Activist Investor Takes Seat on Sprint's Board
By Teresa von Fuchs

Activist investor Ralph Whitworth has been added to Sprint Nextel's board. Whitworth owns roughly a 2% stake in the carrier through his investment company Relational Investors. The board position will give him greater influence over the troubled carrier's strategic decisions.

Last fall,Whitworth threatened a proxy fight with carrier management, which has nearly all been replaced since then, if the company did not make improvements.

"I look forward to assisting my fellow board members to rebuild shareholder value," Whitworth said, in a statement. "A turnaround at Sprint Nextel won't be easy, but I believe the ingredients are in place to get the job done for the company's shareholders. I am encouraged by the company's new CEO, Dan Hesse. Dan has committed to review all aspects of the company's business and shown a willingness to make tough decisions."

 

U.S., Canadian BB Users Suffer Outage
By Teresa von Fuchs

BlackBerry users across the United States and Canada suffered through a major service outage yesterday, the second disruption in less than a year. Research In Motion (RIM) has not identified the cause of the outage, but said that customers began experiencing "intermittent delays" starting about 3:30 p.m. EST; data service was restored roughly three hours later. Voice and text services were not affected.

In an apology to customers, RIM said that, "no messages were lost" and that the company "continues to focus on providing industry-leading reliability in its products and services and apologizes to customers for any inconvenience."

Although there is no official report of how many users were affected by the outage, nearly all major U.S. and Canadian carriers reported customer complaints. RIM has 12 million subscribers worldwide.

The most recent major BlackBerry service outage was last April; the previous one was nearly two years before that.

 

Microsoft Nabs Danger
By Teresa von Fuchs

Microsoft has announced plans to purchase Danger, maker of the platform behind T-Mobile's Sidekick handset line. Silicon Valley-based Danger was co-founded by Andy Rubin, who is currently heading Google's Android project.

According to a joint statement, the acquisition promises to "align Danger's nearly 10 years of expertise in the mobile consumer space with Microsoft's vision to provide innovative and compelling mobile experiences to a growing base of customers."

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division said, in a statement: "The addition of Danger serves as a perfect complement to our existing software and services, and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 

T-Mobile Switches to Yahoo!
By Teresa von Fuchs

European carrier T-Mobile has partnered with Yahoo!, replacing Google, as its preferred provider of Web services in Northern and Central Europe. The deal was announced at the Mobile World Congress. Although financial terms were not disclosed, Yahoo! says it will reach nearly 90 million mobile customers through the agreement, which covers T-Mobile users in 11 European nations including Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Poland, where the two had an existing deal. T-Mobile is the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom.

The agreement will begin at the end of March, when T-Mobile's previous deal with Google expires.

Yahoo! also said the deal brings the number of mobile subscribers within its reach due to carrier partnerships to more than 600 million. During this year, the company said it plans to focus on joint marketing efforts with carrier partners to convert mobile customers to regular users of Yahoo! services on their mobile phones.

In more Yahoo! news, the Internet company has formally rejected Microsoft's buyout offer, saying that "after careful evaluation" the board decided that the offer was not in the best interest of its shareholders and that it "substantially undervalues Yahoo!."

Late last week, Microsoft bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo! in its effort to expand its reach in the Internet space. Microsoft urged the company to reconsider the bid.

 

AOL Announces Open Mobile Platform
By Teresa von Fuchs

AOL has entered the open mobile platform fray, announcing plans to release an open platform for developers to create mobile applications for any handset by the middle of the year. AOL reportedly said it decided to go with an open platform to allow developers to improve it as they like.

Based on technology AOL acquired from Airmedia last year, its Open Mobile Platform will allow developers to convert mobile applications to formats compatible with any mobile device. The platform is OS-agnostic, so developers are not limited to working with devices that only run one operating system.

AOL also said that the client is so small developers could include it with the application, so users don't have to download more than one item to their phones. But the company also hopes carrier and device manufacturers will integrate its mobile platform into handsets going forward.

