Airtel launches 3G services in Durgapur, West Bengal

DURGAPUR, INDIA: Bharti Airtel, leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa, announced the availability of its 3G services in West Bengal’s Steel City - Durgapur.

Airtel also launched its Mobile Comics Portal, Video Talkies and IPL live on Mobile TV on its 3G service. These, along with Video Calls, HD gaming, promise a host of innovative services for customers riding on Airtel internet on 3G.

Launching Airtel 3G in Durgapur, Raghunath Mandava, Operations Director – East, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel said: "We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of 3G in Bengal telecom circle at Durgapur. Recognized as India’s eastern development centre, Durgapur is currently undergoing rapid growth across the areas of industrialization, IT, health and education.

"We are today delighted to announce the launch of Comics, Video Talkies and IPL on Mobile TV – thereby bringing in the complete power of 3G to our customers. Our innovative products are being enjoyed by over 2 million customers on Airtel 3G. Today we welcome customers in Durgapur to join in and leverage Airtel’s world class 3G network experience."

Airtel 3G customers can now pay Rs. 5 per day and start receiving unlimited comics from a wide collection of famous titles, including regional content. To subscribe, Airtel mobile customers can send ‘3G’ to 54321. Upon receiving a WAP link for 3G Zone, customers can select the comics link and will further be directed to the comics section main page – where they can accept the the price subscription and can start reading their favorite comics, including regional content like Tinkle, Archies and Tales of Durga by Amar Chitra Katha.

Video Talkies portal on Airtel 3G allows customers to watch popular Bollywood and regional movies (including Bengali) in high quality. The movies are compressed into 15 minute capsules comprising of the best scenes and songs with background story narration. To subscribe, customers can send ‘3G’ to 54321, receive a WAP link for Airtel 3G Zone, select Video Talkies and choose from a wide range of top films and regional language categories. The service is available for Rs. 25 (per view) and Rs. 15 per week for 1 movie on a subscription basis.

Customers can now watch IPL live matches through Mobile TV – anytime, anywhere - powered by Apalya. This new service will enable easy viewing of the ongoing cricket tournament by millions of eager viewers. Mobile TV also brings in other exciting viewing options suitable for the entire family.

Airtel customers can enjoy 3G connectivity on the device of their choice – be it their mobile handsets or tablets. Airtel 3G dongles are also available to offer fast internet connectivity for laptop users.

Cortina intros second generation 40G OTN processor platform supporting 40G Ethernet and latest OTN mapping standards

SUNNYVALE, USA: Cortina Systems Inc. has announced its second generation 40G/10G optical transport processor family, CS604x, designed for transport and aggregation of data, voice, and video signals simultaneously over 10G, 40G, and 100G networks.

The CS604x family is pin for pin and software compatible with the previous generation, CS600x, and adds support for latest OTN mapping standards, ODUFlex, and 40G Ethernet. To enable direct connection to new lower cost 40G modules such as QSFP and CFP, the CS604x has four additional 10G multi-rate serial interfaces. In addition, the Cortina CS604x family is the industry’s first OTN processor family with integrated jitter attenuation PLLs enabling highly integrated and more cost effective solutions to customers.

“Telecom equipment makers are looking for integrated solutions that reduce their BOM cost, board space, and power consumption, while supporting the latest standards and technologies enabling them to transport legacy and emerging packet-oriented services transparently,” said Arun Zarabi, VP, Infrastructure Business Unit, Cortina. “The Cortina CS604x four jitter attenuation and cleanup PLLs provide significant savings to customers in both board space and cost in asynchronous demapping applications, when compared to external PLL based solutions needed with competitor products.”

“During 2010, total 40G port shipments doubled on optical equipment, with most being used for multiplexing 4x10G traffic,” said Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst, Optical at Infonetics Research. “Aggregation of high density 10Gbps is the sweet spot for core deployments based on data center interconnect and broadband aggregation, which is addressed by the Cortina CS604x with its ability to transparently map and transfer 10G and 40G clients to OTN, OTU3(e) and OTU4, in a standard fashion.”

