Beyond 4G

Source: Telecoms December 2, 2009 Written by James Middleton WiMAX chipset vendor Beceem Communications has unveiled a number of uplink performance improvements to its portfolio of 4G chips. The 4G Turbo improvements may appear in any WiMAX network as they work with every Wave 2-compliant WiMAX base station, the company said, enhancing network coverage and user experience, especially at the cell edge and in areas of low signal strength. The improvements provide Dual Antenna Transmit diversity for maximum uplink performance under all signal conditions and deliver a gain of approximately 2dB compared to other WiMAX products, Beceem claims. Thanks

Source: Telecoms Google-backed mobile operating system Android has been given a boost in the mobile WiMAX space due to a partnership between D2 Technologies, Beceem Communications and ECS. The joint initiative will look at the deployment of the Android operating system on smartphones delivering VoIP over WiMAX and other IP-based communications capabilities. D2 provided its mCUE converged communications client paired with Beceem’s high performance BCSM250 WiMAX modem and deployed on WiMAX-enabled smartphones and MIDs such as the ECS T371. In early November, D2 and Beceem completed what they claim to be the world’s first mobile VoIP calls over WiMAX on Android using the Zoom OMAP34x-II mobile development platform (MDP) and a Beceem BSCM250 WiMAX modem with D2’s kernel-level embedded voice engine. Thanks

Cambridge Consultants has launched DUEL (Dual-domain Uplink Equaliser for LTE), a platform that the company says will significantly improve LTE uplink performance when compared to MMSE, the "text-book" receiver design. DUEL, designed as an algorithmic and DSP extension to LTE base station receiver designs, requires no changes to handsets. Cambridge Consultants' patent pending DUEL receiver take advantage of properties of the LTE uplink signal to reconstruct what was transmitted with higher fidelity than a conventional text-book receiver. As a result, it works well even when the signals received by each BS antenna are highly correlated. Read full article...

Source: Cellular News Over the last several years, mobile WiMAX has moved through standardization, productization, and interoperability testing and certification. Larger-scale network deployments are finally becoming a reality. Clearwire in the United States has already declared 173,000 subscribers, Yota in Russia has been growing at a decent rate reaching 100,000 subscribers in August and 200,000 in October, and PacketOne in Malaysia has reached 130,000 subscribers. UQ Communications once expected to reach 300,000 subscribers by the end of 2009, but is behind schedule in its rollout and will fall short of that initial target. South Korea has seen KT's and SKT's subscriber numbers remain fairly stagnant, while these service providers prepare for another big push as a third WiMAX service provider comes to South Korea. This handful of WiMAX service providers alone will account for a significant minority of the nearly two million mobile WiMAX subscribers expected by the end ...

Source : NSN Press Nokia Siemens Networks has been selected to participate in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial in the Czech Republic, as part of LTE trials that Telefónica will be running in about half a dozen countries in Europe and Latin America. During the six-month trial, Nokia Siemens Networks will demonstrate its end-to-end LTE solution that allows operators to offer a completely new mobile experience to their customers. “We expect this trial with Telefónica to demonstrate the potential for our LTE to deliver an entirely new broadband mobile experience,” said Carlos Reines, head of the corporate Customer Business Team for Telefónica at Nokia Siemens Networks. “We are one of the main partners for Telefónica in the deployment of mobile radio networks around the world.” ”We have a long and successful track record of collaboration in the Czech Republic and have provided 2G and 3G technology for Telefónica CZ,” Reines said. The two companies have also been focusing on LTE dev...

Source: ZDNET China's TD-LTE standard is unlikely to face the same obstacles that plagued the country's earlier mobile wireless standard, TD-SCDMA, industry analysts say. China in October submitted TD-LTE specifications to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for approval as a 4G standard. If ratified, it will be officially recognized by the ITU as a 4G technology in October 2010, according to reports. While the country's 3G predecessor, TD-SCDMA, got off to a bumpy start, dogged by technical issues and a lack of device variety, industry watchers are expecting TD-LTE to fare better. Julian Bright, Informa telecoms and media analyst told ZDNet Asia that TD-LTE, as a variant of FDD-LTE (Frequency Division Duplex LTE), is technically similar to the global LTE standard meant for markets where TDD spectrum is more readily available. As such, "strictly speaking, TD-LTE is not a new 4G standard", he said. In comparison, TD-SCDMA was developed largely for...

Source: Heavy Reading Long Term Evolution (LTE) core network activity is heating up as many vendors look to seize a share of the next-generation packet core market, according to a new Heavy Reading report. The pursuit of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) is picking up pace now because of the strategic significance of these packet core products for many vendors, and not necessarily because of the potential market size. The packet core will be among the fastest growing segments in wireless infrastructure, growing at a rate of 10 percent per year for the next five years, and will be worth $2 billion in 2012, according to the report, "Evolved Packet Core for LTE: Market Forecast & Competitive Analysis." Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) and Nokia Siemens Networks are the undisputed market leaders in the packet core market. In 2008, the 3GPP packet core market was worth $1.2 billion, and these two vendors had nearly 70 percent of the market, according to Heavy Reading. Hot on th...

Source : Unstrung Freshly funded mobile WiMax operator Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR) has launched service in Seattle and opened a number of retail stores around the U.S. The Kirkland, Wash.-based operator says that its mobile WiMax service is now available in 27 markets across the U.S., covering over 30 million people and meeting its deployment targets for 2009. The company recently pulled in over $2 billion in new equity and debt funding and says it will meet its target of covering 120 million people by the end of 2010. (See Clearwire Grabs $920M More Funds.) Clearwire's partners are following the company's rollout curve, offering their own services on the WiMax service. Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) has launched its "2Go" mobile service in Chicago using the network. Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) is offering its "4G" service in every Clearwire market, including launches today in Chicago, Seattle, and, in Hawaii, Honolulu and Maui. Clearwire, ...

