LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.—Bitfone Corp., a player in the firmware-over-the-air space, has signed on network operator Alltel Corp. to use its FusionDM device management service.
Alltel joins Sprint Nextel Corp. in offering over-the-air updating technology in the United States.
FOTA technology can fix bugs and update software on subscribers’ mobile phones, with or without their knowledge. Thus, users don’t have to visit a service center or mail in their device to get such issues taken care of.
According to Strategy Analytics, the cost of a handset recall falls between $42 and $72 per unit—and FOTA can reduce that cost to under $1 per unit, according to the technology’s purveyors. Roughly 20 percent of handsets shipped this year are expected to have FOTA client software on them, enabling operators to remotely update handsets.
