European Wireless Industry News

Mobile advertising: Europe remains behind the curve

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:28:35 -0500

The past 18 months have been tough for the advertising industry as the major brands implemented savage cost cuts to preserve their financial status. This retrenchment has seen severe curtailments in TV, radio and print advertising in Western Europe, and has driven mobile-based ad campaigns off the agenda.

Despite the lack of mobile advertising budgets--although there are rumours that funds are beginning to trickle through again, the industry within Europe seems unable to move forward. The ad agencies still complain that the major brands have only shifted from knowing nothing about mobile advertising, to knowing very little--and perhaps caring less.

Operators, meanwhile, maintain they can provide sophisticated data breakdowns of their subscriber bases, but remain extremely hesitant about providing access to advertisers which could see their subscribers bombarded with unwanted promotional material.

The discussion could be complicated further with the likelihood of legislation being imposed on the number of unsolicited messages sent to mobile customers limited to a small few each month.

While there have been some successful mobile advertising campaigns in Europe--with BMW's text alert to their customer base on extreme driving conditions being frequently quoted, there is a growing admission among software developers that the mobile advertising business environment in Europe is stagnant.

However, these firms are increasingly looking towards Asia/Pacific as a region where brands and mobile operators seem keen to exploit the advertising potential. ‘Europe is lacking the will and initiative to make mobile advertising work', is a common complaint, while Asia/Pac, the Middle East and South Africa are noted for their ambitions to experiment.

Perhaps the issue revolves around advertising infrastructure.

Within Europe there are highly developed routes for brands to communicate their messages to potential customers using TV, radio or print mediums. Those involved are skilled at understanding the strengths, weaknesses and complexities of these long-established advertising channels, with mobile presently remaining outside of any strategic thinking.

Where this level of ‘sophistication' is absent, then newer and more ubiquitous channels, such as mobile, have a far greater opportunity to flourish. So, we could see Europe being educated by developing markets into how mobile advertising can be made acceptable and relevant to the mobile subscriber--a situation that is already underway with mobile banking.-Paul

Telenor picks Huawei for 4G upgrade, rejects Ericsson and NSN

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:27:33 -0500

In a move that will be closely watched across Europe, Norway's Telenor has given its incumbent infrastructure providers, Ericsson and NSN, a bloody nose by selecting Huawei to construct its 4G network.

The deal, valued at around €170 million over the next six years, is the largest LTE in Europe to date and calls for Telenor's existing Ericsson and NSN network equipment to be merged into the new infrastructure provided by Huawei. The contract will see the delivery of equipment across technology generations and frequency bands, as well as base stations for 2G, 3G/UMTS and 4G/LTE. The change of providers will also entail digitisation, with the entire wireless network and core network being migrated to an IP-based platform supplied by Starent Networks, which was acquired by Cisco Systems last month in a US$2.9 billion deal.

Commenting on the contract award, Ragnar Kaarhus, head of Telenor Norway, said that it would involve the biggest upgrade of the mobile network in Norway that has ever been carried out. He attributed the choice of Huawei to "a combination of technical quality, reliability ... and commercial terms"--which some might speculate as Huawei pricing the offer to win.

Market analysts said that the three per cent fall in Ericsson's share price last week was in part attributable to the contract loss, although the significance was more symbolic than material for the Swedish company.

For more on this story:
Financial Times and Telegeography

LTE 'One Voice' initiative gains wide support

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:25:27 -0500

A powerful grouping of major operators and equipment vendors have put their combined weight behind an initiative to agree a common method for handling voice and SMS traffic over LTE. Labelled One Voice, the group is looking to promote its preferred specifications for providing interoperable voice over LTE with the intention of convincing the GSMA and 3GPP to formally recommend its adoption.

Notably absent from the One Voice group - which includes AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Alca-Lu, Ericsson, NSN, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, is T-Mobile. The operator has been a firm advocate for VoLGA (Voice over LTE via Generic Access) which was proposing an interim LTE voice concept that tunnelled circuit-switched voice traffic through the packet-based LTE network.

However, while VoLGA supporters still maintain that the concept will fulfil a useful role, the weight behind the One Voice initiative seems set to dictate the future direction to ensure voice over LTE interworking and roaming using 3GPP specifications for IMS. The specification includes E-UTRAN, evolved packet core, user equipment and IMS core features that the group considers essential to interoperable IMS voice.

However, One Voice assumes that operators and vendors have taken it as read that moving to LTE and SAE in the RAN and core network will also mean moving to IMS in the control plane. According to Sandro Tavares, converged core marketing manager at NSN, operators could migrate by using a method such as NSN's Fast Track, which introduces IMS functionality to non-IMS elements. Tavares said that Fast Track was completely compliant with the One Voice profile, while operators who wish to use LTE purely as a data network could still use CS Fallback to handle voice and SMS traffic to LTE devices.

For more on this story:
Mobile Europe

T-Mobile and Orange agree JV terms, huge costs savings promised

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:23:42 -0500

Two months after entering exclusive negotiations, terms have been agreed to between Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom over the merging of their mobile operations in the UK. The companies said that the 50:50 joint-venture should produce savings in excess of €4 billion, generate revenues of €9.4 billion and EBITDA of €2.1 billion.

However, these costs savings are seemingly based on some far-reaching assumptions. The merger statement claimed that the Opex savings of €490 million per year from 2014 onwards were dependent on up to €880 million in integration costs over the period from 2010 to 2014, which relate mainly to the decommissioning of mobile sites, the rationalisation of the network of retail stores and the streamlining of operations.

The JV anticipates large scale Capex saving over the first five years due to the integration and unification of the networks and from jointly expanding 3G coverage. The potential for Capex savings, net of integration Capex, is estimated by the JV at €680 million on a cumulative basis over 2010-2014, prior to stabilising at approximately €110million a year from 2015 onwards.

The leadership of the new company, which will have over 28 million customers, has been fudged by having Tom Alexander, currently CEO of Orange UK, as CEO and Richard Moat, currently CEO of T-Mobile UK, as COO. The two brands will continue to operate separately for 18 months after which branding alternatives for the JV will be developed.

For more on this story:
Cellular News and Mobile News

Ericsson enters app store debate; calls for 'horizontal' platform

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:21:39 -0500

Having announced an app store framework this summer, Ericsson has now got itself further involved by calling for the cellular industry to build its own ‘horizontal' mobile app stores that span operating systems (OS) and devices.

While recognising that Google's increasingly successful Android OS was a leap forward, Ericsson senior VP, Jan Uddenfeldt, has urged operators to move beyond Android's handset-spanning app marketplace. "[Android] is a step in the right direction, but we think that we have to go even further to get applications across different devices," he said.

"We think it's very important when it comes to the app store, operators need to launch their own - and this is happening all over the world. We need to scale it beyond vertical stores...If the operators are involved, we can really scale it."

