What can we expect for the fast-moving telecommunications market this year?
There are many predictions. I started looking for information from Twelve 2012 Predictions For The Telecom Industry and Top 12 Hot Design Technologies for 2012 articles. Then I did some more research on what is happening on the field and decided to make my own list of what is expected this year. You can go to the original information sources by clicking the links to see where all this information comes from.
The global telecommunications services market will grow at a 4% rate in 2012 (was 7% in 2011).
Mobile growth does not stop. The number of global mobile subscriptions will pass the 6 billion mark in February. India will pass China to become the world’s largest mobile market in terms of subscriptions.
The mobile handset market will surpass the $200 billion mark. Smartphones are most heavily used by people under 45, and that age group increasingly sees the smartphone or tablet as a portal to Facebook and Twitter, among other social networks. The demand for the chips that generate and process that data in smartphones is increasing (sales of smartphone applications processors surged to $2.2 billion in the third quarter of 2011). Six Companies Want Supremacy On The Smartphones Chip Market! Qualcomm Look Out!
There is lots of competition on mobile OS marker, but I expect that thing continue pretty much as 2011 ended: Android continues to boom, RIM and Microsoft decline. Symbian’s future is uncertain although Symbian started and finished 2011 as the undisputed king of mobile OSs (33.59%). Windows Phone will try to get to market and Leaked Windows Phone Roadmap gives us a peek into the future. Java Micro Edition making a comeback according to the NetApplications report because large number of low-cost feature phones. The real mobile application battle lines of 2012 will be drawn across the landscape of HTML5.Tizen open source project tries to push to mobile Linux market (first version Q1 2012) with ideas from Meego, LiMo and WebOS. Cars and smartphones start to communicate using MirrorLink technology to allow new features.
Mobile campaigns to be hot in 2012 presidential race article tells that though mobile advertising not seen much on the campaign trail, mobile strategy is expected to be important for attracting younger voters. Social networks played an important role in the last U.S. presidential election, but the explosive growth in smartphone usage and the introduction of tablets could make or break the candidates for president in 2012. Expect to see specialized apps to help campaign groupies follow the candidates.
Text messaging has been very profitable business for mobile phone operators and making them lots of money. Text Messaging Is in Decline in Some Countries tell that all signs point to text messaging’s continuing its decline. There has been already decline in Finland, Hong Kong and Australia. The number of text messages sent by cellphone customers in USA is still growing, but that growth is gradually slowing, “SMS erosion” is expected to hit AT&T and Verizon in this year or next years. The fading allure of text messaging is most likely tied to the rise of alternative services, which allow customers to send messages free using a cellphone’s Internet connection.
EU politicians want to ban roaming charges according to Computer Sweden magazine article. If the proposal becomes law in the EU, it takes away slippery roaming charges for mobile data (could happen earliest at summer 2012, but I expect that it will take much more time). Roaming robbery to end – 2015 article tells that the goal is that the mobile roaming fees should be completely abolished the 2015th.
Near Field Communication (NFC) is becoming available in many mobile phones and new flexibility via organic materials can help in implementing NFC. NFC-enabled SIM cards are expected to become a worldwide standard. Electronic wallet in smartphones probably takes a step forward with this. Google, opened the game with Google Wallet service. According to research firm ABI Research estimates that in 2012 NFC phones is growing 24 million to 80 million units. There is still years to wait until mass market on NFC wallets starts. ABI Research estimates that there is 552 million NFC enabled devices at year 2016.
The 4G technology WiMax will see the beginning of its end in Asia. Like operators in other regions, Asian operators will opt for the rival 4G technology LTE instead.
The number of active (installed) PCs worldwide will pass the 2 billion mark. Broadband penetration continues to increase. Broadband penetration of the world’s population will pass the 10% mark globally. IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) penetration of the world’s population will pass the 1% mark. Broadband technologies are fundamentally transforming the way we live. UN wants two-thirds of the world online by 2015.
Today’s Cable Guy, Upgraded and Better-Dressed article tells that the cable guy is becoming sleeker and more sophisticated, just like the televisions and computers he installs. The nearly saturated marketplace means growth for cable companies must come from all the extras like high-speed Internet service, home security, digital recording devices and other high-tech upgrades.
Ethernet displaces proprietary field buses. As Ethernet displaces proprietary field buses to facilitate the operation of the digital factory. Ethernet switches are the ubiquitous building block of any intelligent network. Ethernet has also become the de facto networking technology in industrial automation even in mission-critical local networks. Modern Ethernet switches have added significant new functionality to Ethernet while decreasing port prices. Ethernet for Vehicles also becomes reality largely to serve the expected boom of camera-based applications in cars.
Operators’ growth will increasingly depend on their having a cloud computing strategy, an approach for the high-growth IT service market and a clear value proposition for the enterprise market. Data center technologies will be hot topic. 10GBase-T Technology will become technically and economically feasible interface option on data center servers. 10GBase-T Technology allows you to use RJ45 connectors and unshielded twisted pair cabling to provide 10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, and 10Gbps data transmission, while being backward-compatible with prior generations.
40/100 Gbit/s Ethernet will be a hot topic. Carriers and datacenters have been clamoring for the technology to expand their core backbone networks. 2012–A Return to Normalcy and Pragmatic, Power Conscious 100G article mentions that in 2010 and 2011, the industry saw the first real roll-outs of 100G transport solutions based on Coherent Detection and FPGA-based Framers. In 2012 we’ll start to see 100G taking a bigger place in the build out of new and existing networks around the world. The initial deployments of 100G are clearly too costly and too power hungry to be widely deployed as the primary transport technology, so optical transport marketplace will move to much lower power and lower cost Direct Detection optical transport solutions. The average WDM link for 10G is dissipating about 3.5W per optical module, the average WDM link per 100G is dissipating about about 100W.
5 Major Changes Facing the Internet in 2012 article tells that 2012 is poised to go down in Internet history as one of the most significant 12-month periods from both a technical and policy perspective since the late 1990s. This year the Internet will face or can face several milestones: root servers may have a new operator, new company could operate the .com registry, up to 1000 new top-level domains will start being introduced, additional 10,000 Web sites will support IPv6 and Europe will run out of IPv4 addresses.
No IPv6 Doomsday In 2012. Yes, IPv4 addresses are running out, but a Y2K-style disaster/frenzy won’t be coming in 2012. Of course there’s a chance that panic will ensue when Europe’s RIPE hands out its last IPv4 addresses this summer, but ‘most understand that they can live without having to make any major investments immediately. Despite running out of IPv4 addresses we will be able to continue to use IPv4 techniques (Asia depleted all of its IPv4 address space already April 2011). ISP’s and hosting companies will not run out of IPs. This only means that the price per IP will start to slowly grow. Forward thinking enterprises can spend the year preparing for the new IPv6 protocol (USA is expected run out of addresses next year). Comcast has said it will offer production-quality IPv6 services across its nationwide network in 2012.
