Four billion mobile connections reached
The world passed its four billionth mobile connection this week, passing another milestone along the road to the ubiquitous wireless connectivity of every human being.
The first commercial citywide cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979 and it took 23 years for one billion mobiles to be connected. The two billion mark was passed in 2005, with the three billion milestone passed in 2007 and the historic 'tipping point' where 50% of all human beings are carrying a mobile phone was reached in Q2, 2008.
Further growth in emerging markets such as China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, plus the integration of previously unconnected devices are expected to push the number of global connections to six billion in 2013. There are only 6.7 billion human beings.
Mobile Broadband accounts for just 100 million of the four billion mobile connections, compared with 1.1 billion fixed broadband lines. Given the rapid penetration of mobile into the global community, mobile broadband can be expected to accelerate from this point too. Notably, with fixed line broadband included, broadband connectivity now reaches one sixth of the world's population.
Meanwhile, in the uk, new figures from Ofcom this week have revealed that the number of UK broadband connections is nearing the 17 million mark.
The regulator's latest Telecommunications Market data tables show that up to the end of Q3 last year, there were just over 16.9 million active residential and small business broadband lines in the UK.
The tables, which detail the broadband connections between 2006 and Q3 2008, show that during this period there were slight market share falls for industry leaders BT Retail and Virgin Media.
In the case of BT, this is largely due to the increase in broadband connections using local loop unbundling (LLU). These line connections are provided by the likes of TalkTalk and Sky who have installed their own equipment in the telephone exchange - meaning they can offer users discounted prices and so called 'free' broadband services.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Government moves to settle mobile broadband spectrum dispute
Lord Carter, the communications minister, has today called a meeting with the UK's five mobile phone networks as he tries to thrash out a deal that will help achieve his ambition of universal broadband access by 2012.
The former head of regulator Ofcom is attempting to get the UK's two original mobile phone networks, Vodafone and O2 – formerly Cellnet – to share a slice of the airwaves they were given in the 1980s, so that rivals T-Mobile, Orange and 3 can use it for mobile broadband services.
Lord Carter, in his initial Digital Britain report last month, said the mobile phone companies must thrash out a compromise on sharing the airwaves by the end of April or the government would impose a solution.
The slice of the airwaves controlled by O2 and Vodafone is important to the introduction of universal broadband because it is at a low frequency, which means signals can travel over longer distances.
O2 and Vodafone, understandably, are reluctant to give up their spectrum at the 900 MHz frequency unless the government offers them a sweetener by giving them a slice of the airwaves freed up by the switch-off of the analogue TV signal.
Labels: industry insight, network coverage, quick-news
Vodafone and 3 merge Australian businesses
Vodafone Australia and Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) are to merge business creating a new business, VHA (Vodafone Hutchison Australia). Airtime services will be sold under the Vodafone brand,
Both companies will hold 50 per cent ownership of the new venture.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Huawei to deliver 'smarter' mobile broadband dongles
Huawei are to Embed Network Diagnostic Tools into their 3G Modems.
Carrier IQ has announced that its diagnostic software is to be embedded within a new range of 3G modems from Huawei. The cards will incorporate a diagnostic engine to enable carriers to optimize and improve data performance using Carrier IQ's suite of analysis tools.
Announcing the partnership, Carrier IQ CEO, Mark Quinlivan, said: "These new cards will make for smoother delivery of mobile data services, improvements in customer care services, identification of network coverage gaps and increased awareness of actual user behavior."
"Everybody wins," he added, "the manufacturer of the card, the network operator, but most importantly of all, the actual subscriber to mobile data services."
Labels: dongle, industry insight, mobile broadband
Orange mobile internet base up by 86 per cent
Orange UK's latest Digital Media Index report indicated an increase in the network's total number of mobile customers to 15.8 million at September 30. It also reported 1.02 million home broadband customers.
The network reported an average of 1.485 billion text messages per month, 3.971 billion call minutes per month and 185,823 GB of mobile data per month.
The number of mobile broadband dongle subscriptions increased by over 2,000 per cent since January last year, while the number of mobile internet customers on 3G handsets and dongles was 2.9 million. It said the mobile internet customer base had increased by 86 per cent, with 1.3 million customers added.
Orange also reported on average more than 276,555 full music tracks are downloaded every month from the Orange Music Store, an increase of 10.5 per cent since last year's Orange Digital Media Index.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, Orange
Ofcom review UK mobile broadband spectrum
bbc.co.uk reports that UK regulator Ofcom looks set to change the way it sells off the airwaves freed up by the shift to digital TV.
It is planning to make a wider band of spectrum available for mobile broadband services than originally proposed. A move that has been welcomed by mobile operators who say it will make for cheaper and more flexible services.
Originally Ofcom promised to safeguard spectrum in the 800Mhz band for wireless microphones and digital terrestrial TV services, but now it proposes to make the whole 800MHz band available for mobile broadband and related services and find "alternative spectrum" for wireless microphones and digital terrestrial TV.
For digital terrestrial TV viewers, it will mean that set-top boxes will have to be retuned, something Ofcom described as "a simple procedure that usually takes a few minutes to complete".
"Ofcom has realised that there is momentum in Europe for mobile broadband so has had to co-operate," said Matthew Howett, an analyst with research firm Ovum.
Finland, France, Sweden, and Switzerland have already decided to release the wider block of spectrum for mobile broadband services and if the UK follows suit it will mean lower equipment prices for consumers.
T-Mobile's head of regulatory affairs, Robyn Durie, welcomed the move. "It is good news for us. Mobile broadband needs a big chunk of spectrum and previously we didn't have that," she said. "It means that consumers will be able to use the same services abroad that they can use at home."
Read the full article here.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband
Mobile broadband 'to become increasingly widespread'
Mobile broadband has proved to be popular among UK consumers and is likely to become increasingly widespread, according to one expert. Tim Lord, regulatory director at Hutchison 3G (UK), said Britain had already become a converged communications landscape.
Speaking at the Joint Westminster eForum & Westminster Media Forum keynote seminar, titled Digital Britain, he said: "Mobile broadband has been an enormous success in the UK."
He cited figures from communications regulator Ofcom which show that around 12% of consumers have swapped fixed-line broadband for mobile broadband. He added that around 15% are currently thinking about making such a switch.
However, he said that for internet access via mobile devices to really take off, coverage will have to be improved and backhaul capacity will have to be increased.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Digital Britain - the mobile broadband perspective
The UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport today published the interim Digital Britain report. Here are a couple of extracts relating specifically to the future of mobile broadband.
Action 6 - We are specifying a Wireless Radio Spectrum Modernisation Programme consisting of five elements:
- Resolving the future of existing 2G radio spectrum through a structured framework, allowing existing operators to re-align their existing holdings, re-use the spectrum and start the move to next generation mobile services.
- Making available more radio spectrum suitable for next generation mobile services.
- Greater investment certainty for existing 3G operators: The Government wishes to encourage the maximum commercially-sensible investment in network capacity and coverage…(E)xisting time-limited licences could be made indefinite and subject instead to AIP beyond the end of the current term.
- Greater network sharing: the Government and Ofcom will consider further network sharing, spectrum or carrier-sharing proposals from the operators, particularly where these can lead to greater coverage and are part of the mobile operator's contribution to a broadband universal service commitment.
- Commitments by the mobile operators to push out the coverage of mobile broadband eventually to replicate 2G coverage and mark their significant contribution to the broadband universal service commitment.
Action 17 - We will develop plans for a digital Universal Service Commitment to be effective by 2012, delivered by a mixture of fixed and mobile, wired and wireless means. Subject to further study of the costs and benefits, we will set out our plans for the level of service which we believe should be universal.
You can
read the industry reaction to the report in this Guardian article.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Eight key mobile technologies for 2009/2010
Gartner says that it has identified eight mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2010, impacting short-term mobile strategies and policies.
"All mobile strategies embed assumptions about technology evolution so it's important to identify the technologies that will evolve quickly in the life span of each strategy," said Nick Jones, vice president at Gartner. "The eight mobile technologies that we have pinpointed as ones to watch in 2009 and 2010 will have broad effects and, as such, are likely to pose issues to be addressed by short-term strategies and policies."
Gartner's eight mobile technologies to watch in 2009 and 2010:
- Bluetooth 3.0 -The Bluetooth 3.0 specification will be released in 2009 (at which point its feature set will be frozen), with devices starting to arrive around 2010. Bluetooth 3.0 will likely include features such as ultra-low-power mode that will enable new devices, such as peripherals and sensors, and new applications, such as health monitoring.
- Mobile User Interfaces (UIs) - UIs have a major effect on device usability and supportability. They will also be an area of intense competition in 2009 and 2010, with manufacturers using UIs to differentiate their handsets and platforms. New and more-diverse UIs will complicate the development and support of business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications.
- Location Sensing - Location awareness makes mobile applications more powerful and useful; in the future, location will be a key component of contextual applications. Location sensing will also enhance systems, such as mobile presence and mobile social networking.
- 802.11n - 802.11n boosts Wi-Fi data rates to between 100 Mbps and 300 Mbps, and the multiple-input, multiple-output technology used by 802.11n offers the potential for better coverage in some situations. 802.11n is likely to be a long-lived standard that will define Wi-Fi performance for several years. High-speed Wi-Fi is desirable to stream media around the home and office.
- Display Technologies - Displays constrain many characteristics of both mobile devices and applications. During 2009 and 2010, several new display technologies will impact the marketplace, including active pixel displays, passive displays and pico projectors. Pico projectors enable new mobile use cases (for example, instant presentations projected on a desktop to display information in a brief, face-to-face sales meeting).
- Mobile Web and Widgets - The mobile Web is emerging as a low-cost way to deliver simple mobile applications to a range of devices. It has some limitations that will not be addressed by 2010 (for example, there will be no universal standards for browser access to handset services, such as the camera or GPS). However, the mobile Web offers a compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) advantage over thick-client applications. Widgets (small mobile Web applets) are supported by many mobile browsers, and provide a way to stream simple feeds to handsets and small screens.
- Cellular Broadband - Wireless broadband exploded in 2008, driven by the availability of technologies such as high-speed downlink packet access and high-speed uplink packet access, combined with attractive pricing from cellular operators. The performance of high-speed packet access (HSPA) provides a megabit or two of bandwidth in uplink and downlink directions, and often more. In many regions, HSPA provides adequate connectivity to replace Wi-Fi "hot spots," and the availability of mature chipsets enables organizations to purchase laptops with built-in cellular modules that provide superior performance to add-on cards or dongles.
- Near Field Communication (NFC) - NFC provides a simple and secure way for handsets to communicate over distances of a centimeter or two. NFC is emerging as a leading standard for applications such as mobile payment, with successful trials conducted in several countries. It also has wider applications, such as "touch to exchange information" (for example, to transfer an image from a handset to a digital photo frame, or for a handset to pick up a virtual discount voucher).
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
HSPA+ rollout likely prior migration to LTE
A significant number of mobile operators will be upgrading from HSPDA to HSPA+ technology as an interim stop gap before eventually migrating to LTE, according to the latest report from EJL Wireless Research entitled "3GPP Release 7 HSPA+ (Evolved HSPA) Network Migration Analysis."
"LTE technology remains on the longer term horizon but HSPA+ is here and now. The increase of UMTS downlink speeds of up to 21Mbps peak will significantly improve the consumer's mobile broadband experience." said founder and President Earl Lum.
"Given the economic uncertainty through 2009 and 2010, it is clear that mobile operators will upgrade to HSPA+ technology during 2009-2011." said Lum.
The full report is currently available for purchase and information can be downloaded at
ejlwireless.com.
Labels: haspa+, industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband
BT to re-enter mobile market?
BT is considering plans to form a joint venture with T-Mobile and 3 Mobile.
Eight years ago, BT spun off its mobile arm, Cellnet, in a bid to raise capital to cut its debt. Cellnet went on to become O2 and was acquired in 2007 by Telefonica for the £18 billion.
T-Mobile and 3 already share their radio networks and have signed a number of agreements; the most significant of which was a new company they both created in December 2007 called Mobile Broadband Network limited. The trio have already worked together with T-mobile and 3 agreeing with BT to use their 21CN solution.
BT tried to launch a mobile network a few years ago, called Fusion as it partnered with Vodafone to become an MVNO. It proved to be a costly mistake with less than 50,000 customers signing over two years.
BT doesn't have much of a choice. It is possibly the only big telecommunications company in the world that doesn't have a powerful mobile arm and this is leaving it vulnerable to competitors and the acceleration of mobile broadband takeup.
Labels: BT Mobile, industry insight
Netbook sales to reach 139 million units
Shipments of mini-laptops are expected to quadruple over the next four years, luring users with the right combination of size, price, and functionality, a research firm said Monday.
Mini-laptops, also called netbooks, are expected to grow in popularity mostly because of the failure of smaller mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and smartphones to deliver sufficient functionality to satisfy computer users on the road.
"In recent years, the industry still expected the smartphones to be more than they turned out to be, and most recently, MIDs were thought to be the next big mobile devices segment, but an unclear usage model continues to confuse the market," ABI analyst Kevin Burden said in a statement. "So today, netbooks' time has come, and ABI Research expects them to enjoy very strong market growth."
Smartphones, however, did a lot to pave the way for netbooks. The devices, which began as a convergence of personal digital assistants and cellular phones, introduced consumers to what was possible in mobile communications and Web access, ABI said.
ABI isn't alone in projecting strong growth in the netbook market, joining Gartner and IDC. However, the mini-laptops, which sell for as little as £180, have also had their problems with consumers. The rate of return for the devices has been higher than standard notebooks, primarily because of a failure to meet performance expectations.
Biz360, a market intelligence firm, found that netbooks get a 40% lower rating from consumers than other laptops. The findings were based on an analysis of 20,000 online opinions culled from consumer reviews on retail sites between May 15 and Nov. 15.
While vendors often portray netbooks as offering strong performance, the systems' low-power processors are best suited for basic computing needs, such as e-mail and Web browsing.
This report contradicts the
views of AMD that we reported last week. Honestly, we believe AMD are more accurate in their predictions.
See the full range of netbook and notebook deals currently available with mobile brodband.
Labels: industry insight, laptop, mobile broadband, netbook
UK Privacy - Your Email to be stored for the government to access
In less than two months, British Internet service providers will be required to maintain records on U.K. citizens' e-mail traffic.
The Home Office has ordered providers to retain records of all e-mail sent and received in the country for at least 12 months, beginning March 15. The government said it aims to increase national security and help prevent terrorism by requiring ISPs to capture and store the information. New European Commission rules will allow public agencies to access ISP data if they make a legal request.
The plan, which could cost the country's government £25 million, has drawn fire from ISPs and privacy advocates. Aside from being an invasion of privacy, the mandate can't guarantee the records would be protected from data breaches, critics said. They also point out that such a database could actually increase risks of criminal activity by placing an extraordinary amount of personal information in one place.
