Mobile and wireless news

January 2008

The Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-07) reached a consensus last October to expand the IMT-2000 3G Radio Interface Family with OFDMA technology and to establish IMT-Advanced as the name for 4G. In addition to adding OFDMA transmission capability to certain existing IMT-2000 radio interfaces, the ITU-R has grown the family of IMT-2000 third generation to six terrestrial radio interfaces by the addition of the OFDMA TDD WMAN technology as a specific subset of IEEE 802.16e technology (WiMAX). The OFDMA TDD WMAN is a TDD technology focused on application in the 2500-2690 MHz IMT-2000 band.

Onemax, a broadband wireless access provider serving the Dominican Republic, and Alcatel-Lucent announced the completion of what they claim is the world's first mobile handoffs on a commercial WiMAX 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e) network in 3.5GHz spectrum band.

The WiMAX Forum said its lead certification laboratory in Spain is now open for formal Mobile WiMAX certification testing and evaluation of Mobile WiMAX products. Certified Mobile WiMAX products are projected to reach the commercial market in early 2008. The WiMAX Forum currently estimates that more than 300 operators in over 65 countries have deployed Mobile WiMAX pilots and trials.

Maravedis has informed that WiMAX global subscriber base increased by 50% in 3Q'07, reaching a total of 1,369,000 subscribers generating revenue of US$668 million for the first three quarters of this year. The firm believes that about 535,000 subscribers were using WiMAX Forum Certified technology as of 3Q'07. Maravedis' report also indicated that out of all CPEs deployed, 29% were using 802.16-2004 and 11.7% were using 802.16-2005, whereas 55% were still using proprietary technologies. 66% of operators are deploying WiMAX networks in the 3.3-3.8 GHz frequency band.

The World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC-07) identified globally harmonized spectrum for use by IMT: 450-470 MHz band; 698-862 MHz band in Region 2 and nine countries of Region 3; 790-862 MHz band in Regions 1 and 3; 2.3-2.4 GHz band; 3.4-3.6 GHz band (no global allocation, but accepted by many countries).

Verizon announced plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE -- Long Term Evolution -- the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization. Verizon and Vodafone have a coordinated trial plan for LTE that begins in 2008.

Nokia Siemens Networks has completed what it claims is the world's first multi-user field trial in an urban environment using the new Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology that offers mobile data rates up to 173Mbps. The trial was conducted in a real urban outdoor environment with multiple users using the new 2.6 GHz spectrum. It realized data rates of more than 100 Mbps over distances of several hundred meters, while maintaining excellent throughput at the edge of typical urban mobile radio cells.To obtain data about LTE performance in an actual urban deployment environment, an LTE base station was installed at a typical base station site: the top of the Heinrich Hertz Institut building in the center of Berlin. Cars with LTE test terminals were driven up to 1km away from the base station to measure the LTE cell's coverage and throughput. The base station, supporting LTE with a 2 by 2 MIMO (Multiple Input / Multiple Output) antenna system having 120 degree sectors, has been installed to support continuous testing activities over the next year. It transmits with 20MHz bandwidth in the 2.6GHz band.

Over the next several months, 12 mobile operators will run trials of contactless mobile payment services in Australia, France, Ireland, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and the U.S. as a precursor to commercial launches. The trials form part of the GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, which is designed to provide a single global approach to enabling contactless payments using a mobile phone. The Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative supports the use of the Single Wire Protocol, which was adopted by ETSI as a standard in October 2007, to link the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) contained within the mobile handset with the phone's embedded Near Field Communications (NFC) chip. The NFC chip can communicate with existing contactless payment systems to deliver a wide range of secure, interoperable and transparent services, such as credit and debit payments.

Motorola announced that the Montreal Transit Authority (AMT) selected a Motorola RFID solution to track its bus fleet and help increase the use of its transit system. AMT has deployed radio frequency identification (RFID) readers, tags and antennas, as well as wireless LAN (WLAN) access points and client bridges. To gather the information, AMT uses an ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID-based solution consisting of RFID readers located at entrance and exit points at each depot and RFID tags on buses to detect the bus location throughout the terminal. The Motorola WLAN sends the collected data from the RFID readers to depots' system for analysis to generate information for the display screens.

O2 announced the launch of the UK's first large scale pilot of NFC technology on mobile phones. The trial, which will involve over 500 people invited from the O2 customer base, takes place across selected sites throughout London and begins on 28th November 2007 running for six months until the end of May 2008.

Alcatel-Lucent, the mobile operator 3 Italia and Italian public broadcaster RAI announced the launch of the first trial of Mobile TV based on the DVB-SH standard in Italy. DVB-SH (Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds) is an evolution of DVB-H, which is providing higher spectrum efficiency and allows integration with hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks. The trial uses for the first time in the world a multi-layer DVB-SH terrestrial network blending low-power transmitters from a mobile operator and medium-power transmitters from a broadcaster. The trial will take place in Torino, where cellular sites provided by 3 Italia will allow the indoor coverage of Torino's downtown, while broadcast towers provided by RAI and Raiway will allow outdoor and vehicular coverage of the entire town of Torino.

