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Tag: wireless

  • Belkin Cancels FlyWire Wireless HDMI Device


    After a series of postponements Belkin has finally said it will not be releasing its FlyWire wireless HDMI accessory.

    According to the company, the decision not to offer the FlyWire for sale has been taken because of the current state of the economy.

    With an expecteds retail price of USD $1,499, Belkin felt it would be "out of line" given the global economic situation.

    The cancellation comes after a number of postponements following the Flywire’s first appearance at CES 2008.

    The initially promising-sounding wireless device streams 1080p HD content from multiple HDMI inputs to HDTV televisions using the 5GHz band.

    The unit is a transmitter/receiver combo – and since the tiny receiver required only AC power and utilized a single HDMI output, it could be stealthily mounted behind wall-mounted flat screens or ceiling mounted projectors.

    The FlyWire’s disappointing no-show suggests that the future for HDMI consumer technology is bleak.

  • Wireless Broadband World Africa 2009: Conference Starts

    The 1st Wireless Broadband World Africa 2009 Conference opened yesterday in Cape Town Convention Centre with over 60 delegates in attendance.

    By all measures, Wireless Broadband World Africa 2009 is proving to be a great success.

    The conference has attracted delegates across the globe, which gives a fair representation of the industry players. Speaking to Biz-News, Debbie Tagg, Managing Director for Terrapinn, the event organizers, said, "We are happy with market response despite the economic challenges companies are facing world wide".

    The conference opened with presentations focusing on the economic benefits of developed broadband system across the world with a special focus on Africa.

    Delegates and speakers agreed that access to affordable high-speed Internet and mobile phone service are key to economic growth and job creation in developing countries, Africa in particular.

    The conference speakers agreed that for every 10 percentage-point increase in high-speed Internet connections there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points.

    Internet users in developing countries increased tenfold from 2000 to 2007, and there are now over four billion mobile phone subscribers in developing countries.

    Most of the participants lamented the unfavourable regulatory environment that hampers the use of technologies. These technologies offer tremendous opportunities. Governments can work with the private sector to accelerate rollout of broadband networks, and to extend access to low-income consumers.

    So far, mobile platform has been identified as the single most powerful way to reach and deliver public and private services to hundreds of millions of people in remote and rural areas across the developing world.

    Commenting on the deliberations, George Finger, ICT Specialist at Development Bank of Southern Africa said that broadband provides the basis for local information technology (IT) services industries, which create youth employment, increase productivity, and exports, and promote social inclusion.

    "Access to broadband completes the information foundation for a modern economy and should be a priority in national development plans", said George.

    "Governments can play a key role in expanding broadband access by policies and incentives that encourage competition and private investment", he concluded.

  • snom: Drive to Unified Communications Remains Strong


    Mike Storella, director of business development at VoIP phone maker snom, believes unified communications is the strongest segment in the communications industry.

    As customers look to become leaner and meaner, he stresses the advantages offered by wireless technology, such as WiFi, saying he feels it should be "everywhere".

    "Our latest snom VoIP Desk phone 8xx series all do WiFi, I don’t know the percentages but it is drastically less expensive to deploy an all WiFi office eliminating cat5 cable runs and increased Ethernet switch deployments," he said.

    Headquartered in Germany, snom has a range of eight VoIP business phones and is a worldwide provider. It works with any platform that uses the SIP protocols for VoIP.

    In an interview with TMCnet, Storella said the company has learnt that ROI "rules the day" for customers to make a positive choice to buy a replacement solution for their voice communications.

    He said the economic situation hasn’t affected the company’s decisions to invest in markets and products.

    "Times might be tough, but it is no time to lose faith that your products solve problems and needs for customers as they try to compete better in their business," he said.

    "If our products do what we say they do, customers need them to increase their productivity."

  • WiMax Forum Announces Interoperability and Roaming Trials


    The first ever commercial WiMAX interoperability and roaming trials are to be carried out by 14 companies involved with the Next Generation wireless technology.

    Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum, said the testing of networks and equipment will demonstrate to all WiMAX operators that they can easily provide roaming services to their customers.

    Among the operators, device manufacturers, equipment vendors, and clearing houses taking part are Aicent, Alvarion, Bridgewater Systems, Cisco, Clearwire, Comfone, DigitalBridge Communications, Intel, iPass, Juniper Networks, MACH, Motorola, Syniverse and Transaction Network Services.

    Resnick, speaking at the Forum’s global congress in Amsterdam, said the trial represents an end-to-end test of roaming over live WiMAX networks.

    He said it will provide a baseline for establishing roaming services and agreements for WiMAX worldwide.

    "Roaming with interoperability is important in order to expand the availability of WiMAX services by enabling users to automatically access networks when traveling outside the geographical coverage area of their home network," he said.

    To date, the Forum tracks more than 475 WiMAX network deployments in 140 countries.

    The WiMAX Forum board of directors has also voted unanimously to change the pricing fee setup for its WiMAX Forum Certified program.

    It is to become a market pricing model at all six of its certification labs.

    The WiMAX Forum has 106 certified products in the market today, with a projection of at least 1,000 certified products available by 2011.

  • Wireless Technology Specialist Option "Optimistic" After Business Model Shift

    INTERVIEW: Known for its hardware products, wireless solutions specialists Option is transforming itself in the face of fierce competition and plunging margins.

    The company’s marketing director, Jan Poté, tells smartphone.biz-news how the company is expanding to offer complete end-to-end solutions – ranging from its Ucan virtual ‘PC on a stick’ to designing the system board for Sharp’s new 3G Sidekick LX messaging phone.

    There is little room for complacency in the technology industry – even for those who pioneer products and establish themselves as market leaders.

    So when wireless technology provider Option found itself facing mounting competition in one of its core markets it went back to the drawing board.

    The company was founded in 1986 and one of its first products was a modem card for laptop PCs – obviously not wireless in those days.

    Jan Poté, Option’s marketing director, said it continued evolving slowly until, in 2001, the firm’s engineers developed the first completely wireless (cellular) PCMCIA data card.

    He said that after interesting Vodafone in Europe in the product, the subsequent growth in the market for data cards "kick-started" Option.

    This helped establish the company, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, as the market leader in data cards.

    Poté said it then saw USB devices coming – as did others in the industry.

    Major Issues

    However, the company had to face up to two major issues.

    The first was the need to reorganise itself internally after a period of rapid growth.

    The second, and perhaps more concerning, was how to address fierce competition from Asian manufacturers.

    Among them was the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which had begun manufacturing the new form USB connectors and was quickly gobbling up market share.

    Option responded immediately and last year developed a complete line of USB devices.

    But the economic downturn put enormous pressure on pricing and operators were drastically reducing stock levels.

    To make matters worse, ZTE, another Chinese competitor, had come onto the scene.

    Poté said the result was that by the middle of 2008 the market was in the throes of a "quite ridiculous price war" that drove prices sharply downwards.

    While operators such as Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile continued selling Option’s USB sticks, the volumes were much lower than had been expected.

    Changes Needed

    He said there was a growing realisation within the company that a change of tack was required. "We came up with two things," he said.

    The first centered on the idea of selling software with Option’s existing hardware products.

    From this was born the Ucan – a virtual ‘PC on a stick’ – a USB device that connects to the internet via 3G and 3G+ (HSPA) and allows users to take all their applications, data, favorite websites and so on, with them.

    It can be plugged it into any USB port of any computer and automatically creates a users’ personal digital environment.

    Poté said initial feedback from operators about the software platform was very encouraging.

    "It is a differentiator for them because it allows them to offer more than just connectivity time," he said.

    So they can build services to e-shop, to data storage servers or to carry out security checks.

    While Option was pitching the product to appeal to consumers, Poté said operators were keen to offer it into business verticals, such as insurance and banking.

