European Wireless Industry News

German mobile market bucks economic trend

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:43:36 -0500

Remarkably, given the severe economic downturn sweeping across Western Europe, the German mobile market continued to grow strongly during the third quarter of 2008 with annual net additions of 12.73 million, the highest figure for seven years. This was in marked contrast in the UK where the figures were considerably less favourable with the mobile market growing by only 4.4 per cent, the second lowest figure ever recorded. Annual net additions in the UK were just 3.15 million. In Germany Q3 was the fourth successive quarter in which annual growth exceeded 13 per cent, a result which has not been achieved since 2001. At the end of the quarter the German mobile market had 105 million connections representing a penetration rate of 127.5 per cent. Growth in the German market is being driven by significant price reductions by all four operators.

T-Mobile continued to lead the market with 38.8 million customers despite recording just 400,000 net additions. This is the second successive Q3 that T-Mobile has the lowest growth--apparently high churn was the cause of the problem. Second placed Vodafone had 36.19 million customers at the end of the quarter having picked up net additions of 900,000. E-Plus continued to lead the market in terms of proportionate growth with an annual gain of 20.7 per cent, compared to 14.9 per cent for O2, 12.6 per cent for T-Mobile and 11.2 per cent for Vodafone. This pushed E-Plus' market share to 15.2 per cent. The other player in the German market, O2, has the largest proportion of contract customers and the highest ARPU with a quarterly average of 17.30 euros a month.

For more:
- go to Cellular News

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T-Mobile Germany: iPhone galvanizing mobile data use

Hospital mobile relaxation plan may backfire

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:38:23 -0500

The UK Government's decision to ease restrictions on the use of mobile phones in hospitals may not prove the boon to patients that was intended. Industry experts have pointed out that using a mobile phone in a hospital may be difficult or even impossible because of poor coverage. The long-standing blanket ban on mobile phones has meant that network coverage has not been a factor in the design and building of hospitals over the last few years. ADC vice president John Spindler points out that there is no reason why some arrangements cannot be made for mobile coverage in the required areas but it would be helpful if planners considered this issue when designing hospitals in the future.

Despite UK mobile operators spending millions of pounds on deploying their wide area networks, in-building coverage remains problematical, hence the growing interest in femtocell technology.

For more:
- go to Mobile News and Silicon.com

Related article:
Sprint, Nuance, Vocera team for mobile healthcare

Nokia pulls out of WiMAX

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:32:55 -0500

In yet another blow to the ambitions of the WiMAX camp, Nokia has announced its intention to end production of the only WiMAX device in its portfolio, the N810 tablet PC. According to a Nokia spokesman, the device had reached the end of its lifecycle, remarkably quickly it seems as the N810 was only launched nine months ago. Nokia did not rule out re-entering the WiMAX device market but this does not seem a realistic possibility. The Finnish vendor was an early and keen supporter of WiMAX but seems to have cooled on the technology.

This has not been a good week for WiMAX, which until recently was being touted as a key player in the fourth generation wireless space. Its most significant supporter, Intel, announced it was writing off the US$950 million it invested in WiMAX, leaving the highest profile WiMAX operator, Clearwire of the US, dangling in the breeze. Support for Long Term Evolution (LTE) is another key factor in depressing the hopes of WiMAX. With all the US and Chinese CDMA operators now on board, more than 80 per cent of mobile operators are committed to evolving through the LTE path leaving little room for WiMAX.

For more:
- go to ITPro.co.uk and Tech Tree

Related articles:
Nokia hoists the WiMAX flag 180 feet
Nokia ends production of N810 WiMAX tablet

Rumour Mill: Another UK network sharing deal on the cards?

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:26:25 -0500

UK media reports are claiming Vodafone and Orange are mulling a network sharing partnership. The two companies already share the Radio Access Network (RAN) elements of their two networks so any agreement would build on existing arrangements. It is understood the two operators would agree to share the costs of engineering, maintenance and technology upgrades, bringing each of them savings estimated at around US$1.45 billion a year.

A partnership agreement is made simpler by the fact Vodafone and Orange have signed agreements with UK landline operator BT to act as its backhaul partner for the next five years. There are strong precedents for such arrangements. T-Mobile UK and 3 UK have had a RAN sharing partnership for over a year and Vodafone shares its passive network infrastructure in Italy with TIM.

For more:
- go to Cellular News and Moconews

Related articles:
Vodafone UK and Orange finalize network sharing
T-Mobile UK to chop 5,000 cellphone masts

Telefonica signs massive pan-European comms contract

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:20:42 -0500

With a value of nearly 350 million euros, the deal signed this week between Telefonica and Deutsche Post World Net is Europe's largest mobile and fixed communications contract. The agreement covers 125,000 employees at 2,400 sites in 28 European countries. Only Germany is excluded from the deal.

Telefonica will be providing a complete range of communications solutions including wide area network connectivity, centralised Internet access, local-area network (LAN) services such as wireless LAN, fixed voice, mobile voice and data as well as IT services such as managed security, web conferencing, unified messaging and fixed mobile convergence.

