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Sunday, September 6, 2009
AT&T to Launch iPhone MMS
AT&T says it will launch the eagerly-awaited iPhone multimedia messaging service on September 25.
According to AT&T, the carrier had to work on its network architecture for the past several months to handle the “expected record volumes of MMS traffic” generated by the service. AT&T will enable the service on the iPhone 3G and 3GS through a software update on launch day.
Wireless use on AT&T’s network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond, said the carrier.
Sources : wirelessweek.com
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
From Wi-Fi to WiMAX
The demand for high-bandwidth networking is already driving acceptance of fixed WiMAX products. The imminent arrival of products that meet the recently ratified standard for mobile WiMAX connectivity will provide even more exciting opportunities for broadband wireless communications, says Joe Nardone. While deployments of fixed wireless broadband networks based on the WiMAX standard have been implemented in many countries over the past year and a half, the ratification in December 2005 of a new IEEE standard (802.16e-2005) that will enable the same technology to be deployed in mobile devices should see accelerated take up of WiMAX products over the next few years.
IT market researcher IDC expects the market for WiMAX semiconductor devices, one of the key enabling technologies for such networks, to grow from a modest $133m worldwide in 2006 to a burgeoning $607m in 2010. This will be achieved initially from the growth of fixed broadband wireless implementations and later from the volume rollout of WiMAX-enabled laptops.
This will have a multiplier effect on the market for WiMAX equipment because of the by now familiar phenomenon known as Moore's Law, which essentially says that semiconductor devices gain in performance and capability while becoming progressively cheaper over time. Whereas IDC predicts a market growing in value terms by 356 per cent, the growth in terms of units over the same period will be a whopping 1,049 per cent, from 1.6m units in 2006 to 17.9m units in 2010.
The expected growth in the market for WiMAX equipment merely reflects the market for existing Wi-Fi devices which has grown in leaps and bounds thanks to the familiar cycle of innovation followed by standardisation and commoditisation. In 2000, Wi-Fi access that delivered 1Mbit/s of data cost between $750 and $100.Today, Wi-Fi access that delivers 100Mbit/s costs only $25.
Market drivers
It is easy to see in simple terms how networks are going to evolve in the near future—people want to be able to transmit and receive any type of data to or from anybody, anywhere at any time with minimal difficulty. This means that high-bandwidth telecommunications infrastructure will have to be readily accessible in any location from which people will want to communicate. WiMAX is particularly well suited for this as it can be quickly and economically deployed in nearly any type of geography without requiring extensive installations, or pre-existing infrastructures as per wired technologies. Furthermore, WiMAX offers nomadic and mobile operations such that the connection becomes associated with the person not a location – hence enabling true Personal Broadband. Furthermore, the economics of WiMAX, unlike other wireless technologies, enable a low enough cost per bit such that it becomes viable for the mass market of consumers to adopt – hence delivering broadband anywhere, anytime.
Fixed WiMAX technology (IEEE 802.16-2004) is already in place and being used successfully. The WiMAX Forum certified the first fixed WiMAX products in January 2006. More than 20 operators deployed commercial fixed WiMAX networks while more than 100 carriers initiated fixed WiMAX network trials worldwide. Since then, the numbers have grown to more than 175 trials and deployments, and more than 35 commercial networks.
So far WiMAX has largely been deployed as a broadband wireless backbone providing broadband coverage to areas not currently served by existing wired broadband technologies. In many, though not all developed Western countries, there is already a mature market for wired broadband i.e. communications delivered by copper or fibre cable. According to researcher Jupiter Networks, most Western European countries have wired broadband availability for more than 90 per cent of their populations.
However, for developing countries such as Russia , Eastern Europe or the Middle East the potential to deliver broadband infrastructure via wireless technology is tempting. A wireless backbone offers a much faster and more cost effective way to roll out broadband infrastructure than the traditional method of laying cable either underground or on towers.
Quite apart from the special advantages that wireless networking in general offers over fixed-line communications, WiMAX also offers some technical advantages over some popular broadband technologies such as Asymmetric DSL (ADSL). The asymmetric nature of this technology means that upload speeds are typically a fraction of the download speeds offered by the service and rarely exceed 1Mbit/s. WiMAX can offer upload speeds of 4Mbit/s. Although this is typically not an issue for residential users, it can be an important issue for business users who may require a robust uplink as well as downlink. Further, since an operator can adjust the ratio between uplink and downlink traffic, spectrum can be optimized to meet traffic requirements of users and applications as they evolve.
One of the more interesting current WiMAX deployments is in the town of Umeå in Northern Sweden . There, a local operator called Mobile City is working with the local government to provide cars equipped with WiMAX and Wi-Fi capability to provide broadband connectivity to nurses who travel to visit patients in their homes.
With this connectivity, nurses are able to use their notebook PCs to download information for the benefit of patients while on the road or even during a visit and can also complete their ‘paperwork' while on the road. This greatly enhances the care they can deliver to their patients and significantly improves productivity. None of this could be done previously unless the patient lived near a Wi-Fi hotspot. These specially equipped cars combine a WiMAX CPE to connect the car to the hospital and a Wi-Fi access point to connect to the nurse's notebook. In effect, the car becomes a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot which the nurses can use for the benefit of their patients.
Although the example above uses fixed WiMAX technology, the mobile capabilities offered by products meeting the newly ratified mobile WiMAX standard 802.16e-2005 offer potentially the most exciting growth opportunities. Such equipment will enable broadband access while moving at speeds up to 120km/hr. Or in other words, you will soon be able to use your notebook computer to access the Internet while sitting in a coach or train without losing connectivity.
Working on the move
Being able to work on the move is a key enabler of productivity in today's world. Studies have shown that people used their notebooks 30 per cent more of the time when they have wireless access than when they do not.
Hitherto, wireless access while one was away from one's office LAN has been dependent on finding a Wi-Fi hot-spot. Although Wi-Fi technology has been extremely popular, it does have the limitation of short range, with users needing to be within 45m (typically) of the access station indoors at data rates of 1-2Mbit/s and at distances up to 90m (typically) outdoors. Although the outdoor range can in theory be boosted to several km using special antennas in direct ‘line-of-sight' to the access point, indoors the range can be further diminished by ‘noisy' environments caused by interference from other wireless networks and other devices sharing the same frequency (e.g.: cordless telephones, microwave ovens).
Mobile WiMAX products, on the other hand, will be able to connect to access points several kilometres away and at faster data speeds. Although actual data rates experienced by users will be determined by service levels offered by the service providers, mobile WiMAX products will be able to support peak downlink rates of 14.1Mbit/s and uplink rates of 2.2Mbit/s for a total net throughput (after all coding overhead is removed) of 16.3Mbit/s per sector in 10MHz of spectrum.* The peak gross throughput per cell is 72Mbit/s.
The WiMAX Forum has developed system profiles based on the IEEE-ratified specification and identified conformance test tools and methods that will allow the expansion of the certification process to include mobile as well as fixed systems. Products that make use of the new standard will start to become available from equipment makers in the second half of this year. The likely scenario will see mobile WiMAX technology appearing first on PC Cards for deployment in notebook computers. In 2007-2008, WiMAX should start to appear as a standard option inside notebooks, handheld computers and even some mobile phone handsets.
Mobile WiMAX is a technology that will coexist with high-speed cellular technologies such as 3G, which is optimised for voice and moderate data-rate applications. WiMAX is optimised for IP-based high-speed wireless broadband and the transmission of data. WiMAX will coexist with 3G networks, even as 3G operators introduce HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) facilities which offer an estimated peak net throughput of 3.6Mbit/s.* WiMAX will provide lower-cost high bandwidth data connectivity ushering in a new era of applications and services—only WiMAX can offer a low enough cost per bit to make true broadband applications cost effective offerings in a wireless environment.
High-speed mobile WiMAX offers the most potential for the future to create the internet experience anywhere anytime. With its combination of band-width, range and mobility it allows people to be online wherever and whenever they want or need to be.
Source : wirtel.co.uk
The Time To Invest in VoIP?
When household names such as Cisco, Motorola, Microsoft, BT and Nokia hit the mainstream media with plans to unite mobile telephony and the internet, the world should sit up and take note. But is it time to do more than just test the water? Let's face it, mobile phones cost organisations a great deal of money. In part, it's because calls are more expensive. That's not a problem when people are working away from the organisations offices – the ability to keep in touch delivers benefits that offset the additional costs.
But increasingly employees are using their mobile phones as their principal means of making and receiving calls, whether or not they are in an office where a lower cost alternative is available. They value the convenience of knowing that calls will reach them wherever they are, and of being able to make calls easily to people whose numbers are stored in their directory. Unfortunately, it's a convenience that comes at a cost. Over half the organisations contacted in a recent survey expected the cost of mobile phone calls to rise between 2004 and 2007, some by as much as 25 per cent.
Then there's the added cost of managing a ‘fleet' of mobile phones. While organisations usually manage provision of desk-based phones centrally, mobile phone services are often bought locally. This dilutes the organisation's ability to use its purchasing power to get the best deal and can result in the cost of supporting a mobile user being up to three times that of a fixed-line user .
Little wonder, then, that mobile phone costs are an increasing concern. But what's the answer? Right now, the best option is to manage mobile phone usage more effectively, perhaps taking advantage of the option to outsource the task to a managed service supplier that can meet the organisation's needs worldwide.
In the longer term, however, technical innovations such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and fixed/mobile convergence will have a great deal to offer.
Call IP for a great deal
Once the preserve of the cost-conscious techno-savvy consumer and of far-sighted IT-focussed business, VoIP has been combined with other technologies to create IP telephony – a way of making phone calls over data networks that can match the performance of traditional phone systems and operate fully as a part of the global phone network.