    "So we are preparing for certain operators applications for certain B2B sectors," he said.

    Poté said the strategy of including software applications to its hardware products is adding quite some value for the company.

    "Differentiating in software is the first area where we can make a difference," he said.

    "Huawei and ZTE are not going in the same direction and we have 6-8 months of advantage at this point in time."

    Work to Strengths

    The second thing Option did was to go back to the drawing board and look at its core strengths.

    "We knew we were good at working with 3G connectivity and putting that capability in devices," said Poté. "So we said: ‘Let’s see if we can take things a step further`."

    Sharp had developed the first 2G Sidekick for T-Mobile and was now looking for a 3G version.

    Poté said Sharp came to Option and asked the company to work on the smartphone’s development.

    He said the new handset would have to be thinner, faster and produce less heat than its predecessor.

    "It wasn’t going to be simple and we told Sharp that the only way is if they let us do our own system board," he said.

    The result was that Option’s engineers developed a highly-integrated system board for the Japanese consumer electronics giant, incorporating all smartphone functionalities including 3G mobile broadband.

    The new 3G Sidekick LX messaging phone launched a month ago in the US to favorable reviews.

    Interest Grows

    For Option, the result has been a lot of attention from other device manufacturers, including IBM, HP and Apple, who are interested in complex 3G solutions.

    And this new market offers a potentially more rewarding revenue source.

    "Instead of having to invoice an operator for USB devices, where everyone is negotiating on price like hell, we negotiate with Sharp," he said.

    This initially entailed a development fee for the system board, but once in production Option gets a license fee for every Sidekick sold.

    Poté said this business model shift – with license agreements – was one they were going to repeat with operators for installing software on USB devices.

    He said talks were ongoing with a list of 50 software companies to see how they can integrate their applications onto Option’s Ucan platform.

    Poté admits that the process of re-assessing Option’s products and strategies has been a difficult one – and not without some pain.

    While the company has strengthened its team of software developers it has also is having to reduce staff in other areas.

    As a result personnel numbers are expected to fall from 700 to 570 over the course of 2009.

    "This year, revenues from USB devices will still form the majority of our revenues," he said.

    "We have had to cut costs down and have moved production one hundred per cent to China.

    "We are working on our cost bases and working to strengthen our core competencies. It’s not easy."

    Outlook Promising

    However, Poté said the result will be a company well set up to deal with future competition.

    "If you look at software, it’s an open field. We can pioneer in that field for 2-3 years, then when it’s a lucrative market we will have competition," he said.

    Poté said Option’s partnership with Intel integrating 3G onto its platform for MIDs had enormous potential, as did the possibilities for integrating 3G onto other devices.

    He said digital camera manufacturers have already contacted Option to inquire about having 3G on their products.

    "The opportunities are big. At this moment we make the smallest HSDPA module in the world – the GTM501 – which is half the usual size," he said.

     Despite the difficult economic situation, Poté said he was confident that the company’s result would improve from the end of this year as other products come onto the market.

    "We have seen that the adoption cycle for MIDs is slower than expected because of the economic downturn," he said. "This will improve and we are optimistic beyond 2009."

  • Optimism For WiMAX Grows – As LTE Cranks Up Network Plans

    INTERVIEW: With the WiMAX Forum Global Congress about to kick off in Amsterdam, smartphone.biz-news spoke to Mike Roberts, principle analyst with Informa, about the state of the emerging wireless technology.

    While the appeal of WiMAX for users has always been clear it hasn’t made the 4G technology’s path to becoming a widely adopted wireless standard any smoother.

    However, despite setbacks and delays in networks being rolled out, WiMAX does appear to finally be gaining momentum.

    On Tuesday, thousands of delegates will be attending the opening of this year’s two-day WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam.

    Mike Roberts, principle analyst with Informa, is chairing sessions at the conference.