As part of the platform, developers will be able to use AOL services as part of their applications, but they are not required to.

 

Vodafone Chief: Consolidate Operating Systems
By Monica Alleven

BARCELONA—In Tuesday's keynote at the Mobile World Congress, Vodafone Group Chief Executive Arun Sarin called for the industry to focus on fewer operating systems - a handful as opposed to 30 or 40 - and consider rolling WiMAX under the LTE umbrella.

"We have to narrow the range of operating systems," he said. Instead of 30 or 40, it makes more sense to have three, four or five, he said, adding that he would not advocate just one. "We have seen that movie before." The marketplace should decide which ones dominate, he said.

Regarding WiMAX, he said the industry should consider making it part of LTE to avoid dueling standards, which the industry went through with TDMA, CDMA and GSM, and that only led to unproductive debates. What matters most is not the technology, but services, he said.

The industry also knows a great deal about its customers and should think about using that information in relevant ways without giving up privacy protections. He cautioned the industry against becoming dumb pipes. The industry is at an important crossroads, he said, where operators have to invest to bring new mobile Internet services to life. The industry cannot "sit back and become bit pipes," he said. 

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo discussed Nokia´s efforts at going green and showed off a remade prototype phone made from recycled materials. The phone cannot make phone calls; it is only at the concept stage, but it demonstrates what can be done. Nokia already has projects under way to minimize packaging and create phones from recycled, not refurbished, parts.

China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou also discussed what the operator is doing as part of efforts to address global warming, including energy conservation and emission reduction.

 

MWC Vendors in Post-iPhone World
By Monica Alleven

BARCELONA—The Apple iPhone may be last year's big news, but its effects can be seen and heard at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) as veteran handset makers display their latest wares.

Sony Ericsson, for example, ramped up the development cycle for its new touchscreen X1, the first product in its Xperia line-up. But while the X1 might look a lot like Sony's closest answer to the iPhone, executives point out that Sony Ericsson had a touchscreen back in 2001, and given the development cycle of handsets, it obviously was under development well before the iPhone ever launched.

Sony Ericsson executives downplayed the use of Microsoft Windows 6 in the device - a first for the Symbian shareholder - on stage during a press conference Sunday night, but Chief Technology Officer Mats Lindoff said in an interview that the use of Windows Mobile was driven by the need for high-end device features such as DVD-like video quality and easy access to e-mail, including corporate e-mail, among others.

Plus, he said, Sony Ericsson had requests from U.S. operators for Windows Mobile, and the company is striving to make its business stronger in the United States. While no carriers were announced, the X1 works on U.S. bands and has A-GPS.

Over at Nokia, executives say they have numerous new handsets targeting various groups, whether they be music lovers, gamers or mobile Internet users, with a range of devices capable of doing all those things and more. "We want our consumers to have a simple and easy-to-use experience on their phone," said Mikkel Drucker, director of the Connect Product Group/Connect Category, devices. Nokia plans to introduce a touchscreen device in the second half of this year.

Drucker pointed to the four devices Nokia is introducing at the show - the 6210 Navigator, the company's first GPS-enabled mobile device with an integrated compass for pedestrian guidance; the 6220 Classic with a 5-megapixel camera with A-GPS; the N78, a multimedia computer with music, navigation and photography; and the N96, another multimedia computer optimized for video and TV. Prices range from about $437 for the 6210 to $800 for the N96. "All consumers are different" and each of the products meets different needs, Drucker said.

Handset makers say they welcome the competition the iPhone brings. The device has changed the industry's notion of how consumers interact with a phone, but no one wants to let Apple take over, said analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. "There's room for more than just Apple at the high end of the market, absolutely, especially in this market," he said, noting that rankings such as Interbrand put Nokia's international brand far ahead of Apple's, with Nokia at No. 5 and Apple at No. 33 for 2007.