The contract comprises more than 100,000 LAN Ports, more than 60,000 fixed voice devices and 80,000 mobile connections including 24,000 mobile and smartphone devices. The wireless communications aspect of the agreement will be covered by Telefonica O2's operations in the UK, Ireland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

For more:
- go to Mobile Europe and Mobile News

Related article:
Mobile Internet comes to the Czech Republic

3G props up falling mobile handset market

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:15:49 -0500

Global shipments of mobile handsets fell nearly 5 per cent year-on-year in the period October-November 2008, and with the ongoing economic downturn likely to continue the prospects for 2009 are not looking good. The main impact of the fall has been in the 2G sector which has declined significantly. The good news is that sales of 3G handsets are growing and will rise as a percentage of total sales from 39 per cent to 50 per cent over the next 12 months. ABI Research forecasts WCDMA handset sales will increase from 259 million in 2008 to 725 million in the current year. Smartphone sales are also forecast to increase their market share from 14 per cent in 2008 to 31 per cent in 2013.

The burgeoning mobile broadband market will drive sales of USB modems which will account for 80 per cent of the shipped volume. The cellular modem market overall will increase by more than 55 per cent in the coming year, driven largely by Asian suppliers introducing low-cost devices.

For more:
- go to 3g.co.uk and Mobile Europe

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Looking forward to 2009

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:43:09 -0500

January each year is when analysts and amateur prophets get busy forecasting what the year ahead will bring. With the current economic crisis already biting hard on the wireless industry, trying to predict what will happen in 2009 is an even more difficult task than normal. Telecom advisory company inCode has a pretty good track record in foretelling the future and they have just released their predictions for the forthcoming year.

To nobody's surprise inCode's top prediction is that there will losses amongst the ranks of operators and vendors. Their picks for the most vulnerable are Sprint and T-Mobile on the operator side and Motorola, Alcatel Lucent and Nortel amongst the vendors.

inCode gives the thumbs-up to HSPA, which it says will ‘quietly and methodically' come to dominate the market. The HSPA experience, says inCode, will be good enough to compete with WiMAX and will provide better geographic coverage over the next couple of years. Running slightly against the tide, inCode sees the earlier-than-expected introduction of LTE, pushed mainly by US CDMA operators seeking a weapon to fight off HSPA+.

Network outsourcing will be very much at the forefront of operator's minds in 2009 driven by the need to cut capital and operational expenditures. inCode predicts that during the year at least one Tier I or Tier II operator will outsource all its labour-intensive, network-related activities. Likely winners in the outsourcing space are IBM and Ericsson.

inCode also predicts growing demand for femtocells in 2009 leading to a massive upturn in adoption in 2010. The initial drivers will be dissatisfaction with in-building coverage but as data usage climbs operators will be looking to offload the traffic on to more economical wireline broadband.

inCode concludes its forecast for the year with a bonus prediction that ‘green will be the new black' as more and more telecom companies adopt green technologies and reusable energy sources.

For more:
- go to 3g.co.uk and Telecomredux

Vodafone wins major UK utility contract

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:37:36 -0500

National Grid, the UK's major gas and electricity utility company, has awarded a £5 million contract to Vodafone, appointing the UK mobile operator its sole mobile voice and mobile data network provider for the next three years. National Grid owns and operates the UK's high voltage electricity network as well as the high pressure national gas distribution system. In addition to delivering mobile communications services to the National Grid workforce, Vodafone will be providing embedded SIMs in laptops and telemetry SIMs for detection and diagnosis of network faults and mobile broadband devices so that field staff can have connectivity and access to key information at all times.

For more:
- go to 3g.co.uk and Silicon.com

Hungary cuts mobile termination charges

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:32:01 -0500

The National Communications Authority, Hungary's telecom regulator, has ordered the country's three mobile operators to cut their termination charges. These will fall to HUF 11.86 in three steps by 1 December 2010, an overall reduction of 40 per cent. This action follows a reduction of 30 per cent in termination charges over the last three years. By decreasing termination charges further it will be possible to reduce the retail cost of fixed line and mobile calls terminating in mobile networks.

Hungary currently has 11.95 million mobile customers, representing a penetration rate of 119.1 per cent. Subscriber numbers grew by 110,000 in November 2008. The largest operator is T-Mobile followed by Vodafone and Pannon, which saw a fall in its market share in November.

For more:
- go to Cellular News

Western Europe feels cold wind of downturn

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:28:43 -0500

The Western Europe mobile phone market stopped growing the third quarter of 2008 as consumer spending was hit by the economic downturn. Mobile voice revenues had already fallen by 1 per cent over the previous eighteen months but this figure increased to 3 per cent in the third quarter, according to a report from Strategy Analytics.

The good news was that mobile data revenues increased globally by 20 per cent in the third quarter and this has helped to maintain service revenues. However, says Phil Kendall, director of Strategy Analytics' Global Wireless Practice, comments "even these (mobile data revenues) could not save the European market last quarter from service revenue growth coming to an abrupt halt."

