Mobile and wireless news

July 2007

A team from MIT's Department of Physics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) has experimentally demonstrated wireless power transfer. The team was able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source seven feet (more than two meters) away; there was no physical connection between the source and the appliance. The MIT team refers to its concept as "WiTricity" (as in wireless electricity).

In a lab test, Nokia Siemens Networks showcased how a Virtual Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) method that can be used for the uplink in LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks. Using the SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access) technique, two standard mobile devices, each with only one physical transmission antenna, communicate with a base station simultaneously and on the same radio channel. Using this technique an aggregated uplink transmission speed of 108 Mbps was achieved instead of the usual 54 Mbps.

NTT DoCoMo announced that in collaboration with DoCoMo Communications Laboratories USA, it has developed speech coding technology that provides exceptionally high-quality voice for mobile phones, yet only requires the low-level computing power of conventional mobile telephony technologies. This new technology realizes a wide frequency range of 50Hz - 16kHz, which is approximately the full range of the human voice.

Andrew Corp has launched a network monitoring platform, Invex3G Autonomous which is designed to fit inside public transport taxis and buses, as well as private corporate fleet vehicles. Invex3G Autonomous runs unattended and operates remotely, enabling drive test data and results to be sent across a remote radio link between the test equipment and a central operations center.

LG-Nortel announced what the joint venture believes is the first videophone that allows visual monitoring through a remote Wi-Fi camera link.

Motorola announced it has deployed a wind and solar power system to operate MTC Namibia's GSM cell site at Dordabis village in the Khomas region of Namibia . Motorola's renewable energy solutions for powering wireless network cell sites can be found: www.motorola.com/reach/windandsolartrial

Hi-Tech Wealth, a telecomms products supplier in China , has developed a mobile phone that utilizes solar energy to recharge itself. According to the company, a scale-like solar panel on the top side of the clamshell-designed phone can also be recharged by light from other sources including candles.

Orange announced the launch the Orange Mobile Wind Charger that is powered by wind. The turbine, developed at the University of Texas at Arlington , weighs just 150 grams and works by storing charge in a control box.

Nortel has achieved what it claims is the industry's first live call over an Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) network delivering high-definition video and VoIP. With this demonstration, Nortel claims to be the first in the industry to complete live calls using MIMO advanced antenna technology in each of the major 4G technologies - WiMAX, Long Term Evolution (LTE), and UMB.

Dekolink Wireless has announced what it claims is an industry-first in-building repeater solution for the WiMAX market. The Deko2425-M WiMAX MIMO-based repeater can be implemented in mobile carriers' and other mobile WiMAX networks in the 2.5-2.7 GHz bands. The Deko2425-M Mobile WiMAX repeater features an automated TDD synchronization mechanism that detects and locks to the network TDD pattern.

Clearwire Corporation has announced the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) final approval of the first WiMAX-class laptop card that will connect to the US Clearwire network.

The WiMAX Forum announced plans to open its first North American certification test lab this October in Virginia. The group's lead certification testing partner, AT4 wireless, has the responsibility to develop and replicate the certification test beds.

Beijing T3G Technology (T3G) and NXP Semiconductors have announced what they claim is the world's first voice automatic handover of multi-mode TD-SCDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE in a handset.

A commuter coach service in the UK has added WiFi services inside its coaches, using Vodafone's 3G network as the data carrier. The launch follows initial trials by Stagecoach across a 25-vehicle fleet where over 7,000 passengers used the free service more than 32,000 times with an average session duration of 41 minutes.

According to Einstein Wireless, the Wisconsin-based wireless carrier has become the only wireless carrier in the US to launch a cell broadcast system that will alert its subscribers about natural disasters, terrorist attacks, chemical explosions, wildfires and other life-threatening events.

Maravedis has reported a 85% increase in WiMAX subscribers. The firm claims that United States, Spain and Australia were the top 3 countries in number of subscribers, accounting in the first quarter of 2007 for 0.5 million BWA/WiMAX subscribers. Parks Associates has estimated that mobile WiMAX will connect 8% of the world's 1.1 billion mobile broadband subscribers by 2012.

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 256.4 million units were shipped during the first quarter of 2007, which represents a year-on-year increase of 10.0% but a 13.8% decrease with the previous quarter. Strategy Analytics estimates that the number of camera phones will exceed one billion in 2007.

ABI Research estimates that nearly 18 million wireless modules shipped into M2M applications in 2006, including telematics, telemetry, and Wireless Local Loop. The firm also believes that this figure will rise to approximately 90 million in 2012. Berg Insight has also estimated the number of machines connected to mobile networks in Europe will grow by 43.7% annually to reach 52.0 million by 2011.

Gartner has estimated that worldwide mobile gaming (i.e. video games on cellphones) end-user revenue will grow from US$2.9 billion in 2006 to US$9.6 billion in 2011, with a 49.9% increase in 2007 compared to 2006.

A report from Strategy Analytics predicts that mobile media advertising will rise from $1.4 billion this year to $14.4 billion by 2011, accounting then for a fifth of global spending on Internet advertising.

NTT DoCoMo announced that it will terminate Personal Handyphone System (PHS) mobile phone services on January 7, 2008.

3G Americas has reported that the number of GSM mobile wireless subscribers worldwide reached 2.5 billion, a 400% increase in GSM subscribers from only six years ago. There are currently 700 commercial GSM networks across 218 countries and territories around the world. As of May 2007, there are also 169 UMTS operators in service across 71 countries, and 117 of those operators in 59 countries have deployed HSDPA.

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that 251 operators in 105 countries across all continents of the globe have selected CDMA2000 technologies to deliver 3G services, including more than 100 operators which have chosen CDMA2000 within the past three years.

The GSMA is rebranding the 3GSM World Congress and its sister event in Asia to reflect their role encouraging the development of compelling new mobile services for end-users. The 3GSM World Congress Asia will now be called the Mobile Asia Congress and the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona has been rebranded as the Mobile World Congress.

NextWave Wireless has announced that it is paying $100 million to buy privately-held, IPWireless, which is widely recognized as a foremost supplier of TD-CDMA network equipment and subscriber terminals.