Ericsson

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.

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The Register

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

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."

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The Guardian

M2M: the sleeper awakes

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:23:47 -0400

Announcements from Jasper Wireless, KPN, Ericsson and Qualcomm all point to a revival of interest in wireless M2M on the part of both vendors and operators. During 2009 there have been several announcements in the machine-to-machine (M2M) space. Ericsson announced a mobile broadband module specifically for consumer electronics applications; Qualcomm and Verizon established an M2M joint venture as a separate company; and KPN announced new partnership arrangements with M2M platform provider Jasper Wireless, which nicely followed Jasper's deal with AT&T in May.

According to Ovum, there are clear signs that this renewed interest is driving the emergence of new business models for M2M. Previously, MNOs have worried that M2M subscriptions, which are typically low traffic and low revenue, risked diluting ARPU and thus impacting on the financial sector's view of them. Although M2M barely shows up in operators' KPIs at the moment, it has the potential to have a very large impact - particularly if some of the more bullish forecasts are realised. Article

3 Billion 3G Mobile Broadband Users in 5 Years

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:48:45 -0400

At the recent Broadband World Forum in Paris, Ericsson CEO, Hans Vestberg, made some predictions regarding the take up of 3G Mobile Broadband. He claims there will be over three billion 3G mobile broadband subscribers worldwide in the next five years. Currently there are over 4 billion 3G mobile users worldwide and by 2014 there will be 7 billion 3G mobile users.

He predicted how the telecoms industry is evolving and none more so in mobile broadband. He made a point of saying that the numbers above for mobile broadband is likely to include some users who have more than one SIM e.g. mobile and mobile broadband. He sees mobile broadband opportunities over the next five years as substantial. Article

LTE Advanced: EU to invest 18m euros to capture lead in next-gen wireless standard

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:25:24 -0400

In an attempt to replicate the success achieved with formulating the GSM standard, the EU has announced the creation of an €18 million R&D fund to ensure Europe has a strong influence on the direction of LTE.

While LTE has yet to be commercially deployed, the EU hopes that this new funding will trigger European technology developers to start work on LTE Advanced (why not LTE+?), with this next progression to offer download capacities of up to 1Gbps, a significant increase over the promised 100Mbps available from LTE.

According to Richard Webb from the market research company Infonetics, this move by the EU indicates how important mobile broadband has become. "But it perhaps tells how Europe has lost some of its edge--especially compared to Asia--as the market has moved on to more advanced wireless technologies."

The development of LTE was also assisted by EU funding which totalled €25 million some years ago. Trials of the technology are already underway in the UK, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Germany and Finland with other countries in the pipeline. 3G operators are forecast to spend around €6 billion on LTE equipment over the next four years.

Commenting on the launch of this investment programme - which is expected to become available in January 2010, the EU Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding, said, "Europe's research know-how will continue to set the tone for the development of mobile services and devices around the globe, just as we did in the past decades with the GSM standard."

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PC World and Broadband Genie

Ericsson powers ahead of infrastructure competition, but outlook remains harsh

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:44:34 -0400

As Nortel slowly sinks into oblivion, Ericsson has powered ahead in Q2 by doubling its lead over competing infrastructure vendors as its nearest rival, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), saw a collapse in its market share. This sector of the mobile industry has experienced cut-throat competition for new business during the past few years, primarily coming from Chinese suppliers, and the outlook remains harsh.

While Alcatel-Lucent and NSN have both forecast the market to shrink by between 8 and 12 per cent, Ericsson CEO, Carl-Henric Svanberg, is still upbeat claiming mobile operators are not cutting their Capex any further, but signs of a widespread upturn remained elusive. Ericsson's market leadership--at 32 per cent in Q2--could be boosted further following its acquisition last month of key CDMA and LTE assets from Nortel, beating out NSN and private equity firm MatlinPatterson. Speculation continues as to the future home for Nortel's remaining LTE patents.

Meanwhile, NSN continued to report bad news with its market share falling from 26 per cent in Q2/08 to 20 per cent in Q2/09 as the company, in an effort to improve profits, avoided deals where the competition cut equipment prices to the bone. This has been reflected by Huawei increasing its market share to 17 per cent, while ZTE doubled its share to 8 per cent. Alcatel-Lucent's share fell to 12 per cent from 14 per cent, said the market research firm Dell'Oro.

Industry observers believe that the aggressive pricing policy and heavyweight support from state-run banks have helped Huawei and ZTE claw their way into the market--a trend that many believe will continue.

