• Executives from the International Telecommunications Union, China Mobile, Bharti Airtel, Softbank and Clearwire kicked off a global TD-LTE initiative at the LTE TDD/FDD International Summit at Mobile World Congress yesterday. The initiative will work to speed development of TD-LTE, promote the convergence of both TDD- and FDD-LTE modes, and position the technology as a major standard for next-generation wireless networks. TD-LTE runs on unpaired spectrum and has found increasing support in the Asia Pacific region, as well as Europe and the United States. China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou said the operator will begin pre-commercial deployments of TD-LTE this year, and reported that more than 20 trial TD-LTE networks have been built to date, including a successful demonstration at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai last year. As the world's largest operator by subscriber base, China Mobile's support could prove crucial in providing the necessary economies of scale to push TD-LTE into the mainstream.
• Verizon Wireless is demonstrating IMS-based Voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls using a Samsung LTE smartphone and Ericsson's LTE demonstration network. Verizon expects to launch commercial VoLTE services available next year, said Verizon Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone. The solution for providing VoLTE includes LTE radio access equipment as well as Evolved Packet Core, policy control, Multimedia Telephony (MMTel) deployed in the IMS core as service engine for voice over LTE and fixed services. The companies will be demonstrating devices and live calls at Mobile World Congress through Feb.17.
• Syniverse Technologies says its new mobile video broadcast service is being deployed by Korea Telecom (KT), South Korea's second-largest mobile operator. The white-label service works across all 3G and 4G networks and devices, and allows KT's subscribers to broadcast a live video stream that can be watched by any other wireless subscriber with a data-capable device without requiring any new technology, software or application on the receiving mobile handset or computer. For example, a KT subscriber can select the mobile phone numbers or email addresses of people to receive the live stream, just as one would normally select text message or email recipients. From there, a URL that connects recipients to the live video broadcast can be sent by SMS or e-mail. Captured video also is archived temporarily to allow users to view it at a later time.
• Wireless backhaul provider Ceragon Networks says its new FibeAir IP-10 E-Series delivers up to 2 Gbps of IP traffic per channel and uses asymmetric traffic delivery to provide extra downlink capacity. Ceragon says its E-Series backhaul products use spectrum more efficiently and consume less power than competing technologies.
• Tango Telecom has something to cheer about at MWC this year. The company announced results of record-breaking SMS delivery on Oracle Sun servers. Based on Oracle's Sun Blade X6270 M2 servers and iAX, Tango Telecom's messaging platform achieved sustained performance of over 10,000 message delivery attempts (MDA) per second. Tango Telecom was also shortlisted for an award at MWC for dynamic pricing with Airtel Africa. That particular solution includes interactive games with instant calling rewards and real-time dynamic pricing to subscribers for making cheaper calls. Uptake was 65 percent of subscriber base in 2 months, churn was reduced by 3.5 percent and was deemed to have "changed subscriber behavior significantly."
• The Now Factory issued findings gathered by the company's Active Subscriber Intelligence (ASI) platform that show significant differences in data throughput across smartphone subscribers, including iPhone and Android subscribers, as the consumption of multi-media applications and services continues to accelerate. The Now Factory's Mobile Moments suite measures data throughput across multiple and complex combinations of applications, devices, networks, services, and subscriber groups, helping mobile operators plan and manage network capacity more effectively as well as quickly diagnose and resolve mobile data issues. The company will be exhibiting its Mobile Moments suite of applications at Mobile World Congress.