DaddyBear's blog

Telecoms News 09wk35

DaddyBear — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:27:20 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Despite the big incumbents passing the opportunity for stimulus project funding, other applications oversubsribe the bill by 7 times

EM Radiation Research: Cellphones cause brain tumours (although the conclusions seem very similar to existing accepted science).

Augmented apps seem all the rage this week with several coming to the iPhone.

DailyWireless on the much delayed 3G auction in India

Public WiFi

Researches say say they can crack WPA encryption in 60secs (TKIP on certain routers but still, time to use WPA2 only).

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

iPhone: the AppStore is estimated to be a $2.4B a year business with iPhone users twice as likely to buy apps than Android users. Apple finally closes the deal with China Unicom for a 3-year deal on a WiFi-less iPhone, more at ArsTechnica and Total Telecom. The motive is unclear but the new Apple OS-X release, Snow Leopard drops support for PalmOS sync; it should be noted that since the Pre was launched, PalmOS is officially deprecated although still used on some current models. As much of a success that the iPhone is for AT&T, the high data loading is a real problem for the network and demands investment with little apparent financial return

Nokia's new N900 phone builds nicely on their rather orphaned but much loved N800 and N810 handheld computers with a spec that pitches it into iPhone territory. The choice of Linux (as per 800 and 810) is natural but their marketing pitch has to work against their own Symbian OS.

Nokia readies Nokia Money and pre-announces 3G-enabled netbooks.

The Register on a British Femtocell manufacturer who is trying a direct to consumer approach

Telecoms News 09wk34

DaddyBear — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:15:48 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Expect 4 billion GSM users in Sept 2009

A USDA report finds rural communities benefit from greater broadband Internet access

Asian undersea cables require many repairs

EU: commits for LTE-A with funding support

FCC: AT&T and Verizon face inquiry over wreless pricing

Why AT&T (allegedly) killed Google Voice, or why the old telecoms carrier model must change.

Not recommended but interesting, a pocket cell-phone jammer for just $27

Jordan: Orange wins 3G licence (Zain loses out)

FTTH

BusinessWire report: Australia - The Emerging FttH Market; FttH Developments Are Gaining Momentum

Singapore NGNBN: rollout on-track but can it remain fair (the incumbent's triple-play offerings will likely dominate domestic services but Enterprise bundles should be lively with many international players able to offer services).

WiMAX

CommsDay: Ubiquiti claims their TDMA platform has 150Mbps throughput for fraction of WiMAX prices

VentureBeat: ClearWire needs to shake up things to save WiMAX

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Responses to FCC: Google (partially redacted), Apple Further commentary: Daring Fireball, TechCrunch, ArsTechnica, SiliconAngle, WSJ. In fact, the whole AppStore approval process is a potential poison chalice for Apple as it may become partially liable for published content, like this suit over the i.TV app.

Android: G1 handsets are probably not powerful enough (insufficient memory) for the up-coming OS releases. In all the kerfuffle over Google Voice, mis-reporting has prompted Google to issue a denial/clarification over VoIP apps on Android.

iPhone: Practical uses of the iPhone/iPod. Iphone to become #1 camera on Flickr. Sweb creates web-driven iPhone app SDK. A Finnish user reports that his old iPhone is now officially unlocked by Apple. A minor security scare this week with one user reporting that SpotLight finds deleted e-mails. Are your Apps spying on you.

Dell: better info on their new touch-screen phone. (Android but no 3G or WiFi, so not really a SmartPhone) Dell has denied its a product but a co-development with China Mobile as part of the oPhone project.

Palm opens its AppStore.

Nokia is again supporting the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with applications, more at 3g4g.

Telecoms News 09wk33

DaddyBear — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:51:40 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Internet traffic disruption in Asia as multiple undersea routes acknowledge cable problems

OpenID: US government looking at 3rd-party trust providers for access to their sites

Microsoft & Nokia announce mobile MS-Office, presumably on Symbian

Mashable: online video traffic surge (11.2B streams in July09)

FTTH

FiberRevolution: Wind and Fastweb sign unbundling and FTTH network sharing deal

AsiaPac has 55% of global PON market

BT testing brownfield sites, more.

WiMAX

DailyWireless: good summary on Korea's WiBro rollout status (it's losing steam).