Operators start to pay more attention to the business opportunity of “M2M” (machine-to-machine connections). Investment and innovation in M2M (think smart energy meters and fleet trackers for logistics) will follow.
Smart Grid technologies include smart power management and architecture system components are already hot. Smart meter deployment on the rise globally. The global power utilities are the next mega-market moving from analog, standalone systems to digital networked technology. The opportunities are huge in everything from wireless components in smart meters to giant power electronics. First cut of some very basic framework standards have been drafted and lots of works needs to be done (ensure safety!). Forward-looking utilities and such vendors have now put business units and plans in place. IPv6 is seen as a needed technology in implementing Smart Grid communications. IPV6 has become a buzz word for smart grid firms.
You Will See A Ton Of Hype Around “The Internet Of Things” article tells that “The Internet Of Things” is a catchy term revolving around the idea that most everyday objects around us will be equipped with internet-collected electronics, and this will open up new applications. You Will See A Ton Of Hype Around “The Internet Of Things”, and it is hard to say if The Internet Of Things will be a huge business or a passing fad. NXP Semiconductor’s vision of Internet of Things starts with lightbulbs. Wireless sensor networks will get attention. EE Times article Top ten Embedded Internet articles for 2011 gives you links to articles that help you to catch on those topics.
Security issues were talked about lot on 2011 and I expect the discussion will continue actively during year 2012. There are still many existing security issues to fix and new issues will come up all the time.
802 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows Phone 8 has a secret feature which may activate at any time
Aims to let users surf free WiFi ‘spots all unknowing
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/06/windows_phone_devicescape/
Microsoft has embedded software from Devicescape into Windows Phone 8, allowing smartmobes to automatically leech off 11 million free Wi-Fi hotspots.
Devicescape’s technology is already mandated by Intel in its Ultrabook blueprints, but this Windows Phone tie-up is potentially a much bigger deal as phones already outnumber laptops in terms of Wi-Fi usage. Windows Phone 8 devices will be able to identify nearby hotspots and query a remote server to discover the best way to automatically log on, or record how someone connects manually for the benefit of other users.
The software, which Microsoft is branding Data Sense and operators are wrapping with their own interface, is only interested in free hotspots such as those provided by cafes, railways stations, airports and public bodies.
A device with the software installed crafts a special DNS request containing the identity of the hotspot and sends it off a central server; DNS requests are typically forwarded by free Wi-Fi networks without requiring the user to be logged on, so the Devicescape server can respond with instructions specific to that hotspot. The device can then login itself and start downloading, say, Facebook updates without ever leaving the user’s pocket.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia “Suspends” Its Free Developer Program
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/11/06/0128255/nokia-suspends-its-free-developer-program
“Nokia has put in deep freeze its free developer program, the launchpad”
“not currently accepting new applications for Nokia Developer Launchpad and Nokia Developer Pro programs.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
802.11ac to dominate mobile-handset market
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2012/10/80211ac-mobile-handset.html
In a recent brief, market research and analyst firm ABI Research said that almost every smartphone shipped this year will offer some form of WiFi capability. “However, a new WiFi protocol will begin to dominate mobile devices soon,” the brief continued. “The IEEE 802.11ac WiFi protocol will begin to conquer the existing protocols [802.11b, g and n] in the next two to three years.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
TIA working on Category 8 standard
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2012/10/tia-category-8-standard.html?cmpid=EnlStandardsNovember62012
While no “definites” could be stated, Vanderlaan did say that the alien-crosstalk performance values being discussed suggest that Category 8 will be a shielded system. He also added that the anticipated connector interface will be the RJ-45, but the prospect of backward-compatibility of Cat 8 to previous-generation Category RJ-45 interfaces is not guaranteed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphones eclipse laptops as top WiFi hogs
Phondleslabs now using cellular merely to fill in gaps
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/07/smartphones_wifi/
Two out of five devices using public Wi-Fi networks are smartphones according to new figures. Laptops nipped in just below, accounting for 39 per cent of connected computers, tablets lag behind at 17 per cent, and the rest are unidentified.
The numbers come from the Wireless Broadband Alliance, which got them from biz research outfit Informa and is using them to push support for Passpoint: the next-generation authentication system allowing devices to identify themselves automatically
It’s the first time smartphones have outranked laptops in Wi-Fi usage, but this shouldn’t be surprising given the way a phone is always looking out for connectivity while a laptop has to be powered up before it starts communicating – for the moment at least.
However, anyone connected to a hybrid mobile phone base station via Wi-Fi with a device that isn’t otherwise on the mobile network presents problems for the base station’s operator and the regulator, in the UK at least, when it comes to controlling access to stuff online.
So, for example, a cellular operator will block access to pornography until the customer has proved their age, but the same customer, on the same device, can switch to Wi-Fi and access all the flesh they desire from the Wi-Fi-enabled base station.
More importantly, for the operator, Wi-Fi users can’t be securely identified as customers for billing purposes, so they can’t access their mobile phone account details and can’t use PayForIt or other operator-billing mechanisms.
There are three ways to solve that, so the operators are enthusiastically endorsing all of them.
The first is to stick phone masts in every Wi-Fi hotspot
The second is to find a way of identifying the user over the public Wi-Fi
networks as enabled by Passpoint and next-generation hotspots
THe third is to create devices that will switch to cellular for secure authentication, which is a work in progress.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works
http://blog.cloudflare.com/why-google-went-offline-today-and-a-bit-about
November 6, 2012
Today, Google’s services experienced a limited outage for about 27 minutes over some portions of the Internet. The reason this happened dives into the deep, dark corners of networking. I’m a network engineer at CloudFlare and I played a small part in helping ensure Google came back online. Here’s a bit about what happened.
The Fix
The solution was to get Moratel to stop announcing the routes they shouldn’t be. A large part of being a network engineer, especially working at a large network like CloudFlare’s, is having relationships with other network engineers around the world. When I figured out the problem, I contacted a colleague at Moratel to let him know what was going on. He was able to fix the problem at around 2:50 UTC / 6:50pm PST. Around 3 minutes later, routing returned to normal and Google’s services came back online.
Building a Better Internet
This all is a reminder about how the Internet is a system built on trust. Today’s incident shows that, even if you’re as big as Google, factors outside of your direct control can impact the ability of your customers to get to your site so it’s important to have a network engineering team that is watching routes and managing your connectivity around the clock.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Internet of Things needs to become a reality
http://www.eetimes.com/design/microcontroller-mcu/4399704/What-the-Internet-of-Things–IoT–needs-to-become-a-reality?Ecosystem=communications-design
Depending on who you talk to, the Internet of Things (IoT) is defined in different ways, and it encompasses many aspects of life – from connected homes and cities to connected cars and roads (yes, roads) to devices that track an individual’s behavior and use the data collected for “push” services.
