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WiMAX Femto Standard Published – does it help?

Jun 17, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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The WiMAX Forum today announced that it has published a standard for 802.16e femtocells. There is a certification drive planned for early 2011, something which we haven’t seen on WCDMA or CDMA femtocells.



While a standard is always good for the general adoption of a technology, WiMAX femtocells haven’t really taken off. There are very few vendors who are actually spending resources building WiMAX femtocells. Few of them like LG Nortel who showcased at last years Femto World Summit in London have seen some trials in Korea and in the US. Samsung did develop a WiMAX femtocell initially but it has since been focusing on the CDMA/LTE femto market ever since. On the operator end, Comcast has been known to be testing WiMAX femtocells but nothing has come out of it. Comcast has a data-only network and so might use WiMAX femtocells for enterprise users. Sprint is the other operator who might be looking at WiMAX femtocells but might use it for voice and residential. The Sprint 4G EVO phone has seen a surprising uptake in the US. Like any other phone or technology EVO users will soon start to notice that their phone doesn’t work as well indoors, which might drive the need for femtocells.



Based on my conversations with mainstream femto chipset suppliers none of them are really going after the WiMAX femto market. The ones that are include traditional WiMAX OEMs who design and manufacture their own chipsets .



With the WiMAX future in question, especially after the recent India BWA auction where LTE seems to be the preferred long-term technology, it is unlikely that the WiMAX femto standard will really help changing fortunes for WiMAX.






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The Sprint HTC EVO 4G Smartphone - Everyday Battery Life

Jun 16, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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I've had my Sprint EVO for nearly a week and one thing that has been lurking in the back of my mind is how the EVO will do in terms of battery life. Some early reviewers have said that things are a bit thin in this regard but obviously I need to find out for myself.



First, let's set some ground rules. I am not a person who spends six hours a day streaming video over 4G. My typical daily usage includes about 20-30 minutes of phone calls, lots of checking of my Outlook email and Calendar plus sending an email or two, a bit of messaging and reading about 15 minutes of news. With all this I don't think that I am too untypical of many business users.



Under the above scenario I have found that my EVO will run all day without issue and have some left for the next day as well. I typically charge my smartphones daily so I don't often run a battery into the ground. The EVO has a pretty large battery (1500 Ma) to go along with its many features and large screen. For everyday use, I would classify the EVO as slightly better than most other smartphones I have used and certainly not worse. My negative dividing line on battery life is if I have to make a mid-day charging session. I have found it not necessary under my operating conditions with the EVO.



Now, this does not mean that I will never stream video, take HD movies or turn on 4G but that will undoubtedly come later and I will see how things fare then.
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The Sprint HTC EVO 4G Smartphone - First Impressions and A Nice Surprise

Jun 11, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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I activated the phone by calling Sprint as their on-line tool seemed a bit balky with the EVO. All in all, it only took a few minutes.



I found the EVO large, by cellphone standards, but this should not be a surprise since it has such a large screen (4.3"). For me, it's a kind of blessing as I find most cellphones a bit awkward to talk on as they are relatively small. The EVO feels more like a normal phone. It's not really heavy but let's just say that it's substantial.



Setting the EVO up was fairly intuitive and I only had to refer to the manual once or twice. I had my EVO in 3G and Internet operation was good and trouble free. I watched a few of the obligatory YouTube videos to check things out. The display is vivid, liquid-looking and a joy to watch. The EVO also has a little "kickstand" that folds out of the back to let the phone sit upright either in a vertical or horizontal position. I found this quite neat.



I tried finding a 4G signal in the Phoenix area, where I am located, but without luck. Sprint is only reportedly doing indtallations and some testing work here so a real test is not possible now locally.



I have found the features that are the last thing one has in mind are frequently the ones that impress most. The EVO 4G is no exception. One of the first things I did was to get our company exchange server operational on the EVO. This was extremely easy and very comparable to the iPad and later iPhones. What happened next was the really surprising thing.



When I opened up my company's exchange account on the EVO I found the layout of the Calendar and mail tool really outstanding. Of course, the large screen certainly helps but some real thought went into setting this up. The Calendar has a small vertical bar within each date square which shows a relative idea of the time of the event by a green dot's position within the bar. Very neat and very useful. In fact, throughout the day I found myself checking my email and Calendar on the EVO instead of my desktop unconsciously. This app is a real winner and one that I will use often.



I will post more impressions about the EVO 4G as I wind my way through its long list of features.
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The future of 4G rests in the handset, not the network

Jun 10, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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If there is one lesson to be learnt from the growth in 3G and 3.5G services, it is that widespread service adoption is contingent on the availability of attractive ‘blockbuster’, ‘must have’, handsets. This was true of 3G services, which only really gained the massive data-hungry popularity they now enjoy thanks to the remarkable success of the iPhone and its clones. What this did, was provide services and applications that gave compelling reasons for users to adopt 3G data plans. For network operators looking to sell their 4G services to the public, they must look to selling the ‘experience’, not the speed.