Amid concerns that India’ auction of 3G spectrum may be delayed yet again, the WiMAX Forum has said that every six months of delay in the process results in $1bn in lost revenues for the country. The latest official date given for the auction is January 2010, but after numerous delays this may be postponed yet again. But industry body the WiMAX Forum is also calling for the government to separately release spectrum for WiMAX deployments in the 2.3/2.5 GHz frequency bands in a bid to stimulate broadband growth and economic development immediately. ”WiMAX auctions should be done well ahead by de-linking the auction from the 3G auction process as the country needs broadband growth and wireless high speed Internet access now for the economic development of the Indian society,” said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. “India needs immediate and affordable broadband access to meet the aspirations and expectations of the younger generation who constitute 56 per cent ...

Mexico's MVS Comunicaciones is reported to have secured an agreement with US based Clearwire to deploy a WiMAX network covering 23 Mexican cities. The roll out is expected to start in the second half of next year, with a launch some time in the fourth-quarter. The deployment is however dependent on the Communications and Transportation Ministry renewing the company's existing spectrum holdings in eight of the planned 23 cities. Clearwire is a minority shareholder in MVS, and the project is separate from the US network deployment. The Mexican firm is now seeking to raise around US$700 million to fund its infrastructure rollout. In related news, MVS's founder, Joaquín Vargas Gómez died over the weekend after a long illness. In a statement, the Mexican President said "Mexico loses a businessman who contributed to the development of radio, a means of communication that is now a clear expression of Mexico's democratic vitality."

Clearwire shares rise as analyst upgrades after growth plans get support from new financing Shares of Clearwire Corp. rose Tuesday after an analyst said the company's path to growth seemed more certain following a round of financing that will give it the capital needed to grow its wireless data network. UBS analyst John Hodulik upgraded the stock to "Neutral" from "Buy." He said Clearwire, which provides mobile broadband services, has the funds for expanding its high-speed wireless Internet access to more cities, add capacity to markets it already serves and improve signal strength and customer service. Earlier this month, the company said it will receive $1.56 billion from investors and issue $1.6 billion and $920 million in two debt offerings. Read full article ...

Source: Cellular News Stratos Global Corp. says that it has won two of the three geographic zones for 2.5 GHz broadband radio service (BRS) in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The two zones awarded to Stratos cover approximately 90 percent of the structures and oil platforms in the three auctioned areas. "These critical licenses enable us to introduce new offerings to complement our existing services for the GoM energy industry," said Stratos President and CEO Jim Parm. "The IP-based services we soon will introduce will be consistent with the high-bandwidth, low-latency features of our current microwave network and will be competitively priced against VSAT and legacy radio technologies." Parm added, "Stratos has more than a decade of experience serving the demanding communications requirements of the energy and transportation industries in the often harsh GoM environment. We most recently demonstrated the resiliency of our microwave network in the aftermath of h...

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Source : Qualcomm Femtocell shipments will grow from 0.2 million units in 2009 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 127 percent to 12 million units worldwide in 2014, according to analyst firm Berg Insight. In the U.S., 14.8 billion video clips are viewed online every month with an average user viewing time of 356 minutes and a consumption of 680Mbps (ComScore); in the UK, the average monthly consumption per user is 1.3Gbps(ComScore). This online trend is now migrating onto mobile. According to AT&T, data represented 27 percent of revenues in 1Q09 compared to 21 percent in the same period the previous year, with streaming audio and video accounting for 31 percent of network traffic. In developed markets(Coda Research Consultancy), much of this mobile data explosion is generated by smartphone users, where the average year-on-year growth of mobile data per user is between three and five times. “We need to drive down the cost per bit in operator networks while also meet...

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The demand for mobile services in India can only be described as 'insatiable' following news from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that the country's mobile operators collectively activated 16.67 million new lines during October, an average of nearly 538,000 each day. That growth takes the number of mobile connections in India to 488.4 million at the end of October, and it seems likely that the 500 million mobile landmark will be reached this month. Including fixed lines, India now has 525.65 million telephony connections, giving the country a teledensity of 44.87 per cent. That means there's still more than half a billion people in India without their own line, so the strong demand for new mobile connections is likely to continue for some time, especially as the market's mobile operators push deeper into the previously under-served rural service areas, or "circles." (See A Guide to India's Telecom Market.) Read full article....

Delivering Affordable Broadband in India white paper is prepared to present a comprehensive view of the drivers of Indian broadband wireless market and the key technological factors that allow operators to lead the field of BWA market in India. In this document, we identify the services that service providers would like to offer to Indian consumers to accelerate the use of broadband connectivity, in order to meet and quite likely exceed the targets set by GOI( Government of India). We present a detailed list of capabilities and features that service providers would like to see in the next-generation broadband wireless technologies. We are covering aspects the wireless infrastructure, core networks, as well as the user terminals. In this report we have covered aspects of Indian regulator, BWA spectrum, operator’s key decision factors & deployment scenarios. This report is specifically targeted for BWA application in India. Finally we have presented top seven key factors for oper...

