An Irvine-based startup that collaborated with the National Security Agency for years to develop a private mobile network has released what it calls “the world’s most secure cellphone service.”
USMobile is offering a free beta trial of its Scrambl3 mobile app for Android smartphone users for a 60-day period to drum up adoption and feedback as it irons out any glitches before its commercial release.
The app, available at the Google Play store, will cost $10 for a monthly subscription. An iPhone app also is under development.
“We want and need to get a lot of users on the network so we can learn about the characteristics of how customers are using it,” said President Jon Hanour, a former entertainment executive who helped take Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. public in 1986 as its chief financial officer. “We need to be able to scale and accommodate a million or more customers.”
The spinoff of Cyvergence Corp., a VoIP telecom equipment maker and service provider, has partnered with IBM Corp. to handle server infrastructure demand for corporate customers that will be charged a scaled subscription fee based on the number of users at a company.
USMobile engineers have been working with high-level officials at the NSA since 2011 to create encrypted voice, video and data communication that employs the agency’s top-secret Suite B encryption and authentication architecture at the heart of the secure “Fishbowl” phone initiative.
The technology initially was developed to protect classified U.S. government communication.
But it carries several benefits for the private sector, and government agencies encouraged commercial development of secure private communications to help businesses protect intellectual property and prevent cybercrime and espionage, which costs the global economy $445 billion annually in theft and hacking disruptions, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
“There’s nobody else that has this level of security,” Hanour said.
Lucrative Follow-Up?
It bears watching whether Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s second free-to-play video game matches the commercial success of the first one, which it launched more than a year ago in a significant strategic shift for the Irvine-based company.
“Heroes of the Storm,” released June 2, pits favorite characters from its popular Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises against each other in online brawls and clashing universes, drawing from two decades of Blizzard lore.
It’s a recipe the company’s legions of loyal fans will likely gobble up if history is any indication.
Blizzard’s first free title, the collectible card game “Hearthstone,” is played by more than 25 million people and is estimated to bring in about $40 million per quarter as users pour in real money to purchase special card sets and accessories to boost performance.
And those figures will likely get a boost in the coming months with the PC game recently launched for Android smartphones and Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
Bits & Pieces
Costa Mesa-based TTM Technologies Inc. has closed its $927 million buy of Viasystems Group Inc. in St. Louis, creating a giant in the printed circuit board industry that will rival the world’s largest player in the field, Tokyo-based Nippon Mektron Ltd. TTM now has annual revenue of about $2.5 billion, some 30,000 employees, and 28 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and China. … Aliso Viejo-based Telogis Inc. was named the Best Commercial Telematics Service Provider this month at the annual Telematics Update Automotive conference and exposition in Novi, Mich.