For more:
- go to Teleclick

Related stories:
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Economic problems impact mobile phone market

Management buyout at IPWireless

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:18:11 -0500

Twelve months after buying TDD 3G solutions developer IPWireless for US$100 million, NextWave has sold 75 per cent of the company for just US$1 million. The buyer was a consortium made up of the original IPWireless management team led by founder William Jones. Apparently the new owners, who will also have to fund the deal's transaction costs of US$500,000, have found themselves an unnamed but seemingly affluent new backer who is prepared to supply long-term funding. NextWave Wireless will retain a minority stake in the new, privately-owned company that will continue to be based at its locations in the UK and California.

IPWireless, founded in 1999, focused its attention, with some success, on the underused Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum allocated to 3G operators. Its TDtv mobile TV technology underwent successful trials in the UK in 2007 and a commercial pilot was launched in London in early 2008. IPWireless also provided the infrastructure for T-Mobile's 'Internet 4G' service in the Czech Republic which currently delivers over 10 Terabytes of data a day.

For more:
- go to The Register and Cellular News

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NextWave offloads IPWireless
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Mobile interface developer gives up the ghost

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:01:46 -0500

The long anticipated demise of mobile interface developer UIQ took place this week when the company filed for bankruptcy in a Swedish court. Motorola and Sony Ericsson, joint owners of UIQ through a Dutch holding company, decided to withdraw their financial support at the end of December 2008. More than 200 employees will lose their jobs.

The writing was on the wall for UIQ when its platform was integrated, together with Nokia' Series 60 solution, into the Symbian Foundation's new royalty-free, open-source platform. Motorola announced at the time it would no longer use the UIQ platform but would concentrate instead on other solutions such as Android and Windows Mobile. UIQ had enjoyed some success over the last six years, being widely used by Motorola and Sony Ericsson in handsets ranging from entry level consumer devices to smartphones. However, as UIQ's former chief executive Johan Sandberg pointed out, the company's main, if not only, income source was royalty fees on its intellectual property. Once the IP became free the main business of UIQ disappeared. "Effectively, we didn't have anything to do anymore," Sandberg commented.

For more:
- go to Silicon.com and The Register

Related stories:
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UIQ files for bankruptcy

Banking by mobile phone will 'overtake internet money management within five years'

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:28:31 -0500

More people are expected to manage their money through their mobile phone than via the Internet within five years, predicts a new report from the mobile phone banking group Monilink. The study claims the use of mobile banking looks set to have a faster take-up rate than online banking or even the use of cash machines and credit cards--and the speed at which people adopt the new technology is likely to be accelerated by the current economic downturn. The research stated 50 per cent of people will be managing their finances through their mobile handset within the next five years, rising to 75 per cent by 2020. Article

Something new for 2009 - the Wristphone

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:04:56 -0500

Any hopes that 2009 would start in a manner more in tune with the harsh economic climate have been dashed with the announcement from LG that it will launch a 3G wristphone in Europe this year. The device will sport a 3.63cm screen used as a keypad for making calls or accessing 3G data services, and will also have a camera and speaker built in for video calls and still shots.

LG, thankfully, will also include Bluetooth that could then support a wireless head set for making and receiving calls--shouting or listening to your wrist could be misinterpreted in the majority of countries. The GD910, which includes HSPDA connectivity, has not been given a launch date or price by LG--although it will likely only appeal to those with very small fingers, or street muggers wanting to steal your cellphone and wristwatch (assuming the GD910 does tell the time) in one hit...

For more:
- go to RegHardware

Mobile data usage doubles quarter over quarter

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:01:24 -0500

Despite the economic gloom, a new study into mobile data usage has revealed customers are adopting the service like never before. The findings, released by Orange in its latest Digital Media Index report, claimed it added 1.3 million 3G customers since the research was last conducted around 9 months ago.

This latest report states the upsurge in mobile data has been driven by improvements to devices designed to access mobile data, such as USB dongles and more advanced mobile handsets, matched with new price plans specifically created to increase mobile internet relevancy to consumers.

Key findings from the summer/autumn report included:

Dongle subscriptions surged--an increase of over 2,000 per cent since January 2008.
3G customers soared by 86 per cent.
Mobile search increased by 30 per cent--while local search increased by 100 per cent.
Social networking took off--with over 166 million page impressions on average per month.
Music downloads increased by 10 per cent-–with September specifically seeing a record 300,000 full tracks downloaded.

Commenting on the study, Paul Jevons, director of products, portals and services for Orange, said mobile was no longer simply a channel for brands to deliver packaged content in a manner of their choosing. "Instead the mobile phone has become a truly interactive channel that fosters the formation of communities through social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo."

For more:
- go to 3G.co.uk

Related articles:
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European operators expected to axe staff

Paul Rasmussen — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:51:47 -0500

The impact of the credit squeeze will be felt by mobile operator employees as these firms look to reduce costs by cutting headcounts. Thousands of positions are expected to be axed across the major European operators, with management consultants already working to best advise where and when these reductions should be made.