TotalTele: Nigeria orders new WiMAX tender and refund the fees from the 3 winners of the earlier tender (2.3GHz)

Australia: Adam Internet wins government support for new fixed WiMAX deployment across metropolitan Adelaide

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

iPhone: the (mild as yet) backlash againts the AppStore has Apple VP Phil Schiller sending personal e-mails to prominent pundits and developers promising improvements. A bank is offering an app for paying cheques (i.e. 'checks') by using the camera to photo both sides. Gertner says Apple is doing just fine as smartphone sales increase. Both Apple and China Mobile deny the 5m 'ChiPhone' order report but that just means the real deal isn't finalised or out of embargo as we do expect some kind of deal to go through.

CSAT Pre vs iPhone: both are well liked but iPhone achieved an incredible 82% Very Satisfied. Apple and AT&T are the targets of not one but two class-action lawsuits over MMS promises.

Dell phone rumour. What's interesting is that it's so iPhone like although one presumes there's Android under the hood.

Kenya: solar charged phones

Telecoms News 09wk32

DaddyBear — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:06:26 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Nortel & Telstra claim 100Gbps record with 2038km signal over existing fiber without regenerators.

GSMA launches new website

Singapore: StarHub trials solar-powered basestation

FTTH

Singapore: the schedule for the NBN rollout is announced with online maps.

UK: Rollout of BT's next gen network is delayed as the bulkier and taller roadside cabinets have failed to receive planning permission in some areas.

Public WiFi

Verizon brings free WiFi for broadband subs

DailyWireless: The Death Of Paid WiFi

WiMAX

Clearwire to unwire Texas

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Microsoft Mobile. There's not usually much to say about WinMobile but they have issued a detailed tutorial on how to port iPhone apps to WinMobile. Might be useful for someone looking for cross-platform support.

iPhone: the AppStore and its approval process is just a continuous bad-news story for Apple. The slightly bizzare story of a banned dictionary is just the latest example, even prompting a rare and contradictory letter from Apple SVP Phil Schiller. Mind you, it hasn't the profits with Apple taking 32% of global handset profits, a frankly astonishing figure.

Palm has complained to the USB Implementors Forum about Apple blocking the Pre from using iTunes. It's hard to see Palm's case here as the spec is clear on what the vendor field means.

Telecoms News 09wk31

DaddyBear — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:59:40 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

EU releases reserved 2G (900MHz) spectrum

Nortel confirms approval for $1.13B sale of CDMA and LTE assets to Ericsson. Commentary: TelephonyOnline

Skype's owners eBay have lost the licensing for a core PtP function. Worst case, the service will shutdown, although a technical workaround or re-newed deal with the original creators seems more likely.

Claimed electrosensitivity by UK DJ was a PR stunt.

Switzerland starts real-time Internet interception 1st Aug 2009 (src: WikiLeaks)

HomePlug moves towards new IEEE PowerLine spec

WiMAX

Juniper research: Global subs to reach 50m by 2014

China: WiMAX trial cities announced

India: a controversial report from ASSOCHAM predicts more WiMAX subs than 3G by 2014 (60m vs 20m)

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

iPhone: Once again, analysts looking at the AT&T deal show just how profitable it is for Apple and borderline commercial ruin for the carrier. Rumours of an 'iTablet' are intensifying with more concrete details of manufacturer and possible launch date. Details of a Chinese carrier deal emerge with a possible 3 year deal with China Unicom boosted by news that an iPhone without WiFi gets approval in China. A 1 SMS pwn attack has been confirmed by Apple who immediately issued a v3.0.1 firmware update to fix (already applied in my case). The reported pressure from AT&T to reject the Google Voice application has been 'confirmed' according to John Gruber although direct involvement is denied by AT&T but existing contractual terms may still be at work. The FCC are taking an interest as part of its investigation into exclusive deals between carriers and handset manufacturers. The AppStore approval process and the negative reactions it is increasingly generating is summarised at RWW.

Motorola seems to be putting its chips on Android. Can't be worse then their current unusable interfaces.

Telecoms News 09wk30

DaddyBear — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:39:07 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

GSMA projects 1b HSPA users by 2013

DailyWireless: 802.11N standard in 3Q09?

The end of the Nortel Wireless division auction nears its close with Ericsson and creditor MPAM submiting new bids but RIM says its bid was blocked. Nortel's official statement. While Avaya is set to buy the Enterprise unit

FTTH

Thailand: state telco plans fiber rollout

WiMAX

Alvarion & Nokia-Siemens strike strategic WiMAX reseller deal

WiMAX update from Taiwan

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

RIM: in the UAE, a 'partner' software update is denounced as spyware

iPhone: AT&T's subscriber growth numbers are heavily dependednt on the iPhone

Palm: webOS 1.1 claims to restore syncing with iTunes after Apple's previous software block by pretending to be an Apple product which means they are now in breach of the USB standard. Apple are apparently pulling all Google-Voice products from the AppStore with the suspicion falling on AT&T for the move.