 

JumpTap Gets Deal with TeliaSonera
By Monica Alleven

BARCELONA—Mobile search and advertising solutions provider JumpTap is celebrating a big win at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. The company signed a multinational deal with TeliaSonera in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

The deal means JumpTap will deploy a search and advertising solution across seven different network operators in Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Estonia and Lithuania.

JumpTap executives say it's an aggressive search and advertising deal with one of the most innovative operators in the world. Under the agreement, JumpTap will be TeliaSonera's exclusive partner for all mobile advertising and paid search ads served on SurfPort, TeliaSonera's mobile Internet portal, and on SurfOpen, an Internet toolbar to be launched throughout the group during 2008, which follows the user both on- and off-portal.

 

Bluetooth Finds High-Speed
By Brad Smith

The wireless personal area networking technology Bluetooth has been in search of a high-speed path for several years. It has been focused on using ultra-wideband (USB), but its marriage to that technology isn't going to happen very soon.

As an alternative to UWB, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is going to use a Wi-Fi link to provide high-speed connectivity to swap large format files, like video, music and photos.

Bluetooth SIG Executive Director Mike Foley said Bluetooth will establish the pairing and security between two multimedia devices and then use Wi-Fi for the high-speed transfer. He said many of the SIG members already are building devices that have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so the SIG's action will set up protocols to make sure there is interoperability.

It likely will be 2010 before a Bluetooth-UWB solution is possible, Foley said, so the SIG wanted to be pragmatic by using the Wi-Fi technology that already exists. "That said, work is continuing with UWB," he said. "We're committed to speedy wireless personal area network connections and we'll always be looking for the best near-term and long-term way to accomplish that."

With Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, consumers will be able to quickly transfer or synchronize music libraries between a PC and MP3 player, for instance, or send video from a mobile phone to a computer or TV screen.

Foley said Bluetooth/Wi-Fi products should be in the market in about a year.

 

WiMAX Forum Preps for Growth
By Rhonda Wickham

The WiMAX Forum is busy and expects to get busier in the next couple of years. That was the message from its luncheon at the 2008 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Since late last year when the forum began accepting applications, the WiMAX Forum has received 28 Mobile WiMAX products in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz frequency bands. Besides those frequency bands, the forum also plans to expand its product development roadmap for Mobile WiMAX certification in the 700 MHz frequency band. 

"With more than 260 commercial WiMAX deployments rolled out on a global basis, WiMAX technology is the only commercially available OFDMA-based wireless technology today to support the rapid expansion of mobile broadband Internet access and the broad proliferation of the open Internet concept that so many mobile service providers are talking about here this week," said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum. 

The first Mobile WiMAX products are expected to receive the forum's seal of approval in Q2 2008 and to reach the market later this year. The forum forecasts that more than 950 products will undergo Mobile WiMAX certification testing by 2011, representing an influx of new consumer devices and infrastructure equipment to support continued rapid WiMAX user adoption in the 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz frequency bands. 

The forum currently has a network of six labs - China, Korea, Spain, the United States and two in Taiwan. It will add three more facilities in Brazil, India and Japan to handle the anticipated certification demand.

 

Agilent Technology Expands Wireless Testbeds
By Evan Koblentz

Agilent Technologies announced a variety of new testing products for wireless networks this week at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

New offerings from the test-and-measurement company include a real-time signal analyzing platform, which now uses LTE and SAE technology with Gigabit Ethernet in mobile network analysis. This is used for analyzing signaling procedures, mobile services and streaming media quality.

Its new modules include J7880A signaling analyzer software, J6860A distributed performance manager and J6804A distributed network analyzer. The 7880 and 6860 are available now; the 6804 will be available in April.