Some mention 1 trillion Internet-connected devices by 2025 and define mobile phones as the “eyes and ears” of the applications connecting all of those connected “Things”
Everyone, however, thinks of the IoT as billions of connections (a sort of “universal global neural network” in the cloud) that will encompass every aspect of our lives. All of this public discussion suggests the IoT is finally becoming a hot topic within the mainstream media.
Estimates of the future market size for the Internet of Things cover a broad range, but most pundits agree that it will dwarf any other market. In mature markets today, the ultimate, pervasive consumer device is a mobile phone.
Do an IOT-related web search, and you’ll quickly notice the overuse of the term “smart.”
After a device becomes smart through the integration of embedded processing, the next logical step is remote communication with the smart device to help make life easier.
Communication capability and remote manual control leads to the next step … how do I automate things and, based on my settings and with sophisticated cloud-based processing, make things happen without my intervention? That’s the ultimate goal of IoT applications.
Tomi says:
The pressure is enough: Nokia is squeezed to death between large and small manufacturers?
Apple and Samsung were the exception of the smartphone manufacturers: all other had difficulties to sell ten million units in the September quarter.
In addition to Nokia mid-sized manufacturers in trouble include at least RIM, HTC, LG and Sony.
HTC’s sales fell 60 percent from last year.
Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Coolpad smartphones have become low-cost top group, but the fierce competition reduces the profitability of all.
Chinese manufacturers Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo provided 42 percent of all smartphones in China. Lenovo delivered 9,000,000, Huawei and ZTE 8.5 million 7.5 million smartphones in Q3.
Lenovo and ZTE business is loss-making. Coolpad and Huawei have declining profitability.
Baidu and Shada Interactive Entertainmen intend to continue to sell its own smartphone models cheaply, which will keep the prices of phones low.
Chinese manufacturers are seeking to expand into higher-end and export markets.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/painetta+riittaa+puristuuko+nokia+hengilta+suurten+ja+pienten+valmistajien+valissa/a854256?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-07112012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hurricane Sandy Proved How Hard It Is to Break the Internet
http://allthingsd.com/20121107/hurricane-sandy-proved-how-hard-it-is-to-break-the-internet/
All the damage to the communications infrastructure brought on by Hurricane Sandy is sure giving the people who keep track of the technical underpinnings of the Internet a lot of fodder to see how well things do and don’t work in real-world situations.
You’ll remember that the fundamental design principle of the Internet is that it routes traffic around failure automatically — supposedly, the legend goes, to enable it to keep running after a nuclear war. Well, the folks at Renesys watched that happen in real time, too. In its latest corporate blog post, it shows via a handful of colorful graphics how the traffic that would normally have run through New York took a different route
Hurricane Sandy: Global Impacts
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2012/11/sandys-global-impacts.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Bond Film Skyfall Inspired By Stuxnet Virus
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/11/07/1841200/james-bond-film-skyfall-inspired-by-stuxnet-virus
“What inspired such a villain? ‘Stuxnet,’ producer Michael G. Wilson said. ‘There is a cyberwar that has been going on for some time, and we thought we’d bring that into the fore and let people see how it could be going on.’
Tomi Engdahl says:
RIM good for secret jobs: BlackBerry 10 cleared for Restricted data
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/08/blackberry_10_fips/
BlackBerry 10 has passed the US Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) certification, meaning devices based on the platform can be used to send classified data between government agents. Despite a drop in US government uptake of its kit, this is still something unique to RIM.
Apple and Android have both made huge strides in security, but only RIM has ever managed to get a mobile platform through the FIPS 140-2 process, which is managed by National Institute of Standards and Technology and recognised by the US and Canadian governments. The classification permits the transit of documents up to “restricted” level, so RIM’s devices will be turning up in some halls of power, if not all of them.
The news isn’t hugely surprising. Security has always been core to the BlackBerry platform, rather than something to be added on later, and that’s reflected at every level.
But the certification achieves two other important things too: it reminds everyone that BlackBerry is still the most secure mobile platform, and it keeps everyone talking about the new version for another week or two, the latter being particularly important as there’s still a few months until the launch and RIM needs to stay in the public eye until then.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless spectrum driving new design approaches
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4400898/Wireless-spectrum-driving-new-design-approaches
Consumer demand and the coming spectrum crunch are driving a new era of innovative engineering and spectrum-sharing strategies in wireless because the low-hanging fruit in spectrum allocation has all been picked, an industry expert said.
“The easy stuff (in spectrum) has been cleared. Now it gets hard,”
PCAST
recommended a variety of steps in the coming years to move spectrum from “scarcity to abundance.”
Over the years, the goverment has freed unused or underused federal spectrum for commercial uses
Now, government and industry are focusing on bandwidth sharing.
“People assume that to do that, you need complicated and new technologies, and that’s not what the PCAST report said,”
“You could really make tremendous headway toward sharing,”
“We (on PCAST) said, the technology of these devices has advanced so much today that we can look at options,” he said. A spectrum access system would imitate this and be managed with something like an air-traffic control system.”
“You’re seeing the LTE camp (emerging) but by the way you’re seeing tremendous offloading onto WiFi, which is what’s keeping up” with demand at the moment, he said.
Gorenberg said a combination of macro cells and micro cells will also
Gorenberg said a combination of macro cells and micro cells will also contribute to meeting demand. He referenced this week’s announcement that AT&T plans to spend $8 billion to update its 4G LTE wireless network.
“It (the deal) included 10,000 macro cells and 40,000 small cells,”
He noted that it’s not just a challenge in the United States: The European Union is examining the notion of sharing not only federal bands but commercials bands.
The FCC has paved the way for voluntary incentive auctions in 2014, in which broadcasters could choose to sell their spectrum. The incentive auctions are intended to free 300 MHz of spectrum by 2015 and 500 MHz by 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
20 years of GSM digital mobile phones
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/09/20_years_of_gsm_digital_phones/
Twenty years ago today, on 9 November 1992, Nokia launched the world’s first commercially available GSM digital mobile phone – the Nokia 1011 – strengthening consumer interest in the world of mobile connectivity. The candybar device – which weighed a whopping 475g and could sustain a conversation for no more than 90 minutes – also introduced text messaging, viewable on the handset’s two-line display.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Graph how Samsung passed Nokia in few years can be found in article at
http://www.itviikko.fi/uutiset/2012/11/08/grafiikka-nain-samsung-ohitti-nokian/201241600/7?rss=8
Tomi says:
Change is in the air: text messaging is being replaced by applications across the world
Number of SMS for the first time began to decline in USA. In the second quarter the average cell phone user sent 696 text messages in the United States, but in the third quarter, the number dropped to 678 text messages.
The telecom operator net SMS sales declined for the first time.
SMS is being replaced by Skype and Facebook-like smartphone applications.
Text messages arrived in the United States relatively late compared to the European and Asian markets.