While Vodafone has already announced plans to shrink its operating costs by £1 billion (currently £22 billion), and has already made 450 middle managers redundant at its UK HQ, Orange is thought to be planning some of the largest job cuts. However, Orange Austrian made public last week that it had offered job guarantees to its workers following a dramatic upturn in business during the last two quarters of 2008.

For more:
- go to The Telecom

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Sprint will have large job cuts in 2009

Rumour mill: Orange to drop RIM Bold?

Paul Rasmussen — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:46:53 -0500

Having experienced problems with the RIM Bold in October, Orange is now thought to be on the edge of dropping the handset from its portfolio as the number of customer complaints continues to rise. Return rates for the Bold are reported to be way above normal thresholds, with users complaining of dropped calls and poor reception, among others.

Speculation within the industry pointed towards Orange dropping the Bold when it first encountered the problems in October. However, it backed away having believed a batch of software updates would fix the problems.

Meanwhile, Vodafone is having its own problems with the RIM Storm handset which has suffered a barrage of criticism because of a number of software glitches that make it painfully slow to execute certain tasks that other smartphones, such as Apple's iPhone, carry out with ease. Vodafone's US joint venture Verizon Wireless has already been forced to issue a number of software patches for the device.

For more:
- go to The Guardian

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2008 Year in Review: TeliaSonera escapes France Telecom's grasp

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:23:29 -0500

Despite attempts to keep the deal under wraps, the government-supported bid by France Telecom (FT) for Sweden's largest telco, TeliaSonera, surfaced in press reports during April. The deal, then valued at €34 billion, would have created Europe's largest provider of telecoms services and taken FT into the global league by having both fixed and mobile operators in Europe, Africa, Asia and other regions.

FT attempted to justify this huge acquisition by claiming size was an essential element, even more so when looking to compete with the likes of Google and Nokia. However, these claims failed to stop its share price from plummeting--having already been hit hard by the overall economic downturn, as industry analysts failed to understand how FT could squeeze the synergies out of such a €34 billion merger.

The bid also caused the Swedish Army to raise concerns over the foreign ownership of the TeliaSonera network. "An owner that is not trustworthy could use its knowledge to damage Sweden," said a military spokesman.

Still maintaining it was not holding talks with TeliaSonera, it was revealed FT had approached a consortium of five banks to raise US$10 billion to finance the acquisition.

A few weeks later the company finally admitted it had made a bid, only to be lambasted by the analyst community for pitching the price much too low. The company responded by saying it was prepared to walk away unless there was a positive answer from TeliaSonera within 15 days. 'We have other options', said FT CEO, Didier Lombard.

The deadline was soon forgotten, and FT began hinting publicly it might increase its bid, albeit not by much. Having argued over where the headquarters of the merged company might be located, the bid was finally rejected in late July by TeliaSonera management as undervaluing the company. FT's share price rose 7 per cent on the news.

Significance: This attempt by FT to lift itself into the big time was seen by many as ill-timed and mismanaged. In hindsight, FT is probably hugely relieved the bid was not accepted by TeliaSonera given the ensuing financial upheavals that have since rocked the markets around the world. The company has gone ahead and made investments in Africa and Asia on a minor scale, whilst TeliaSonera has continued with its expansion in Asia, most notably with a start-up in India. Most analysts now expect these mega-bids are a thing of the past, and are unlikely to reappear in the near to mid term.

Related articles:
France Telecom mulls €34B TeliaSonera bid
France Telecom up against Swedish Army over TeliaSonera sale
France Telecom builds acquisition war chest
France Telecom needs to up its bid for TeliaSonera
FT and TeliaSonera--the next episode
France Telecom fails to win TeliaSonera, looks for smaller fish

2008 Year in Review: Vodafone head sees LTE as an umbrella standard

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:19:10 -0500

By openly stating at the Mobile World Congress that LTE should encompass WiMAX, the former CEO of Vodafone, Arun Sarin, voiced the opinion of many on how to defuse a potentially costly and damaging battle between these two burgeoning wireless standards.

Sarin praised the progress made by both technologies during 2007, albeit that WiMAX was technically ahead with networks and end-user devices near to commercial deployment. However, Sarin urged the LTE camp should reposition itself to accommodate WiMAX. "The issue for me is simply resources in our industry: We only have a finite number of R&D engineers and if we split them into two camps, then we would be diluting what we can do in the future. The LTE standard is an accommodating standard and there is a TDD section that I think WiMAX could fit into."

Whilst Sarin's remarks caused many to review their strategy at the time, few public statements of support came from either the vendor or operator community. We had to wait in Europe until Q4 of this year before the CTO of T-Mobile, Joachim Horn, broke ranks by stating that the company would not deploy HSPA+ to further boost its mobile broadband throughput but would instead skip this technical evolution and invest in LTE. This public declaration followed statements from operators outside Europe, namely China Mobile, DoCoMo and Verizon Wireless, that they also intended to aggressively push forward with LTE.

