The Femto Forum, the independent industry and operator association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, has announced the results of its femtocell radio study.  The study found that femtocells have the potential to deliver an order of magnitude more capacity than the macro network alone when used in dense deployments, even when occupying the same radio channel as the macrocells. It also identified numerous technological solutions that mitigate potential interference with the macro network to remove barriers to wide-scale deployment and maximize the capacity benefits.

The research assessed the impact of femtocells on a mobile network in a wide
range of deployment scenarios in order to explore co-existence issues
including interference.

The study looked at both femtocells using a separate carrier to the
surrounding macro network and those using the same carrier – which pose the
greatest interference challenge, but also the greatest opportunity for
increased spectrum efficiency.

Although femtocells using a separate carrier were demonstrated to provide a
simple means to essentially eliminate interference, many 3G operators do not
have enough spectrum for this to be practical. The Femto Forum therefore
identified technological solutions that mitigate the potential interference
where femtocells share the same carrier as the macro network. These methods
are already being developed for pre-standard femtocell solutions, and Femto
Forum members are working to bring them within the standards framework.

The key solutions are:

.       Adaptive Pilot Power Control, whereby the femtocell dynamically
adjusts its transmit power in response to the current level of signals from
surrounding cells and the desired coverage area.

.       Extended Tests for Dynamic Range, to ensure that femtocell designs
are able to operate reliably even in the presence of nearby high power
mobile phones connected to the macro network (this test has already been
incorporated into the latest 3GPP Release 8 25.104 specification).

.       Uplink power capping of the mobile phone when operating in the
femtocell environment, ensuring that, even in difficult radio conditions,
the phone hands-off to the macro network before its transmit power increases
to the point where macro noise rise is a problem.

.       Dynamic receiver gain management in the femtocell (Automatic Gain
Control or adaptive attenuation), to ensure that femtocells can offer good
service to both near and far mobile phones without unnecessarily increasing
the phone transmit power, therefore keeping the noise rise to a minimum.

This particular study relates to WCDMA, but the Femto Forum represents the
full range of radio standards and similar studies are underway for other air
interfaces.

"At a time when mobile operators are seeing data usage rocket, femtocells
offer an economic and effective way to deal with demand," said Professor
Simon Saunders, the Femto Forum's Chairman. "By utilizing the identified
interference management techniques it has been shown that femtocells offer
operators an effective method to increase capacity and coverage within their
existing networks through dense cell deployments."

Colibria, a provider of messaging and social networking solutions, has today announced the availability of a new Social Network Gateway, to support the growing consumer demand to be constantly connected to their social networks whilst on the move.

The new solution is said to provide a simple enhancement to an existing mobile IM client that enables the user to access the plethora of social networks from within a single application on their mobile handset. 

The Social Network Gateway will also integrate with a mobile phone's contact list to provide the user with complete visibility of the ‘social communication' of each individual within their contact list. The solution also allows mobile users to control how and when they are updated on the activity within their social network, enabling them to simply and easily update their social network by posting pictures, comment and content whilst on the move.

Icomera, a provider of cellular broadband gateways, and UK bus and coach operator FirstGroup, have announced the availability of free Wi-Fi internet access on the RailAir coach service linking Heathrow Airport with Reading in the heart of the UK's technology corridor.

The fleet of RailAir coaches has been equipped with the Icomera Moovbox M Series mobile broadband gateway that offers internet access to passengers throughout the 50-minute journey at actual download speeds in excess of two megabits per second. The Moovbox M Series also provides GPS-based vehicle location enabling FirstGroup to track their vehicles in real time. RailAir is a non-stop service operated by First Berkshire with departures from Reading for Heathrow terminals up to every twenty minutes. FirstGroup has approximately 9,000 buses operating in 40 towns and cities across the UK, carrying 3 million passengers every day.

"Technology such as the Icomera Moovbox offers real opportunities for First Berkshire and our passengers," said Chris Dexter, Chief Operating Officer for First in Berkshire. "We carry a high volume of business travellers who appreciate the ability to get online for free during the trip to and from Heathrow Airport. On-board Wi-Fi is a value-add that draws more customers and differentiates our service from those of our competitors. At the same time, the GPS functionality of the Moovbox means we know exactly where our vehicles are at any specific moment, allowing us to monitor our schedule adherence more effectively, and enabling Service Controllers to make decisions with confidence when delays on the motorway affect service."

According to Icomera, usage of Wi-Fi hotspots on public transport has seen significant growth during 2008. Icomera reported over 3.7 million sessions by over one million passengers in the twelve months to October 31st on its in-vehicle Moovbox systems worldwide, a 272% increase over the period.

"Given the passenger demographic, airport bus and coach routes are a natural choice for Wi-Fi services," said Dave Palmer, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Icomera. "Business passengers can get online at no cost and make the best use of their time. More importantly free Wi-Fi is the preferred way to connect while travelling abroad as it avoids high international 3G data roaming charges."