The requirement applies to e-mail sent by foreigners to UK citizens, but it doesn't cover the actual content of the e-mail.
The Information Commissioner's Office, which aims to protect privacy, issued the following statement opposing the plan:
"It is likely that such a scheme would be a step too far for the British way of life. Creating huge databases containing personal information is never a risk-free option, as it is not possible to fully eliminate the danger that the data will fall into the wrong hands. It is therefore of paramount importance that proposals threatening such intrusion into our lives are fully debated."
Labels: industry insight, quick-news
3G/4G convergence a reality in the US
In the 'States, Franklin Wireless and Beceem Communications have partnered to revolutionize the mobile broadband user experience with the introduction of the world's first dual-mode 3G CDMA/4G WiMAX USB Modem, the Franklin U300.
The U300 was commercially released by Sprint on December 17th 2008 and is the first USB modem that can be used on Sprint's existing 3G CDMA network and on Clearwire's 4G WiMAX network. The U300 incorporates Beceem's high-performance Mobile WiMAX chipset alongside an EVDO-Rev A chip.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband, quick-news
Mobile broadband popularity surges in Europe
According to a recent study from IDC, mobile broadband has grown rapidly in popularity among European consumers during the past 18 months. This rapid consumer uptake has been catalyzed by four main factors:
- The upgrading of 3G networks with HSPA
- The availability of small USB connection devices
- A fall in the price of subscriptions
- A rise in consumer penetration of portable PCs
"Mobile broadband presents a big land-grab opportunity, both now and for several years to come," said John Delaney, IDC's European director of consumer mobile research. "But although the service is simple in concept, its role in the consumer services market is complex. Mobility is only one among a variety of reasons why consumers like mobile broadband. Success in the market will depend critically on a clear understanding of how mobile broadband should be positioned in the spectrum of mobile and Internet services."
Mobile broadband is a new source of revenue for mobile operators and improves the use of 3G networks; unlike other new mobile services such as TV and gaming, it relates directly to a telcos' core business. "However, it also substitutes for fixed-line broadband in some circumstances, cannibalizing existing revenues," said Delaney. "As such, it is important for operators with both fixed and mobile networks to understand what factors are driving demand for mobile broadband, what is likely to happen to those factors over the next few years, and what strategies they should adopt to take maximum advantage of the opportunity."
Further Findings:
- European operators sorely need new service revenues, and mobile broadband promises to satisfy that need by generating revenue that is new and entirely incremental to existing revenue streams
- The combination of a strongly growing addressable market with prices at fixed-broadband levels, and in increasingly flexible packages, will ensure that consumer demand for mobile broadband remains strong for some time to come
- The global recession, however, could slow down the penetration of portable PCs and therefore the addressable market for mobile broadband. It may also make consumers more reluctant to commit to a new service contract
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
More clarity over mobile broadband download speeds
The Guardian reports that consumers are to be given much more information about the connection speeds they can expect to receive when they sign up to mobile broadband services under a new code of conduct being drawn up by the UK's networks.
Sales of mobile "dongles" – devices that enable PCs and laptops to access the internet using a mobile phone network rather than a landline – have rocketed, with over a million sold last year as prices came down to as little as £10 a month.
The new code will focus on hints and tips for consumers that will help improve the performance of their mobile broadband service. But the operators are unlikely to be able to provide customers with a clear estimate of the speed they can expect to receive. That is because the performance of the mobile phone networks depends not only on exactly where the user is located but on how many other people are using the network at the same time.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
UK 4G Spectrum giveaway?
The Times reports today, that instead of selling slices of spectrum to the highest bidder, the communications minister Lord Carter is examining proposals to give away spectrum to companies in exchange for a pledge to invest nationally in super-fast broadband access.
The idea is expected to form part of his interim Digital Britain report, due for release on January 26, which will propose a range of measures to prepare the country for the future boom in internet commerce.
The new scheme is being promoted by Nesta, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. Under its "Spectrum for Speed" strategy, Jonathan Kestenbaum, Nesta's chief executive, argues that giving away licences to the value of £5 billion with strings attached would accelerate the roll-out of broadband to remote and disadvantaged parts of Britain at speeds of up to 100 megabits a second.
"The case for this type of deal is compelling," Kestenbaum said. "In unprecedented economic times, we have to think imaginatively about how we can invest in big infrastructure projects while not cutting off large swathes of communities from economic and social development." Nesta said the plan could create 600,000 new jobs over the next five years.
Carter will impose a service obligation on broadband operators and mobile firms to provide basic broadband for all, but he has hinted the government would have to play a financial role in launching high-speed networks.
Read the full article:
TV giveaway to fund high-speed internetLabels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Mobile operators must upgrade networks and business models
A new whitepaper published by communications market research firm Infonetics Research examines four mobile broadband trends that are building up to a "perfect storm" in the mobile world; trends that present as many challenges as they do opportunities for mobile operators.
The free white paper,
The Mobile Internet Transformation, says the dramatic acceleration in mobile data services, resulting in 400% to 800% year-on-year traffic increases in some geographies, is being driven by these four major trends:
- Rapid growth in high speed mobile broadband services based on HSPA, EV-DO, and WiMAX
- The proliferation of devices that consume enormous amounts of bandwidth, including mobile broadband dongles on laptops and a new generation of smartphones (most notably the iPhone)
- Web 2.0 applications, many of which have made the transition from the wired world to the mobile world (e.g., Google Maps, YouTube)
- Flat rate all-you-can-eat data plans offered by mobile operators that have accelerated consumption of and revenue for mobile data services,but that have spurred the need for solutions that help operators deploy and monetize differentiated, premium services
"With the growth of the mobile Internet, users expect an 'Internet everywhere' experience, whether using their laptops, handsets, or other mobile devices. This puts tremendous pressure on mobile operators to move orders of magnitude more traffic for an order of magnitude lower cost per bit. Our The Mobile Internet Transformation whitepaper offers some strategies to help mobile operators rise to the challenge," says Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure at Infonetics Research and lead author of the whitepaper.
Read the white paper:
The Mobile Internet TransformationLabels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Dell offer 256GB Solid State Drives
Dell is doing its part to usher in the age of the super-sized solid-state drive. For the first time, Dell laptops can be configured with the newest large-capacity SSDs from Samsung. A year ago laptop buyers were stuck with 64GB maximum if they wanted SDD.
What a difference a year makes. On Friday, Dell quadrupled this to 256GB. The Samsung SSD is now available as an option on Dell's XPS M1330 and M1730 laptop lines. Apple announced a 256GB SSD option on its MacBook Pro on 6th January.
Labels: industry insight, laptop, netbook, quick-news
Mobile Internet to grow rapidly by next year
There are more than one billion Internet users around the globe, but a new study from ReportLinker said that number could be dwarfed by the amount of mobile Web surfers in a few years.
The report, titled "Mobile Internet 2010," said there are more than 4 billion wireless subscribers globally and many of these will be using their handset as the main Internet terminal. But in order for that potential to be achieved, the report said carriers need to boost their networks, and handsets makers need to do a better job of incorporating Web services into a phone's user interface.
Carriers have poured billions into deploying their 3G networks globally, and the adoption rate is picking up. By June 2008, there are more than 235 million WCDMA 3G subscribers, representing a 6.4% mobile penetration rate. Additionally, about 100 million subscribers used the EVDO 3G network. Increasing the coverage and availability of 3G data will lead to more mobile Web users, the report said.
Even with a large 3G footprint, users won't rapidly use the mobile Web unless there is a clear design that adds value to the customer, the report said. Handsets like the T-Mobile G1 and the HTC Touch Pro are examples of UIs that utilize an Internet connection for things like widgets, and one-touch Internet icons.
The mobile Web also has the potential to be a lucrative field if it can integrate location. By utilizing GPS, cell tower triangulation, or other means to utilize the user's presence could potentially lead to innovative services, as well as targeted advertising. Web advertising giant Google created the mobile operating system Android to capitalize on this potential, and the company sees a lucrative future with the mobile Web.
"The iPhone was the first mobile device with a good Web browser, and more such devices will follow," said Google (NSDQ: GOOG)'s CEO Eric Schmidt in an interview. "Advertising will then become very personal. In a few years, mobile advertising will generate more revenue than advertising on the normal Web."
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Huawei to deliver first commercial LTE network in Oslo
Following on from the announcement that it will build an Ericsson supplied LTE network in Sweden's Stockholm, TeliaSonera has also announced that it will tap Huawei for another LTE network, this time in Norway's Oslo.
Under the agreement, Huawei provides an end-to-end LTE solution including LTE base stations, core network and OSS (Operating Support System) covering Oslo. Huawei also provides services including network design, implementation, systems integration and support.
"We are excited to help TeliaSonera to construct the world's first commercial LTE network", says Chengdong Yu, President of Huawei European region. "Huawei always focuses on addressing the challenges of operators and the needs of its customers. With our leading LTE technology, we are confident to provide TeliaSonera with winning solutions for their businesses and help them provide the fastest mobile broadband experience for their customers."
Labels: huawei, industry insight, LTE, quick-news
WiMAX Vs LTE - which will win through?
Opposing technologies are a historical feature of the technological evolution of the World, take BetaMax Vs VHS, Blu Ray Vs HD DVD or Mac Vs PC as prime examples. Unsurprisingly, technical arguments are almost never the deciding factor in such contests; it almost always comes down to cost and simplicity or adoption of open standards.
With the tremendous impact of Broadband Internet over the last decade and the overwhelming success of the mobile phone, today is all about Mobile Broadband and therefore it is not all surprising that LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), are the focus of interest and are fuelling a new breed of pundits arguing over which technology is best.
LTE and WiMAX are commonly referred as 4G (Fourth Generation) technologies. They are aimed at overcoming previous 3G (Third generation) technological and speed limitations. Within the framework of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT-Advanced umbrella), 4G is broadly defined as any mobile technology that can deliver over 100Mbps (megabits per second) throughput over an 'all IP' based infrastructure.
WiMAX and LTE are officially recognized as IMT-2000 technologies while their respective evolutions, namely WiMAX 802.16m and LTE Advanced are expected to meet the IMT-Advanced requirements and therefore officially be referred to as 4G technologies. Using 4G to describe a technology today is essentially a marketing positioning.
With more than 100 commercial contracts worldwide and the first large scale mobile WiMAX deployment with Sprint in the USA, WiMAX has already been brought to market and the success of the Sprint roll-out will have tremendous influence on further adoption worldwide.
From a technical standpoint, LTE and WiMAX are very similar with IP and OFDM (Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) as core component. Beside LTE and WiMAX, WiFi as well as DSL are also using OFDM technology. The standards themselves are still in specification phase and should be completed by 2010. However, WiMAX has a slight advantage as 802.16e has been standardize for some time while LTE standards are close to completion. Tere are however some other significant differences, such as the fact that WiMAX is based on IEEE while LTE is a 3GPP development. IEEE has a proven history of being more supportive of open standards than 3GPP although a lot of efforts have been made towards open standards in 3GPP.
The main practical difference between WiMAX and LTE is the deployment strategy. WiMAX requires a new network to be built whereas LTE is an evolution of existing WCDMA/HSPA networks and therefore has the footprint advantage with close to 80% of subscribers worldwide. Both CDMA and GSM operators are therefore naturally heading towards LTE.
The other key issue is with spectrum availability. More than fifty percent of the World's population now lives in an area where a license for WiMAX is available. But LTE, on the other hand, offers more flexibility than WiMAX and all 3GPP operators already have spectrum that can be used for LTE. In both cases, the amount of spectrum available and channelisation attached will strongly influence the quality and bandwidth they will be able to offer customers.
So, even if licenses suitable for both technologies are available, a technology choice may ultimately depend on which license affords the more attractive end-user service relative to cost. In the past year, the WiMAX industry has passed a string of key milestones including product certification, the launch of services by major operators such as Sprint Nextel, commitments by key internet players such as Google, and the long awaited arrival of WiMAX notebooks and other devices.
But despite early successes, WiMAX rival HSDPA has become a runaway success in many markets worldwide, and emerging technology LTE has accelerated and gained the backing of most of the world's major mobile operators, including Vodafone and China Mobile.
Mobile WiMAX also faces challenges because it is entering its capital intensive deployment phase in the midst of the global financial crisis, which will make it harder for operators to secure funding for new deployments.
However, Mobile WiMAX still has a significant head start over its OFDMA rival LTE, which will launch commercially in 2010. The bottom line is that WiMAX will take a significant share of the converging broadband market in some regions, but will struggle in others due to competition from HSPA and LTE.
According to a recently published report by Dell'Oro Group, the worldwide mobile WiMAX infrastructure revenues nearly quadrupled in the third quarter of 2008 (the most recent quarter with available market information) over the third quarter of 2007.
"With LTE still a couple of years away, WiMAX has, in fact, become the first next generation technology with commercial service," commented Scott Siegler, Senior Analyst of Mobile Infrastructure research at Dell'Oro Group.
"Mobile WiMAX revenues were very strong in the third quarter of last year, and we anticipate revenue for the fourth quarter to set another record. However, as we look into 2009, we expect the WiMAX market to be hit rather hard by the economic downturn. Building out brand new networks from scratch requires tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars of capital. Compounding the tightening in the credit markets, the increasing cost of capital and the decrease in demand for broadband data as consumer spending weakens, we anticipate many network buildouts will be put on hold or delayed into 2010. With initial LTE rollouts coming in the 2010 to 2011 timeframe, these delays will shorten the time to market advantage WiMAX currently has over LTE," Siegler continued.
The report also shows that the top four Mobile WiMAX vendors in the quarter - Samsung, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent and Alvarion – represented nearly 90 percent of the total market.
Meanwhile in the UK, Ofcom will auction 2010-2025 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz bands on a technology and service neutral basis. In total, 205 MHz will be available when Ofcom open up this spectrum next year. It was originally scheduled for this summer, but was delayed. Current WiMAX operations in the UK use the less ideal (and less mobile) 3.5GHz band.
It will be the UK's single-largest release of radio spectrum to date, suitable for a range of new services such as mobile broadband and advanced wireless services delivered using WiMAX and 3G technology.
The incumbent telco, British Telecom, has no mobile arm, which makes it likely to bid for a license. If it does and it wins, BT is likely to adopt WiMAX rather than LTE to take advantage of the headstart WiMAX would provide, say some observers. Five mobile operators are potentially bidding to hoard WiMax spectrum (at 2.6 GHz).
Ofcom has allocated a certain amount of licensed spectrum for time division duplex (TDD), or unpaired spectrum, and a certain amount FDD, or paired spectrum. Analysts and WiMax players expect the UK's mobile operators to buy up the TDD spectrum to keep out new Mobile WiMax competitors.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, WiMax
USA: Parks Associates forecasts mass-market mobile broadband
A new report from international research firm Parks Associates finds mobile broadband is transitioning into a mainstream service that could withstand the current economic downturn. Nearly 60 million smartphone units will be sold in 2013, which will increase consumer reliance on mobile broadband connectivity, according to Mobile Broadband: Beyond the Cell Phone. This adoption level will enable carriers and manufacturers to establish new revenue streams and create a stickier customer base.
