Stoke enhances SSX with software spanning requirements of 3G and 4G networks

SANTA CLARA, USA: Mobile broadband gateway developer Stoke Inc. introduced a new software release enabling mobile broadband operators to immediately support initial 4G/LTE deployments, while enhancing the profit potential of their current 3G networks.

Based on extensive lab and commercial operator trials, Stoke has enhanced both its StokeOS software and its SSX-3000 platform to address the specific requirements of high availability, reduced operational expense, high performance and end-to-end security in eNodeB aggregation.

Mobile data networks worldwide are buckling under the explosive growth in data traffic, driven by the popularity of data hungry smartphones, iPhones and, above all, Laptops with 3G modems.

StokeOS Version 4.5 offers an innovative platform enabling operators to improve performance, reduce churn and increase profitability from their existing 3G networks while they prepare for investment in 4G/LTE.

Stéphane Téral, Principal Analyst, mobile and FMC Infrastructure at international research and consulting firm Infonetics Research commented: "Despite the sophistication of traffic analysis tools as well as the wireline Internet experience, no one was smart enough to foresee the once-in-a-century mobile data traffic tsunami. Consequently, we have reached the point of urgency to develop and implement new tools and techniques that help mobile operators cope with and thrive in this new reality."

New features in StokeOS 4.5 support deployments of all-IP backhaul architect, and allow carriers to leverage lower-cost open IP transport networks at the earliest stages of 4G/LTE. Capabilities in this software version include intra-device resilience, redundancy within individual Stoke SSX-3000 devices to reduce cost, power, and overall footprint, and support both for femtocells and LTE eNodeB base stations.

"Based on extensive customer input as well as our own engineering vision, this release was specifically designed to deliver the security and performance features required by LTE deployments, while providing breakthrough functionality for the pressing needs of today’s 3G architectures," said Michael Homeier, vice president of product management at Stoke.

"StokeOS 4.5 allows us to deliver a truly scalable gateway at home in both 3G and 4G environments, and supports operators’ best-of-breed selection strategy to optimize their LTE investments."

According to recent analyst reports, telecommunications carriers worldwide will be deploying next generation networks for their wireless backhaul starting in 2012 to satisfy surging demand from bandwidth hungry services and devices.

The multitude of radio standards is also putting pressure on vendors to implement reconfigurable software solutions, and on operators to revamp their mobile core networks to an all-IP platform. StokeOS Version 4.5 addresses these requirements for multi-vendor, all-IP environments while supporting both 3G and 4G architectures.

Four main considerations for eNodeB aggregation
Secure Communications: When open IP is used for wired or wireless backhaul, the signaling and subscriber traffic must be secured from the eNodeB to the operator core. The SSX-3000 is a high density, high throughput security gateway, providing line rate, low-latency, encrypted communications.

Tunnel Management: Unlike user to network secure sessions, the interaction between eNodeB and the security aggregator is of "network to network" type, therefore traffic destined for user endpoints as well as to the eNodeB itself must be protected. The gateway must be able to distinguish between traffic to subscribers and traffic destined for the eNodeB in the same encrypted tunnel. StokeOS 4.5 also provides a range of tunnel initialization and recovery options to ensure non-stop operations.

Deployment Flexibility: The gateway must be capable of supporting many types of home, pole-top and macro eNodeB units from a range of eNodeB suppliers to support expected operator LTE radio access network deployment models. It must also support different deployment architectures, providing operators with the freedom to select best-of-breed solutions for 4G, and 3G environments.

Operational Efficiency: In lab and commercial trials, customers identified efficiencies in space and power usage, multiple functionality, high availability and high scalability as key operational metrics.

Highest throughput, lowest cost per subscriber
The SSX-3000 delivers connection and traffic throughput densities from 8,000 to 240,000 connected subscribers, in throughput configurations from 4Gbps to 16Gbps, in a five-rack unit form factor.

Each gateway can support multiple concurrent applications, offering massive capital, energy and operational savings and 7x - 10x improvement in cost per session over traditional solutions, together with strong standards-based authentication and IP security capabilities.

Yankee Group uncovers 4G disconnect

CHICAGO, USA: While 60 percent of users surveyed by Yankee Group say they are interested in mobile Internet access, just 3 percent say they are anxiously awaiting 4G and 43 percent say they have heard the term “4G” but don’'t understand what it means.

That disconnect is just one hurdle service providers must overcome before they can successfully reap the promise of 4G and the mobile Internet.

These are core topics of 4G World and Mobile Internet World, which run through Sept. 18. The events have 7,000 registered attendees, and feature 250 sponsors and exhibitors and 150 speakers, including eight Yankee Group analysts. The report, “Beyond 4G Rhetoric: Capitalizing on the Mobile Internet,” released today spotlights industry challenges:

* Mobile Internet is spawning new, tougher competition. Service providers are not only challenged to transform their businesses for the mobile Internet, but must also keep up with innovative non-carrier competitors, like device makers Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM and Nokia, as well as new entrants in emerging markets.

* High smartphone usage will continue to stress networks. Yankee Group surveys show 60 percent of users are likely or highly likely to purchase a smartphone as their next mobile device. Data traffic is expected to increase by more than 29 times between 2009 and 2015, with most demand coming from smartphones. In fact, the proportion of data traffic coming from smartphones will increase from 18.5 to 56 percent between 2009 and 2015.

* Service providers must overhaul their infrastructure. “In addition to moving to all-IP cores, service providers must adopt holistic strategies to transform their entire network, IT and operational ecosystems,” says Phil Marshall, senior research fellow and author of the report. “Service providers must capitalize on the mobile Internet or perish.”

Indian telecom industry prepares for new 3G regime

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Highlighting the current mobile content and services market shift, IAMAI organized the National Conference on Mobile Content & Services in New Delhi.