In an attempt to gain the attention of these four major operators, Ericsson--which had just announced Q3 operating profits down 40 per cent, stated there would be commercial deployments of LTE starting in late 2009. According to John Cunliffe, Ericsson UK's CTO, trials of LTE would begin by the end of this year with commercial services, handsets and base stations surfacing during the latter part of next year. The company has already conducted drive testing of LTE in Sweden which produced peak download speeds of 154Mbps, a mean of 78Mbps and a minimum of 16Mbps--albeit that these figures bear little relationship to "real-world" throughput.

Horn was rather more cautious regarding deployment timescales, maintaining that LTE test networks would not be seen until mid- to late-2010.

Significance: LTE holds significant promise for mobile operators if they are allocated adequate spectrum and deployment costs are kept low. This latter issue may be the trigger to drive network RAN sharing between operators, something that has largely stalled over the last two years. It also has the ability to consolidate existing wireless technologies under a single umbrella standard and provide a technology framework that could last several decades.

Related articles:
T-Mobile CTO: I'll invest in LTE, not HSPA+
LTE ready for late 2009, says Ericsson
Vodafone CEO: WiMAX has a home in LTE

2008 Year in Review: Apple's iPhone becomes the benchmark

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:15:31 -0500

Having been hampered by being tied to EDGE, sales of this first version of the iPhone slowed markedly as news that the 3G version would be launched in Europe by mid-year. Prior to the 3G launch, this iconic handset had been purchased in its 100,000s by a public eager to sample the obvious delight of Apple's first mobile handset.

While a number of research analysts reported European shipments had been below expectations in Q4/07 and Q1/08, the operators that had signed exclusive distribution deals for the iPhone had nothing but praise for the product. René Obermann, the CEO of Deutsche Telekom, went as far as revealing that German iPhone customers used the mobile internet services 30 times more than other cell phone subscribers, while one third of all T-Mobile iPhone customers had chosen the most expensive plan.

Following the launch of the 3G iPhone, Obermann stated it had sold over 150,000 of the handsets in Europe in three months, but had also managed to be successful in competing against the iPhone in the US with a portfolio of products from HTC, RIM, and Samsung.

But indications that all was not well with sales in Europe came from Orange France which slashed €50 off the price of the 3G iPhone in November. Rumours also began to circulate that O2 was working on a strategy to enable it to negotiate iPhone pricing with potential subscribers, a subject currently strictly forbidden in their contract with Apple. And this month Orange France was ordered by the French anti-competitive watchdog to tear up its exclusivity contract, thereby enabling rival operators, most notably Bouygues Telecom, to offer the 3G iPhone.

Significance: Other handset vendors have frantically tried to emulate the success of the iPhone by rushing out touchscreen phones almost on a monthly basis. None, including Nokia, seemed to have dented the continuing allure that Apple has managed to instil with both business and consumer users - and the iPhone continues to be rated #1 in many consumer polls and reviews.

In terms of overall shipping numbers, the iPhone is insignificant, but it has undoubtedly set the benchmark for 2008 and could well continue this throughout 2009.

Related articles:
iPhone boosts data 30x for T-Mobile Germany
European iPhone shortage, or more hype?
Tough going for iPhone in Europe
Orange France slashes iPhone price
iPhone a great success in Germany, claims Deutsche Telekom head

2008 Year in Review: Femtocells bring unfulfilled expectations

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:05:27 -0500

From January of this year operators, most notably T-Mobile, began announcing trials of femtocells. By mid-year, progress would appear to have been meagre as news seeped out about unresolved technical issues and, more critically, an unclear business case.

SFR in France was the most public saying it had put its femtocell testing on hold to "give equipment suppliers time to consolidate their roadmaps." This was interpreted as the need for clarity on 3GPP status and the lack of resources being provided by the larger femtocell developers to achieve this.

A few months later, O2 declared it was looking to run another femtocell pilot early in 2009 having already conducted consumer and equipment trials in the first half of 2008. Looking to explain the situation, femtocell developer Ubiquisys said this phased approach should not be unexpected and would be typical of how operators evaluate new technology and products. "With lab trials, internal tests and commercial pilots, you would expect separate discreet stages," said the company's VP of marketing, Keith Day.

Significance: Whilst the majority of the larger mobile operators have conducted trials of femtocells, question marks remain over the business model and how consumers might react and understand the benefits. With late 2009 now being put forward as the more likely date for commercial deployments, a growing number of analysts now believe this is optimistic and believe that 2010 is a more realistic timescale.

Also, little attention would appear to have been given to how handsets will work with femtocells. Questions such as handsets being optimised to support this new "in home" activity, and their ability to be aware of the femtocell--ideally both in the radio and the application platform, have not been addressed publicly.

Related articles:
Operators delay femtocell deployments
Ericsson wins femtocell supply contract
Femtocells: O2 delays commercial launch, prepares for more trials
Femtocell success reliant on handset innovations, claims new study

Will LTE be to mobile operators what NGNs are to fixed?

