According to some of the findings within a report 'The Future of Wireless'  launched by Cambridge Wireless, this is a golden age of collaboration – but innovation is needed, not just in creating and delivering new services, but also in developing the business models that will exploit them.  

The smart money is on mobilising a wide range of existing services according to Peter Whale of Xiam Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, who contributed to the report: "There is huge potential for innovation.  Within the wireless environment, we can see a future in which handsets become a primary method of interacting with goods and services over the Internet. As devices become more capable in terms of user interface, displays and download speeds, they also offer opportunities for developing new types of services in niche markets."

Google's Dave Burke agrees, commenting that the future is not in replicating the fixed world but in integrating the senses to improve the experience.  In the report he describes Google's latest developments in speech recognition which would allow hands free access to location based applications – ideal for drivers who don't trust the sat nav – and explains how a new generation of browser-based applications would overcome platform compatibility issues.

Facilitating linear television to include real time coverage of sports over mobile Internet is of great interest to Orange, who reported that people are already using its network for watching TV and this is an inefficient use of the spectrum.  The potential for using a platform independent dongle to deliver the service is described as a means of encouraging early adoption.

Graham Fisher of Orange R&D UK Ltd is the latest addition to the Cambridge Wireless Board.  Speaking about his new appointment, Fisher commented: "Wireless is increasingly moving beyond the phone and has the potential to touch on every aspect of life.  Some of the biggest business opportunities exist in the areas of healthcare, Machine to Machine communications and entertainment.

"One of the interesting things about Cambridge Wireless is that it links people from different disciplines – medical,  computing gaming,  nanotechnology – not just  the traditional wireless community.  This combination of technologies is really exciting and was the theme of a recent Orange report 'the future of football' .

"As Cambridge Wireless brings together people from different disciplines and provides such a great melting-pot for new thinking I am delighted to be involved in its development."

Soraya Jones, CEO of Cambridge Wireless, comments that one of the benefits of membership is the access it offers to the life-science, medical technology and gaming cluster as well as a broad cross section of the wireless industry.

"The report looks at the wireless from a number of perspectives representing the interest of our membership. We are delighted to have Graham on the board and will value his input into the future direction of the association."

The report captures the themes and interests of the Cambridge Wireless Inaugural International Conference, which was held in May and offers an international perspective on the world of wireless.

To read the full report visit http://tinyurl.com/m6mhh2

New market projections from Juniper Research are said to have shown that the number of mobile application downloads will approach almost 20 billion per annum by 2014. The increasing deployment of app stores targeted at mass market handsets, allied to enhancements in storefront interfaces and an ever increasing array of titles appealing to wider demographics have been the main factors driving this market, says Juniper.

The Mobile Applications research found that the remarkable success of the App Store – which passed 1 billion downloads in April – has led a raft of vendors, OS providers and operators to launch their own storefronts, with more poised to launch over the coming months.

At the same time, Juniper has announced its first Future Mobile Awards for Mobile Applications.  The Future Mobile Awards are given to companies that Juniper believes have made significant progress within their sector during the previous year, and are poised to make considerable market impact in the future.

Juniper's first Gold Award for Mobile Apps goes to acrossair for their ingenious augmented reality app, "Nearest Tube", developed for the iPhone 3GS. Co-Founder of acrossair, Chetan Damani says; "We are extremely pleased to have been awarded the Gold award for Mobile Apps by Juniper Research, a number of late nights went in to creating this application and it's rewarding for the whole team to be recognised for the work they put in by an organisation such as Juniper.  Everyone in the technology landscape has heard of Juniper Research and it's a great accolade for all our techies and designers in the team to receive a Gold award for our nearest tube app."

Meanwhile, the Silver Award was given to Tapulous, the developer behind the highly successful ‘Tap Tap Revenge' and its recently published sequel, ‘Tap Tap Revenge 2'.

Around 400,000 BWA/WiMAX subscribers and 50 million new active 3G subscribers were added in Q1 2009, according to the latest quarterly report published by Maravedis.

According to Maravedis, the average BWA/WiMAX subscriber growth rate was 13% over Q4 2008, and there was a 75% year-over-year growth rate since Q1 2008.

