3G/mobile broadband industry news from the UMTS Forum
23 July 2010
The ng Connect Program, co-founded by Alcatel-Lucent, has announced the expansion of the multi-industry next generation network initiative to the Asia Pacific region with the launch of a new LTE Connected Car concept at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. ng Connect Program members Alcatel-Lucent, QNX Software Systems and Samsung, in collaboration with Harman International Industries Incorporated, developed the concept vehicle, which is based on a 2010 Shanghai Volkswagen Touran platform.
China’s ZTE will begin the planned deployment of the 1800 MHz/2600 MHz dual-band LTE network for Hong Kong’s CSL, owned by Australia’s Telstra. Following the LTE network construction contract signed earlier this year, ZTE will provide CSL with a unified core network to support 2G/3G/LTE concurrently for a seamless user experience. The latest Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology supports the distributed multi-mode and multi-band base stations, including re-farming of the 1800 MHz spectrum for LTE use.
The US private equity fund Harbinger Capital Partners has awarded an eight-year US$7 billion contract to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to build its planned nationwide wholesale LTE network. NSN will roll out 40,000 base stations within five years in an effort to cover 92% of the US population by 2015, with the remaining to be reached by integrated satellite coverage. The network, to be run by a new company LightSquared, will be launched in the second half of 2011. Harbinger Capital has folded the assets of SkyTerra and Terrestar into LightSquare, which include 59 MHz of terrestrial spectrum, including 46 MHz in the L band at 1.6 GHz, 8 MHz at 1.4 GHz band and 5 MHz at the 1.6 GHz block (not in the L-band).
IPWireless and Huawei have signed a co-operation agreement in relation to the production of the Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) technology. The collaboration will include interoperability testing (IOT) and service provider trials aimed at assuring operators that they can confidently source IMB equipment from multiple vendors, while handset manufacturers will be assured that their devices will be fully compatible with all IMB networks. The IMB technology, which can be used for live video streaming, broadcasting and content storing, can significantly offload of data traffic from 3G networks.
KPN Partners with Pandigital for European M2M Solutions
Pandigital, the US leader in photo frames, has selected KPN to provide wireless connectivity for the Pandigital Photo Mail Frame in Europe. Pandigital will use the KPN M2M Corporate service, powered by Jasper Wireless. The Pandigital Photo Mail Frame is a next-generation, wirelessly-connected digital photo frame that displays photos emailed directly to its dedicated email address. The partnership with KPN enables Pandigital to expand across the Dutch operator’s Euroepan footprint.
Alcatel-Lucent has signed a four-year Carrier Ethernet contract with Taiwan’s Far EasTone for its IP network transformation. Alcatel-Lucent’s solution will converge the operator’s current metro network and IP/MPLS-based Carrier Ethernet infrastructure into a unified network system, enabling Far EasTone to promptly introduce next-generation services. The move will enable EasTone to quickly expand mobile traffic on its 3G network and offer advanced services to businesses with improved scalability and quality of service (QoS), while laying a foundation for future introduction of LTE technology.
Three UK and China’s ZTE have unveiled, the ZTE Racer, a low-cost Android 2.1 (Éclair)-powered handset. The HSPA-enabled device is ZTE’s first Android handset in the UK and is Three’s first Android handset to retail at below GBP100. It will be available at GBP99.99. The ZTE Racer represents ZTE’s strategy to introduce affordable smartphones to the UK market in an effort to increase its share of the UK carrier handset market from 3% in 2009 to 18% in 2010. In Q2 this year, ZTE mobile devices sales in the UK passed the million unit mark for the first time.
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has acquired the majority of Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure business for US$1.2 billion in cash. The deal will strengthen NSN’s position globally, particularly in the US and Japan, across various technology platforms, including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE. It will help NSN to gain incumbent relationships with more than 50 operators and strengthen relationships with others. Motorola retains the iDEN business, and substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business.
Apple has announced that both iPad models (WiFi and WiFi/3G) will be launched in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore on 23 July. This will take the iPad availability to nine new markets, on the top of ten countries where the device is currently available (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US). The HSDPA-enabled iPad features the Multi-Touch user interface. It is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds, and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.
Orange France has scored highest in the French regulator ARCEP’s 2G and 3G network service quality survey in metropolitan areas. The operator ranked first or equal first in 49 out of 59 criteria, and achieved the highest scores in mobile data services and 3G usage, with 90% of all downloads transferred at over 1.2 Mbps and the highest transfer success rates. Its WCDMA/HSPA network provides coverage to 92% of the French population, with a target of 95% to be reached by 2010. The HSPDA 14.4 Mbps technology has been deployed in 12 largest cities, and is expected to cover half the population by the end of 2010.
Spirent, the provider of testing solutions for wireless networks, devices and services, has announced testing capability that enables companies in the LTE ecosystem to verify LTE to CDMA handover of mobile device signals using lab-based test equipment. The new functionality enables seamless mobility of LTE multi-mode devices. Testing handover between LTE, CDMA, and EV-DO, is critical to ensuring smooth transitions between those radio access technologies.
| Upcoming Events endorsed by or with the participation of the UMTS Forum | ||
|
||
For a full list please see events supported by the
UMTS Forum |
||
leave-mobilennium@list.umts-forum.org