"Smartphones will be the most popular mobile broadband access devices," said Anton Denissov, research analyst, Parks Associates. "Consumers will grow more comfortable with mobile broadband, and the service will become part of their daily lives, as they will be able to surf the Web, play games, share pictures, and connect via social networks from anywhere. This tight integration makes the service a utility that remains popular even during economic downturns."
Consumer comfort with mobile connectivity will create demand for the same functionality in non-phone devices. Parks Associates estimates that in 2013, U.S. consumers will purchase over five million connected cameras, over one million 3G-enabled MIDs (portable media players), and over two million 3G-enabled netbooks (mini-PCs).
"Embedding mobile broadband connectivity into non-phone devices creates new revenue opportunities for carriers, CE manufacturers, media companies, and advertisers," Denissov said. "To penetrate the mainstream consumer market, however, these companies must work in tandem to create services and devices that are affordable, entertaining, and simple to use."
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Vodafone and Orange to share mobile broadband running costs
The Guardian reports that mobile operators Vodafone UK and Orange UK are considering an agreement that would see the two companies share technology, engineering and maintenance costs.
The two cellcos already share costs at some base stations in the country, but the new agreement is expected to integrate both operator's 3G networks. Vodafone's chief executive, Vittorio Collao, has stated that the operator is looking to cut costs by GBP1 billion (USD1.46 billion) by 2011.
The deal follows a similar arrangement between rival mobile broadband providers T-Mobile UK and 3 UK, which in January 2008 formed Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL), a 50/50 joint venture aimed at integrating the company's respective 3G networks.
Labels: industry insight, Orange, quick-news, Vodafone
Laptop sales outstrip desktops for the first time
Global notebook shipments exceeded desktops on a quarterly basis for the first time ever, with Netbooks playing a decisive role, iSuppli said on Tuesday.
Acer's Netbook shipments appear to have been a deciding factor that catapulted notebook shipments over desktops. Notebook PC shipments rose almost 40 percent in the third quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007, hitting 38.6 million units, said iSuppli, a market research firm based in El Segundo, Calif.
"The big news from iSuppli's market share data for the third quarter was undoubtedly the performance of Taiwan's Acer," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms at iSuppli, in a statement. "Acer shipped almost 3 million more notebooks in the third quarter than it did in the preceding quarter, with the majority of those 3 million being the company's Netbook products," Wilkins said.
Desktop PC shipments fell by 1.3 percent in the third quarter over the previous year to 38.5 million units. Global PC unit shipments rose 15.4 percent over the third quarter of 2007, with 79 million units shipped. Overall third-quarter PC shipments exceeded iSuppli's expectations of 12 percent year-over-year growth for the third quarter, the market researcher said.
Hewlett-Packard remained the No.1 PC supplier in the third quarter, with shipments of 14.9 million units, and a market share of 18.8 percent. Dell held onto second place with shipments of just under 11 million units, translating into a market share of 13.9 percent. Acer was No.3 with a market share of 12.2 percent, as shipments hit 9.7 million during the quarter. Lenovo and Toshiba were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.
iSuppli is revising its 2008 forecast upward. "In view of the better-than-expected third-quarter PC shipments, iSuppli has slightly increased its full year 2008 unit growth forecast from 12.5 percent to 13.0 percent," the firm said, adding that its revised 2009 outlook calls for PC unit growth of 4.3 percent.
Labels: industry insight, laptop
The 100Mbps chip is here
NTT DOCOMO announced that it has successfully developed a trial large-scale-integration (LSI) chip that consumes less than 0.04 W of power yet supports multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signal detection and decoding for downlink transmissions at 100 Mbps.
This is the speed required for the forthcoming mobile system known as Long Term Evolution (LTE), approved by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Compared with chips currently used in handsets compatible with DOCOMO's High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) service, which have a maximum downlink rate of 7.2 Mbps, the new chip will enable downlinks that are more than 10 times as fast.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband, quick-news
Beware the £10 music track download
Cellular-news
reports today:
Consumers may be facing data charges of up to £10 to download a single song, according to new research from mBlox on European data pricing. The research conducted in five countries illustrates that data pricing varies so considerably between operators that it is virtually impossible for consumers to understand the charges that apply.
Although some operators may charge as little as 75p to download a track, the small print outlining 'fair usage' within the Terms and Conditions effectively means that operators could charge much higher costs.
£10 - The most expensive cost to download an average music track of 2 MB on a Pay As You Go (PAYG) tariff in the UKOn a Pay As You Go tariff, it can cost as much as £5 per MB of data in the UK, or €5 in FranceGermany is an exception, with several major service providers offering data trafficking at a reasonable €0.24 per MBIn France, access to a single megabyte of content can result in charges of anywhere between 1 and €5Downloading a short video, a few minutes long at 3 - 4MB will cost between £1 on the cheapest tariff and £9 - £20 on the most expensive tariffs in the UK"2009 could be a pivotal year for rich mobile content, but for this to happen, consumers need a transparent pricing mechanism to purchase rich content. Content providers need to be sure that their consumers are treated fairly," said Andrew Bud, executive chairman, mBlox. "Ultimately we believe the price consumers see should be the price they pay. The current system of data pricing is severely restricting the growth of the mobile content market as consumers fear facing frightening bills."
Use our easy
broadband usage calculator to estimate your data allowance requirement before purchasing your mobile broadband deal.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, PAYG
Hunt for space in the spectrum!
PA Consulting Group says that it has recently been awarded a contract by the UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom to predict spectrum availability across the UK over the next 15 to 20 years.
In this nine month study, PA will design and build a model capable of evaluating a number of future scenarios, between now and 2025, for spectrum demand. The future scenarios will assess spectrum demand based on growth of cellular technologies and demand for High Definition TV. It will also look at the ability of current voice, data and broadcast networks to respond to that demand which could include changes in technology, such as growth of femtocell and other technologies.
PA is to set up a panel of industry experts from the mobile, broadcast and fixed wireless access communities who will validate the findings of the study, which are due for submission to Ofcom in February 2009.
Let's hope they can find room for 4G!
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Embedded mobile broadband over-hyped but will grow
The near-term importance of new embedded-3G and embedded-WiMAX notebooks has been significantly over-estimated, according to a new research report published by Disruptive Analysis. Even in three year's time, laptops with built-in wireless access will only be used by 30% of total, active mobile broadband subscribers globally. External USB modems (or "dongles") will account for 58% - almost twice as many.
However, the report, "Mobile Broadband Computing: Device Market Forecasts & Business Model Scenarios" predicts that in the long term, embedded mobile broadband will indeed overtake separate modems, in terms of both shipments and the active user base. By 2014, there will be 150m users of notebooks and the smaller "netbooks" with embedded mobile broadband worldwide. In terms of device shipments, 100m wireless-enabled laptops will be sold annually by then although not all of them will actually be activated.
The study identifies numerous reasons for the slower-than-anticpated growth of embedded WWAN (wireless wide area networking). Key reasons include: the global recession impacting notebook purchases, unfavourable pricing differentials; the limitations of the sales and support channels for mobile-enabled notebooks; and the typical two-year monthly contract payment model, which does not fit with much of the target market for these devices. This makes comparisons with the rapid rate of adoption of WiFi in laptops appear over-simplistic.
Interestingly, the report also predicts that 2009 will be a much more difficult year for mobile broadband, compared with the huge growth experienced in 2008. The recession and non-availability of credit will drive a softening of demand for laptops generally, as well as a focus on value. For most people, built-in 3G or WiMAX is a "nice to have", not a "must have".
Despite upgrades to higher peak speeds for HSPA, the total capacity is still limited by a range of network bottlenecks - referred to as the "Capacity Crunch".
One outcome will be a shift to new business models for mobile broadband. As well as revised prices and bandwidth caps, Disruptive Analysis expects to see new payment mechanisms emerge. Prepay ("pay as you go") accounts are already popular in some markets and this will increase. In addition, new session-based, sponsored or "free" mobile broadband models will start to mirror the WiFi hotspot business especially where network congestion can be lowered by the use of new femtocell access points. Conventional, long-term, monthly contracts will account for only 40% of worldwide mobile broadband subscribers by the end of 2011.
The report, "Mobile Broadband Computing: Device Market Forecasts & Business Model Scenarios" is available to buy from Disruptive Analysis. It includes detailed analysis of new product sales (3G laptops, netbooks, dongles, MIDs), installed base and mobile broadband service uptake by device type, network technology and business/payment model. Details are available at
disruptive-analysis.com.
Labels: industry insight, laptop, LTE, mobile broadband
US to get LTE in 2009
USA's Verizon Wireless is taking a stand - in the race to deploy 4G LTE mobile broadband service, they don't want to come in second to AT&T or Japan's NTT DoCoMo, the latter of which said it would offer such a network commercially in 2010. According to executive vice president and chief technology officer of Verizon Communications, Dick Lynch, they plan to begin rolling the enhanced network capabilities out by about this time next year, ahead of the original 2010 timetable.
The original plan called for initial rollouts in 2010, with a wide commercial launch in 2011 and true mass availability coming shortly after. But according to an IDC analyst, Verizon’s new, more aggressive deployment schedule was likely inspired by the threat of launching after another company. Verizon wants to be first!
After introducing LTE, Verizon plans to offer subscribers small in-home base stations known as femtocells, which will extend the signal indoors - likely including built-in Wi-Fi, which will allow newer personal electronics such as cameras to automatically exchange information over the air.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband
Boost to mobile broadband backhaul network
BT Group has selected network equipment maker Tellabs Inc as its partner to support its ethernet-based mobile backhaul service.
As part of the five-year deal, Tellabs will support BT as its customers migrate from traditional leased lines to the higher-capacity, 21 century ethernet-based base station connectivity which will enable customers to manage data traffic growth, BT said.
The announcement is likely to be seen as a boost for Tellabs after the firm warned in October its fourth-quarter revenue would fall far short of Wall Street estimates, although no financial details regarding the deal were revealed.
The agreement comes as mobile operators push mobile broadband services as a new stream of revenues which results in growing backhaul requirements. Four of the five UK mobile operators use BT's 21 century service for their backhaul requirements.
Backhaul network capacity is key to the anticipated growth of mobile broadband - it is one of the primary reasons for the current data limits imposed by the providers.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
21Mbps mobile broadband a reality
Ericsson and Telstra have achieved an industry first in Australia: the successful activation of HSPA Evolution functionality capable of peak network speeds up to 21 Mbps into the Telstra Next G(TM)commercial network and the world's first data call on the newly-enabled network. For the first time, a commercial network makes use of the enhanced, standardized improvements called HSPA Evolution.
This enhancement adds a new dimension to broadband experience withthe capability for significantly faster internet browsing and file download, even faster than many fixed broadband connections. With HSPA Evolution, operators will increase the capacity in the networks and reduce the costs to deliver Mobile Broadband services.
This improvement is the first step of HSPA Evolution, also known as HSPA+. The improvement is provided by enhancements standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), bringing the maximum possible downlink speed for HSPA to 21Mbps, much higher than the current maximum of 14Mbps. The step to 21Mbps is obtained by using a higher-order modulation, called 64QAM that makes it possible for HSPA systems to send data bits with a higher rate. Future steps in the HSPA Evolution path include technologies like Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technologies and multi-carrier transmission. By combining these improvements, downlink speeds over 80Mbps and uplink speeds over 20Mbps will be possible. 21Mbps is the peak network downlink speed. Actual customer download speeds can be less and will vary due to congestion, distance from the cell, local conditions, hardware, software and other factors.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband
Even more competitive mobile broadband pricing in 2009
UK ISPs will tomorrow implement a voluntary Code of Practice designed to stop them misleading customers over broadband speeds and improve customer service. They will act the day after telecoms watchdog Ofcom published still-to-be-defined proposals for enforcing consumer protection policies that punish mis-selling and help customers switch broadband providers. More than 40 ISPs including Be, BT, Demon, Pipex, Plusnet, Sky, Tiscali and Virgin Media, have agreed to provide more accurate estimates about achievable data speeds in their promotional material, following widespread complaints about slower-than-advertised bandwidth in the past.
Ofcom's draft annual plan for 2009/10 will also examine the mobile broadband market, with a view to deregulating controls in the hope that competition amongst mobile operators will bring per-megabyte prices down further. The European Commission is already piling considerable pressure onto mobile network operators to reduce prices, which - combined with an expansion in the number of mobile virtual network operators - means the mobile broadband market is closer to reaching the level of competitiveness that Ofcom requires if it is to deregulate.
"If [mobile broadband] price points get to the stage where mobile operators are no longer perceived as an oligopoly acting in a cartel fashion, providers could be allowed to set their own prices more freely and competition would settle the rest in much the same way as it has in the fixed telecom world," said Scott Morrisson, research vice president at analyst Gartner.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Nokia unveils the 3G Nokia N97
Nokia unveiled the Nokia N97, the world's most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5" touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an 'always open' window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia's flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology - including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds - for people to create a personal Internet and share their 'social location'.
The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of 'social location'. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their 'status' and share their 'social location' as well as related pictures or videos.
The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.
The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.
Labels: industry insight, mobile phones, quick-news
Laptop-inclusive deals only for the credit-worthy
Mobile broadband has seen exponential growth in 2008, yet in the face of the credit crunch mobile providers and retailers are turning away 50% of their business due to very stringent credit checks. During October and November UK based broadband comparison site Broadband Expert has witnessed that on average half of the sales sent to retailers offering a mobile broadband and free laptop deal were rejected after running a credit check.
Broadband Expert Commercial Director Rob Webber believes certain retailers and mobile providers are being overly cautious, "companies are spending huge amounts on advertising campaigns promoting these offers yet when the consumer comes to sign up, there is a strong chance they will be refused based on a credit check".
Webber sees a certain irony in the high rejection rates of these contracts since the offer of spreading the cost of a laptop over an extended period is "particularly popular with students and those on lower incomes who cannot afford the upfront costs of a new laptop, yet these are the people most likely to be excluded from these offers."
Most mobile broadband and laptop deals have contract periods of between 18 and 24 months with a typical monthly cost of £25 to £40. Since these contracts carry no upfront charge for with the laptop or the dongle, there is a significant level of risk for the retailer. Webber believes the "stringency of credit checks is an interesting barometer of the confidence retailers have in consumers meeting repayments with many only unwilling to extend these deals to those without a very good credit rating".
Labels: industry insight, laptop, mobile broadband
Mobile Broadband data allowances double in 12 months
Mobile Broadband user allowances have doubled over the last 12 month period, to reach an average of 3.9GB, up from 1.8GB a year ago.
A new report published by
Tariff Consultancy Ltd called Mobile Broadband Pricing 2009 highlights the growing importance of Mobile Broadband services in Europe.
