The GSM/3G Network Update published today by GSA – the Global mobile Suppliers Association – confirms 154 HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) have entered commercial service in 71 countries, almost double the number in a similar GSA survey 12 months ago (79 commercial networks in 45 countries – November 23, 2006).

61 HSDPA networks have entered commercial service so far in 2007, delivering mobile broadband access to an additional 20 countries. Another 41 HSDPA networks are in various stages of deployment, bringing the total number of HSDPA commitments to 195 networks in 85 countries.

HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) is the first evolution of 3G/WCDMA, delivering advanced mobile multimedia services with typical user throughputs of 800 kbps to 3.0 Mbps, depending on individual networks and device capabilities. WCDMA is deployed in 70% of all commercial 3G networks globally and is the de-facto 3G system of choice. The Network Update confirms that 190 WCDMA networks have commercially launched in 83 countries.
It means that virtually every WCDMA network operator has launched or is deploying HSDPA today.

Key facts contained in the latest GSM/3G Network Update include:

Networks
81% of commercial WCDMA networks have launched HSDPA

86 HSDPA networks (55%) launched mobile broadband service delivering 3.6 Mbps (peak) or higher in 47 countries. 29 HSDPA networks have launched 7.2 Mbps (peak) service in 19 countries

45 network operators are committed to HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet
Access)

24 HSUPA networks launched in 20 countries

Almost 60% of HSDPA operators combine with GSM/EDGE for service continuity and the best user experience

WCDMA systems – including HSPA, are deployed today in several frequency bands including 850, 900, 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 MHz

Devices
403 HSDPA devices are announced, addressing all segments comprizing 203 phones/consumer devices, 39 wireless routers, 61 laptops/notebooks, and 100 devices for PC/laptop/notebook HSDPA connectivity (USB modems, data cards,
etc)

Almost 150 HSDPA devices support at least 3.6 Mbps (peak) and 63 devices support or can be upgraded to 7.2 Mbps (peak) capability

75 tri-band 850/1900/2100 devices facilitate globalization of HSPA and roaming

121 HSDPA devices are capable of operation at 850 MHz

94 HSDPA devices are capable of operation at 1900 MHz

WCDMA and HSPA are part of the evolutionary roadmap for GSM and the natural evolution path followed by GSM network operators worldwide. The GSM/3G Network Update confirms there are over 960 million GSM, EDGE and WCDMA-HSPA subscribers in commercial HSPA-enabled networks globally.

Subscriptions
The GSM/3G Network Update also reviews the current status of GSM globally and per region, with analysis of subscriptions data provided by Informa Telecoms & Media. Key points include:

2.686 billion GSM (including EDGE, WCDMA-HSPA) subscriptions globally (Q3
07)

1.67 million daily average GSM subscriptions growth in Q3 07

China and India together added over 103 million GSM subscriptions January – September 2007

65 million GSM subscriptions growth in Latin America and Caribbean region January – September 2007; region total 276 million

GSM has over 86% market share of all mobile systems, 2.2% increase since end
2006

Over 158 million WCDMA subscriptions (including HSDPA); 6.6 million average monthly growth

WCDMA subscriptions grew 60% January – September 2007; almost 60 million additions

WCDMA, HSPA responsible for 75% of mobile subscriptions growth in Western Europe in Q3 07

OpenCloud, the supplier of in-network application servers for next-generation convergent telecommunications services, today announced the launch of OpenCloud's Rhino 2.0 Developer Preview Release. Aimed at developers designing flexible, in-network applications for the telecoms industry, the release preview features new JAIN SLEE 1.1 enhancements such as the ability to port Resource Adapters between any JAIN SLEE-compliant environment.

Designed to give developers early access to new JAIN SLEE 1.1 enhancements, the Rhino 2.0 Developer Preview Release enables developers to create applications that that allow customisation of services on a per user basis. The updated JAIN SLEE 1.1 standard provides a portable Resource Adapter (RA) architecture, which standardises how network events are communicated between the Resource Adapter and the JAIN SLEE application server. This means that Resource Adapter implementations that use this release can be deployed and run in any compliant JAIN SLEE container without modification.

       
Read-write application parameters are also possible, meaning that application and user data can now be maintained within the JSLEE environment. Operators implementing applications developed in this environment will be able to offer more highly personalised services as a result.