Industry experts came together and emphasized the need of their preparedness for the upcoming 3G regime for Indian telecom industry.

With the 3G spectrum auctions just round the corner, the event was a timely platform to have serious dialogue on how the industry sees a massive push towards data and services as opposed to voice.

TV Ramachandran, Secretary General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said: “Operators still have limitations with regards to 2G in addressing the consumer demands of new data usage patterns. Undoubtedly, 3G holds a lot of prominence for the consumer of mobile services. In order to support the upcoming growth from mobile value added services the industry needs a clear spectrum policy which should cover both 2G and 3G.” However, he also emphasized the need of affordable mobile broadband.

While highlighting the need of regional content based SMS services, Nadeem Akhtar, Senior Research Engineer Centre for Excellence in Wireless Technology said: “Looking at Indian mobile users context only 37 percent of urban population uses text messages. Some factors effecting the SMS penetration are: lack of multilingual content, secondly user friendliness of the mobile device with regards to text messages generation.”

Akhtar further emphasized on the need to define suitable mechanism of handling legacy devices and need to showcase a prototype of new technologies like Unicode Technology of text messages.

While acknowledging the fact of mobile broadband and wireless growth going to happen in near future, Sangeeet Chowfla, Executive Vice President, Comviva added: “Adoption of services like navigation, location based mobile services, mobile internet across the world where 3G services have already forayed. The revolution is about to come in India as well. All we need to do is to come up with India specific services which would also require services to be delivered in Indian regional languages.”

Debasis Chatterjee (CEO, Netxcell) reiterated that the key thought of the day is to understand the need of the customer at a greater depth and subsequently provide a mix of technology as per the needs and requirements of the consumer.

He also stressed on the importance of the ease of usage at an affordable price. For doing this a complete integration of the eco system by diff stakeholder is required.
The one day event was attended by the who’s who of the mobile content and services players, Mobile VAS companies and professionals from the industry. The forum highlighted the industry preparedness for the new 3G regime.

With the 3G spectrum auction almost coming up, the event has witnessed some key resolutions and takeaways for the industry to manage this new mobile technology arena.

First 3G watchphone available in France exclusively with Orange

PARIS, FRANCE: Paris, A technological masterpiece is now available from 6 August 2009 onward at orange.fr website.

The LG GD910 is the world’s first 3G touch watchphone. This 3G watchphone from LG Electronics is a masterpiece of miniaturisation and innovation which any new technology and gadget fans will find irresistible.

With its 1.43” tempered glass touchscreen, this slimline –- less than 14mm thick –- elegant watchphone with fold fastening strap has all the features you expect of a watch (world clock, stopwatch and splash resistant -– IPX4 standard). It is 3G/3G+ compatible, giving it excellent compatibility with Orange 3G/3G+ mobile broadband.

A watch with a clean, elegant design, the LG GD910 also boasts the features of the most advanced mobile phones: touchscreen with simple, fluid interface, VGA camera, MP3 player, diary, dictaphone, etc.

Unique mobile for communicating differently
This telephone is worn as a watch and allows the user to call, send and receive SMS, make video calls and be contacted at any time, for example during a sports session or shopping trip.

Bluetooth makes the watchphone practical and comfortable to use (keypad, loudspeaker function or earpiece). It features LG’s most advanced voice recognition and synthesis technologies, which are particularly useful when on the move.

It is available exclusively from Orange's website orange.fr, starting from €899 with subscription to an Origami star, first, jet or Origami plus package (12 or 24-month contract).

The LG GD910 is also available for Orange customers as part of the “Changer de Mobile” (Change your Mobile) Program.

ST-Ericsson strengthens technological leadership, completes integration

SINGAPORE: ST-Ericsson, a leader in wireless semiconductors and mobile platforms, announced a new organization to further strengthen its technological leadership and integrate the operations further.

Alain Dutheil, President and CEO, said: “The new organization we are announcing today will allow us to timely and successfully execute on our new product strategy, based on the future convergence to one 3G roadmap, a continued commitment on 2G/EDGE and connectivity, as well as a strong focus on TD-SCDMA and on fast growing next generation access technologies such as LTE. Additionally, it will enable us to complete the integration of the different businesses we merged five months ago and provide our customers with a world-leading and even more compelling portfolio.”

The organization will be centered around three product groups, focused on the following areas:
- LTE and HSPA -Connected Devices, led by Magnus Hansson, Vice President
- 3G -Multimedia Platforms, led by Marc Cetto, Vice President
- 2G, EDGE, TD-SCDMA and Connectivity- led by Thierry Tingaud, Vice President
supported by an R&D shared services organization, led by Philippe Berger, Vice President.

Jörgen Lantto has been appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Strategy and Pascal Langlois Chief Sales and Marketing Officer.

The following positions of the management team reporting to President and CEO Alain Dutheil remain unchanged:
- Timothy Lucie-Smith, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
- Abhijit Bhattacharya, Vice President, Operations and Quality
- Jean-Louis Champseix, Vice President, Human Resources
- Claudia Levo, Vice President, Global Communications
- Lotta Westerlund, Vice President, Legal Affairs

The following management changes will also occur:
* Tommi Uhari will act as Senior Advisor to the CEO.
* Monica de Virgiliis has decided to leave the company to pursue other career opportunities. Until then, she will act as Senior Advisor to the CEO for the implementation of the new organization.
* Robert Puskaric, Deputy CEO & Executive Vice President, has decided to leave ST-Ericsson to take on another appointment at Ericsson. Mr. Puskaric has played a key role in the first stages of the creation of ST-Ericsson, leading the integration and organizing the Sales & Marketing activities.

China Unicom chooses GyPSii for 3G mobile social networking

SALO, FINLAND & AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS: GeoSentric Oyj, developers of the award-winning GyPSii mobile social networking application announced its partnership with China Unicom’s Shanghai Unicom, to become the premier mobile social network solution for its new consumer 3G SNS Service, UniSpace.