Also new from Agilent are:

• A quality-of-service analyzer for prioritizing service and network problems. It has a session trace option; both are expected to be available by late Spring 2008;
• WiMAX analysis software testing of network and individual call performance on R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6 and R8 interfaces, which also has remote configuration and control, available now;
• A version of the Mobile WiMAX Wave 2 Protocol Test supporting Runcom Technologies' chipset, which is currently in the testing phase;
• A measurement receiver for Mobile WiMAX, the W1314A, supporting support GSM, UMTS, IS95, cdma2000, 1X EV-DO, iDEN and WiMAX, and which integrates with the E6474A network optimization software, all available now;
• MIPI D-PHY protocol test solution, supporting Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2) and Display Serial Interfaces (DSI) for mobile devices, using the 16900 logic analyzer platform, available now;
• The Anite SAT LTE Protocol Tester, which is the first in a planned series of 3GPP LTE test products on top of Agilent's E6620A LTE UE platform, available now and soon to be available with SAS and CT conformance test systems; and
• Manufacturing test support for WiMAX Devices based on the Sequan Wave 2 chipset

 

Door Wide Open for FMC
By Rhonda Wickham

If wireless operators aren't careful, they may miss the fixed mobile convergence (FMC) boat. In an independent survey of 300 European enterprises, Tango Networks found that more than one-third of respondents (34%) considered mobile operators the "natural choice" when considering FMC implementation.

The only problem is, many in the industry mistakenly believe fixed telecom equipment providers are the natural heirs of this business opportunity. However, the survey found that 52% of European enterprises believe mobile operators are capable of delivering an effective FMC solution; another 31% are on the fence.  Only 17% of enterprises have written mobile operators off completely.

According to Alastair Westgarth, Tango's CEO, the FMC door is still wide open.

"A staggering 71% of European enterprises with more than 3,000 employees consider FMC valuable to their organizations. Around 41% of these larger organizations are either in the early stages or have yet to commence FMC adoption.  This is a wonderful opportunity for mobile operators to capitalize on, focusing on their enterprise customers and significantly growing their enterprise revenue streams," Westgarth said.

 

MWC Unveils More Biz, Product Developments
By Rhonda Wickham

Global companies continued to unveil business relationships and provide demonstrations of their technical capabilities at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here are a few from Day 2 of the event.

Formotus, provider of mobile business data software, released the latest version of FormoPublish. The new version offers faster mobile application conversion, enhanced service management, improved mobile application usability and new features including support for GPS services and electronic signature capture.

mBlox will use ValistaPlus Payments to support its WAP billing system. Valista's payments platform will support mBlox's PayforIt accreditation in the United Kingdom, ensuring that consumers' payment experience is consistent, transparent and user-friendly, promoting a trustworthy environment when making one-off payments or establishing subscription services via phones.

Motorola is leveraging Jataayu's MMS solution for its next generation of smartphones based on Windows Mobile. The Motorola Q and its variants already carry Jataayu's MMS client.

NextPoint announced the availability of its enhanced IP Multimedia Exchange (IMX). This latest version supports the deployment of IP services based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture specified by 3GPP and extended for ETSI-TISPAN, and the GSM Association (GSMA) IP Packet eXchange (IPX) and MultiService Forum (MSF).  In GSMA-led trials, NextPoint completed  interoperability testing of the IMX as a critical IPX network element, with mobile operators, service providers and network equipment providers in Asia and Europe.

PacketVideo is demonstrating its pocketable mobile broadcast receiver that turns Wi-Fi-enabled phones and personal media players into mobile TVs. The mobile receiver device decodes a digital TV signal and repurposes it for use on the phone, sending it via a wireless signal, such as Wi-Fi, to a playback device. The receiver uses specific, patented protocols to ensure optimum rendering of the TV signal on the playback device, and provides secure access to premium channels. This allows mobile subscribers to upgrade to advanced mobile TV services without changing their current handsets. The mobile broadcast receiver will be available for all major mobile broadcast standards, including DVB-H, MediaFLO and TDtv as well as for WiMAX.

