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Tag: hspa

  • picoChip Develops First Public Access Femtocell Solution

    picoChip today unveiled the PC333, the first chip specifically designed to extend the femtocell into the realm of public access infrastructure such as metro femto, rural femto and strand-mounted systems.

    According to the company, the PC333 System-on-Chip (SoC) device is the first femtocell chip to support 32 channels (scalable to 64) for simultaneous voice and HSPA+ data, the first to support MIMO, the first to support soft-handover and the first to conform to the Local Area Basestation (LABS) standard.

    picoChip says that the PC333 enables small basestations for urban hot-spots, city-centers or public access to be made and deployed at a cost far lower than traditional approaches, “radically changing the economics of network infrastructure.”

    The PC333 is the highest-specification femtocell available, and represents a significant step in bringing a complete 3GPP Release 8 Local Area 42Mbps HSPA+ basestation onto a single-chip.

    LABS is the 3GPP definition for systems with higher performance than home-basestations, allowing higher capacity, 120km/h mobility and +24dBm output power for greater than 2km range.

    The PC333 supports 32 channels, each with both voice and HSPA+ data and, with picoChip’s smartSignaling technology, in excess of 400 simultaneous smartphone users. Two of the devices can also be cascaded to support 64 active channels. The product runs on a 700MHz ARM chip with TrustZone and variety of specialized hardware features for security. As well as LABS conformance and release 8 HSPA+ (42Mbps downlink, 11 Mpbps uplink), the PC333 supports soft handover, receive diversity and MIMO.

    “Someday, all basestations will be made like this,” asserted Doug Pulley, CTO of picoChip. “With the PC333 we have extended the parameters of femtocell performance to levels that would traditionally have been considered as ‘picocell’ or even ‘microcell’. This high performance coupled with zero-touch provisioning means carriers can routinely deploy femtocells as part of their wide-area network rollouts. We are already seeing the emergence of femtocells into rural and metropolitan-area basestations,” he added.

    “As data traffic rises inexorably, it is evident that conventional macrocell architectures cannot cope both from a cost and capability point of view. Service providers are going to be deploying different, innovative basestation architectures to address this challenge effectively,” stated Simon Saunders, Chairman of The Femto Forum.

    The PC333 will be sampled in 4Q2010 to “lead customers.”

  • T-Mobile HSPA+ Network to Deliver Broadest Reach of 4G Speeds in U.S.

    T-Mobile today announced the continued expansion of its super-fast mobile broadband network to more than 85 million Americans-the most pervasive network to offer 4G speeds in the country.

    The company is on track to deliver HSPA+ speeds in 100 major metropolitan areas with backhaul in place, covering 185 million people in the U.S. by the end of this year.

    "The aggressive pace of our HSPA+ network rollout means our customers can enjoy a better mobile broadband experience on more devices in more places today-but we’re not done yet. Our first HSPA+ smartphone is coming soon and our footprint will double between now and the end of the year," said Neville Ray, chief network officer for T-Mobile USA.

    Now HSPA+ network service is available in nearly 50 major metropolitan areas across the country.

    According to the company, 16 of T-Mobile’s current 3G devices, including more than a dozen smartphones, can benefit from enhanced speeds when they’re on the HSPA+ network in all of these major metropolitan areas, including the newest smartphone available from T-Mobile-the Samsung Vibrant.

    The company also said that later this summer it will unveil its first HSPA+-capable smartphone.

    In addition, T-Mobile has introduced the webConnect Rocket 2.0 USB Laptop Stick, an updated form factor of its first HSPA+-capable device. Featuring a new rotating swivel USB form factor, the webConnect Rocket 2.0 is designed to deliver the same home broadband experience on the go as its predecessor, so customers can surf the Web, download large files or watch video from a laptop anytime on-the-go with a blazing-fast connection.

    The webConnect Rocket 2.0 enables customers to take full advantage of T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network in areas where the service is available-delivering 4G speeds.

    Related articles
    T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson to Leave Company in May 2011
    Everything Everywhere Joint Venture by Orange and T-Mobile Unveiled
    3 Scandinavia Launches World’s First 84Mbps HSPA Network
    T-Mobile Confirms 21Mbps HSPA+ Rollout for Mid-2010

  • AIRCOM: LTE Not the Only Option for Mobile Operators Today

    Deployment of HSPA+, set to save operators from costly CAPEX investment, deliver five times current network performance and open up new pricing models, says AIRCOM.