Android: LG-NORTEL launch first multi-media home terminal based on Android.

Clearwire expands 3G footprint

Note: short column this week due to relocation to Riyadh.

Telecoms News 09wk29

DaddyBear — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:08:28 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Digital Britain: broadband coverage maps show that UK is distinctly class divided with haves and have-nots and Ofcom's severe reluctance to respond to a FOIA request only further casts doubt on their supposed customer orientation.

SingTel has been working on an Enterprise cloud-computing (grid)

China's Internet population reaches 338m

Both Sony-Ericsson and Nokia post 2Q loss.

How to make mobile apps pay

Amazon denies access to its catalog from 3rd-party mobile apps despite having been thinking about it for 2 years.

Google Voice out of Beta with more features including iPhone integration.

FTTH

Tasmania: tenders for NGN due 2Q10

Public WiFi

Fon announce their new router with 'Web-2.0' adding 'Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, RapidShare, and other content — even while users’ PCs are off'. Very cool.

WiMAX

New backhaul licensed products from Proxim and Alvarion

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

MobileTV trials by seven Washington, D.C. TV stations plus 5 other cities following in August

iPhone: AppStore: 1.5b served. The case for a UMA-enabled business version. Apple's Push notifications don't work on 'unlocked' phones. Firmware 3.1beta stops the IPCC-edit trick to enable tethering and allows developers to work over WiFi as well as USB. Filed under 'that didn't take long', Apple blocks 3rd-party devices from masquerading as iPods. I'd say it was a mistake to further close the Apple ecosystem but there's perhaps a legal argument that if they didn't do it, they would have implicitly agreed to an open-platform strategy from now on. Runing emulated, Win95 on an iPhone

Android: tutorial on using sensors. Google Voice comes to Android and Blackberry.

Palm Pre: Mojo SDK developlment kit is now available,

ReadWriteWeb: 2009: The Year Of LBS

Telecoms News 09wk28

DaddyBear — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:17:40 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Analyst sees VoIP substituting for multiple wireline services

Ericsson wins big Chinese contracts, $1.7B for 2G and 3G framework agreements and Sprint is outsourcing their entire network management to them in a 7year, $4.5-$5B deal involvibng 6000 staff.

Phorm, the technology that people don't want, is losing steam. BT has abandoned them, and now TalkTalk has also said that without market acceptance, there's no point to continue, Virgin is still evaluating but the UK market looks like it has turned away from DPI ad targeting for now.

Apparently people prefer mobile video applications to MobileTV. Something to do with choice perhaps?

France Telecom upgrades sub-sea cables between Europe and ME

Indian SMS use surges

Public WiFi

Meraki selected by schools and colleges

WiMAX

Nokia-Siemens & Alverion on WiMAX collaboration

Clear launches in Vegas on 21st July

McWiLL: China's nearly forgotten WiMAX competitor

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

India raises revenue prediction for 3G licenses to $7.2B

iPhone: rumour of progress towards a Chinese iPhone. The new 3GS only supports HSDPA, not HSUPA so uplink is limited to 384kbps. The practical effect of the 3GS's doubled-up RAM. Craig Hockenberry's review of 1year of the AppStore. Mashable's 14 apps with Push Notification for productivity. Daily Wireless on the coming video tsunami as Apple adds cameras, and more importantly the easy-to-use software to iPhones and, rumoured, iPods.

Android: leaked info on Sony-Ericsson phone but Nokia denies they are about to release one

TechCrunch: Cherry, the MVNO that provides converged cellular/WiFI calling, even if you don't have a SIM card.

Palm Pre: in Europe before Christmas

Telecoms News 09wk27

DaddyBear — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:13:12 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Phone companies agree to use micro-USB as standard for power supplies

Broadband defined although people including Vint Cerf aren't impressed.

PC World tested the US 3G networks for speed and reliability (Sprint and Verizon did well but AT&T had noticably worse reliability scores).

WiMAX

WiNAX teams up with DSLAMs for rural broadband

ComCast to bundle Clear with its services: High-Speed 2go

Daily Wireless: Sprint WiMAX phone?