Today, IP telephony is very much a mainstream technology, used by organisations worldwide to deliver phone services to their employees. The benefits begin with lower operational costs, made possible because IP phones share cabling and equipment with the organisation's IT systems.
But that's just the start. IP phones aren't just phones – there's a computer at their heart, and that means they can offer functions similar to those available on, say, PDAs. Phone directories, diaries and so on. And IP phones are more flexible than traditional phones. Rather than being defined by building wiring, phone numbers can be assigned when users log in, allowing people to make any desk their desk. The behaviour of the phone can also be matched to the user's profile, or in response to an organisation's changing needs and priorities.
Cutting the cord
It all adds up to make IP telephony a very attractive proposition, both for organisations and their employees, so it's easy to see why so many organisations are choosing IP systems as they open new premises and as their existing systems fall due for renewal.
So far, however, most investment has been in fixed phone systems for use at desks, in meeting rooms and so on – locations often already served by data cabling. Despite the increasing use of wireless LANs to deliver data services more flexibly than is possible using fixed cabling, only limited use has been made of such networks to provide cordless phone services.
One reason is that, because they are more complex, Voice over Wireless LAN (VoWLAN) phones can use more power than conventional cordless phones. More significant, however, are the technical problems that make it harder to deliver a high-quality call over a wireless network. Wireless networks tend to suffer more from jitter than wired networks and have more limited bandwidth, for example. Together with other factors, this increases the chance that data transmissions will interfere with call traffic and that call quality will be poor.
Solutions to these problems are being worked on by the IEEE and other organisations but they are not yet widely available.
Losing your tether completely
Another limitation is that, today, users of wireless LANs can only move around within a limited area. Unlike mobile phone networks, where users are transferred seamlessly from cell to cell as they move, every time you move out of reach of one wireless LAN, you need to log in to another.
It's a problem technologists are keen to solve. The IEEE, for example, is enhancing its 802.11 series of standards to make it possible for users to roam from LAN to LAN.
Meanwhile, operators and manufacturers are working towards an even more flexible future – one in which people roam freely across technically different networks using whichever is best in each location. They could start their day at home, synchronising their diary or downloading a train timetable over a wireless LAN and broadband. Driving to the station, they could make voice calls over a 3G network before going online again using a public hotspot. Later, they could keep in touch using public 3G or WiMAX connections or their employer's corporate network, answering email and accessing files to prepare for meetings as they move from place to place.
This is all technically feasible today, but people have to use a range of devices and switching between networks is not smooth. If the vision of converged networks is to become a reality, devices and applications must be easy to use and the complexity of the operation has to be hidden from those using the service.
Alcatel, Ericsson and Motorola are seeking to establish open standards to enable interworking between vendor equipment. In parallel, the Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance, established by Swisscom, NTT, Korea Telecom, Rogers Wireless, Brasil Telecom and BT is working to define common technical standards so users can move networks on one device with no interruption in service.
An early result has been BT Fusion, the world's first combined fixed and mobile phone service which works like a mobile when out and about but which uses Bluetooth technology to switch to a broadband line – and thereby reduce call costs – when the user is at home.
Time to invest?
BT Fusion is, however, just a first step – one that others are starting to follow. NEC, for example, has launched a phone to roam from WiFi to NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 3G service in Japan, while Motorola has announced its CN620 voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) compatible phone for use in countries with GSM mobile networks. It is also working with Cisco to deliver a complete solution using IEEE 802.11 technology for use within business premises.
Elsewhere, Nokia has announced that it will use technology from Cisco to integrate its Series 60 devices with Cisco's IP telephony solution, CallManager. When users are within reach of their corporate network, they will be able to choose to connect over a wireless LAN to make their calls.
These developments confirm that fixed/mobile convergence is going to happen, and sooner rather than later. But like ‘simple' VoWLAN technology, significant problems remain to be solved before the technology can be regarded as fully mature. The wait won't be a long one but, for many organisations, it means it's too early to make a major investment.
So what should organisations do now? It may sound strange if your goal is to reduce mobile phone costs, but the best option right now is to invest in fixed IP telephony systems – in networks, routers and other equipment to replace private exchanges and the traditional phones on employees' desks.
By doing this, your organisation can take advantage of the cost savings and other benefits that IP telephony offers while also making sure its infrastructure is ready for what looks set to follow – a next generation of phone that can keep employees connected and get you the best deal.
Source : wirtel.co.uk
Mobile TV: The Next Big Thing?
Mobile TV is undoubtedly one of the most exciting areas within the mobile industry at the moment. Not only does it bring a familiar and popular medium to the mobile space for consumers, but it also heralds a range of new revenue opportunities for both the mobile and broadcasting industries. Strategy Analytics predict that mobile firms will have about 50 million users of mobile TV by 2009, generating an estimated £3.5bn in revenue.
Peter Bazalgette, UK Chairman of leading independent television producer Endemol was clear about the potential of Mobile TV when he told the BBC, “This year is the first in a career of 27 years in television that I've been able to entertain people anywhere. A new era for those in the content business is starting.”
For mobile operators looking to bring commercial television services to market, there are a range of competing technologies and standards available. Yet, in order to provide end users with the best quality mobile TV experience and the widest selection of channels, it is the DVB-H standard that delivers the best solution.
Delivering television over 3G
For many mobile operators, 3G networks provide the means of launching mobile television services here and now while DVB-H networks are being tested and developed. Vodafone, Orange and 3 have all rolled-out television services delivered over their 3G infrastructure, offering customers a selection of live television channels. In October 2005, Vodafone launched their 3G Mobile TV service in conjunction with Satellite broadcaster BSkyB. The service was offered free to Vodafone customers in the UK until the end of January, after which it will cost £5 a month.
Yet, while 3G is a solution for bringing television services to the mobile space now and giving consumers a taster of what it is like to consume television on their mobile, it does not represent a long term solution for Mobile TV. On a 3G network, television content must share capacity with other mobile traffic, including downloaded content and voice calls. If the network reaches full capacity, then the quality of the television services will suffer. Furthermore, on 3G there is a limit to how many television channels can actually be delivered to the end user.
Source : wirtel.co.uk
Introducing DVB-H
The key to making Mobile TV a high quality, compelling service for consumers is in combining traditional broadcasting standards with features specific to handheld devices. Namely, smaller screens and antennas, indoor coverage and reliance on battery power.
The technology that can best achieve this is called IP Datacasting over DVB-H, a combination of digital broadcasting and internet protocol, which enables service reception in handheld devices. The Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld (DVB-H) standard has been created specifically to meet the unique challenges that mobile TV presents and was formally adopted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as the standard in Europe for Mobile TV services in November 2004.
DVB-H builds on the existing terrestrial TV infrastructure (DVB-T) which is used widely to deliver terrestrial digital television services. The fact that DVB-H relies on an existing television standard means that the initial investment in setting up Mobile TV services is reduced.
In addition to being an approved and open standard, the benefits of DVB-H are as follows:
• It provides the best user experience in the mobile environment, with an energy saving handset that is only ‘on' 10% of the time, electronic programme guide, soft handover and in-building coverage
• It offers an excellent, broadcast-quality picture with a screen resolution equivalent to VHS
• Battery consumption is reduced by 90% due to time-slicing technology
• The efficient use of bandwidth means that DVB-H can offer up to 55 mobile channels
• It is supported by publicly available air interface specifications helping to drive device interoperability and market development
• Its security includes end-to-end control of stream encryption, generation of decryption keys and delivery of keys to consumers in a billing-integrated way
DVB-H will be accessible by an audience of approximately 300 million mobile users by the end of this year.
Source : wirtel.co.uk
Bringing Mobile TV service to market
The DVB-H standard has by far the most widespread acceptance across the various sectors involved in bringing Mobile TV to market, including operators, broadcasters, broadcast network operators and content providers. This can be seen by the large number of consumer DVB-H trials that have, or are currently, taking place across the globe.
In Europe , trials have so far taken place in Germany , Finland , the UK , Spain , Switzerland , France and the Netherlands . The results from completed trials are very encouraging. In the Finnish trial, over half (58%) thought that Mobile TV services would be popular and exactly half of those involved thought that €10 per month was a reasonable price to pay for such services. Local programmes available through Finnish national television proved to be the most popular content alongside sporting events such as the Monaco Grand Prix.
Results which have just been released from the UK trial in Oxford paint an even brighter picture of consumer demand for Mobile TV. The trial, conducted by O2 and Arqiva and involving 400 consumers, found that 76% of those involved would take up mobile TV services within 12 months. 83% of triallists were satisfied with the service provided. On average, those that took part in the trial used Mobile TV twice a day and for 3 hours per week.
Over the course of the next six months we expect to see the first commercial DVB-H Mobile TV services being launched globally.
With Mobile TV over DVB-H we can truly say that this is the next big thing. Trials have shown the extent of consumer interest in these services which in turn brings the prospect of significant revenue opportunities for mobile operators. There are also a whole range of new interactive services made possible by Mobile TV. And for the broadcast industry, we have the opportunity to totally redefine prime time. People will be able to view their favourite television content anytime, anywhere, representing a fundamental shift in the way people consume television.
Source : wirtel.co.uk
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Apple Tablet - Flip or Flop?
The Financial Times yesterday reported on the upcoming release of the Apple tablet, essentially a 10-inch iPod touch, which would coincide perfectly with Apple’s annual September iPod announcements. The Times cited media partners, namely major record labels, with which Apple has held recent talks to seal content deals to be released in time for a Christmas launch of the new device.
