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Your advert here!!! Technical Editors:
Last modified: | Mobile Insight Vol: 8 Issue 321 June 12th 20063 to acquire HSDPA from NEC/Siemens
In an
interesting twist, in the UK, 3G network operator – (Hutchison) 3 – has announced it will acquire
HSDPA technology from NEC.
That's NEC in conjunction with Siemens. And, since 3 has outsourced its network management, that gear will then be run by Ericsson. Anyway, NEC describes its coup as "a real, live, commercial HSDPA pilot." So Manx Telecom's HSDPA
service wasn't real then? The clue, however, is that NEC says its gear is working on "a live network, successfully intermixed with heavy Release 99 traffic, on a live, busy Node B, in Central Reading." Ah, there's no major conurbations on the Isle of Man, so that's a fair point.
However, NEC can't help but claiming that its HSDPA (which O2 calls super-fast 3G) offering "effectively facilitates high user peak rates of downlink up to 14.4 Mbit/s
by placing key packet data processing in the Node B closer to the end users." So
here we go again with outrageous claims for data over cellular.
NEC do admit that they've seen speeds of 1.4 Mbit/s which is "over three times faster than current 3G speeds and more than forty times faster than GPRS." The interesting bit is that 3 is planning to implement HSDPA
on its commercial network in Q3-Q4 2006.
The full Inquirer story ... 3 acquires 3G tech from NEC, Siemens www.nec.co.jp/press/en/ O2 fastest growing i-mode outside JapanHaving acquired some 0.25 million subscribers in just seven months, O2 claims its UK service is the fastest growing i-mode service outside Japan. It also claims that some 75 per cent of those subscribers (ie 200,000) actually make at least one data connexion every 30 days. That's a far higher take up than any WAP service. Since O2 operates a WAP portal, O2 Active, as well, it has also discovered that i-mode users spend twice as long online than WAP people. It wouldn't say, however, if they actually spend twice as much. The UK service now boasts some 150 i-mode sites although it seems that many use i-mode to track what they would normally do via a PC. That is, go onto eBay to see how their bids are doing or go onto Kelkoo for shopping price comparisons. Significantly, Streetmap – which started out on O2's i-mode service – was so impressive that it migrated the technology to WAP. O2 has obliged by offering both WAP and i-mode users free Streetmap maps. One facility which O2 has kept under its hat, is that it now provides an i-mode subscriber's location free to its content providers if they choose to opt in, naturally. The company claims it will be 'opening up' its support to any content provider that requests it – whereas previously it had been selective - targeting the providers it wanted. 02's comments on revenue sharing were also interesting. While it conceded that providers get a higher share on i-mode rather than WAP, this doesn't necessarily lead to higher revenues. That's because O2 Active is still the UK's biggest WAP portal – exceeding both Vodafone Live! and Orangeworld. When Active and i-mode grow closer numbers, O2 said it would revue its revenue sharing models.
The full Inquirer story ...O2 grows i-mode fastest outside Japan Mblox may acquire LaNetro ZedThe company which claims to be the second largest mobile content company in the world, LaNetro Zed, may be acquired by another mobile industry giant, Mblox. That's according to rumours reaching Mobile Insight's ears. Based in Staines, England, Zed had a very public spat with ICSTIS – the body which monitors premium rate services in the UK. Zed managed to get itself fined £25,000. Which is pretty good going since it's about half the maximum fine ICSTIS can impose. Ironically, we previously compared Zed's cavalier attitude towards customer support with that of Mblox – which was embroiled in the Crazy Frog fiasco. See ...Mobile Insight Issue 306The full Inquirer story ... Zed to be acquired by Mblox www.lanetrozed.com Desktop handset negates the fixed lineMobile network operators could steal customers completely from their fixed line competitors, according to David Robson of Burnside Telecom. His company produces a cellular phone which looks and acts as if it were a fixed line handset. Burnside's P23 Desktop Mobile Phone functions like a regular telephone. Consequently, the P23 is ideal for cellular refuseniks – particularly the elderly. But Robson reckons it can actually prove cheaper to makes calls via the P23. You can even program it to default to an emergency number (so you don't have to remember what the emergency services number is). One of the drawbacks with the P23 (which is based on a TC35i GSM module from Siemens/BenQ), is the cost - £148.99 (£175.06 Including VAT). Operators like Orange are starting to offer broadband to their existing cellular subscribers. If they took the Burnside approach they could even poach customers among landline users. So they'd only need to promote a three-play (telephony, broadband and TV). More details see ...Burnside Desktop Mobile Phone.The full Inquirer story ... Cellular telephony can now totally replace fixed lines Mobile RSS in the makingThere is an obvious need for a version of RSS news feeds that will work on mobile phones. Ideally it would be a news ticker that scrolls across your handset's default/idle screen. That would make it easier for news organisations to port their existing feeds to mobile devices. Typically, Japan's DoCoMo has set its own standard in this area – called i-channel. Working to that spec would be an ideal way of trialling a ticker service. Guess what? It's re-run of QR codes all over again. Japan has been using QR style barcodes for ages. But here in Europe we've gone with a different standard – Datamatrix codes as offered by the likes of mobiletag.com. Mobile Insight would dearly love to provide developers with details of i-channel's workings. However, the relevant page appears to be entirely in Japanese.The full Inquirer story ... Mobile version of RSS in the making
www.nttdocomo.co.jp/service/imode/news_message/ichannel/index.html The full Inquirer story ... SurfKitchen claims on-device leadership
www.surfkitchen.com In Site of the Week (by Tony Dennis)This week Daily Telegraph - Alex Media companies are finally getting the hang of the mobile Internet. British national newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, is offering its humorous carton, Alex, to all those with a WAP phone. More to the point, the site even has an advert. The site's creator is Graphico. You can get the cartoons by texting Alex to 82088. Luckily the Telegraph Web site has a page which explains how you can pay for things on the WAP site. It includes instructions for how to pay via Paypal and Bango. Apparently this works for subscribers on international GSM networks who can't pay via reverse premium rate SMS. http://mobilealex.telegraph.co.uk.
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