The report also predicted that within five years, one hundred percent to an annual rate of growth of mobile data will slow down to 80 per cent per year.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/muutoksen+merkit+ilmassa+tekstiviestittely+korvautumassa+sovelluksilla+kaikkialla/a855685?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-13112012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Fiber is live in Kansas City, real-world speeds at 700 Mbps
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/11/google-fiber-is-live-in-kansas-city-real-world-speeds-at-700-mbps/
After months of fanfare and anticipation, gigabit home Internet service Google Fiber finally went live on Tuesday in Kansas City. The search giant is offering 1 Gbps speeds for just $70 per month—significantly faster and cheaper than what any traditional American ISPs are offering.
“We just got it today and I’ve been stuck in front of my laptop for the last few hours,” Mike Demarais, founder of Threedee, told Ars. “It’s unbelievable. I’m probably not going to leave the house.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finland: Plan for universal 100Mbps service by 2015 on track
In one town, higher speeds are having both positive and negative demographic effects.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/10/finland-plan-for-universal-100mbps-service-by-2015-on-track/
Back in 2009, Finland announced what might be the world’s most ambitious national broadband plan: a guaranteed minimum service level of 1Mbps for all homes and companies by 2010. That goal is then planned to be kicked up to 100Mbps, served via a fixed connection or wireless, by 2015
Three years into the program, Finnish government officials say they are well on the road to meeting that goal by providing subsidies mainly to local cooperatives that have sprung up to serve rural communities. To date, 86 percent of the 5.35 million Finnish population lives within two kilometers of a 100Mbps connection, and the expectation is that this will grow to 95 percent by 2015. By that definition, it looks like Finland will come very close to meeting its goal. (Finnish households are expected to pay for that final connection to the home, should they want the full 100Mbps fiber service.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
French Company Building a Mobile Internet Just For Things
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/11/14/017217/french-company-building-a-mobile-internet-just-for-things
“France now has a dedicated cellular data network just for Internet-of-Things devices, and the company that built it is rolling out the technology elsewhere, says MIT Technology Review. SigFox’s network is slower than a conventional cellular data network, but built using technology able to make much longer range links and operate on unlicensed spectrum.”
Cellular Data Network for Inanimate Objects Goes Live in France
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/507321/cellular-data-network-for-inanimate-objects-goes-live-in-france/
A startup hopes to connect millions of low-power sensors worldwide to the Internet, making everything—from power grids to home appliances—smarter.
SigFox claims that a conventional cellular connection consumes 5,000 microwatts, but a two-way SigFox connection uses just 100. The company also says it is close to rolling out a network to the whole of France—an area larger than California—using just 1,000 antennas. Deployments are beginning in other European countries, and discussions are under way with U.S.-based cellular carriers about teaming up to roll out its technology stateside, says Nicholls. “SigFox can cover the entire U.S. territory with around 10,000 gateways, whereas a traditional cellular network operator needs at least several hundred thousand,” he says. This should make deployment significantly faster, and cheaper.
Further cost savings come from operating the technology on parts of the radio spectrum that are free to use. Cellular networks are operated on licensed spectrum, and as competition for data services has intensified, carriers in the U.S. and elsewhere have spent billions of dollars on such licenses. (SigFox uses 868MHz in Europe and 915MHz in the U.S.; frequencies are often used by cordless phones.) Nicholls says it should be possible for SigFox to offer its service to a connected device for as little as $1 a year.
The features that make SigFox’s network cheap to install and maintain have the downside of limiting the network’s speed. At best, it can currently transfer information at the rate of 100 bits per second
Craig Foster, an analyst who follows Internet of Things technology for ABI Research, says that it makes sense to create extra networks. “Cellular won’t be feasible in many instances,” he says. “For one, there is not always universal coverage. Think rural smart meters.” Satellite connections or long-range technology solutions like SigFox’s have a better chance at extending the Internet’s reach to remote areas.
SigFox reports seeing most interest in its technology from companies trying to roll out so-called smart grids, an approach to electricity distribution that uses data from sensors throughout a power network—including in customers’ homes—to help improve efficiency and reliability.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Slashdot: AT&T’s Data Usage Definition Proprietary?
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/11/14/0613200/ask-slashdot-atts-data-usage-definition-proprietary
“As many of you know, AT&T has implemented caps on DSL usage. When this was implemented, I started getting emails letting me know my usage as likely to exceed the cap.”
” I started measuring my usage, and ended up with numbers substantially below what AT&T was reporting on a day-to-day basis. Typically around 20-30% less.”
” After several calls, they finally told me they consider the methodology by which they calculate bandwidth usage to be proprietary. Yes, you read that right; it’s a secret.”
Comment:
Granted, contacting them may not actually help you in the short term, but bringing attention to this kind of nonsense is the best way there is to try and put a stop to it. Better yet, find someplace to publish a fully fledged and documented story with relevant emails and the like and THEN start getting some attention to it. This is something there certainly should be standards for, and the government needs a kick in the pants to realize that.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ZigBee to the rescue for ‘Fifth Play’ services
http://www.eetimes.com/design/smart-energy-design/4401094/ZigBee-to-the-rescue-of-Fifth-Play-services?Ecosystem=communications-design
Cable companies and service providers worldwide are about to start rolling out a new “Fifth Play” service offering that makes the connected home more of a smart home. In addition to providing the existing Four Plays: TV and entertainment, Internet access, phone service (VoIP), and cell phone services, operators will be adding the Fifth Play – smart home services for monitoring energy usage, home health, security, climate control, etc. Companies like Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon are already marketing and installing these types of Fifth Play Smart Home solutions.
This Fifth Play will make the set-top box evolve into the “Home Control Box” that communicates with the various sensors and devices in the home which then can be controlled and monitored via a local RF4CE remote control or over the net via smartphone applications. Where previously the set-top box was just responsible for distributing content through the home, the Home Control Box makes it possible for consumers to control all kind of applications in their homes and over the Internet with smartphone apps.
Tomi Engdahl says:
All you need to know about nano SIMs – before they are EXTERMINATED
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/nano_sim/
Apple’s iPhone 5 uses a nano SIM, the smallest SIM ever designed and, quite possibly, the last SIM we’ll see in any mobile telephone.
The nano SIM used in the new smartphone is tiny and its pattern of electrical contacts are about two thirds the size of the original SIM. It’s almost too small to hold and certainly small enough to lose in a pocket, but despite the diminutive size its basic functionality remains unchanged: hosting encryption electronics and serial communications at 9,600 baud.
The GSM standard mandates a removable SIM, and consumer devices can conform to one of four different form factors
The first is a credit-card-sized monster. The second is the traditional SIM we’ve come to know. The third form factor (3FF) retains the same contact pattern as the first two so one can just trim down an existing SIM, but the fourth – the nano SIM – makes these DIY jobs a lot more challenging (although not impossible) as it changes the layout and positioning of the connections.
A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) contains a cryptographic chip, but critically it also stores a copy of the unique subscriber key, the other copy being held in the network operator’s authentication server (AuC).
As the chips in a SIM shrank, manufacturers tried to extend the functionality many times, from optimistic GPS to accelerometers, and ultimately loads of memory – up to 4GB of flash storage hampered only by the impossibility of getting the data off the SIM in a reasonable timeframe.
