Motorola has announced that its first commercial release of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) solutions next year will include products for the 700MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum bands to help operators increase coverage and capacity of their networks as they strive to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband services.

Both the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and government regulatory bodies around the world are recognizing the need for more spectrum to support the arrival of wireless broadband technologies. Motorola intends to meet the needs of its network operator customers by incorporating both current and new frequency bands being considered for LTE into its product roadmap. The timing for commercialization of products in specific frequency demands will be based upon a combination of general 4G spectrum licensing trends globally as well as individual customer demands.

"We believe deploying LTE in the 700 MHz band is mandatory to meet the needs of wireless carriers in the U.S. market as well as a number of other countries globally," said Darren McQueen, Motorola vice president, Wireless Broadband Access Technologies. "In addition, there is a clear demand for LTE in 2.6GHz spectrum band to meet the needs of GSM carriers that have already secured the spectrum in the global market."

Motorola also announced that its LTE solution will support the future LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD) variant to meet the need of operators with a TDD spectrum holding. "Leveraging our WiMAX TDD infrastructure, we have designed a common LTE platform that is capable of both LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and TDD, offering global operators the simplicity and economies of scale across markets," McQueen said.

CellSpin has announced its support for sending ‘tweets' in all four media types (audio, video, pictures and text) to the popular micro-blogging sites Twitter and Pownce.

Users can post multimedia tweets using the CellSpin mobile application, now available on 300+ mobile phones worldwide, or by using the CellSpin website.

CellSpin lets users move beyond Twitter's 140-character limit and take their expression to a new level.  Pownce users can share whole range of multimedia experiences with their friends on-the-go using CellSpin.

According to Bobby Gurvinder Singh, CEO and co-founder of CellSpin, "We're really excited that you can now tweet in your own voice and not be limited to text only. You can also share picture tweets and video tweets of your life as you live it, from anywhere in the world on both Pownce and Twitter. This is the next obvious step in the micro-blogging revolution."

According to Ian Fung, co-founder of CellSpin, "CellSpin makes posting to Twitter and Pownce very easy, and makes it more convenient for users to post multimedia in real-time. This will definitely broaden the base for micro-blogging beyond those who use it only to describe what they had for lunch"

CellSpin is free to users worldwide, and available immediately at www.cellspin.net. CellSpin supports Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0, Blackberry operating systems, with others to follow soon.  The software is now available on over 300 mobile phone models worldwide.

Ericsson company, Redback Networks, has today announced the launch of the SM 480, a smart Ethernet switch that will help operators unify their fixed and mobile networks. The product is the first in a suite of carrier Ethernet products from Redback and Ericsson said to be designed to simplify network architectures, lower carrier costs and accelerate the convergence of fixed and mobile networks.

Smart Ethernet switches provide greater flexibility for operators to consolidate their networks and introduce new services. The SM 480 is a key platform, providing a cost-efficient evolution to an IP-based transport solution and offers future terabit switching capacity. It will be integrated into Ericsson's fixed and mobile broadband solutions including LTE. Key features of the SM 480 include: Layer 2 subscriber management for wholesale broadband services; improved quality of service and reliability for video services; and a simplified IP-over-Ethernet architecture that boosts network availability and reduces downtime.

Bert Nordberg, Executive Vice President Ericsson Group, says: "The SM 480 was developed as a low-cost infrastructure alternative for consolidating fixed and mobile networks. It reflects Ericsson's vision of a single platform for fixed and mobile networks, helping operators to deliver seamless full-service broadband and offering consumers a richer user experience."

Steve Murray, Vice President for Product Management at Redback Networks, says: "Operators are eager for a solution that combines Redback's IP-over-Ethernet innovation with Ericsson's mobile expertise. The launch of the SM 480 highlights the strength of our combined technology leadership in addressing the surging global wholesale broadband market."

In cooperation with its partner, Callmax, Schiphol Telematics (ST) has installed and tested a new mobile broadband IP network at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

The network enables companies at the airport to make use of 'highly secure and reliable' wireless services throughout the entire, almost 28 km2  airport terrain. The network complements ST''s WiFi network, the largest commercial WLAN in the Netherlands, which is primarily available within and around the Terminal complex.

Schiphol's new mobile network is based on the worldwide standard IEEE 802.20, also known as MobileFi. This technology has proved its worth commercially for many years and is now operational in dozens of countries.