In light of that news, let’s spend a few minutes imagining a world where the Apple tablet is a reality. While the perfect storm of gossip is beginning to at least look plausible, it’s prudent to note that nothing in the world of forthcoming Apple gadgetry is for sure until the first consumer has one in hand.
Meanwhile, let’s say an Apple tablet launch is slated for sometime in the next couple of months. And for the sake of gratuitous sensationalism and scandal, let’s say that Verizon Wireless is the chosen one (which many an analyst has already proclaimed), sweetening the pot with a sizable subsidy on the coveted device.
Yesterday, Verizon reported second-quarter earnings, which were off a tad from the same quarter last year but still beat iPhone-wielding AT&T on nearly every crucial metric. Verizon's data ARPU came in at $14.96, which beat the $14.57 reported by AT&T. Now imagine adding a million 10-inch Apple tablets to Verizon’s network. Combined with the carrier’s broad portfolio of smartphones, subsidized netbooks and MiFi devices, Verizon looks to bury AT&T on data ARPU.
Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray and longtime Apple follower, speculates the device will carry a $500-$700 price tag. Nearly everyone figures in a subsidy but few know what kind of deal Apple might solicit from a carrier.
Regardless, initial sales, especially if there’s a subsidy, will break records. What happens after that is anyone’s guess. While analysts are still bickering about use case and business model for the tablet, Apple fans dream of waiting in a mile-long line for the fabled device.
One of my biggest misgivings about such a device is that it won’t provide an adequate text-entry solution. I can’t imagine carrying around a tablet without being able to modify a document or comfortably (I said “comfortably”) compose an e-mail. I recently took a ruler to my desktop keyboard, and from my measurements, it looks like an ample qwerty could easily fit on a 10-inch touchscreen. Granted, the author of long fiction may not compose her next novel on a tablet, but sending off an e-mail from the airport won’t give you sore thumbs, either.
Obviously, a device like the tablet wouldn’t be limited to text-based applications, and in fact one of its biggest strengths could be its ability to facilitate the consumption of nearly all types of digital media. A tablet would be the perfect form factor for an eReader, if a bit heavy. It’s also the ideal size for comfortably watching movies on an airplane. Games? Absolutely. Music, obviously.
That said, one of the things I find most intriguing, though obviously not its core use case, is the potential to devastate sales of devoted eReaders. While Amazon and Barnes & Noble pitch black-and-white devices that hover around $300, with most analysts saying that’s bottom-line pricing, why wouldn’t consumers spend a couple hundred more to get what could potentially be seen as the Ferrari of mobile computing?
While there are still a lot of unknowns surrounding the Apple tablet, it may represent an interesting endgame for the MID, netbook, smartbook quandary. In much the same way the iPhone has set the standard for smartphone expectations, could Apple possibly do the same by simply enlarging that form factor and calling it done? Stranger things have happened. No doubt, everyone from Qualcomm to Nokia and Intel are watching Apple closely on this one.
Perhaps the one thing worth mentioning is the effect a device like the tablet might have on a network. We all know the challenges AT&T has dealt with since taking on the iPhone. While ARPU undoubtedly goes up, 3G network quality and dependability almost invariably goes down. Could Verizon’s network withstand millions of super-powered iPod touches gobbling up multimedia by the gigabyte? Or perhaps a tablet would be relegated to Wi-Fi for the health of the network?
Whether you’re doing flips over an Apple tablet, or think it’s bound to be a flop, you’re about to witness yet another change in the way we think about mobile computing. Buckle your seatbelts. The wireless industry could be going for the ride of a lifetime.
Source : wirelessweek.com
News Of the week
Barnes & Noble, announced an agreement with AT&T that will provide complimentary in-store Wi-Fi to any customer that visits a Barnes & Noble bookstore nationwide. All customers shopping in Barnes & Noble stores can now freely download and preview any of the more than 700,000 eBook titles with hundreds of thousands of public domain titles available from Google. The company says its number of eBook titles is expanding every day and expects to hit the 1 million mark soon.
• In-Stat released a report that concludes LTE will be the only route to 4G wireless service in China. TD-LTE, one of the two flavors of LTE, will receive much more support than LTE-FDD in China. In 2010, China Mobile will use TD-LTE to construct a pre-commercial LTE network. “China Mobile will be the first operator to launch commercial LTE operation,” says Anty Zheng, In-Stat analyst. “This will happen in limited areas in 2011. China Telecom and China Unicom will, we believe, follow China Mobile’s lead.”
• Siano Mobile Silicon, a global mobile TV chip maker, announced the launch of the newest product in its CMMB TV receiver chip family - the SMS1186. Following in the footsteps of the SMS1180, which was launched last year before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the new SMS1186 boasts affordability and higher quality, the company says.
• Gigaset Communications, producer of cordless phones under the Siemens Gigaset brand, launched the Gigaset One, a home plus mobile convergence technology solution.The new Gigaset One offers an all-in-one solution for consumers to merge home and mobile Bluetooth phone systems into one. Gigaset One allows users to connect up to three Bluetooth mobile phones, each with a unique ring tone.
• FusionOne, provider of mobile phone content portability services, launched the Application Programming Interface (API) for its Network Address Book (NAB) solution. The NAB API provides a tool for developers to access centralized contact lists across a wide range of communications services and is a critical component to helping members of the FusionOne Developer Program expand their suite of services.
Source : wirelessweek.com
Verizon Steps into M2M with Qualcomm JV
SAN DIEGO—Verizon Wireless is extending its tendrils into the machine-to-machine (M2M) space with a freshly-inked deal with Qualcomm.
The as-yet-unnamed company will target the expanding M2M market in several vertical industries, including healthcare, utilities and consumer electronics.
Although the firms have not yet prioritized which segment will be their primary focus, wireless healthcare products and President Obama’s smart grid initiative offer fertile ground for new services.
Calling the joint venture the “ultimate partnership for M2M,” Verizon’s Tony Lewis said at Qualcomm’s Smart Services conference here that the deal “bodes well for all the verticals that are in the M2M space.”
Breaking into the M2M space in healthcare and utilities presents some challenges, however. Security and privacy requirements are paramount in the healthcare space, and utilities require an exceptional level of security and reliability from the wireless networks they use to manage the electric grid.
Many utilities currently manage their own networks instead of outsourcing their M2M efforts to carriers and have been historically reticent to send out critical tasks to outside providers.
However, Lewis says that may change as they seek to deploy their next-generation networks. The joint venture will have the backing of Verizon’s network expertise and Qualcomm’s billions of dollars worth of research and development. Lewis believes that together, these capabilities will convince utilities of the joint venture’s competency. They’ll see that “we’re there, we’re ubiquitous and [the network] is already in place,” he says.
Though the companies declined to provide financial information about the deal, Qualcomm and Verizon will have an equal stake in the stand-alone venture. Qualcomm’s Steve Pazol will lead the effort; he previously served as vice president of Global Smart Services at Qualcomm.
Though exact details of the deal were limited, one feature of the joint venture will be the use of cloud computing to track assets and automate device provisioning on wireless networks.
Source : wirelessweek.com
WiMAX-Backer Alvarion’s Losses to Widen in 2Q
Alvarion is far from technology agnostic. Instead, it has firmly planted itself in the WiMAX space, recently inking a deal with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to further its stake in the technology.
When the company reports second-quarter results tomorrow, it will be interesting to see what the 4G technology is doing for Alvarion’s finances.
Alvarion’s loss is expected to widen to 5 cents per share in its second quarter as sales slump $58.23 million, from $67.9 million last quarter. The outlook for the rest of 2009 is a bit more optimistic, as the company is expected to break even and eventually turn a profit as its sales of WiMAX gear grows.
The company is heavily dependent on the success of WiMAX: of first-quarter sales, $50.9 million was attributable to WiMAX. The company recently scored a series of high-profile contracts in the WiMAX space.
Aside from its reselling deal with NSN, Alvarion has inked a $100 million contract with Open Range Communications to build out wireless broadband in rural America. It also was recently chosen to build a nationwide mobile WiMAX network in Italy, a deal valued at about $20 million.
Though the company expects the bulk of its growth to come from Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, it may be able to benefit from President Barack Obama’s broadband initiative. Given the flat outlook for the company, however, it looks like that benefit is some ways away.
Source : wirelessweek.com
Steady Stream of Devices Coming
What’s on Verizon Wireless’ official device roadmap? A refreshed BlackBerry Storm later this year, Android and Motorola devices, plus a Palm Pre early next year, according to Verizon Communications President and CEO Denny Strigl in a conference call with analysts yesterday.
The carrier continues its “excellent” relationships with LG and Samsung as well, he said during the call to discuss second-quarter financial results. “You can expect to see a steady stream of attractive devices coming,” he said.
His comments mostly confirmed earlier reports, although the timing of the Palm Pre hasn’t always been clear. The “early next year” part about the Pre would indicate Sprint’s exclusivity on the device won’t last long. Sprint launched the device in June.
As for the iPhone, Strigl said it has been successful in expanding the overall smartphone market, and the carrier did notice an impact in the last couple weeks of June, when the $99 iPhone and $199 iPhone 3GS went on sale.
Asked about the current aggressive pricing environment, CFO John Killian said Verizon isn’t losing business to competitors; its churn has more to do with the economy and people losing their jobs.
The carrier also offered a bit more clarity on its LTE plans. The current game plan calls for conducting LTE trials in Seattle and Boston later this year, with a commercial launch in up to 30 markets next year. No specific bubble in capex is expected this year due to LTE, but next year, “we will be spending on LTE,” Strigl said. “We haven’t made public that amount, but I will tell you that it’s no significant addition on top of our planned capital budget for the wireless group.”
