High on Innovation

Comment

Digg

Del.icio.us

The Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona saw new technologies for location based services, video/audio streaming, enterprise applications, mobile advertizing, and mobile publishing, among other things.

All top vendors tried to attract visitors with their innovative offerings and colorful displays. Some of the latest developments on green solutions will surely help operators improve profitability. However, business slowdown did affect the number of visitors this year, according to regular exhibitors.

It seems LTE has become a serious business for some operators in the global markets. For instance, Verizon Communications has announced the company's LTE deployment plans. The deployment of LTE is expected to make Verizon Wireless the first operator to commercially launch the next-generation technology.

After conducting three LTE trials over a twelve month period, Verizon Wireless has selected Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson for its RAN contract. Existing incumbent vendor Nortel was not in the list. Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel Lucent will be the key suppliers of the IMS kit, while Starent Networks will be a packet core network supplier.

Verizon Wireless is planning to offer LTE services in around twenty to thirty markets in the US in 2010. “After 2010, we will begin a process of providing coverage of the entire US by 2015,” said Dick Lynch, CTO, Verizon Communications. Verizon did not disclose the financial outlay involved with this major deployment.

Operator Concerns
There are concerns about LTE deployment among some operators. Hamid Akhavan, CEO, T-Mobile International, said one of the major issues affecting the rollout of LTE was spectrum availability in Europe.

Operators like China Mobile, that is planning to migrate its 3G TD-SCDMA standard to next-generation LTE using the TDD version of LTE, have some apprehensions. China Mobile is looking for the availability of interoperable devices that can support both versions. Chipset suppliers including ST-Ericsson and Qualcomm are developing equipment capable of supporting both FDD and TDD technologies in a single device. Meanwhile Verizon, Vodafone and other mobile operators will use the FDD version.

A number of mobile applications are going to see more acceptance among global operators. Social networking site MySpace expects half of the visits to its portal to come via mobile phones in the next two to three years. The expected growth from the present 15-20% is attributable to the growing popularity of smartphones.

Effective implementation of telecom standards has been a major concern for operators. The GSMA and seventeen top mobile operators and vendors are set implement a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones.

The initiative is expected to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers. This initiative, led by GSMA, will result in an estimated 50% reduction in standby energy consumption and elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.

The group has set a target that by 2012 a universal charging solution (UCS) will be widely available in the market and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface.

“The mobile industry has a major role to play in tackling environmental issues and this program is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of GSMA.

All for Green Power
Green solutions found their place at the Mobile World Congress. A number of mobile phone manufacturers revealed that they will develop solar-powered handsets. Major companies such as Samsung, Digicel and ZTE revealed plans for their handsets.

Steve Ballmer, ceo, Microsoft, announced Window mobile 6.5

GSMA is working with Dialog Telekom to deploy ten solar and wind-powered base stations in Sri Lanka as part of its Green Power for Mobile program.

The trial, which will deploy five off-grid and five on-grid base stations, has seen two sites go live this month; a further eight sites will go live in March and April this year. The goal of the trial is to demonstrate different options available and the commercial viability of rolling out mobile networks using renewable forms of energy. The base stations, that rely on a sophisticated methodology for calculating the optimum mix between solar and wind technology, such as size of the wind turbine or solar panels, will save up to 109 thousand litres of diesel per annum and cut carbon emission by up to 294 tonnes per annum.

At present, off-grid base stations have primarily been powered by generators running on diesel fuel, which is increasingly expensive; and they give off carbon dioxide emissions and can be difficult to transport to remote locations. There are also issues with the reliability of the electricity grid in Sri Lanka. The trial will also investigate powering on-grid base stations during downtime with renewable energy. Launched last year, GSMA's Green Power for Mobile program is backed by twenty-five mobile operators. The initiave aims to help the mobile industry to take advantage of renewable energy to power 118,000 new and existing off-grid base stations in developing countries by 2012. Today less than 2,000 base stations worldwide are powered by renewable energy sources.

Making Waves
Ericsson, which has hired a huge space to showcase its products and services, announced AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) Wideband, a GSM/WCDMA standardized speech technology that enhances voice quality and clarity in mobile networks to noticeably higher levels than today's mobile and fixed telephony networks, even in whispered conversations or environments with high background noise. The new speech-compression algorithm doubles voice bandwidth without extra radio and transmission requirements.

Results from consumer trials show that consumers appreciate the higher voice quality and make more and longer calls. The higher voice quality is ideal for telephone meetings and can contribute to reduction in business traveling which will improve productivity and lower environmental impact.

“We are ready to roll-out this impressive voice quality feature in all Ericsson-supplied GSM and WCDMA/HSPA networks in the world. This is the starting point of a voice quality revolution that will change telephony as we know it today,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, vice president and head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson.

Google's Android operating system also made waves at the Mobile World Congress. Vodafone has joined the growing list of mobile operators offering smartphones based on Google's Android operating system. The company has selected HTC's new Magic handset, with exclusive rights to market the device in the UK, Spain, Germany and with SFR in France, and non-exclusively in Italy.

HTC was the first handset manufacturer to launch an Android handset, associating with T-Mobile last year. Meanwhile, Huawei will ship its own Android handset later this year, while most other big vendors, with the exception of Nokia, are also expected to launch similar devices.

When Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corp, along with its leading mobile partners-HTC, LG and Orange-unveiled new Windows Mobile 6.5 phones with new features, the company created opportunities for offering a better consumer experience.

“Windows phones bring together the best of the Web, the PC and the phone so you can connect instantly to the experiences you care about, no matter where you are,” Ballmer said at a packed press conference. “We're working with partners across the industry to deliver a new generation of Windows phones that break down the barriers between people, information and applications, and provide great end-to-end experiences that span your entire life-at work and at home,” he added.

The Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona will be remembered for its innovation, and the urge by vendors and operators to offer quality experience to consumers during a recession.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in
The author was hosted in Barcelona