In that context, Mobile WiMAX’s quest to be the 4G service of choice received a fillip this week with the introduction of the HTC EVO 4G. The handset’s weekend sales will, according to estimates, range from 150,000-200,000 units; and will in the short matter of three days eclipse sales of all other WiMAX capable handsets this year.

The popularity of the handset does not stem solely from the availability of 4G data services. Clearwire’s WiMAX network does not yet cover much of the United States-yet the handset is reportedly sold out both online and in many stores countrywide. Customers are attracted to the power and usefulness of what is one of the top-end android handsets-with or without WiMAX. Its large screen and included video recording and editing make it an ideal device for portable content consumption.

The lesson is that, if WiMAX or LTE wish to gain quick market acceptance, it will be essential that the major handset manufacturers be prepared to offer compelling smart phones that include 4G. At the end of the day, consumers are interested in the user-experience, not the included technology.
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Russia's State RF Commision Might Push for LTE RAN Sharing

Jun 8, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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In Russia, Rostelecom is planning on deploying LTE in Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympic Games will be held. Launching cutting edge mobile networks in cities where Olympic Games will be held is becoming commonplace, as seen with Beijing and Vancouver. MegaFon also intends to put an LTE network up in Sochi. The State RF Commission was supposed to make a decision about the licenses on June 2, 2010, but this has been delayed since the Russian military made it known that it intends to build its own 4G network in Russia using 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum.



In addition, Russia's regulatory body seems to be pushing the idea that Rostelecom and MegaFon should implement RAN sharing because it is unreasonable to have two LTE networks in Sochi. Perhaps this has more to do with ensuring that the Russian military has enough spectrum for its own network.



Yota, which has existing coverage in Sochi (among other cities) with its WiMAX network, is currently in disupute with the Russian regulator over whether or not it is allowed to deploy LTE. It is unclear if Yota is looking to deploy TD-LTE in its existing TDD spectrum it had intended to use to expand its WiMAX network to other cities or FD-LTE in separate FDD spectrum. It is possible that the real reason behind denying Yota the right to build an LTE network has to do with the Russian military's LTE goals as well.


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Signaling Crunch? Femtos to the rescue

Jun 2, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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The femtocell chipset vendor picoChip announced today that it has been able to provide an additional capability in its PC3x3 chipset series called smartSignaling. This includes the PC313 and PC323 chipsets which supports Rx Diversity. With this functionality picoChip claims to be able support 2x-3x more users at the same power level.



With smartSignaling enabled in their Rx Diversity chipsets, through a firmware upgrade they can support up to 400 ‘always on’ devices on a femtocell.These devices mainly include smart phones, which have their push email and other notification applications on constantly resulting in a signaling deluge. ABI Research’s latest smartphone estimates show that the 2009 saw a 25% growth in smartphone penetration compared to 2008 with penetration levels in 2010 expected to reach 18% by end 2010.



I queried them on the 400 user estimate which looks to be a statistical estimate and is not a hard and fast rule. It might be higher but could also be lower, but am not sure how low.



In an office environment while you could have upto 40-60 users actively making calls or data sessions on a femtocell, the rest of the idle users also would need to be accounted for especially when smart phones are involved. Typically if 15% of the office staff is using up active data capacity, the rest 85% need to be accounted for their idle mode signaling. Therefore doing the math, with 60 active user sessions you need around 340 idle mode sessions. This seems like a good benchmark to work with. picoChip says that this capability can be supported on closed, open or hybrid mode and doesn’t matter. However in closed mode they would need all the 400 users to be on the whitelist.



This level of signaling offload looks like a unique feature set to picoChip (at least for the moment) and strengthens the case for femtocells as not just a capacity offload solution but as a signaling offload solution as well. Compared to WiFi offload this gives femtocells an edge for sure, as WiFi is primarily meant to offload capacity and not signaling traffic. With collapsed RNCs femtos are able to take most of the signaling traffic off the operator core network. There seems to be a general revival in interest towards enterprise femtocells and the main reason is the data explosion from smartphones many of which are found in offices. Having spoken to many of the large operators, this seems to be a problem that needs urgent fixing, and WiFi doesn’t seem to be a long-term solution for them.



If femtocells can offload a significant amount of signaling traffic apart from data traffic for operators, it could become a much more cost effective solution than they had initially imagined, taking some strain off their core and RAN capex budgets, while bringing in additional enterprise user revenues.
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Mobile Impact of MasterCard API Move: Covering The Bases

May 28, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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This week, MasterCard announced they will open APIs to third party software developers around the world to “create a new wave of e-commerce and mobile payment applications.”


Setting aside the broadest impact of the announcement and focusing strictly on the mobile perspective, the announcement caused some speculation as to what specifically MasterCard had in mind.Is there some area within mobile Mastercard is keen on?Some possibilities:


Direct relationships with mobile app developers. Perhaps to enable speedy in app purchases, upgrades, subscriptions, etc.