From today, over 5 million Shanghai Unicom customers are able to download the GyPSii client directly on to their mobile device from the UniSpace website.

This roll out will expand to 130 + million subscribers in China. As part of the GyPSii community, UniSpace members can immediately start to create “geotagged” content for sharing in “real-time” with friends, family and the growing global community of GyPSii members.

The content that UniSpace members create becomes true Internet-searchable destinations and experiences, available for all GyPSii friends and communities across the globe to immediately find, share and comment on.

“GyPSii’s ability to deliver an all-in-one, location-aware mobile social networking experience is proving extremely popular in China, with people using the application to create and share content, as well as connect with each other across a range of networks and devices,” said Lu Dongliang, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Unicom.

“With its fast-growing community and unique, intuitive user experience, GyPSii was the natural choice as a mobile social networking partner. We expect the new UniSpace offering to play an important role in driving the success of our 3G Value Added Service.”

GyPSii uses various handset location technologies -– including GPS, A-GPS and cell ID -– to allow Shanghai Unicom customers to automatically tag their location with photos, video, status updates and other information, for sharing their experiences in real-time.

GyPSii is available for UniSpace customers to use on a wide range of mobile devices, including Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones. Further mobile platforms will follow shortly.

"After GyPSii and Shanghai Unicom's success working together during the Olympics in 2008, we are delighted to deepen this important relationship and open up GyPSii to the wider community of Unicom's millions of subscribers," said Dan Harple, Executive Chairman of GyPSii. “Our goal is to have GyPSii on the world's most popular networks and devices, for mobile consumers worldwide to use and enjoy in all the world's most popular regions.

"Shanghai Unicom is an important and valued partner. Their 3G leadership in China, coupled with GyPSii's seamless “create, share, connect” model, provides a valuable new mode of communicating for Shanghai Unicom users. Our partnership truly enables Shanghai Unicom customers to create a new “people powered index” using GyPSii on their powerful 3G network.

"We look forward to welcoming UniSpace customers as new GyPSii users, who will use the application to connect and share their mobile lives with others. This, in turn, will help Shanghai Unicom to acquire new 3G customers, retain existing subscribers and importantly boost revenues."

The GyPSii application is already available worldwide on a wide range of devices, including the Apple iPhone, Samsung, Nokia, LG and BlackBerry Smartphones. New users can download the application directly.

Teradyne holds majority share in wireless test market

NORTH READING, USA: According to Gartner, Teradyne Inc. holds a 66.5 percent share of the worldwide ATE RF testing market based on revenue in 2008, up from 60 percent in 2007.

Teradyne’s wireless device test solutions, the Gen4 Microwave and UltraWave 12G, cover the broadest range of today’s complex wireless test requirements with the performance headroom for tomorrow.

“From our perspective, Teradyne continues to maintain clear market leadership in RF ATE,” said Ed Paulsen, wireless segment manager at Teradyne. “The Gen4 Microwave instrument for the FLEX test system continues to see wide acceptance having recently shipped its 500th unit to Sigurd Microelectronics.”

Spanning the broadest range of complex RFIC and RFSOC wireless device applications, the UltraWave 12G and Gen4 test devices including, wireless LAN, Bluetooth, set-top box (STB), 3G and 4G cellular, WiMAX and emerging standards like LTE.

Paulsen continued: "The UltraWave 12G has also quickly ramped and sets the bar in terms of RF performance, throughput, parallel test efficiency and ease of use. We can attribute our 6.5 percent growth in wireless market share this year to the broad range of wireless markets our RF test solutions serve as well as the technical and economic requirements our customers realize by working with Teradyne."

4G apps set to evolve in mutiplatform environment

MONTREAL, CANADA, Key growth drivers in the 4G applications market include an increasingly open network environment and snackable data plans applicable across various device types, according to Maravedis’ latest research report, “Broadband Services and Applications in the 4G Era: Beyond Existing 3G Applications.”

The evolution from 3G to 4G will be stimulated by services offering enhanced quality, requiring increased bandwidth, elevated sophistication of large-scale information provision, and improved customization capabilities to support user demands.

Further, many 4G applications are set to evolve in a multiplatform environment: “4G applications will be available seamlessly across various wireless technologies (LTE, Wi-Fi, UWB, WiMAX, etc.) and device types (cell phones, laptops, e-readers, PNDs, digital cameras, printers, tablet PCs, etc.) with the same QoS anytime, anywhere,” noted Adlane Fellah, Senior Analyst.

“While it is still unclear which types of mobile applications and services, pricing and business models will be used by carriers on their upcoming 4G networks, we are unlikely to see a revolution in the 4G space. Applications are likely to be extended and improved versions of existing 3G services,” noted Julien Blin, report co-author and Senior Analyst.

“Next generation applications such as wireless VoIP, e-readers apps, mobile IPTV, telematics, M2M apps (e.g. smart grids), and location-aware mobile apps/services embedded with social networking and user-generated content capabilities are likely to become key applications in the upcoming 4G apps space,” added Fellah.

According to the report, the 4G industry is likely to see new killer devices in the line of the iPhone 3G S, Palm Pre, G1/G2 phones, and the Storm, in the 4G space, which will help drive adoption of 4G applications and services.

Mobile app stores are set to become a key distribution channel for upcoming 4G applications. Ultimately, they could end up being a godsend for many carriers at a time when disruptive applications like Skype are threatening carriers’ voice ARPUs. That said, solving cross-mobile app store interoperability issues and content discovery issues will be critical. Adding peer-to-peer recommendations, location awareness, and enhanced mobile search engines to existing mobile app stores should play a key role here.