"Global service revenue growth is tapering off as WiMAX operators experience ARPU stagnation and subscriber growth slow down," noted Maravedis CEO and Founder, Adlane Fellah. "2008 was a difficult year for WiMAX and during Q1 2009, the slowdown continued as operators watched their wallets closely in order to survive the downturn," noted Cintia Garza, co-author of the report.

The quarterly report – part of Maravedis' 4GCounts subscription service – also explores the motivations for 3G operators to invest in LTE and what challenges they will face when adopting this technology. "Our research reveals that 37% of operators consider LTE as their best option available today to address the need for higher bandwidth services and capacity, while 15% believe LTE will give them added flexibility to use different spectrum bands," said report co-author Basharat Ashai.

The quarter's summary findings include:

– The top 30 mobile operators committed to LTE accounted in Q1 2009 for 1.1 billion mobile subscribers, of which 447 million correspond to China Mobile. Many of these subscribers are served with GSM, 3G or HSPA technologies and will be migrated to LTE in the future.
– 28% of operators pointed to technological delays as the main challenge for adopting LTE; 24% revealed that interoperability between the LTE vendors is a concern; 10% pointed to the lack of spectrum/delayed auctions as a challenge.
– The split by subscriber type among 4GCounts operators was 69% residential and 31% business.
– Q1 2009 recorded WiMAX ARPU was US$42.43 and US$116.82 for residential and business segments respectively, compared to US$42.33 and US$122.64 for the same segments in Q4 2008.
– Out of all CPEs deployed as of Q1 2009, 4GCounts showed 26% were 802.16-2004, 20% were 802.16e-2005, and 54% were vendor proprietary.
– Clearwire USA continues to be the top BWA/WIMAX operator in terms of the number of subscribers. The operator had 500,000 subscribers at the end of Q1 2009, an increase of 5% compared with 475,000 reported in Q4 2008.

Huawei has today launched the 'world's first' convergent Base Station Controller (BSC) which integrates both the GSM BSC and the UMTS RNC (Radio Network Controller) into one multi-mode controller.

The new equipment, combined with the other features of the SingleRAN solution, is claimed to enable operators to achieve the full convergence of multi-mode wireless networks, including greater efficiencies with operation and maintenance, radio resource management and transmission resource management. Specifically designed to support multiple wireless systems via a single uniform access network, the SingleRAN solution integrates radio bearers for voice, narrowband data, mobile broadband and more into one network element instead of many, says the company.

"Convergence and scalability have become ubiquitous links in our value chain and the launch of the world-first multi-mode BSC is another key step towards a fully converged network evolution for operators," said Mr. Wan Biao, president of Huawei wireless product line.  "With one purchase decision, operators can now realize the optimal benefits of ownership from a cost and time efficient solution for multiple network investment protection, enhanced performance, reduced OPEX and CAPEX, and improved TCO."

Huawei has also launched two software defined radio (SDR)-enabled RRUs (radio remote units) with dual-transmitter capability – an industry first. The first RRU supports GSM/UMTS/LTE technologies by using the same 1800M/1900M/850M/900M spectrum and is the only SDR-enabled RRU product to have received standardization by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. The second SDR-enabled RRU can provide UMTS/LTE services while using the same 2100 MHz spectrum.

Huawei's SingleRAN solution enables operators to achieve full convergence of multi-mode wireless networks, including base stations, base station controllers, sites and operation as well as maintenance management. It provides a unified radio access network which can achieve GSM, UMTS and LTE functionalities simultaneously and is software configurable according to different traffic models to have more GSM or UMTS capacity.

Mobile Marketing Agency, Bluestar Mobile, a YOC Group Company, today announced that it has partnered with Telegraph Media Group (TMG) to relaunch the publisher's mobile website m.Telegraph.co.uk. The redesigned mobile service will give readers access to the Telegraph's content from the whole of Telegraph.co.uk and is tailored to any mobile screen. m.Telegraph.co.uk also now offers content from Telegraph TV as well as a site-wide mobile search.

The deal is the second to result from YOC's acquisition of Bluestar Mobile and Bluestar will manage the design and build of the mobile site for TMG and YOC will, in association with TMG's commercial team, manage the ad sales; ensuring that all adverts are targeted to each individual reader.