Telit Wireless Solutions presented its Firmware Update Services, which can help customers extend the lifetime of their M2M products. These services enable Telit customers to update the software of their M2M modules integrated into their applications remotely over the air. M2M applications can respond quickly to changes in the operating environments that affect the module software, such as cellular network mandated changes.

Australia's Telstra launched the i-mate Ultimate 8502 and 9502. Telstra is the first operator to deploy these devices, which will run on its Next G network. Powered by Windows Mobile software, both devices include Direct Video Out so users can connect to digital projectors or televisions to run presentations and video calls, Custom i-Q to define personal settings and Secure i-Q to remotely lock and wipe the device if it's ever lost or stolen.

Universal Music Group (UMG) finalized international licensing arrangements for Omnifone's MusicStation Max unlimited music program. In partnership with major handset makers and operators, MusicStation Max gives consumers the ability download, play and share unlimited amounts of music for free, directly to their MusicStation Max pre-licensed music phones. Omnifone announces LG is the first manufacturer to sign up for the MusicStation Max program, with the first LG MusicStation Max handsets due to be released in the first half of 2008.

ZTE demonstrated its 5.76 Mbps high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) network equipment at the MWC.  HSUPA is a UMTS uplink enhancement technology introduced in 3GPP R6. It has two phases: In Phase I, the maximum uplink data throughput is 1.9 Mbps; and in Phase II the maximum data throughput is up to 5.76 Mbps. In other company news, ZTE launched the ZXGW B8036 SDR (software-defined radio) base station. It supports GSM and WCDMA simultaneously within software rather than requiring separate hardware components.

 

Toshiba Touts Touchscreen Handset
By Teresa von Fuchs

Toshiba Mobile Communications Division has unveiled its new ultra slim, touchscreen handset, the Portégé G810.  A Windows Mobile-based handset, the G810 supports HSDPA and HSUPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and comes with a 3-megapixel camera. Toshiba said the handset will be available across Europe beginning in the second quarter.

"Through our long-standing relationship with Toshiba, we have been able to create powerful, attractive phones that balance work and play," said Pieter Knook, senior vice president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft, in a statement. "The Portégé G810 is the latest phone to deliver an experience that keeps people connected and responsive to what's important to them."

 

Nokia, Google Partner for Mobile Search
By Teresa von Fuchs

Mobile search competition continues as Google and Nokia announced a partnership that will incorporate Google's search engine into Nokia's search application.

Google search will be available on Nokia's N96, N78, 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic models introduced yesterday. Nokia said Google's search engine will be accessible on more devices later. Previously, the service has only been integrated with Nokia's Internet tablet device and the 8 GB version of the N95 handset.

"Providing choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia's Internet service strategy,'" said Ilkka Raiskinen, manager at the software and services unit, in the statement.

Nokia also announced a tentative deal with France Telecom SA's Orange unit to jointly market its location-based services, maps, mobile advertising and games. This will be Nokia's third major European carrier partner.

 

News Briefs for February 12, 2008
Companies in today's briefs include: Sequoia Communications, Novatel Wireless, Sonus, ChangingWorlds, Cavium Networks, Quintel Technology Limited, Telfonica Moviles Mexico, Telcordia, Highdeal, Carrefour, Emerson Network Power, ReliOn, Acision, Ogilvy One Worldwide, T-Mobile, Apple, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks

• Sequoia Communications' SEQ7400 HEDGE transceiver has been verified to support HSUPA, TD-SCDMA, S-Band and GMR satellite specifications. The transceiver, originally introduced in May 2007,  is based on the company's patented FullSpectra architecture.

• Novatel Wireless released the Ovation MC930D USB modem, a HSDPA/HSUPA mobile broadband device. The global modem provides peak download speeds of 7.2 Mbps and upload speeds of 2.1 Mbps on any worldwide HSPDA/HSUPA network supporting the 2100 MHz band.

