nokia siemens

Intel among winners of 2.6 GHz spectrum in Sweden

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Intel Capital was among the winners of Sweden's auction of he 2.6 GHz band, acquiring 50 MHz of TDD spectrum for $26.5 million. According to local press reports, Intel is seeking partners to build and operate a WiMAX network. The company, which recently plunked down $1 billion in the new Sprint-Clearwire WiMAX business, reportedly plans to rent out the license to partners rather than sell it.

Intel has made it clear the it isn't interested in becoming a service provider to push WiMAX. As part of the Clearwire deal, Intel has the option of wholesaling service from the new operator, but Intel Vice President Sriram Viswanathan told analysts that the company's primary focus "is to enable the platform to have WiMAX available across a variety of devices. You have to expect we're going to be primarily a technology supplier."

The other winners for 2.6 GHz spectrum, which is technology and service neutral, each acquired FDD allocations: H3G Access (2x10 MHz), Tele2 (2x20 MHz), Telenor (2x20 MHz) and TeliaSonera Mobile Networks (2x20 MHz).

TeliaSonera paid the most for its license, $93 million, while Intel paid the least. H3G Access, with only 20 MHz of spectrum, paid $49 million.

To read more about Sweden's 2.6 GHz auction:
- take a look at this telecoms.com article

Rumor: ip.access wins femtocell deal with AT&T

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

According to a report from ThinkPanmure, AT&T has inked a $500 million deal with ip.access for 7 million femtocells, which it plans to sell to its subscribers for about $100. The firm says the deal was fiercely fought with companies such as Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks and Airvana heavily contending for the contract.

Further, ThinkPanmure believes such a win could push Cisco to look at ip.access as an acquisition target.

"We believe Cisco is looking to increase its profile in wireless, and that ip.access is likely next in this strategy as Cisco's femtocell play. We believe that if this were to happen, it would be integrated into the Linksys organization," said the firm.

- Check out ThinkPanmure's web site

Related articles:
Sprint launches femtocell service in two markets Report on Sprint's femtocell launch
T-Mobile plans femtocell trials Report on T-Mobile's femtocell plans

Verizon plans femtocell rollout this year

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone said at the CTIA Wireless 2008 trade show last week that the carrier would begin offering femtocell products and service plans sometime this year. The announcement follows a move by Sprint into the femtocell arena. AT&T also is said to be evaluating a femtocell offering.

What remains to be seen is what Verizon will charge for the femtocell device and the service plan. Sprint charges around $50 for the product and $15 per month for service. Verizon's commitment, broader than Sprint's thus far and the only one by a U.S. telco that has both local wireline and wireless networks, may well bring femtocell deployment to its tipping point in the U.S. market.

To read more about Verizon's femtocell plans:
- take a look at this article from AP

Also, check out our recent webinar: Fixed Mobile Convergence:
Are femtocells and UMA/WiFi solutions competitive or complementary?

Related articles:
Sprint formally launches femtocell, Airave Report
Nokia Siemens and Ubiquisys jointly push femtocells Report
Cisco pours cash into U.K. femtocell developer Report
Operators want femtocells Report

Nokia Siemens works to double the speed of EDGE

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:59:55 -0400

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), has unveiled an upgrade to EDGE technology that doubles its speed. The new software, known as Dual Carrier EDGE, improves the speed to 600 kbps over existing GSM/EDGE networks.

NSN said that its new Dual Carrier EDGE technology, which will be available as a software upgrade beginning in the third quarter, is part the company's strategy to promote EDGE as a true mobile broadband technology. NSN has already announced plans to introduce into its networks the next substantial step, the so called EGYPT'S 2, to further boost end user experience in uplink and downlink performance. This next move should result in downlink speeds of up to 1.2 Mbps and double uplink speeds of up to 473 Kbps, thus quadrupling the capabilities of EDGE today. EDGE Evolution is based on the 3GPP release 7 standard.

"By 2015, we expect to live in a broadband-IP world with 5 billion people 'always on' and therefore NSN is committed to protecting customer investments and continuing to implement leading EDGE technology. Dual Carrier software upgrade is an easy and extremely cost efficient step to bring broadband user experience to GSM/EDGE networks", says Ari Lehtoranta, head of radio access for NSN.

Thanks to the iPhone, EDGE has made a resurgence and we've all heard the complaints about how slow the technology is for iPhone users.

For more about Nokia's EDGE upgrade:
- read this article from Cellular News

Related articles:
- Rumor du jour: HSDPA iPhone coming in June Report
- iPhone owners big users of data Report

Intel: WiMAX/WiFi chip coming in ultramobile PCs

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

Intel Senior Vice President Arun Chandrasekhar indicated that more than one-third of the ultramobile PCs coming to market later this year will include Intel's Atom Centrino platform, which offers a combination of WiMAX and WiFi. During the VON.x conference in San Jose this week, Chandrasekhar said of the 35 third-party designs for Atom Centrino devices scheduled to come to market in the second quarter, 37 percent will include WiMAX. Fourteen percent will include only WiFi and 49 percent will include a combination of WiFi and HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access).

To read more about Intel's Atom Centrino platform:
- check out this article from IDG News Service

Related articles:
- Intel announces WiMAX and WiFi chip Report
- Intel, Nokia, Nokia Siemens announce WiMAX pact Report

Motorola, Netgear announce femtocell products

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:59:53 -0500

A host of femtocell-related news has come out before this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Motorola introduced its first 3G femtocell customer premise equipment (CPE) and announced it will release two commercial devices in the second half of the year. Motorola's 8000 Series Femtocell Ethernet Gateway features a four-point Ethernet gateway, VoIP port, USB connections and a WiFi router.

