HSPA+ arriving soon from Vodafone and TIM

Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) says it will be offering mobile data packages with peak download speeds of 21Mbps by mid-2009, rising to 28Mbps by year-end. The services, based on HSPA+ technology, will initially work via PC datacards using Qualcomm chipsets, CellularNews reports. Ericsson will supply equipment for the network upgrade.

Vodafone has trialled the Release 7 version HSPA+ mobile broadband technology in its Spanish network, and has achieved actual peak data download rates of up to 16Mbits/s.

The field trail of the HSPA+ 64QAM technology was done in conjunction with chip supplier Qualcomm Inc. and network gear provider Ericsson, following convincing results in laboratory tests.

Vodafone now plans to trial mobile broadband data connections with peak rates of up to 21Mbits/s early in 2009 using HSPA+ MIMO functionality.

The operator says the technology would be capable of video downloads at more than 13Mbits/s in good conditions and an average of more than 4 Mbits/s across a full range of typical cell locations, including urban environments.

If the trials prove a success, Vodafone plans to make this technology available in selected commercial networks.

HSPA+ technology is the next evolutionary step in the (3G) HSPA roadmap and increases performance through the use of the more powerful 64QAM modulation technique. Download performance is also improved through the use of multiple antennae (MIMO) technology on both base stations and data devices.

The operator is also working with several device vendors on the testing and validation of these devices ready for commercial availability.

Other major operators known to be conducting trials of HSPA+ technology include 3 and Australian company Telstra.

Telecoms equipment supplier Huawei has revealed that it will be showing off the world’s first commercial HSPA+ modem at the upcoming Mobile World Congress event, taking place in Barcelona next month.

Huawei’s connection to the Vodafone trials is unknown, but The Link has done a bit of detective work and observes that Vodafone released a statement early last year announcing partnerships with Huawei (amongst others) to develop the service. Huawei’s commercial HSPA+ stick could therefore be the first glance of Vodafone’s upcoming service, unless of course another network has quietly beaten it to the punch.

No release date or price has been revealed, but it does sound like HSPA+ will be arriving a lot sooner than we’d first thought. Mobile World Congress is taking place from the 16th – 19th February.

Reversing trend of outsourcing

For years the companies has flourished in their business where outsourcing was one of the major source of saving money and still getting good work done.

One of the main reason why India become the major hub for outsourcing was because of it’s immense pool of skilled science graduate which were far cheaper than in US and Europe.

Although in the last decade the salaries in India has risen manifolds but it still remaines the main destination for outsourcing simply because there is no shortage of the skilled techies.

But the current economic climate is changing the whole dynamics and the early signs are for what they call Outsourcing may be coming home.

With the rising unemployment in US and Europe and with so many people are desperate for the jobs all of a sudden companies see the pool of workers who are ready for work in far less then they were may be five years ago.

Remember no body wants to outsource if only they can get the work done at home.
In the current market situation there is a need to cut costs and increase productivity and for that reason some tech companies are looking for a new approach that bypasses traditional overseas locations like India.

One company who has taken a lead in this is IBM who is focussing on two U.S. communities which are East Lansing, Mich., and Dubuque, Iowa. This could be a trend setting move which other could follow very soon.

IBM believes that in these places there is access to skills also there is a willingness of local universities to cooperate with their business endeavours, and some government incentives to make it economically worthwhile. IBM hopes to create 1,500 direct and indirect jobs in five yearsin East Lansing, Mich and 1,300 jobs in Dubuque, Iowa.

Dubuque didn't just open the door and invite IBM into town but they also offered Big Blue (IBM) an enticing package of incentives worth $55 million over 10 years. These include a loan of $11.7 million that will be forgiven if IBM fulfils its hiring pledge. A local development agency also will spend $25 million to rehab an historic former department store.

Another major factor which is contributing towards bringing the jobs back to US from India is the stimulus package considered by the new president Obama. Although it has not been passed yet by the Congress, Obama has repeatedly discussed IT spending together with the rebuilding the US’s crumbling roads, bridges and schools.

I remember back in early 90’s when India opened its economy to go global one of the first companies to make use of the cheap and skilled science graduate was IBM.
For years India has been the primary location for technology outsourcing not only for IBM but other major tech companies as well.

This all seems to be changing now and the cycle seems to reversing.

It’s not only US but the Europe as well, which is going to get benefited by this reverse in trend. One of the astonishing thing which I came across just last week is that the Japanese companies who has R&D centres in UK are now considered as a cheaper options as compared to the ones in Japan. With the value of British pound fallen so much in the last six months the work force in UK all of a sudden becomes cheaper.

Could this be a new trend?