SIMs communicate with the phone over a single wire (C7) using a serial protocol similar to RS232 running at 9,600 baud.
this is really, really, slow
So the manufacturers lobbied for, and got, an extension to the standard that allocated the two lowermost pins to create a USB connection for fast communications. But despite enthusiastic support, from France Telecom, high-capacity SIMs never took off, so the USB connection quickly became redundant and the two contacts are optional.
The SIM can’t, realistically, get any smaller, but if the requirement to make it removable is dropped then the functionality could be fitted into a processor die in the form of a typical system-on-a-chip. Hardware-based security can be implemented on the package, as exemplified by ARM’s TrustZone and Intel’s Secure Element which provide comparable functionality without the need for a physical SIM.
Such a “soft SIM” would require a change to the GSM standard, to which all mobile phones in Europe are required to conform, but that change is already in progress having been proposed in 2010 by Apple.
Apple’s interest isn’t just in making the SIM even smaller: it also wants to wrest control of the secure store from the network operators whose ownership of the SIM would appear unassailable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile phone sales slump bites Nokia
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/14/phone_sales_slump_bites_nokia/
Nokia may have plunged down the chart of best-selling smartphone makers, but at least it can console itself with the knowledge that it’s still up toward the top of the broader mobile phone supplier table.
According to market watcher Gartner, Nokia is merely the world’s second most successful phone seller, at least during the three months to the end of September, behind Samsung. Apple, which only makes smartphones, is in third place.
Overall, shipments were down 3.1 per cent to 428 million units, a further decline after two past quarters’ worth of falls, though demand was up, Gartner said. Smartphone sales accounted for 39.6 per cent of total mobile phone sales, driven by a 46.9 per cent increase in shipments year on year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Network planning and testing for LTE-Advanced
http://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4401353/Network-planning-and-testing-for-LTE-Advanced?cid=EDNToday
Streaming video, gaming, advanced applications, and more are putting demands on today’s wireless networks and increasing the need for capacity and tower density. In response, carriers are looking at options, such as Wi-Fi underlay and backhaul, to limit the load on networks.
Simultaneously, various carriers are conducting trials and looking to introduce LTE-Advanced to the masses in 2013, which promises to make a performance leap by bringing more low-powered nodes closer to the user. However, issues around standards and how each carrier will make network handovers complicate things when deploying heterogeneous network components such, as smaller cell sites (e.g., picocells, femtocells, etc.).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Battery-Powered Transmitter Could Crash A City’s 4G Network
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/11/14/1932211/battery-powered-transmitter-could-crash-a-citys-4g-network
“With a £400 transmitter, a laptop and a little knowledge you could bring down an entire city’s high-speed 4G network. This information comes from research carried out in the U.S. into the possibility of using LTE networks as the basis for a next-generation emergency response communications system.”
‘If LTE technology is to be used for the air interface of the public safety network, then we should consider the types of jamming attacks that could occur five or ten years from now”
One Simple Trick Could Disable a City’s 4G Phone Network
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/507381/one-simple-trick-could-disable-a-citys-4g-phone-network/
High-speed LTE networks could be felled by a $650 piece of gear, says a new study.
The high-bandwidth mobile network technology LTE (long-term evolution) is rapidly spreading around the world. But researchers show that just one cheap, battery-operated transmitter aimed at tiny portions of the LTE signal could knock out a large LTE base station serving thousands of people. “Picture a jammer that fits in a small briefcase that takes out miles of LTE signals—whether commercial or public safety,” says Jeff Reed, director of the wireless research group at Virginia Tech.
“This can be relatively easy to do,” and it would not be easy to defend against, Reed adds. If a hacker added an inexpensive power amplifier to his malicious rig, he could take down an LTE network in an even larger region.
If LTE networks were to be compromised, existing 3G and 2G networks would still operate—but those older networks are gradually being phased out.
There are seven other such weak points, the researchers say, any one of which could be used to jam an LTE signal with a low-power transmitter. “There are multiple weak spots—about eight different attacks are possible. The LTE signal is very complex, made up of many subsystems, and in each case, if you take out one subsystem, you take out the entire base station.”
All that would be required is a laptop and an inexpensive software-defined radio unit (which can cost as little as $650). Battery power, including from a car battery, would then be enough to jam an LTE base station. Doing so would require technical knowledge of the complexity of the LTE standard, but those standards—unlike military ones—are openly published. “Any communications engineer would be able to figure this stuff out,” Lichtman says.
All of the latest smartphones and major carriers are heavily promoting a transition to LTE networks. Around the world, nearly 500 million people have access to the signals from more than 100 LTE operators in 94 countries. The technology can be 10 times faster at delivering data, such as video, than 3G networks.
No jamming of LTE networks is known to have happened as a result of the vulnerabilities,
The impact of any LTE vulnerabilities could be enormous. By Ericsson’s estimate, half the world’s population will have LTE coverage by 2017. And many consumer devices—including medical monitors, cameras, and even vehicles—may adopt LTE technology for a new wave of applications
Digital cellular communications were engineered to address another security concern. “Back in the old days, our students used to listen in on cell-phone conversations for entertainment. It was extremely easy to do. And that was actually one of the key motivators behind digital cellular systems,” Reed says. “LTE does a good job of covering those aspects. But unconventional security aspects, such as preventing signal jamming, have been largely overlooked.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verizon Envisions 4G Wireless in Just about Anything
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/427344/verizon-envisions-4g-wireless-in-just-about-anything/
At an “innovation center,” Verizon adds wireless to cars, ATMs, and jukeboxes.
The LTE Innovation Center, as it’s called, envisions all manner of devices using Verizon’s newer and faster 4G LTE network, which provides speeds up to 10 times faster than the older 3G network that is the focus of much of today’s congestion issues. (Verizon slows data transfers to 3G customers when networks are congested. AT&T slows data transfers after users hit a three-gigabyte monthly threshold.)
For now, Verizon’s LTE network has fewer than six million subscribers and isn’t being fully utilized—much less throttled—says Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst based in Seattle. But as 3G subscribers migrate to LTE and more people buy smart phones, LTE congestion will become a greater risk, he adds.
Verizon is hardly the only player drumming up business. All of the major carriers are interested in boosting revenue by dreaming up and promoting new uses for faster wireless broadband—especially for business customers. “They really want to find out how to get revenue not just from consumers using networks, but from businesses,”
Lindqvist says it’s not entirely clear how bad congestion really is, but says it’s not necessarily paradoxical to throttle data on the one hand while promoting more usage on the other. “This kind of fits the scheme: you limit consumers now so you can support more customers and applications later,” he says.
Verizon opened the testing and demonstration site last year. More than 300 employees work there with partners to develop new business models.