The RailAir deployment is part of a Wi-Fi initiative currently underway at First based on Icomera's Moovbox technology. First Berkshire is in the process of fitting Icomera mobile broadband gateways on the Green Line service that runs between Royal Windsor and Victoria Coach Station in Central London. The Icomera Moovbox has also been deployed in South Wales by First Cymru on the Shuttle100 commuter coach service between Cardiff and Swansea.

The UMTS900 Global Status Information Paper published by GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association, has confirmed 67 UMTS900 devices have been launched in the market by 14 suppliers. This compares with 9 UMTS900 devices identified in a similar survey by GSA in June 2008 and confirms an increase over seven-fold. The UMTS900 Global Status information paper details UMTS900 network deployments, launches, trials, regulatory developments worldwide, and devices availability.

UMTS900 devices support HSPA data speeds comparable with 2100 MHz devices. The research by GSA confirms that the 900/2100MHz combination for WCDMA-HSPA is becoming much more commonplace.

The research, together with related activities by GSA, is said to confirm the strong momentum for deploying UMTS900, which helps operators to extend voice, data and mobile broadband services coverage by leveraging the advantages of lower frequencies. While the majority of today's HSPA mobile broadband networks operate in the 2100 MHz band, the use of lower frequencies, such as 900 MHz, provides a much larger coverage area. This translates to a significant reduction in the number of cell sites needed to cover rural and suburban areas. Another benefit is improved voice quality.

GSA recently published an operator case study on Elisa, Finland, which concluded that 3G coverage with UMTS900 can save 50 to 70% of mobile network costs when compared to deployments in the 2100 MHz band, including both CAPEX and OPEX. Similar cost and coverage benefits also apply to UMTS system deployments in other lower frequency bands, such as 850 MHz.

GSA has also confirmed that six network operators have commercially launched mobile broadband services using UMTS900: Elisa (Finland), Elisa (Estonia), Optus (Australia), AIS (Thailand), Vodafone (New Zealand), and now DNA (Finland), with the majority being part of a dual-band HSPA (i.e. 900/2100 MHz) system. Several more trials and network deployments of UMTS900 systems are on-going worldwide.

Cellcrypt, a supplier of voice security solutions, has announced the release of Cellcrypt Mobile v4.0 which provides end-to-end voice encryption on Nokia Smartphones and, for the first time, on a range of Windows Mobile devices.

"It is common for organisations and individuals to protect their valuable computer data using encryption technologies; but by and large sensitive voice conversations are only lightly protected and vulnerable to eavesdropping," says Lauri Monroy, Product Manager at Cellcrypt.

"Use of Cellcrypt Mobile provides the confidence that phone calls, whether in the mobile or office environment, at home or overseas, within or between departments and with partners, suppliers and friends, are all protected end-to-end. The addition of Windows Mobile to Cellcrypt's list of supported operating systems allows customers far more flexibility in their choice of existing and new handsets," adds Monroy.

Cellcrypt Mobile 4.0 is claimed to deliver a radical change in the way sensitive conversations are protected on mobile phones, ensuring you can  talk in complete confidence wherever you are on the latest commercially available handsets. Cellcrypt Mobile is a next generation software solution that is said to be easy to download and run on standard mobile phones and uses Voice over IP (VOIP) to deliver secure phone calls with 'unparalleled' voice quality, low voice delays (latency), global coverage and international call capability across 3G or GPRS mobile networks and Wifi.

Cellcrypt uses the same well established and trusted, encryption technologies to protect voice communications that are used to protect laptops, corporate data and internet banking transactions.

Cellcrypt is starting certification to the FIPS 140-2 standard approved by the US National Institute of Standard (NIST) and is currently being evaluated for the UK government CCT Mark.

Mformation Technologies, a specialist in mobile device management (MDM) software, has today announced that T-Mobile International has deployed and is operating Mformation's MDM solution globally, supporting critical management tasks on subscribers' mobile devices.

"The customer is at the center of everything we do at T-Mobile," Arnd Gallmann, Senior Vice President of T-Mobile said. "Advanced Device Management is critical to delivering the best possible user experience, ensuring that our customers' devices and services are fully optimized and accelerating usage of mobile data services. We are using the Mformation platform to remotely manage mobile devices across our international operations, which enables us to provide the best possible service to our customers and to ensure that their handsets are always up to date and working properly."

With the Mformation software, T-Mobile is able to remotely configure and update the software in mobile devices throughout all phases of their life. Mformation also gives T-Mobile full real-time control and complete security. 

Nokia Siemens Networks researchers have successfully demonstrated Relaying technology proposed for LTE-Advanced, enabling an 'exceptional end-user experience delivered consistently across the network'.

Completed in Nokia Siemens Networks research facilities in Germany, the demonstration is said to illustrate how advances to Relaying technology can further improve the quality and coverage consistency of a network at the cell edge – where users are furthest from the mobile broadband base station.