The MobileFi network can be directly linked to customers' company networks. In addition MobileFi uses its own licensed frequency band, thus excluding third party failures. This makes the network pre-eminently suitable for equipping mobile VPNs and supporting company critical mobile applications on the airport terrain.

Notebooks and PDAs can be connected using a MobileFi interface card. ST also supplies modems with which it is possible to connect equipment on the basis of Ethernet, USB or WiFi to the network.

O2 has today announced that the iPhone 3G will be available in the UK on July 11 for free on selected O2 consumer and business tariffs and that it will also be available for Pay & Go customers. Existing iPhone customers will be able to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G, taking advantage of the same great offers as new customers.

In a separate announcement, Orange announced that the iPhone 3G will be available in Austria, Portugal and Switzerland on July 11 and in France on July 17. It will launch in additional markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa later this year. Orange will begin taking pre-orders for iPhone 3G later this month 

iPhone 3G is said to combine all the features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK.

Roamware., the leading provider of mobile roaming and media solutions, has today announced that T-Mobile Venture Fund has made a strategic investment in the company.

Joachim Horn, CTO of T-Mobile International said: "As one of the world's leading mobile operators it is important that T-Mobile provides excellent solutions to our over 120 million customers. Delivering a seamless, high quality network experience for our customers is of utmost importance to us. Our investment in Roamware, which has an impressive track record in roaming solutions, will help us to achieve our objective to be leading in the field of mobile roaming and mobile media services."

Roamware is a global leader in mobile roaming and mobile media solutions. The company's voice and data roaming solutions are installed in 317 operator networks in 127 countries. The company's innovative mobile media applications allow consumers to discover, use, and share multimedia content.

We are looking forward to a successful long-term relationship with T-Mobile as we continue our company's growth," said Bobby Srinivasan, President and CEO of Roamware. "As a profitable and innovative market leading organization, we are perfectly placed to capitalize on new opportunities in the roaming and mobile media space."  Eran Pilovsky, Roamware's Executive Vice President and CFO added: "This mezzanine investment will enable us to fund inorganic growth initiatives as we position the company for continued expansion".

Orga Systems has announced its Online Charging System now supports HSL (High Speed Links) as well as SIGTRAN. The higher bandwidth of Orga Systems‘ Online Charging System is claimed to support mobile network operators on their way to all-IP networks, secures MNO's future growth strategies and enables mobile network operators to actively practice real-time customer interaction with all subscribers.

Real-time cost control and notifications, Advice of Charge (AoC) and customer interaction are key for a positive customer experience. Mobile operators will need to provide such services not only to their prepaid subscriber base, but to all their customers. For this, postpaid subscribers would have to be charged in real-time and the Online Charging System would need more capacity. This higher capacity can now be achieved with SIGTRAN, which offers a much higher bandwidth than traditional low bandwidth SS7 links. Orga Systems' Online Charging System can cope with increased charging traffic for voice calls and handle more transactions for more subscribers.

Orga Systems' Online Charging System provides differentiated real-time charging capabilities for advanced 3G, data and IMS-based services. It enables telecom operators to quickly launch sophisticated charging models, promotional pricing campaigns as well as innovative bundles.

The highly modular Online Charging System consists of Orga Systems' OPSC Gold real-time rating and charging environment as well as dedicated active mediation and charging functions. These are provided by Orga Systems` SCP – for IN/Service Control – and the Media Control Point (MCP) for data charging and IP-session control.

Orga Systems has further improved its voucher and recharge solutions Virtual Voucher (VVS) and Orga Systems Voucher Service Center (OVSC). With its Virtual Voucher, winning TMForums 2008 Excellence Awards in the category "Most innovation application of customer care", and its certified OVSC, Orga Systems says it underlines its leadership in the voucher and recharge business for telecommunication operators once more.

Orga Systems' comprehensive voucher and recharge solutions support recharge and loyalty promotions through various channels at the highest level of security. As security is still an essential issue to avoid fraud, Orga Systems strives for further enhancing its products security. OVSCs security algorithm is using 24 bit secret codes and has been certified by UK based security specialist Codes and Cyphers. 

Scratch Card top up still accounts for the majority of recharge globally, but will move towards improved customer proximity (reach of service) with Orga Systems Virtual Voucher, enabling street-seller sales channels. Orga Systems' Virtual Voucher enables subscribers to quickly and easily top up prepaid accounts. Complementing regular voucher sales channels, it also offers increased convenience, on demand reloads, and full distribution management. Prepaid is a major growth driver in today's mobile communications markets. Therefore, cost-effective and easy-to-handle top-up solutions are key for mobile operators when competing for market share.

