not the service would be made available in the very near future or if consumers would need to wait for some time before they would be able to take advantage of this new choice.

Aside from the exclusively mobile technology side of the spectrum, Stephenson said that the company would soon be making an announcement with regards to premium content package. That announcement is expected to be made in January. What is expected is what the CEO called “mobile stacked content together with a really robust wireless asset.”

These announcements were made by the CEO while he spoke at the 43rd Annual Global Media and Communications Conference, which took place in New York. Though analysts were expecting him to offer more details for analysts following the DirecTV acquisition, that wasn’t the case.

Instead, he focused most of his attention on discussing the two primary ways in which content would now be delivered and the fact that they are “buying a big bundle of content” and that they “are also streaming the content to a mobile device.”

Nortek QR codes added to assist contractors

The company is aiming to use quick response codes to make tech data easier to obtain.

Nortek Global HVAC recently announced that it would be adding QR codes to its product labels in order to make it easier for contractors to be able to obtain the tech literature for a specific piece of equipment.

The goal of using these barcodes in this way is to make troubleshooting faster and easier for service contractors.

The new label with the QR codes links the contractor directly to the tech literature specific to the product in question. In order to use the quick response codes, the contractor must simply use a smartphone to scan the barcode printed on the equipment’s label. The smartphone is directed to the Nortek website, where a page will be displayed with the information about that specific equipment model. Among the types of information that are available to the contractor are the installation instructions, lists of replacement parts, charging charts, wiring diagrams, and other important and practical troubleshooting information.

In this way, contractors can scan QR codes and rapidly obtain information instead of needing to phone the company.

QR Codes to help service contractorsAccording to the Nortek Global HVAC director of warranty and technical services, Matt Lattanzi, “Contractors call us for technical help and many times the answers are in the literature.” Lattanzi also added that “Having a way to quickly scan a code on the product and find the necessary documents can reduce lost time on the job and help ensure the equipment is installed and/or serviced correctly.”

By using the QRcode, a number of slower steps can be skipped so the contractor can complete his or her work with greater effectiveness and efficiency. Moreover, beyond the implementation of the barcodes on the product labels, Nortek has also gone to the extent of providing contractors with support through an iPad app for in-home sales, weekly video tips, mobile load calculation tools, as well as support for using and managing a Facebook business page.

The QR codes were implemented by Nortek on its labels for split-system air conditioners, but it intends to add the barcodes to additional products in the future.