Ericsson said its app store framework, which it claims is already in use with unnamed operators, can be customised to suit numerous devices and OSs, and is also available as a hosted service.

For more on this story:
The Register

Nokia continues to lead smartphone market; outpacing rivals

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:19:15 -0500

Much has been made of the rocketing growth of Apple, RIM and HTC in the smartphone market, while Nokia has been lambasted for failing to recognise the trend and has missed out on this fast growing handset segment.

However, IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker continues to position Nokia as the overall leader in converged or smartphone shipments with the popular flagship device, the N97, driving its market share to 37.9 per cent in Q3/09, compared to 37.1 per cent a year ago.

RIM has overtaken Apple to gain 2^nd place, albeit that its shipment volumes were largely North American-based. However, the company also posted significant improvement internationally, with some regions recording triple digit growth year over year.

Apple recorded its highest volume yet in a single quarter, driven by the near worldwide availability of the iPhone 3G S which triggered another round of annual replacements for Apple loyalists. However, while the iPhone has struggled within emerging markets, its arrival at China Unicom this year could foreshadow greater shipment volumes (although early reports would seem to indicate otherwise).

HTC retained 4^th position, excluding phones sold under another company's brand, and remains the largest provider of Windows Mobile-powered devices. Samsung returned to the top five vendors during Q3/09, although volumes were flat from a year ago. The company saw marked improvement in Asia/Pacific, Latin America and EMEA, and has been a big supporter of Windows Mobile.

For more on this story:
Evertiq

Ericsson's services strategy

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:17:18 -0500

Throughout 2009 Ovum has commented on the growing importance of network services and managed network services in the telecoms vertical. Ericsson Global Services is the market leader and currently sees over 30 per cent of its 2008 group revenues generated by professional services and network rollout services. At a recent service briefing, Ericsson's Business Unit Global Services clarified its ambitions and showcased its most comprehensive managed services contract to date.

Ericsson's Business Unit Global Services, known as BUGS internally, is at the sharp end of Ericsson's future business aspirations. The company claims to manage networks supporting a total of 350 million subscribers, and it is aiming to increase that to 1 billion. It currently has 300 managed services contracts covering field maintenance, operations (up to the BSS stack), operational readiness and shared solutions (hosted and managed backhaul). The most comprehensive contract is with MBNL in the UK. Article

NSN staggers into 'last chance saloon'

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:31:26 -0500

The drastic surgery about to take place across the Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) business empire is being judged by industry observers as too little, too late. By only cutting around 10 per cent of its 64,000 workforce, the company is gambling that the infrastructure market will experience an upturn over the next 18 months enabling NSN to return to profitability, albeit small scale, sometime in 2011.

The cuts are the latest blow for the joint venture, which started operations in April 2007 by unveiling a €2 billion cost-saving programme including the loss of some 9,000 jobs. This time NSN has said that the cost saving could be around €500 million, or more, by substantially lowering procurement costs and reducing headcount.

However, according to CCS Insight analyst Paolo Pescatore, the recent consolidation among operators and moves towards network-sharing agreements will place greater pressure on equipment manufacturers, such as NSN, to secure new business. "'We are bound to see further casualties in the network infrastructure space as operators rethink their business models and reconsider additional network investments," he said.

NSN has also announced plans to reduce from five to three the number of business units, and looks to establish more partnerships and acquisitions to boost growth. The software developer Bridgewater Systems is being rumoured as a potential target.

Copying Ericsson's spotlight on services, NSN's new CEO, Rajeev Suri, said the revamp was designed to focus mostly on providing more services to operators in emerging markets who were increasingly looking at outsourcing. "I think Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe play an important role in managed services," Suri said. "So far only a few operators in these regions have started to outsource operations."

But the idea of workforce reductions has, predictably, triggered an angry response from unions in Finland and Germany, claiming that this drastic restructuring would not stimulate orders and would reduce the overall power of the company. Nokia fought protracted battles with unions over the closure last year of a handset manufacturing plant in Bochum, Germany.

For more on this story:
Forbes

Alca-Lu calls time on Austrian WiMAX operator

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:29:34 -0500

Failure to reach agreement over unpaid bills has seen the Austrian-based WiMAX Telecom file for bankruptcy after Alcatel-Lucent demanded payment the wireless operator could not come up with.

WiMAX Telecom, which started to deploy its network in 2005 using equipment supplied by Alca-Lu, has been struggling to find new investors having only attracted 2,600 subscribers. The company initially offered WiMAX coverage in Burgenland and Steiermark, but more recently expanded this by regional deployments in Lower Austria, Higher Austria and Vorarlberg. The company claims it has sufficient funds to continue operating for between three and four months, during which time it will continue to search for new investors.

Meanwhile, WiMAX's biggest supporter, Intel, has indicated an interest in participating in the auction for India's broadband wireless spectrum. However, it has denied any intention of becoming a WiMAX service provider, but could partner with other companies for a spectrum partnership. Google has also registered an interest in bidding for spectrum.

For more on this story:
Telegeography

3 slashes MiFi costs, as vendor warns of poor sales volumes

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:26:39 -0500

Hailed for its innovation at launch, the UK operator 3 has now announced big price cuts to its MiFi (mobile Wi-Fi) offering. The MiFi package, which enables users to share their mobile broadband between multiple devices by creating a personal Wi-Fi network, has been reduced in price by around 33 per cent for one month contracts as well as pay as you go.

This move comes as Novatel, one of the pioneers of MiFi devices, saw its share price crash by nearly 30 per cent when it warned that MiFi sales were likely to be flat or slightly down in Q4, compared to Q3.

Some industry analysts have previously warned that the MiFi device was too expensive and was vulnerable to threats from manufacturing giants such as Huawei. Also, Marvell, which makes the MiFi chipset, has already shown it integrated into a handset, suggesting that the market for dedicated personal WLAN products could be a short lived one, before the capability is incorporated into other units.

Regardless of the likelihood of Chinese vendors entering the market, Novatel's old rival Sierra Wireless recently announced plans to expand into the personal Wi-Fi sector. This promoted Nick Agostino of Research Capital, to comment: "With slower uptake and increasing competition in this category from Huawei and soon Sierra, our concerns for the longevity of the category are raised, as well as near term implications for Novatel."

For more on this story:
Rethink Wireless

Cheap touchscreen phones drive down ARPUs, claims report

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:24:04 -0500

While much is said about high-end smartphones boosting ARPUs, a new study claims that the emergence of cheaper touchscreen handsets is doing the opposite, driving down ARPUs by 23 per cent.