According to NSN, relaying technology, which can also be integrated in normal base station platforms, is cost efficient and easy to deploy as it does not require additional backhaul, says NSN. The demonstration of LTE Advanced means operators can plan their LTE network investments knowing that the already best-in-class LTE radio performance, including cell edge data rates, can be further improved and that the technological development path for the next stage of LTE is secure and future-proof.

Stephan Scholz, Chief Technology Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks, said: "Demonstrating improved cell edge and indoor-user data rates is an important milestone for coverage scenarios. It further strengthens the position of LTE as the major mobile broadband technology. Consumers will enjoy an even richer user experience thanks to higher throughput everywhere in the cell, while operators will be able to deploy their networks in a more flexible and cost efficient way.

"LTE Advanced is the next step in the evolutionary development of LTE technology. Nokia Siemens Networks performs extensive research activities for LTE-Advanced in developing this important technology which will be decisive to our customers in the future."

Performance enhancements have been achieved by combining an LTE system supporting a 2×2 MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system, and a Relay station. The Relaying operates in-band, which means that the relay stations inserted in the network do not need an external data backhaul. They are connected to the nearest base stations by using radio resources within the operating frequency band of the base station itself. Towards the terminal they are base stations and offer the full functionality of LTE.

LTE-Advanced is currently being studied by 3GPP for Release 10 and will be submitted towards ITU-R as the 3GPP Radio Interface Technology proposal. The improved cell coverage and system fairness – meaning offering higher user data rates for and fair treatment of users distant from the base station – will allow operators to utilise existing LTE network infrastructure and still meet growing bandwidth demands.

The demonstration has been realised by using an intelligent demo relay node embedded in a test network forming a FDD in-band self-backhauling solution for coverage enhancements. With this demonstration the performance at the cell edge could be increased up to 50% of the peak throughput. Nokia Siemens Networks is the forerunner in LTE. In 2006 the company was the first to demonstrate LTE technology with data speeds in the 160Mb/s range as well as a successful handover between LTE and HSPA, and continued breaking records in 2007 by demonstrating a multiuser field trial in an urban environment with peak data rates of 173 Mb/s.

Viaccess, a France Telecom company and specialist in conditional access, and Ericsson, the leading telecommunications provider, have signed an agreement for Viaccess to provide security software and services in support of IMS-based IPTV solutions.

Leading TV technology providers have begun to integrate their consumer devices, content protection solutions, video servers and applications software with the new Ericsson IPTV solution, an open, carrier-class ecosystem that is designed to drive the future of converged and blended communications and entertainment services. With this agreement, Viaccess will leverage it's advanced security solution and services further to the telecommunication operators through Ericsson.

Francois Moreau de Saint Martin, Viaccess CEO said: "Viaccess strongly believes that future revenues for operators will come from interactivity, interoperability and flexibility requiring cross platform services. This business strategy requires a secured environment to support the sustainable development of the content industry."

Virgin Media and Yahoo! today announced that Yahoo! oneSearch will facilitate the Internet search on Virgin Media's new mobile portal. The Virgin Media mobile portal will be available to consumers on the 8th of December, and will offer news, music, video, games and entertainment, as well as Yahoo!'s mobile search.

Yahoo! oneSearch is specifically designed for the needs of a mobile user, intuitively returning results directly in the first screen, removing the need for consumers to navigate through thousands of links to find the information they want.

For instance, when a search for a football team is entered, Yahoo! oneSearch returns the latest scores, fixtures, team profiles, news, images and a link to the team's website Alternatively, if a user searches for a film, Yahoo! returns showing times at local cinemas, reviews, news articles and information on the cast.

Yahoo! oneSearch will provide Virgin Media's mobile consumers with relevant information on virtually any topic – from news, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr photos and lottery results, to Web and mobile web sites, travel information, integrated information from Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers, and much more. Yahoo! oneSearch will also display relevant ringtones, wallpapers, games and other content within search results.

Yahoo! and Virgin Media plan to deliver mobile sponsored search results and contextually served sponsored listings within the Virgin Media mobile portal early 2009. With a focus on creating the monetisation engine for the mobile Internet, Yahoo! is enabling advertisers to reach their target audiences at large scale and with impact. Yahoo! is delivering a compelling consumer service via Yahoo! oneSearch that will help marketers connect with mobile consumers.

Commenting on the partnership, Graeme Oxby, managing director of Virgin Mobile said: "Our new Virgin Media mobile portal brings the web to consumers' pockets. A great mobile search service is a crucial part of this and by integrating Yahoo! oneSearch into the portal, we are ensuring our customers have all the information they need at their fingertips. Whether you're checking the Saturday football scores or your favourite web services, you're guaranteed to find what you need with ease."

"Working closely with our 70 mobile operator partners, Yahoo! oneSearch is a starting point for mobile consumers globally, revolutionising the mobile search experience by delivering relevant answers to queries that mobile users have while on-the-go," said Mitch Lazar, managing director of Connected Life Europe, Yahoo!. "Together, Virgin Media and Yahoo! are enhancing the user's mobile Internet experience in the UK while creating unique opportunities for advertisers to reach a highly-engaged audience of mobile consumers."