ROK Comics offered to 'Virtual Operators'

ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technologies, applications and services provider and owner of ROK Comics, has announced the availability of a specially-packaged suite of revenue-generating products designed to enable MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) to compete with mainstream Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

A mobile virtual network operator is a telecoms company that provides mobile phone services without owning its own network, examples being Virgin Mobile in the UK and US, and Call Plus and TracFone in the US. MVNOs essentially buy capacity in bulk and resell it at retail rates, but with what's known as the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) level falling across the mobile industry, it's widely recognized that the business models under which most MVNOs have operated to date need to be changed.

"Until now, most MVNOs have been competing for customers through the only means they have -- that of price-dumping their voice and text service offerings," said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK. "However, with Operator hosts doing likewise, the margins for most MVNOs have been steadily eroding and are, in many instances, unsustainable."

There are currently approximately 360 planned or operational MVNOs world-wide, according to consultancy firm Takashi Mobile, with the UK, US, Germany and France among the countires having the most such networks.

In addition to ROK Comics, ROK's MVNO product pack includes such services as low-cost mobile calling technologies, low-cost SMS technologies as well as ROK TV, Push Inbox mobile email, FreeBe TV, News on Demand and Fonepark Mobile Content.

"Our aim is to level the playing field for MVNOs through offering them a one-stop-shop of relevant and appropriate revenue-generating services designed to raise ARPU, reduce customer churn and enable our partner MVNOs to pro-actively poach customers from rival network operators," added Kendrick.

• MVNOs may request more detail on ROK's suite of products at www.rokent.com/MVNO

Mobile Service use swells worldwide

A new report by British media and telecommunications watchdog Ofcom reveals the use of mobile service like text messages and pictures messages are increasing fast worldwide.

China is tops for text messaging and India is the mobile leader according to the report, but Britain has the highest take-up of digital television.

Mobile phone users in China (where ROK Comics is fast developing its partnership with China Mobile) sent 429 billion text messages in 2006 (an equivalent of 967 per user, more than any other country), while India added more mobile subscribers in the year than Britain had in total, as the two countries joined Brazil and Russia in driving growth in the sector.

The report also found that accessing the internet from a mobile phone is growing in popularity. In Japan, where over half of mobile phones use a 3G network, mobile users are three times more likely to send an email from their mobiles as they are a text message. However, Europeans send more text messages with 75 per cent of mobile phone users in the UK, France, Germany and Italy sending SMS messages regularly.

The number of mobile-only households has also risen. In Italy, 38 per cent of households are mobile only, compared to around 13 per cent in the UK and 10 per cent in Germany. By the end of 2006 there were, for the first time in the UK, more households with a mobile connection than a landline.

James Thickett, Ofcom's Director of Research, discusses the International Communications Report in the video below and explains how the UK is digitally connected.

ROK Acquires Fun Little Movies

The ROK Entertainment Group, owners of ROK Comics, has announced it has acquired a 51 per cent controlling interest in Los Angeles-based Fun Little Movies.

(FLM) for a combination of cash to be paid in monthly installments through September 2009 and shares in the company.

Under the terms of the agreement, ROK and FLM will jointly offer made-for-mobile content, such as comedy short films, to network operators worldwide.

FLM specialises in the development, production and distribution of original mobile-oriented comedy for global distribution such as Love Bytes, featuring Babylon 5 star Claudia Christian and Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wil Wheaton. In its nomination for Best Video Producer at the 2007 ME Awards, Mobile Entertainment Magazine said FLM “pioneered the advertiser-funded concept” for mobile video.

The first US company to produce comedic films for mobile phones worldwide, FLM’s “Fun Funny Phone Films” have won 20 awards including finalists' places at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Short and the 2006 and 2007 Mobile Entertainment Magazine Awards for Best Video, as well as CTIA's "World Smallest Film Festival." They've also been played on numerous TV networks worldwide including HBO, Showtime, CBS, Playboy, MTV and Comedy Central.

“ROK’s management team gets it. They see the same potential for the mobile space that we do,” said Frank Chindamo, FLM’s President and Chief Creative Officer. "We're excited about the new synergies created by joining with a company that understands ‘synergy’ the way we do.”

Mr. Chindamo founded FLM in 2004 and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California (USC), teaching “Mobile and Internet Viral Screenwriting and Producing.”

“We love what Frank Chindamo and his team at FLM have been doing in the mobile entertainment space. They really understand the medium and what people want from mobile movies,” said Laurence Alexander, President and Chief Executive Officer of ROK. “We look forward to expanding the footprint of FLM content worldwide and going forward to develop a whole new portfolio.”