Several issues will need to be overcome before the future 4G apps market reaches its full potential. These include handset limitation, the poor user experience on many feature phones, the need for sustainable and profitable 4G business and pricing models, mobile discovery issues, privacy and security issues, increased fragmentation, and the lack of standards. Other issues include the low penetration and high cost of data plans and services, and the lack of awareness when it comes to certain mobile data services.

The report analyzes the key operators, future drivers, and key issues/inhibitors in the upcoming 4G apps space. It also assesses the future leading 4G players’ strategies toward 4G applications and services.

CDMA2000 bringing 3G services to China on massive scale

BEIJING, CHINA: At the inaugural CDMA World Forum, the CDMA Development Group (CDG) commented that new 3G wireless voice and mobile broadband service offerings in China are poised to rapidly replace fixed-line solutions, exemplified by subscriber adoption of China Telecom's CDMA2000 1X and EV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) mobile broadband services.

China Telecom is now offering fixed and mobile broadband data services under its "e-surfing" brand, in addition to its existing CDMA2000(r) 1X voice and data services. The operator has already launched 3G CDMA mobile broadband services in more than 120 cities, with plans to cover 324 cities nationwide by July 2009.

By catering to its long-standing enterprise relationships, leveraging its large existing fixed-line customer base and focusing on offering mobile Internet services, China Telecom added 6.8 million CDMA2000 customers in the first four months of 2009 to reach a total of 34.71 million CDMA subscribers.

"China Telecom is showing market leadership through its commitment to bringing 3G CDMA services to China and communicating the value of CDMA2000 voice and mobile broadband services to the Chinese consumer," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "A wide selection of affordable 3G CDMA devices is helping China Telecom realize phenomenal subscriber growth, as it leverages the CDMA2000 network to offer wireless voice and broadband data services to both new and existing customers."

Since the restructuring of China's telecom industry in 2008, the country's three wireless operators have been investing heavily in 3G networks across three technologies. China Mobile plans to invest $8.6 billion to expand its TD-SCDMA network in 2009, while China Unicom plans to put $5.6 billion into its recently-launched WCDMA network this year.

China Telecom has announced it plans to spend more than US$11.7 billion on CDMA network expansion and optimization over the next three years, while procuring 55 million CDMA2000 handsets in 2009 to support this rapid growth.

The China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) expects 3G wireless subscribers in the country to exceed 500 million within the next 3 years, as affordable mobile broadband services replace fixed-line Internet services and expand to rural areas.

Furthermore, an MIIT report predicts that Chinese CDMA subscribers will experience a 30.6 percent compound annual growth rate over the next four years, and that EV-DO subscribers will account for 41.1 percent of China's 3G subscriber base by 2012.

EV-DO Rev. A delivers average download speeds of 600-1400 kbps with bursts up to 3.1 Mbps and average upload speeds of 500-800 kbps with bursts up to 1.8 Mbps.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China's Internet penetration rate at the end of 2008 was at 22.6%, surpassing the global rate of 21.9 percent. China's Internet user base was at 298 million users with 279 million broadband users, while the mobile Internet user base doubled in 2008 to surpass 117 million users.

As 90 percent of all Internet users in China are also mobile users, there is enormous growth potential for EV-DO services in the mobile Internet market. This bodes well for China Telecom since its 3G network will be optimized for economical, high-speed broadband performance, and the operator will be able to offer mobile broadband data services to China's large and underserved population at attractive prices.

GSM/3G market update May 2009: GSA

UK: Key kacts from May 2009 GSM/3G market update, provided by theGlobal mobile Suppliers Association (GSA)!

Network commitments, deployments, launches
· 3G/WCDMA: 284 operators launched in 120 countries
· WCDMA has more than 72.8 percent market share of 390 commercially launched 3G networks
· 94 percent of commercial WCDMA operators have launched HSPA
· 306 HSPA network commitments in 126 countries
· 267 3G/HSDPA operators launched in 114 countries
· 125 HSDPA networks launched in Europe including in all 27 Member States of the European Union
· 196 HSDPA networks have launched 3.6 Mbps (peak) downlink service or higher = over 73 percent of commercial HSDPA operators, thus establishing the baseline for mobile broadband services
· 105 commercial HSDPA networks, i.e. over 39 percent, support 7.2 Mbps (peak) or higher
· 72 HSUPA networks launched in 42 countries, plus another 14 network commitments/deployments
· 10 commercial UMTS900 (i.e. WCDMA-HSPA operating at 900 MHz) networks launched, in Europe, APAC and Latin America
· 4 HSPA+ networks have launched commercial service (21 Mbps downlink peak)
· At least 25 additional HSPA+ operator commitments worldwide
· 31 LTE network operator commitments worldwide
· Up to 12 LTE networks are expected to enter commercial service by end 2010
· 441 GSM/EDGE network commitments in 184 countries; 413 networks launched in 177 countries
· Over 80 percent of commercial GPRS operators globally have committed to EDGE
· 172 of 267 commercially launched HSDPA operators (over 64 percent) also launched EDGE

User devices
· 1,470 HSDPA devices launched by 171 suppliers
· 944 devices support 3.6 Mbps peak or higher (excluding notebooks)
· 514 devices support 7.2 Mbps peak or higher (excluding notebooks)
· 260 HSUPA devices launched (compared to 75 in July 2008) (excl. notebooks)
· 1,068 HSPA devices (over 93 percent) operate in 2100 MHz band (excl. notebooks)
· 512 HSPA devices (over 44 percent) operate in 850 MHz band (excl. notebooks)
· 365 tri-band HSPA devices 850/1900/2100 MHz (excl. notebooks)
· 130 HSPA devices operate in 900 MHz band (UMTS900) (excl. notebooks)
· 212 HSPA phones (including smartphones) incorporate 802.11 WiFi
· 248 HSPA phones (including smartphones) incorporate GPS/positioning functionality
· Over 83 percent of HSDPA devices also support GSM/EDGE