Stanford University researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices. According to Stanford University, the new version produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. Stanford's achievement uses nanotechnology, as the lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture.

Nortel and Qualcomm announced the completion of testing between Nortel's IMS-based Voice Call Continuity (VCC) network solution and the Qualcomm chipset solution that uses their IMS/VCC device client. VCC helps decrease mobile phone charges by seamlessly switching voice calls, without interruptions, between WiFi and cellular networks. Testing included authentication, calls on cellular/WiFi, in-call handover using manual and automatic triggers and a variety of error cases. The Nortel VCC network solution is expected to be commercially available from Nortel in the first quarter of 2008. VCC-ready devices are expected to be available from Qualcomm in the market mid 2008.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has launched the alpha release of a web page validator which checks pages for compatibility with mobile phones. The W3C mobileOK checker runs the tests defined in the W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Candidate Recommendation. The tests are based upon W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as part of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative.

Finnish operator Elisa and Ericsson have activated a WCDMA/HSPA network addition in the 900MHz frequency band. The new part of the network is seamlessly integrated in Elisa's existing WCDMA/HSPA network in the 2.1GHz band.

Samsung, NXP Semiconductors and T3G Technologies have announced what they claim is the world's first TD-SCDMA HSDPA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE multi-mode mobile phone. TD-SCDMA network deployments have been completed in 10 major cities across China where there are more than 70 million potential subscribers. This network is planned to be upgraded to support Release 5 (HSDPA) of the TD-SCDMA standard during the course of 2008.

The Federal Communications Commission released the names of the 266 contenders for the 700 MHz auction set to take place on Jan. 24, 2008. Wireless carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Alltel, Leap Wireless and MetroPCS have all filed to participate in the auction. Other bidders include Qualcomm, Cablevision, Cox Communications, EchoStar, Google, and Chevron, among others.

CTIA announced that the total estimated wireless subscribership in America officially passed the 250 million mark. Subscriber growth has more than quadrupled over the past ten years from just over 55 million at year-end 1997 to more than 250 million today-an increase of 352%. The CTIA also announced that wireless data service revenues for the first half of 2007 rose to US$10.5 billion, which represents a 63% increase over the first half of 2006, when data revenues were US$6.5 billion; wireless data revenues now amount to 15.5% of all wireless service revenues.

A study published by IMS Research indicated that the number of active base stations worldwide is set to pass 3.1 million units by the end of 2007. GSM still accounts for the vast majority of base stations worldwide.

Informa Telecoms & Media has informed that that worldwide mobile penetration passed 50%, corresponding to around 3.3 billion subscriptions this year. The firm also estimated that mobile networks covered 90% of the global population by mid-2007, which indicates that around 40% of the world's population is covered by a network but not connected. Informa also indicated that 59 countries have a mobile penetration of over 100%, and 27 countries a penetration below 10%.

The Chinese government's press agency Xinhua has informed that around 500 million of the world's mobile phones, or more than 40% of the global total, have been produced in China in 2007, with 80% of these handsets being exported. The agency informed that there are currently 38 companies in China producing mobile phones.

According to the analyst firm Understanding & Solutions, global revenues from mobile gaming are expected to reach US$3.6 billion this year. The firm expects this figure to rise to US$6 billion by 2011. In a different report, the firm estimates that music delivered to mobile phones currently represents around 13% of global recorded music retail value, with a forecast to increase to almost 30% by 2011.

Local Mobile Search predicted that U.S. and Western European mobile advertising revenues will reach a combined US$5.08 billion by 2012, up from an estimated US$106.8 million at year end 2007, with the US representing around $2.3 billion of the total.

According to ABI Research, shipments of recycled handsets are expected to exceed 100 million units in 2012. ABI Research expects the market for recycled handsets to grow in the next five years, generating over $3 billion in revenue in 2012.

Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders. The Android platform is a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008. The Android platform has been made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses. Google also announced the release of version 2 of its Google Maps application for mobile phones, which includes the "My Location" option. This option uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location.

Air France has become the first airline to offer an in-flight mobile phone service on international flights. The Mobile OnAir onboard mobile telephony system, certified by EASA (European Aviation Safety Authority), does not interfere with the radio-navigation instruments on the Airbus A318 and may only be used at cruising altitude once the new illuminated sign "Switch off your phone" is turned off.

MC2, the cross-industry group created to promote unified standards in camera cell-phone barcode reading technology, has brought large scale adoption of mobile marketing closer to reality after persuading the GSMA and OMA to work on defining a worldwide mobile barcode standards.