Telecom Italia has launched pre-commercial trials of a LTE mobile network. The experiment, carried out in Turin with Huawei, is based on 14 new LTE base stations located in the centre of the city and integrated with the existing mobile infrastructure. The new network guarantees a bandwidth capacity of over 140 Mbps per cell, with the possibility of managing three voice/data connections simultaneously with high availability of bandwidth

Source : Unstrung French mobile operator SFR launched a 3G femtocell service today using petit base stations from Ubiquisys Ltd. SFR is the second operator to launch a femtocell service in Europe, after Vodafone UK in (where else?) the U.K., and the second commercial customer for femto maker Ubiquisys, after Softbank in Japan. With the new femto service, dubbed "SFR Home 3G," SFR is targeting customers that suffer from poor indoor 3G coverage with a standalone femtocell access point. The femtocell is not integrated into the operator's Neufbox residential gateways. (Watch the video advertisement on SFR's Website here for a compelling portrayal of why it's good to have excellent 3G coverage at home.) SFR's femtocell service is similar to Vodafone's in terms of business case and price. Both operators are targeting indoor coverage in their initial deployments. SFR's femtocell costs €199 (US$298), which is not far off the price of the Vodafone Acce...

Metro WiFi is back, according to Ruckus Wireless Inc. , but this isn't like your father's mesh network, unless you happen to have relatives in Mumbai. Ruckus is using its deal with Indian carrier Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. to highlight its 802.11n-based outdoor access points, customer premises equipment, and backhaul boxes. Tikona is using the gear to build out WiFi clusters on business or residential buildings in Mumbai. "We call it metro broadband 2.0, or maybe 3.0," says Ruckus CEO Selina Lo. Tikona, which is backed by Goldman Sachs & Co. , intends to eventually roll out similar WiFi clusters across India. The carrier has deployed around 5,000 Ruckus APs, according to David Callisch, Ruckus VP of marketing. "They're on track to probably be the largest WiFi network in the world by the end of next year," Callisch claims. Ruckus is supplying all of the WiFi-related equipment for the Tikona project. This includes outdoor mesh access p...

Verizon Business is making a big step in the tele-healthcare arena, introducing new video conferencing and collaboration services specifically developed for doctors and their patients. The new Verizon Telehealth Collaboration Services will enable remote treatment and diagnosis of rural patients, on-demand education and training for doctors, and consultations among medical personnel without the need for travel. The new services are the result of a healthcare practice -- Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions -- being set up within Verizon. That move brought medical experts into the company to help design services specifically to meet the needs of the healthcare community. Hiring those medical experts means Verizon Business can "bring a better story to the marketplace," says Nancy Green, managing principal for healthcare at the carrier and a 16-year veteran selling into the medical industry. Specifically, Verizon is offering IT support to help hospitals, clinics, and do...

According to India’s Economic Times, those bidders successful in the upcoming, and long-delayed, 3G auctions, face a further hold-up following revelations that spectrum acquired will only be available to use from June 2010. With the auction now due to be held in January 2010, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has called on the country’s defence forces to vacate some of the spectrum it currently holds by December 2009, although in doing so it noted that it would ensure ‘winners in the 3G auction would start using this spectrum only after June 2010’. The additional delay in allowing operators access to the frequencies is understood to come as a result of the regulator deciding that it would allow the time for the defence forces to migrate the use of their existing equipment to alternative uses. Having come to an agreement in June 2009, India’s defence forces will release around 45MHz of spectrum over a three-year period for both 2G and 3G services; the initial release will i...

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Open source fever continues to grip the industry as web giant Google on Thursday open sourced its forthcoming operating system and released preview code to developers ahead of the platform’s official launch in 2010. Google may well have set Microsoft quaking in its boots back in July, when it announced plans to launch a full fledged operating system, bringing its efforts in the web browser and small footprint operating system spaces together. Google Chrome OS, with the open source project dubbed Chromium, marks a further encroachment on Microsoft’s territory and reinforces speculation on the firm’s plans for world domination. Chrome OS is all about the web and all applications running on the platform will be web apps, with the entire experience taking place within the browser. “This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs,” Google said. This approach should also make things more secure because every application will be sandboxed. And speed i...

Electronics manufacturer Dell will make its official foray into the mobile handset space this month with the launch of its Android-based Mini 3i device, developed in conjunction with China Mobile. The Mini 3i is the result of a year-long collaboration with China Mobile, the world’s biggest operator by subscribers, and will go on sale in China by the end of November. The device runs China Mobile’s own OPhone open source platform, which is a branch of the Android operating system. The OPhone SDK 1.5 is compatible with Android SDK 1.5, so developers can use both OPhone APIs and Android APIs to develop OPhone applications. Dell’s handset is a touchscreen device with a 3.5” nHD, 640×360, display, three megapixel camera, microSD card slot, GPS and Bluetooth. It has quadband GSM/EDGE connectivity and typical to devices launched in China, no wifi. Early demonstrations of the OPhone platform, which first appeared on Lenovo hardware, seem to have been well received, largely due to a sl...

Source : Cellular news Rural USA based WiMAX network operator, DigitalBridge Communications (DBC) has completed an additional round of equity financing, including an investment from cable and newspaper publisher Schurz Communications. Under the terms of the investment, DigitalBridge will deploy its WiMAX network in markets currently served by Schurz Communications. Joint commercial rollouts will be announced during 2010, with DBC engineering, constructing, and operating the broadband wireless networks and local Schurz teams promoting, selling, and supporting innovative product bundles. "We have seen increased consumer demand and usage for broadband services from our cable operations, and our partnership with DBC will allow us to offer high-quality, high-speed, wireless broadband services to our customers and communities," said Todd Schurz, CEO of Schurz Communications. "Also, our newspapers and broadcast station brands already have millions of unique visitors, ten...