JAIN SLEE enables operators to break free from proprietary infrastructure vendors and offers innovative applications from competitive third party developers, leading to much faster development and deployment of innovative, new services at a significantly lower cost. Providing a bridge between existing and Next Generation networks, OpenCloud's Rhino is the only carrier-grade and event-based application server available that allows operators to provide both Next Generation and convergent services.

David Ferry, CTO at OpenCloud and JAIN SLEE specification lead commented: "With the Rhino 2.0 Developer Preview Release, in-network application developers will be able to create new, fully portable telecommunications applications and to port existing ones.  The enhancements within the JAIN SLEE 1.1 Resource Adapter specification mean that operators have more choice when it comes to choosing application developers and this will stimulate innovation in the industry.  The Developer Preview Release gives developers a head start for the launch of the full Rhino 2.0 software development kit next year and provides us with valuable developer community feedback." 

Fronde Anywhere, a provider of mobile products for the financial services and corporate sectors, has today launched BusinessMobile as part of its flagship Bank Anywhere suite.

With BusinessMobile business managers can make payments or view account information – via a secure application stored on the mobile phone – wherever they are working at the time. BusinessMobile can also be configured to send proactive notifications that deposits and payments have been received, or reminders to authorised persons to approve a payment. It provides a secure alternative to business internet banking.

"Cash management is a front of mind for small to medium businesses," says Jacob Jegher, senior analyst, Celent. "Using a mobile banking solution focused on this segment allows banks to add increased value, and improve service to this key target segment of customers."

Fronde Anywhere has recognised that businesses have additional banking needs to retail banking customers, such as the requirement for built-in workflow for payment approval. BusinessMobile ensures that only designated staff can access or transact on business accounts. The solution supports tiered levels of access and authorisation including dual authorisation of payments.

"Small businesses do not have finance departments handling payments to suppliers, or chasing up overdue accounts – usually it's the business owner who does this," says Caroline Dewe, executive vice president, products and marketing at Fronde Anywhere. "Slightly larger businesses may have an in-house accountant but they still require involvement from business managers to authorise a payment before it can be processed. BusinessMobile will send the approver an alert enabling them to log in and approve the payment on the spot."

The information services available to BusinessMobile users include functionality to view company credit card balances and statements in real time; manage funds in multiple currency accounts; view balances; and receive various alerts and notifications. These include notifications when a deposit has been received, and alerts when payments over a certain value are made on a company credit card. Payments services include the ability to transfer funds; enable dual authorisation of payments; approve batch payments; make a one-off payment; and receive text notifications for payments awaiting approval.

In addition to these services, user experience, branding and service options can be aligned with the organisation's own brand – differentiating its business mobile banking solution from competitors' offerings.

BusinessMobile can be implemented as a standalone solution, or on a shared platform with the bank anywhere retail banking modules.

AOL UK has today announced the launch of its new mobile portal service. The portal will offer UK mobile users the most realistic interpretation of a full online experience including access to the key products and services of AOL's web portal: Email, web and image search, Web Surf and content channels.

The new portal allows users 30 days of continuous login to their email accounts and the ability to customise both the homepage and content channels to reflect their preferences.

Speaking at the launch, Ariel Eckstein, Vice President, Business Expansion at AOL said, "We are excited about the launch of the new mobile portal. It will raise the bar of how people can expect to interact with the Internet via their mobile phones. Throughout the process we have always been guided by the very strict principle of understanding how consumers want to experience the internet on mobile devices. The simple functionality and relevant and customisable content are a clear reflection of AOL's ability to deliver simple but innovative products that respond to emerging consumer demands."

AOL is also introducing new opportunities for advertisers to develop an edge on competitors through effective and targeted mobile advertising. Together with recently acquired Third Screen Media (TSM), a global leader in mobile advertising, AOL is able to offer advertisers space for targeted banner ads across the AOL and Third Screen Media networks.

Commenting on the launch, Dana Dunne, CEO AOL Europe said, "This launch of the UK mobile portal is a very definite milestone in AOL's development as world's largest and most effective advertising network as well as a leading provider of content. With mobile portals operating in the US, France, Germany, India and now the UK, we are in an ever stronger position to offer advertisers original and highly targeted channels to reach their audiences."