The Cortina CS604x Optical Transport Processor & FEC Devices are a family of highly integrated devices designed for transparent transport of 10Gbps and 40Gbps clients, aggregation and de-aggregation of 10G class clients to 40G. In addition, these devices integrate 40G Ethernet MAC enabling monitoring and mapping of 40GE clients to OTN, compliant with latest G.709 (Amendment 1 7/2010) & G.798 (10/2010) standards updates for GMP mapping of various bit rate clients into OTN, four integrated jitter attenuation and clean up PLLs, and additional 4x10G multi-rate (OTL/STL/XLAUI) serial interfaces enabling single chip/single card design for CFP/QFSP to CFP/300-pin MSA transponder applications.

As with the previous generation, these devices support standard and strong Forward Error Correction (FEC) at 10G & 40G rates, and provide performance monitoring and networking support for various client signals including 10GE LAN/WAN, Fibre Channel, Infiniband, and SONET/SDH with connectivity to XFP/SFP+ and SFI4.1 MSA modules. The CS6000 family of OTN Processors provides the most efficient solution for transport and aggregation of 10G, 40G, and 100G signals today supporting Packet over Optical Transport Platforms (P-OTP), DWDM transport systems, and Carrier Ethernet router/switch applications.

“Time to market is critical to our customers. The Cortina CS604x family not only extends the previous generation CS600x’s leadership in the Optical core and metro networks, it provides 100% software and hardware compatibility,” stated Zarabi. “The CS600x is deployed in products at many tier 1 and 2 OEMs. The hardware and software APIs are proven and give our customers a seamless transition and upgrade path.”

The CS604x family has been sampling to customers since March 2011.

Zylog India picks Antcor S.A as partner

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Antcor S.A., a leading provider of robust software solutions for the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) market, announced that it has been selected by Zylog Systems India Limited to empower the massive rollout of its ‘Wi5 Broadband’ fixed wireless data services across India.

Through this partnership, Antcor will enable ‘Wi5 Broadband’ equipment with tailored and state of the art software, which will allow the efficient and reliable
operation of the wireless network.

Wi5 Broadband is an initiative of Zylog Systems India Ltd (ZSIL) – a category 'A' ISP and subsidiary of Zylog Systems Limited (ZSL), that is a global IT solutions group providing Onshore, Offshore & Near shore technology solutions and services to enterprises & technology companies across the globe for over 15 years.

ZSL is headquartered in Edison, NJ, USA with employees and offices that span the globe in North America, Europe, Middle-East and Asia. ZSL is listed on the National Stock Exchange & Bombay Stock Exchange of India.

Zylog Systems India (ZSIL) is headquartered in Chennai and offers Wi5 Broadband services in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Gujarat before spreading to other parts of India.

Antcor’s solid experience in outdoor WIFI solutions and the flexibility to provide tailored solutions that meet customer’s needs, have been the main drivers of Zylog’s strategic decision.

Bharti Airtel and Apple to bring iPhone 4 to India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel will launch iPhone 4 in India in the coming months.

iPhone 4 is the most innovative phone in the world, featuring Apple's stunning Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone and FaceTime, which makes video calling a reality.

Aircel to also launch iPhone 4
Aircel also announced that will launch the iPhone 4 in India in the coming months.

iPhone 4 is the most innovative phone in the world, featuring Apple's stunning Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone and FaceTime, which makes video calling a reality.

First LTE mobile devices achieve GCF certification

TAIWAN: The Samsung GT-B3740, a USB modem, became the first LTE device to achieve GCF Certification on 31 March 2011. A second device, the LG FM300 Xenon, an LTE-connected wifi router, was certified on 4 April 2011. Both devices operate in Band 20, the ‘European Digital Dividend band’, in which LTE is currently being deployed in Germany.