Subscriptions
· 3.72 billion GSM, WCDMA-HSPA subscriptions (Q1 09)
· GSM/WCDMA has 89.4 percent worldwide market share
· Over 329 million WCDMA subs including HSPA worldwide (Q1 09)
· WCDMA now has 8% share of global mobile subscriptions
· 103.8 million HSPA subscriptions (Q4 08) included in the WCDMA subs total
· WCDMA has over 72.3 percent market share of global 3G subscriptions
· APAC has almost 1.6 billion GSM, WCDMA-HSPA subscriptions (Q1 09)
· The BRIC countries –- Brazil, Russia, India, and China together account for over 1.25 billion GSM Subscriptions (Q1 09)
· China and India have a combined total of 907.3 million GSM subs (Q1 09)
· India is estimated to have passed 300 million GSM subs during May 2009
· Western Europe has 576 million GSM, WCDMA-HSPA subscriptions (Q1 09)
· The Western Hemisphere exceeds 554 million GSM, WCDMA-HSPA subscriptions (Q1 09)
· MEA has 541 million GSM subscribers (Q1 09)
· GSA estimates that there are approaching 2 billion GSM, WCDMA and HSPA subscriptions in commercial HSPA-enabled networks worldwide.

LTE to reach 100mn subscriptions faster than any previous mobile standard

CAMBRIDGE, USA: The number of Long Term Evolution (LTE) subscriptions worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 404 percent from 2010 to 2014, a pace faster than any previous mobile standard, including 3G, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

LTE's Five-Year Global Forecast: Poised to Grow Faster than 3G identifies the main technical and business drivers, as well as the challenges for the LTE platform, and analyzes its market opportunity in comparison with earlier mobile technologies in their first few years of commercialization.

The 19-page report provides Pyramid Research's five-year outlook on LTE adoption, highlighting the largest LTE markets, and comparing adoption rates in emerging and developed markets. It also examines the LTE-related products, demos, and announcements of six of the largest vendors worldwide, including an analysis of how they compare with one another in terms of time to market and customer wins.

For the first time, most of the major players, operators, and vendors alike, are behind the same mobile standard, notes Daniel Locke, analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "By using LTE's more efficient and cost-effective flat IP architecture, mobile operators can transfer the savings to end users in the form of lower prices for access, faster data rates, and higher traffic allowances for a wider adoption of mobile data services," he says.

"To date, 27 mobile operators worldwide have publicly committed to deploying LTE, with 12 of them expected to roll out commercial services in 2010 and the remainder during 2011 and 2012," he adds.

Pyramid expects LTE to grow more rapidly than preceding mobile standards in terms of subscriptions. "While it took nearly six years for UMTS/HSPA to reach 100 million subscriptions, Pyramid predicts that LTE will take just over four years to reach the same milestone," explains Locke. "The number of LTE subscriptions worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 404 percent from 2010 to 2014 and reach 136 million by year-end 2014," he says.

"The majority of LTE subscriptions in the early stage will come in developed markets, where most of the first LTE deployments will occur -- with the US and Japan leading," Locke says. "However, LTE will grow 30 percent faster in emerging markets than developed ones; subscriptions in emerging markets will account for 43 percent of the LTE total in 2014, up from 5 percent in 2010," he adds. Fueled by vendor support of TDD-mode, growth in emerging markets will be driven largely by China with 36.1 million subscriptions in 2014.

Download an excerpt of this report here!

LTE's Five-Year Global Forecast: Poised to Grow Faster than 3G is priced at $595 and can be purchased online here: or by contacting Jeff Claudino via email at claudino@pyr.com or telephone at +1-619-229-9940.

India announces 3G spectrum, MNP guidelines

Finally, the wait's over! The Indian government today announced the guidelines for 3G (third-generation mobile communications) spectrum as well as mobile number portability (MNP).

First, all players -- Indian and global -- have been invited to bid for 3G spectrum, making it a truly level-playing field. The condition for a foreign player or telecom operator is that it should have some experience in running 3G telecom services.

Those interested to know more about the guidelines for auction and allottment of spectrum for 3G telecom services, can download the documents from DoT's site.

Apparently, the 3G guidelines allow 10 players in the Indian 3G space, including both Indian and foreign players.

Spectrum in the 2.1GHz band would be available for the 3G telecom services through bidding/auction. Spectrum shall be auctioned in blocks of 2x5MHz in the 2.1GHz band. As per the DoT guidelines, the number of blocks to be auctioned may vary from five to 10, subject to the availability in different telecom service areas. Should there be non-availability, the number of blocks may be less than five in a telecom service area.

The MNP allows mobile phone users/subscribers to change their operators, while retaining their mobile phone numbers.

As per the DoT guidelines, a customer can approach a 'recipient operator' to port his or her number. The 'donor operator' cannot re-use that customer's ported number till such time the ported number is in use. The donor operator can only have the ported number once it has been surrendered by the ported customer.

Well, both of these announcements are going to add to India's brilliant telecom success story.

As for the foreign players coming into the country, quite a few are already present. It would be great to see the likes of NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, China Telecom, China Mobile, Telefonica, etc., enter the 3G space in India. As for 3G technology itself, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, etc., should be considered as well.

Oh yes, there's some good news for those itching to use the Apple iPhone 3G. Once, the 3G networks are in place, there's nothing that can stop this from happening.

On the MNP front, a good majority of Indian subscribers are on prepaid. So, there may be quite a few changeovers happening! It could well prove to be a nightmare for the operators, but then, that's the fun of having a level-playing field and the challenge of playing in the booming Indian telecom market.

Postscrpt: A reader, Abhshek, left a very interesting and relevant comment regarding 3G services that users could be charged heftily. I quite agree with him! The 3G operators would need to price their services right. It should be win-win for both operators and users.