Mobile Broadband Pricing 2009 – an analysis of current Mobile Broadband* pricing in 33 countries across Eastern and Western Europe - details the continued overall decline in price levels over the past year together with the spread of larger user allowance packages with flat rate pricing that is transforming the growth prospects for a number of mobile operators.
The main findings from the report include:
- Mobile Broadband flat rate bundles are now the norm across Europe and are the most common form of price package
- The average flat rate package bundle provided has doubled over the last 12 months to almost 4GB (based on the analysis of 100 mobile operators)
- The most common monthly user allowance price point on offer across Europe is now 5GB and 10GB, closely followed by 1GB and 500MB allowances
- There are at least 20 mobile operators across all countries which are now offering an 'unlimited' user allowance for their Mobile Broadband service
- Pricing in 2008 has fallen by an average of 4% across all countries when compared with the previous year – even though average user allowances have more than doubled
- 80 per cent of Mobile Broadband operators in Europe charge a Per MB out of monthly allowance – for national traffic - with charges ranging up to 3.27 euro per MB although typical rates are between 10 and 20 euro cents.
- Average Mobile Broadband prices have fallen by as much as 53%, 43% and 35% in Latvia, Austria and the UK respectively over the past year.
- In Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Spain average Mobile Broadband prices are now significantly lower than the most popular fixed line DSL Broadband service, which is driving customers to the mobile Broadband offer.
- New offerings include: Prepaid; Per day, Per week, monthly with an 'off-peak' or time-limited tariff.
Commenting on the research findings, Tariff Consultancy Ltd Managing Director Margrit Sessions said, "Although Mobile Broadband pricing has continued to decline overall, the most striking feature has been the continued increase in monthly user allowances which have more than doubled in the course of a year."
With more mobile operators deploying HSDPA networks – capable of supporting downloads of up to 7.2MB – the increase in flat rate packages is likely to continue.
"Mobile operators have to ensure that they provision the network capacity to meet the demand that flat rate pricing will create and also safeguard against over-selling their service," continued Margrit Sessions.
Although subscriber number growth is driven by larger flat rate Mobile Broadband packages, it is clear that mobile operators will face a number of challenges if they are to translate user growth to profitability.
"The key to long-term success is for the Mobile Broadband operator to develop a segmented approach to its offer with the emphasis on improving its network coverage (for example by offering a Wi-Fi bundle as well) together with a more transparent pricing scheme," concludes Margrit Sessions.
*(defined as being download access speeds in excess of 384KB)
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Orange is number one for mobile broadband
Orange has achieved the number one position in customer experience in the mobile broadband market according to an in-depth report commissioned by independent research and consulting organisation, YouGov.
The report highlights that Orange has bolstered its customer satisfaction ratings, winning customers over with its outstanding network performance. Specific emphasis is placed on Orange network reliability at any point during the day or night, its network coverage reach, and its ability to deliver a continuous mobile broadband connection. After the announcement laid out by Tom Alexander, Orange is also identified as being the most improved network operator currently in the market.
"Being awarded the best mobile broadband network by our customers across the UK is a real honour. We have taken significant measures to improve the quality of our network for both voice and data, and are so glad that our customers are really starting to see the benefit," commented Paul Tollet, vice president, Orange Business. "Orange is not only committed to improving our overall network coverage but we also go that extra bit further and develop the right tariffs, services and devices so everyone can get the benefit of mobile broadband wherever they are, whenever they want and at the right price."
The research captured responses from nearly 3,150 fixed and mobile broadband users who were asked questions on how they currently access the internet, the quality of service provided by their ISP or mobile broadband operator, and what they consider to be valuable. The report also highlighted that reliability and good coverage were highly correlated with quality.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, Orange
Mobile broadband 4G - the death of copper?
An
article at Times Online today debates the future of copper broadband in the UK in the face of the potential speeds of both 3G and 4G mobile broadband. This is something we at
mobilebroadbandinfo.co.uk have
debated for some time.
It is the digital equivalent of a power blackout and the prospect is already worrying ministers and government planners - at some point in the next decade, the copper telephone network will run out of capacity.
Confronting the problem is expected to lie at the heart of Lord Carter of Barnes's Digital Britain review of communications policy, due early next year, with efforts to solve it focused on an unlikely source: mobile phones.
The Communications Minister is yet to reveal his plans, but he has been dropping heavy hints, writing in The Times this month that he wants to help to develop "mobile and wireless services that can do for broadband and video what they have done for the spoken word"e;.
His goal is to kick-start an auction of "fourth-generation" mobile technology, using a block of spectrum previously set aside for digital television. The 4G technology, known in the industry as LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, can deliver download speeds of ten megabits or more - five times quicker than a standard fixed broadband connection - in fact tests have achieved speeds of 160Mbps.
BT has promised to upgrade up to 40per cent of homes to fibre optic technology - where data is transmitted down filaments of glass at the speed of light - but the rest of the UK will be stuck on copper.
BT will use a new standard, ADSL2+, which promises speeds of "up to 24 megabits" - in theory ten times faster than the two-megabit standard of today. However, theory does not always match up to practice and other internet providers that use BT's network may not want to join it in investing to match its speed.
The 2.6 GHz spectrum can be used for fourth-generation LTE services, but the relatively high frequency means that it requires more base stations, raising the cost of deploying a national network to £2billion, and coverage indoors is poor.
This weakness makes the separate television spectrum much more interesting. A chunk between 790 and 862 megahertz - "the sweetspot in the sweetspot" available from 2012 - has been identified by Ofcom. It would cost far less to deploy, provide better coverage indoors and, it is believed, give fourth-generation phones ten megabit-plus speeds.
If the mobile broadband plan works, rapid internet development will continue into the next decade, fuelled by competing technologies. And, at last, it may be possible to watch Mamma Mia! on your mobile while sitting in a café.
Read the full article
here.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband, network coverage
80Mbps for existing mobile broadband infrastructure?
Ericsson, the handset and telecoms kit manufacturer, has predicted that next-generation Mobile Broadband networks using Long-Term Evolution (LTE / 4G) technology should be ready for prime time in the UK by late 2010.
Ericsson's UK chief technology officer, John Cunliffe, told ZDNet UK. "Networks will be ready for rolling out — shipping in commercial quantities — next year and then the devices, we think, will start to come in 2010," he added.
However many mobile operators are still trying to squeeze as much out of existing HSPA (3G) technology as possible, which in its present form can reach up to 14.4Mbps. By comparison LTE's "tested" maximum is 154Mbps (78Mbps average), though Cunliffe warns that newer enhanced forms of HSPA could get potentially compete with LTE:
"The fastest being deployed in the UK at the moment is 7.2Mbps but our roadmap continues until 42Mbps. We can even see that it may be possible for the technology to reach as much as
80Mbps… so there is certainly a lot of mileage in HSPA. People maybe think that we've got to have LTE to get to the higher speeds, but HSPA will go a long way before we need to get to LTE speeds," said Cunliffe.
This certainly begs the question, why should mobile operators bother with LTE and or mobile WiMAX when their existing HSPA infrastructure has the potential to compete with next-gen technology.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, quick-news
Mobile broadband users reaches 7.3m in UK
Recent research shows that mobile broadband users have grown to 7.3 million in the UK, an increase of twenty five per cent, but at the same time fixed line broadband has increased by just three per cent.
Fixed line broadband users are already in excess of thirty five million and although there has been a only a small increase in users, fixed line is still the preferred way of connecting to the internet for most UK users.
The largest group of people likely to be using mobile broadband are in the fifteen to twenty five age group. They make up about twenty five per cent of all mobile broadband users.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Over 100 million mobile broadband subscriptions added in 12 months
3G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the GSM family of technologies including LTE, today reports that 3G UMTS/HSPA
mobile broadband technology continues its momentum throughout the world, adding
more than 100 million subscriptions in the twelve months ending in the third quarter 2008 -- achieving a significant milestone in subscriber additions.
At the end of third quarter 2008, global GSM/HSPA wireless subscriptions were nearly 3.4 billion adding 688 million new subscriptions for the GSM family of technologies in one year and capturing an 88.5% share of market, according to industry research firm, Informa Telecoms & Media.
In the Western Hemisphere, the number of
mobile broadband subscriptions continued to grow at an explosive rate, having reached 499 million subscriptions at the end of the third quarter and then passing the half a billion milestone in October. CDMA technologies registered 463 million total subscriptions worldwide as of third quarter 2008, according to the CDMA Development Group. In comparison, there are more GSM/HSPA connections in the Americas region than CDMA narrowband connections worldwide.
The GSM family of technologies represents 69% share of market in North, Central and South America, and registered annual growth of 115 million subscriptions at the end of September 2008, an annual growth rate of 30%. Informa forecasts more than 628 million GSM/HSPA subscriptions in the Americas region by the end of 2010.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Mobile broadband in everything!
The
GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, and
Huawei, a leading provider of next-generation end-to-end telecommunications solutions, have joined forces to help the mobile industry realise the huge potential market for consumer and industrial goods that can connect to 3G mobile networks. Huawei has joined the GSMA's Embedded Mobile initiative, which will initially focus on bringing the benefits of continuous mobile connectivity to the consumer electronics, clean energy, healthcare, transport and utilities sectors.
Devices with embedded mobile connections can automatically exchange images, information and other data with mobile phones, computers or the Internet, enabling people, businesses and society as a whole to function more efficiently and effectively. The Embedded Mobile initiative is being led by KTF, Rogers Wireless, Smart, Softbank, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telstra and Vodafone. The GSMA will bring other operators, equipment suppliers and manufacturers of consumer and industrial goods into the Embedded Mobile initiative.
"Our ultimate goal is that every machine, device, object will have broadband mobile connectivity. Everything around us will be using mobile networks to exchange information with each other and with the Internet," said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. "There are many possible applications: Connected cameras could automatically upload photos to Web sites, cars could regularly send detailed performance information to mechanics, while sensors could transmit emissions data direct to computer systems monitoring the environment."
The Embedded Mobile initiative aims to foster collaboration among consumer electronics and industrial product manufacturers to spur adoption, while developing common technical standards and platforms. The initiative endeavours to aid equipment suppliers to achieve greater economies of scale in order to bring down the prices of 3G modules that can be embedded in cars, cameras, health monitoring devices, environmental sensors, energy meters and many other machines. This work will complement and expand the existing market for embedding mobile connections into machines.
One of the first priorities will be to develop a common application programming interface (API) that consumer goods manufacturers will be able to use to make their products compatible with many different 3G mobile networks.
"We are very glad to work with the GSMA to develop the new commercial applications for mobile broadband. Based on our great success with mobile broadband terminals, we have no doubt that this collaboration will drive further development of the industry," said Edward Chen, CEO of Huawei Communication Technologies. "Huawei has shipped more than 20 million sets of mobile broadband terminals and will continue to play an important role in the future products and solutions for the module market."
"With a broad global coverage of mobile broadband connectivity, the embedded mobile market now can reap the benefit of greater economies of scale as mobile broadband can be used anywhere in the world," said Dr. Terry Ahn, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Development at KTF. "The value of networking will increase exponentially as human and machines, machine and machines can communicate. This market presents great growth opportunities not only to the mobile industry but also to other related industries."
"Mobile penetration can and should eventually rise to several hundred per cent as everything from cars to cameras to health monitors to industrial sensors become connected to mobile networks, enabling them to automatically send images, information and other data to their owners," said Mike Short, Vice President of Research and Development at Telefonica Europe, the parent company of O2. "But realising this vision depends on the industry taking a common approach that will enable manufacturers to achieve economies of scale. This GSMA programme is an important step in that direction."
"Affordable devices that can connect faster and help deliver relevant services to subscribers have an important place in our strategy. These devices with embedded 3G mobile connectivity modules will play a crucial part in pushing the conventional boundaries of our business through services that can make a difference to the lives of people," said Napoleon L. Nazareno, President and CEO, SMART.
This Fractals of Change blog post provides an interesting insight into one such application of mobile broadband - real time traffic reports in 'online cars'.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Huawei claims 'Best Mobile Broadband Device' award
Chinese vendor and handset manufacturer,
Huawei has bagged the coveted 'Best Mobile Broadband Handset/Device Award' for its E180 USB Stick at the Asia Mobile Awards function held at the ongoing Mobile Asia Congress.
The E180 comes in a compact size of 100mm thickness or rather thinness, supports complete range of HSPA/UMTS and GSM/GPRS/EDGE network technologies, allows fast uplink speed rates of up to 5.76Mbps and a downlink of up to 7.2 Mbps claims Huawei.
It also has a rotatable USB connector (upto 270 degrees) and is Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista compatible as well as with Mac operating system. It has a MicroSD card slot allowing upto 8GB memory.
"We are delighted to win an award for 'Best Mobile Broadband Handset/Device'," said Edward Chen, CEO of Huawei Communications, "It is recognition of the Huawei's commitment to provide innovative solutions to its customers in Asia and all over the world. We will continue to focus on our customers' needs to bring them cutting-edge products and to contribute to the development of the mobile telecom industry."
Labels: dongle, industry insight, quick-news
Huawei ships 20 millionth mobile broadband modem
Huawei says that it has now shipped over 20 million
mobile broadband dongles/USB modems. The growth in mobile broadband products including data card, dongles and embedded modems has far exceeded the forecast of the industry in 2006 and 2007 for two consecutive years.
Over the next three years, industry analysts expect the mobile broadband market to grow at an amazing Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 46%, with annual shipments reaching 100 million by 2011.
"Huawei has emerged as the gold standard in partnering with operators for mobile broadband devices. Its proven ability to focus on operators' needs, to provide differentiated customization, including award-winning industrial designs, and to deliver robust applications suites has been recognized by operators globally," said Edward Chen, CEO of Huawei Communication Technologies. "Huawei's robust R&D systems and processes are engineered to ensure a fast response to meet operators' terminal customization requirements. This has helped it achieve a commanding position in mobile broadband products. As the market leader, Huawei is firmly committed in its efforts to drive worldwide broadband penetration and the fast evolution of this technology."
Labels: dongle, industry insight, quick-news
Telstra Demonstrates World's Fastest Mobile Modem
Australian mobile operator, Telstra has shown off the fastest mobile broadband modem on the planet capable of reaching peak network downlink
speeds of 21Mbps.
Speaking at the company's annual Investor Day briefing, Mike Wright, Executive Director, Wireless Engineering and Operations, confirmed Telstra was on track to super charge Next G network speeds with the 21Mbps capability by the end of the year.
At the Investor Day, Telstra hosted its first public enhanced HSPA (eHSPA) data session, showcasing the enhanced network speeds and demonstrating the capabilities of the super-fast new modem. Trials of the 21Mbps mobile broadband modem will begin in December with a full commercial launch to follow early next year.
Labels: dongle, industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Fixed broadband faster than mobile broadband - for ever?