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:43:38 -0500

With all the excitement surrounding LTE, it is easy to overlook how the practicalities of migration will impact mobile operators. Migration to LTE will need to be approached in the same way that fixed telcos have viewed next-generation network (NGN) deployments - long term and holistically. Article

2008 Year in Review: Turmoil, but solid progress

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:40:33 -0500

By any measurement, 2008 has been a year of unrivalled change and upheaval. But this turmoil should not mask the real progress made worldwide by the cellular industry as services being offered to business and consumers continue to expand and flourish.

Notable among the achievements in 2008 was the wide scale uptake of mobile data, helped significantly by the aggressive marketing of 3G dongles, Netbooks and a new breed of smartphones as seen from RIM, Apple and others.

The involvement of the EU in attempting to regulate the market--perceived by some as gross interference, has driven down the price of many widely used services. Whether this enforced change will impact the ability of mobile operators to make investments for the future has yet to be seen.

But this industry, albeit that cellphones are now accepted as a utility and not a luxury item, will feel the brunt of this worldwide economic downturn. Forecasting what might happen next year and into 2010 is more difficult than ever before--but FierceWirelessEurope will do its best to make some predictions for the future when we resume publication on Monday, 5th January 2009.--Paul

Femtocell vendor and MIT develop operator business plan

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:20:54 -0500

With femtocell technology reaching commercial maturity, attention is now switching to developing application services and operator business models that will maximise the technology benefits. In an effort to spur this move Ubiquisys, an established femtocell design house, has joined with a team from MIT's Entrepreneurship Lab (E-Lab) to help establish an appropriate business model framework.

Ubiquisys said the team had looked at a number of areas, including femto-enabling existing Internet applications, exploration of new application services, and defining and quantifying the consumer value propositions.

Commenting on the partnership, Chris Gilbert, CEO of Ubiquisys, said that MIT's reputation for innovation and technical expertise was second to none. "We have successfully answered the technical femtocell questions and mobile operators are now looking to the potential for additional revenue generating services."

Separately, Analog Devices announced a new 3G femtocell chip (the ADF4602-1) that it claims consumes 30 per cent less power and delivers 50 per cent better EVM (error vector magnitude), while improving data rates and system conformity in multi-band 3G femtocell base stations.

For more:
- go to 3G.co.uk and ElectroPages

Related articles:
T-Mobile unveils 3G/WiFi docking station (femtocell?)
Femtocells: Orange, Starhub and Chunghwa make the pace
French operator to deploy GSM femtocells

Music downloads: up to 10 euros per track, claims study

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:14:09 -0500

While some mobile operators in Europe may charge as little as €0.75 to download a music track, new research indicates that data pricing varies so significantly between operators and countries that the consumer can end up paying up to €10 for each downloaded song.

A study, carried out on behalf of mBlox, claimed that the UK was the most expensive country to download a music track, with France not far behind, and Germany being the cheapest by some considerable margin. The loophole for operators, seemingly, is within the small print outlining ‘fair usage' within the T&Cs, effectively enabling operators to charge much higher rates.

According to Andrew Bud, chairman of mBlox, next year could be the 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," he said. "The current hope that flat-rate data will be the total solution is fundamentally flawed as market penetration is not high enough nor is it likely to be for some considerable time."

"To rebuild consumer trust and unlock the potential of the mobile content industry, we need to complement flat rate schemes with a 'sender-pays' business model, which ensures that the sender is able to purchase data at a wholesale cost and consequently offer fair and transparent pricing to consumers," concluded Bud.

For more:
- go to Cellular News

Related articles:
Nokia's Comes with Music--an operator turnoff
Study: Consumers favor all-you-can-eat mobile music offers

Nokia looks to drive down handset development costs

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:08:51 -0500

Cost-cutting has become the central focus for many within the cellular industry, but none more so than those involved with developing and manufacturing handsets. Not unaffected by these current day issues, Nokia has announced that it is investing in a modular approach to building new handsets that it maintains could cut the cost of developing cell phones by up to 99 per cent.

The company, which claims it can cost up to US$220 million to develop a new handset, has joined with NXP Semiconductors to bring to fruition this new modular approach - labelled network on terminal architecture (NoTA), that is designed to shift the handset creation process from a tightly coupled architecture to one that uses a distributed or modular system.

The change would see the handset no longer being centred around a single all-powerful engine but instead using a network of subsystems performing specific tasks such as multimedia and connectivity. The two firms believe that NoTA is highly scalable and enables the easier integration of new features and could lead to much faster times to market. However, no timescales have been announced for when NoTA-based handsets might appear.

For more:
- go to Information Week

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Orange and Vodafone push forward with widgets

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:03:33 -0500

Mobile Internet services are set to take a leap forward with both Orange and Vodafone looking to use widgets to offer their subscribers access to the web at a glance. Vodafone would appear to have taken the lead with the launch of its Widget Manager - albeit a beta version, that is downloadable free of charge from the company's Live! web portal. However, the Widget Manager has been developed to work with Opera for the S60 platform and will initially only be available on the Nokia N96, N95 8GB, N78 and 6210 handsets.