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Reuters

LTE: Acquiring Nortel's LTE knowledge provides muscle, says Ericsson

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:07:37 -0400

Following approval from the Canadian and US courts that Nortel assets could be transferred to Ericsson--despite RIM's continued protestations--the Swedish equipment manufacturer has expressed quiet satisfaction with the LTE knowledge and experience it would be gaining.

While the company said that the US$1.3 billion takeover of Nortel's wireless networking division would provide Ericsson with an increased presence in North America, it confirmed plans to continue with Nortel's initial development of LTE and would take on at least 2500 ex-Nortel employees, of which 400 were working on LTE development. "The acquisition significantly expands Ericsson's footprint in this region, particularly as the US is emerging as an early adopter of LTE technology," said the company.

Speaking to investors, Hans Vestberg, Ericsson's CEO-in-waiting, said the Nortel deal would "add LTE muscles" to its existing development efforts in that area, describing it as a "step increase" in its LTE investment.

This comment provoked RIM's co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, to express his extreme disappointment that Nortel's world-leading technology seemed destined to leave Canada and that Canada's own Export Development Corporation was preparing to help by lending C$300 million to another bidder. He suggested that the development of Nortel's LTE technology, funded in part by Canadian tax-payers, ought to remain under Canadian, rather then foreign, ownership.

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Semiconductor Today

Nortel's LTE patents - the scramble to acquire begins

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:46:30 -0400

While Ericsson's knockout bid of US$1.13 billion should have triggered the end to the squabbling over the LTE and CDMA assets of Nortel, it has become apparent that this sale to the Swedish infrastructure vendor only included a small number of patents. Vitally, Nortel has retained ownership of its LTE patents and has only licensed the use of them to Ericsson.

A Nortel lawyer, Tay Tuesday, said that the perception the company was selling its LTE assets to Ericsson was wrong, fed by misinformation in the media, spread in part by RIM. Of the 5,500 patents owned by Nortel, only 600 have been transferred to Ericsson, claimed Tuesday, with none of the LTE intellectual property having being sold. Instead, Nortel will be licensing them to Ericsson, claiming it invested around US$200 million annually developing LTE technology.

RIM, which failed in its US$1.1 billion bid for Nortel's LTE/CDMA business, is reported to have held negotiations over the LTE patents for months in the lead-up to its thwarted offer. Its interest, according to Research Capital analyst Nick Agostino, would be to save on royalty costs of future LTE-based RIM handsets. "The opportunity is here now for them to own the hopefully material patents, and I think it's also going to be a benefit on the margins."

Any future auction for Nortel's LTE patents seems sure to increase nationalist feeling over the government's lack of action to save the Canadian technology developer. Local speculation has RIM marked as being an aggressive bidder for these LTE patents, with pressure being applied on the federal government to support its efforts. Last week, RIM claimed that allowing Nortel's wireless assets to slip into foreign hands constituted a national concern.

However, while waving the Canadian flag might provoke rousing comment, Nokia Siemens Networks, which bid US$1.0325 billion for the LTE/CDMA business, is likely to remain interested, while the private-equity firm MatlinPatterson could reappear.

For a nationalistic viewpoint on the sale of Nortel's assets read this article in The Star.

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Seeking Alpha and Canada.com

Life in 2020: Ericsson's viewpoint on the mobile world

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:24:16 -0400

In an attempt to predict how mobile technology might be used in the future, Ericsson has assembled a team of 450 to look at how socio-economic trends, consumer buying patterns and the sustainability of certain technologies might determine how life will have changed in the next decade.

Its ‘Life in 2020' project - which is made up of people from Ericsson, McKinsey, the Institute for the Future in California and the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, has initially created 15 personas to illustrate how these individuals might use technology and 77 hypothetical gadgets in their daily lives.

Some of the devices that the group believes might be in use in 2020 include:

an Eco Passport - a handheld unit that tracks behaviour and awards points based upon eco-friendly choices.
the Office Aquarium - a business offering that provides video presence services.
the Spider Computer - a pocket-sized phone and powerful PC.
a Communications Sofa - a relaxing seat to enable access to multiple networks.

While some (most?) of these concepts are unlikely ever to be anything more than ‘slideware', at least Ericsson is making the effort to understand what might be possible in the next decade, and who might benefit from it.

For more on this story
- Check out this slideshow
- read this About Electronics article