    In its recent analysis, AIRCOM, a network planning and optimisation company, highlights why HSPA+ could make short-term commercial sense to a wide range of 3GPP operators contemplating their mobile broadband network migration strategies. ROI (return on investment) and new pricing models are the key factors.

    According to Aircom, as operators continue to address the rapidly increasing demand for mobile data, further attention and financial investment has been committed to upgrade existing network infrastructure. “With peak download speeds above 100 Mbps being suggested, LTE has been widely hailed as the panacea for operators’ congestion troubles,” as the analysts say.

    Based on analysis of network infrastructure requirements, AIRCOM identifies HSPA+ as a compelling alternative for operators’ mobile broadband strategies.

    Available today, the technology offers up to 21Mbps without any additional antenna infrastructure or second carrier – allowing users to experience mobile broadband around five times faster than the current average of 3.6Mbps.

    HSPA+ also allows mobile operators to control service provisioning and prioritisation, delivering Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees.

    “Fundamentally, deployment of HSPA+ offers significantly reduced CAPEX investment compared to LTE. Reduction for a UK operator could be as much as £345 million in 12 months; as much as $1.19 billion for a US operator,” claims Aircom.

    AIRCOM Services Director, Fabricio Martinez, responsible for providing the industry with the ‘cost of LTE’ reality check in late 2009, said: “There is great pressure on operators to upgrade their networks and improve the level of service they deliver to consumers and enterprise customers. The so-called ‘iPhone effect’ is piling pressure on to existing infrastructure. There is a real and immediate need for operators to upgrade their networks, but LTE is not the answer – today at least.”

    HSPA+ is able to meet – and exceed – current data demands, delivering a theoretical maximum of 21Mbps and an average experience of around 16Mbps. “With average mobile broadband users experiencing around 3.6Mbps, this is a significant increase,” said Martinez.

    According to him, the increase in speed enables operators to do two things: to combat price erosion, and to offer sophisticated service provisioning. “As operators are able to prioritise data traffic and users, QoE can be assured, data speeds can be controlled, and we will see a tiered pricing model emerge, mirroring the fixed line broadband business,” the analyst claims.

    He believes that the most important factor in deciding a future network technology is ROI. “Due to the low CAPEX investment and new revenue opportunities, deployment of HSPA+ will allow operators to see ROI in three years; perfect timing to upgrade to LTE, when that technology’s ecosystem has matured, devices have come to market, and equipment prices have reduced,” he said.

    Related articles
    Motorola: TD-LTE is Now a Commercial Reality
    In-Stat: 4G LTE Gated by 3G Success, not WiMAX
    AIRCOM Reveals the Economic Reality of LTE Migration

  • 3 Scandinavia Launches World’s First 84Mbps HSPA Network

    Danish and Swedish consumers can look forward to four times faster mobile broadband as operator 3‘s network speeds leap from 21Mbps to 84Mbps.

    To improve coverage, the upgrade will be complemented by a new 900MHz 3G network, the first in Sweden, supplied and supported by Ericsson.

    The three-year contract between Ericsson and 3 includes the HSPA Evolution capacity upgrade of its existing 3G network, via 42Mbps, to 84Mbps plus a new WCDMA/HSPA radio access network on the 900MHz frequency band.

    In addition, Ericsson is providing IP-based optical and microwave backhaul, and support services.

    Nationwide rollout in Denmark and four major cities in Sweden will start in the first quarter of 2010.

    Peder Ramel, CEO at 3 Scandinavia, said: "We were the first to launch turbo 3G in the Nordic region and now we are first signing up for the world’s fastest 3G.”

    “Ericsson is evolving our network so we can meet these demands and give our customers true connectivity, wherever they are – from city office to country cottage," he added.

    3 Scandinavia is a part of the global 3 group (25 million customers in 10 countries), a joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa Ltd in Hong Kong (60 %) and Investor AB in Stockholm (40 %). The company also holds a license to operate a 3G network in Norway.

  • Samsung Develops First Commercial LTE Modem for Mobile Phones


    Samsung announced that it has developed, as it claims, the first Long Term Evolution (LTE) modem that complies with the latest standards of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which were released in March 2009.

    The modem, branded the Kalmia, supports download speed up to 100Mbps and upload speed of 50Mbps within the 20MHz frequency bandwidth.

    Samsung assures that the users of a mobile device equipped with the LTE chipset can download a high-definition movie file (800MB) in one minute at speeds of 100Mbps, while simultaneously streaming four high-definition movies with no buffering.