Pay by mobile online. Merchants or others seeking payment options online develop option for consumers to enter only their mobile number after initial registration to trigger a purchase linked to a MasterCard.Potential convenience to consumer and very solid way to provide multi-authentication and limit fraud.


Publicly, they are saying the API initiative is not driven by specific mobile opportunities.After speaking with Josh Peirez, the Chief Innovation Officer MasterCard Worldwide, it appears Mastercard is primarily looking at the API initiative as a preemptive move to support creativity, and it’s less about any specific mobile initiative.Peirez sees an increasing melding of the physical and digital marketplace.He says he isn’t sure what the best or biggest usage of the Mastercard APIs will be, but he does know MasterCard doesn’t want to miss the opportunity to tap a growing digital payment play.


Peirez went on to say that the compelling proposition for MasterCard around mobile is that opposed to a plastic card, mobile really opens the door to a broad range of multiple services, because a plastic card is dumb and in relative terms a mobile is smart.

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AT&T Experimenting with Wi-Fi Hotzone in Times Square

May 27, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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AT&T is experimenting with Wi-Fi hotzones - a group of access points that together provide one large coverage area. It is starting with Times Square in Manhattan, just North of where 7th Avenue and Broadway intersect between 45th and 47th Streets. This is a great approach to solving its network issues. AT&T is deploying faster HSPA/HSPA+ speeds now, will launch their LTE network in late 2011 and 2012, and are looking into expanding their use of Wi-Fi. AT&T already has a lot of Wi-Fi hotspots on which many AT&T devices can automatically connect to, but these are primarily indoors. This hotzone is outdoors in an area with heavy pedestrian traffic. If implemented correctly, this will alleviate a lot of data traffic from the cellular network, as well as a lot of the extra signaling that goes with it. If this test is successful, AT&T will expand this to other areas as well. This is definitely a good move - leveraging the best network possible at any given time or location makes the most sense. As traffic increases, mobile operators will want to push cellular data traffic over to other types of networks that can better handle the capacity. With Wi-Fi attach rates rapidly increasing in smartphones, Wi-Fi hotspots and hotzones are a great way to offload traffic and provide better speeds to end users.
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Nokia Money: The Model for Mobile P2P Growth?

May 26, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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With the GSM Association’s Mobile Money Summit wrapping up today in Rio, there has been plenty of media attention focused on developing world mobile P2P initiatives by Zain, Vodafone (MPESA) and MTN http://www.mobilemoneysummit.com/press/show_daily.shtml , and on the challenge of striking working arrangements between MNOs and banks.


Leaving the bank/MNO feud aside for a moment, what most people have not understood about mobile money transfer initiatives to date is that by and large, none of the current services offer a significant degree of interoperability.For example, Zain, Vodafone and MTN programs only work when both the money sender and recipient are customers of the service – MTN customer to MTN customer, Zain to Zain, etc. A large part of MPESA’s success in Kenya is due to the fact that Vodafone/Safaricom has over 80% of the mobile subscribers there.By contrast, Vodafone has not been as successful in Tanzania.While that could be due to several factors, it is important to note that Vodafone has a much smaller market share in Tanzania than they do in Kenya.


Banks seeking to launch these services face similar challenges and it will be rare to see a bank-led mobile P2P service that embraces interoperability and consequently, exponential growth of mobile P2P.


So how can mobile P2P services be widely distributed?While there is the potential for MNOs to work through interoperability for P2P services (they do so today for text messaging, international roaming), none have done so today.


That’s why Nokia Money’s model is intriguing.Nokia Money is bank and MNO agnostic, leveraging merchants that currently sell Nokia phones as Nokia Money agents.In talking with Nokia Money officials last week, ABI Research found that the Nokia merchant network is more than 500,000 retailers worldwide.Nokia is also by far the most dominant device supplier in developing markets, providing very low end mobile phones throughout Africa and Southeast Asia, including India.


While it is true that Nokia’s potential agent network won’t penetrate as deeply into the extreme rural areas that MNO agents do, Nokia is seeking to extend their agent network by potentially working with the post in selected countries.Traditionally, the post has offered money transfer services, but not mobile.Nokia would embrace a rival and use it to their benefit – something the MNO or bank led initiatives have not done to date.
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Google Wins Approval to Acquire AdMob - Bigger Battle with Apple Looms

May 21, 2010 12:00:00 AM / by Admin

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Google can now move ahead in its bid to strengthen its foothold inmobile advertising.It just won FTC approval to acquire leading mobile ad network AdMob.



This is a big deal, and it gives further validation ofthe emerging importance of mobile marketing. It also meanswe will seemore intense competition between Google andApple as the latter rolls outits forthcoming iAd platform.



In its 5-0 decision, the FTC commissioners said the Google-AdMob deal did raise some serious antitrust issues, but that Apple's purchase of Quattro Wireless earlier this year and other competitors in the space wereenough to give Googlethe green light.



Look for more on this topic in the next few days in an upcoming ABI Insight.
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