    He said he is "cautiously optimistic" about WiMAX, which is taking a small but increasingly respectable share of the mobile broadband market.

    "It’s a newcomer and is not going to take over the market overnight," he said. "Given its strengths we see it taking a very small market share, but that’s growing and will continue to do so."

    Roberts told smartphone.biz-news that one of the themes in Amsterdam will be that WiMAX should focus on its strengths.

    "While that may appear obvious, it still holds true," he said.

    What are those strengths? Well, these are principally fast data rates and low latency.

    Broadband Data

    As a result, Roberts said WiMAX should initially be concentrating on the broadband data segment since it offers users a better user experience than other technologies.

    "It is the latest and greatest technologies bundled together. That’s its great advantage," he said.

    There are also disadvantages to the technology, especially when compared to 3G-based systems such as HSPA and EVDO. But Roberts said these largely come down to coverage.

    "They (3G) are established traditional systems, so they are everywhere. WiMAX does not have that in any countries, but that is a function of maturity."

    Juniper Research recently issued a report noting that growth in WiMAX networks has been slower than anticipated.

    But it forecast that revenue from WiMAX 802.16e broadband subscribers will exceed USD $15 billion globally by 2014.

    To put that in perspective, Verizon reported wireless revenue of USD $15.1 billion for the first quarter of this year.

    The report notes that WiMAX will likely be a replacement technology for low-end DSL service and in developing countries where wired access doesn’t make economic sense.

    Developing Nations Take To WiMAX

    A driving force in these markets is Intel, which expects to make WiMAX accessible to 120 million people in 2010, with global rollouts planned or already happening in nations such as Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and India.

    Roberts said WiMAX had strong appeal in these countries because of their low broadband penetration.

    He said coverage is often not very good because of the cost of creating networks.

    "But everyone wants broadband these days, regardless of where they are, and the obvious way to roll it out is with wireless technology," he said.

    "WiMAX and other mobile broadband technologies have a great opportunity to meet that demand and are going after that opportunity."

    In the US, the WiMAX market is slowly growing, thanks chiefly to WiMAX service provider Clearwire.

    It is, finally, rolling out its WiMAX network – it added 25,000 new subscriptions in the first quarter of 2009, and users in Portland, Ore., where the service launched in January, are using twice the bandwidth than those in Clearwire’s Pre-WiMAX markets.

    The company has the aim of providing a pervasive mobile broadband service nationwide.

    But despite USD $3 billion in recent additional funding, the current economic climate has caused delays in the rollout.

    That said, as PC makers and others in the technology industry infiltrate the wireless market, the more open WiMAX technology is likely to gain more ground.

    Clearwire CEO William Morrow, recently spoke about the capacity and openness of the WiMAX network.

    He pointed out that it offered a way for customers to get streaming video or other applications that carriers are currently leery of.

    Roberts said Clearwire is one of the first really major WiMAX deployments and the faster it deployed, the better it was for the technology.

    "The rollout has been delayed but now its going ahead the take up in some markets is very good," he said. "That is very good for WiMAX."

    Clearwire is looking to target its ultra high-speed service at "road warriors" and others looking to get the most out of their netbooks, smartphones and laptops. It also appeals to heavy broadband users on a local level.

    Clearwire argues that eventually, the economies of scale and interest level will be convincing enough for consumer electronics makers to embed WiMAX into a range of smart devices.

    To improve the road warrior proposition in the absence of widespread deployment, Clearwire plans to introduce a dual-mode modem this summer that can connect to Sprint’s 3G network as well as to the Clear network.

    It says that, while there are no embedded devices on the market right now, it expects there to be nearly 100 by the end of the year.

    Roberts said that WiMAX is very strong in the portable segment – USB modems and notebooks – and is gaining momentum elsewhere.

    He said this is in part because Intel is one of the technology’s major backers and it held a lot of sway in the market.