The plan is to continue expansion in 2011 and 2012, with the ultimate goal to cover all its POPs with LTE by the end of 2013.
Source : wirelessweek.com
EarthLink sales, earnings, subscribers drop
EarthLink reported on Tuesday lower sales and profits for the second quarter, though its earnings per share passed analysts' expectations.
For the quarter ended June 30, the Internet service provider earned $31.5 million, or 29 cents a share, compared with $50.6 million, or 45 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Sales fell 24 percent to $185.6 million from $245.6 million in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts polled by First Call had forecast earnings of 26 cents a share on revenue of $186.5 million.
At quarter's end, EarthLink had 2.45 million subscribers, compared with 3.3 million at the end of the second quarter last year. That's a 26 percent drop.
EarthLink, however, was upbeat over customer retention. The company said that the number of subscribers lost in the second quarter dropped to 149,000 from 282,000 lost in the second quarter of 2008. Subscriber churn, which measures the number of people who exit the service over a given period, fell to 3.6 percent in the second quarter vs. 4.3 percent in the year-ago quarter.
Cost cuts aided EarthLink's bottom line, with total expenses for the second quarter declining to $54.9 million, down 34 percent from 2008's second quarter. The company has been trying to rein in costs since 2007.
Based on the quarter's results, EarthLink upped its financial forecast for 2009. It's looking at adjusted earnings of $235 million to $245 million for the year. That's up from its previous forecast of $220 million to $230 million.
Additionally, EarthLink declared the launch of a quarterly cash dividend of 14 cents a share on its common stock.
"The consistency of our operating performance over the past eight quarters and our confidence that the company's core business will continue to generate solid cash flow enables us to commence a quarterly dividend program that will return a meaningful amount of cash to shareholders," EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff said in a statement.
EarthLink also announced that Bradley Ferguson will become its chief financial officier, starting Saturday. Ferguson has been the company's controller and previously its vice president of commercial finance. Ferguson has been an EarthLink officer since its merger with MindSpring Enterprises in 2000 and was a MindSpring officer before that. Current CFO Kevin Dotts will leave the company in mid-September.
Source : news.cnet.com
WiMax subscribers to hit 50 million by 2014
The number of people grabbing their Internet access through WiMax is expected to jump to 50 million by 2014, says Juniper Research.
A report released Tuesday by the British research firm describes the growth in WiMax stemming from areas unreachable or unserved by broadband cable or DSL.
WiMax is a wireless technology that delivers broadband speeds over the last mile, ideal for locations where cabling is not available or feasible. Faster than current wireless 3G technology, WiMax can also serve large metropolitan areas as it covers a wider area than conventional Wi-Fi. Referenced in the report, the most advanced WiMax standard, WiMAX 802.16e, delivers greater throughput than other WiMax standards. Though large-scale WiMax deployments have been delayed, many providers have so far been successful in countries ranging from Pakistan to the U.S., says Juniper. The new 4G Clearwire wireless networks used by Sprint, Comcast, and other providers, runs over WiMax. But WiMax faces an uphill climb against the competing wireless broadband standard Long Term Evolution, or LTE. A recent study by research firm In-Stat, predicted that WiMax may ultimately lose the battle against LTE, which is already backed by major telcos AT&T and Verizon. Juniper Research, however, believes that the global deployment of WiMax will drive its growth. The larger number of WiMax subscribers will be in the Far East and China region, says the report, due to that area's early adoption of the technology. WiMax gains in Western Europe and, to a lesser degree North America, will occur in areas underserved by DSL. Growth in Africa and the Middle East is likely to surpass that of Western Europe, says Juniper, gaining 15 percent of the overall WiMax subscriber base by 2014. "WiMAX 16e will have opportunities not just in developing countries, but also areas of developed countries where the DSL coverage is weak or nonexistent," said Howard Wilcox, the author of the report. "The key for the industry ecosystem now is to overcome the challenges and ensure trials evolve into commercial services quickly."
Source : news.cnet.com
iPhone manufacturer to pay family of dead worker
Foxconn, the company that manufactures Apple's iPhone and iPods, has agreed to compensate the family of a Chinese worker who apparently committed suicide over a missing prototype.
A Foxconn official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday the company will give Sun Danyong's parents a one-time payment of 360,000 yuan ($52,600), according to an Associated Press report. The company also agreed to pay an additional 30,000 yuan ($4,385) for each year either of the parents is alive, the AP said.
That figure is higher than that reported Monday by The New York Times, which stated that the family was receiving 300,000 Chinese renminbi, or about $44,000, and that his girlfriend was getting an Apple laptop.
Sun, who was 25, apparently jumped to his death on July 16 after allegedly losing a fourth-generation iPhone prototype that he was responsible for.
Apple expressed regret over Sun's death and said last week that it was "awaiting results of the investigations into his death."
Foxconn apparently suspended a security official after Sun's death, and the case was turned over to Chinese authorities to investigate. The security officer denied beating Sun but did acknowledge that he became "a little angry," according to The New York Times.
Foxconn General Manager James Lee said this wasn't the first time products given to Sun had gone missing, the New York Times reported. "Several times he had some products missing, then he got them back," Lee said. "We don't know who took the product, but it was at his stop."
Source : news.cnet.com
Sprint Nextel bets big on prepaid wireless
Sprint Nextel is doubling down on the growing prepaid cell phone market in an effort to better compete with rivals, AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless.
On Tuesday morning, Sprint, the No. 3 nationwide U.S. wireless operator, announced plans to buy Virgin Mobile USA in a deal that is valued at around $483 million. At first it might seem strange for Sprint, which went into a tailspin after its last big acquisition of wireless competitor Nextel in 2005, to buy another wireless operator. But with a strong cash position and a management team determined to turn the company around, it looks like Sprint sees a big enough opportunity in the prepaid market to risk the pains of consuming another operator.
The strategy shift comes at a time when Sprint is still losing high value "postpaid" customers, who typically sign lengthy contracts and pay for service on a monthly basis. During the first quarter of 2009, Sprint lost nearly 1.25 million of these postpaid subscribers. Sprint reports its second quarter earnings on Wednesday, which should provide a clearer picture on where the company currently stands in terms of subscriber gains or losses.
But given recent second quarter earnings reports from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the two largest operators in the U.S., it's likely that Sprint lost a substantial number of postpaid subscribers yet again. AT&T said it added 1.4 million new subscribers and Verizon Wireless said it added 1.1 million new subscribers during the second quarter.
The fact that AT&T and Verizon Wireless are still adding new wireless subscribers in a market that is more than 80 percent penetrated likely means they are stealing subscribers from other providers, such as Sprint and T-Mobile USA, which also hasn't reported second quarter earnings yet.
With this in mind, it makes sense for Sprint to go after the prepaid market, since that is where much of the subscriber growth is.
For years, the postpaid business model has dominated the U.S. cell phone market. Meanwhile, the prepaid market in the U.S. has been largely left to consumers who are young, price-sensitive, or considered credit risks.
"Prepaid is growing at an unprecedented rate with consumers keenly focused on value."
--Sprint CEO Dan Hesse
Now, it looks like the tide is turning. Early financial results this year indicate that consumers have been flocking to new all-you-can-eat prepaid plans instead of the contract-bound postpaid plans. Craig Moffett, an equities analyst with Bernstein Research, said after the first quarter that new subscriber growth for postpaid customers across all major carriers had fallen 58 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009.
During this time, prepaid customers were on the rise with about 80 percent of new cell phone subscribers signing up to prepaid service instead of a traditional postpaid plan. A year ago this figure was about 50 percent.
Sprint Nextel was one of the operators that benefited from this shift. It reported during the first quarter that it had added about 674,000 new prepaid subscriptions in the first quarter, according to Moffett's estimates. Meanwhile, it lost about 1.25 million postpaid subscribers.
Prepaid gets a BoostThe growth in Sprint's prepaid base was largely due to a new promotion from its Boost Mobile brand, which in January started offering a $50-a-month unlimited voice and data plan. The unlimited plan was quickly copied by other prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile, which launched its $50 unlimited service in April this year.
The Boost Mobile service is available anywhere Sprint's iDEN network is available. And the service is largely geared to a young, urban demographic. Virgin Mobile uses Sprint's nationwide CDMA cell phone network, and its service appeals to a slightly different demographic. These are price-sensitive consumers looking for a good deal and no monthly contract.
Combining the Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile brands means that Sprint will be able to reach more customers. And it also will make Sprint the second largest prepaid wireless provider in the market, with a combined subscriber base of 9.5 million.
Another mobile virtual network operator, Tracfone, which uses other carriers' networks to provide its service, is the largest prepaid operator with 12.5 million customers, according to reported second quarter results. T-Mobile USA holds the No. 2 position with 6.2 million prepaid customers at the end of the first quarter of 2009. And regional operator MetroPCS is in third place with 6.1 million customers at the end of first quarter.
Separately, Virgin Mobile USA and Sprint's Boost service trailed behind these operators and also trailed AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which individually had just over 5 million prepaid, in the second quarter, according to Bernstein's Moffett.
"The acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA positions Sprint for even greater success in the prepaid wireless segment," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said in a statement. "Prepaid is growing at an unprecedented rate with consumers keenly focused on value. Virgin Mobile is an iconic brand in the marketplace that will complement our Boost Mobile brand."
But focusing so much attention on the prepaid market has its risks. While the prepaid market may be growing faster than the postpaid market, these customers typically spend far less than customers who have monthly contracts.
For example, AT&T reported last week that the average revenue each of its postpaid subscribers generated during the second quarter was $59.21. This was the fifth consecutive quarter that AT&T managed to increase the average amount its users spend each month on its service. The increase in spending, even with an ailing U.S. economy, is largely attributed to more customers buying smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone, which require a $30 a month data plan.