Developed and maintained by an active partnership of operators, device manufacturers, the test industry and other interested parties, GCF Certification is designed to provide confidence that new devices are compliant with relevant standards and interoperable with network systems irrespective of infrastructure vendor.

Incorporating conformance, interoperability and field testing, GCF Certification provides a rigorous but pragmatic assessment of a new device based on standardised test methodologies. Some 400 different 3GPP mobile phones, wireless modems and connected devices achieved GCF Certification in 2010.

“The first device certifications for LTE, as for any new mobile technology, are a significant milestone,“ said Adriana Nugter, Operations Manager of GCF. “Reducing acceptance testing overheads for manufacturers and operators alike, the extension of GCF’s trusted scheme to LTE bands will accelerate the development of LTE devices for the mass-market.”

"Samsung has been a committed advocate of GCF Certification and is delighted that the GT-B3740 has become the first LTE device to be GCF-certified,” said JK Shin, president and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business. “Building confidence in the interoperability of devices among operators and end-users is paramount to Samsung; GCF Certification will further promote the take-up of the enhanced speeds and capabilities offered by new technologies such as LTE.”

GCF expects to extend certification to several additional bands over the coming months. To date, operator members have identified a further eight bands – including FDD and TDD allocations – which are actively being brought within the scheme.

Android to command nearly half of worldwide smartphone OS market by end 2012

EGHAM, UK: Worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, a 57.7 percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner Inc. By the end of 2011, Android will move to become the most popular operating system (OS) worldwide and will build on its strength to account for 49 percent of the smartphone market by 2012.

Sales of open OS devices will account for 26 percent of all mobile handset device sales in 2011, and are expected to surpass the 1 billion mark by 2015, when they will account for 47 percent of the total mobile device market.

“By 2015, 67 percent of all open OS devices will have an average selling price of $300 or below, proving that smartphones have been finally truly democratized,” said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner.

“As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers”, Ms. Cozza said. “Android's position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets.”

Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Communications Device Open OS Sales to End Users by OS (Thousands of Units)Source: Gartner, April 2011.

Gartner predicts that Apple’s iOS will remain the second biggest platform worldwide through 2014 despite its share deceasing slightly after 2011. This reflects Gartner’s underlying assumption that Apple will be interested in maintaining margins rather than pursuing market share by changing its pricing strategy. This will continue to limit adoption in emerging regions. iOS share will peak in 2011, with volume growth well above the market average. This is driven by increased channel reach in key mature markets like the US and Western Europe.

Research In Motion’s share over the forecast period will decline, reflecting the stronger competitive environment in the consumer market, as well as increased competition in the business sector. Gartner has factored in RIM’s migration from BlackBerry OS to QNX which is expected in 2012. Analysts said this transition makes sense because RIM can create a consistent experience going from smartphones to tablets with a single developer community and — given that QNX as a platform brings more advanced features than the classic BlackBerry OS — it can enable more competitive smartphone products.

Gartner predicts that Nokia will push Windows Phone well into the mid-tier of its portfolio by the end of 2012, driving the platform to be the third largest in the worldwide ranking by 2013. Gartner has revised its forecast of Windows Phone’s market share upward, solely by virtue of Microsoft’s alliance with Nokia. Although this is an honorable performance it is considerably less than what Symbian had achieve in the past underlying the upward battle that Nokia has to face.

Gartner analysts said new device types will widen ecosystems. “The growth in sales of media tablets expected in 2011 and future years will widen the ecosystems that open OS communications devices have created. This will, by and large, function more as a driver than an inhibitor for sales of open OS devices,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

“Consumers who already own an open OS communications device will be drawn to media tablets and more often than not, to media tablets that share the same OS as their smartphone,” Ms. Milanesi said. “This allows consumers to be able to share the same experience across devices as well as apps, settings or game scores. At the same time, tablet users who don’t own a smartphone could be prompted to adopt one to be able to share the experience they have on their tablets.”