Research shows fixed broadband services are faster than
mobile broadband, and the gap is growing as the likes of BT and Virgin Media attempt fixed broadband data speeds of up to 100Mbps
Broadband comparison site Broadband Expert said fixed broadband services are now, on average, twice as fast as mobile broadband. They clocked the average fixed line broadband speed at 3.61Mbs based on over 308,584 fixed line broadband speed tests, compared to 1.57Mbs for mobile broadband based on 5,345 tests.
Fixed broadband services are now 0.66Mbs faster than they were in February 2008, when the average speed was recorded at 2.95Mbs.
By comparison mobile broadband services surveyed by the same company in April 2008 have increased in speed by just 0.1Mbs.
Broadband Expert's William Harvey said: "Broadband providers are phasing out slower services with many providers entry level packages starting at up to 8Mb and a number of providers upgrading customers on slower services free of charge."
He added: "Mobile broadband is capable of achieving speeds of up to 7.2Mbs in areas of 3G coverage. However where no 3G coverage is available mobile broadband services rely on the much slower 2G network hence the area in which you use your mobile broadband connection can have a huge impact on the speeds achievable".
Harvey expects the gap in speeds between fixed and mobile broadband to grow further, as home broadband providers invest huge sums in updating their networks.
In July, BT announced it will invest £1.5 billion to roll out fibre based broadband services capable of speeds of up to 100Mbs whilst Virgin Media is aiming to make their 50Mbs service available to nine million UK homes by the end of 2008.
We don't think this is the full story though. Recent reports have revealed the full potential of LTE or Long Term Evolution as a '4G' successor to the 3G cellular, or HSPA, infrastructures. Tests have suggested speeds of 100Mbps are possible. If that's the case, surely a nationwide rollout of a cell-based 4G network will be a far more attractive financial proposition than spending £billions on laying fibre in the ground?
Let's be honest whether you get 50Mbps, 75Mbps or 100Mbps may well be inconsequential - even when it comes to HD streaming - with the likely advances in compression technology over the next few years.
Labels: industry insight, network coverage
Linux is the way forward for fast PC startup
Irritated by 5-minute boot-up time on your PC? Despair-thee-not, hope is on the horizon!
HP, Lenovo, Asustek, and other PC makers are developing computers that can give people access to basic functions, such as e-mail and Web browsing, in less than 30 seconds.
Linux will ship on more PCs next year than Microsoft Windows, but not as the core operating system. Instead, it will be used to boot computers, particularly notebooks, faster.
That's the prediction of Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux foundation, in a blog posted Wednesday. In making his forecast, Zemlin references a recent New York Times article that chronicles how Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Asustek, and other PC makers are developing computers that can give people access to basic functions, such as e-mail and Web browsing, in less than 30 seconds.
To make that happen, PC makers are turning to Linux as the foundation of the software used for the fast boot, Zemlin said. The Times article says such instant-on technology could be mainstream over the next few months.
In establishing the momentum behind the trend, the Times article points to the growing use among large PC makers of Splashtop, a boot software developed by Silicon Valley company DeviceVM. HP's Envy laptop is available today with Splashtop-based software, and the company plans to ship an undisclosed number of machines with the technology in the coming months.
Dell plans to ship instant-on software with a pair of laptops in the near future. The software would run on a separate ARM processor, instead of the main CPU from Intel or Advanced Micro Devices. By early next year, Lenovo plans to ship a version of Splashtop on some of its consumer notebooks.
Finally, the Times said Phoenix Technologies is working on downloadable software that would start a Linux-based system early while Windows boots in the background. Phoenix is expected to make the software widely available in January under a monthly subscription fee.
"We may see a world at the end of next year where Linux ships on almost every notebook computer regardless of whether it is loaded with Windows," Zemlin said. "This in addition to the huge potential of the netbook, mobile internet device and mobile Linux market can mean huge and immediate inroads for a Linux desktop, albeit not in the form most people had predicted many years ago when the first 'year of the Linux desktop' was declared."
Labels: industry insight, laptop
1 in 10 mobile broadband customers feel they were mis-sold
New research commissioned by UK mobile operator,
O2 shows that over one in ten
mobile broadband users feel that they were mis-sold on what it offered. The main source of irritation is that consumers feel that they were deceived on the cost of the service with nearly a third complaining that the ongoing cost was higher than expected. One-fifth were also upset that they were unable to use mobile broadband where they wanted it despite being told by providers that there would be coverage. Another 13 percent were frustrated that there was no returns guarantee if the service wasn't right for them and around half wanted inclusive Wi-Fi as standard.
On the back of this, O2 has announced a total refresh of its
mobile broadband offering.
The refresh includes making it easier for customers to be certain of their ongoing spend including a price reduction on core mobile broadband tariffs, the launch of a new coverage checker and a 50-day Happiness Guarantee which allows customers, who purchased directly from O2, to return the device to O2 within 50 days of purchase with no termination fees being charged and any costs for purchasing the device being refunded.
The first of these is making it easier for customers to be certain of their spend. The biggest issue in the market at the moment is the cost of using data abroad.
To help save what could be an unexpected surprise on their bill, international roaming will not be automatically enabled for all new O2 Mobile Broadband customers. New customers will need to contact O2 Customer Service to have roaming activated so that O2 can explain the likely costs.
"Across the industry there are too many customers whose mobile broadband expectations have been set too high and have then been disappointed, which is a terrible shame given there are loads of people who are having a great time with mobile broadband," said Peter Rampling, Marketing Director, O2. "We want to continue to try to set the right expectation so all our mobile broadband customers know what sort of service they are going to get. And rather than just say it, we are underwriting this commitment with our unique 50 day happiness guarantee."
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, o2
Consumers prefer a mobile device to the PC
IBM has released new survey results which claims that over 50 percent of consumers would substitute their Internet usage on a PC for a mobile device. IBM surveyed 600 consumers in the USA, China and the UK on their preferences regarding the mobile Internet and found that communication, travel and navigation applications, as well as news and information services, are expected to increase significantly in popularity and usage over the mobile Internet.
With the world's population of mobile-phone users expected to increase from the current 50 percent to 80 percent in 2013, which translates to a staggering 5.8 billion people, the availability of IP wireless broadband and more affordable devices will change the way companies around the world operate and relate to their customers, employees and partners.
"Worldwide adoption of the mobile phone as the preferred device for accessing the Internet is just around the corner," said Dr. Sungyoul Lee, Global Consulting Leader, Electronics Industry, IBM. "With 70 percent of consumers worldwide who believe that the mobile Internet has the potential to add significant to moderate value to their day-to-day lives, the time is now for companies to develop intuitive applications and services that allow people of all ages to effortlessly access and use the Internet while on the go -- anytime, and anywhere."
By 2011, 39 percent of respondents said they expect to increase Internet use on their mobile device by at least 40 percent. The Chinese consumers polled lead the world as the fastest adopting society of the mobile web. This finding is in synch with IBM's previous hypothesis that within emerging and leading edge markets, the mobile platform will be the primary way of interacting with businesses and institutions. These countries have in many cases leapfrogged the PC era and are routinely using their mobile devices for a variety of consumer services.
71 percent of respondents acknowledged that they expect to increase their usage of communication services such as obtaining maps and directions, instant messaging, social networking, emailing and reading the news from their mobile device. Growth markets like China and India are leading this adoption at a rapid pace and are proving to be the most open towards mobile internet than the mature markets. The survey found that consumers still prefer to execute services such as banking, stock trading, shopping and general search on the PC rather than a mobile device.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
BT dips toe in mobile broadband market
BT is giving away
mobile broadband connections to customers on its business internet tariffs.
Customers who renew or take out new contracts on selected BT Business Total Broadband tariffs will be given a "free" mobile dongle and connection.
The service is based on Vodafone's 3G network and comes with a download limit of 1GB. BT customers do, however, also receive 2,000 free minutes a month on BT's Openzone network of Wi-Fi hotspots.
In total, it means businesses can receive an ADSL broadband connection, mobile broadband and Wi-Fi from £27 a month. "We're adding value to our broadband offer at a time when businesses are up against it on costs," David Hughes, BT's director of wireless broadband told PC Pro. "It allows them to stay connected all the time."
BT, as with
other mobile broadband providers, has decided to turn on website image compression by default. However, they don't give you the option of turning the compression off, unlike Vodafone's Mobile Connect. The BT software currently only works on Windows PCs, although the company claims it working on support for Mac OS X.
The mobile broadband deal is currently only open to businesses who renew or take out new deals on BT Business Total Broadband options 2 or 3. So what about the millions of business customers that BT has already signed up?
"We haven't got an upgrade package," Hughes admitted, although said the company would look into such an option. "We've started with business - we'll look at whether it's suitable for consumers after that," said Neil Laidler, director of Mobility BT Business.
Update:
BT Business Mobile Broadband, is also available as a 'standalone' option at £17.50 (+ VAT)/month.
Labels: BT Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband
3 tops mobile broadband awards
Network provider 3 has come out tops in the Broadband Expert 2008 Mobile Broadband Awards.
The comparison site asked more than 4,000 mobile broadband users about their usage and the speed of their connections from January to September.
3 Mobile scooped four of the eight awards, winning best mobile broadband value, best notebook bundle, best pay as you go and best overall mobile broadband.
William Harvey,
Broadband Expert technical director, said: "3 has led the way in reducing the cost of mobile broadband forcing other providers to bring down prices to stay competitive."
The award for fastest speed went to
Vodafone with its mobile broadband service achieving an average speed of 2.74 Mbits/sec based on 4,026 speed tests.
Vodafone scooped the best coverage award, having received the least amount of negative feedback about lack of coverage, which was the biggest customer gripe across all providers.
T-Mobile won the fairest pricing award as it is the only mobile broadband provider to have no extra fees for exceeding download limits. It also picked up the customer satisfaction award with seven in 10 people saying they were happy with the service.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
A Quarter of Broadband Homes to Be Mobile-Only by 2013
Wall Street Journal's
Market Watch reports today...
Fixed operators need to come up with strategies for dealing with a rapid and invasive expansion of
mobile broadband into their core growth area, consumer broadband, according to a new report, Mobile broadband: another substitution threat for fixed operators?, published by Analysys Mason, the premier advisers on telecoms, IT and digital media.
The report forecasts that by 2013, 47% of European broadband subscriptions will use mobile networks and nearly a quarter of broadband-equipped sites will use mobile-only. The speed of take-up of broadband via mobile USB modems has surprised many in the fixed broadband business - and, indeed, the mobile business - and the early indications are that consumers in Europe are using
mobile broadband as a substitute for fixed. DSL subscriber net additions are drying up, and headline prices for mobile broadband are frequently lower than those for DSL.
Nearly half of fixed broadband users currently have a usage profile that is no higher than the average usage on mobile broadband, making the size of the addressable market for
mobile broadband as a substitutive consumer proposition enormous.
Read the full report.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
O2 has the right idea: fixed-mobile broadband combo
Combined fixed-mobile operators would do well to follow the example of
O2 UK and bundle fixed broadband with a
mobile broadband subscription, says Analysys Mason. As discussed in a report recently published by Analysys Mason, O2 UK is using DSL as a valuable addition to mobile broadband.
"For MNOs that are present in the local loop unbundling (LLUB) market, fixed costs are high and they need to achieve scale quickly," says Matt Hatton, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason, "Combined fixed-mobile operators can build much-needed scale in their fixed businesses, which until now have been only modestly successful."
Since September 2008, O2 UK has been offering subscribers one year of free 8Mbit/s DSL when they sign up for
their standard mobile broadband service. The package costs £20 per month and has a data usage limit of 3GB per month. Most mobile broadband contracts in the UK have a data limit of 3GB per month, but competing plans cost £15 per month. In effect, O2 UK is charging £5 per month for the fixed DSL connection, plus access to The Cloud's 7500 Wi-Fi hotspots.
"Before September's announcement, O2 UK was failing to sign up mobile broadband customers as quickly as its competitors, particularly
3 UK and
Vodafone UK, and had to do something to take a share of the growing market" explains Hatton. "Unfortunately, O2 UK's 3G coverage and capacity are worse than its competitors, making it difficult to attract subscribers and support a large mobile-broadband subscriber base. Combining mobile broadband with DSL brings benefits in the form of reducing traffic load on the wide-area network."
Hatton adds, "Most MNOs - rightly - continue to be concerned that the traffic generated by the rapidly increasing numbers of mobile-broadband subscribers will make unsustainable demands on their network. MNOs should be considering ways to offload as much traffic from the wide-area network as possible. Furthermore, as we have seen with voice contracts, most bundling will encourage customer loyalty and reduce churn, albeit with a risk of cannibalising revenue."
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, o2
Tesco mulls mobile broadband offering
It's widely reported today that the UK's largest supermarket chain could be turning its attentions to the
mobile broadband market.
According to the new CEO of
Tesco Mobile, Lance Batchelor, the company is exploring options although there are no announcements to make with regards to how and when they intend to make this happen.
Tesco have already made changes to their own pre pay tariffs, making them more attractive to their customers through aggressive pricing and a simplistic way of operating.
This alone should cause the other providers to take notice, especially Virgin Mobile who are feeling the strain to remain the UK’s number one mobile virtual network operator (
MVNO).
An own brand
mobile broadband service would only help Tesco capture more of the market, especially as they are going to be able to apply the same method to this as they have with virtually every other marketplace that they enter.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, quick-news
Ambitious plans for Europe-wide mobile broadband
SiliconeRepublic reports...
A high-potential technology start-up has submitted an ambitious proposal to the European Union that will provide universal
mobile broadband and mobile TV in all 27 member states.
Solaris Mobile, which is headed by former Kingston Communications CEO Steve Maine, is currently in the process of establishing its European headquarters in Dublin where it plans to employ 50 people.
The company is investing €130m in establishing a two-way communications global network for satellite communications.
Solaris Mobile, a Eutelsat and SES Astra joint venture, was established earlier this year to develop next-generation mobile TV services via satellite. The company's services will be aimed at broadcasters, telecoms operators, the automotives industry and data communications providers.
The company has submitted an application to the European Commission in response to a call for applications for pan-European systems providing mobile satellite services.
The aim of Solaris is to create the infrastructure to enable deployment of a fully-fledged TV experience on mobile devices on an 'anytime, anywhere' basis. The key difference with this venture is to allow satellite infrastructure to complement or even compete with existing terrestrial networks for the provision of broadcasting services to mobile devices.
Read the full story here.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, network coverage
3 bags Mobile Choice award for Mobile Broadband
At the 8th annual Mobile Choice Awards
3 Mobile bagged the prize for best 'Tariff Deal of the Year'.
The tariff that brushed aside the competition was 3's
Mobile Broadband offering in a category that featured Asda's prepay deal, the O2 iPhone tariff, the Virgin Liberty Sim deal and another 3 plan, the Mix and Match.
Judges were impressed with 3's endeavours in the market place in relation to
Mobile Broadband, "3 have focused more than any other mobile operator on taking broadband out of the home and into the big, wide world. If you have a laptop or a mobile phone and you want to access the internet 3 makes it simple, and offers good value. It's innovative, the pricing is clear, and 3 is dominating the market."