November 20 2009 - 1:10 pm ET | John Scarborough | RCR Wireless News RCR got a chance to catch up with the Sprint 4G roll out team at one of their events in Austin this past week. Watch John Taylor from Sprint talk about this exciting new service and some of the products utilizing it. Thanks,BP

Kevin Fitchard November 18th, 2009 Verizon Wireless’ (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) chances of launching the world’s first long-term evolution (LTE) network just improved. The first operator to launch a 3G network, NTT DoCoMo (NYSE:DCM) announced today that it will launch commercial 4G services in the final month of 2010. Verizon hasn’t given exact dates for its own deployment in 2010, except to say will launch the service commercially in 25 to 30 markets in the second half of the year. VZW might be planning a grand unveiling at the end of the year, turning on 100 million pops of network coverage in one fell swoop–and Verizon certainly isn’t opposed to theatrics–but it’s much more likely it will gradually roll the service out throughout the latter half of the year, beating NTT DoCoMo to punch in the process. VZW doesn’t have a the trophy in the bag, though, as the Scandinavian operator are also jockeying for the lead. TeliaSonera was the first LTE operator to announce a commercial contract, a...

“LTE TDD is often overlooked as a mobile broadband solution,” Pearson said. “Operators and regulators must consider all of their options in meeting mobile broadband demands.” Erasmo Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean, added, “Specifically, this is a critical time in the industry for regulators in the Latin American region to carefully plan TDD spectrum allocations ensuring that technologies do not cause undue interference while at the same time making certain that the spectrum is consistent with global TDD allocations to take advantage of the economies of scale.” The LTE ecosystem supports both FDD and TDD operation, offering operators flexibility to match their existing networks, spectrum and business objectives for mobile broadband and multimedia services. Fifteen paired (for FDD operation) and eight unpaired (for TDD operation) spectrum bands have already been identified by the 3GPP for LTE. This means an operator can introduce LTE in new spectrum bands Downl...

Manoj Kohli, the CEO of Bharti Telecom of India (another giant, Bharti has over 110 million subscribers). Mr Kohli told the conference that in India already 20% of all mobile phone owners have 2 or more subscriptions. He also told us that as India will add 500 million new subscribers by the time frame of 2014-2015. That is another Europe, folks, in size. India is currently adding 10 million new mobile subscribers every month. And most revealingly, he said that in India the customers will go from 'no internet' directly to 'mobile internet'. The vast majority of Indian internet users will skip the PC metaphor internet. And as I tweeted this, several friends retweeted it adding that this will also happen in markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Read full blog...

Source: GSMA The GSM Association (GSMA) is predicting that there will be 87 million subscribers using high-speed Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services by 2014 but that High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 3G networks will provide a much bigger cushion for users to fall back on by then. The GSMA's director of technology, Dan Warren, dropped in on Unstrung this week to talk expected network numbers in the coming years of mobile broadband. One thing that emerged is that the trade body is expecting that the new-ish 3G technology will be with us long after after LTE is up and running. "HSPA is becoming comparable to GSM and W-CDMA," Warren claims. "Its commercial lifespan is very long." Warren says that there are around 167 million HSPA connections. He expects that to grow to "about a billion" in 2012 and up to 1.5 billion in 2014. The association sees 2013 or 2014 as the point when LTE will really take off, even if early rollouts will happen prior to t...

The magic letters "LTE" have unlocked fresh funding for chip designer Sequans Communications , with Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Motorola Ventures leading the round as strategic investors. (See Sequans Secures Funding.) The Paris-based company has largely been know as a WiMax shop, but it recently announced plans to develop Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax chips in tandem. Sequans says the new money will go toward its LTE development fund. "We're developing a SOC [system-on-a-chip] for the terminal side," Sequans CEO Georges Karam tells Unstrung. "The first devices for next year are likely USB dongles and data cards." Sequans now plans to accelerate its LTE development times and to add to its LTE teams. It also intends to demonstrate its first LTE samples in early 2010 in support of pre-commercial operator trials. "Commercial launch we’re expecting for the end of next year," Karam says. The CEO says that at the moment develo...

Stuttgart, November 16, 2009 – Sisvel today announced that it will hold a two-day meeting of LTE (Long Term Evolution) / SAE (System Architecture Evolution) essential patent owners beginning on February 2, 2010, to discuss the formation of an LTE/SAE patent pool. Participants will include global technology leaders in the telecommunications industry and major international LTE/SAE stakeholders, and the meeting remains open to additional parties that hold an LTE essential patent or patent application as determined by an independent patent evaluator. All parties interested in participating in the formation of an LTE/SAE patent pool are invited to contact Sisvel as soon as possible to arrange an evaluation of essentiality in advance of the February meeting. To ensure completion of the evaluation in time to join the February meeting, patent owners should submit a patent no later than December 15, 2009. Sisvel has expanded the scope of its LTE/SAE call for patents beyond the initial list ...

Not much is known openly about royalty rates charged by Qualcomm for its 3G and LTE shipments. The secrecy about the royalty rates has been a Qualcomm trademark and the royalty method adopted by the company has come in for criticism in the past as well. But in a surprise move, The Street reports that Qualcomm COO, Len Lauer revealed on the occasion of a Merrill Lynch Global Technology Conference on June 03 that the company normally charges 4%-5 % as royalty for 3G shipments. The COO further revealed that the company had put royalty rate at 3.25 % when it was asked by European standards group to submit a rate for LTE. End Thanks

Qualcomm looks set to be the leading patent holder in 4G wireless communications after recording 24% of ETSI declarations surrounding LTE, as well as 16% of the 26,000 patents that have potential relevance to 4G technologies generally, including WiMAX. Other notable players in the LTE field include Interdigital (18%), Huawei (10%), LG (9%), Nokia (9%) and Samsung (7%). When considering the whole 4G environment Samsung takes second spot with 12% of all patent filings, and Nokia takes third with 6%. Stuart Carlaw, chief research officer at ABI Research, comments, “Innovation in this space continues unabated. Given that these declarations reflect work completed 18 months ago, it is very feasible that this landscape could shift again during the coming two years as we see the 4G market ramp up.” He goes on to add that, “We see no major reason why the licensing situation in 4G will be significantly different from that for 3G. There is still a big list of ‘haves’ but also a large list of ‘...