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Sony is talking up a Phone-PSP hybrid. Frankly, what the heck took them so long?

iPhone; AT&T say the iPhone 3GS launch was their best ever sales day and the iPhone is #1 in Japan. Version 3.1 firmware is in Beta and brings Voice Control over Bluetooth. SingTel will be bringing the 3GS to Singapore, no big surprise there although less than 2 weeks after the US launch, local independent shops have genuine phones (via Italy) for up to S$2,200 (US$1,500); strictly for those who cannot wait. Akamai is offering adaptive streaming for iPhone/iPod Touch. I tend to hold back on reports of hardware faults as sometimes it takes a long time for the real story to emerge but Apple has issued a "keep your iPhone out of the sun" warning. Early feedback on Apple's Push technology fails to impress.

Palm Pre: sales reach 300,000 mark? O2 confirmed as UK exclusive carrier

Slow sales of TD-SCDMA

Telecoms News 09wk26

DaddyBear — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:33:39 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

EU's Viviane Reding talks up a a new European Strategy of "high speed broadband for all", wants "a unifying broadband strategy by the end of this year".

BT & Tata in 5yr international voice deal

Google Voice (nee Grand Central) leaves invite-only mode

Mobile video uploads to YouTube are up 400% since iPhone 3GS launch.

FTTH

Singapore: the OpCo & NetCo consortiums outline their deployment plans

Monticello, Minnesota gets Ok from the state supreme court to own & operate a fiber network

Public WiFi

Singapore: Government extends subsidy of Wireles@SG cloud until Mar 2013 and doubles basic speed to 1Mbps

WiMAX

Another week, another big Alvarion win this time, a a national mobile WiMAX network for Italy (3.5GHz)

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

iPhone: sells over 1m 3G S in the first weekend. The slow availability of V3 apps that use Push functionality made some wonder if Apple was ready but push-enabled apps were approved soon afterwards. Review by Google's Matt Cutts. V3.0 firmware is more sensitive when showing 2g / 3g network changes which means people are seeing 'EDGE' more often than they did before.
Possible problems with WiFi reported on Apple forum but the overall performance, especially Javascript, continues to impress. Cost breakdown: 3G S build costs estimated at $179 which together with other costs suggests Apple needs the AT&T subsidy to make a profit. More on the oleophobic 3GS screen. TapBots reports a 75% adoption rate for V3 firmware

Palm Pre: Slashdot has a thread on needing to give your SSN to get a service contract with Sprint (maybe that's what the Sprint sales guide meant by only selling the Pre 'to the right sort of customer').

Android: T-Mobile announce their second Android unit, the MyTouch and the HTC Hero will have Adobe Flash.

Vodafone UK announces femtocell launch (either free or as part of an inclusive price plan (starting at £15pm), purchase (£160) or a monthly charge (£5pm)

Telecoms News 09wk25

DaddyBear — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:24:32 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

DPI ad firm Phorm spent £50m last year account show. I'm no fan of such businesses because I don't think my ISP should earn money selling my browsing clicks and secondly, the opt-out mechanism is cookies which I frequently purge.

IBM to invest $100m in mobile services research: "mobile payment methods, security, privacy and user interfaces and, chiefly, to enhance the ability of corporations to use mobile devices to interact with customers and employees".

Digital Britain report: The Register

Nortel may be selling its wireless business, including the valuable CDMA unit, to Nokia-Siemens Mobile although there's time for other bidders to offer more.

Spam drops by 2/3rds after McColo is shutdown. Command & control for botnets, apparently. It won't last.

Comcast is making big IPv6 noises

Google Voice (was GrandCentral) is getting some good press and now they have reserved 1m phone numbers from L3.

WiMAX

Alvarion wins $100m, 17 state, 4G wireless contract

Tata broadband growth muted on WiMAX delay, sees WiMAX as essential part of plan to reach 10 million Internet users by 2014.

WiMAX set for major LatAm growth

RidgeWave: deploys with Kulaom in Jordan & Bahrain (80GHz backhaul)

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Palm Pre: StevenF review. Open Source Portal is Open while the App Store is a (very) slow start partly because there's very little in it.

iPhone: AT&T get a lot of bashing but there's a couple of good news stories. V3.0 firmware supports auto-logon to WiFi hotspots and AT&T have enabled the feature for data plan users, they have eased upgrade pricing for some and said MMS will be free. Conversely, here's something AT&T won't want to hear, a quick and easy way to enable tethering or your can wait for AT&T's $55pm service plan although this price has been 'officially' denied by At&T via it's Facebook page (what next, manuals on MySpace?). Canadians will get free tethering until 2010. This guy is raving about the 3GS graphics.
Apple's Enterprise Deployment Guide (.PDF) for the iPhone. The V3 firmware jailbreak tools are ready. TUAW review. Various people have remarked on the much faster 3GS and AnandTech says it's 54% faster than the 3G and 11% faster than the Pre. We don't know the first weekend sales figures yet but Apple is warning of activation delays due to server over-loading (annoying but a high quality problem to have). The better hardware in the 3GS means some features are not available on previous hardware (obviously the compass is either there or not) but voice control requires lots of processing power and is available on the 3GS only so Vlingo makes it available on older h/w.