Praise indeed and we can't argue with the award,
3's mobile broadband deals are great value.
The full list of Mobile Choice Consumer Awards winners for 2008 is listed below:
Phone of the Year: Nokia E71
Best Camera Phone: Samsung i8510
Tariff Deal of the Year: 3 Mobile Broadband
Best Bluetooth Headset: Jawbone Noise Assassin
Best Network: O2
Best Smartphone: Nokia E71
Best Mobile Game: Tetris Pop
Best Music Phone: Samsung F400
Best Customer Service: Virgin Mobile
Most Stylish Phone: LG Secret KF750
Best High Street Retailer: 02 Stores
Best Mobile Sat Nav: HTC Touch Cruise
Best Online Retailer: Virgin Mobile
Readers' Dream Phone: Apple iPhone
Manufacturer of the Year: Samsung Mobile
Labels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband
T-Mobile and 3 deal provides boost for BT arm
FT.com reports...
The joint venture of UK mobile operators T-Mobile and 3 has signed a deal with BT Wholesale to provide high-speed links between their base stations, giving the business arm of BT a welcome boost with a contract worth several hundred million pounds.
The five-year deal with Mobile Broadband Network highlights the need for mobile operators to shore up the speed of data transmission as mobile broadband becomes widely used by customers.
BT Wholesale signed similar five-year deals with rival operators O2 in May and Vodafone in April, leaving only Orange of the big UK mobile operators without a similar arrangement.
Emin Gurdenli, technology director at T-Mobile UK, said: "This agreement with BT will make sure backhaul [the backbone connections of the network] is not a constraint now or in the future at a time when T-Mobile is experiencing strong growth in
mobile broadband and other mobile data services."
Mobile broadband is increasing in popularity because of devices such as Apple's iPhone, as well as the planned launches of smartphones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson, and Google's G1.
Read the full article here.
Labels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband, T-Mobile
T-Mobile to shut down 5k base stations
UK mobile operator,
T-Mobile is reported to be planning a shut-down of some 5,000 of its base stations as part of its network sharing deal with Hutchison 3G UK. The UK trade magazine, Mobile Today said that both networks are removing transmitters as they begin to share resources.
It is believed that a small amount of new sites will be built as they take 3G into areas where there hadn't been coverage before.
Although masts and the 3G access networks are being combined, each company's core network and T-Mobile’s 2G network will not be shared. Both parties will retain responsibility for the delivery of services to their respective customers and use their own frequency spectrum. Nokia Siemens Networks' radio access solution will replace most of the two operators' communications stations across the UK and equipment at the remaining sites is being upgraded and reconfigured.
Mobile Broadband Network (MBNL), the network collaboration joint-venture between T-Mobile UK and Hutchison 3G UK, recently selected Nokia Siemens Networks as the technology partner for their 3G network integration.
The combination of new kit and shares infrastructure should allow a reduction the number of sites in the network by about 30 percent. Together with the lower future capital expenditure requirement, the companies have estimated that combined savings are estimated at £2 billion (US$4.1 billion) over 10 years.
In February last year,
Vodafone and
Orange agreed to to share their respective 3G Radio Access Networks (RANs), with a possibility of sharing the GSM RAN as well in the future.
Labels: industry insight, network coverage, T-Mobile
Telcos, IT companies unite to promote mobile broadband
LONDON (Reuters) - A group of 16 leading telecoms and IT companies is uniting to promote mobile broadband in a marketing initiative worth more than $1 billion over the next year under the auspices of the GSM Association.
The companies - which include
Vodafone, Microsoft and Asustek - aim to make it simpler for consumers to identify laptops that have built-in access to the Internet via high-speed, next-generation HSPA and LTE networks, by applying a mobile broadband mark.
The mark is also backed by a US$1 billion marketing budget, to be spent in the next year. The mark, which looks like a stylized cloud or bird, will be on laptops in time for the holiday shopping season.
According to research commissioned by the GSMA and Microsoft and carried out by Pyramid Research, there is demand for $50 billion worth of such notebooks this year.
"We definitely expect to see several hundred thousand in the shops by Christmas time," Mike O'Hara, the GSMA's chief marketing officer, told Reuters by telephone.
The group said the move also could pave the way to connect devices from MP3 music players to refrigerators and cars to the Internet in future.
The partners will label laptop computers that meet their standards for mobile broadband access with a new service mark that identifies laptops ready for mobile broadband connection "out of the box."
Many in the telecoms and computer industries believe that most people in the world will have their first and perhaps only experience of the Internet via a mobile device.
"While there will always be a place for WiFi connectivity, the great benefit of
mobile broadband might be that it liberates the user from the spatial tyranny of the so-called 'hotspot,'" Shiv K. Bakhshi, director of mobility research at IT research firm IDC, said in a GSMA statement released on Tuesday.
The other partners in the initiative are
3, a unit of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, Dell, ECS, Ericsson, Gemalto, Lenovo,
Orange, a unit of France Telecom SA, Qualcomm, Telefonica Europe,
T-Mobile and Toshiba.
We believe that Pay As You Go mobile broadband will be a popular Christmas gift choice this yesr -
check out the latest PAYG deals.
Labels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone
Toshiba unveils 256 GB SDD drives for 'Netbooks'
Toshiba this week said it plans to begin mass production of a 256-GB solid-state drive for mainstream notebook PCs in the fourth quarter.
The 2.5-inch, 256-GB SSD has a maximum read speed of 120 MBps and a maximum write speed of 70 MBps. The drive uses a SATA 3.0-Gbps interface. The modules for lightweight, ultraportable notebooks offer maximum read and write speeds of 80 and 50 MBps, respectively.
Computer makers are increasingly offering
notebooks with SSDs as an alternative to traditional hard-disk drives. While HDDs are far less expensive, SSDs are lighter, more reliable, and faster, according to proponents. The drives also are more rugged because they don't have any moving parts.
For computer makers, SSDs carry higher margins than HDDs. Prices for SSDs, however, have been dropping, which could position them to play a bigger role in notebooks, desktops, and data centers in the future.
SSDs are typically offered as options in the lightest, smallest notebooks. They are standard, however, in many of the new category of mini-notebooks launched this year by computers makers, including Asus, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Mini-notebooks - or 'netbooks' - are defined as sub-£350 laptops with screen sizes of 10 inches or less. They run a full operating system, typically Windows XP or Linux, but have weaker processors than mainstream notebooks and a less-than-full-size keyboard, which makes them best suited for e-mail and Web browsing.
Labels: industry insight, laptop
Apple and O2 in mobile broadband hookup?
O2 in discussions to bundle Apple laptops with fixed and mobile broadband.
Mobile Today reports that
O2 is believed to be looking to capitalise on its relationship with Apple by bringing the manufacturer's laptops to its customers.
The idea is to bundle laptops with fixed and
mobile broadband. The laptops wouldn't be free, but would be subsidised under the scheme. O2 and Apple are understood to be discussing a deal. However, a spokeswoman said there were no current plans.
Labels: industry insight, o2, quick-news
Mobile broadband out-connects Wi-Fi
Almost half of U.K. users accessing the Internet away from home or work prefer
mobile broadband networks, according to a survey by
Point Topic. Last year Wi-Fi hotspots held the lead.
Forty-seven percent of surveyed users now choose mobile networks to access the Internet, compared to 42 percent who still use Wi-Fi hotspots. A year earlier the ratio was 40 percent to 30 percent in favor of Wi-Fi, according to Point Topic.
The combination of heavy marketing and lower costs has worked in favour of
mobile broadband, according to Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic.
He sees the operator price war continuing, with lower monthly rates, and a growing market share for mobile networks as a result. "In 12 to 24 months I think we'll see a 60:40 split," said Johnson.
There is more good news for mobile operators. Only about 10 percent of surveyed users plan to switch operator in the next six months, although that may in part be explained by long contracts that often are required for subscribers.
But the low churn is not true for everyone. Vodafone and Orange have greater customer turnover than competitors.
The survey also shows that 26 percent of the mobile network users are with
O2.
Orange and
Vodafone each take about 20 percent of the market. They are followed by
T-Mobile and
3 Mobile, at 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
If Wi-Fi operators want to see their share grow they have to work on building better and more well-known brands, according to Johnson. More consolidation would also be good for the market, he said.
But in the end accessing the Internet via mobile networks or Wi-Fi hotspots might be a moot point, as the two technologies finally converge, with mobile broadband users defaulting to Wi-Fi where it's available. "Operators just want users to stay on their network," said Johnson.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, network coverage
200 Million Ultra-Mobile Devices to ship in 2013
From just 10 million units in 2008, shipments of ultra-mobile devices (UMDs - the umbrella term for ultra-mobile PCs, netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices) are expected to exceed an incredible 200 million in 2013.
According to
ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis, "The UMD market will still be small compared to the wireless handset market, but with a forecast revenue of nearly USD27 billion in 2013, it will certainly be significant."
While netbooks account for about 90% of today's UMD market, they will fall to a distant second place by 2013, while MID (Mobile Internet Device) shipments surge ahead to take nearly 68% of the market, with Ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) remaining a niche category.
To put the UMD market forecasts into perspective, the 2013 estimate of 200 million shipped devices is roughly the anticipated size of the worldwide laptop PC market.
"As this market enters its rapid growth phase and starts to evolve,” Solis continues, “we will see considerable experimentation with different distribution channels: some will sell direct from the manufacturer, some via retail outlets, and some through mobile operators who will subsidize them to encourage new data plan subscriptions."
You can access the full report
here.
Click here to view the latest laptop-inclusive mobile broadband plans.
Labels: industry insight, laptop
T-Mobile reveals new G1 Andriod smart phone
T-Mobile today announced the international launch of the world's first Android-powered mobile phone in partnership with Google. The handset will be available from next month not just in the USA, but also in Europe.
"We are proud that T-Mobile is the first operator in the world to launch an Android-powered mobile device," said Christopher Schläffer, Group Product and Innovation Officer of Deutsche Telekom. "Since 2005, Google has been an established partner in T-Mobile's groundbreaking approach to bringing the open mobile Internet to the mass market. With the T-Mobile G1 we are continuing our strong tradition of being pioneers in the world of the open Internet."
"Increasingly, connectivity does not just mean a phone call, but rather access to the world's information," said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms for Google. "Today's news signifies an important first step for the Open Handset Alliance: with Android, we've opened the mobile web not only for millions of users, but also to mobilize the developer community that understands the next most important platform in the world rests in the palm of our hand."
T-Mobile customers in the U.S. have the opportunity to pre-order the T-Mobile G1, in limited quantities, beginning today. The device will be available at select T-Mobile retail stores and online in the U.S. beginning Oct. 22, for a price of $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement. The T-Mobile G1 will also be available in the United Kingdom beginning in November, and across Europe in the first quarter of 2009. Countries include Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
Update:
T-Mobile has given its data usage cap proposed for the G1 Android phone a second thought. This was in response to widespread concern that a 1GB 'soft' limit was going to be a bit restrictive.
The company distributed a statement on Wednesday saying that it has removed the 1GB 'soft cap' that it planned to impose on the data usage of G1 owners. The carrier had planned to throttle the data connection speed to a paltry 50Kbps for those who exceeded 1GB of data usage in a month, which isn't that far-fetched for the early-adopter crowd.
Here's the full statement:
"Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.
We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers."
Find out more
here...
Labels: industry insight, T-Mobile
Orange announces Lycamobile as new MVNO
Orange today announced the introduction of Lycamobile, the sixth Mobile Virtual Network Operator (
MVNO) to run over the Orange UK network.
Lycamobile designed to target UK based ethnic markets, follows five other Wholesale successes from Orange: GlobalCell, Blyk, IDT, H3G national roaming and most recently Cable&Wireless' new FMC service. This brings the total Wholesale customer base on the Orange UK network to nearly 2.8 million.
It follows the launch of Orange's new strategy and the creation of the new business, wholesale and strategy team, led by Marc Overton, which has been set up to explore additional MVNO opportunities and other new business streams that could compliment the Orange brand.
Marc Overton, Vice President of New Business, Wholesale and Strategy at Orange UK, said: "We are delighted to confirm that Lycamobile will become an Orange MVNO partner for the launch of their new service. Orange has very ambitious plans to grow and evolve into new and exciting areas and the deal with Lycamobile, the sixth MVNO to sign up with Orange and the third this year alone, represents just that.
"In an economically challenging time, companies have realised that offering telecoms services to their customers creates additional profitable growth and increased loyalty. Partnering with MVNOs such as Lycamobile not only demonstrates our desire to become the network partner of choice for new and existing MVNOs but also extends the Orange reach to much broader segments of the marketplace."
"With the largest integrated mobile data network of all the operators, our network is certainly one of our greatest assets and will receive continued investment to maintain it as the best network in the UK."
Orange UK Mobile Network facts:
- Orange currently reaches: over 94% 3G population coverage and over 50% 3G+ population coverage.
- Orange is working towards its 3G/HSDPA network speed targets of up to 7.2Mbps in the top 30 UK cities; 2Mbps for 80% of entire UK population and will start rolling out a 14.4Mbps by the end of 2009
- Orange invests over £1million every working day to develop the network
- Orange will be installing over 450 new 2G and 3G sites over the next 12 months to ensure customers can make calls, send texts and access mobile broadband
Labels: industry insight, Orange
New World record for wireless optical transmission
Cellular-News reports today...
Italian and Japanese scientists have demonstrated a laser based wireless communications system which has achieved a record transmission of 1.28 Terabit/s (or 1280 Gigabit/s) in a free air link between two transceivers installed on the roof of the CEIIC building and on the roof of the Building A at the Italian National Research Council around 210 meters away.
Now that's fast, very fast! Read the full story
here.
Labels: industry insight, quick-news
Post Office ponders MVNO option
The Post Office is considering launching a mobile phone service after the success of its move into the residential broadband market, which has given the company more than 500,000 customers only a year after the launch.
Having just reduced its broadband prices, the Post Office also reckons that it is benefiting from the credit crunch as cash-strapped homeowners look for the best deals in the market.
Telecoms is a crucial area for the Post Office as it looks to increase revenues, and it is roughly on track to hit its target of a million broadband users by 2011, according to Martin Moran, head of telecommunications at the Post Office.
"In a funny sort of way the credit crunch is helping us," said Moran. "We have always wanted to be not the cheapest but certainly among the three cheapest in the market but still have excellent customer service."
The Post Office's broadband and home phone service has been particularly popular among lower income households, as it allows consumers to pay cash at their local branch rather than signing a direct debit. But the worsening economic climate has attracted consumers from higher socio-economic groups.
But the vast majority of the Post Office's broadband users are still new to broadband. More than 80% are using broadband for the first time, while half of those have never used the internet at all. Broadband growth has slowed after it reached about 70% of the UK, as most households with a computer are online. To help get the rest of the country online, the Post Office is considering ways to make it easier for first-time buyers to get a PC - a service could appear next year.