"Given the way that the media is fragmenting, becoming increasingly personal and interactive, mobile provides the perfect channel for publishers to directly interact and communicate with their user base," said Oli Roxburgh, Managing Director of Bluestar Mobile. "The combination of Bluestar's strengths in building mobile Internet services along with YOC's mobile advertising expertise means that we are able to offer a strong commercial model to publishers."

Bluestar Mobile already counts newspaper titles such as The Sun, The Times, The News of the World, The Independent and The Guardian amongst its customer portfolio.
 
Christian Louca, UK Country Manager & Head of Publishers at the YOC Group said of the partnership: "As renowned media owners like The Daily Telegraph embrace the mobile channel as part of their existing digital platforms, this in turn shows other brand owners and media groups how a blend of mobile creative, marketing and advertising can enhance their traditional business models. The fact that consumers are engaging with the mobile experience so readily shows the opportunity that's out there."

ITU and Qualcomm have reached an agreement to improve emergency communications for disaster preparedness and to coordinate relief activities in the aftermath of a disaster.

Qualcomm has agreed to donate to ITU a Qualcomm Deployable Base Station (QDBS) with a total estimated value of nearly USD 500,000. The base station will enhance ITU's capacity in deploying mobile telecommunications to assist countries in preparing for disaster and in strengthening response and recovery mechanisms.

Based on 3G CDMA technology, QDBS is said to be a compact, quickly deployable and easy to operate mobile solution for providing first-responder communications. The cellular system can be forward-deployed to supply vital wireless communications.

"We are delighted by this alliance with one of our development Sector Members," said Mr Sami Al Basheer, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. "QDBS brings with it the wireless technology that is so essential in bridging the telecommunication gap when terrestrial networks are knocked out by natural disasters."

Through its Wireless Reach initiative, Qualcomm says it works with organizations such as ITU to bring wireless technology to those who need it most.

"We are proud to work with ITU and provide a useful system to enhance their emergency communications programme," said Shawn A. Covell, Senior Director of International Government Affairs for Qualcomm. "Wireless Reach is fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with ITU in order to help make a difference when a disaster strikes."

Lime Microsystems and Blue Wonder Communications have announced they are jointly developing a complete LTE reference platform that will enable early adoption of the emerging standard. The fully characterised LTE reference platform, it's claimed, will accelerate time to market for OEMs developing LTE systems.

The reference platform is based on Lime Microsystems' integrated single chip RF transceiver, the LMS6002, and Blue Wonder's baseband solution.

"We are delighted to be working with Blue Wonder to accelerate the rollout of LTE," comments Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO, Lime Microsystems. "Co-operation between silicon and system suppliers is an essential first step towards designing end products that will use the LTE standard. The combination of Lime's single-chip RF transceiver and Blue Wonder's advanced baseband solution is the first of its kind and will allow early adopters to accelerate the time to market of LTE products." 

"Lime's excellent RF transceiver will allow us not only to demonstrate our LTE solution but will also provide us with the required flexibility to address all aspects of the LTE standard," comments Dr. Peter Meyer, Managing Director at Blue Wonder Communications. "Together with Lime we can provide a complete pre-certified LTE solution, which will dramatically reduce time to market for our customers."

Lime Microsystems' LMS6002 is a multi-band multi-standard RF transceiver IC designed for femtocells and small cell basestations. The highly frequency agile transceiver operates at user-selectable frequencies between 375MHz and 4GHz and is suitable for 3G, WiMAX, and LTE standards. The transceiver can be digitally configured to operate in the full range of frequency bands, with 16 user-selectable bandwidths up to 28MHz. This removes the need for individual transceiver chips for each of the different bands, and allows a small cell base station to be reconfigured rapidly and simply. The resulting reduction in bill of materials minimises costs and inventory for OEMs, while the single-chip device also offers footprint and cost advantages over discrete solutions.