Telecoms News 09wk24

DaddyBear — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:53:39 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Comparison of mobile data syncing services.

France: constitutional court strikes down Hadopi law's no-judicial-process-disconnects. Freedom of speech means "implies today, considering the development of the Internet, and its importance for the participation in democratic life and the expression of ideas and opinions, the online public’s freedom to access these communication services".

Phorm is not dead yet as it raises £15m at a much lowered valuation.

Facebook & Twitter verified accounts: Telecoms just lost another control point

Ofcom says some people just don't want broadband even if free

Jaxtr free voice calling in firesale?

National Broadband Plan comments: Google, Verizon & AT&T

Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) filed comments on ICANN's future: "CDT has long argued that ICANN should be freed of U.S. control, but only if it is accountable to the global Internet community and protected from interference by other governments."

Verizon: all LTE devices must be IPv6

Indian 3G delay costs $16b if you add up the lost investment and national productivity.

FTTH

Australian NBN: "put the cables underground"

Philippines largest ISP PLDT goes fiber

FTTx: Global Operator Rankings (watch out for the annoying video ads ;-)

ALU wins 40% of China Telecom's FTTH trials

Public WiFi

Meru does WiFI management from an iPhone

Cisco predicts huge increases in Internet traffic in the next few years, mainly from video

WiMAX

Mobily in $100m Saudi deal with Samsung gear

Chipzilla puts $43m into Japanese WiMAX planning for coverage to 90 per cent of the country by 2012.

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

ABIresearch: Worldwide mobile market own 11.9%n 1Q09

NTT DoCoMo to launch LTE in 2H10

SingTel launches a music service

Will AT&T use 'netwrk neutrality' as a competitive weapon against Sprint & T-Mobile?

BillShrink compares the TCO of the iPhone, Palm & G1.

iPhone 3GS: most predictions were pretty close. Apple's official guided tour is as good a place as any to see what's new. Personally, I was hoping for a slightly better camera but the longer battery life is needed. Review & summaries: David Pogue, Daily Wireless, TUAW, . AT&T comes in for sustained criticism over slow support for the new features (MMS, tethering) and upgrade prices: VentureBeat, Ars Technica. The Register alhough on the upgrade cost at least, the financial logic is spot on. There's reasonable speculation they will apply surcharges for MMS and tethering. AT&T doesn't even have good 7.2 HSPA coverage.

Interesting but wild speculation on the encryption features of iPhone v3 which may unlie the remote wipe and disable feature. Lastly, the reason the iPhone isn't available in S. Korea?

Palm Pre: the ~50k units sold is claimed as a success but the market reacted otherwise with the stock 10% down. Developers (and hackers) should be happy. All the main apps are written in Javacript and now the activation check has been easily bypassed on an un-activated phone (ie, it's been jail-broken). The Pre uses GPL-licensed code yet they are still in the process of preparing the necessary modified source which, strictly, makes them non-compliant although if it's only 2 weeks, little harm is done.

Telecoms News 09wk23

DaddyBear — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:51:58 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Apple & RIm are the ones making money from mobile phones

BT's C21CN starts to roll out ADSL2+ Not exactly GPON but it's a start.

ArsTechnica: UK - what a Non-Neutral Network looks like

UK: Gross exageration of revenue lost to digital priacy?, surely not.

UK: Digital Britain Unconference Reports on Scribd (a/c required to download but nor for viewing)

FTTH

FTTH is worth $5000 to the homeowner

SingTel/Opus warns NBN could be commercial failure unless there is only one network that includes Telstra's fixed line assets.

Netherlands: More than 1m FTTH subs by 2013 says much quoted report from research firm Telecompaper. Conversions from ADSL, not new subs.

Public WiFi

SF rolls out solar bus shelters with free WiFi

WiMAX

Mformation taking over Clearwire device management

Intel is ceasing production of its "Rosedale 2" WiMAX chip effective immediately in order to focus on its other WiMAX chips

Femto Forum and WiMAX Forum link up for ... WiMAX Femtocells (what else?)