Orange, meanwhile, is at the stage of attempting to attract developers to produce a mobile widget for the Times Online service based upon its Djinngo platform, which already includes the Live Radio and Weather Checker applications. Djinngo joins Orange's other three platforms: SoundTribes for the promotion of unsigned music, Whose Gaming for gaming, and Pikeo - a photo sharing service.

In contrast, some of the widgets launched by Vodafone include Live Scores, Fresh Games, RSS Reader, Weatherbug, Egg Timer, Train Times, Lottery, Sccope, Currency Converter and FHM Hot Babes. Both BBC News and BBC Sport along with Vue Cinema widgets are expected in the near future.

For more:
- go toMobile Choice and Know Your Mobile

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Mobile messaging revenues to defy economic downturn

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:59:18 -0500

Mobile messaging vendor Airwide Solutions has published the results of an independent study on the use of mobile messaging across the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The results claim that, despite warnings of turmoil throughout the global economy, growth in mobile messaging shows no signs of slowing. The study shows the number of people sending text messages across the EU was growing at more than 3 per cent a year, a figure only beaten by MMS which was growing by 9.2 per cent. Article

Common API needed for smartphones, claims Ericsson

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:41:01 -0500

In an attempt to bring a level of commonality to the smartphone market, Ericsson is putting itself forward as an independent peace broker by helping to define a common set of application programming interfaces (API) that would let programmes and services run across handsets.

The company, which effectively removed itself from the handset business some years ago--although an R&D team remains focused on handset platforms within Ericsson--said it wanted to bring Internet speed to cell phones, and provide Internet companies with access to open mobile APIs and create mash ups.

The concept, which would be based upon IMS, is said to be at least several years away from launch, but Ericsson believes it can influence the future direction of the smartphone industry due to its in-depth relationships with all of the major mobile operators.

For more:
- go to EE Times

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Nokia comes late to booming 3G dongle party

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:32:54 -0500

Once again, Nokia has lagged behind the technology curve and has only now announced it will start shipping a 3G mobile broadband dongle early next year. Huawei has already grabbed a lion's share of this fast-growing sector, with Sierra Wireless and Novatel Wireless trying hard to overtake the Chinese leader.

According to Nokia, the company intends to follow the marketing strategy already adopted by the three leading vendors by selling its products to mobile operators for rebranding and bundling with laptop-based products and services. A company spokesman said the market for HSPA modems was expected to grow rapidly during the coming years. But the question must be asked as to whether Nokia has left it too late, again...

Perhaps Nokia is somewhat wary of this niche market--given the failure with Intel in 2006 to jointly develop a 3G modem for laptops--which Intel agreed to sell as part of its next-generation Centrino Duo mobile technology platform. Less than a year later, the relationship faltered and the project was aborted.

For more:
- go to Register Hardware

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Vodafone expected to cut costs by over 1bn euros next year

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:28:02 -0500

The new CEO of Vodafone, Vittorio Colao, is expected to show his mettle in the New Year by instigating a cost-cutting programme to fulfil his promise to save over €1 billion. In particular, the most costly region of Vodafone's straggling empire, Western Europe, will be the prime focus for reducing expense, with Italy, Spain and the UK first on the firing line (although Vodafone Ireland has just announced a headcount reduction of 150 people).

The axe is thought to be hovering over supply-chain departments and new equipment orders, while outsourcing is being considered for logistics, procurement, IT and technology operations. Vodafone has already centralised its handset procurement offices by moving to a single office based in Luxembourg--a country with an advantageous tax regime.

For more:
- go to Mobile Today

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3G W-CDMA equipment up 12% in 3rd quarter

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:15:02 -0500

After ramping up in 2Q 2008, in large part due to Beijing Olympics preparations, the worldwide radio access network equipment market slid 6 per cent to US$9.6 billion in 3Q 2008 on sharp declines in the CDMA segment, reports market research firm Infonetics Research. The firm said that, while most segments of the market declined in 3Q, the W-CDMA equipment segment--including base transceiver stations and base station controllers (radio network controllers, or RNCs--increased 12 per cent in 3Q 2008, and is up 19 per cent year-over-year. Article

Rumour Mill: Is Europe about to dump DVB-H requirement for mobile TV?

Paul Rasmussen — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:44:20 -0500

In March, the EU issued firm guidelines that DVB-H was very much the 'desired' standard to be adopted for mobile TV services in Europe. However, a statement from the EU issued Wednesday would indicate this support for DVB-H is beginning to evaporate, as officials play with words centred more on interoperability of mobile TV standards than the enforcement of a single technology.

While Viviane Reding, EU Telecoms and Media Commissioner, made reference to the success of mobile TV in Austria, Italy, Finland and the Netherlands as countries where services have been successfully launched, many mobile operators still struggle to implement a successful business model and uptake remains dismally low. A new study by Informa Telecoms and Media claims only South Korea and Japan are expected to see solid growth of mobile TV for the next two years, while Europe is not likely to experience market growth until sometime in 2009.