Blue Wonder's advanced baseband solution is a complete LTE subsystem that can be integrated in System on Chip platforms. It provides a 3GPP Release 8 TDD and RFF multi-mode solution, up to category 4 and is designed for low power consumption. Blue Wonder will provide an FPGA based development system, which includes an interface to Lime's LMS6002 transceiver to allow all required interoperability tests.

Anritsu has introduced the BTS Master MT8221B, a handheld base station analyzer that has been  specifically developed to support emerging 4G standards as well as installed 2G/3G networks. The MT8221B's platform provides a 20 MHz demodulation capability to measure technologies such as LTE and WiMAX, and a 30-MHz Zero-Span IF Output for external demodulation of virtually any other wideband signal. In addition, a Vector Signal Generator option with the flexibility to generate two modulated signals plus noise is available for comprehensive receiver testing.

Senior cell site technicians and RF engineers can use the BTS Master MT8221B to test and verify the installation and commissioning of base stations and cell sites, for optimal wireless network performance. It is equally suited for on-going maintenance and troubleshooting to help ensure the operation of wireless network infrastructure. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as dropped calls, call denial, or call blocking rates due to a malfunction at the cell site or interference, can be easily and accurately detected with the BTS Master MT8221B.

Existing 2G/3G networks and 4G networks being rolled out can be tested with the BTS Master MT8221B. The analyzer can measure the RF quality and modulation quality of a wireless signal to verify the performance of virtually every subsystem in a base station's transmitter. Downlink Over-the-Air (OTA) Quality tests verify the performance of the downlink with the OTA scanners.

The BTS Master comes with Master Software Tools (MST) that allows data acquired by the analyzer to be easily transferred to a computer. MST saves significant time generating reports by utilizing the Trace Rename Utility and Group Edit. Efficient review of up to a week's worth of data collected by the BTS Master can be consolidated into one file through MST's Folder Spectrogram's 3-D view, which allows users to zoom into acquired data and provides independent 3-axis rotation control.

MST also provides a Remote Access Tool (RAT) to monitor and control the BTS Master remotely over the Internet. With the tool, supervisors can remotely verify measurements that have been taken in the field. RAT also saves cost by creating un-staffed remote listening posts for interference analysis, thus freeing up technicians for other trouble spots.

The BTS Master MT8221B is small (315 x 211 x 94 mm), lightweight (4.9 kg), and battery operated, making it easy for technicians to use it anywhere at a cell site. In less than 5 minutes, measurements can be made. The analyzer uses the field-proven design of all Anritsu handheld instruments, which means the BTS Master MT8221B will deliver reliable performance in rugged outdoor environments.

All key field measurements can be made with the BTS Master MT8221B. Technicians and engineers can conduct line sweeps, analyze components and antennas, troubleshoot down to a field replaceable unit (FRU) in the base station, verify the performance of the cell site's backhaul lines, and locate hard-to-find interference problems with the BTS Master MT8221B.

The mobile communications markets in Eastern Europe are growing strongly from usage and revenues points of view, according to new analysis from Frost & Sullivan, which says that defining these markets as emerging may no longer be accurate as they are demonstrating high growth and looking for new opportunities.

The analysis – Mobile Communications in Eastern Europe: A View on Key Markets – assesses the market situation in Eastern Europe through the analysis of six key markets: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey.

"Eastern European markets are fully penetrated and are rapidly adopting mobile broadband solutions," notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Saverio Romeo. "The mobile phone is becoming critical for fast connectivity and innovative services, effectively substituting the lack of fixed infrastructures."

According to F & S, the main challenge to the industry currently comes from the economic recession. The lack of credit for investments and the decrease in consumption will slow down the growth experienced by Eastern European countries. Moreover, regulatory limitations can hamper future developments, it says.

The mobile industry's response to this scenario consists of two main actions, according to F &S.

"Services and processes' optimisation, in order to efficiently use existing resources and reduce the need for capital investments is critical," says Romeo. "Equally important is pursuing technological and strategic innovation through synergic cooperation between participants with different know-how with the aim to offer disruptive solutions to consumers at reasonable prices."

Cooperation between regulatory authorities and the industry to overcome the challenges of the market will be vital. Cooperation between public sector and the industry for high-intensive investments, mainly infrastructures, will enable sustained market expansion, concludes F & S.