T-Mobile Launches European Flash-OFDM Market Trial
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Flarion Technologies, the architect of the Flash-OFDM mobile broadband system, that T-Mobile International, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, deployed a trial of Flarion's system for mobile broadband ...
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(InfoWorld) - The groundwork is being laid for a risky experiment in consumer electronics as manufacturers prepare for Sprint Nextel and Clearwire's Xohm WiMax service. Motorola unveiled a WiMax client chipset on Tuesday and praised Sprint's strategy of leaving WiMax clients to device makers and retailers. But that plan, a change of pace from U.S. carriers' usual practice of selling and subsidizing phones themselves, could take years to pay off in the mass market. The chipset, introduced at WiMax World USA in Chicago, is small, economical, and more power-efficient than 3G platforms, according to Gary Koerper, Motorola's vice president of platform planning and architecture. It will hit the market in client devices in the second half of 2008, with the company initially focusing on building WiMax phones that carry its own brand, he said. The devices will be offered for various WiMax services around the world, including Xohm. With Xohm, Motorola will have free rein to make whatever kind of device it wants as long as it's certified to work on the carrier's network, Koerper said. Motorola calls that great news, but some observers see a hard road ahead with device makers or carriers pushing an alternative to carrier-subsidized phones. "The model Sprint is pursuing is really taking the shackles off Motorola innovation and Motorola's brand," Koerper said. Typically, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker has to develop a new product and then get a carrier to buy in on it. With WiMax devices designed to work with Xohm, Motorola can look straight to the consumer and build what they want. This could make it easier for Motorola to compete with Apple's hot iPhone, he said. Apple's product has stolen the thunder from Motorola's popular Razr line even though it commands a full, unsubsidized price. Sprint's whole WiMax initiative is a risky bid to gain an edge in the U.S. mobile market, where Sprint is in third place by subscribers. The technology promises a fat pipe to the Internet that subscribers can take with them all over a metropolitan area. Motorola said its chipset offers 10Mbps downstream and 3 to 4Mbps upstream, far faster than current 3G and comparable to a cable modem. But it will take more than fast Internet access to attract and keep paying customers, said Albert Lin, an analyst at American Technology Research. There are other ways to get fast data service, and there will be more in the future, so Sprint needs to create attractive services such as a VoIP application, high-quality video content, and easy tools for professionals to access corporate networks over VPNs, Lin said. Ease of use, support, and coverage will also be key because cellular services already have those established, he added. "You don't automatically get hundreds of thousands of early adopters," Lin said. The lack of a subsidy isn't even the biggest concern for vendors trying to sell devices for such a service, but it is a long-term problem, he said. Although down from about 95 percent a few years ago, the percentage of phones sold with subsidies in the U.S. is still 85 percent or more, according to Lin. Worldwide, about half of all cell phones are sold with subsidies, he said. As people look for more special features on their phones, they are looking outside of carriers' offerings more often, but it will be three years before the average U.S. consumer will want an unsubsidized phone, Lin predicted. Len Lauer, an executive vice president at mobile technology giant Qualcomm, was also pessimistic in an interview earlier this year. He doesn't think the mobile industry can be transformed by new strategies like Sprint's nor by the any-device, any-service band planned for the 700MHz wireless spectrum to be auctioned next year. U.S. consumers are too addicted to subsidies to buy many devices sold outside the carrier channel, said Lauer, a former Sprint executive. Motorola is pitching its chipset as competitive with 3G instead of an expensive, futuristic new technology. The cost of the chipset is already low and will keep falling to the point that Motorola could soon bring the chipset to inexpensive phones to be used primarily for voice in developing markets, Koerper said. The chipset, consisting of a baseband modem and a radio reference design, has been tested and verified with WiMax network infrastructure from Motorola and other leading vendors, the company said.
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Some German bus commuters will soon be able to use their mobile phones as electronic wallets when a new trial of the technology called Near Field Communications (NFC) gets underway.