It is also very interested in offering a mobile phone service, using the infrastructure of one of the five existing mobile phone networks. Moran said a mobile phone service was still "in the planning" stage but something could also be rolled out next year.
Who knows, in 12 months time you could be popping to the Post Office to pick up a
mobile broadband dongle!
Labels: industry insight
Carphone Warehouse battle PC World over laptop ad
PC World has riled
Carphone Warehouse by running a provocative advert in The Sun over the weekend comparing its laptop deal with Carphone’s laptop deal.
Carphone is now readying itself for a battle with the computer retailer, and is even believed to be considering lodging a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority.
DSG, PC World's parent company, ran a direct comparison between Carphone’s mini laptop, the ‘
Webbook’ and PC World’s version, the Advent 4211. Carphone offers its free Webbook in a
mobile broadband deal with Orange, while PC World has a similar deal in place with
Vodafone.
The advert made various comparisons between the two laptops inclusing memory and operating system and the fact that PC World customers pay £20 per month, and customers signing up to the Webbook pay £25 per month. However, there are numerous aspects to consider such as the contract length and retail value of the PC when making a comparison of
laptop-inclusive mobile broadband deals such as these.
Carphone is also believed to be planning an advertising fightback in response to the PC World campaign, by trying to claim the territory as the first place consumers think of when buying a laptop or broadband deal.
Labels: Carphone Warehouse, industry insight, laptop, mobile broadband
Should I go for an embedded 3G laptop?
Everyone's excited about the
recent announcement that the new Dell Mini 9 netbook that will come with
Vodafone 3G mobile broadband built-in.
But, should you opt for a 3G-embedded notebooks at all?
In our view, the simple fact of the matter is that (for now) it makes no economic sense to include a 3G module and antenna in a PC unless it's definitely going to be used for a mobile subscription. Otherwise it's just a costly lump of extra electronics - not ideal for consumer or retailer - which would hurt the competitiveness of the PC in the marketplace.
At the top end of the market laptop, 3G might start to become a standard feature in the not too distant future, but if you're trying to sell a £200 low-end netbook with £25 worth of unused electronics inside, it won't make your gross margin look very pretty.
Add to this the fact that you can't then use your 3G SIM in another PC, then you're effectively limiting yourself to mobile broadband access on your netbook. One of the great selling points of
mobile broadband via a dongle is that you can use it on
any PC.
For us it's a no-brainer at the moment...dongle every time!
Labels: dongle, industry insight, laptop, mobile broadband, Vodafone
O2 goes underground
O2 is to become the first to enable mobile phones on the Glasgow Subway underground railway network.
O2 will also be the first mobile phone operator in the UK to utilise a multi-user distributed antenna system which enables mobile phones to work underground.
The Glasgow Subway is the world's third oldest underground railway, after the London Underground and the Istanbul Tünel.
The contract, negotiated with transmission provider
Arqiva and
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), will see
O2 services installed in five of Glasgow’s busiest Subway stations - Buchanan Street, St Enoch, Kelvinbridge, Hillhead and Partick. The installation will go 'live' in December 2008 and could potentially provide a benchmark for rollout in other underground stations such as London, in future.
Although initially limited to platforms and station concourses in the Glasgow Subway, the technology installed by Arqiva could eventually be used to provide coverage around the rest of the SPT underground network.
The service will work for both GSM and 3G phones and so will enable the use of
mobile broadband.
Gordon Maclennan, Assistant Chief Executive (Operations) of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport said it was great news: "This has been sometime in the planning but I’m delighted that we can offer this service to our passengers in time for Christmas. It’s a first for Glasgow and it opens the door for wider [mobile] coverage in the Underground in future. Accessibility and connectivity are key parts of our continuous Subway modernisation programme."
Labels: industry insight, network coverage, o2
Vodafone gain support for stance on termination rate cut proposals
Mobile news reports...
Orange and
T-Mobile stand by Vodafone's rebuttal of European Commission's proposed termination rate cuts of up to 70 per cent. Termination rates are the charges levied for using your phone abroad - also referred to as roaming charges.
3 Mobile has branded Vodafone's submission to the European Commission rejecting significant cuts to mobile termination rates as "scaremongering".
But other networks have supported Vodafone's stance and even suggested handset subsidies could disappear if termination rates are cut too low.
Vodafone said it wasn't against reducing termination rates – the fees networks charge each other to connect calls across their networks – but it disputes a call from EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding for reductions of up to 70 per cent.
The network also said the reduction envisaged by the EU would make it difficult for networks to recover their costs and could lead to the adoption of a US-style mobile market model of 'bill and keep', where customers pay to make and receive calls.
It claimed there were around 40 million mobile users in Europe who would then be prompted to cull their mobile usage. According to the bill and keep model, users spend an average of €15 per month, but according to
Vodafone, these 40 million European users currently spend less than €10 per month.
Alternatively, networks would have to raise their retail charges to recover costs.
"We are not against prices coming down, but if the EC brings these cuts in the time frame they are suggesting, operators will have to recoup these costs somehow," a Vodafone spokesman said.
Read the full story
here.
Labels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone
Email on your phone from 3 Mobile
3 Mobile are looking to give everyone on a
3 tariff access to email via their handset.
These tariffs are very similar in nature as
mobile broadband, but without the broadband. The first tariff includes a 10MB data limit with unlimited access to POP3 and IMAP, while the other more expensive tariff includes up to 1GB with unlimited access to their own Notes or Exchange servers. Priced at £2.50 for unlimited access (double up to a fiver if you want to use exchange or notes), the potential for this is great if you're the type of digital nomad that likes to keep correspondance in the domain of the hand-held.
Pushing email availability on mobile handsets will, Tech Watch believe, follow a similar pattern to the strategy that saw a huge up take of
3 Mobile'ss mobile broadband, it'll be interesting to see if this service proves as successful.
Labels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, offers
Orange launches foreign language MVNO
Orange UK has launched a new Mobile Virtual Network Operator (
MVNO), Globalcell, a service for Eastern Europeans living in the UK. The service offers customers SIM-only pre-paid service bundles with all customer interaction conducted in the customers’ native language, which includes Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, Slovak and English.
Marc Overton, VP of New Business, Wholesale & Strategy commenting on the deal said: "Partnering with exciting MVNO's such as GlobalCell not only demonstrates our desire to become the network partner of choice for new and existing MVNOs but also extends the Orange reach to much broader segments of the market."
Rochus Schreiber, Managing Director of GlobalCell said: "We are delighted to work with Orange – a partner with strong customer focus. Our goal is to make life for our subscribers easier by offering different types of services in their native language. With support from Orange we deliver a new customer experience for Eastern Europeans in the UK."
This brings the total MVNO customer base on the
Orange UK network to more than 2.5 million. These are not included in Orange UK's published subscriber figures. For reference, the combined number of mobile users (Orange UK mobile customers + Orange MVNO customers) using the Orange UK network is 18.6 million mobile at the end of August.
Labels: industry insight, Orange
Mobile broadband will change the way we shop
The growth of
mobile broadband is set to have an impact on the retail sector, according to new research from BT.
The telecommunications company said that as more people opt for mobile broadband services, retailers will need to change the way they offer their products to consumers in line with the way people are getting online.
BT's study revealed that in the last three months and estimated 45 per cent of mobile broadband users have used their
devices to hunt down goods or services online and one in three claimed this had helped make "well-informed buying decisions".
"Broadband on the move is bringing about a change in consumer behaviour," said BT Futurologist Ian Neild. "Consumers can now do the things they would normally do at home when they are out and about. The ease with which they can go online to sites like Pricerunner or TripAdvisor to inform their buying decisions puts added pressure on high-street retailers to offer the best prices and the product ranges that people want." He continued, "The days of the internet being something for the home are over. For a growing number of savvy shoppers, the online and in-store worlds have now merged,".
Read the full article
here.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, roaming
Vodafone to offer Dell Inspiron Mini 9
Vodafone has announced an exclusive agreement with laptop manufacturer Dell to range its new Inspiron Mini 9 ultra-mobile device.
The device, weighing just 1.035kg and featuring an 8.9 inch display, will be sold with built-in
mobile broadband, exclusively through Vodafone stores and online, and directly from Dell, in key European markets.
Vodafone director of PC connectivity Andrew Sangster said: "The recent acceleration in the take up of mobile broadband has demonstrated just how hungry consumers are for Internet access. Building on our long relationship with Dell, the availability of the Inspiron Mini 9 will further enhance what a customer can achieve with
mobile broadband whilst on the move. Today's announcement marks the next step in the evolution of mobile broadband services bringing mobile broadband into the hands of many more customers."
Dell Europe vice president and general manager for consumer Michael Lombardo said: "Technology has become an essential part of how people connect with one another - whether it's surfing the web, chatting with friends, keeping updated on the latest news, sharing photos or social networking. Dell is committed to providing consumers with technology that allows them to connect any place, any time with
mobile broadband."
Details of country availability and pricing will be made available in coming weeks.
Labels: industry insight, laptop, mobile broadband, offers, Vodafone
Prepaid key to mobile broadband growth?
Operators should look to prepaid offerings to maximise the mobile broadband opportunity in Q4 2008, rather than pinning their hopes on mobile broadband substituting fixed services, according to a new report by global advisory firm Ovum, titled 'Mobile broadband operator strategies in Western Europe'.
The research, which highlights the approaches available to operators in maximising the opportunity for mobile broadband, finds that
mobile broadband services are best positioned as complementary to fixed.
"Fixed broadband penetration across Western Europe is simply too high," commented Steven Hartley, senior analyst at Ovum and the report's author. "Mobile broadband can not compete with fixed on speed or capacity, particularly as high bandwidth applications such as IPTV take off."
There will be some consumer segments for which mobile broadband could be a realistic substitute for a fixed service, such as students and itinerant workers; those in short-term shared or rented accommodation; and those simply unable to access a fixed services. But, according to Hartley, the window of opportunity to target these segments is closing rapidly:
"The size of the substitution opportunity is limited and operator activity to date means these segments are becoming saturated. Therefore, the potential for a long-term fixed mobile substitution strategy in Western Europe in the future looks unlikely."
Ovum says that operators in Western Europe to date have focussed on maximising the potential of mobile broadband through contract offerings. This makes sense as a customer locked into a contract provides a stable revenue stream.
However, the pool of customers willing to commit to an average of a two year contract for
mobile broadband will naturally shrink over time. This is particularly true where mobile broadband is most likely to be used in addition to a fixed broadband service. Furthermore, as the cost of USB modems (or dongles) continues to fall a major barrier for entry is removed for the consumer. For the operator this also means no hardware subsidy to recoup, says Ovum.
As a result, Ovum is predicting that the next opportunity for mobile broadband in Western Europe will be prepaid offerings. With a prepaid approach operators can attract users who appreciate the mobility and simplicity of mobile broadband on some occasions, but are unwilling to commit to a long-term contract. As such, it is a model in which mobile broadband complements the already high fixed broadband penetration in Western Europe.
"What's more the timing for a focus on prepaid is perfect. With Christmas approaching everyone wins - those purchasing a bundle as a gift have no contract commitment, end users have a flexible mobile broadband service and operators gain new customers and revenues," concluded Hartley.
An interesting standpoint given the current widely-held view that mobile broadband has the potential to eat into fixed broadband revenue. Should we expect more rolling contracts like those currently offered by
Vodafone,
T-Mobile and
O2? Watch this space.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, o2, T-Mobile, Vodafone
Mobile broadband to drive laptop market?
The Times has published an
interesting article today describing the industry motivation for providing free laptops with 3G
Mobile Broadband contracts; it says...
Mobile phone companies have long offered free handsets to customers to encourage them to sign up for contracts, but now they have a new lure to persuade people to part with their hard-earned money – free laptop computers.
In doing so, they are threatening to spark a boom in the laptop market and to generate a return on the fortunes they invested on bidding for 3G bandwidths in 2000.
Shaun Collins, managing director of CCS Insight, a technology analysis group, believes that
mobile broadband is the best thing to happen to mobile operators since the text message, in terms of its ability to drive revenue. He said: "The most important thing is that no subscriber stops their voice and text package – it's always an addition."
"Some laptops are cheaper to buy than mobile phones, so why wouldn't operators do it? The sheer economics of it means it's a wonderful opportunity."
Mr Collins expects to see a boom in the laptop market as a result. "It beckons an explosion in laptop growth and an explosion in connectivity and that's very potent. Most of the additional growth in the laptop market is likely to be connected devices.
"How often do you change your laptop now? Probably never. But if they were free every two years? It would encourage people to think of laptops like mobiles. Laptop prices are also falling as fast as mobile prices."
Read the full article
here.
Labels: industry insight, information, laptop, mobile broadband
Mobile broadband providers must improve service to sustain growth
Approximately one in eight mobile broadband users have either replaced their fixed line ISP or chosen a
mobile broadband service in preference to a fixed ISP service, according to market research firm,
YouGov.
According to Ofcom around 13% of households have dispensed with their landlines and are accessing the internet through the mobile phone network. However, not all
mobile broadband users are satisfied with the service they receive, according to the research. More than a quarter of existing mobile broadband customers can be considered unlikely to renew their mobile broadband contracts or to continue to use mobile broadband on a pre-paid basis.
Three main groups of reasons have been identified as driving dissatisfaction, with connection speed and expense heading staying connected as the main factors.
Commenting on the results, Marek Vaygelt, head of technology and telecommunications consulting at YouGov, said: "Customers find mobile broadband easy to use and install but transmission speeds and to a lesser extent network coverage reduce the initial enjoyment of getting up and running. It is in these areas that fixed ISPs have a distinct advantage and need to concentrate their marketing effort to minimise customer loss."
He continued: "For mobile operators, the challenge is to improve network coverage to a level where customers' satisfaction levels rise and churn is reduced. The goldrush is coming to an end. Now the operators need to consolidate by improving their networks and tackling the fear and uncertainty that some potential new customers have about price".
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Mobile broadband future is fast - very fast!
In a demonstration, held in Sydney, Australia on Thursday, Ericsson has demonstrated wireless broadband technology that can transmit data at a remarkable 160Mbps.
The company is siting LTE or Long Term Evolution as a '4G' successor to the 3G cellular, or HSPA, infrastructures currently deployed by all of Australia's mobile carriers. But 160 Mbps is just the beginning. The target is for LTE to hit 1Gbps by 2013.
The company currently has proof of concept products but hopes to deliver on some of these towards the end of next year. In the demo, an engineer was able to show how fast it took to transfer files from a base station to a notebook. A 10MB email attachment downloaded almost in the blink of an eye, and 300MB of attachments was download in just over 10 seconds.
Whilst this is an Antipodean-only venture currently, it does provide a tantalising glimpse of what the future may hold in terms of
mobile broadband in the UK.
Labels: industry insight, LTE, mobile broadband
Vodafone trials super-fast mobile broadband in Reading
Vodafone will be piloting its new mobile broadband service in Reading, Berkshire.