Meanwhile, Virgin Mobile USA reported in May that the average revenue per user for the first quarter of 2009 was $20.08, slightly lower than the $20.14 the operator recorded in the first quarter of 2008. Virgin Mobile's management team said at the time that the company expected to increase the average revenue spend as its new $50 a month unlimited plan attracted more customers.
Customer-base of bargain shoppersThe problem for prepaid providers is that most consumers looking for this kind of plan are looking for a low-cost deal. And most are not yet using phones that require hefty data plans. For example, Virgin Mobile's data ARPU for the first quarter was $4.42 per month, up 33 percent year over year. But the bulk of this was in messaging services and not Web surfing or application downloads.
Virgin Mobile CEO Dan Schulman acknowledged how difficult it is to make money from selling low-cost prepaid services when the company last year bought another MVNO called Helio, which offered a high-end postpaid service. He told the Dow Jones News Service when the acquisition was announced that it would take 700,000 typical Virgin Mobile customers to equal the 170,000 Helio subscribers the company got through its acquisition, because Helio customers spend more per month.
Other executives from prepaid wireless operators have also said that it's difficult to make money in this market. In a recent interview with CNET News Leap Wireless CEO Doug Hutcheson said that generating profits in prepaid is all about servicing high-volumes of customers while keeping costs as low as possible.
"We sell twice the number of voice minutes and two to three times the number of text messages as the large national carriers, which have ARPUs that are $10 to $15 higher than ours," he said during the interview. "And our profit margins fall in the high 30 percent range. In some older markets we are closer to 40 percent...So this means that these providers can't expect to drop prices and lower ARPU and expect to make these same margins. You have to seriously increase volume and control costs."
In the postpaid market, the key to revenue growth and profitability is getting consumers to upgrade to smartphones, which are essentially mini-computers that provide a much richer Internet experience than traditional cell phones. The smartphone market is the fastest growing segment within the mobile handset market. Verizon Wireless said more than 40 percent of the devices it sells today are smartphones. Just a few years ago, smartphones and PDAs only made up about 15 percent of the total number of devices Verizon Wireless sold.
Sprint, which has a high performing 3G wireless network, has been trying to compete in the smartphone postpaid market, as well. The company spent a great deal of money and marketing power on the June launch of the Palm Pre, which is currently offered only on Sprint's network. And it has also been pushing the new BlackBerry Tour, Research in Motion's latest BlackBerry.
It's not known yet what kind of effect the Pre has had on Sprint's sales so far. But when the device launched, analysts estimated the company only sold somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 devices the first weekend it was available. More accurate sales figures should emerge Wednesday when Sprint reports second quarter earnings.
But it's unlikely that the Palm Pre or the BlackBerry Tour will provide the kind of boost to Sprint that the Apple iPhone has given to AT&T. For one, neither of these phones are considered as "hot" as the iPhone. Apple's CEO said that the company sold over a million iPhone 3GS's around the world the first weekend it was available. Secondly, it looks like Sprint's exclusive on the Palm Pre will end in January 2010 when Verizon Wireless says it will begin offering the device on its network. Meanwhile, the BlackBerry Tour is already available on both Verizon's and Sprint's networks.
Bernstein Research analyst Moffett said in a note to investors that he believes the Virgin Mobile acquisition is a slight positive for Sprint. The acquisition won't necessarily increase Sprint's aggregate customer base, but it will shift Virgin Mobile's 5.2 million subscribers that were counted as wholesale customers as prepaid customers. There won't likely be big operational savings, since Virgin Mobile already uses Sprint's network. But Sprint notes there could be synergies in consolidating corporate functions and management. Still, Moffett warns that Sprint should not take its eye off the postpaid market entirely.
"The acquisition nudges Sprint further along in its metamorphosis into a prepaid and wholesale operator," he said in a research note. "However, this deal and the strategy shift in general does nothing to address the key issue that Sprint faces, namely the continuing meltdown of its much higher value postpaid business. Closing the deal and integrating Virgin may consume management's time and distract them from what should be their primary focus."
Source : news.cnet.com
Verizon challenges Apple with Vcast app store
Verizon Wireless is jumping on the application store bandwagon and taking on Apple and its App Store with its own Vcast application store, which it announced at its first ever developer conference in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday.
The new Vcast application store will launch in the fourth quarter of 2009. Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, said it will offer application developers a quick and simple way to distribute and monetize their applications while providing wireless subscribers with an easier way to discover and buy new applications for their smartphones.
Executives from Verizon Wireless--which has been criticized in the past for restricting devices, disabling features and blocking applications from its phones--say they recognize the industry is changing. And the new application store is one way the company can maintain its relevancy in the wireless market while also fostering innovation in the developer community.
"It's a new day (in wireless)," McAdam said in the opening address of the developer conference which was also Webcast. "And our future success is no longer in the walled-garden. Our success is tied to you (developers)."
Unlike device makers such as RIM and Nokia, or operating system software companies like Microsoft and Google (Android), which are all developing their own application stores, Verizon offers something they can't: valuable access to cell phone subscribers and their personal data.
For this reason, Verizon may stand a slightly better chance of creating a successful application storefront than these other companies. But the big question is whether the Verizon Vcast store can match the success of Apple's iTunes-based App Store.
Apple, which launched the App Store just over a year ago, is the hands-down leader in the smartphone application market. It's unclear exactly how much money the company makes from the App Store. But there is no question that the virtual storefront has been a success. In its first year, developers have added more than 50,000 applications and users have downloaded over a billion applications onto iPhones and iPod Touch devices.
And because the service leverages Apple's existing e-commerce platform, iTunes, whatever money Apple generates from selling applications is more than it costs the company to run the service. Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett says there are many parallels between how Apple's App Store is affecting the wireless industry and how iTunes has affected the music industry.
"Apple essentially sucked the intellectual property value out of the music business and turned it into a loss leader for selling iPods," he said in a phone interview. "And they're doing it again in wireless. That's a pretty neat trick. And it's a pretty hard trick to pull off, too."
From BREW to new app store Verizon is no stranger to running and operating an application store. The company has been offering its traditional cell phone subscribers mobile applications from the Qualcomm BREW platform for years. This business alone generates over a billion dollars a year for Verizon Wireless. John Stratton, vice president of marketing for Verizon, said that new Vcast application store will extend this kind of service to smartphone users.
Since news of the Verizon application store started trickling out a few weeks ago, bloggers and others following the industry have speculated on whether the new store would compete with efforts that some of Verizon's partners, such as Research In Motion and Microsoft, have mounted. These companies along with others including Google's Android community and Nokia are developing their own smartphone application stores.
But John Stratton, vice president of marketing for Verizon, emphasized that the Vcast application store is not meant to compete with these other stores. Rather, it's meant to complement them by offering resources and tools to make it easier for wireless users to access the applications.
The ultimate goal he said is to make it as easy as possible for developers to get their applications in the hands of consumers and to create more channels for accessing this content. This means that applications that have already been approved for RIM's App World store will move through the process as quickly as possible and be ported directly to the Vcast store. The goal is to have most applications approved and on the network within 14 days.
The Vcast store is also meant to make it easier for consumers to discover and pay for the applications they want to buy. For example, the company will leverage its existing Verizon Web portal, which is one of the top 26 most visited sites on the Web. It will allow the current 60 million registered users and new users a place where they can search for, rate, and download applications for their smartphones.
The carrier is also creating open APIs to allow developers to hook into Verizon's billing system so that users can purchase applications with one simple click and pay for the device as part of their wireless bill. It will also provide hooks into other subscriber platforms, such as location-based services, presence, and messaging.
"These are great tools that can help open the audience more widely for application developers," Stratton said. "And it will allow subscribers to easily discover, purchase, and manage their applications."
Indeed, today's billing process for many of the new storefronts that are hitting the market require users to register a credit card or use PayPal to purchase applications.
"That is the single highest barrier to consumption of mobile apps," he said. "By hooking into our billing system, it creates a one-click process to buy an app."
A shifting marketplace Verizon also sees an opportunity to make money and protect its dominance in the wireless market with its application store. The company has also acknowledged that the market is shifting. Smartphones, which now account for over 40 percent of the new handsets the carrier sells, have changed the game and are a very important factor in which carrier customers choose.
"Consumers are thinking more about what they want to do with their devices," Stratton said. "Our concern as we move from the monolithic BREW platform for features phones to one that is pretty wide open for smartphones, is that there is a greater risk of fragmentation. We don't think that Verizon will solve all the challenges of fragmentation, but we do believe we can help."
The Vcast application store also offers a way for Verizon to maintain some control over which applications make it onto its network. And also provides the company some share of revenue. By contrast, Verizon's rival AT&T has given up a lot of control in its deal with Apple to be the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone. While Apple gets 30 percent of all revenue generated from the sale of applications on the Apple App Store, AT&T gets zero.
AT&T claims it benefits from all the App Store activity because it drives sales of the iPhone, which in turn drives sales of its $30 a month data service. But the reality is that the more popular the iPhone applications become and the more bandwidth each application requires, the more AT&T must spend on upgrading its network to ensure the network can handle the traffic load. Meanwhile, Apple sells more iPhones.
Verizon Wireless doesn't want the same thing to happen to it. It is following Apple's lead and is allowing Vcast application store developers to keep 70 percent of the revenue generated from their applications, while it keeps the remaining 30 percent. Device makers, such as RIM, which is partnering with Verizon on the Vcast store, won't get a cut of the revenue. But Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, who was at the developer conference, doesn't seem to mind.