• Sonus unveiled its MobilEdge Wireless Access Node, which enables operators to deliver quadruple-play services (voice, video, data and mobility) and expand their network coverage. The node serves as an anchor node bridging femtocell and picocell access networks, high-speed wireless data networks and IP-based core wireless networks. The Sonus mobilEdge platform is available in two versions: the MobilEdge9000, which can support  up to 640,000 mobile subscribers in a single chassis, and the MobilEdge4010, which can support up to 25,000 mobile subscribers in a single chassis.

• ChangingWorlds launched ClixSmart Discover, which enables operators to personalize the invisible 90% of off-portal content including content catalogs, content partner sites, networked content applications and freely available Mobile Internet content. ClixSmart Discover forms part of the ClixSmart Mobile Internet Platform, which includes sophisticated reporting as well as the profiling and personalization of Mobile Internet content.

• Semiconductor producer Cavium Networks announced its CN52XX wireless processor family, which with the current CN50XX, CN54XX, CN56XX and CN58XX family of processors, offers soup-to-nuts solution for the wireless infrastructure in the market ranging from entry-level femto base station to xGSN gateways. The processor, integrated with control processing, networking processing and security capabilities, is designed for a range of wireless applications including 3G Transport, 4G Transport or Long Term Evolution (LTE), wireless LAN aggregation, WiMAX base station and WiMAX transport.

• Antenna-sharing solutions company Quintel Technology Limited received additional investment funds from QinetiQ Ventures LP acting through its General Partner Cody Gate Ventures GP Limited. The investment will support Quintel's market penetration and growth across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

• Telefonica Moviles Mexico deployed Telcordia's Service Director, part of the Telcordia Service Management Suite, in both its Mexico as well as Central American mobile operating companies. Service Director's service quality management, comprehensive SLA monitoring, problem resolution and capacity management capabilities will help Telefonica Moviles Mexico improve its pre- and post-paid mobile services.

• Highdeal, provider of pricing and rating solutions, was selected by Carrefour and its partner Experian to manage the Carrefour Mobile postpaid offering.

• Emerson Network Power agreed to add ReliOn's fuel cell products to its suite of NetXtend Integrated Enclosure Solutions for backup power. Under the agreement, Emerson will integrate ReliOn products into its NetXtend brand of outside plant enclosures. The arrangement adds an alternative energy product series for Emerson Network Power, delivers greater customer reach for ReliOn, and allows the two companies to continue to explore new ways to integrate ReliOn fuel cell technology into Emerson Network Power's product line.

• Acision and OgilvyOne Worldwide forged an alliance for mobile marketing.  The alliance combines OgilvyOne's marketing expertise and Acision's mobile delivery capability. Together, the companies will enable the end-to-end mobile marketing value chain, providing advertisers with complete brand engagement over multiple channels, while assuring control, brand protection and mass-market level revenues for carriers.

• STMicroelectronics launched the TS4601, a stereo headset amplifier optimized for feature-phone applications. The amplifier improves audio performance, extends battery life and enables more responsive user controls. The TS4601 is available immediately at $1.30 in quantities of 1,000 upward.

• T-Mobile, the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom, announced it will begin selling Apple's iPhone in Austria in the first half of the year. T-Mobile is also currently Apple's carrier partner in Germany.

• Motorola announced that it will start licensing its mobile WiMAX chipset based radio reference design, WTM1000, to third parties. As part of this program, Motorola also plans to offer essential IP licenses for Motorola's portfolio of WiMAX patents to third parties.

• Japan's NTT DoCoMo has selected Ericsson for its LTE base station development project. Since 1992, Ericsson has delivered PDC base stations to NTT DoCoMo and, more recently, W-CDMA base stations for the operator's FOMA network.

• Nokia Siemens Networks is launching a comprehensive solution for creating a targeted mobile advertising offering which will generate new sources of revenue for service providers. The end-to-end solution includes consulting and systems integration as well as software technology features and advertising delivery. Based on open standards, the ecosystem supports a wide range of strategies to suit individual companies.