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Palm Pre. Reviews: Walter Mossberg, David Pogue, WSJ on Business Week's 'hatchet job', MSNBC, Pre | Central.net, Wireless Week, Gizmodo. Nice analysis at Daring Fireball focusing on the keybaord and how it's more a competitor to RIm than Apple. Roundup of first weekend

iPhone: more rumuours, this time that there is an 'iPhone Video' model somehere in the works and final pre-WWDC predictions from Daring Fireball

Femtocells: nice summary of some of the practical problems and why a Femtocell feeding an in-building distribution system might be a better idea.

Telecoms News 09wk22

DaddyBear — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:55:04 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Ericsson to build world's first commercial 4G/LTE network for TeleSonera

Light Reading: What can telcos learn from Amazon? (basically a Telco 2.0 analysis).

Engadget's review of 3G USB cards and their networks hails Verizon the winner with AT&T a slightly surprising 2nd (because the iPhone has often been criticised for it's poor 3G data support on that network).

Nokia's Ovi store opens. Early reviews are not all that positive partly due to it being overloaded but even after a settling down period, it's problematic.

EU allocation of S-band satellite spectrum is being challenged in court mainly over whether the EU has pan-European authority over spectrum (it doesn't).

Why the US should continue to control the DNS system

AT&T speed-bumping their 3G

The US stimulus bill should be a boon for the wireless tech. sector

FTTH

Daily Wireless: Why Branding matters even for Muni projects

Abu Dhabi sets sights on being the most connected city with FTTH everywhere.

G.hn suggested as route to self-install triple-play

BBC on broadband NotSpots

WiMAX

Nice article on private wireless networks, especially utilities.

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Android: Version 1,5 is out. Samsung's i7500 - first Android-based phone without a physical keyboard although HTC's Ion, or G2 is right behind plus there's many more Android phones expected this year. HTC will sell Android phones to China Mobile.

Report from RNCOS says global mobile TV market is projected to grow at CAGR of more than 46% from now to 2013. You'll have to pay $1600 to read more.

Palm Pre: is there anything that's not leaked these days? Here's the gesture guide for the new phone. Also the pundits are getting in early with (a reasonably well argued) set of reasons the Pre will fail. Another review. Palm themselves have demonstrated sync'ing music with iTunes. Now, colour me careful, but that's borderline DMCA-busting reverse engineering of a DRM'd protocol and one cannot expect Apple to just sit there & approve.

iPhone: It's a better platform for ads according to BrightKite and doubled its market share (Gartner: 1Q09 vs 1Q08) . Rumours of iPod and iPhone refresh and (allegedly) leaked details of the compass and camera on the new iPhone

Subscriber numbers are down again at Hutch Lanka, they cite tighter registration controls as a factor.

Ericsson to bring TD-SCDMA to China Mobile and the mass market

Telecoms News 09wk21

DaddyBear — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:03:04 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Singapore: StarHub offers pre-paid mobile broadband

DPI-based ad targetting is struggling with NebuAd effectively out of business

FierceWireless Top 15 Wireless Innovators

FTTH

Australia: NBN to cost less that A$43b, also at Light Reading

Portugal Telecom reveals details of its NGN plan, aiming to reach one million households by eo2009

Light Reading: Spain Set for FTTH Surge, "Almost half of Spain's 14 million households could have fiber-to-the-home connections by 2023"

Public WiFi

Virgin America offers WiFi on all flights

WiMAX

Juniper report: WiMAX revenues to exceed $15 billion by 2014 and 12% of DSL users will switch to WiMAX by 2013

Clearwire focuses hiring on IT enginners for their non-legacy, flat network

Kulacom launches WiMAX in Jordan

LTE vs WiMAX: The 4G Wireless War

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Palm Pre: ready for launch on June 6th, 2 days before Apple's WWDC although an iPhone launch is not necessarily a given. Sprint will be offering it for $199 after $100 MIR. US only. Further details may be in this apparently leaked Sprint launch guide.

iPhone: AT&T mulls cut-rate plan with limited data. Distimo says iPhone apps are getting cheaper. Rumours of the new iPhone are firming up. 50% faster CPU (600MHz vs 400Hz) but Daring Fireball has an excellent composite of prredictions, supported by such leaks as 32GB iPhone listed as AT&T trade-in

Gizmodo: Pre vs iPhone vs G1

Nokia offers its unused patents to other Finnish companies to boost the economy.