IP Networks deployed by fixed and mobile operators will lead to mainstream Voice over IP and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) services, driven by the increasing popularity of "smart" devices such as PDAs and smartphones, according to a new report from ABI Research.

ABI Research principal analyst Ian Cox explains, "New affordable price points and ease of use will allow consumers to benefit from SIP services such as instant messaging, video sharing, and conferencing, which will join VoIP as it takes over from circuit-switched voice."

Cox adds, "We have seen the start of a revolution, as mobile handsets become the product of choice not just for voice and simple text messaging, but also for any task that one can perform on a personal computer. And as networks are replaced by ‘flat architecture' all-IP with SIP application servers in the core, all forms of communications become possible."

SIP services will develop into the norm after 2010 and rapidly begin to dominate the world's telecom markets. By 2012, almost half of all telecom users will be using at least one SIP service, but likely will have many services from multiple devices able to communicate with other users and services across the Web and between enterprise and public networks. This will generate over $150 billion in service revenue annually with cumulative infrastructure capital expenditure of over $10 billion by that date.

"Using SIP, telephony becomes another Web application, which can be integrated into other Internet services," expounds Cox. "It enables service providers to build converged voice and multimedia services."

ABI Research expects that by 2012, almost 1.2 billion VoIP users to be active, with most users also subscribing to several forms of messaging and video sharing driven by interest in user-generated content. Additional services supported by SIP will include presence, click to dial, buddy lists, e-mail, and Web access, which are assumed to be "core" services and included as standard in any service offering and bundled with broadband access. A portion of the VoIP users will also be connected to an FMC service.

In its recent report The Worldwide SIP Services Market  ABI Research is said to review the global landscape for SIP services. It includes forecasts for the market potential to 2012, including users (consumer versus business), service revenue, and capital expenditure. It forms part of three subscription Research Services: Mobile Operators, Wireless Infrastructure
and Fixed Mobile Convergence.

SpinVox, the founder of Voice-to-Screen messaging, has announced the appointment of Robert Aquilino as President of SpinVox, the UK-headquartered company's operation in the Americas.

Prior to joining SpinVox, Aquilino held positions as global president of two United Technologies Companies: Onity from 2004-2005; and Kidde R&C from 2005-2007. At both companies he dramatically improved revenue and profit performance. Prior to United Technologies, Aquilino held similar posts as global President/CEO of Invisible Fence and Tesa Entry Systems – a division of Chubb plc, where he energized each company's business performance by re-shaping the organization and accelerating growth.

"SpinVox has grown dramatically around the globe and enjoyed tremendous success in attracting both consumers and carriers to our voice-to-screen services," says Christina Domecq, CEO and co-founder of SpinVox. "Bob brings a great deal of executive experience building successful brands like Pepsi, Frito Lay and Kidde by creating a results-oriented culture that enabled those companies to sustain incredible performance."

In less than a year, SpinVox has launched voicemail to text services in the United States with Cincinnati Bell and Sasktel in Canada. Additional deals are in place with Alltel and Rogers in both geographies. Around the globe, SpinVox has formal relationships with Vodacom, Skype, Vodafone Spain, Six Apart and Telstra. SpinVox converts English, Spanish, French and German to text and offers a series of Web 2.0 applications including being able to post on Facebook, Jaiku and Twitter simply by using your voice.

Aquilino, a sixteen year veteran of PepsiCo, held a series of increasing leadership positions at Pepsi-Cola from 1981- 1991 including General Manager of Fountain and Vending for Southern Europe based in Rome, Italy. At Frito Lay from 1991 – 1997, he held positions as Director of National Sales, Vice President of Global Customer Development and Vice President of Global Business Development. Aquilino will report to Tom Clear, now the global Chief Commercial Officer for SpinVox and the previous President of SpinVox.

picoChip has announced the PC6532 Wave 2 femtocell, the next version of its WiMAX basestation reference design. Femtocell access points are optimized for deployment inside buildings to improve coverage and data rates. The new PC6532 WiMAX femtocell is said to be the industry's only single-chip (PHY + MAC) reference design to support WiMAX Wave 2 and full IO-MIMO in both downlink and uplink.

Like its predecessor, the Wave 1 PC6530, the new reference design integrates full PHY and MAC into a single picoArray-based PC205 processor. The PC6532 offers the lowest cost solution for a complete WiMAX Wave 2 femtocell, with seamless software upgrade for existing picoChip PC6530 Wave 1 designs.

