3G/mobile broadband industry news from the UMTS Forum
04 June 2010
According to the 15th Progress Report published by the European Commission, Portugal has the second highest penetration rate of mobile broadband use among the Member States. In January 2010, it stood at 16.1%, only slightly below the fixed broadband penetration rate of 18.6 %. The report also notes the continued growth of mobile penetration in Portugal, now standing at 146.2 per 100 inhabitants – well above the European average of 121.9 per 100 inhabitants.
Motorola has teamed with chipset provider Innofidei to enable visitors at the Shanghai World Expo to experience mobile broadband on the world's first pre-commercial TD-LTE network. Using Innofidei’s TD-LTE dongle, Motorola demonstrated a high-quality video wall with 24 simultaneous video streams, remote monitoring and high-speed Internet browsing applications running on the Motorola 2.3GHz TD-LTE network. The end-to-end TD-LTE network provides coverage in major pavilions at the expo via eNodeB, backhaul, evolved packet core (EPC), billing, home subscriber server (HSS) and LTE manager.
T-Mobile Germany has upgraded its Smart Traveller mobile data roaming offers. The four new options for smartphone users are Handy DayPass Europe for EUR4.95 per day, Handy 4-WeekPass Europe for EUR14.95 per four weeks, Handy DayPass T-Mobile USA for EUR9.95 per day and Handy DayPass Asia for EUR14.95 per day. The DayPass options include 5 MB and the 4-Weekpass option includes 10 MB of data usages. T-Mobile Germany has also launched three new data roaming packages for laptop users.
Telefónica has confirmed its support for the Meego mobile software platform jointly developed by Nokia and Intel. MeeGo combines Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo open source projects into one Linux-based software platform hosted by the Linux Foundation. MeeGo offers a common operating system environment across multiple hardware platforms in a wide range of computing devices, including netbooks, pocketable mobile computers, tablets, next-generation smartphones, Internetconnected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Telefónica intends to leverage the Meego capabilities to enable new innovative applications and converged services for its subscribers.
Elisa has launched a pre-commercial LTE network in a small area in Helsinki in cooperation with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). The Finnish operator has also been expanding its WCDMA/HSPA network in response to the dramatic growth in the use of mobile broadband. LTE technology will enable development of new services using higher data rates. The company plans to launch commercial LTE services when availability of LTE terminal devices increases.
Finland’s Sonera has announced plans to deploy its LTE network in Turku during May and June. The operator has already launched the system for pre-commercial use in the centre of Turku and by the banks of the River Aura. Cooperation with the City of Turku as part of the European Capital of Culture project will give Sonera valuable user experience of LTE services. Sonera will assess future expansion and commercial roll-out of the LTE network in Finland based on local market conditions.
US operator AT&T has unveiled two new mobile broadband data plans, with caps on wireless data usage, which will replace the current US$29.99 per month unlimited data plan. The DataPlus package includes 200 MB of data at US$15 per month, while DataPro costs US$25 per month and provides 2 GB of data. If customers exceed their monthly allowance of 200 MB or 2 GB, they will receive an additional 200 MB of data usage for US$15 or 1 GB for US$10 respectively. Each plan includes unlimited access at no additional charge to more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots in the U.S.
T-Mobile USA has begun collaboration with LG Electronics (LGE) and the partners have unveiled an upcoming portfolio of three new LG phones. The line up includes two 3G WCDMA smartphones: the LG Sentio and LG dLite, which will be available to the T-Mobile USA customers this summer. The LG Sentio and LG dLite are equipped with T-Mobile Social Buzz, an application that gives easy access to the user’s favorite social networking sites.
Qatar’s Qtel has upgraded its HSPA network to offer mobile broadband download speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps. The operator plans to further upgrade its network to HSPA+ by August 2010, boosting peak downlink speeds to 21 Mbps. Qtel has also unveiled the Qtel 21 Mbps USB modem to enable customers benefit from the faster speeds. Qtel is also preparing to begin a trial of HSPA+ Dual Carrier technology, which enables peak downlink rates of up to 42 Mbps.
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has fully integrated TD-LTE with its existing mobile platforms including base stations and core networks. With unpaired spectrum available in many countries across the world, mobile operators can make a quick transition to TD-LTE mobile broadband to meet increasing demand for mobile broadband connectivity. Based on the Single RAN solution that supports LTE in paired and unpaired spectrum on the same Flexi Multiradio Base Station, the TD-LTE solution is fully compliant with 3GPP Release 8 LTE specifications. It also supports easy maintenance and rapid evolution to future standards, such as LTE-Advanced.
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