One business that’s already signed on is TouchTunes, a maker of interactive jukeboxes—one of which hangs on the wall at the Verizon Center. The company streams songs and video to 52,000 jukeboxes in bars and restaurants around the United States. A company spokeswoman, Liz Anklow, says an undisclosed percentage of these already use wired and wireless broadband, including both 3G and LTE, which makes it easier to sell and maintain the system in more places.
“The vision is that there is going to be an LTE pipe providing a combination of infotainment, security services, surveillance, and home control that you can access from anywhere.”
A video camera just above the plate can be programmed to dispatch a blast of streaming video when the car is bumped. You’d get a message on your smart phone and an image of who hit you, he says. Similarly, cameras inside the car could let you see how many teenagers piled in after junior borrowed the keys, he adds.
An electric meter rigged with an LTE radio chip, he says, would initially do low-bandwidth tasks such as sending reports on kilowatt-hours used. But it could also be the basis of wider services offered by your power utility, such as home security monitoring. While wired security cameras could be cut off by physically severing a cable, wireless cameras are more tamper-proof.
“Now these guys have a gateway; if they want to add water metering, and gas metering, and multiple nannycams, they can do all of that,” says Atreya. “They could even end up offering broadband service to the home, because they have X amount of data left.”
Tomi says:
Android Hits 73% of Global Smartphone Market
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/11/15/1823201/android-hits-73-of-global-smartphone-market
“Gartner’s released a report on worldwide numbers of 2012 3Q phone sales”
“t’s time to face the facts and realize that Android now owns 73% of the worldwide smartphone market.”
“the biggest growth market of them all is China, which is more than 90% Android.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verizon Will Reduce Speeds of Repeated BitTorrent Pirates
http://torrentfreak.com/verizon-will-reduce-speeds-of-repeated-bittorrent-pirates-121115/
At the end of this month the controversial “six-strikes” anti-piracy system will kick off in the U.S., and today two of the participating Internet providers have been discussing what measures they will take against repeated BitTorrent pirates. Verizon plans to notify alleged pirates via email and voice-mail, and will throttle the connection speeds of repeated infringers. Time Warner Cable will warn subscribers through popups and restrict users’ Internet browsing by directing them to a landing page.
Tomi Engdahl says:
One Step Toward a Babel Fish: Real-Time Voice Translation For Phones
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/11/16/0045239/one-step-toward-a-babel-fish-real-time-voice-translation-for-phones
“Douglas Adams’s fictional Babel fish., which lived in the brain and could translate any language in the universe, was so incredibly useful that it simultaneously proved and disproved the existence of God This real-time translation app for mobile phones, offered by the Japanese telecom company NTT DoCoMo”
Japan Mobile Company Debuts Real-Time Voice Translation App
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/portable-devices/japan-mobile-company-debuts-realtime-voice-translation-app
This month Japan’s dominant mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, introduced the world’s first app for real-time voice translation. When a user with a DoCoMo smartphone places a call through the app, he speaks in Japanese and his words are promptly translated into English, Mandarin, or Korean. To complete the conversational circuit, the other person’s words are translated from any of those languages back into Japanese.
AT&T’s research lab showed off its own translation service earlier this year, but NTT’s is further along and seems better integrated into the phone call itself.
The free DoCoMo app relies on the cloud for the heavy processing, namely speech recognition, machine translation, and voice synthesis. According to a NTT DoCoMo newsletter (not online, sorry), the app’s reliance on the cloud allows for unobtrusive upgrades and the most important feature, near-instant translation:
Trials have shown that the average processing time takes just about two seconds, fast enough for a reasonably natural conversation under the most unnatural of conditions, i.e., two people conversing easily without understanding each other’s language!
I quickly discovered that the system is great at pleasantries, not so great at more complicated communications. At one point I asked Hiroki and his colleagues on the call which languages would be added to the system next. The English answer I got back: “It is European edition such as French and German to challenge next.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google seen sniffing over a Dish of mobile spectrum
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/16/google_sprint/
Google has been chatting to Dish about cooperatively launching a mobile phone network in the USA, using the same loophole LightSquared failed to exploit to build a national network.
It’s not just Google that Dish is taking to, the TV company has been looking for a partner for some time and is open to discussions with anyone
Dish certainly wants to roll out a mobile network, having seen LightSquared fail at the final fence in its attempt. Both companies own frequencies designated for satellite use, but in the USA such owners are also permitted to deploy ground stations in the same band, to fill in shadows and improve building penetration: a loophole LightSquared hoped to use and Dish plans to.
LightSquared got permission from the FCC to deploy such a ground network, but then lost it again when it was unable to appease the GPS industry who were spectrally next door. Dish doesn’t have that problem, though it does have Sprint next door
The FCC hasn’t approved Dish’s request for permission to build a ground network, saying in March that it would have to confer until the end of 2012, but without the GPS crowd complaining it’s likely to give approval – so Dish is concentrating on ensuring the FCC ignores Sprint’s request.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ofcom plans for 5G as broadband speeds increase
Plans for more spectrum use to meet data growth
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2225394/ofcom-plans-for-5g-as-broadband-speeds-increase
UK TELECOMS REGULATOR Ofcom has outlined plans for 5G wireless services to ensure that the UK can meet the growth of mobile data expected by 2030, despite not having held auctions for 4G spectrum yet.
Today Ofcom predicted that mobile data demand in the UK could be 80 times higher by 2030 than it is now, underlining the need to prepare the nation’s spectrum holdings to meet this challenge.
Ofcom is planning to use the 700MHz band for future digital services. This spectrum is now used for digital TV services, but Ofcom said that its use for data services will not require another “switchover” as the spectrum could be used alongside the existing signals.
Ofcom said that this change will not be required until 2018 at the earliest and that it will work with relevant stakeholders to minimise the impact on consumers as much as possible.
The demand for data access was also underlined by new figures from Ofcom’s Infrastructure Report update, that found the average fixed-line internet connection in the UK has risen from 7.5Mbit/s to 12.7Mbit/s over the last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital Home Devices to Offer Increased Opportunities for Embedded OEMs
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/102788
The much touted digital home may have started off with lighting and thermostat controls, but it is rapidly expanding to more advanced security, energy management and lifestyle enhancement applications and beyond as the ecosystem grows.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Safety and Multimedia Collide in Next-Generation Automobiles
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/102791
As experience-rich functionality proliferates in today’s automobiles, so does complexity and the likelihood that it could conflict with operation- and safety-critical software systems. A sure means must be found to maintain secure separation, and hypervisors offer a solution.
At last year’s CES trade show, I saw a snazzy car demo in which each rear-seat passenger had a different high-definition movie playing on the two screens mounted on seat backs. Neither display device had a connector—the movies were being received wirelessly. Moreover, the movies were being streamed simultaneously from a 4G wireless connection to the car’s internal ad hoc wireless network. Cool stuff, especially if we neglect the data plan bill!