Telecoms News 09wk20

DaddyBear — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:45:41 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Apple's upcoming version of OS-X (Snow Leopard) has hints of better W-LAN support

AT&T admits they nixed the SlingPlayer on iPhone

Australia plan to split up Telstra

Rumours of Verizon and a 3G netbook are true; $199 (after $50 rebate) plus $40pm for 250MB of data, based on HP's Mini.

Facebook just opened up OpenID logins making it the biggest social network so far to do so. Ironic since their other behavior has been criticised for a very closed, turf-protecting attitude.

Interesting perspective on UK cableCos with Virgin Media taking the initiative and roll out more service areas even as the wider fiber NGN debate rages.

FTTH

Norway: dig your own trench, save $400

France: Tutor selects Enablence for NGN, as does Delhi Telecom

UK: A village just gets on with it and digs their own fiber into the ground

Public WiFi

AirTran to offer n-flight Internet on all 36 aircraft by midsummer (AirCell)

California issues RFQ for TrainFi

Meraki launches Enterprise Cloud controller

WiMAX

Aptilo wins Internet Telephony's 009 WiMAX distinction award

NATO brings WiMAX to Kabul

Clearwire & Cisco agree converged 4G development

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Apparently, we are lousy at re-cycling phones

Vodafone opens APIs to its network - very Telco 2.0

iPhone: one developer tracked pirated copies of his app. Rumours have been swirling of Apple's interest in getting background apps to work

Fascinating summary of Nokia's many, many attempts at software & media services

Telecoms News 09wk19

DaddyBear — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:43:55 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

Europe (again) rejects 3-strikes legislation directed at file-sharers although something is sure to get past the vote eventually. It's not the cutting of Internet service that is the sticking point but whether there should be prior judicial review.

Singapore: StarHub offers 1GB mobile data on any phone for S$9.90

AT&T acquire wireless assets from Verizon, required divestiture following the purchase of Alltel in June 2008.

SingTel launches an advertising & services arm

Instat: Ultra Wideband is dead by 2013. Strong showing by 802.11n is a factor.

FTTH

Phew! North Carolina Senate send bills trying to ban municipal-owned broadband networks to committee, where hopefully they will die the death they deserve.

Verizon signs up for FIOS re-seller programme

Ericsson GPON in New Delhi

UK: Vrigin trys bonded DOCSIS for 200Mbps service

Public WiFi

Nice round of PlaneFi options (source: CNN)

WiMAX

NASA is looking at WiMAX for moon missions

WiFI Planet: review of ClearWire's network on Portland

Dell including WiMAX in some Notetops

Alvarion losses worsen on flat shipments

WiGig vendor group promises 60GHz ultra-WiF spec by year end (I apologise in advance for linking to a site with such a lame "clasping hands" stock image).

Maravedis & Tonse: WiMAX subs in India to exceed 13m by 2013

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

iPhone: Apple are not messing around with backward compatibilty, all Apps, old and new, must now work on v3.0 firmware. Despite the persistent rumours of Apple playing Verizon off againts AT&T, there is a point that to grow their market share, they need to diversify across carriers which makes the idea of an "iPhone Lite" and a tablet product (a Kindle killer) more relevant. Rim's Curve out-sold the iPhone in the latest stats.

Ericsson says its next-gen software-upgradable basestations are deployed and ready but remain unconvinced of Femtocell benefits

Chine Mobile is rolling out pre-LTE TD-SCDMA

Telecoms News 09wk18

DaddyBear — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:08:43 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

UK: 3's deal with Skype sounds great for subscribers but may hurt their long-term revenue

Proxicast have a neat portable WiFi/3G/broadband portable Access Point for first responders.

India changes its mind on the OLPC and orders 250.000

FTTH

The Romanian way

Public WiFi

TrainFi: Virgin adds Internet Wifi to its Pendolinos (T-Mobile, 60mins for £5)

Verizon is reported to be close to offering free WiFi from Boingo hotspots for its home broadband subscribers, unless it's just a publicity stunt to attract Apple.

WiMAX

Tata claims 50k subs on their fixed WiMAX network

Motorola certifies more gear

April 2009 WiMAX guide is out (reg reqd)

Clearwire uses Gov't grants for rural WiMAX

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Android: Sansung's first Android phone and HTC's second (UK launch, 1st May) and one from Motorola. The rumoured NetBook

iPhone: ad company Greystripe say people spend less than 10mins playing with a free application. iPhone tops user satisfaction poll

Palm: is there a mini-Pre in the works?