NOVEMBER 18, 2009 Source : Light Reading Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) (OTC: SGTJY) is the latest operator to unveil its plans for the proto-4G mobile technology Long Term Evolution (LTE), announcing today its intention to conduct trials in four Asia/Pacific markets -- Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines -- starting in early 2010. SingTel, which says the trials will last between six and nine months, is sourcing LTE access and packet core technology from six equipment vendors: Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , NEC Corp. (Tokyo: 6701), Nokia Siemens Networks , and ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763). For the overseas trials it will collaborate with carriers in which it holds equity stakes: SingTel Optus Pty. Ltd. in Australia (100 percent holding), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) in Indonesia (35 percent holding), and Globe Telecom Inc. in the Philippines (47.3 percent). Inciden...

Source: 3G4G wireless We have talked of WiMAX femtocells before and since I have mostly been focussing on 3GPP standardised Femtocell, I thought it is wise to focus on WiMAX femtocell and learn more about its terminology and implementation. Whenever possible, I will draw comparisons with the 3GPP femtos and try to provide more insight if I can. Surprisingly I found it difficult to find the information on WiMAX femtocells. I am sure its not because no one is interested in the technology but its more because of the standards not being available in public domain. An old article on Think Femtocell informs us of the initial players of WiMAX femtocells. I havent tried digging in who is doing what in the WiMAX femtocell world, so if you are aware of potential players, feel free to highlight them via comments. In WiMAX terminology, femtocells are known as femto base stations (BSs) or WiMAX femto access points (WFAPs). They are intended to serve the same purpose as the 3GPP femtocell that...

Huawei has announced the deployment of the world's first TD-LTE/SAE trial network for China Mobile. This new network has a download speed of up to 29Mb/s and will be used for 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of China Mobile, said: "This state-of-the-art network covers the whole site of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which will fully demonstrate the capability of TD-LTE technology." Huawei deployed the TD-LTE radio access network and SAE core network for China Mobile, and also delivered chipsets and terminals. This infrastructure and the terminal devices enabling high definition (HD) video transmission, HD video monitoring, HD video-on-demand (VOD) and mobile Internet will support live broadcasting and security for the upcoming events. "TD-LTE/SAE technologies have the advantage of low latency and high spectrum efficiency and are increasingly gaining recognition from operators and other telecom organizations," sa...

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Source: prnewswire.com SAN DIEGO, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, today announced that it is sampling the industry's first chipsets for dual-carrier HSPA+ and multi-mode 3G/LTE. The Mobile Data Modem(TM) (MDM(TM)) MDM8220(TM) solution is the first chipset to support Dual-carrier High-Speed Packet Access Plus (DC-HSPA+); and the MDM9200(TM) and the MDM9600(TM) chipsets are the industry's first multi-mode 3G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) solutions. These chipsets demonstrate significant progress toward enabling the mass-market commercial deployment of two next-generation network technologies that bring more advanced data capabilities to mobile devices for new global markets in addition to North America. Dual-carrier HSPA+ and LTE are network innovations that provide the ability to deliver more advanced data capabilities to mobile devices, supporting m...

The GSM Association (GSMA) is predicting that there will be 87 million subscribers using high-speed Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services by 2014 but that High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 3G networks will provide a much bigger cushion for users to fall back on by then. The GSMA's director of technology, Dan Warren, dropped in on Unstrung this week to talk expected network numbers in the coming years of mobile broadband. One thing that emerged is that the trade body is expecting that the new-ish 3G technology will be with us long after after LTE is up and running. "HSPA is becoming comparable to GSM and W-CDMA," Warren claims. "Its commercial lifespan is very long." Warren says that there are around 167 million HSPA connections. He expects that to grow to "about a billion" in 2012 and up to 1.5 billion in 2014. The association sees 2013 or 2014 as the point when LTE will really take off, even if early rollouts will happen prior to that date. ...

NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) said LG Electronics Co Ltd (066570.KS) is one of three major phone makers that agreed to license its 4G high-speed wireless technology, solidifying its position in the mobile market for years. LG, the No. 3 mobile phone maker, also renewed its agreement for Qualcomm's existing third-generation technology, Qualcomm said at its annual investor meeting on Thursday. Qualcomm had previously announced that LG's larger rivals Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and Nokia (NOK1V.HE) have agreed to pay to use Qualcomm's technology in future products based on fourth-generation (4G) wireless technology. "This means they have 65 percent of the handset market signed up to long-term royalty agreements," JP Morgan analyst Steven O'Brien said. "We have more certainty in the royalty streams and cash flow streams from the major handset vendors." However, O'Brien noted that it was not clear what rates these com...

Globally operators have seen unprecedented growth in Mobile data traffic. Operators reporting heavy increase in data traffic & drop in revenues compared to traffic. Figure 1 : Delivery of data at low cost per bit Largest Indian Voice operator, Airtel reported that with competition in pricing hotting up, Airtel had to play the tariff reduction game leading to a further fall in its ARPU to Rs. 252 in the second quarter of the fiscal, a year on year fall of 23.87%. Last quarter, the ARPU was Rs 278. Average minutes of use also declined to 450 in the quarter. Total minutes on network carried in the quarter were 164 billion, up from 160 billion in the previous quarter. Post-paid customers form 4.8% of its overall customer base. Figure 2 : Declining ARPU of largest operator in India Anders Lindblad , CEO Ericson Turkey presented that HSPA based full allocated (shared with 2G) network can deliver one GB data for US$1.50 for 15% utilization . I strongly believe th...