Smartphones are being integrated into the car, not only for multimedia content, but also for automotive-targeted application and services delivery and remote control. Yes, these next-generation automotive multimedia applications are mind blowing. But they are not limited to entertainment. Let’s have a look at what is new in the area of informatics and safety.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s profits fetish could spell its DOOM
Mobile world will soon be like PCs
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/20/open_and_shut/
For years Apple has dominated mobile, both in terms of market share and in terms of profits. It was an enviable position, and a unique one,
But as the industry has matured, Apple has haemorrhaged market share to low-cost Android.
In turn, it is now also losing its hold on industry profits. Given Apple’s fetish for profits over market share, it is consigning itself to a repeat of its battle with Microsoft, wherein it ends up as a profitable, but niche, market player.
Apple’s hold on industry profits is starting to slip, even as its market share plummets.
Not only is Apple losing market share in established markets like North America and Western Europe, but it’s practically an afterthought in the world’s most critical market: China.
An Analysys International report, as detailed on BGR.com, shows Android with more than 90 per cent of the China market
That’s up from 58.2 per cent in 2011, and is even more interesting when you see Apple declining in China to 4.2 per cent (from 6 per cent in 2011). In a market with more than one billion subscribers, that’s market share Apple can ill-afford to lose.
But its manic desire to control its ecosystem, coupled with its insistence on sky-high margins at the expense of market share, all but ensure that it will soon be an important, but niche, mobile vendor.
What’s surprising is that Apple doesn’t seem to have learned from its mistakes. It’s not enough to be a profitable niche company in a platform market, as Blodget argues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The IoT market is set to grow exponentially, with Gartner estimating 50 billion connected devices by 2020. The majority of these devices will be driven by connected sensors, requiring the support of a large community of developers from highly diverse industries. The devices and sensors will be used across a wide range of key industry verticals, including automotive, transportation, healthcare, utilities, retail, and energy.
Source: http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4401790/Rapid-prototyping-developer-kit-for-IoT-design-combines-ARM-32-bit-MCU-and-Sprint-broadband-modem?cid=EDNToday
Tomi Engdahl says:
Keeping technology user-friendly and simple: the latest failure example
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4401817/Keeping-technology-user-friendly-and-simple–the-latest-failure-example?cid=EDNToday
Obviously, the modem non-partitioning oversights were inexcusable. But let’s rewind to the very beginning of this tale. Comcast’s first big mistake was in telling me that activating a new modem wouldn’t disrupt my broadband connection. I’m sufficiently geeky that I realized I was likely being fed bad data.
This is a pathetic situation all the way around.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russians back down from leaked U.N. Internet proposal
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57552769-38/russians-back-down-from-leaked-u.n-internet-proposal/
The Russian Federation has revised a controversial proposal to turn Internet governance over to the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union, CNET has learned.
Following the disclosure by CNET of a secret proposal to transfer Internet governance to the U.N., the Russian Federation has revised its plan, toning down the language but not the thrust of the document.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NYC planning to install internet-connected ‘smart screens’ in old phone booths
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/9/2936803/new-york-city-smart-screen-phone-booths
Some 250 phone booths around New York City are getting a new lease on life — the New York Post is reporting that the city is planning to install 32-inch, internet-connected touchscreen displays in these old booths. The initial pilot rollout will begin next month, with the hopes that eventually, all 12,800 of the city’s pay phones will be replaced by “smart screens.”
initially, these screens will display local neighborhood info like nearby restaurants, stores, attractions, and safety alerts, all in a number of languages. Eventually, the smart screens will also be able to use services like Skype, serve as Wi-Fi hotspots, and let users check email
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC to hold hearings on post-Sandy wireless performance
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57553094-38/fcc-to-hold-hearings-on-post-sandy-wireless-performance/
The Federal Communications Commission will look at how to make the communications more resilient after disasters like superstorm Sandy.
The Federal Communications Commission plans to hold a series of hearings over the next few months to discuss ways to avoid losing communications during and after disasters such as superstorm Sandy.
“This unprecedented storm has revealed new challenges that will require a national dialogue around ideas and actions to ensure the resilience of communications networks,”
The focus of the hearings will be to determine how to ensure communications for first responders, government emergency personnel, and consumers.
One of the areas that the FCC will pay particular attention to is the reliance these networks have on commercial power. This is important for consumers both in the home and within the communications infrastructure. New voice over IP services from cable services and phone companies require broadband modems have power in the home to keep the service going.
But the infrastructure itself also relies on power. And during the storm, there was not adequate power to much of the communications infrastructure resulting in no wireless, broadband, or voice services in some areas.
The FCC also wants to look at how communications providers can work more closely together during a disaster to share resources.
The FCC said it wants to know: How can service providers best work together by sharing resources, such as cell sites, Wi-Fi networks and transmission facilities? What can the commission do to facilitate this? In what ways can these arrangements be made in advance so that they are in place when disaster strikes?
Tomi Engdahl says:
the mobile world is the end of this year, 6.6 billion mobile subscriptions. The number is already very close to the number of the world’s population, which is slightly more than seven billion.
In 2018, the penetration is Ericsson’s projections suggest that more than nine billion. This figure excludes M2M device to device connections, which also quickly become a commonplace.
Volume of mobile data has doubled in a year of smartphones and tablets, rapid growth is due.
Mobile networks moves in 2018, 12 times the amount of data compared to the present.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/mobiililiittymia+pian+jo+enemman+kuin+ihmisia/a858268?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-22112012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU Passes Resolution Against ITU Asserting Control Over Internet
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/11/23/0122212/eu-passes-resolution-against-itu-asserting-control-over-internet
“Today, the European Parliament passed a resolution that condemns the upcoming attempt from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to assert control over the Internet, and instructed its 27 Member States to act accordingly. This follows an attempt from the ITU to assert itself as the governing body and control the Internet.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC plans to make Twitter, mobile networks disaster proof
‘It’s an essential part of life’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/22/fcc_natural_disaster_communications/
The Federal Communications Commission is to have a series of talks around the US to figure out how to stop mobile network outages during natural disasters.
A quarter of cell towers on the East coast were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy late last month
“This unprecedented storm has revealed new challenges that will require a national dialogue around ideas and actions to ensure the resilience of communications networks,” FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said.
The hearings will start early next year and will discuss ways to keep mobile phone towers up and running and keep Wi-Fi operating. If services do go out, the FCC wants to discuss how to get them back quickly and what failsafes could support them – eg, back-up power.
“Mobile communication has become an essential part of our lives, and increasing its reliability must be a top priority,”
facebook subscriptions down says:
I needed to thank you for this wonderful read!! I certainly enjoyed every bit of it. I have got you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile phones are a global human experiment: “Something in the cell phone radiation causes damage in human sperm”
American scientist Devra Davis was a wakeup call for caution Finnish mobile phone use.
He is concerned about the prevalence of brain tumors in the United States and Denmark.
“It’s too early to say what caused brain tumors. Yet we know that one of the cell phone radiation damage in human sperm. Yet we do not know whether cell phone radiation has other biological effects of the heat,”
U.S. Environmental Health Trust as a leading Devra Davis, it is, however, too early to say that mobile phones are safe on that basis.