As reported in Mobile Europe, this week's statement, "aspects related to interoperability and roaming for mobile TV should be given due consideration in light of the wireless nature of the services," is particularly telling given the use of "due consideration"--made more interesting when measured against Reding's statement in March: "For Mobile TV to take off in Europe, there must first be certainty about the technology."

For more:
- go to Mobile Europe

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Cracked: Nokia's Comes with Music DRM

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:37:58 -0500

Having struggled to make an impact on the mobile music landscape, Nokia has suffered a fresh blow following the revelation that its Comes with Music (CWM) DRM can be overcome using a €20 software application.

More frustrating is that the software, labelled Tunebite, has taken an innovative approach to removing the DRM from the CWM tracks which would appear to be hard for Nokia to combat. The Tunebite approach is to play CWM tracks at speed and redub them into a non-encrypted file--claiming to convert a track within a few seconds. It would seem unlikely that Nokia can revise its DRM service at this stage and the company may have to hope that few CWM subscribers become aware of the Tunebite application.

In an effort to boost sales of the CWM service, cell phone retailers are already offering deep discounts on the 5310 XpressMusic handset, although industry watchers believe this may be in anticipation of the launch of the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic touch-screen device that is scheduled for Q1 next year.

For more:
- go to Trusted Reviews

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'We're not quitting wireless,' says Alcatel-Lucent CEO

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:33:42 -0500

Despite being pressured by some of its major investors, the newly appointed CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, Ben Verwaayen, has strongly countered that it is committed to being a major supplier of mobile infrastructure.

At a major presentation on Friday, Verwaayen is expected to stress the company will maintain its R&D resources and will be ready with LTE products when the market demands. His plans are expected to detail how Alcatel-Lucent will focus in a more targeted way than in the past, putting LTE at the very centre of its efforts to regain market share and become a leading supplier within 18 months.

Observers have already questioned this strategy, given that the joint venture has posted seven straight quarters of losses, and believe the company would have better prospects by focusing on a fixed-line market leaving the wireless infrastructure and business to be battled over by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and the Chinese vendors.

One area the company is expected to exit - albeit as the clear market leader today, is the CDMA arena which is suffering rapid decline in demand and margins.

For more:
- go to EE Times

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French regulator to push for 3G network sharing

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:28:29 -0500

The three mobile operators in France will come under scrutiny from the National telecoms regulator, Arcep, with regard to 'encouraging' them to share their 3G network resources.

While Arcep has stated the process will be a public consultation exercise, it is thought the regulator is keen to examine and understand the conditions and extent to which the three operators could share their 3G resources across France. Network sharing is already possible, although France Telecom Orange, Vivendi SFR and Bouygues Telecom are not thought to have made use of the option.

This seeming reluctance to share network elements has prompted speculation that the regulator will define the conditions and the degree to which the three operators should (must?) share their 3G resources.

For more:
- go to Easybourse

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Majority of enterprises in Europe spend more on wireless infrastructure than wired

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:22:11 -0500

Motorola's Enterprise Mobility division has published the results of European research showing wireless infrastructure spending has overtaken wired in the majority of large enterprises. Respondents were also questioned on drivers for wireless adoption and 57 per cent cited their main reason for going wireless as a strategic need for mobility while others included the need to upgrade or replace an existing wired LAN. The research also revealed that 88 per cent of companies expect all their networked equipment to be wireless enabled within three years. article

Presence-based messaging services market set for growth

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:12:51 -0500

The global market for presence-based services such as Push-To-Talk (PTT) and Instant Messaging (IM) is forecast to exceed US$16 billion in 2009. A new study by Insight Research says these services are particularly popular in Asia with carrier revenues for PTT and IM in the region running at almost 25 per cent more than in North America. The study notes that presence-based services are part of a global push by operators to create new, IP-enabled services for the consumer and enterprise markets.

For more:
- go to Cellular News

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Nokia cuts mobile phone sales forecast-again

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:07:30 -0500

Finnish mobile giant Nokia has cut its forecast for mobile phone sales in the current quarter for the third time in less than three months. Within the last month Nokia predicted 330 million mobile phones would be shipped in the last quarter of 2008, a figure the company now feels was optimistic. Nokia would not be drawn into a precise forecast of sales saying only the final number would be lower, presumably meaning lower than 330 million. The company says the entire industry is slowing down and analysts should focus on Nokia's market share rather than actual units sold. Nokia thinks it can increase its market share in 2009 from its present level of 38 per cent. It is also promising reduced capital and operational expenditures.

For more:
- go to The Register

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Nortel wins Spanish rail comms contract

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:02:10 -0500

The Spanish national railway infrastructure company ADIF has chosen Nortel to deploy a complete GSM-R radio solution for its new high-speed rail link between Barcelona and Figueres. Under the US$27 million contract Nortel will also be providing operational and maintenance support for the radio system over the next three years. This new GSM-R project by ADIF links the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line with the Figueres-Perpignan section that crosses the Spanish-French border. The international Figueres-Perpignan high-speed line also has a Nortel supplied GSM-R network.

For more:
- go to Cellular News