LTE infrastructure spending to soar in next four years

EL SEGUNDO, USA: Mass deployment of long term evolution (LTE) wireless infrastructure is beginning in 2011 as many carriers in the United States and Europe seek to migrate their networks to 4G over the next three years. During this time, spending on LTE infrastructure gear will expand to $27.9 billion globally, up from just $1.5 billion in 2010, according to new the IHS iSuppli research.

Initially, LTE infrastructure spending will occur in North America, which accounted for $90 million out of $97 million in global LTE spending in 2009 and nearly half of worldwide spending in 2010. This year, North America will also make up $1.7 billion of the projected $3.8 billion spent globally on LTE infrastructure. However, after 2011, spending will ramp up considerably in other regions, and North America’s influence will dwindle to less than 20 percent of overall global spending, as shown in the figure.Source: IHS iSuppli, USA.

Overall, growth of LTE infrastructure spending will reach $27.9 billion by 2014, managing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a 107.5 percent from $1.5 billion in 2010—a spectacular eighteenfold expansion.

“While this spending represents tremendous growth in next-generation wireless technology, carriers still will be required to support multiple air interface technologies simultaneously, as the migration to 4G and LTE will not happen overnight,” noted Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst for communications and consumer electronics at IHS.

“In most cases, carriers will need to offer 2.5G, 3.5G and 4G technologies in order to support all customers and roaming customers. As a result, semiconductor suppliers must focus on developing effective infrastructure solutions that not only meet the current needs of carriers but also achieve alignment with the 3G/3.5G technology migration paths of the carriers to 4G.”

Some original equipment manufacturers (OEM) already are starting to promote solutions that support migration from any previous generation to 4G, Rebello added. However, in the long run, these solutions will need to be flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs of the operators.

New business models—new architectures
As data traffic on the networks of mobile operators continually grow at exponential rates, driven primarily by rising consumer adoption of video streaming services, mobile operators are carefully looking at their business models and network deployment plans, Rebello said. Around the world, mobile network operators (MNOs) are trying to create plans that allow them to deploy 3.75G and 4G networks while also profitably monetizing data traffic.

For operators, this means moving increasingly to tiered pricing plans based on the amount of bandwidth consumed. IHS believes that such a move constitutes the first step in operators’ attempts to transition their networks from ‘dumb pipes’ to ‘metered dumb pipes’, and then eventually to ‘smart pipes.’

Furthermore, to successfully monetize data traffic, operators will have to migrate their networks to smarter networks that can provide dynamic quality-of-service guarantees, prioritize traffic, and offer certain services that can be exempt from data traffic ceilings.

Differentiated pricing plans also could be presented that allow consumers to choose options tailored to their needs. This way, consumers could choose to pay price premiums for the option to access video streaming applications, or choose plans that only offer data services and web access.

To do all this, Rebello said, operators will need to evolve their networking architecture into a heterogeneous architecture involving a combination of macro cells, micro cells and small cells, co-existing with femto cells and WLAN (wireless local area network) mesh networks. Such heterogeneous architectures will have to be optimized with end-to-end solutions, which will allow operators to implement service-level policies on data packets through their networks.

Big future for small architectures
A critical part of this future network architecture, IHS believes, will be the implementation of small architectures. Small cells—also referred to as pico cells and metro area cells—will allow operators to deploy 3G/4G network coverage in dense urban areas possessing a high concentration of mobile data users. If properly implemented, small cells can be tuned so that the network capacity is aligned with periods of high use.

For example, small cells in urban downtown areas can be turned off at night when data consumption by enterprise users in these areas declines, Rebello noted.
If operators are able to successfully monetize data and manage the bandwidth crunch, it is clear that networks will have to evolve from the current homogenous architecture into intelligent, managed heterogeneous architectures, Rebello observed further.

“This means tremendous opportunities will be available for infrastructure OEMs, silicon suppliers and software providers to offer differentiated end-to-end solutions, and for operators to take advantage of the explosive growth in data,” he added.

Source: IHS iSuppli, USA.