A previously reported, US WiMAX network operator, Clearwire has now confirmed an agreement to raise $1.564 billion in new investment capital from Sprint Nextel, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Intel, Eagle River Holdings and Bright House Networks in exchange for newly issued shares. A separate plan was also announced to raise US$1.45 billion in new debt to repay US$1.4 billion of existing debt. With expected better terms, the company expects to be able to raise an addition US$240 million. "This additional level of strategic funding marks another important milestone in the progress of Clearwire, and will enable us to maintain our leadership and aggressive 4G WiMAX network build plans," said Bill Morrow, CEO of Clearwire. Participants in the new round of equity financing include Sprint Nextel for $1.176 billion, Comcast for $196 million, Time Warner Cable for $103 million, Intel for $50 million, Eagle River for $20 million and Bright House Networks for $19 million. Clearwire...

Russia based WiMAX network operator, Yota says that it has begun deploying a new network in Nicaragua. The new entity, Yota de Nicaragua, co-owned by WiMAX Holding (75%) and a local Nicaraguan company (25%), will build the network and manage the wireless services. During the start-up period, the management team from the Russian Yota has filled key posts in Yota de Nicaragua. In September, the deployment of the network has begun in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua and the home city for 1.3 million of the 6-million population of the country. The company plans to run the network in test mode in three months since the beginning of its deployment and to provide 500 volunteers with equipment to test the coverage and services. The beginning of commercial exploitation of the network is set to mid-2010. "The economic situation in Nicaragua is far different from that of Russia and in a broad sense from that of the company adjusted to deal with," said Yota business development d...

Samsung says that it has won additional mobile WiMAX supply contracts from Japan based UQ Communications, for delivery early next year. As UQ Communications' primary Mobile WiMAX equipment vendor, Samsung has already successfully deployed Mobile WiMAX networks in the major metropolitan centers of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. UQ Communications launched commercial Mobile WiMAX service in July 2009. UQ Communications is invested by six independent companies in Japan, including KDDI Corp, Intel Capital Corporation, East Japan Railway Company, Kyocera, and others. In related news, Samsung also announced that it joined the WiMAX Innovation Network in Malaysia, led by YTL Communications. Other global companies in the WiMAX industry such as Clearwire, Cisco, and GCT Semiconductor also participate in the program. YTL Communications is preparing to launch commercial Mobile WiMAX services in late 2010. For this, Samsung will provide a comprehensive WiMAX network solution including mo...

Alvarion says that it has won a supply contract from Australian ISP, Adam Internet to deploy a WiMAX network across metropolitan Adelaide, Australia. Adam Internet is building a wireless broadband network as part of the Australian government's Broadband Guarantee Program aimed at providing services to all Australian residents. The network will deliver broadband services to subscribers across an approximate 5,000 square kilometer area of metropolitan Adelaide. Adelaide is widely spread geographically with significant pockets of residential and business premises that lack access to conventional broadband services. Working with the Australian Broadband Guarantee program, which provides qualifying applicants with a subsidy to connect to this service, and the South Australian State Government which has provided seed funding to assist in the infrastructure build, Adam Internet has commenced deployment. Alvarion expects that the deployment in 14 wireless service areas will be comple...

AT&T*, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Sony Ericsson have defined the preferred way to ensure the smooth introduction and delivery of voice and SMS services on Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks worldwide. The above telecommunications industry leaders have jointly developed a technical profile for LTE voice and SMS services, also known as the One Voice initiative. The profile defines an optimal set of existing 3GPP-specified functionalities that all industry stakeholders, including network vendors, service providers and handset manufacturers, can use to offer compatible LTE voice solutions. Open collaborative discussions have concluded that the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based solution, as defined by 3GPP, is the most applicable approach to meeting the consumers’ expectations for service quality, reliability and availability when moving from existing circuit switche...

DALLAS, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- LTE Americas -- L&T Infotech (http://www.Lntinfotech.com) announced today the availability of its 3GPP release LTE UE (User Equipment) protocol stack (Ver 8), helping to reduce time-to-market of LTE terminal devices. L&T Infotech has developed LTE protocol stack, leveraging its vast experience in wireless technologies like CDMA, UMTS, EVDO, WLAN and WiMAX. The solution comprises Access Stratum and Non Access Stratum (NAS) layers as defined by 3GPP standards. L&T Infotech's LTE UE stack is compliant to March '09 3GPP Release 8, LTE specifications. The design is modular to accommodate further releases of the Release 8 Standard. The implementation is agnostic of underlying operating system and hardware. The data plane (MAC, RLC and PDCP) is extensively tested for all 8 Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) at UE simultaneously, with both Tx and Rx path configurations for various combinations of UM and AM mode. The Control Plane (RRC and NAS) support...

Source: Verizon From the LTE Americas 2009 Conference, Tony Melone, Verizon Wireless senior vice president and chief technology officer, said in his keynote this morning that Verizon Wireless’ commitment to network leadership is elementary as it rolls out the nation’s first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network, and that this leadership commitment extends to “fostering global collaboration and enabling the broader ecosystem needed to exploit the capabilities of a great network.” Melone’s full remarks may be found at www.verizonwireless.com/lte. He noted his company’s belief that “4G is much more than the sum of higher bandwidth and lower latency. It’s really about embedding broadband wireless into the typical consumer’s life – and it’s about embedding broadband wireless into the basic functions of business and industry.

Source : 3GPP At the recent Leadership meeting of 3GPP, the Technical Specification Group Chairmen sat down to discuss some of the Myths that surround LTE’s roll-out. Is LTE Data Only? ...Does it support SMS? ...Is IMS a success? ...Can LTE complete emergency calls? Read full article...