According to TNS Comtech, which carried out a consumer survey of 240,000 interviews over the course of one year, consumer misunderstanding is to blame. The study claims that consumers are not aware of the difference between a phone with an advanced OS and a touchscreen phone with a basic OS. While this may mean operators are able to grow their customer base, by offering cheap touchscreen handsets, they will be doing so at the expense of their margins.

Paul Moore, director at TNS ComTech, said that, although it was all too easy to attract value driven customers with non-smart touchscreen phones, "operators and manufacturers alike need to think long and hard about their handset portfolio and the effect that handset types are having on customer value. They should take care to educate consumers about the differences between operating systems and not simply push phones that drive volume sales but contribute negatively to value."

To worry operators further, the growth in the global smartphone market slowed to four per cent in the July-to-September quarter as sales of more advanced handsets fell in Europe and Latin America, said the research firm Canalys this week. The firm said much of the recent growth in the smartphone market has come from the most expensive models--iPhone, Nokia's N97 and the BlackBerry Bold--but vendors are increasingly focusing on offering cheaper models.

For more on this story:
Telecoms.com and Reuters

Orange causes confusion with iPhone data download limit

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:21:52 -0500

Even though Orange has not yet launched the iPhone in the UK, it has hit trouble by offering an ‘unlimited' data service with a 750Mb per month limit, and implied that subscribers will not be able to use mobile internet applications like Spotify, AudioBoo, Ustream, Facebook and YouTube.

The company has attempted to quell the rising level of concern by claiming its T&Cs state that the handset is "not to be used for other activities (eg using your handset as a modem, non-Orange internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging, peer to peer file sharing", a spokesman has stated that "popular streaming services will not be banned for iPhone users."

"As a result," said the Orange exec, "we do not intend to apply network protection controls to anyone, as long as they are within their usage allowance. The T&Cs are in place to reserve the right to restrict access should they continue to exceed our Fair Usage policy."

Orange said that its research in other European countries found that the average user downloaded less than 200Mb per month. Defending the 750Mb limit, the company maintained this would provide a user with either five hours of video downloaded from YouTube, 75,000 mobile web pages, 30,000 normal web pages, around 250 full music tracks or 1,500 mobile games.

Interestingly, the present sole UK distributor of iPhones in the UK, O2, has kept its download offers far more vague without putting a figure on the data limit. There has been evidence of some people receiving a text warning them of their usage and 'suggesting' better plans.

For more on this story:
MacWorld and Network World

Mobile broadband to overtake fixed-line internet connections in the UK in 2011

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:17:28 -0500

Mobile broadband connections will exceed fixed-line broadband connections in 2011, according to a report to be released by mobileSquared. By 2011 the number of active 3G devices in the UK will be 36.3 million, as well as 6.4 million dongles/embedded devices, taking the total number of mobile broadband connections to 42.7 million versus expected broadband internet users of 42.5 million.

While the analyst house predicts internet usage over the mobile phone will remain below traditional fixed-line usage during the forecast period of 2009-2014, the company's research has revealed that between one per cent and 10 per cent of a company's internet traffic is already being generated from a mobile device.

"Mobile will become the primary access point for brands and businesses communicating with its consumers within two years," said Nick Lane, chief analyst at mobileSquared, and author of the report. "Mobile is always on, and the average user carries their device for an average of 16 hours a day. So if a company or brand is not already considering how to use mobile, then they need to because their customers are." Article

One bid doesn't make an auction - the fourth French 3G licence

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:35:25 -0400

You have to go back almost 10 years to when the French government said it intended to issue four 3G wireless licences, setting the price at €4.95 billion--a mind-boggling number by any comparison. Perhaps understandably, only France Telecom (FT) and SFR applied, and were awarded their licences in late 2001.

The government then set May 2002 as a fresh deadline for the two remaining 3G licences, with the only applicant being Bouygues Telecom. This licence was issued in December 2002 for €619 million, with FT and SFR also being given this discounted price.

We now wait until 2006 when the French telecom regulator, ARCEP, said it would move ahead with auctioning the fourth licence after multiple parties had expressed an interest. The sole bidder by the deadline of July 2007 was Iliad--the bid was rejected because the company proposed paying the €619 million licence fee in instalments over several years instead of up front.

For the next couple of years FT, SFR and Bouygues Telecom protested to anyone that would listen about the tough market conditions and what damage a fourth operator would do, etc. They also lobbied the French President and filed a complaint with the EU to contest the lower price ARCEP was now offering as the opening bid.

Having set a deadline of last Thursday (29^th October), ARCEP had, despite much delicate footwork from potential bidders, received only one bid--again from Iliad for the set price of €240 million. This time the bid was accepted.

Having clearly established that ARCEP should not consider making a career move into become an auctioneer, the determination of Iliad to enter the French mobile market does make for examination.

Firstly, Xavier Neils--the owner of Iliad--is a self-made entrepreneur and one of the country's richest men making his name offering adult entertainment services on France's forerunner of the internet, Minitel.

Neils then disrupted the fixed internet market by offering bundles of high speed internet, fixed-line phone and TV services for less than €30 a month--a move that has seen France become one of the lowest priced European countries for broadband services.

What observers believe Neils will now attempt is to do the same to the over-priced French mobile market--which possibly explains the loud protests from the existing providers. The 3G licence will enable Iliad to become a quadruple play operator offering low-cost packages combining high-speed internet, fixed phone, TV services and mobile phones as well.

However, Neils will need to offer something special given that Bouygues Telecom has recently launched such a package, and FT and SFR are unlikely to be far behind--and have the financial muscle to fight a war of attrition.

Regardless of how the fourth licence auction was managed, the French mobile market will undergo change--and it'll be consumers that benefit. So perhaps, more by chance, ARCEP did achieve its objective of providing a more competitive mobile marketplace.-Paul

Vodafone 360 goes live, with focus on social networking

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:34:25 -0400

Vodafone will either be widely praised or ridiculed depending on the success of the gamble it is taking with the launch of its new 360 service. The company, which switched on the service last Friday, said that two Samsung handsets - the H1 and M1, have been tailored to support 360 with access to an app store containing around 1000 products.

However, Vodafone is betting on the new 360 service attracting enough people that want to join its community - which will require an easily understood marketing message from the company.

The main element of the new service is called Vodafone People, a connected address book. The service is automatically backed up and synchronised, regularly and wirelessly, between the mobile and PC or Mac. All contact updates, e-mails, photos and conversation history or settings changes made either at home or when on the move are saved.

However, Facebook and Google Talk will be integrated before Twitter - driven by the sheer number of users that the leading social networking website has, although users will be able share things like photos, music and their location with others that have signed up to 360.

Vodafone has also confirmed that 360 will be downloadable before the end of 2009 as client for Symbian handsets, which could mean that over 100 phones form Nokia and Sony Ericsson should be compatible with the Vodafone 360 service.