    Utilizing Release 8 of the 3GPP, this LTE modem is an upgrade from the previous standard that was released in December 2008.

    The company also announced it has successfully developed a 3G baseband modem based on the Release 7 standard with an HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) Evolution platform.

    This modem, branded the Broom, allows download speeds of up to 28Mbps and upload speeds of 11.5 Mbps. This makes the Release 7 more than twice as fast as the Release 6 HSPA Service, which had a maximum download speed of 14.4Mbps.

    Because the LTE and all other HSPA evolution models share the same platform, the new LTE modem is fully compatible with earlier standards.

    Through this technology, a mobile communications service provider can upgrade to HSPA service or evolve into a LTE network simultaneously in order to convert their existing networks to broadband.

    In the future, this flexibility will be crucial as wireless mobile service providers will require compatibility with pre-existing systems, in order to offer LTE in urban areas while still supporting 3G in suburban or rural areas, as Samsung claims.

    JongKyun Shin, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics said that the company is partnering with LTE developers preparing for a LTE service launch in 2010 and will unveil a variety of LTE devices of different types and with diverse features and options, including memory cards, handheld devices and MID.

    Separately, Samsung has developed the mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) modem chip, a product that is already resonating in the mobile market. The company has already adopted the modem into commercial WiBro handsets in Korea.

    They have also demonstrated a full lineup of modems from 2G/3G to modems for the next generation of mobile telecommunication systems with its HSDPA Evolution modems.

    Samsung is strengthening its position in mobile telecommunication system standards. The campany currently holds the most chairman seats within the IEEE 802.16 Working Group, a WiMAX standardization association, and also chairs the WiMAX Forum, an affiliate organization.

  • Forget Megapixels – Most Camera Phones Not Up To The Job


    When it comes to cameras – and that includes camera phones – many consumers are fixated by the megapixel count.

    Yet John Turner, product manager for multi-media at Symbian, said higher resolution was definitely no guarantee of quality.

    He said this was especially true since the majority of camera phone photos are taken in the darkened environs of bars and nightclubs.

    "There is a four to six megapixel sweet spot for camera phones," he said. "But customers have in their minds the idea that resolution equals quality, so they are always going to want more resolution.

    "The majority of pictures are taken in a pub or nightclub but only a quarter of all phones have in-built flash.

    "So camera phones are not catering for that primary use. That will change over the year to come and improve things a great deal."

    Camera Phone Sales Outstrip Cameras‘

    Camera phones have increased so rapidly in popularity since the first snap-on versions were introduced in Japan in 1999 that they now threaten the market for traditional digital cameras.

    So much so, that by 2009, more camera phones will have shipped cumulatively than "normal" cameras have shipped in the entire history of photography.

    Turner said the camera fitted well with the trend towards a convergence of digital devices, allowing it to be integrated with the cell phone, Internet and GPS.

    He said this was to the consumers’ benefit – with just one device to carry and charge, while allowing users to connect with social networking sites, tag photos with locations and so on.

    But this has also created a few challenges, according to Turner, because consumers now expect camera phones to function as well as cameras.

    So it’s now taken for granted that "standard" features, such as higher resolution, better storage performance, better battery life, smile detection and image editing, will also be on the camera phone.

    Megapixel Fixation

    The fact that consumers regard megapixels as a headline indicator of performance is something that retailers and manufacturers haven’t been quick to discourage.

    Indeed the megapixels count continues to climb rapidly, with 12 mpx expected to be offered on some handsets next year and 16 mpx the year after – putting them firmly in amongst the mid-range digital camera market.

    Ericsson AB of Sweden recently announced that through technologies such as “HSPA Evolution” and” LTE” (long term evolution), by the year 2012, they would develop mobile phones with cameras from 12-20 megapixel and Full HD video shooting capabilities.

    The future might also bring an XGA resolution display (1024×768 pixels) with a digital camera and new camcorder technologies to mobile phones.

    Turner said this striving for greater resolution didn’t necessarily translate into better photos, since issues such as shutter lag were making a "hard problem even harder".

    He said Symbian was working closely with partners such as Scalado to address these challenges.

    Symbian is also spending money on improving multi-media in general and making it easier for its partners to introduce new features, such as accelerometers and HD multi-media processing.

    Turner said this would be seen in big changes that were going to be made to the operating system by the end of the first half of 2009.

    So no more blurry, out-of-shot party pics then. What camera phones features do you regard as the most essential for developers to concentrate on?