    HTC T8290 – HTC’s First WiMAX Device

    "A lot of the 100 devices will be in that category," he said. "Where WiMAX still has a lot of work to do is in the mobile device category, although a lot of WiMAX people would say that’s less important to them."

    If WiMAX achieves its goal of having 100 devices by the end of 2009, then that is quite good progress for an emerging technology, according to Roberts.

    But he said it still paled in comparison to the 1000s of mobile devices available to the encumbent technologies, which were also able to offer them at very competitive price points.

    "But WiMAX offers a lightly better user experience for some applications and they will have to differentiate on that basis," he said.

    Play to Strength

    While WiMAX is strong in the portable segments, true, "full-blown" mobility will be harder and more expensive to achieve, according to Roberts.

    "You can argue the extent to which some WiMax networks need to go there," he said. "Most will be based on mobile WiMAX but do not need a full-blown mobile service.

    "It could be more for people on notebooks rather than talking on the phone – that’s WiMAX’s real core strength and the obvious place to start.

    "If it tries to go against straight mobility, then it will come up against very intense competition."

    Also in the US, Sprint rolled out a pilot WiMAX program in Baltimore last year. The network delivers average download speeds of two to four megabits per second, half the rate of cable Internet but several times faster than the 3G mobile service used by many of today’s smartphones, according to Sprint’s tests.

    The company plans to introduce WiMAX in 10 American cities this year and five more in 2010.

    Since few mobile devices have WiMAX chips in them, Sprint’s plan requires a proprietary antenna that plugs into laptops, similar to the early Wi-Fi cards that have since been built into computers.

    Growth Gets Noticed

    The flip side to WiMAX’s expanding network is that competing technologies take notice of the progress.

    So carriers like Verizon Wireless have speeded up their next generation network plans (in this case LTE).

    Ericsson and TeliaSonera have just flipped the switch on the world’s first commercial LTE cell site in Stockholm, Sweden.

    The site will be part of a full-scale deployment that’s scheduled for next year.

    AT&T has also just announced it is to accelerate the ramp up of LTE, a move which places it in a head-to-head competition with Verizon Wireless.

    The latter is already racing to install its LTE wireless infrastructure.

    "Success does not go unnoticed," said Roberts. "The LTE crowd has seen WiMAX coming to market and they have accelerated their plans in response.

    "I may be being a little cynical, but in Ericsson’s case they have turned on the base station although no-one can use it as there are no devices available.

    "But it is a step towards commercialising LTE."

    Despite this, he is optimistic about the future prospects for WiMAX: "If you look at WiMAX in isolation there are a lot of very positive signs.

    "If you look at it in broad terms, there are also positive signs. But there is competition and WiMAX will have to compete with the incumbents."

  • Wireless Makes ZTE Fastest Growing Telecom Maker


    ZTE was the fastest growing telecom equipment maker and solutions provider in 2008, according to a report by research firm IDC. The report was based on 2008 earnings.

    Driving the growth is the company’s wireless business, which grew 20 per cent year-over-year.

    This part of ZTE’s operations, which includes sales of infrastructure, handsets, software and services and other wireless-related items, amounted to 38.5 per cent of the company’s total revenues.

    ZTE’s full year net profit jumped by 32.5 per cent to USD $239 million and revenue rose 27.4 per cent to USD $6.4 billion.

    The company has made it clear it intends to push deeper into the US handset market – currently the company currently sells phones mainly through MetroPCS – but it has still to sign many infrastructure deals.

    Its Chinese counterpart, however, the privately held Huawei, has made progress in that area.

    Huawei won a contract to provide the infrastructure for Cox Communications’ 3G CDMA network and is reportedly one of the three infrastructure companies AT&T has short-listed for its trial of LTE technology.

    Yin Yimin, president of ZTE Corporation, said the IDC result showed ZTE’s commitment to spearheading R&D initiatives, coupled with its determination to innovate and introduce high quality telecom equipment solutions, is paying off.