Industry analysts expect more tech services companies to establish operations in low-cost parts of the U.S and Europe.

I believe that in the coming months and years you'll see more of this although it might not be huge, but it will be a nice niche.

I am calling from the loo to tell you 'I Love You'

Almost one in two Australians admit to using their mobile phone while on the toilet and a quarter of men believe the mobile is an acceptable way to propose to their partner, a survey reveals.

The survey, commissioned by Microsoft and completed by 2,500 people across Australia, China, India, Japan and Taiwan, was conducted to determine just how integral the mobile phone has become in society.

It found that 48 per cent of Australians admitted to using the mobile phone while in the toilet, compared to 66 per cent of Chinese people who do so.

Of the occasions surveyed, 80 per cent of people said they would use their phone while eating a meal with others, 62 per cent said they'd use it while driving and 48 per cent would do so while trying to sleep.

Married women were also more likely to check their partner's phones than married men, while 30 per cent of people admitted to using their mobiles to flirt with someone other than their spouse or partner.

A quarter of Australians would use a GPS to track their partner's whereabouts, while 13 per cent said they would use their phones during "extremely intimate moments".

It was also revealed more than double the amount of men (24 per cent) to women (11 per cent) believed it was acceptable to propose to their partner using their mobile phone.

The Synovate survey on consumer behavior, commissioned by Microsoft's Windows Mobile division, found 58 percent of Asians polled across China, India, Japan, Taiwan and Australia wanted to use their mobiles on flights.

The 69 percent of respondents in favor of using their phones while flying, said this would help keep friends and family informed of flight changes, according to the survey.

Indians are the "most social" with 69 percent most likely to use their phones in a cinema, 21 percent in a place of worship and 79 percent at a wedding ceremony.

One thing parents across the Asian region agreed about was that children under the age of 12 should not be given a mobile phone.

The survey also revealed consumer preference for different form factors. The Chinese, Indians and Taiwanese are predominantly in favour of touch screen phones with the increased language input capabilities offered by such devices.

However, the Japanese prefer a flip phone while Australians prefer the more traditional numeric keypad.

Tomi Ahonen shares 50 pearls on Mobile Advertisement

Tomi Ahonen has recently published his book sharing 50 pearls (advice/ideas/tips) on Mobile Advertisement. Tomi has in past shared his pearls and ideas in many forums in public domain so this is a good chance for anyone into Mobile advertisement to get their hands on. The book costs 9.99 euros so its not expensive if the topic interests you.

In Tomi's own words:

...And finally, its topical - this is all about mobile advertising and marketing. Out of my thousands of real mobile services - public and private - in my Pearls collection, here is the "Best of Pearls" around mobile advertising topics. Blyk, BMW Winter Tyres, Admob, Otetsudai Networks, Northwest Airlines, Flirtomatic First Face, Virgin Festivals, Ford's Virtual Ka, the Nighlife Guide to the City, etc. All the biggest faves and best examples. But with much more detail in the book than on the slides you may have seen. Oh, and out of the 50 Pearls in this eBook, 13 are ones that I have not shown in the public domain, so you get plenty of real competitive insights too ha-ha...

More info on the book here.

Nokia feels the pinch due to credit crunch

Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of mobile phones, reported Thursday a 69% drop in fourth-quarter profit as demand for its handsets fell sharply during the key holiday season, particularly in China, and as it lost market share in the lucrative high-end segment.

The European tech bellwether also lowered its dividend, slashed its 2009 forecast of global demand for phones and said it would cut roughly 1,000 jobs to keep a lid on expenses.

The results mark a reversal of fortune for the Finnish company, which earlier this year seemed to have all but crushed even its nearest competitor with its stronghold on emerging markets, efficient cost control and extraordinary distribution power.

Quarterly sales declined 19% to 12.66 billion euros, missing forecasts calling for a top line of 13 billion euros, as demand for phones dropped sharply.

The number of handsets shipped in the latest three months fell 15% to 113.1 million units. Sequentially, shipments slipped 4% -- an unusual development considering the fourth quarter is customarily the strongest one for phone makers.

Phone makers have been suffering in the past few months as consumers rein in their discretionary spending. In developed markets, many are delaying replacing their old mobile phones. In emerging markets, handset users often simply aren't buying new ones.

Underscoring this, Sony Ericsson, the phone-making joint venture of Japan's Sony Corp. (SNE) and Sweden's L.M. Ericsson (ERICY), posted its second straight quarterly loss last week and warned the market would deteriorate further in 2009.

Also last week, Motorola Inc. (MOT) said it would report a fourth-quarter loss and slash 4,000 jobs after its sales collapsed over the holiday season.