Netgear announced its new Femtocell Voice Gateway that will become available in the first half of this year. Netgear's box includes a residential gateway with integrated ADSL2+ modem, router, 10/100 wired LAN switch, wireless access point, VoIP, firewall and 3G femto technology from Ubiquisys.

Meanwhile, after the Femto Forum announced plans to help harmonize the integration of femtocells into mobile core networks, NEC and Kineto Wireless announced a standards proposal based on the existing 3GPP Generic Access Network (GAN) model. The two companies said a formal standard will help the market achieve mass market success.

For more about the femtocell announcements:
- read this telecoms.com article

Related articles:
Nokia Siemens and Ubiquisys jointly push femtocells Report
Cisco pours cash into U.K. femtocell developer Report
Operators want femtocells Report

Is WiMAX a service complement for mobile operators?

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:59:58 -0500

A new report from In-Stat says WiMAX is more of a service complement than a competitive threat for mobile operators. The research firm says the debate can be broken down into two camps.

"One camp led by select equipment vendors with no stake in WiMAX has taken an either/or approach to discussing mobile WiMAX," said In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar. "Any gain by WiMAX comes at the expense of other 3G data technologies. In the other camp, infrastructure vendors like Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, and Nokia Siemens see a world where multiple mobile wireless broadband technologies will co-exist. In-Stat believes that the latter camp's view will prevail."

In-Stat backs this up for a few reasons. First, since the technology has been accepted by ITU, that move will open new markets for WiMAX. And mobile WiMAX will be more successful with laptops and other consumer electronic devices than in phones, offering new revenue opportunities for existing mobile operators.

Indeed, many WiMAX advocates have always touted WiMAX as a complementary technology. But when companies such as infrastructure giant Ericsson and leading chip vendor Qualcomm aren't in the WiMAX camp, WiMAX becomes a competitive threat to HSDPA and LTE.

Interestingly, Rupert Baines, vice president of marketing with picoChip, a leading WiMAX base station semiconductor company, says the market has already evolved to the point where WiMAX isn't a competitive threat since it is serving different groups of operators. He notes that most of the W-CDMA community will evolve to 4G LTE while the world's major CDMA operators, with the exception of Verizon Wireless, are going for WiMAX since we've seen Sprint, Japan's KDDI and Korea's SK Telecom deploy WiMAX. "UMB (the 4G path for CDMA) doesn't even count as the walking dead anymore," noted Baines. --Lynnette

ALSO NOTED: Qualcomm must pay Broadcom royalty fees for QChat; ABI Research: Expect 4G royalty rates in the range of 4.8 percen

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:59:51 -0500

> Nokia Siemens announced its intention to purchase IMS database management specialist Apertio for $205.6 million. Article

> Qualcomm must pay Broadcom royalty fees on QChat. Release and Release

> According to ABI Research, the industry should be braced to expect royalty rates for 4G technologies in the range of 4.8 percent to 7.7 percent. Article

And Finally... American Tower sues Goldman Sachs over CEO impersonation. Article

'4G' standards jockey for position

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:59:53 -0500

The International Telecommunication Union hasn't officially sanctioned 4G standards yet but chances are they will be based on OFDMA technology and they'll be Long Term Evolution (LTE), the migration path for W-CDMA, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), CDMA2000's path, and an advanced form of WiMAX since WiMAX was officially sanctioned as a 3G technology.

Verizon Wireless nailed its stake in the ground, committing to LTE to align itself with partner Vodafone. The operator's breakaway from its CDMA2000 path puts UMB in jeopardy since Sprint is committed to WiMAX. Since LTE is a 2009 story what type of momentum will WiMAX gain in the interim?

Related articles:
Nokia Siemens in joint LTE development with DoCoMo Report
LTE could bridge Verizon wireless, wireline Report

Femtocells: Are they really a good thing for vendors?

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

So Ericsson says it doesn't see a mature market for 3G femtocells until 2009 and won't enter the market until then. (See story No. 2). Will it be missing out on the market if it waits that long? Major operators are chomping at the bit to deploy these router-sized mobile home base stations in 2008. Femtocells promise to enable operators to offer consumers high-speed data, VoIP and voice services to the home with reduced infrastructure costs and cheaper end-user prices.

Is that necessarily a good things for infrastructure vendors? As an article in Unstrung notes, femtocells threaten to commoditize the market for base stations, obviously not a good thing for vendors struggling with margins in the infrastructure business. That may be one reason why Ericsson is stalling. Nokia Siemens is also staying out of the business for now.

Vendors like Ericsson would prefer a femtocell market using GSM since the technology is commoditized already. The vendor is ready to go with a GSM femtocell as part of a home gateway that incorporates a WiFi access point, home router and DSL modem. But no operator has committed to using it yet.

I suspect that operators are keen on skipping 2G femtocell technology and opting for the 3G flavor since they stand to gain more revenues in terms of wireless data services and voice.

Still, a host of unanswered questions surrounding femtocells exist. The big ones are around business models and how to integrate femtocells in the network. There isn't a standard way yet. So Ericsson does have a good reason for saying the 3G femtocell market isn't mature yet.--Lynnette