Interestingly, to help grow its apps base, Vodafone has said that it will make its APIs freely available, including those which cover its LBS and billing apps. The company is also promising SDKs to become available in the near term.

While Vodafone has spent almost two years developing its 360 service in-house, it is likely to take much less time for others to catch up, using external service providers. Platforms, such as Android, are seen as being much better placed to innovate and deploy new services, and, unless managed in the right way, Vodafone might struggle to cope with this pace of innovation.

For more on this story:
ITPro and Tech Radar

NSN tests LTE interop with device vendors

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:32:03 -0400

As an indication that LTE is moving towards commercialisation, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has confirmed it is conducting end-to-end interoperability testing with four LTE device manufacturers.

The company said that the tests covered a number of steps in end-to-end network configuration based on commercial LTE hardware, including the Flexi Multiradio base station, the Evolved Packet Core and standard compliant software in the AWS, 700MHz and 2100MHz frequency bands.

"NSN is playing an important role in the LTE ecosystem by enabling leading device vendors to conduct early LTE interoperability testing," said Marc Rouanne, head of radio access for NSN. "Our focus is on commercial LTE hardware and software to support early commercial LTE deployments worldwide."

The company said the tests were taking place at its LTE competency centre in Dallas, US, in close cooperation with research and development sites in Ulm, Germany, and Oulu, Finland.

Separately, the newly appointed head of its US division, Sue Spradley, said that its Dallas site was being used to trial LTE for a large customer, speculated to be T-Mobile US. Despite not having gained a role in the high-profile Verizon Wireless LTE contract, Spradley claimed it was "not the end of the world", and that NSN would "be a leader in LTE in this [US] market."

For more on this story:
Cellular Wireless and Light Reading

3UK says data exceeds 90% of network traffic

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:29:58 -0400

Having been forced to adopt an innovative approach to the mobile market by its lack of size, the CEO of 3UK, Kevin Russell, claims that data now accounted for 94 per cent of all traffic across its network, compared with three or four years ago when it was around 15-20 per cent.

Being the No. 5 operator in the UK, 3 has taken a radically different route to gaining subscribers by actively promoting data services, such as mobile VoIP, that have been shunned or blocked by the other much larger incumbents. According to Russell, the rapid increase in data traffic has been due to the growth in internet services such as Skype and MSN. "For example, the number of Skype minutes being used has increased by 6,600 per cent since 2006, from 90,000 to 600 million minutes."

Despite the upheavals that have already occurred within the industry, Russell believes that there will be ‘more changes in the next five years than we have seen in the previous 15'. "There will be a tsunami like wave of change coming, which the whole industry will have to adapt to."

For more on this story:
Mobile Today

Orange UK revenues down 15% despite booming mobile broadband sales

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:26:54 -0400

The Orange PR machine has been in overdrive with the agreement the company has made to become the first operator to offer Google Mobile App across Europe. However, this interesting alliance was not adequate to disguise the fact that its UK Q3 revenues were down 15 per cent at £1.14 billion, while revenues for the first nine months of 2009 are also down around 15 per cent to £3.41 billion.

On a brighter note, Orange revealed that it recorded a 64 per cent rise in mobile internet subscriptions during the third quarter of 2009, reaching a total of around 4.7 million customers. The company was recently rated as the UK's No. 1 mobile broadband provider for getting connected and staying connected in a YouGov survey. Subscribers have benefited from cheaper mobile broadband plans with prices starting at £4.89 a month for speeds up to 3.6Mbps.

The picture is not much different for the parent company of Orange UK, France Telecom (FT), which has reported Q3 profits down by just over eight per cent. The company partly blamed this poor performance on regulatory measures but also the impact of the strong euro versus the Polish zloty and the British pound. Poland generates 10 per cent of FT's total revenue, while UK operations account for about 11 per cent. Domestic revenue accounts for almost half of overall FT group sales.

For more on this story:
Cable and Telegeography

Interference from LTE could harm EU 'wireless broadband for all' initiative

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:25:10 -0400

With European countries slowly shutting down their analogue TV services, the EC has called for the frequency bands freed up by this move to be used to offer wireless broadband to all European citizens.

However, laboratory tests carried out on behalf of trade body Cable Europe suggested the potential for interference from LTE transmissions when used near a set-top box or cable modem. The interference is said to be sufficient to knock out TV signals, though Cable Europe believed the problem to be avoidable.

The spectrum band in question--the 790MHz to 862MHz sub-band providing good coverage and strong in-building penetration--has been labelled by the EC for use by "innovative providers of technology services," which it hopes will help the EU meet its target of offering broadband coverage to all citizens by 2013.

As such, the EU commissioner for information and media, Viviane Reding, is encouraging all EU member nations to ramp up the pace with the digital TV roll-out and complete the transition to digital TV by the start of 2012.

Reding added that Europe could only make the most of the digital dividend if there was co-operation between the European Parliament and EU countries. "I urge national authorities to use the digital dividend in a pro-competitive way to open up the market for new operators and new services, maximising the impact on the economy. Only this will ensure the digital dividend is used to bring wireless broadband to parts of the EU where high-speed internet cannot be provided efficiently by other technologies."

Meanwhile, the EC has opened an infringement procedure against Germany for failing to allocate the 2500MHz-2690MHz radio frequency band, suitable for the provision of fixed-wireless services. At present, Germany only allocates this frequency band to mobile services, which Reding states is an obstacle to the deployment of wireless broadband services in Germany and Europe, and is a violation of EU law. With the allocation of this frequency band restricted to mobile services, the EC believes that fixed-wireless operators lack the legal certainty they need to provide telecoms services in the 2.6GHz spectrum band.

For more on this story:
Broadband TV News and Telegeography

Top 25 Most Powerful People in U.S. Wireless 2009

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:22:58 -0400

What makes a person powerful? That's a tricky question and one that the Fierce editorial team has been carefully contemplating over the past few months as we pulled together our second annual 25 Most Powerful People in U.S. Wireless list.

We think a person's "power" quotient is the right mix of influence, business savvy, leadership and technical innovation. But many of our selections this year have that something extra--a charismatic personality, a brilliant mind or a down-to-earth approachability that makes you want to work with them, for them, or just follow them in the news.

Interestingly, when we compared our 2008 Most Powerful People in Wireless list to this year's list, more than half of the 2008 candidates didn't make this year's cut. The reasons are numerous--some left their jobs, some retired, and some are just no longer powerful (in our opinion) because of their failure (or their company's failure) to make a mark in wireless this year. Article

Voice-over-LTE could cause industry fragmentation, claims study

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:17:11 -0400

While the role of LTE in providing super-fast mobile data services has received widespread operator commitment, disagreements over how voice services will be carried over LTE infrastructure are in danger of causing the kind of technology fragmentation that occurred in 3G networks.