The PC6532 supports Wave 2 and full IO-MIMO, with Matrix A and Matrix B downlink, and both MRC and UL-CSM uplink. Wave 2 is the latest version of the WiMAX standard, adding increased support for mobility, while MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) increases data-rate and reliability by simultaneously sending and receiving data via multiple antennas.

"Once more, picoChip demonstrates the power of its software-defined architecture, and we are delighted to be working as partners," commented Paul Senior, CTO of Airspan. "The efficiency of the single-chip solution is attractive, furthermore the ability to seamlessly upgrade our current Wave 1 designs to Wave 2 and full MIMO in both uplink and downlink, gives us a significant advance in performance and capability over alternative solutions."

The picoChip WiMAX architecture is scaleable from femtocell access points to sophisticated multi-sector carrier macrocells with full support for IO-MIMO and beamforming. Both reference designs run on a single processor: the PC205 integrates an ARM processor for MAC functionality, and picoArray multi-core DSP for software defined PHY.

Stuart Carlaw of ABI Research, added, "It is clear that femtocells are an essential part of operator strategy going forward. Carriers are making it clear that this is even more true for WiMAX and LTE than it is for older standards. picoChip is a leading provider of femtocell chips and this announcement reinforces its extremely strong position."

"The problem of good in-building coverage, and the opportunity for femtocells to address it, is becoming increasingly widely recognised," commented Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum. "With use of 2.5GHz and the business case for ubiquitous high-speed data this is even more important for WiMAX. The Femto Forum seeks to promote femtocells across all technologies and we are delighted our members are supporting these air-interfaces."

The PC6532 is based on picoChip's industry-standard WiMAX platform that has demonstrated the widest range of interoperability with third-party terminals through active participation at the WiMAX Forum Public Mobile WiMAX Plugfest for Interoperability events. AT4 Wireless (formerly known as CETECOM) is the WiMAX Forum's approved testing authority for the certification of WiMAX products and uses the picoChip WiMAX reference design as the core in its protocol conformance tester.

The PC6530 Wave 1 WiMAX reference design is available now and has already passed IOT testing. The seamless software upgrade to the PC6532 Wave 2 WiMAX femtocell reference design will be available in Q2 2008.

picoChip is the leading supplier of multi-core DSP delivering extremely high performance at competitive cost points. It offers a powerful platform to develop products for emerging global wireless communications markets such as WiMAX, LTE, McWILL, TD-SCDMA and 4G.

In addition to WiMAX femtocells, picoChip is the leading silicon supplier in WCDMA/HSPA femtocells, with customers including ipAccess and Ubiquisys. picoChip is a founding member, and is on the executive board of the Femto Forum.

Actix, the specialist in Network Status Management (NSM) solutions for mobile operators, has today launched its latest version of its Radioplan ACP (automatic cell planning) system, Radioplan 3.8.  With several new modules and the integration of key features from the Actix Cellopt ACP product line, operators can proactively balance mobile traffic across network resources ensuring the optimum user experience and maximum network efficiency.

Benefits of the new Radioplan system include savings in capital and operational expenditure through a greater than 30 percent reduction in site count, and an 80 percent reduction in optimization process time. Actix's Radioplan solution has proven to be especially effective in radio access network sharing situations, with Actix products being used to guide the mergers of the most ambitious and complex network sharing projects in the world to date.

Customers have also enjoyed significant improvements in received pilot power and signal/noise results, and the discovery of major service-affecting faults through automatic analysis. The Actix Radioplan system is currently in use with over 50 mobile operators worldwide. 

"The ability to make the most of all available network assets in the most effective manner is really a key element of a network operator's capital planning activities," said Johannes Huebner, Director of Automatic Optimization products for Actix. "By selecting the right sites and directing traffic appropriately we can help operators save an enormous amount of time and money, reducing the need for investment in overlapping or expensive new infrastructure and increasing their returns significantly."

"Actix has always been at the leading edge of automatic optimization technology, because we have worked closely with dozens of customers worldwide for more than 15 years, and our engineers and designers are the most experienced in the industry. Actix also has a long, successful track record of innovation in this field, usually being the first to market with a wide range of new ideas and technologies, and this has been recognized by a number of key patents", continued Huebner. "We believe this release of Actix Radioplan is a major step forward, and sets a new standard for ACP systems, in terms of the functional depth, breadth and reliability of the solution".