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MmO2 PLC announced today the launch of its third-generation (3G) European mobile data network. The network will incorporate HSDPA technology and IMS and will position the mobile phone company
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DALLAS, Oct 21, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Texas Instruments unveiled plans Thursday for the industry&#39;s first cell phone capable of receiving high definition TV broadcast signals.
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(InfoWorld) - After rolling out push e-mail service to its enterprise customers, T-Mobile International now plans to extend the offering to the consumer market, in addition to launching a number of new "community" services. The consumer push e-mail service was one of several announcements T-Mobile International CEO Hamid Akhavan made Tuesday during a news conference at theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona. "We plan a new service that will push e-mail to consumers; this could become a very huge market," Akhavan said. As T-Mobile rolls out new social networking services such as myFaves in the U.S., the operator also plans new "community" pricing plans. With myFaves, for instance, customers can establish a community of up to five people who receive a discounted rate for voice calls, text messages, and more. User-generated content, such as photos and videos, is another social networking service already generating lots of buzz, according to Akhavan. "It's still early days for social networking services over mobile networks but they will drive growth," he said. "I believe the mobile Internet will have a bigger impact than the Internet itself." The company is looking at theÂ new Windows Mobile 6.0. "I don't know yet if our Windows Mobile 5.0 handsets can support 6.0," he said. "If so and if we can use our Web site to allow customers to download the new operating system, then maybe this will be a possibility. I guess the answer is if we can upgrade easily, then yes." T-Mobile meanwhile lowered international roaming fees by 20 percent last year, with further reductions in the pipeline. Because roaming isn't a unilateral business, partner operators will also need to agree to changes, Akhavan said. Enterprises have been lobbying the European Commission for years to pressure European mobile operators intoÂ lowering roaming fees. T-Mobile is moving ahead on its 3G (third-generation) rollout in the U.S., according to Akhavan. He handed the microphone to Ray Nevelle, in charge of the U.S. deployment, who said U.S. customers can expect 3G service this year. Akhavan said he wasn't concerned about the threat of municipality Wi-Fi networks. Users want quality service, "which requires networking expertise -- this is something municipalities don't have," he said. "Governments, you may recall, used to run telecom networks and then decided to get out of that business."
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T-Mobile has launched its latest 3G device with built-in high-speed wireless net access, and swivel screen
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As of 23.08.2004, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa became the first Polish mobile operator to have started market tests in Warsaw with corporate and private customers of high-speed data transmission on the UMTS ...
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Vendors complete the first live 40-Gbps optical transmission trial.
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BEDMINSTER, NJ--(BUSINESS WIRE)â8 Octobre 2004--Siemens Communications va intÃ©grer la technologie FLASHOFDM (R) (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) Ã  son portefeuille de solutions mobiles haut dÃ©bit.
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Cell phone giant Vodafone Group PLC, which has spent years struggling to recoup billions spent on 3G licences, finally launched the cutting-edge service Wednesday in much of Europe and introduced or beefed up its operation in a dozen other countries.
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Leading mobile phone operators in the European Union could save billions of euros on third-generation network access under a proposal to be launched next month by Brussels.
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Vodafone is to trial an updated version  of the mobile broadband technology HSPA, called HSPA+, to test  if it can deliver higher data rates through an upgrade of its  existing network equipment.
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Europeans are a step closer to having television on their mobile phones: Two groups of companies said they would push forward with consumer trials and establish a standard for the technology.
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T-Mobile prepares service allowing callers uninterrupted shifting between cellular network, consumer Wi-Fi network.
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Siemens Communications has agreed to integrate Flarion Technologies&#39; FLASH-OFDM technology into its portfolio of mobile broadband solutions.
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HONG KONG (CBS.MW) -- UK wireless operator Mmo2 (OOM) (UK:OOM) said it will launch Europe&#39;s first &quot;super-fast&quot; third-generation (3G) mobile broadband data network in the summer of 2005 at mmO2&#39;s subsidiary, Manx Telecom on the UK&#39;s Isle of Man.