This issue, claims John Blau, research analyst with Unstrung Insider and author of the study, has been caused by the lack of progress in developing voice-over-LTE applications within IMS. "Over the coming months, operators, vendors and the 3GPP standards body will face some tough decisions. For those operators that believe voice is absolutely essential to have in their LTE service portfolio from the start, interim solutions will be necessary to fill the gap created by the slow progress of IMS. These interim solutions could trigger the technology disruption we saw in 3G networks."

According to Blau's study, the key findings are:

The VoLGA Forum, which proposes an interim packetised approach to carrying voice traffic over LTE, has completed the third and final phase of its specification process and will pursue standardisation during 2010.
One major OEM in the VoLGA Forum has no plans to develop, manufacture and market the interim voice-over-LTE solution.
Most equipment vendors shy away from providing exact information about their planned LTE voice products and their availability.
Over-the-top VoIP players may pose a greater threat to network-based mobile service players than many of them are willing to believe.
The IMS platform has been slow in coming to the mobile world, and many now fear it has become too complex.

"Nearly everyone in the mobile phone industry agrees that LTE is the way forward for data, but that consensus does not extend to voice over LTE as yet," states Blau. "Some mobile operators view LTE initially as a data-only play and do not see a powerful case for rushing into voice, while other operators are worried that LTE without voice could be off to a difficult start."

For more on this story:
Cellular News

Vodafone/O2 network sharing goes live

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:14:51 -0400

Having only signed the agreement in March 2009, Vodafone and O2 UK have announced that network sharing is now fully operational with over 100 sites live or under construction. The two operators expect the sharing agreement to save them ‘hundreds of millions of pounds' over the next 10 years, and to greatly assist with the rollout of future networks.

According to an internal review, O2's CTO, Derek McManus, has described the network sharing deal as part of plans to make the operator 50 per cent more efficient, with a 50 per cent reduction in costs and a 50 per cent reduction in the time it would take to roll out the network. A set of targets that some might view as exceptionally challenging.

As part of this efficiency drive, Cornerstone, the company jointly formed by the two operators to undertake the management of the networking sharing deal, is now said to be preparing a tender to be issued early next year for the maintenance of the network sites. Vodafone's sites are currently managed by Mono and Tyco, while O2's are managed by Clark Telecom and Cellular Systems Limited.

However, an O2 spokeswoman down-played the idea, claiming that it was far too early to speculate on a new tender at this stage. "Now that the Cornerstone team is in place, we are working to review our processes and procedures to ensure we are operating efficiently; and we are continually evaluating our suppliers."

Analysts expect the agreement struck between Vodafone and O2 UK could see several thousand base station sites closed down in the UK over the coming years.

For more on this story:
Mobile Today

'Superfemto' chip aims at 2km range

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:12:55 -0400

Stepping outside of the volume femtocell chipset market, the silicon developer, picoChip, has unveiled a new design that it claims will provide HSPA cellular coverage over a 2km area.

The company maintains that its Class 3 PC8219E chip is the first to enable low-cost, wide-area open access femtocell deployments in areas where operators need to improve coverage and capacity. picoChip said the design included a network-monitoring function that would allow a ‘Superfemtocell' to reconfigure itself to behave like a handset receive chain, synchronising with a macro-base station nearby, and provide the basis for Self-Organising Network functions.

Nigel Toon, president and CEO of picoChip, said, "We are already shipping in volume for residential applications, but this announcement demonstrates how femtocell technology is more broadly applicable. Given the prevalence of mobile devices there is huge potential to address the widespread problems of in-building coverage, to fix coverage black spots or add capacity where it is needed."

The new chip, according to picoChip, builds on the existing PC8208 and 8209 PHYs technology to provide a product that would be classified as similar to the 3GPP 'Local Area Basestation' or traditional picocells. However, the PC8219E design is said to add the femtocell's capabilities to use standard backhaul and to self-configure for interference management.

The Femto Forum has recently standardised femtocells into class one--typically residential, class two--primarily indoor for enterprise, and class three--for rural, metro and wider area deployment.

For more on this story:
EE Times

Nokia readies new low-cost 3G Booklet

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:10:45 -0400

With its Booklet 3G netbook only just becoming available, Nokia is close to finalising the details for the next version that will likely ship during the second half of 2010. Having only announced its first 3G Booklet netbook three months ago, the suggestion of a follow-on product would seem to reinforce the comments recently made by Nokia execs that the company is keen to become a significant player in the 3G netbook market.

While the first 3G Booklet has been praised by the technical press for its high specifications, its €600 price has attracted understandable criticism. However, the new version is rumoured to be aiming at a lower price point and could include Intel's next generation Atom chip--codenamed Pine Trai-- that will feature an integrated memory controller and graphics processor on one chip, reducing the number of chips needed, which should also help boost battery life.

Reports from the electronics manufacturing community in Asia would indicate that the ODM partner for Nokia's Booklet 3G, hardware specialist Compal Electronics, is working hard to satisfy initial demand. This might see Nokia contract with a second ODM for the new low-cost version, providing it with additional capacity and sourcing options as it ramps up its netbook product portfolio.

For more on this story:
IT Pro

Symbian apps developers question future of OS

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:08:20 -0400

Despite the exec director of Symbian, Lee Williams, placing great emphasis on the exciting enhancements planned for the mobile operating system (OS) at this week's Symbian Exchange and Exposition tradeshow, its applications developer community seemed to think otherwise.

Not helped by a total lack of up-beat announcements from the handset vendors offering Symbian-based handsets, the consensus from apps developers exhibiting at the event was that the OS was stagnating.

Visions Objects, which makes across-platforms handwriting apps, believed that Symbian had done little to keep up since the advent of Android. "I think that the approach of the operating system on mobile phones has changed in the last 12 months," said Denis Escleine, its business development manager. "It's now driven by the iPhone and accelerated by Android. I think Symbian is far behind... If there is no change in user friendliness, and opening of the environment, I think it will die--they have to react."

Other developers commented that the Symbian OS was becoming less popular with an increasing number of companies asking for apps to be built for them based on the iPhone or Android platforms.

Williams has attempted to combat these negative viewpoints, stating that handsets with the first fully open-source Symbian implementation would become available in the first half of 2010, with further versions scheduled to appear in handsets for the second half of 2010 and early 2011.

However, while this OS development roadmap might look sluggish in comparison to the competition, Williams claimed that over 450 new OS features were being planned for the next 12 to 18 months with a focus on NFC, a social web API and a new UI framework.

This update from Williams might be overshadowed by the rumour that Sony Ericsson--a long-term Symbian supporter--will launch it first Android-based handset next week, including a new UI similar to HTC's Sense UI.