New features in Radioplan 3.8 include:-
 
– Integration with Actix One framework
– Multi-layer optimization prioritization
– Cellopt Expected Interference (EI) modeling
– Site Count Reduction (SCR) rankings
– SCR for HSDPA and CDMA2000-EVDO
– Automatic overshooting cell identification
– Automatic Remote Electrical Tilt (RET) Update
– Automatic neighbour list planning without planning data
– Automatic Parameter Optimization (APO)
– Incorporation of multiple sources of OSS data
– Generic measurement import functions
– Geolocation data support
– Visualization of switch, measurement and per call data
– Automatic counter aggregation
– Patented Automatic Pathloss Tuning (PLT)
– Enhanced Cellopt Capital Planning (CMP)
– Computation reduction options
– WiMax technology layer
– Reconnect/failover for Workgroup installations

Huawei, the provider of next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators, has today announced the successful commercial launch of High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) network services across southern Italy for Telecom Italia. The network, which is billed to be the fastest in Italy, enables uplink speeds of 1.92Mbps and downlink speeds of 7.2Mbps.

Huawei completed the upgrade and expansion of Telecom Italia's network in record time.  The new network covers many tourist regions, including Sicily and Calabria. Huawei deployed its new generation Green HSPA Node Bs, understanding that it was of particular importance to the operator that the infrastructure should be environmentally sustainable and not detract from the beauty of the region's natural landscape.

Huawei's Green HSPA Node Bs feature fourth-generation power amplifier technology, which greatly cuts power consumption and increases coverage efficiency. Moreover, the new network is IP-ready, meaning that Telecom Italia can take full advantage of its existing IP resources, and ensure minimal long-term ownership costs.

According to Telecom Italia, the speed and efficiency with which Huawei has completed this project is very satisfying. The new network will allow Telecom Italia to speed the transition of its subscribers to the latest mobile services and reinforce its position as a provider of first-class user experiences.

"We appreciate Telecom Italia's trust in Huawei," commented Qiao Xiaoping, managing director of Huawei Technologies Italy.  "We are confident that the success of this project will lead to further opportunities to assist Telecom Italia with its growth – and in turn bring the best in next-generation mobile communications to consumers."

Actix, a specialist in Network Status Management (NSM) solutions for mobile operators, today announced the introduction of Actix Insight, a next generation system designed to automatically identify, collate and diagnose common radio access network (RAN) problems. Insight has been designed to improve the efficiency of RAN engineering and troubleshooting by providing advanced performance diagnostics and intelligently prioritizing that information for presentation via a single user interface.

For many carriers, RAN engineering currently consists of numerous systems, including mini-tools, spreadsheets and databases, each providing their own task list. Actix Insight was developed to replace and automate many of these processes, and has been shown to provide a six-fold increase in performance engineering productivity.

As carriers increasingly turn towards the best practices provided by NSM technologies – which extend the principles of OSS into the radio subsystem, to bring scale and coordination advantages to highly fragmented processes and departments – they require more automated, systematic approaches to integrate and manage existing infrastructures. Actix Insight, built within the new Actix One integration framework, is the central engine designed to form a scalable backbone for future NSM deployments. It enables optimization of the network engineering process and more intelligent and effective management of the workflow through that process to bring large-scale automation to highly fragmented systems in the network performance arena.

"During a number of successful operator trials Actix Insight was shown to provide a far more useful list of daily tasks by giving network engineers visibility of the most service-affecting network issues while prioritizing those issues with the highest impact on customer satisfaction," said Chris Larmour, Actix' Chief Marketing Officer. "In addition to delivering significant improvements in productivity and effectiveness, engineers identified twice as many service affecting issues as were previously being identified, many of which were root causes missed by existing processes and tools. Trials also showed Actix Insight to reduce revenue leakage – the loss of traffic caused by network issues – by around eight per cent," continued Larmour.

Actix Insight coordinates data from existing performance, configuration, and fault management systems, allowing carriers to retain and leverage their existing systems investments. Insight applies best practice rules to provide intelligent automated analysis on top of existing systems to quickly identify and diagnose complex network issues.