To start off, service charges could possibly be on the higher side, as the 3G licenses won't come cheap, and operators would also look at the revenue angle. However, over time, service charges are quite likely to come down, if the pattern of the Indian telecom history is repeated. Many thanks for your comment, Abhishek.

The Internet is going mobile!

This title of this blog has actually been borrowed from a statement made by Gadi Singer, vice president of Intel's Mobility Group and general manager of the company's SOC Enabling Group, which I came across on SEMI's site.

Is this a recent phenomena, or has the Apple iPhone led to a strong belief in this statement that the Internet is truly going mobile? And what was that craze for 'WAP bashing' some nine to ten years ago all about? Perhaps, it is a bit of both!

I was fortunate enough to use a WAP-enabled mobile phone back in Hong Kong, in 1999-2000, a Siemens model. I tried checking my Yahoo Mail on the phone with some success. Also, I found it very convenient to search for Indian restaurants in Tsim Sha Tsui. All of this, when the 'WAP bashing' was at its peak!

In 2001, at an event organized by Frost & Sullivan in Singapore, I was probably among the three people in a large audience found to be using the mobile phone for Internet access. This is so long back, that even I can't recall for sure how many folks were really found to be using mobile Internet! Anyhow! Those were also the days when mobile Internet, as a theme, was quite popular at global telecom events, largely driven by the craze for NTT DoCoMo's i-mode phones.

Well, no one really wanted to accept back then that the Internet was going mobile! Also, the flak that some of the European carriers had to take due to their obtaining various 'quite expensive' 3G licenses dimmed the concept of the mobile Internet.

We have come a long way since! While GPRS and 3G did bring some or quite large extent of the Internet to the mobile, possibly, the push really happened when this phenomena called social networking gathered steam.

The Apple iPhone, and now, the iPhone 3G, with its cool wireless social networking applications have truly ported the Internet to the mobile. The iPhone 3G is all the rage right now. Sales crossed the 1-million mark within three days, as per various reports on the Internet. That's some speed! That's also an outstanding indication of how people are making a dash for the phenomena called wireless social networking.

In the midst of all of this, 3G, and specifically, HSDPA (and W-CDMA), has come really come to stay. The telecom-media convergence has also happened very seamlessly in the background.

While the world's leading semiconductor firms continue to churn out one excellent chip after another, especially for mobile phones/telecom, it is time to acknowledge the fact that the Internet has truly gone mobile!

One last word. Do find time to stand up and applaud the hard work put in by the semiconductor and software industry, who make all of this happen.

Why 3G operators can't ignore TD-SCDMA

Come Beijing Olympics, and China will be showcasing the TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code-Division Multiple Access) technology. Largely unheralded, and spoken about by relatively few, TD-SCDMA may well surprise the telecom industry and pundits.

In fact, it is not even well known that the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) in China had allocated a total frequency of 155MHz for TD-SCDMA way back in Q3 of 2002. Back then, Lothar Pauly, then member of the Group Executive Management of Siemens Information and Communication Mobile had said that the allocation of frequencies for TD-SCDMA in China marked "a milestone in the standard's development." Siemens mobile has been developing 3G technology jointly with the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT/Datang) since 1998.

As per the TD-SCDMA Forum, China Mobile has announced its TD-SCDMA terminal timetable. Apparently, in China Mobile‘s second round of TD-SCDMA terminal bidding, ZTE has won orders for 61,000 handsets and Samsung for 20,000 handsets.

Also, the MIIT has established a 3G inter-ministerial co-ordination group. Li Yizhong, minister of the new Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in China, says that the ministry has established a 3G inter-ministerial co-ordination group to promote the commercial test and ensure the success of TD-SCDMA.

He says that the ministry should actively promote the commercial test of TD-SCDMA, further reform the system, and carry out the major scientific and technological projects. Relative officials are required to supervise the construction of TD-SCDMA base stations in Beijing to ensure the call quality of TD-SCDMA and ensure the trial operation of TD-SCDMA mobile phone TVs during the upcoming Olympic Games.

The minister has also issued orders to give full support to the implementation of measures and policies beneficial for the development of TD-SCDMA. The ministry should organize Chinese telecommunication units to realize better network optimization, supply special Olympic services, co-ordinate the interoperability between 2G and 3G, solve the problems in the commercial tests, and to ensure the initial success of TD-SCDMA.

All of these developments reminds and takes me back to 2000, when TD-SCDMA was just starting to make the rounds. A good friend, Shih-ying Tan from Siemens Hong Kong, called me up to discuss this technology! Subsequently, it led to visit to Munich, to see the technology first hand!

Here are excerpts from a discussion I had, back in August 2001, with Klaus Maler, who was general manager, TD-SCDMA, for Siemens Information and Mobile Communications in Munich, Germany, at that point of time (in pic). I was serving Wireless Week, US, as its Asia-Pacific editor. Some or most of this may read a bit outdated, but it is still worth a read for those keen on TD-SCDMA.

TD-SCDMA, a 3G technology co-developed by Siemens AG and the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology, is said to be the only technology suitable for TDD (time division duplex) bands. In addition to being more spectrally efficient for both symmetrical and asymmetrical data services, it is capable of dealing with hot spot scenarios. Some TDMA operators reportedly are considering it as an option for migrating to 3G, and once deployed on the mainland of China, it is likely to reach the economies of scale that would make it attractive to mobile operators worldwide.

What are the chances that TD-SCDMA will be accepted by carriers, given that it is a TDD technology while wideband-CDMA and CDMA2000 are FDD (frequency division duplex) technologies? Isn't TDD in a minority here?

Maler had replied that TD-SCDMA, as well as W-CDMA, uses GSM MAP [manufacturing automation protocol]. This means that it is very likely to have affordable GSM/W-CDMA or GSM/TD-SCDMA dual-mode or GSM/TD-SCDMA/W-CDMA triple-mode handsets. On the other hand, an exotic GSM/CDMA2000 handset should support two different MAPs–GSM and IS-833. Dealing with such complicated and expensive handsets does not encourage GSM operators to adopt a CDMA standard.