FLM distribution deals include Sprint, Verizon and ATT, as well as several handset makers and overseas partners, from China and Japan to Europe, Africa and South America. ROK will be its primary distributor worldwide.

In addition to marketing ROK TV through Mobile Operators such as Vodacom South Africa, Avea Turkey, Telenor Pakistan and AIS in Thailand, ROK’s service is also available direct-to-consumers via Nokia Downloads on the Nokia E series handsets across Europe.

ROK completes share exchange, goes public

The ROK Entertainment Group Ltd. which owns ROK Comics and many other mobile services built up over several years, has announced the completion of its share exchange transaction with Cyberfund, Inc., a US public company.

The combined company will operate initially under the name of Cyberfund and will continue to be listed on the NASD’s Over-the-Counter (OTC) Bulletin Board under the trading symbol, CYFD.

The full press release about the listing appears on the ROK Corporation web site.

Following the share exchange that is part of the copany's transformation, ROK’s existing management assumed their same positions with the publicly-traded company.

Commenting on the transaction, Laurence Alexander, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are delighted to complete this transaction which creates a dynamic new force in the global mobile entertainment industry. We believe the demand for mobile content is set to grow exponentially over the next decade. As an enlarged Group with access to public markets and a proven management team, ROK is well placed to exploit these trends for delivering shareholder value.”

“I am hugely proud of our achievements to date,” added Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK, “as it’s taken a massive amount of effort, initiative and perseverance by all our staff to have reached where we are today.”

As well as creating ROK Comics, ROK currently has three registered patents and 42 additional patent applications pending for new technologies which it has developed for the delivery of video entertainment to mobile phones. The technologies facilitate delivery of services, including, on-demand mobile TV streamed over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS, the storage of copy-protected movies stored on memory cards for play on mobile phones, Java, SMS and P2P games, place-shifting to mobile devices and VoIP mobile calling.

It is the Company’s plan to continue the roll-out of its products worldwide and maintain its investment in research and development to improve current products, and increase compatibility and user features, as well as work on new technologies and products.

A focus on technology exposes the business to risks of technological change and the Company is now actively acquiring, creating and aggregating content and services to deliver across the rapidly expanding network of content distribution.

The Company has a number of operational deployments as of the end of October 2007, including ROK TV with AIS (Thailand), Telenor (Pakistan), BSNL (India), Avea (Turkey) and Vodacom (South Africa), as well as ROK’s mobile TV service marketed direct-to-consumers. ROK Media has deployed a variety of innovative mobile entertainment applications to include ANSA, ROK Comics and Fonepark in the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Pakistan and Russia.

ROK New Net in China is providing lottery services and selling lottery tickets for the Beijing Welfare Lottery, as well as a number of other mobile value-added telecommunications service operators (VAS).

ROK also has a phone hardware division, supplying handets to several operators globally. (You never know you, may have one of our phones yourself). It has also launched a mobile conferencing system, RokTalk, which aims to make organising conference calls a doddle, and costs less for everyone involved.

Before the end of the second quarter of 2008, ROK aims to achieve a significant global reach in mobile television (FreeBe TV and ROK TV), as well as expand the Company’s product portfolio and breadth of commercial deployment of these services (through cross-sales of products and services), through ROK’s existing and growing partner distribution network which includes Mobile Operating companies and handset manufacturers.

Jenny in Stringtown

Anyone who was there in the 1980s will remember Chris Reynolds ground-breaking graphic novel Mauretania, so I'm absolutely made up that he's given ROK Comics a try and has begun to upload some test strips.

Adventures From Mauretania was voted one of the Best Comics of 2006 in Comics Journal, with Chris described as the most underrated cartoonist of the last 20 years... "He has produced a rich body of work that continues to engage me even after many repeated readings, said Seth in the Comics Journal.

This is a strip from Chris' "Jenny in Stringtown" stories and I'm hoping there will be more to come.




You'll have topto download this comic to your mobile via the ROK Comics site to read it.

More comics from Chris on his web site, www.metropoppyfield.com. You can read an interview with Chris here

Effluent Flows...

One for rightfully aggrieved Scottish readers as another environmental disaster looms... although reading some news reports amd comments on them, particularly in The Scotsman, it seems there's quite a discharge of sewage into the Forth on a regular basis anyway!

The Perils of Beta Testing

ROK Comics: Fav Strip of the Day

These two world leaders must be fed up with having the mick taken out of them. Tough!