And on Thursday, Nokia lowered its outlook for global industry mobile-device volumes, saying it now expects them to fall 10% in 2009, compared to an earlier forecast of a 5% drop.

The projected decline would be sharper in the first half than in the second half, with volumes dropping more sharply than is customary between the fourth and the first quarter, Nokia said.

Higher profile for digital mapping

Among Nokia's individual divisions, the handset business suffered the most, with sales down 27% to 8.1 billion euros. The sharpest decline in the number of handsets shipped happened in China, which registered a 36% drop, followed by the Middle East and Africa, with a 23% fall.

Nokia estimated its market share at 37% in the quarter, down from 40% a year ago and 38% in the third quarter. It said it lost ground in the Middle East and Africa, North America and China. It also lost ground in the high-end, smart- phone category, which worried investors.

Nevertheless the phone maker said it expects to maintain its market share at 37% in the first quarter.

The average selling price of a Nokia handset slipped to 71 euros from 72 euros in the third quarter, even though many new handsets, such as the 5800 XpressMusic, hit the shelves in time for Christmas. The decline put pressure on gross margins, which narrowed to 33.8% from 36.5% in the third quarter.

The division's operating profit decreased 70%, to 766 million euros, in the latest quarter.

At the Nokia Siemens networks joint venture, sales fell 5% to 4.3 billion euros.

The division, half owned by Siemens (SI) of Germany, achieved most of its targeted cost savings but reported an operating loss of 179 million euros while it broke even in the same period last year.

At the Navteq digital mapping business, sales jumped 31% sequentially to 205 million euros. The unit's operating loss shrank to 73 million euros from 80 million euros in the third quarter.

'Hyundai Mobile' to test British waters for success

Hyundai Mobile has announced its UK launch and aims to achieve three to five per cent market share within the next five years.

Hyundai Mobile UK will initially be located at the Advantage Cellular distribution centre in Oxfordshire and will utilize its warehousing and logistcs facility. Former Advantage marketing manager Graham Jelfs has also been recruited as Hyundai Mobile’s head of marketing and communications.

The new manufacturer will be looking to take its largely prepay offering to UK networks, distributors and retailers. Its pitch is “niche products and mobiles for a broad, price-conscious target group”.

Ten to 15 handset models are planned annually across Hyundai’s ‘Basic’, ‘Music’, ‘Lifestyle’ ‘Innovation’ and ‘Business’ product segments. Product launches are scheduled for the first half of this year.

Hyundai Mobile UK director Roland Prinz said: “The central location and ability to get set up immediately was the reason for selecting the offi ce within Advantage House and we can use the facilities here to provide physical stock within the territory, rather than suffer delays shipping from the Far East to our UK customers. We are now eager to meet with networks and distributors that have direct routes to market, especially those focusing on the retail sector.”

The company is also recruiting for roles, including a head of sales responsible for networks and distributors. It will be exhibiting at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.

Nortel bankruptcy creates worry for 2010 and 2012 Olympics

Everybody by now knows what happened to Nortel. On 13th January Canada's Nortel Networks filed for bankruptcy in Delaware under Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 guidelines.
Nortel has been struggling financially from the past couple of years and was cutting jobs at regular intervals. Toward the end of the year, the Toronto-based company was warned of a possible de-listing from the New York Stock Exchange.

The Chapter 15 filing enables a company to seek a U.S. bankruptcy court's recognition of a foreign bankruptcy case as the main or controlling proceeding.

There might be some potential buyers for Nortel but let’s see what happens in the coming days.

Nortel Networks at the moment is of course the topic of much conversation and speculation. In my view following are the key issues which Nortel has to deal with in the immediate future:

• It might loose some of it major partners, like Microsoft and how does the bankruptcy will affect its smaller partners, like Airvana,


• How long it can hold onto skilled talent in places like Ottawa, Ontario, and Richardson, Tex, and,


• Where the company should continue to focus its product energies as its fate plays out.

These events have affected many in the industry but one of them in particular is the organizers for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. Remember Nortel is the official sponsor for these two Olympic events and any trouble in Nortel is to stimulate significant trouble for these events.

Although Nortel Networks says, at least for now and before the bankruptcy court gets involved, that it remains committed as a sponsor and official network infrastructure provider to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics.

Back in July, Nortel signed up as a Tier One Olympic sponsor, and, to support the London Olympics. In addition to million of dollars in cash, Nortel also committed to provide the network infrastructure for communications in cooperation with British Telecom for the 2012 Olympics.
At the moment Nortel is giving every signs to reassure its commitment to the games as a 'tier-one' local sponsor and official network infrastructure provider for the London games.
Under the London sponsorship deal, Nortel is to supply network infrastructure, including secure networks, local wireless networks, call center and fixed landline infrastructure to support more than 205 international sporting organizations, 20,000 members of worldwide media, 9 million spectators, and "billions" of television viewers.