"We want to make it as easy as possible for our application developers to create and monetize applications for the BlackBerry," he said. "We will support our own application store worldwide and the Vcast store on Verizon, so that we provide more channels for our developers. It's real simple; for this revenue stream to carry on and thrive, the applications need to be adopted so we can drive more BlackBerry sales. And this makes the carrier a strategic partner."
As for competing directly against Apple and the App Store, RIM's Balsillie said that it's not the volume of applications that matter so much as how valuable those applications are to the consumer.
"About 10 years ago there was a well-known PDA company with 40,000 apps and 100,000 developers," he said. "We had just one application, which turned out to be a very good application. And you see what happened."
Balsillie's story alluded to the rise of RIM and the BlackBerry, whose killer app is pushed e-mail, versus the PDA maker Palm, which relied on session pull e-mail. During the discussion at the developer conference, Balsillie predicted that Verizon's efforts and the trend in the market toward more applications in general will benefit Verizon and companies that work to create useful applications.
"Titillation is phase one of the application market," he said, speaking of the thousands of seemingly useless applications in Apple's App Store. "The next phase will be about enabling richer applications. Instead of downloading 30 or 40 applications, the benchmark for success will be the stickiness of the applications."
Source : news.cnet.com
Wireless finds a niche in healthcare
Wireless technology isn’t just a consumer-centric feature any longer – it’s become an integral part of the U.S. healthcare industry, and will only continue to grow within this segment. This according to CTIA keynote speaker Dr. Eric J. Topol, M.D., Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute and Chief Academic Officer of Scripps Health, who on Wednesday morning talked about current and future wireless applications in medical practice. Dr. Topol also announced the opening of a health center dedicated to developing digital wireless medical devices.
Calling it “a sea change in the way health can be practiced in the years ahead,” Topol discussed the advent of monitoring applications – such as a fitness tracking chart for the iPhone – offered for the latest generation of smartphones, and ideas that are being developed that will make such apps an even more powerful component of medical care.
In future healthcare, “pill phones” – inexpensive cell phones currently in use which allow patients to track and report their medication schedule – may be replaced by “smart pills” or “ingestible event markers”: pills with a tiny embedded RFID chip that reports when the pill is taken (currently being tested under the name "Proteus"). Or even pills (like the “iPill”) that don’t break down in the body until they are wirelessly activated.
Devices that track “lifestyle” – such as fitness or diet trackers – will become much more advanced, he said.
Remote or home-based monitoring advances would allow the elderly to stay in their homes longer, rather than being moved into an assisted-living facility, Topol said. And heart patients can be monitored constantly from the time EMTs arrive on scene, through the patients’ hospital care and during cardiac rehabilitation – much of which the patient may be able to do from home.
The upshot of all this technological growth? According to Topol, big savings on healthcare costs. He projected that wireless monitoring of, for example, congestive heart failure patients would save $10 billion in costs, while providing better care due to the nonstop data received from patients’ monitoring systems.
Topol also featured the new West Wireless Health Institute, a San Diego-based medical research center launched on March 30. Funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West and built with the assistance of Scripps Health and Qualcomm, the institute is the first wireless healthcare research institute in the United States.
Source : telecommagazine.com
EU frees new spectrum for new and faster mobile services
Europe took an important step towards a new generation of mobile services today. The Council of Ministers followed the European Parliament in approving a proposal from the European Commission to modernise European legislation – the so-called GSM Directive – on the use of the radio spectrum needed for mobile services. The GSM Directive of 1987 reserves the use of part of the 900MHz spectrum band to GSM (Global System for Mobile or originally Groupe Spécial Mobile) access technologies such as mobile phones.
The updated Directive now allows the 900 MHz frequency band to be used to provide faster, pan-European services such as mobile internet while ensuring the continuation of GSM services. This new flexibility will foster stronger competition on Europe’s telecoms market and contribute to a more rapid and more widespread roll-out of wireless broadband services, one of the drivers of economic recovery. Industry savings of up to € 1.6 billion are expected from the reform of the GSM Directive. The renewed Directive will enter into force this October. The Commission had proposed the reform of the GSM Directive in parallel to the reform of the EU Telecoms Rules. The reformed GSM Directive is the first of several important Directives in the telecoms sector being negotiated where the agreement of Parliament and Council now paves the way for a stronger wireless economy.
“The GSM standard has been a success story for Europe, where it was born. By updating the GSM Directive, the EU has paved the way for a new generation of services and technologies where Europe can be a world leader,” said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding. “I would like to thank the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers for making this possible by swiftly agreeing to the reform of this very important piece of telecoms legislation. This reform will remove constraints on operators so that they can deploy new technologies in the GSM bands to develop high-speed mobile broadband services. This should give a welcome boost to Europe’s wireless economy and help trigger the take-off of a Digital Europe.”
Source : .telconews.com
BT named most gay friendly corporation in the world
The International Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (IGLCC) is pleased to unveil the results of the first edition of the International Business Equality Index. The Index is a measurement of the performance of multinational corporations in relation to Diversity and Inclusion issues specifically focusing on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities in the countries where they operate. The leading corporations are BT Group, followed by IBM and The Dow Chemical Company. The announcement was made at a press conference during the closing of the IGLCC Second Annual Congress in Copenhagen.
The corporations participating in this year’s Index are: AMR (the parent company of American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle), BT Group, Cisco Systems, The Dow Chemical Company, IBM, ING, Intel, KPMG, Kraft Food, Merck, Novartis, Philips, SAP, TNT and UBS. They represent 1.7 million employees in 227 countries and sales of USD 800 Billion a year.
“On behalf of BT, I am absolutely delighted with this recognition” said Ian Livingston, BT’s CEO.” As one of the largest communication companies in the world, we provide service to customers in more than 170 countries and employ well in excess of 100,000 people across the globe. Diversity must be, and is, at the heart of our business and having the policies and the practices in place to support the LGBT community is essential to our success.”
Anne Heal, BT’s Senior Champion for Sexual Orientation added, “BT has been providing same-sex partner benefits to employees since the early 1980s and will continue to look at ways in which we can ensure that our people can be ‘who they are’ at work without fear of discrimination or prejudice. The IGLCC award recognises the efforts of out HR community and our LGBT network, Kaleidoscope, in their determination to ensure that equality of opportunity is reality in our business. I am also delighted.”
“The findings of the survey on which the Index is based are somewhat mixed, but definitively encouraging,” said IGLCC Secretary General, Pascal Lépine. “The vast majority of respondent corporations have Diversity and Inclusion programs and most explicitly include LGBT issues. We see from this survey that most of these companies take sexual orientation and gender identity matters very seriously. However, full equality is still years or decades away.”
While corporations scoring high on the index are powerful examples of how diversity and inclusion programs can be very successful, the 2009 Index findings also point to a darker side: nearly 50% of global corporations participating in the survey do not have any LGBT Diversity & Inclusion managers; openly gay men or lesbians are hard to find among the ranks of management (fewer than one out of ten include gay men or lesbians in more than one of every sixteen countries they have a presence in); and, without regard to the level of internal focus on LGBT inclusion, these multinational companies are not proudly trumpeting their diversity programmes to the general public or the local LGBT communities through advertising or PR. In fact, only a handful of companies support local LGBT communities either through financial or in-kind support.
Despite these negatives, Mr. Lépine is optimistic. “To have such confidence shown towards our community makes me believe that there are still many good chapters to be written in the history of the international LGBT business community. It is especially important in these difficult economic and political times to salute all the participating corporations for their courage and example”, he said in today’s presentation. “But,” he continued, “we must be realistic and say that, even if today we see promise, there is much more work to be done. Far too often we see and hear of gay and lesbian professionals throughout the world that do not have access to basic employee rights and benefits just because of their sexual orientation”, added Mr. Lépine.
The Index is the product of an international committee that includes gays, lesbians and transgender professionals living and working in eight different countries from Europe and North America. The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) and its European Region (ILGA-Europe) have played an instrumental role in the development of the program. “It is obvious that with the impact of globalization the LGBT community has its eyes on what corporations are doing at the international level, not just in one single country”, said David Pollard, Chairman of the Index Committee.
“BT Group’s outstanding commitment, policies and investment in LGBT diversity merits them the title of the most LGBT friendly corporation in the world. We challenge all multinationals to follow the example and leadership shown by those who saw a chance to be ahead of the curve. The IGLCC is proud of this historic moment and extends the invitation to all international corporations to participate in next year’s Index”, concluded Mr. Lépine.
To download a copy of the Index report, go to: www.iglcc.org/index2009
About the IGLCC
The International Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (IGLCC) was founded in 2006 in Hamburg, Germany and is based in Montréal, Canada. IGLCC is the world’s leading international LGBT business network, operating in 15 countries through 17 chambers of commerce and business organizations. IGLCC represents the interests of over 55 million Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) employees, business owners and consumers worldwide.
Source : telconews.com
Asia-Pacific cellular telcos will adopt all-IP backhaul by 2012
Asian telcos will be tapping next generation networks (NGN) for their wireless backhaul by 2012 to satisfy surging demand from bandwidth hungry services and devices, according to international research and analyst firm IDC.
IDC predicts there will be more than 3 million base stations and over 1.8 million cell sites in the Asia Pacific by 2012, representing a growth of 24.3 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, from 2008.
It expects half of these sites will be connected to fiber through carrier Ethernet. Urban 3G high-speed packet access (HSPA) will be linked to fiber by 2011 in most markets in the region. IDC also foresees that almost all urban WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE) base stations will be connected using fiber by 2012. Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) microwave and fixed WiMAX will be used to provide up to 300 Mbps backhaul in areas where fiber is not available.