As TD-SCDMA is TDD based, it offers optimum spectral efficiency for both symmetric and asymmetric data services. Certainly, carriers won't ignore this aspect. On an international scale, TD-SCDMA is the only technology suitable for the TDD bands, assigned by regulators worldwide and already have been auctioned in Europe. So TD-SCDMA, being an accepted standard worldwide, approved by the ITU and standardized in the 3GPP (Third-Generation Partnership Project), is definitely not in a minority.

Were there any chances that TD-SCDMA won't get locked in like another TDD standard, PHS, has in Japan? In response, Maler said TD-SCDMA is an accepted technology, while PHS is more of a local standard in Japan. Also, TDD frequencies have been allocated in most of the European countries. These are the two major reasons why TD-SCDMA has more potential.

Mainland China is already the largest mobile market now. TD-SCDMA will be deployed in China as a global standard, addressing all sizes of cells, [so] the necessary effects of scale will be available for operators worldwide.

"We had discussed with mainland Chinese manufacturers a few years ago the advantages of combining TDD technologies with smart antennas. We studied this issue and this evolved into continuous improvement and actual development. This happened at a time when we were looking at the mainland Chinese market as a major focus. Last year, when we realized that TD-SCDMA had good potential, we started to introduce it into the 3GPP. Now it has been accepted as a global standard," he said.

According to him, TD-SCDMA has a very bright future, [although] operators may go for a combination of technologies. TD-SCDMA allows operators to add spectrum for voice services using their core GSM networks. The version we are talking about for the launch in mainland China is based on a GSM core network. This will later evolve into a UMTS core network. We started developing the technology three years late, [so you could] say that TD-SCDMA is three years more modern than the other technologies. Now, we are all having trials simultaneously.

Is there a compelling case for TDMA operators to go the TD-SCDMA route? At the moment [this is 2001 end, remember], most TDMA operators in United States, for example, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless, are embracing GSM, thereby, acknowledging it as a worldwide standard. They are also committed to adopting the following migration path–TDMA-GSM-GPRS-EDGE-UMTS– following the footsteps of European operators.

Both of the UMTS alternatives –- W-CDMA and TD-SCDMA -– are being taken into consideration by TDMA operators, either as a complementary or an alternative solution. In particular, American TDMA operators believe that TD-SCDMA, thanks to its higher data transmission rate and its capability to deal with asymmetrical traffic and hot spot scenarios, is an interesting technology. The 1.6MHz bandwidth [it uses] will certainly ease the spectrum allocation in the already crowded spectrum currently available in the United States.

Most of the TDMA operators are moving to the GSM-GPRS-EDGE-W-CDMA route. It's not easy to get FDD spectrum in the United States and it will become even more difficult in the future. This is a very good opportunity for a TDD technology like TD-SCDMA.

Were there any plans to implement TD-SCDMA in Europe, and especially Germany, given that Siemens has been playing an active role in developing this technology?

In Europe, TD-SCDMA will be deployed with capacity-enlargement purposes in W-CDMA networks in hot spot scenarios. By that time, TD-SCDMA will already be a mature technology and will have derived benefits from the mainland Chinese experience.

Most of the operators are now focusing on W-CDMA. They can consider TD-SCDMA to enhance services later on. We are speaking with several operators in Europe. They have been surprised and have actively responded [because] they can see that the chances for TD-SCDMA to succeed have improved considerably. Operators that had not chosen Siemens for some reason now have decided to take another look at us.

And why aren't GSM operators elsewhere showing interest in this technology? Instead, they have been opting for W-CDMA? In the very beginning in Europe, around 1998, TDD was conceived as a technology only for micro and picocell coverage. Consequently, it was considered interesting only in a second phase of the UMTS deployment as a capacity enlargement. Spectrum was assigned and licenses were bought bearing this in mind.

As TD-SCDMA is also able to cover large cells, the momentum behind it is increasing considerably and we are getting quite a lot of interest from European operators of merging TDD activities into this technology.

TD-SCDMA is quite a good alternative. Also, if an operator already has W-CDMA and adds TD-SCDMA, or it's the other way around, it's quite a good combination. Very soon, carriers will notice capacity shortages, especially for the more powerful applications. Facing the fact that they are wasting bandwidth, in terms of asymmetrical traffic, TDD is the technology of choice. The combination of both technologies -- W-CDMA and TD-SCDMA -- may apply in most countries, even here in Europe.

By the way, there used to be LinkAir's LAS-CDMA (Large Area Synchronized Code-Division Multiple Access). LAS-CDMA was also said to offer a higher spectral efficiency and moving speed, thus providing better support for mobile applications. Its asymmetric traffic, higher throughput, and smaller delay provide also improved IP support. A LAS-CDMA TDD variant is compatible with systems such as TD-SCDMA.

I had written about LAS-CDMA back in 2000, but have been unable to find the link. Even there's no update on this technology. Would be great if folks could update me on LAS-CDMA.

Lastly, I need to thank Chi-Foon Chan, president and COO of Synopsys, who I recently met on the sidelines of the Synopsys SNUG event. Chan discussed TD-SCDMA and LAS-CDMA briefly, while touching upon the semicon/EDA industry. But, more of that later!

iPhone 3G launched! What users say

Right then! The D-day is today... the much awaited Apple iPhone 3G has been launched!

Buyers in New Zealand and Japan were among the earliest to get their hands on the new iPhone. Evidently, the Apple lovers are over the moon and can't stop gushing about the great features that the new phone has!

All that's fine!