Many tier one and tier two operators in Latin America and the rest of the world, rely on Orga Systems' Virtual Voucher today already. Orga Systems' Virtual Voucher targets emerging markets around the globe. It is live in operation in Latin America within a huge operator group and gathers commercial interest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

3 Business, the new small business division of mobile operator 3, has today launched a range of new deals for small businesses with the introduction of Business Mix and Match plans.  3 Business' pricing structure is said to offer customers a new level of value and customisation in their company's mobile plans, as well as making advanced Internet services like mobile Skype accessible on a business plan for the first time.

Starting from £12.77 per month, 3 Business customers can choose from a range of options for voice minutes, texts, mobile broadband data and handsets. In addition, 3's Business Mix & Match plans offer free Skype calls from mobiles, which enable businesses to stay in touch for free via Internet calling.

Every Business Mix and Match customer will receive 300 free 3-to-3 minutes, free Skype-to-Skype calls, free voicemail and free Instant Messenger.  Customers can now select from five plans of flexible minutes or texts they need – for example £12.77 a month for 300 minutes or texts right through to £22.98 a month for 1100 minutes or texts.  Depending on the package selected customers also receive further bonus extras including 2000 3-to-3 minutes, 1000 UK texts or 2000 UK landline minutes.

Business Mix and Match also offers customers significant flexibility when choosing handsets.  Customers will be able to select new handsets such as Nokia's N95 or the HTC TyTN II, alongside established handsets such as Nokia's E61 and 6500 slider.

3 Business has also boosted the value of its Business 600, Business 900 and Flat Rate tariffs, giving customers on these price plans 2000 free 3-to-3 minutes. In addition new customers signing up for 18-months will also receive a 10% discount and those on 24-month contracts will get 25% off their recurring charge (discount applies to sharer member not access fee).

Renato Bottini, 3 Business Division Manager, said: "We're bringing the same value and innovation that we've introduced into the UK consumer market to small businesses.  We want to be the best value, to offer the most exciting new services and to give our customers the service levels they expect.  Our voice and text offers are market-beating at every level and our mobile Internet services can be used by smart small businesses to drastically reduce monthly bills.  At a time when all businesses are looking to control costs and do more on the move, these deals can make a real difference.

"The launch of mobile Skype for business is a real first in the market. Consumers have been taking advantage of free Internet calling on mobile for some time and we're now enabling small businesses to benefit from this.  Whether you're calling your office in the UK or your customer in Australia, Skype offers free mobile calling and you can't beat that sort of value."

The first Mobile WiMAX field testing in Finland has been carried out in Savonlinna. Part of a larger Mobile WiMAX technology study initiated by ten Finnish broadband operators, the field test was run by local telephone company SPY and consultancy company Omnitele in collaboration with network company Daimler Finland. The equipment used in the field tests were Alvarion's 4Motion solution with its IEEE 802.16e compliant BreezeMax as radio access network platform. The Mobile WiMAX pilot network was hosted by Savonlinna Telephone Company (SPY).

SPY currently offers fixed WiMAX broadband services in both rural and urban areas to private households, businesses and summer residents. A Mobile WiMAX network was set up for testing purposes in the city centre. The field trial included measuring data transfer rates in different radio environments, handover, response times and coverage.

The Mobile WiMAX project was commissioned by ten Finnish broadband service providers and supported by Omnitele Ltd, a Finnish wireless communications consulting firm. The project aimed at giving a comprehensive view of WiMAX technology and the current market situation, in order to position WiMAX in the technology portfolio of the operators in the coming years. Omnitele acted in the role of project planner and independent supervisor of the field testing.

"The target of the field testing was to test the performance and functionality of a Mobile WiMAX system from both an operator and end users points of view," said Senior Consultant Jouni Salmi of Omnitele. "Alvarion proved to be the only vendor ready to provide the equipment needed and willingness to support the unbiased testing in a real network environment proposed by this project. The most anticipated feature of the 802-16e system being full mobility, this was naturally one of the key features to which we were giving special attention during the tests. In the Alvarion system both intra and inter base station handovers worked flawlessly. Handovers were seamless, totally invisible for the common user. In addition, downloads rates of 6 Mbit/s were achieved with very low latency times. Even mission critical voice applications such as SIP, as well as video streaming, were functioning fully to our satisfaction."