For more on this story:
The Mirror

Smartphone market driven by OS wars and feature migration

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:06:20 -0400

While iPhone shipments are growing quickly, smartphones based on the Symbian operating system (OS) remain dominant and will continue to grow over the next several years, reports In-Stat. However, Symbian will wane, resulting in a drop in net Symbian-based smartphone shipments in 2014.

Meanwhile, the basis of competition will change from the OS to the functionality and "user experiences" that the phone can provide. The advanced feature sets of smartphones continue to evolve as users demand capabilities such as touch screens, increased camera resolution and Wi-Fi connectivity options. "In-Stat believes new OSs such as Android and Maemo will cut away at Symbian market share," says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. "Although there are relatively few open source OS-based smartphones in the market today, the open source OS momentum is difficult to ignore. After years of hype, it is easy to see that 2010 will be the year of Android." Article

Smartphone revolution tests established players – page 2

Keith Mallinson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:15:32 -0400

Major operators such as Vodafone are no less challenged by the rise of Apple and others. Vodafone's moves--I'm loathe to describe most of these as strategic--aim to hedge its position against competition for customer control and margin right across the value chain. Whereas the old enterprise-focused BlackBerry provided significant added-value for operators and did not pose a competitive challenge, in its expanded guise to consumers the BlackBerry ecosystem competes for the customer relationship and bottom line profits. Vodafone and Orange picking up iPhone distribution in the UK counters O2 on expiration of its iPhone exclusivity. Whereas this eliminates a competitive advantage for O2, it also puts Apple in an even stronger competitive position versus the operator market. Apple anticipates a fall in street prices with carrier competition in iPhones, but it does not expect its wholesale prices to fall. So far, Google's Android is predominantly with the T-Mobile with the HTC G1, but this OS is also set to diversify. For example, Vodafone's Verizon Wireless joint venture with Verizon is imminently expected to announce a Motorola "Droid" phone.

Vodafone and other carriers have numerous possibilities in smartphones. Focus is required. Vodafone has had a mixed relationship with Nokia for a decade or more. Club Nokia's mobile portal threatened to circumvent Vodafone and was crushed in order to preserve the regular handset trade. Club Nokia's reincarnation with Ovi was backed by Vodafone since 2007.

Vodafone's 360 initiative is an attempt to get back into the driving seat where its Live! portal has failed. It is promising sophisticated personal contacts management, social networking and an applications store. Its payment mechanism enables content and applications charges to appear on the phone bill. Vodafone plans to rollout 360 to Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain by yearend and into a further nine nations during 2010.

Vodafone has signed-up phone suppliers Samsung and Nokia with LiMo and Symbian OS respectively for 360. The attraction of LiMo's Linux is the pledge that this will never be used to circumvent the mobile operator with the independent service portals and applications stores that are strategically being pursued by Apple, RIM, Google and Nokia with Ovi.

A key potential competitive strength for 360 versus Apple, BlackBerry and Google is that Vodafone can allow developers deeper access into network capabilities with applications running on a variety of OSs. Similarly, Orange has opened up applications programming interfaces under its Orange partner Program.

Easier said than done. Most carriers groups are loosely structured federations: ownership and control is not absolute. It is difficult for Vodafone's corporate centre to impose a one-size-fits-all approach across many operating companies because local history and conditions differ significantly from nation to nation.

Carriers are disadvantaged by their limited scale. Even though Vodafone is a large group with 315 million proportionate subscribers worldwide, this is still less than a tenth the worldwide market of 4 billion subscribers addressed by Nokia and increasingly other smartphone and OS vendors. Scale attracts developers, helps amortize development and operational costs and build cool brands.

The Joint Innovation Lab initiative promotes creation of mobile applications and services with a global platform for developers. Widget compliant handsets from supporters LG, RIM, Samsung and Sharp will enable developers to create applications that can be rolled out to customers across JIL member companies China Mobile, Softbank, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone with a combined user base of more than 1 billion worldwide.

Many such alliances in IT and telecoms have failed over the years in their attempts to drive cohesion and scale. Alternatively, Ericsson is helping carriers by offering mobile internet, applications and messaging services including hosting to all comers on a white label basis. Carriers worldwide brand these as their own.

Vodafone's old anxieties about Nokia should be the least of its worries with so many new strategic challenges.

Keith Mallinson is a leading industry expert, analyst and consultant. Solving business problems in wireless and mobile communications, he founded consulting firm WiseHarbor in 2007.

Smartphone revolution tests established players

Keith Mallinson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:13:43 -0400

With smartphones set to account for most handset sales by 2013--in terms of value if not also in terms of volumes worldwide--these devices, their operating systems and mobile Internet service delivery environments are crucial competitive elements for manufacturers and mobile operators alike. Several new entrants, rapid market growth and the precipitous share decline for leader Nokia underline that this is still an emerging marketplace. The pecking order is being reestablished with major upsets for various leading names.

Nothing could be more disruptive than Apple's iPhone and its App Store offering 85,000 applications and 2 billion downloads to date. This is an enormous success for Apple, a mixed blessing for its mobile operator partners with the business model Apple imposes and it is a major threat for many others. As Apple takes the lion's share of ecosystem value and dis-intermediates operators from applications sales with its own user experience and billing platform, partner and competing operators alike are looking for alternatives.

And Apple is just getting into its stride. It has plenty of scope to expand distribution with competing operators when exclusive deals expire. It supplies to just 80 nations so far. Corporate purchasing is only beginning to introduce iPhone, as is higher education. Apple claims more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies are evaluating iPhone for widespread deployment.

The smartphone market segment has been splintered. Nokia smartphones and its Symbian operating system have taken double digit market share losses over the last year or two, albeit with significant market growth. Once ruling supreme with shares of 50 percent in smartphones and 60 percent in smartphone OS, market entry of iPhone and Google's Android, together with stellar growth for BlackBerry and modest progress for Microsoft have harmed Nokia irrevocably. Further declines are inevitable as emerging competitors strengthen.

What's particularly scary for Nokia is that Apple's relatively small iPhone volumes are generating sales in the third quarter of 2009 of $4.5 billion compared to Euro 6.9 billion ($9.7 billion) for all Nokia's handset sales. Gross profits for iPhone are getting close to Nokia's Euro 2.1 billion ($3 billion). Although Nokia shipped 110 million devices in the quarter, the average price of these was just Euro 62 ($87). In comparison, iPhones yield an average of $610 apiece at the wholesale prices paid by operators...Continued

VIDEO: Vodafone symphonia - the 1812 Overture

Jim O'Neill — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:44:40 -0400

Source: Vodafone

Mobile service questioned as Comes With Music bombs

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:14:53 -0400

With infrastructure and handset vendors claiming their profitability could be greatly improved by boosting their services' revenues, the revelation that Nokia's flagship Comes With Music (CWM) service has attracted just over 100,000 users worldwide must be more than worrying.