How can the Apple iPhone 3G help boost data usage? How can it help operators raise the ARPUs? Or, will a high-end phone still be used for voice and data? Will it change the fortunes of the memory market? What impact will it have on the semiconductor market as a whole? We will have the answers to most of these questions by the end of this year, and in some cases, over the next year or two.

Will there be a shift in brand loyalty -- for example, from say, Nokia to Apple -- even that remains to be seen. Surely, the likes of Nokia, Samsung, SonyEricsson and LG would not be sitting quietly and see the thunder being stolen from them!

Will there be a surge of touchscreen phones all over the world? Probably yes. I've had a touchscreen MP4 player with camera since late 2005, but I never really liked that touchscreen, as it always dirties the nice little LCD. Anyhow!

Coming back to the iPhone 3G, I've had some interesting conversations with several of my friends across the globe, specifically, Asia.

From Hong Kong, a friend told me that the demand there can be reflected by the fact that there are over 60,000 registrations for buying the iPhone, with today being the official launch day!

However, another friend's response, who's actually not an admirer of Apple, simply said that he doesn't even feel the slightest inclination to even check it out!

From Taipei, Taiwan, a good friend shared the thought that compared to the previous model, the 3G iPhone seems to be cheaper. However, people have been saying that the case is made of plastic and does not feel that good than the previous metal material.

Another friend is thinking of buying the iPhone HTC Diamond or 3G, as the iPhone will not be available in Taiwan till 3Q-08. However, this friend added that some Apple fans plan to buy it via bid Web sites.

A friend from the Philippines, who's now relocated to Hong Kong, sent me a list of URLs where there are long discussions about the Apple iPhone. The comment -- People are going nuts though… the demand is of 60,000 and only 500 units are available!

Yet another, who moved to Hong Kong from China, adds that iPhone 3G has been launched in Hong Kong bundled with 'expensive' mobile phone packages. Maybe, the fever is a bit lesser, for Apple fans.

Next, a friend from Auckland, New Zealand, very kindly sent me a link titled Who bought the World's first iPhone 3G! Apparently, that honor goes to 24-year old Jonny Gladwell, who, at exactly one minute past midnight, walked into the Vodafone store on Queen Street in Auckland and bought the world’s first iPhone 3G, after spending over 50 hours on the street!

Wow! Talk about building up some demand!! It's really good to see this global craze regarding a consumer electronics product! The buzz is surely back, for now!

Speculating on Indian 3G spectrum specter

The ongoing saga regarding spectrum for 3G services, use of dual technologies, etc., reminds me of 2002, the MII, TD-SCDMA and 155MHz! Read on...

Anything on the spectrum spectacle in India makes very interesting reading! It’s as though two sides fighting over a valuable possession. Worth a click!!

We have been following how the two GSM and CDMA lobbies -– COAI and AUSPI -– have been in the news over the use of mixed bands. GSM operators have constantly warned that any move to allocate spectrum in the 1900MHz band to CDMA players would adversely impact their services in the 2100MHz band. We've been following what the TRAI, the DoT and others have to say on all of this.

Then AUSPI informed this week that field trials conducted in Hyderabad last week had proved successful. The trial conducted by AUSPI on behalf of the Department of Telecom (DoT) claims that the co-existence of 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz is possible.

Now, we are told that defence would be vacating spectrum by end of this year and India would have 3G services by next year. Hope all disputes are settled amicably and India finally gets to see what 3G services would have to offer.

I am reminded of two things – one, the 3G license auctions in Europe, which nearly brought the wireless house down in the early 2000s, and two, an interesting development in China. I’ll dwell on the second one.

Nearly seven years ago, I happened to break the news on TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code-Division Multiple Access), a 3G technology being developed at that point of time by Datang Telecom and Siemens. That story link no longer exists, so I'm providing a link to another story, mentioned below.

About two and a half years later, around October 2002, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) in China allocated a total frequency of 155MHz for TD-SCDMA! This, for an untested, untried 3G technology, in a country much larger than India, was and is still unheard of!

Makes me wonder, why did the MII give away so much of spectrum so long back to an untested 3G technology, when in India, we keep hearing reports about spectrum issues, use of dual technologies, etc. Are there lessons to be learnt from the Chinese example?

On TD-SCDMA, much later, in 2002, I also discovered not many had even heard of it in India. However, around the time I reported this 155MHz spectrum story, STING’s Robin Grewal contacted me in Delhi to find out more about this 3G technology! That was the level of interest in 3G and TD-SCDMA, and spectrum in India, at least, at that time. Things have changed since! Hopefully!!

Trends in fixed-mobile convergence

Kudos to my colleague, Idhries Ahmad, for having put together a wonderful piece on fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). Click here to read this special!

I would just like to highlight the trends on FMC in India. FMC is definitely at a very early stage in the Asia-Pacific region itself, and probably nascent in India.

Akshay Agarwal, Ecosystem Partner Manager - India & Korea, Texas Instruments, India forecasts that service providers in India may start with pre-IMS, skip UMA and may jump to IMS directly. Besides, the successful adoption of FMC would also depend on the deployment of 3G and Wi-Fi. Pre-IMS services could mainly be applications such as instant messaging and photo sharing.

The contribution of value-added services (VAS) has been steadily increasing and is likely to form a major portion of FMC revenues in the near future. Even as the FMC services market gains traction, the go-to-market strategy of service providers should be to provide a variety of FMC-compliant dual-mode handsets to customers.

At this point, the Indian telcos are still focused on meeting the high demand for basic voice services, and are gradually opening up to generating demand for converged service offerings.

Rising income, declining handset prices, and an increased awareness of viable mobile services among masses has led to the growing adoption of mobility solutions. The major areas of growth will be the youth segment and the rural areas.

FMC could be the solution to provide rich media services to the end customers. It may facilitate both fixed and mobile operators a magical solution to provide high-end services to subscribers, further entail the convergence of access networks, and help the operators to integrate their forces to tap the huge potential of rural India.