Nokia sells their mobile-TV unit to WiPro

Telecoms News 09wk17

DaddyBear — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:13:54 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

AT&T is building out and expanding its 3G networks. Commentary from GigaOm; Their network sucks.

EU agree SMS price cap (11 Euro cents for international)

Pirate Bay fallout: site added to IWF list so BT is now blocking access, most commentary on the wider issues tend to condemm the failed business model of media companies, highlight the Streisand effect and the futility of censorship on the Internet. The news that the Judge seems to be a member of a copyright advocacy group has led to talk of a mis-trial and ensures the story stays in the news.

Bluetooth 3.0 relased. Promises better battery life and higher speeds.

Virgin Media pre-emptively deny they are quiting Phorm

FTTH

Aussie NBN retail costs: A$215 at 80% takeup

Public WiFi

Meru raises US$30m

CSIRO wins settlement with more major 802.11 manufacturers

AT&T reports big surge in HotSpot connections and not just from acquiring WayPort and StarBucks APs

WiMAX

Airspan de-lists from NASDAQ and joins Pink sheets as losses continue.

Malaysia's national WiMAX network gets going with Samsung providing the mains pieces

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

GSS debuts FM radio chipsets with RDS (never been a fan of RDS myself but the ability to receive emergency alerts is useful).

iPhone: passes the 1 billion downloaded apps mark (some favourites) just a few days after recording excellent finacials. In terms of ads served the iPhone blows away all rivals with 50% market share.

Andriod: T-Mobile has sold over 1m G1 phones although a warning shot is fired over app portablity as SDK v1.5 is about to ship.

Andoid: on a NetBook?

Telecoms News 09wk16

DaddyBear — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:51:46 +0000

Broadband / Network Services

EU may force mobile carriers to allow VoIP to prevent anti-competitive practices.

Nortel continues under bankrupcy protection amid reports of a sell-off and talk of it being no more as an entity

AT&T is pushing to extend its exclusive iPhone deal with Apple despite the fact they are paying over $300 per sub to Apple for the opportunity.

At 0.3grams of CO2 per message, SPAM is killing the environment

Phorm, the controversial DPI ad targeting firm was sounding bullish recently after much criticism and the British authorities declared their activities legal (or at least not illegal enough to prosecute), then major portals were urged to boycott the technology (Amazon and Wikipedia have responded so far) and now the European Commission has started legal action over user data interception but apparently it's acceptable that the UK Government department tasked with responding to the EU has a Phorm (non-exec) board member as a paid advisor.

Time-Warner Cable backs off from tiered pricing tariff after major negative feedback but Bell Canada is still considering introducing it

India adds 10m mobile subs in March to total 288.3m

US Senate: proposed law controlling mobile SPAM (ie SMS) and mandatory recognition of no-SMS opt-out list. Good idea. Singapore has some decent rules but realisitically, it's hard to complain about the few that still arrive.

FTTH

Huawei wins Libya FTTH contract

FTTH Prism Newsletter: Why Municipal Fiber Hasn't Succeeded, counter commentary

Public WiFi

RedSky offers a solution for E911 location awareness for VoWiFI (back-end link to IP-PBX)

WiMAX

Maravedis report: 4G subs growth in 2008: 1.45m for BWA/WiMAX, 90m for WCDMA

Mobile / FMC / VoIP

Mobile sales are 20% down, Nokia's 1Q09 profit slashed by 90% although that's not as bad as it sounds

iPhone: is the Push technology in V3 software too expensive for small companies?. Having initially dissed the iPhone as unsuitable for the enterprise, Forrester Research now says recommends it for consideration and might even e better than a BlackBerry

SingTel one of first to offer Nokia Messaging (S$5.35 pm, Nokia E63, 2yr contract)

Palm Pre: first good look at the Classic emulation mode for older Palm apps - looks good, if that's interesting to you.

Android: version 1.5 of the SDK is out to developers

Another "2009 is the year of the Femtocell" story, this time with a question mark. Truth is, they can radically alter network stratagies for different operational models and it's only reasonable for major telcos to start slowly to gain understanding before massive investments.

Bus TV: nice use of mobile DTV to provide service on buses in Rayleigh, NC

AT&T's new Family Map service launches amid an expected chorus of concerns over stalking or spying.

Femtocells: slow broadband access could choke data services (yes, but not everyone in the world is stuck with max 3Mbps ADSL) although in the short-term, with congested cells, Airvana claims a x5 improvement using its FCs.