Scalable, high bandwidth backhaul
"A number of leading mobile carriers in Asia/Pacific, in countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines and Singapore, are already starting to connect parts of their metropolitan 3G/HSPA backhauls with carrier Ethernet over fiber," said Bill Rojas, research director for IDC’s Asia/Pacific Telecommunications Research. "The main driver of this transformation is the need for mobile operators to provide scalable, high-bandwidth, Web 2.0 video and audio content, and Internet access services for both mobile and fixed users in incremental capex outlays."
The report adds that mobile operators face challenges in addressing the need to provide more bandwidth to end-user devices at the downlink and uplink ends. Among others, it highlights the current market development where mobile operators have to look at increasing data average return per unit (ARPU) to offset the decline in voice ARPU. IDC also points out that telcos should be aware their introduction of higher data speed services will potentially result in exponential increases in data traffic but it will not necessarily be translated into higher data ARPU.
Business model safeguarding telcos, yet satisfying customers
The solution, it adds, is for operators to offer scalable bandwidth but at tariff schedules that resembles a combination of flat-rate plateau with specific usage caps. Scalable bandwidth in the backhaul will be important to balance opex and capex, otherwise the operators may find themselves in the noncompetitive situation of not being able to offer new multimedia-rich wireless services because of incremental bandwidth constraints, the report said.
“Without such a transformation of the wireless backhaul, the promise of 3.5G and 4G systems such as LTE will not be feasible. The emergence of bandwidth hungry devices such as Apple's 3G iPhone and Google’s Android-operating system based devices means that mobile operators need to begin the transformation to NGN in the backhaul urgently in order to avoid being branded as obsolete,” Rojas added.
Next generation backhaul is the way to go
IDC believes that in order to support high-speed wireless services, operators will need to build scalable all-IP backhaul which combines carrier Ethernet and fiber distribution in the urban centers, as well as microwave backhaul and long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing (LH DWDM).
Green IT will put additional pressure on radio access network (RAN) and backhaul designs to become more energy efficient. The multitude of radio standards is also putting pressure on vendors to implement reconfigurable software solutions in the base station, IDC stresses. If operators delay the revamp of their mobile core networks to an all-IP platform, they will be left behind.
Raising a red flag, the report adds that unlike existing 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks, the users of converged mobile devices — 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi, dual-mode support and upcoming 802.16e mobile WiMAX devices — will expect 1 Mbps speed all the time, anywhere and everywhere.
With LTE just around the corner, which could see peak capacity of over 100-150 Mbps per cell site, operators deploying such technology in dense urban areas could be facing huge bandwidth requirements, invariably putting enormous stress on the existing backhaul and transport infrastructure, IDC warns.
Source : telecommagazine.com
NOVONOUS Releases the "Future of Value Added Services (VAS) market in India
(1888PressRelease) July 26, 2009 - NOVONOUS announces the release of its new report titled “Future of Value Added Services (VAS) market in India, 2009-2013”. Ambarish Verma, CEO of NOVONOUS says, “The mobile VAS market has grown by around 60% year on year and is estimated to touch INR 251 billion in year “2009-10”. This growth is proof of the resilience of this industry to global economic slowdown. “Ambarish further says that, “This trend is expected to increase in future, as VAS services will become a major revenue source for telecom operators in India, who are facing challenges like decreasing Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) despite increase in consumer base.”In India, SMS, Ringtone, Caller Ring Back Tone (CRBT) and Games constitute the bulk of the VAS. VAS delivery has been mainly based upon SMS, IVR, GPRS and WAP platforms.Mobile value-added services (VAS) are the services that are offered, by differentiation from the normal services, and the ability for mobile operators to charge a premium price for the services rendered. Mobile VAS include non-voice advanced messaging services such as SMS, MMS and wireless data services based on wireless data bearer technologies such as WLAN, GPRS, WAP with VAS applications including mobile gaming. This report forecasts VAS Market size over the period of 2009-13. This report also maps VAS under various categories. The report identifies the growth drivers, barriers for VAS market in India and has a comprehensive list of well known players in this segment.
Source : 1888pressrelease.com
Is WiMAX out of 4G race ?
I found the recent reports on HSPA and WiMAX users data very interesting. Does the reports indicate that the WiMAX is out of 4G race ? Pl go thru - As per the GSM Association reports - The number of live HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) connections will pass 150 million globally this summer, while according to a report published by Marvedis this week WiMAX has just 3.5 million users. This puts HSPA firmly ahead of other mobile broadband technologies.As per Wireless Intelligence reports , EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) have 49.5 million HSPA users currently and almost 60 million predicted by the end of the summer. Asia-Pacific is a close second at 47.7 million subscribers and by the end of September will have over 56 million. The U.S. trails significantly, with about 32 million HSPA connections growing to perhaps 37 million by September, while the rest of the Americas will hit just over four million subscribers in the same time frame.Why HSPA may be a prefered choice to operators - HSPA is an attractive option for mobile operators as the technology allows operators to upgrade their existing 3G networks, often by simply upgrading the software. This gives HSPA a leg up over WiMAX, which requires new network infrastructure. Further, its performance rates are attractive, as well. HSPA download rates range from 3.6 Mbps to 14.4 Mbps, and a handful of operators are beginning to roll out 21 Mbps using HSPA+.The GSMA reports that there are more than 300 upgraded networks across 127 countries. More than 1500 HSPA-enabled devices are on the market. Its rapid adoption — faster even than SMS — has led the organization to embrace HSPA as the dominant mobile broadband technology.The report expects growth to continue at a rapid pace, predicting 200 million connections by the first quarter of 2010.
Source :Telecom Sector
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Dancom to establish Pakistan’s first WiMAX Network with RedMAX™
Communications, a leading provider of standards-based wireless broadband equipment, today announced that Dancom, a subsidiary of Dancom Malaysia serving more than 150 cities in Pakistan, has chosen Redline’s RedMAX™ products for its nationwide network in Pakistan. Dancom’s WiMAX network is the first commercial WiMAX deployment in Pakistan and is set for launch in July, 2006. In the first wave of RedMAX™ deployments, WiMAX networks will be established in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad and Multan. These will be followed by WiMAX networks in Quetta, Peshawar, Guiranwala, Sialkot and other regions throughout the country. Redline and its RedMAX products are represented in Pakistan by SARCORP, a leading Technology Solutions Provider.
“Dancom has established a strong reputation for carrier grade mission critical networks to serve the Public Sector, Enterprise, Banking, SME’s and SOHO sector,” said Luqman Kamil, CEO, Dancom Group. “Dancom has selected RedMAX for its country wide WiMAX network for its technological superiority and track record of successful WiMAX deployments all over the world.”
Dancom is one of the leading telecommunications providers in Pakistan, with more than 5,000 employees in 74 offices and currently operates the largest DSL network in Pakistan. With the launch of its WiMAX network, Dancom will have the most technologically advanced, scalable nationwide access network in the country, with the ability to bring the most advanced services to people and business in Pakistan.
“In the last two years our Redline product line has been established as the de facto product of choice for broadband wireless solutions. It is due to this success and proven performance that the first commercial WiMAX deployment in Pakistan will be a Redline deployment,” said Shaukat Ahmed Reshi, CEO, SARCORP. “Dancom's selection of Redline’s RedMAX™ products is also an endorsement of Redline’s RedPATH architecture roadmap in the Pakistan Telecom market. With RedPATH we have enabled carriers in Pakistan to generate revenue from WiMAX solutions today.”
Redline’s RedMAX products have been chosen by carriers in International markets for nation-wide deployments and network trials. Among the first to install RedMAX for a nation-wide network is Hrvatske Telekomunikacije d.d (T-HT), a Croatian telecommunications company owned by Deutsche Telecom. The T-HT deployment is being managed by MICROLINK, a distributor and system integrator of wireless communication systems for digital data transmission. RedMAX is also being deployed by Integrated Telecom Company Ltd. (ITC), a licensed data service provider in Saudi Arabia as part of the (U.S.) $22.2 million first phase of its region-wide broadband network.
“Carriers that have chosen RedMAX have recognized the potential for today’s WiMAX Forum Certified™ products to deliver a first-to-market advantage for themselves, and to meet their customers’ needs today,” added Majed Sifri, President and CEO, Redline Communications Inc. “With our RedPATH architecture roadmap, our customers have the confidence that they can deploy RedMAX today to deliver fixed and nomadic broadband services, and to evolve with the WiMAX ecosystem as new products and technologies are introduced.”
Redline’s RedPATH Architecture Roadmap Redline’s RedPATH strategic architecture roadmap drives success for WiMAX network operators. With RedPATH, Redline is the first to articulate a clear strategy that enables network operators to start generating revenues from fixed and portable WiMAX solutions today, and evolve their networks to meet the demands of mobile versions of the WiMAX standards as they become available.
Redline’s RedMAX Family Redline’s RedMAX family of WiMAX solutions includes the world’s first complete network to receive the WiMAX Forum Certified™ mark for conformance to the strict standards for performance and interoperability. The carrier-class RedMAX Base Station (AN-100U) supports voice, video, and prioritized data traffic, enabling long-range, high-capacity wireless broadband networks. Redline’s WiMAX products also includes the RedMAX Indoor Subscriber Unit (SU-I) and Outdoor Subscriber Unit (SU-O) designed for enterprise and residential services. The RedMAX Management Suite enables operators to monitor and control the network, ensuring high service availability.
About SARCORPSarcorp founded by a leading Pakistani business group with the core objective of introducing and successfully deploying state of the art technology solutions in Pakistan, has evolved into Pakistan’s leading Technology Solution Provider. With international partnerships with the world's largest IT and Telecom companies and collaborations with leading service providers and carriers in Pakistan Sarcorp has established a market leadership position as a technology provider in the IT and Telecom Sector.