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The only vendor to pass all the mandatory and optional tests with commercial SAE solution [Shenzhen China, 5, November 2009] Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunication solutions to operators around the world, today announced that it' s SAE (System Architecture Evolution) solution has successfully completed all the mandatory and optional tests on the TD-LTE trial network for 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The tests were conducted by China Mobile Research Institute and Shanghai Mobile, a subsidiary of China Mobile, to evaluate the LTE/SAE solutions among all the leading vendors for deploying the commercial TD-LTE network for the coming event. The core network tests verified the functionalities of MME (Mobility Management Entity), Serving Gateway, PDN Gateway and the HSS (Home Subscriber Server). According to the result of the tests, Huawei is the only vendor with its commercial SAE solution that has successfully passed all 119 tests. "We are honored to have ...

Mapping it out: Operator commitments to LTE Operators everywhere are talking up LTE as the future, but few have put a stake in the ground with specific timeframes. Even fewer have selected LTE vendors for their endeavors. Lack of spectrum, a shaky economy and the belief that existing networks still have some mileage are contributing to the not-so-solid commitments. Nonetheless, there are plenty of network trials to go around. As such, we've compiled this list of operators' LTE plans based on those companies that have made specific intentions around LTE. While South Korean operators KT Freetel and SK Telecom haven't made public specific dates regarding their commercial launch plans, they have indicated their intentions to invest in LTE by 2010. Zain in Bahrain hasn't announced a commercial launch date yet either, but has tapped Nokia Siemens Networks as its LTE vendor. Check below for a map detailing operator commitments to LTE. Listed, in descending order, are the o...

Source: Telenor press release Telenor is going to replace its entire mobile services infrastructure in Norway during the next years, with the aim of creating a flexible and cost efficient platform for mobile services. Huawei and Starent Networks have been chosen as the technology providers for the wireless network and mobile core network, respectively. The scope of the agreement includes the delivery of equipment across technology generations and frequency bands, as well as multi-base stations for 2G, 3G/UMTS and 4G/LTE. The change of providers will also entail digitisation, with the entire wireless network and core network being migrated to an IP-based platform. Read More....

Saturday, 31 October 2009 Source: 3G4G Wireless I keep on hearing about OTT apps everywhere I go nowadays. I know roughly what they mean but I couldnt find a proper definition anywhere. Here is my attampt to write a bit about what OTT means. Traditionally lots of services like Voice and Television for example is delivered in a conventional way where Voice was transferred via a PSTN or a Mobile network and similarly TV was delivered via Cable, Satellite, DVB-T kind of technology. With Internet becoming common and Broadband access available to everyone, easily and cheaply, new applications are available to deliver Voice and TV kinds of services. The most popular voice app is for example Skype and Youtube is an example of TV (even though its more like Video On Demand) These apps cause two main problems. The first problem is that the companies using this traditional medium starts losing customers and their cost per person goes up forcing their profits down. At the same time the am...

Published on Monday, October 26 2009 2:59 pm by saeba The ultra-light, power-saving X-Slim Series X340 and X600 models are the first Taiwan-based brand to receive WiMAX Forum Certification. On October 26, MSI will participate in Broadband Taiwan. At the international WiMAX product & application area, portability & the latest generation of mobile communications technology will unite to display MSI's "insist on the best" and strengths in new product development. MSI has devoted significant R&D capabilities to becoming not only a member of the international WiMAX Forum, but also the first in the world to release a mini notebook capable of supporting WiMAX, the Wind U120. In addition, the integration of the popular Intel CULV platform and release of the ultra-thin, power-saving X-Slim X340 and X600 WiMAX notebook models, give consumers the opportunity to Read full article...

Source: Telecoms.com Taiwanese Mobile WiMAX operator VMax Telecom teamed up with Korean equipment manufacturer Samsung on Monday to demonstrate what they claim is the industry’s first Mobile WiMAX roaming service. At the Broadband Taiwan conference, Samsung and VMax demonstrated a Mobile Internet Device called Mondi registered on the Clearwire network in the US, roaming on VMax’s network, as well as interoperability between VMax’s service in northern Taiwan and Tatung’s WiMAX network in southern Taiwan. VMax plans to provide commercial Mobile WiMAX service this year in Taipei City, Taiwan and will then expand the service to six additional major regions – including Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Keelung, Yilan and Lienchiang. Read full article...

Source: Telecoms.com The rise of the smartphone since Apple launched its genre-defining iPhone has been credited with many things. High on the list is the long-awaited arrival of meaningful progress in the sphere of location enabled services. And it wasn’t the conception of a particular service that gave LES this fillip, rather it was the more ready availability of GPS functionality in high end handsets, and the growing popularity of those handsets themselves. Overall handset shipments were down 6.1 per cent year on year for the second quarter of 2009 but smartphone sales increased by 27 per cent to reach almost 41 million, according to research firm Gartner. The analyst predicts that, globally, 26 per cent of mobile devices will be GPS-enabled in 2009, with the figure leaping to 76 per cent for North American sales. In Europe the number is more moderate, at 30 per cent, while Asia Pacific is a long way off the pace at 13 per cent. Read full article...

by telecoms.com editorial An extensive measurement campaign was carried out between June and August 2009 to assess the effect of mobile broadband optimisation on Internet access through notebook/netbook computers. Measurements were performed in and around London on all UK mobile networks offering mobile broadband products and conducted so that the results were comparable, regardless of the surrounding environment and traffic in the measured cell. Measurement results for operators that optimise showed smaller webpage size compared with those that did not. It was concluded that file size is the dominant parameter affecting webpage download duration and that efficient optimisation dramatically improves user experience with no perceived loss of quality. With optimisation, webpage size was reduced by up to 52% compared with non-optimised fixed broadband, savings that can significantly impact radio capacity Click here to read this whitepaper: bm-white-paper-v6fin

Source: Telecoms.com As communication service providers voice revenues decline, data has become the driver of revenue growth. However future revenues from data are threatened, by the explosion of non-revenue generating traffic, from over-the-top applications and Web 2.0 services. Efficient ‘bit’ delivery will not be enough. Operators need the means to innovate, to use their key assets, to add more value to their services. Combining Policy Management with real-time charging can change how service providers package and sell data access, bringing subscriber and network data together to: Create innovative data plans to differentiate offerings Control subscriber usage of network resources and services Enable subscribers to personalize services to build loyalty Policy Management is an emerging area with great promise in meeting operators’ requirements for dynamic, intelligent, and granular control of subscribers, services and networks. Attend this Webinar to understand how policy co...