The service, positioned as a direct competitor to Apple's iTunes, launched first in the UK one year ago, backed by a multi-million pound pre-Christmas marketing campaign. Since then it has only gained 33,000 active users--a pitiful amount given the hype and hopes that Nokia had built around CWM, albeit that Nokia might argue that the UK figure is good when compared to the 691 in Italy and 560 in Switzerland that have subscribed to the service.

Having launched a handset tailored to supporting CWM--the Nokia 5800, which has been successful as a standalone low-mid tier smartphone--Nokia has since reemphasised its determination to push forward and has recently claimed it would improve and widen the scope of CWM. Staking an element of his increasingly lacklustre performance on achieving this, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, said that he wanted the company to have 300 million users of its mobile services by the end of 2011.

Perhaps he shouldn't rely too heavily on CWM, but with the Ovi Store only now stumbling its way into being a near-commercial service, it is difficult to see where these 300 million users will magically appear from within the next two years.

However, mobile services are a new and difficult game for all involved. Operators have been naturally reluctant to promote a music service whereby the revenues are markedly less than a service they have built themselves. This has especially been the case with mobile music with Vodafone, Orange and others, albeit that their in-house developed music services might lack the gloss of something like CWM.

The lack of success of CWM keenly illustrates the multitude of issues that need to be understood and resolved prior to launching mobile services. In its case, CWM has chiefly suffered because the consumer didn't (and still doesn't) understand the proposition. Also, the service has been hampered by the challenges presented by DRM-locked tracks, localising content, a limited range of CWM compatible phones and free music streaming offered by other companies.

Nokia has since conceded that when first launched in the UK the two CWM handsets supporting the service were ‘slightly out of date', but remains blind to the other issues, in particular the dramatic rise of alternative solutions like 7digital or Spotify.

The ongoing troubles of CWM must provide clear pointers to operators and vendors wanting to enter the mobile service market. The expertise required is manifestly outside their traditional skills and the opportunities for failure are high.

But for those that succeed, the rewards will be transforming.-Paul

BBC calls halt to live mobile TV plan; lack of user interest blamed

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:13:53 -0400

Having trialled the service for 12 months, the BBC said it would halt plans to agree on syndication deals with operators to deliver mobile TV. The TV broadcaster said trials involving Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3 and Sky had failed to gain user interest, and the results "suggested that the level of demand for content delivered via 3G was uncertain and may, at least in the short to medium term, be relatively small."

Despite the trial attracting fewer than 600 mobile users per day--at its peak--the BBC has insisted this poor level of uptake was not the reason for a much wider review of the syndication of linear TV channels to mobile and other platforms. "Nor are BBC plans for mobile TV coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games impacted by the decision," said a spokesman.

This strategic review would seem to have been triggered by the ongoing success of the BBC's iPlayer that is already available via 3G and Wi-Fi, whereas the review into syndication is centred on whether these channels are integrated into mobile operators' portals.

This backtracking by the BBC comes at a time when most European operators (other than Switzerland, Holland and Italy's 3) have effectively abandoned plans for DVB-H, while at the same time offering limited enthusiasm to push expensive 3G bandwidth as a means of accessing mobile TV.

However, according to Screen Digest, the number of unicast mobile TV subscribers (using 3G) is expected to triple over the next 5 years, mainly driven by events in France which is forecast to have 64 per cent of the European market by 2013. France is enjoying this relative success because of its bundling policy, combining mobile TV access in its high-end 3G contracts.

For more on this story:
Mobile Today and RapidTV News

Alca-Lu wins LTE trials, 14 planned for next 6 months

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:11:38 -0400

Operators are indicating their increasing level of interest in LTE by contracting to trial the technology with infrastructure vendors, claims Alca-Lu. The company has confirmed it will launch 14 new LTE operator trials over the next six months, bringing the total number planned for next year to 22.

This news follows on from the company's CEO, Ben Verwaayen, stating that LTE was the "flagship of change at Alcatel-Lucent", and hinted that the vendor was increasingly well placed to win more contracts.

Speaking to Unstrung, Alca-Lu's new president of 4G/LTE wireless networks, Ken Wirth, said that this trials activity was enabling the company to encroach into other suppliers' territory. "Those trial customers... are not just necessarily customers that have our Alca-Lu 2G or 3G infrastructure in their network," said Wirth. "They involve a number of our competitors' embedded bases as well."

While some industry observers were surprised at Alca-Lu's inclusion in the Verizon Wireless LTE contract announced earlier this year, it has placed the company alongside its major competitors as the market develops. "[We're] really seeing customers move much more quickly than I think people thought maybe a year or so ago to really evaluate LTE and evaluate what it can bring to their business," added Wirth.

Ericsson is thought to have the largest number of LTE trial contracts, Huawei has admitted it will have more than 25 by the end of this year, and Nokia Siemens Networks claims four LTE reference contracts.

For more on this story:
Unstrung

Only one bidder for 4th French 3G licence

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:09:21 -0400

The proposed sale of the fourth French 3G licence has descended into near farce as those supposedly keen to bid have walked away leaving the ISP Illiad as the only interested party. The deadline for applications is the 29^th October, although observers believe the likelihood of a fresh candidate appearing is remote at this stage.

Numericable and Virgin Mobile France, which previously said they were discussing options to jointly bid for the licence, have now jointly decided that unfavourable regulations and uncertainty surrounding the overall Capex requirements had forced them to reject any idea of bidding. This move follows decisions by Egypt's Orascom Telecom, the French investment company Bollore and the local alternative telecoms operator Kertel to also abandoned plans.

Speaking on behalf of Virgin Mobile, Numericable CEO, Pierre Danon, said that the two firms had spent a considerable amount of time exploring the opportunity provided and in talking to the three incumbent cellcos, but had decided that "given the conditions on the licence, we think it will be very difficult for the holder of the fourth licence."

Under the terms of the licence award, the successful bidder is required to build a network to cover 25 per cent of the French population before it can reach a roaming agreement with other operators. Danon claimed that the uncertainty over the timeframe and costs related to hitting this target made it too risky to proceed. "The newcomer will need some 1,000 antennas to reach that threshold. It would have to install the antennas at new locations or on the sites of existing operators, effectively increasing the risk and costs associated with the project. The business case for the project could entirely fall apart, and the level of uncertainty is very high."

The lack of interest in this 3G licence will potentially embarrass the French government, together with the three existing 3G operators who have each complained bitterly about the low-cost of entry for this fourth operator.

However, the frequencies that make up the fourth 3G licence represent only about a third of the frequencies that the three established operators were allocated with their licences back in 2001 and 2002. Two more sets of frequencies will be auctioned in a second phase and will be open to all parties, including the three existing network operators.