About Redline CommunicationsRedline Communications is the leading provider of standards-based wireless broadband solutions. Redline’s WiMAX Forum Certified™ systems and award-winning proprietary products enable service providers and other network operators to cost-effectively deliver high-bandwidth services including voice, video and data communications. Redline is committed to maintaining its wireless industry leadership with the continued development of WiMAX and other advanced wireless broadband products. With more than 20,000 installations in 75 countries, and a global network of more than 80 partners, Redline has the experience and expertise to help service providers capitalize on opportunities to roll-out the services and applications that drive their business forward.
Source : redlinecommunications.com
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Pakistan plans to roll out the largest mobile WiMax network yet, Motorola announced Tuesday.
Motorola is providing the country's Wateen Telecom with an 802.16e-based Motowi4 network. An initial uptake of a million subscribers is expected, with a nationwide rollout to follow.
As a developing country, Pakistan has until now lacked the infrastructure for widespread broadband.
The deployment is a milestone in the spread of WiMax, a superfast wireless technology that has a range of up to 30 miles and can deliver broadband at a theoretical maximum of 75 megabits per second. The 802.16-2004 standard, which is used in fixed WiMax networks, is being skipped in favor of a large-scale introduction of 802.16e, which was only recently agreed upon by the WiMax Forum.
"We made the decision 18 months ago to jump over (802.16-2004) and go straight to 802.16e," Paul Sergeant, Motorola's marketing director for Motowi4, told ZDNet UK on Tuesday. "We've been working on it for a while, which is how we're able to ship so soon after agreement."
"802.16e leads to a much larger market as it addresses mobility needs, but we also felt it could be just as good a solution for fixed broadband," he added.
Some analysts said the Pakistan deal is proof that major players in the industry are throwing their weight behind mobile WiMax in a way they haven't with the fixed version.
"The really interesting thing is that Motorola is really focusing on the mobile version, as are Alcatel and Siemens," Julien Grivolas, a telecom analyst at Ovum, said.
"Mobile WiMax is going to be something for the big players, as opposed to fixed WiMax, where (they) set up OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreements with smaller vendors," Grivolas said.
On Tuesday, Motorola also made its first public demonstration of third-party interoperability of its WiMax products. At the WiMax World Europe Conference in Vienna, it showed off a third-party PCMCIA card that incorporates a mobile WiMax chip from Beceem Communications.
"The market is looking for carrier class (802.16e) solutions that either support mobility from the beginning or can be upgraded," Sergeant said.
Source : news.cnet.com
Ovex Technologies awarded ‘Most Promising Reseller’ by Kaspersky
Ovex Technologies is conferred the title of “Most Promising Reseller (2008-2009)” by its partner “Kaspersky Labs”, on the occasion of the 1st Kaspersky Lab Reseller Conference. This event hosted by Trillium Information Security Systems, was held on the 25th of June at the Pearl Continental Hotel, Rawalpindi.
Ovex Technologies offers comprehensive Kaspersky Lab security solutions that include anti-virus and Internet security, a wide range of mobile security products as well as hosted security services. This diverse protection helps make Ovex’s software solutions portfolio one of the best and safest in the business.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Faisal S. Khan, CEO, Ovex Technologies said, “Attaining the highest pedestal of sales performance for a truly global I.T. company like Kaspersky Labs, is a matter of great pride and motivation for the team of OVEX technologies. I would like to thank the Kaspersky management for recognizing our work in promoting and developing world-class I.T. and software security products.”
Ovex Technologies offers a comprehensive portfolio of Infrastructure, Software, Security and Outsourcing solutions. It serves a myriad of domestic and international clients, including many industry leaders. Ovex employs over thirteen hundred dedicated professionals, who render world-class services from seven state-of-the-art facilities, located in Pakistan’s three metropolitan hubs of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
Kaspersky Lab is a global organization that employs over 1300 highly-qualified specialists. With its central offices in Moscow, this leading I.T. company currently works in more than 100 countries across the globe, providing protection for over 250 million users worldwide. Since decades, Kaspersky Labs have been working on exposing, analyzing and neutralizing IT threats.
Source : propakistani.com
Saturday, June 13, 2009
SwitchMe - Solving the inappropriate ringing problem?
We all know how annoying it is when a mobile phone goes off in the middle of a film or play, and usually at the point where it really spoils the tension or drama. A team of students at Syracuse University is attempting to solve this problem as part of their Capstone project using a Nokia 7650 application and custom developed Bluetooth transceiver.
As you might expect, I often ramble through the Internet looking for interesting things going on around the Symbian OS community. This was how I came across SwitchMe, a project being undertaken by a group of students at Syracuse University as part of their final year Capstone design project.
HREF="http://adserv.wirelessdevnet.com/oasis/oasisc.php?s=7&w=300&h=250&cb=1277689340&t=_blank" target="_blank">Brian Tuman, one of the four students on the team explained the motivation behind the project. “Like many people I have been annoyed by mobile phones going off in all sorts of inappropriate places such as movies, restaurants, classrooms, and libraries. With technologies like Bluetooth and the Symbian OS appearing in mobile phones this started me thinking about whether this sort of short range wireless communication could be used to solve the problem.” After considering the problem, Brian and his colleagues Gouree Bhave, Mike Woodruff and Peter Nofelt came up with a solution involving a Bluetooth transceiver and an application which would run on a Bluetooth enabled smartphone. The smartphone application would recognize a signal from the transceiver when it was within range of the device and then switch the phone’s profile to one suitable for the environment; silent mode. When the smartphone then left the range of the transceiver the software would then restore the original profile settings. So SwitchMe was born.
Having developed the concept for their project the next challenge was to determine what hardware they could use. They decided to develop the Bluetooth transceiver in two stages, first using a development kit connected to a PC and then later converting the transceiver into a self-contained unit. The self-contained unit would consist of a processor running the embedded OS, uClinux, connected to a Bluetooth card obtained from a company named StoneStreet One. The criteria for selecting the phone were that it needed to have a programmable interface, Bluetooth capability and ideally a PC emulator for software development. Their research led them to either the Nokia 7650 or Sony Ericsson P800. Only the Nokia 7650 was on the market when they started the project, neither phone was available in the US market at the time they were evaluating development options, worse the Nokia 7650 was only capable of working in Europe and Asia. A little research determined that they could use the Nokia 7650 with a local SIM, although it would obviously not work as a phone. There was also the possibility of the Nokia 3650 being available before they needed to demonstrate the final project. As both these phones used Series 60 the team decided to go ahead and build the application using the Nokia Series 60 SDK. Although the Symbian OS was a new technology to everyone on the team they found the development process relatively straightforward. Brian commented that “We discovered that Nokia provide a nice developer center, which we frequently relied on and the SDK documentation provided good examples that we used to help formulate our application. Also we found websites popping up that contained valuable information which also help us learn about using the Symbian OS.” However they did encounter a significant problem as the Series 60 PC emulator was not able to work with a PC Bluetooth card. This meant they initially focused just on the GUI development, but the team were left unsure about whether the concept would work because they had no direct way of verifying it. So eventually they took the plunge and bought a Nokia 7650 from India so they could move on with the development of the Bluetooth communication and profile access. One of the main problems they had to find a solution to early in the development was how the system would work given the in-built Bluetooth security. Initially they simply set the Bluetooth transceiver as a paired device in the phone. This was clearly not suitable for a working solution and after some testing and research they determined that by coding the transceiver software to explicitly set that Authentication was not required by the device this issue could be overcome. With the user no longer having to manually accept the connection from the transceiver the solution was becoming more practical. As already mentioned the team also paid close attention to the software interface. Bearing in mind that the range of users for this type of phone would be considerable they realized that the interface needed to be easy to use while providing access to advanced control options for more confident users. “We wanted the SwitchMe application to be easy to use. I believe that if the interface does not allow the user to use the functionality easily that functionality should not be part of the application” said Brian “but the Series 60 interface is very clean and the SwitchMe application takes advantage of this to make the application very easy to use. Also, while developing the application, I tried to keep in mind that the user would probably want to change the settings of the SwitchMe application by just pressing one or two buttons because they would almost certainly be doing something else that had their full attention. So, I tried to make the menu usage very compact, so the settings could easily be changed using the two softkey buttons on the phone.”
They now have the concept working. They have completed the SwitchMe wrapper application for the phone. When the phone turns on it loads the application and if the user has it enabled, a SwitchMe service is registered in the Bluetooth database. The transceiver recognizes the service on the phone and, when it does, a signal is sent to the phone. The phone recognizes the signal and switches the profile to silent or back to the saved profile. The first real test of the system came on April 12th with the Syracuse University Open House. With the help of three additional Nokia 3650’s on loan from Nokia the team were able to successfully demonstrate their system. The project seems to have been received well and it was given the "Best Project" award by the Syracuse chapter of IEEE.
SwitchMe is a long way from being a commercial reality. For SwitchMe to work as a commercial solution a number of problems would need to be overcome not least of these would be the need for an industry wide buy-in, something which, even if there is interest, will be some way off. However, it is an interesting idea that may someday lead to a practical solution. Even so the technology the SwitchMe team have developed, the ability to control the function of a device based on its proximity to a Bluetooth transceiver, could have a number of practical applications. It could be used in creating an application that could provide a guided tour of a museum or historical place, for example, with text, audio and images being provided for the location the visitor is in. Given the professionalism which Brian and his team have applied to this project I certainly hope they have the opportunity to look at practical applications of their technology in the future.
Source: wirelessdevnet.com
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