The Ultra Mobile Device (UMD) market - that is, the shipments of UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs), netbooks, MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and mobile consumer electronics devices combined - is expected to achieve a 385 million unit size in 2014. The diversity of form factors and device types we see today will likely continue as vendors look to meet each audience's unique preferences, says ABI Research. "Consumers and business buyers are only recently accustomed to the netbook feature set," says senior analyst Jeff Orr. "Regardless of vendor, the majority of today's netbooks ship with Intel processors and Windows XP into developed markets." As uptake continues, developing markets will become the larger opportunity leveraging both ARM-based processors and Linux operating systems. The premium netbook category will also be established, offering larger screens and greater choices in connectivity solutions. Given little distinction today in feature-set and a relative...

Source : Cellular News Huawei says that it has successfully completed the world's first test for LTE self-organizing network (SON) with T-Mobile in Innsbruck, Austria. Through the solution's ability to configure, optimize and recover automatically, Huawei said that the LTE SON will offer operators operational cost savings associated with network planning, network deployment and network optimization. Using T-Mobile's existing eNodeBs, the test aims at verifying Automatic Neighbour Relation (ANR) functionality in Huawei's SON solution. The test result shows a high successful handover rate and demonstrates that the SON solution is able to automatically establish and optimize neighbour relations, and satisfies the requirements of future LTE commercial networks. As network topology changes, the LTE SON solution will ensure a high level of network connectivity and optimization of network-wide performance. Read full article...

Although mobile network operators and technology suppliers are firmly committed to LTE as the cornerstone for 4G networks, major disagreements about the importance of including voice service as part of early LTE deployments could lead to the kind of industry fragmentation that adversely affected 3G rollouts, according to the latest report from Unstrung Insider. "Nearly everyone in the mobile phone industry agrees that LTE is the way forward for data, but that consensus does not extend to voice over LTE as yet," notes John Blau, research analyst with Unstrung Insider and author of the report. "Some mobile operators view LTE initially as a data-only play and do not see a powerful case for rushing into voice, while other operators are worried that LTE without voice could be off to a difficult start." Read full article...

Source: ZD net Motorola is back in a big way. Motorola’s Droid made a big splash two weeks ago when it debuted in a Verizon teaser ad during prime-time across the country and slammed America’s favorite smartphone, the Apple iPhone. Now that it’s finally been fully revealed, it’s clear that the Droid has become the yardstick by which all Android smartphones are to be measured. The Droid is Motorola’s second smartphone using Google’s free mobile platform, joining the Cliq on T-Mobile. While that phone focused on social communication integration by adding an innovative layer of software and services called Motoblur, it was at times sluggish, much like the T-Mobile G1 and myTouch 3G handsets that also run on Android. Up until now, Android hasn’t had enough horsepower — by hardware or software — to give the well-thought out iPhone serious competition. That’s no longer the case, as the Droid is bulging with premium features both outside and in. Read full article...

Saudi Arabia's Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has raised SAR 900 million (US$240 million) from SABB bank as a medium term financing to support the capital expenditure of its subsidiary Bayanat Al-Oula. In a statement released on Wednesday, Mobily said the 66-month financing has been arranged on clean and unsecured basis on Bayanat's Balance sheet. Read full article...

Source: Cellular News Malaysia's telecoms regulator has fined three of the country's four WiMAX license holders for missing their network rollout targets. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is reported to have issued the fines last week, reported The Star newspaper. All three operators are appealing their fines. The players fined are YTL e-Solutions (RM1.9mil), AsiaSpace (RM1.7mil) and REDtone International (RM200,000) for failure to meet the 25% population coverage by the end of March. Read Full Article...

Source: Cellular News Nokia Siemens Networks says that it is conducting end-to-end LTE interoperability testing with four, leading but unnamed, device vendors across several frequency bands required in different regions, including AWS, 700 MHz and 2100 MHz. The tests cover several steps in end-to-end network configuration based on commercial LTE hardware, including the Flexi Multiradio Base Station and the Evolved Packet Core, and standard compliant software. The tests show the interoperability of the Nokia Siemens Networks LTE radio and Flexi NS and Flexi NG evolved packet core network elements with real LTE terminals, and end to end compliancy with the LTE standard (3GPP March 09 baseline specifications). Read Full Article...

Source : 3G4G wireless The unremitting growth in data traffic will bring about a 3G network capacity crisis for some mobile network operators as early as 2010. This dire scenario, according to a new study from Unwired Insight, will only be avoided by the early deployment of LTE, and the acceptance that additional LTE spectrum will be required to satisfy this demand. With 3G traffic volumes set to increase by a factor of 20 by 2015--driven by many technology factors and also dramatic reductions in mobile data pricing--Alastair Brydon, co-author of the new study, points to the example of mobile broadband pricing that has fallen as low as US$2 per gigabyte, "which is nearly half a million times smaller than the price per gigabyte of an SMS message." Brydon believes that early LTE will be necessary for the following reasons: As 2G users continue to migrate to 3G services, the available capacity per 3G user will decline rapidly in networks utilising HSPA, to less than 100...