For more on this story:
Total Telecom

TeliaSonera secures LTE modems for 2010 launch

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:06:43 -0400

Determined to be the first European operator to go live with LTE next year has seen TeliaSonera sign a modem supply deal with Samsung. The company said that it planned offer the LTE modems with data speeds up to 10x currently experienced to subscribers in Stockholm and Oslo in 2010.

According to Kenneth Karlberg, president and head of mobility services at TeliaSonera, the company had teamed up with Samsung to meet customers' continuously increasing demands for high speed mobile broadband services and to acquire an early understanding of end users' ways of using LTE.

However, both firms are labelling the service as 4G - with the modem carrying prominent 4G branding, which might be considered as over-hyping the capabilities given that true 4G specification, known as "IMT-Advanced" will not be ratified by the ITU until late 2010. This particular modem is apparently seen as an interim solution - given it is LTE-only, and new multi-wireless technology modems from vendors including Samsung are expected sometime next year.

In January 2009, TeliaSonera signed a Stockholm-only contract with Ericsson for LTE network deployment, followed swiftly by a similar deal with China's Huawei for an LTE rollout in Oslo for its Norwegian unit NetCom.

For more on this story:
Telegeography and 3G

TeliaSonera secures LTE modems for 2010 launch

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:06:39 -0400

For more on this story:
Telegeography and 3G

Connected laptops to spearhead Christmas sales

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:00:20 -0400

European mobile phone retailers are placing large bets that connected laptops will be the product segment that boosts year-end figures in the sales lead-up to Christmas.

One of the largest retailers, Carphone Warehouse, claims that mobile data is the clear potential growth area, driven by the explosion of social networking and the fact that penetration within the mobile data market remains at less than 20 per cent.

To help crank up sales the company refreshed its entire laptop range last week, and announced that it swallowed a margin hit of €550,000 in one week, earlier this month, as it sold 9,000 laptops at a loss in a bid to clear its old stock. This was in the belief that it will easily make up the shortfall on its new stock during the Christmas rush.

Neil Old, Carphone's commercial director for wireless products, said that it was the company's intention to do to mobile computing what it had achieved within the mobile phone market. "‘We're masters at matching the customer's need to a product and an appropriate tariff, and we've got some really compelling propositions, with all the new laptops available for free on certain tariffs. It's going to be a massive area this Christmas--and will be the category that delivers the largest percentage growth year on year, without question."

Carphone's new range is focused on the launch of the eagerly anticipated Windows 7 platform and includes 12 new laptops and netbooks, including Dell, Samsung and Sony models.

The market research firm GfK reported that netbook sales increased by 120 per cent in September this year, compared with September 2008. A total of 270,000 netbooks were sold in Q3 this year, with 14 per cent of those sold on subsidised deals through mobile retailers.

For more on this story:
Mobile Today

3GPP urges caution over IMT-Advanced promises

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:58:18 -0400

No fewer than six technologies have been submitted, seeking approval as official standards for IMT-Advanced, the next wave of wireless systems, which is designed finally to achieve 'true 4G' or gigabit stationary speeds (100Mbps mobile). Whereas a few years ago, few would have seen the need for such performance, now it seems operators can hardly wait to access the platforms that will let them support massive mobile broadband and multimedia usage, and while they may have years to wait for real 4G, they are increasing the momentum behind current technologies, LTE and WiMAX.

The ITU will select its IMT-Advanced technologies in October 2010. It released details of the six proposals, which are based around the third generation of LTE (3GPP Release 10) and IEEE 802.16m (WiMAX 2.0). The ITU's Radiocommunications Working Party 5D will assess all the submissions over the coming year, supported by "independent external evaluation groups that have been established around the world". Article

VIDEO: Ericsson's new mobile payment system

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:58:43 -0400

Source: paidContent via YouTube

Ericsson's new mobile payment system calls for revenue sharing

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:19:47 -0400

In an audacious move that will see it challenge the likes of PayPal and Google Checkout, the infrastructure vendor Ericsson plans to launch a mobile payment system to enable newspaper owners to charge for their content.

When live, users wanting to use the SMS-based Web Pin Opt-in mobile payment service will need to enter their mobile phone number on the web page and are then sent an SMS text message with a four-digit PIN code. The PIN fee is taken from users' mobile operator bills and, when entered back on the web page, gives them either one-off access to individual articles or longer-term access as part of a subscription deal.

While the company claims that its new Opt-in mobile payment system is compliant with the billing systems of more than 60 mobile operators in 15 countries, no content publisher has yet signed up to the service which will be launched this weekend.

This lack of immediate interest could be due to Ericsson's intention to charge publishers up to €1100 a month for the service, together with wanting a share of payment revenue.

However, the company believes that content owners will be attracted to the service following successful trials where users of the mobile payment system generated 10 to 15 times higher conversion rates as a result.

According to Ericsson's UK and Ireland country manager, Peter Garside, the company believes this new mobile payment service has the least barriers to entry: "There's no pre-registration of banking details or anything, the only information you need to give is your mobile number."

For more on this story:
Watch this video
The Guardian

NSN: surrounded by gloom as parents back away

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:17:45 -0400

As both Nokia and Siemens fail to give any indications of strong support for their mobile infrastructure JV--Nokia Siemens Networks--industry analysts are beginning to question what future the company has. The situation has become increasingly difficult following the €908 million write down made by Nokia for its stake in NSN, and comments from Siemens that it wanted to exit the JV.

Telecoms analysts have taken these pointers and heaped further gloom on NSN, maintaining that to float the company would have to be at a deep discount because of its loss making and declining market share. The notion of Nokia taking full control has been dismissed given that the Finnish company has sufficient strategic issues to resolve without the mountain of troubles that would come with acquiring NSN.

Other options being floated, and dismissed, include:

Ericsson--the company gained key assets on the cheap with its Nortel purchase, and doesn't need NSN.
Alcatel-Lucent--not in a position to make a major acquisition, and still struggling to merge the French and US technologies and culture.
Huawei--up and coming, but hidebound by all the usual political problems that such a deal would entail.
Private equity--could make a good restructuring story (for the very brave), with a focus on services.

In an attempt to lift the depressing picture, Nokia recently upgraded its estimates for the global mobile infrastructure market, predicting a 5 per cent fall in euro terms in 2009, compared with an earlier estimate of a 10 per cent decline.

However, while analysts cautiously accept that mobile operators might now be spending more on infrastructure, they forecast this will largely benefit Ericsson who will continue to pick up market share from NSN.

Adding further woes, a new report from Infonetics claims that Huawei is dramatically improving its global image, having good technology and offering strong value for money. Stéphane Téral of Infonetics said: "Huawei is overtaking Alcatel-Lucent on many fronts, and is now en route to attacking NSN's market position in the mobile infrastructure space. And watch out, because another Chinese telco equipment maker ZTE is on the rise as well."

For more on this story:
Rethink Wireless