    "With a strong global workforce ready to provide the best technical support to our customers, we believe ZTE will remain a key player in the highly competitive telecom market in the years ahead," he said.

  • 802.11n Wi-Fi Will Dominate Wireless HD Video


    802.11n Wi-fi technology will see off competitors in the wireless HD video market, at least for the next several years, according to In-Stat .

    Three other technologies are competing in this space – Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI), WirelessHD, and Ultrawideband (UWB).

    However, Brian O’Rourke, In-Stat analyst, said the ubiquity of Wi-Fi technology is proving unstoppable.

    He said 802.11n is the next generation of the immensely popular Wi-Fi family.

    "It promises data rates above 100Mbps and is backwards compatible," he said.

    "The installed base of Wi-Fi is immense, and effectively includes all mobile PCs, many mobile phones and a wide variety of CE devices.

    O’Rourke said the primary drawback to 802.11n is expense, since it requires codec technology on both ends to transmit HD video.

    Neither of its primary competitors, WHDI and WirelessHD, requires codecs.

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    • UWB will not be a major factor in the consumer electronics market. Many chip companies are leaving the market in late 2008 and 2009.
    • Nearly 24 million digital TVs will ship with some type of Wireless HD video technology in 2013.
    • WHDI and WirelessHD are being promoted by startups, but they are new, expensive, and power-hungry, which is generally not a recipe for quick market success.
    • WHDI and WirelessHD will see a slow start, with fewer than eight million devices with those technologies shipped in 2013.

  • Skype Users To Get Access To Boingo Wi-Fi Network


    Boingo Wireless has agreed a deal that will allow Skype users to access more than 100,000 Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide, and pay using Skype Credit.

    The feature, called Skype Access, will be embedded into Skype as a core feature, first in the Skype for Mac 2.8 Beta software just released and then in versions of Skype for other operating systems sometime in 2009.

    The new application lets users connect to a Boingo Wi-Fi hotspot with a single click and to pay per minute only for what they use.

    Skype Access actively scans for available Boingo hotspots and presents a pop-up dialogue box displaying the price per minute to use the Boingo network using Skype Credit.

    Boingo’s Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy apply and access to all Internet services will be provided on a simple, per minute billing basis.

    Boingo offers Wi-Fi hotspots by combining more than 100,000 locations from more than 150 leading Wi-Fi operators into one worldwide network spanning 90 countries.

    Luis Alfonso Serrano, vice president of network strategy for Boingo Wireless, said the agrrement meant Skype users will be able to access hotspots around the world via the Boingo Network for their Skype calls.

    "Boingo provides digital nomads – no matter where they are in the world – with an easy and fast way to get online," he said.

    By sharing one authentication and enrollment process, one download and one payment method, the Skype-Boingo collaboration clears a path between one of the most popular communications platforms on the Internet with the world’s largest network of Wi-Fi hotspot operators.

    In addition to Skype credit and a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop, users must have Skype for Mac 2.8 Beta installed and running.

    Prices will vary based on location and currency. There are no connection fees or monthly charges for Skype Access.

  • Solar-powered and Wireless – HDTV Doesn't Come Much Cleaner


    Japan’s cutting edge electronics fair CEATAC just ended but it tossed a few interesting titbits into the mix, including a solar-powered HDTV from Sharp.

    The LED-backlit 52-inch set receives up to 220kWh of power from a solar floor panel.

    If “cleaner” technology is set to become ever more important then Panasonic was displaying a variation on this theme.

    It demonstrated a plasma Viera HDTV that was able to transmit video beamed from a Blu-ray deck via a WirelessHD at an uncompressed 1080p across a 60GHz link at up to 4Gbit/s.

    WiHD replaces HDMI wires with radio links and is designed to handle HDTV video streams between AV equipment.

    Aside from excellent picture quality, the technology does away with the need for the clutter of wires and cables that spoil the clean look of today’s often-wall mounted screens.

    Panasonic says the WirelessHD devices will be on sale within a year.