This looks quite staggering so just imagine the scenario where Nortel can’t fulfill its commitment.
Just like it has done with the 2012 organizing committee, Nortel is assuring the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee that it will stand behind its commitment to the 2010 Winter Games.

It does makes sense that Nortel fulfill it’s commitment I think it would be able to do so as much of Nortel's support has already been delivered and is expected to be in place by May.

3GPP Earthquake and Tsunami Warning service (ETWS)

Earthquake and Tsunami Warning Service: is a service that delivers Earthquake and Tsunami Warning Notifications provided by Warning Notification Providers to the UEs which have the capability of receiving Warning Notifications within Notification Areas through the 3GPP network.

Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System: is a subsystem of Public Warning System that delivers Warning Notifications specific to Earthquake and Tsunami provided by Warning Notification Providers to the UEs which have the capability of receiving Warning Notifications within Notification Areas through the 3GPP network.

Earthquake and Tsunami Warning service is provided to users by PLMN operators. Warning Notification Providers produce Warning Notification to PLMN operator when an event occurs e.g. an Earthquake. PLMN operators distribute Warning Notifications to users by utilizing ETWS.

The ETWS consists of the PLMN that is capable to deliver Warning Notification and the UEs that are capable to receive Warning Notification. A Warning Notification Provider is able to send Warning Notification to the users in Notification Area by activating ETWS. Warning Notification is classified into two types depending on the purpose and urgency of the notification.

The first type of Notification is called Primary Notification. This type of notification delivers the most important information of the threat that is approaching to users (e.g. the imminent occurrence of Earthquake or Tsunami). The notification shall be delivered to the users as soon as possible.

The second type of Notification is called Secondary Notification. This type of notification delivers additional information, such as instructions on what to do / where to get help as long as the emergency lasts.

More Information at 3GPP TS 22.168: Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) requirements; Stage 1.

You may also find interesting this FAQ for Cell Broadcast (CB) in Public Warning.

Emergency Phone Network enabled on the London Underground

Airwave has completed its deployment to all 125 below ground London Underground stations - within budget and ahead of schedule.

The complete roll out of the terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) network on the Tube means that British Transport Police, Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police will now be able to use the same radios underground.

Police Minister Vernon Coaker welcomed the completion, saying the system was now fully functioning ahead of schedule, and would help frontline officers carry out the work they already do in tackling crime.

Tim O’Toole, managing director of London Underground, said the roll out was achieved five months ahead of schedule.

Airwave, a Macquarie investment fund venture, won the contract to provide access to its TETRA network in January 2007. The National Policing Improvement Agency managed the roll out, linking the emergency services to London Underground’s Connect digital radio system.

The Connect system forms part of a £10-billion investment programme by Transport for London. And the TETRA Tube roll out was initiated after the London Assembly called for improved public safety communications underground in its report into the 2005 London bombings.

Mobile dating to get big by 2013

In Sep 2007, Juniper Research proudly claimed, "Mobile dating revenues to reach $1bn by 2012, according to a new study from Juniper Research ". Most of the predictions are for the next 5 years as its safe to predict that much in future.

Now their latest report claims, "Mobile Dating Revenues to Approach $1.4bn by 2013 as Event-based Charging Models Proliferate, says Juniper Research":

A new Juniper Research report has found that new revenue streams from event-based charging and advertising will help to push the value of the mobile dating and chatroom market to nearly $1.4 billion by 2013, part of a burgeoning user-generated content (UGC) market that will reach $7.3 billion by the same time.

The report says that while subscription revenues will continue to contribute the bulk of service revenues over the next five years, an increasing number of dating companies have now switched to offering event-based charging, through products which offer free registration but levy charges when end-users wish to contact one another, or else offer virtual gifts for subscribers to send to other users.

The Juniper report also observed that while the initial impetus for dating services was provided off-portal, network operators have become increasingly keen to offer services on-portal as part of their entertainment portfolios: Vodafone offers Dating Direct, while 3 UK has partnered with Flirtomatic.

Other findings from the report include:
• Less than 30% of mobile dating customers will be on flat-rate subscriptions by 2011
• The Far East & China region is currently the largest region in terms of subscriber numbers, primarily due to the success of dating services in Japan
• Advertising will provide the majority of mobile social networking revenues but less than one-third of all UGC revenues by 2013

Its just matter of time when Location Based Services (LBS) will combine with these and offer 'instantaneous flirting' and 'speedy dating' ;)