The new service, already available in parts of London and at major airports, can achieve broadband speeds comparable to those of a fixed-line connection. According to Vodafone, the new service brings customers download speeds of up to 14 times faster and upload speeds up to 22 times faster than a standard
3G mobile broadband connection.
Alec Howard, head of PC connectivity at Vodafone UK, said: "As we invest significantly in rolling out improved speed and capacity, mobile broadband can not only help grease the wheels of industry in Reading but is also ideal for students and new home owners."
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, network coverage, Vodafone
Mobile operators must get mobile broadband strategy right
Webitpr.com report...
AdaptiveMobile, the leading security provider of mobile subscriber protection for enterprises and individuals, today recommends that mobile operators carefully consider their international
mobile broadband strategies.
This follows the European Union's threat to impose legal measures to make operators cut the amount they charge their
mobile broadband customers for roaming on overseas networks, which has made some operators consider banning all customers from downloading data through their
mobile broadband service while abroad to avoid getting involved in a high profile legal wrangle.
However, AdaptiveMobile argues that operators taking a simplistic view to blocking subscribers'
mobile broadband usage while abroad run the risk of losing the significant revenues promised by mobile broadband subscribers willing to pay for a high-quality roaming service.
Gareth Maclachlan, COO of AdaptiveMobile, comments: "Whilst operators understandably don't want to be perceived as trying to unfairly glean excess revenues from unwitting subscribers while abroad, taking a 'one size fits all' approach blocking their usage while abroad will result in them losing very significant revenues, at a time when you would expect them to be looking to maximise their 3G network investments. Even though there is the suggestion that subscribers would be able to lift the block, for a high proportion, this would be too disruptive and operators would never maximise their average revenue per user (ARPU)."
"Operators need to take better control of their network assets, so that they can offer a bespoke service to each user on a case-by-case basis. In this way, they can not only control subscribers' mobile broadband usage in the UK and abroad, but also the type of content that is being delivered over their network to the user, in terms of blocking spam and viruses, and in the case of vulnerable users, inappropriate or intimidating messages and imagery. They should also make steps to better protect roaming users from unnecessary data usage, such as application and operating system updates, which can be upto 500Mb in size and in many cases are downloaded without user knowledge."
Read the full article
here...
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, roaming
T-Mobile launches video-on-demand site
T-Mobile has launched a new video-on-demand service, like Apple TV for mobile phones.
Customers can access the Video on Demand Plus service through T-Mobile's 't-zones' portal or its Web 'n' Walk service. Video clips can be watched either on mobile or online and a 15 minute clip costs anything between 50p to £1.50 and longer clips can cost up to £5.
T-Mobile interactive and video manager Sylvia Radacovska said: "Video on Demand Plus is an innovative service which offers customers more value and flexibility to consume their video content across mobile and PC."
Labels: industry insight, information, T-Mobile
Vodafone to open 50 new stores
Vodafone has announced a multi-million pound investment plan to open 50 new stores, creating 200 new jobs in retail by spring 2009.
The new stores, which will take the numbers of stores to more than 400, will appear in high streets and shopping centres from September, starting with Bristol Cabot Circus and White City London, and Liverpool in October.
All the new stores are expected to follow Vodafone's award design, dividing the store in to zones, including self service for top ups, and a 'pharmacy for phones' where advisors will answer questions on handsets and technology - you can also expect
mobile broadband to be a prominent feature.
Vodafone will also be rolling out new scheduling tool in stores, which will calculate how many advisors are needed on a particular day, based on footfall, to help reduce customer waiting times.
Labels: industry insight, Vodafone
Ofcom reports surge in mobile broadband
Ofcom's annual review, released today, reports that every day in 2007, the average consumer spent 7 hours and 9 minutes watching TV, on the phone, using the internet or using other services. Since 2002, mobile use has doubled and PC and laptop use has grown fourfold.
Key facts:
- Communications industry revenue topped £51.2bn in 2007
- Average households spend £93.63 per month on communications services
- 87.2% have digital television
- 80% of new TV sales are high-definition sets
- 40% buy communications services in a bundled package
- 44% of adults use text messaging every day
- 36% of adults use the net every day
Source: Ofcom market reviewThe real surge, though, came in the use of
mobile broadband after a big marketing push by mobile phone companies selling mobile broadband "dongles". Between February and June this year, monthly sales rose from 69,000 to 133,000 a month.
According to Ofcom figures, two million people say they have used
mobile broadband via a dongle or similar device and three-quarters of them say they use it at home as well as on the move - further evidence that the mobile operators are beginning to compete with fixed-line businesses for broadband customers.
3 Mobile network recently put a figure of over half a million on the number of total dongles it has sold to date, accounting for around 16% of its total subscriber base.
Vodafone reported sales of 3.2 million across Europe by the end of June. While the company doesn't split out regional sales, market sources put U.K. mobile broadband sales to date at close to half a million as well.
T-Mobile has made a concerted push into mobile broadband in the past few months, and reported that its share of total dongle sales in June was around 27%, citing data provided by research firm GfK.
O2 and
Orange were not able to provide figures for the number of dongles sold or their market share.
Over 80% of
mobile broadband sales cited by Ofcom in the five months to June were on a contract basis, with typical contracts worth around £10 to £20 per month, about half the amount mobile operators get from their handset contract customers. Ofcom projects that if 3 million people in the U.K. took up
mobile broadband in the next few years, it could generate around £540 million for the mobile industry.
You can read the full (365 page) Ofcom review
here.
Labels: dongle, industry insight, information, mobile broadband
Operators urged to meet mobile broadband data demand
Total Telecom reports:
Conservative estimates suggest we'll be using 200 million mobile broadband-enabled devices by 2011. More and more devices have high-speed mobile data capabilities, and as screen sizes increase so do bandwidth demand and application requirements.
Today's networks cannot handle these trends. To meet the challenge, mobile operators must manage rapid technology change in their networks.
These changes are occurring throughout the network, from the cell site through the backhaul network all the way to the core. Given the pace and frequency of the changes required, tactical network evolution is no longer the most efficient way forward. It is time for strategic change.
The impact of new data services also raises considerable commercial challenges for operators. Although data rates are increasing twofold or fourfold annually in most networks, there has not been an accompanying rise in revenues. This combination of drivers gives rise to a "perfect storm", whereby all aspects of the network -operational, engineering and commercial - are under constant strain.
Read the full article by Ben McCahill, director of mobile strategies at Tellabs, at
totaltele.com...
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Are the dongle's days numbered?
USB stick manufacturer dismisses embedded Sim fears UK: Mobile Magazine
Dongle manufacturer
Huawei believes that USB broadband sticks will continue to outsell embedded Sim cards. The Chinese manufacturer, which produces the majority of Europe's dongles, has seen global dongle shipments surpass 10 million.
Laptop manufacturers have begun to ship a broader range of laptops with embedded Sim capabilities but the company dismissed fears that dongle technology has already reached a peak with embedded Sim cards set to overtake. A
Huawei spokeswoman said: "How long it takes the market to move away from dongles to embedded Sim cards depends on the development trend of the whole product chain and the preferences of the end users."
"Embedded Sim cars are a trend, but Huawei believes dongles still have a unique market space and market opportunities, which won't be replaced by embedded Sim cards in the short term."
Labels: dongle, industry insight, laptop, mobile broadband
3 Mobile looking to improve mobile broadband speeds to 14.4Mbps
Mobile network operator
Three has told
Techradar it expects to move to even higher mobile broadband speeds as it attempts to corner the mobile broadband market.
"We're hoping to bring our network up to 7.2mbps over the summer," confirmed a spokesperson from Three to Techradar. "Our network currently offers 3.6mbps, which in real terms is around 1mbps, and we're currently investing in our network. This means we might get 2mbps when we upgrade."
The spokesperson said the network is working on upgrading the speeds to an even faster 14.4mbps, but is unsure when this will be as
Three is now implementing the current upgrades. "[...] higher speeds mean the network becomes more sensitive. [...] What we hope to offer is greater capacity, in order to serve more users, rather than just focusing on the top speeds."
Read the full article on
techradar.com...
Labels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband
What is a MVNO?
A Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is a mobile operator that does not own its own spectrum and usually does not have its own network infrastructure. Instead, MVNO's have business arrangements with traditional mobile operators to buy minutes of use (MOU) for sale to their own customers.
There are three primary MVNO's in the UK currently: Virgin Mobile (
T-Mobile), Tesco Mobile (
O2) and BT Mobile (
Vodafone).
The MVNO market-leader
T-Mobile's new MVNO partnership with Ikea went live today. You can expect to see many more such partnerships announced over the coming months. All UK network operators are pursuing new MVNO business in order to grow their service revenues.
The UK wholesale market is estimated to be worth £1 billion at present, and to grow to twice that by 2012.
Labels: BT Mobile, industry insight, o2, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone
How many PC's do you need?
If your household is anything like mine, you'll have a main 'family' desktop PC or two at home and a laptop for use in front of the TV or on the move. However, computer makers hope they can pursuade you that that's just not enough. They would have us believe our PC estate won't be complete without a mini-notebook for surfing the Web at the coffee shop.
Manfacturers including Acer, Asus, Dell and Hewlett-Packard are creating this market with low-cost mini-notebooks. Intel®, which manufactures its Atom processors for such devices, coined the term "netbooks" to describe these cheap, ultra-mobile, internet-connected laptops.
Asus was first to market with its much-hyped, lightweight, low-cost subnotebook called the Eee PC. Despite these solid-state memory devices selling out prior to Christmas, they were lacking in some respects, specifically storage. Since then though, Asus has been quick to release more roomy versions that will satisfy all but the most demanding users.
With the success of the Eee - Asus have sold more than 2 million of them - it was only a matter of time before other manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon. HP followed with its Mini-Note in April and Acer with the Aspire One notebook a couple of months later. Dell will release its interpretation - the Dell E series - later this month.
But could the success of these diminutive devices be at the cost of sales revenue in the traditional laptop market? There's surely a risk of cannibalising the market for higher-priced, full-function notebook PCs. Well, no...
Market research firm IDC forecasts worldwide shipments of ultra-low-cost notebook PCs to jump from fewer than 500,000 units in 2007 to more than 9 million in 2012. But with low selling prices, sales will be less than $3 billion in 2012. By comparison, total laptop computer sales that year could total 282 million units, or $213 billion, IDC says.
IDC's David Daoud says "The netbook market is being driven by the PC makers. They're trying to stimulate demand among consumers for a new type of computing device."
Computer makers are targeting netbooks at young, first-time PC customers as well as experienced notebook owners. They're convinced users will be interested in an Internet device that's bigger than a smart phone but smaller than a traditional notebook computer. They say customers will appreciate a small, lightweight device that they can whip out in a coffee shop, plug in their
mobile broadband dongle and surf the Web in a matter of seconds.
I for one, get the feeling it's not going to be too long before our PC family has a new toddler for us to play with!
Labels: industry insight, laptop, mobile broadband
Mobile broadband for everyone!
Inquirer contributor, Tony Dennis has written a post on
3 Mobile's mobile broadband offering and the way it’s designed to connect the 'unconnectable'.
This Robin Hood type painting of 3 by the Inquirer is built on the brand's positioning; specifically, the ability to offer their mobile broadband service in a pay-as-you-go package that engages the previously 'disenfranchised'. This being that portion of the market that, for circumstances such as bad credit history (for whatever reason) or a free-roaming nature, aren't suited to a fixed connection or contracted solution.
This is what the Inquirer believes is partly accountable for the large and expanding mobile broadband dongle UK user base, recently reported at almost 500,000. Like Tony says, "All you need is a computer, a USB port and a decent signal from the nearest 3 mast."
You can read the full article
here.
Labels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband
Ireland leads the way in mobile broadband revolution
Does 3G technology offer a viable alternative to fixed-line broadband?
When it comes to broadband, Ireland scarcely figures on most European league tables – with one exception. According to research by the telecoms consultancy Analysys Mason, Ireland is second only to Austria in adopting mobile broadband.
That’s no mean feat for a technology launched just last year and a country that, according to the telecoms regulator ComReg, has around 800,000 fixed-line broadband connections in total. Unlike many other European countries, 3G mobile broadband is an extremely strong competitor to fixed-line services in Ireland.
There are currently more than 230,000 mobile broadband subscribers in Ireland;
3 Mobile claims 90,000 users,
Vodafone some 84,000 and
O2 some 60,000. Such is the demand that one operator says customers are signing up at the rate of over 200 a day.
Read the full story on
siliconrepublic.comLabels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband, o2, Vodafone
2.1 billion mobile broadband customers by 2015
Source: MobileBroadbandNews.com July 30, 2008
According to a report from Analysys Mason... Globally, 2.1 billion wireless broadband customers will generate USD784 billion in service revenue by 2015. This revenue increase of about 2400% will be underpinned by continued developments in wireless technologies, improvements in devices and more flexible pricing options.
HSPA will support 88% of all wireless broadband consumers at the end of 2008, and its importance will continue. "Despite the increasing availability of LTE and WiMAX, HSPA and HSPA+ will still support 54% of wireless broadband users by the end of 2015," according to Dr Mark Heath, co-author of the report.
Read the full story on
mobilebroadbandnews.comLabels: industry insight, mobile broadband
Orange home broadband subscribers fall
Orange has reported a loss of 44,000 broadband subscribers in the last six months, leaving the company with just over a million ADSL customers.
The declines follows a loss of 4,000 customers during the last three months of 2007, with Orange blaming a saturated market. The company's financial statement says; "The business environment is marked by the drop in narrowband internet and portals and, more recently, by the levelling off of the ADSL broadband customer base" the company's financial report reads.
This raises speculation that the company, as with
Carphone Warehouse, could also be begining to feel the effects of increased mobile broadband use, as well as the higher number of mobile phone users with access to unlimited data plans.
Comparison site Top 10 Broadband claimed earlier this year that if the trends towards mobile broadband uptake continued at its current rate, then the service could overtake home broadband as early as 2010. If prices continue to fall, data speeds continue to rise and incentives such as
inclusive laptops become more commonplace then, this seemingly oulandish claim may prove accurate.
Labels: Carphone Warehouse, industry insight, mobile broadband, Orange
Carphone Warehouse hints at impact of Mobile Broadband
Carphone Warehouse has revealed a slow growth in the broadband market after they halved its target for new broadband customers this year.
The group forecast in April that it would get 400,000 new customers by next March. However, they have cut this number to between 200,000 and 250,000. They have said the consumer slowdown and less people moving house are to blame.
What was interesting though was that CEO Charles Dunstone highlighted the popularity of mobile broadband 'dongles', as another factor which is putting pressure customer additions.
This is the first indication that mobile broadband is having a real impact on 'traditional' fixed-line broadband sales. Could this be a peek into the future?
Visit
www.carphonewarehouse.com for more information on the company.
Labels: Carphone Warehouse, industry insight, mobile broadband