Institute of Occupational Health that there is still plenty to explore, because we do not know whether there is as yet unknown mechanism by which electric and electromagnetic fields affect humans at low levels of radiation.
Strong exposure to humans been proven to cause health effects.
Israel and the Canadian health agencies recommend using headphones with cell phones to reduce emission. The World Health Organization announced last year that cell phone radiation can possibly cause cancer.
“Blackberry calls the operating instructions that the cell phone be kept in a breast pocket. Iphone 4′s instructions advise on the device 1.5 cm away from your body when you are talking to it.”
“There is no convincing evidence that the mobile phone would be a health hazard for adults or children. But we can never say any other way up., Some caution is sensible advice to give,” Radiation and Professor Kari Jokela said.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/matkapuhelimet+ovat+globaali+ihmiskoe+quotjokin+kannykkasateilyssa+vahingoittaa+ihmisspermaaquot/a859162?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-26112012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Samsung to mass-produce flexible displays for mobile devices in early 2013
http://www2.electronicproducts.com/Report_Samsung_to_mass_produce_flexible_displays_for_mobile_devices_in_early_2013-article-fajb_samsung_flex_display_nov2012-html.aspx
According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung intends to move forward with mass production of displays that use plastic instead of glass, a move that will allow the manufacturer to create devices that are unbreakable, lighter, and bendable.
Besides saving on manufacturing costs, making the move to flexible displays will provide Samsung with the one thing all mobile manufacturers covet nowadays — differentiation in a crowded marketplace.
According to the WSJ, the new plastic displays will incorporate organic light emitting diodes (OLED), a display technology that the company is already using in its smartphone and television products. Specifically, they will use active-matrix) organic light-emitting diodes (AMOLEDs).
Samsung anticipates that by 2014, 50% of all phones might have AMOLED displays, and that by 2015 the market could see integration of this technology into TV panels, too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITU to EU: We don’t want to control the internet… honest
But who’s listening when Google says otherwise
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/27/itu_vs_en/
The ITU has reiterated that it does not want control of the internet, this time refuting a motion passed by the EU, which has joined the bandwagon fighting to preserve Google’s future.
The resolution, submitted by the Pirate Party among others, and passed last week, objects to the ITU trying to control the internet, at its meeting in two weeks, while ignoring the inconvenient truth that the ITU isn’t trying to control the internet as the body explains in a blog posting on the subject.
The EU motion makes the usual claims about the ITU’s lack of transparency and inclusiveness
But this isn’t anything the ITU hasn’t said before, many times, but despite the repetition, the complaints keep coming and even the least-paranoid start to wonder if all this smoke can really exist without fire
Tomi says:
FCC: Let Dish deploy 4G? Imagine a $1bn pile of cash … ON FIRE
LTE in sat-phone frequencies ‘will turn public asset into private windfall’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/27/fcc_dish/
Letting Dish roll out LTE into its satellite frequencies will obliterate the value of neighbouring radio spectrum that the US government hopes to sell for billions, said the FCC.
FCC rep Justin Cole told Bloomberg that allowing Dish to deploy 4G would “take a public asset potentially worth billions of dollars and turn it into a private windfall”, putting the wannabe mobile operator on the back foot. Dish is awaiting a green-light from the FCC to run its high-speed data network, and approval could come in the next few weeks.
Dish is hoping to get permission to deploy a 4G network in bands previously reserved for satellite phones, and – crucially – permission to deploy devices using those bands without any satellite capability at all. But the uplink band it wants to use, 2000 to 2020MHz, is right beside a 5MHz block that Sprint wants to buy and the FCC wants to sell.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analysis: Half of all mobile connections running on 3G/4G networks by 2017
https://wirelessintelligence.com/analysis/2012/11/half-of-all-mobile-connections-running-on-3g-4g-networks-by-2017/359/
3G and 4G technologies will account for half of all global mobile connections in five years, according to Wireless Intelligence forecasts.
2G connections are forecast to decline by over half a million over the next five years (down from 4.8 billion) as users migrate to next-generation 3G/4G networks and devices.
In the 3G space, HSPA will continue to account for the vast majority of connections; the technology is forecast to make-up over 30 percent of the global total by 2017, almost double the 16 percent share today.
Most WCDMA operators have now upgraded their networks to HSPA and many have deployed dual-carrier HSPA+ in order to offer download speeds on a par with 4G.
The share of 3G CDMA technologies (EV-DO) will remain flat over the period at about 4 percent, but will grow in absolute terms.
4G technologies such as LTE, TD-LTE and WiMAX currently account for just 1 percent of the global total but are forecast to account for 10 percent by 2017. The most common implementation of LTE (FDD) is expected to account for about 85 percent of all 4G connections by this point, with TD-LTE at 14 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dual-identity smartphones could bridge BYOD private, corporate divide
New processors will allow phones to run two OSes — one public and one corporate
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9233834/Dual_identity_smartphones_could_bridge_BYOD_private_corporate_divide
Late next year, consumers will be able to buy smartphones that either come with native hypervisor software or use an app allowing them to run two interfaces on the phone: one for personal use, one for work.
The technology could help address an issue that has cropped up with increasing frequency at work: Employees who bring their personal mobile devices to work and use them to communicate with clients and to access corporate data. The issue can cause friction at companies that need to safeguard their data on employee-owned smartphones and tablets and want to be able to remotely wipe the devices of data if they’re lost or if an employee quits or is fired.
VMware and Red Bend are two of the leading software companies that have already signed OEM agreements with smartphone manufacturers to create dual-identify devices from some of today’s most popular models.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pew: 56 Percent Of All Mobile Users Access The Internet
http://marketingland.com/pew-56-percent-of-all-mobile-users-access-the-internet-27205
According to some new survey data released over the weekend by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 56 percent of all mobile phone owners in the US access the internet. In addition, Pew says that 85 percent of all US adults now own a mobile phone.
There are approximately 250 million US adults today. If 85 percent own a mobile phone that would make 212 million mobile phone-owning adults in the US. There are roughly 26 million teens in the US and 75 percent of them own mobile phones according to Pew.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM, Sprint team to drive IoT innovation
http://www.eetimes.com/design/embedded-internet-design/4401806/ARM-Sprint-team-to-drive-IoT-innovation
The Internet of Things could comprise 50 billion connected devices by 2020, according to market research firm Gartner Inc. The majority of these devices will include sensors or provide access to sensor networks
ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) has introduced a development kit that integrates the Sprint mobile broadband USB 598U modem from Sierra Wireless with the mbed development platform, which is based on a Cortex-M3 microcontroller. The USB 598U modem provides access the Sprint 3G CDMA EVDO Rev. A network and the kit comes with drivers for modem pre-installed.
For geographic markets covered by Vodafone networks the mbed community recently announced the release of the Vodafone USB modem mbed library, enabling mbed microcontroller boards to connect to a cellular communications network using a 3G USB modem from supplied by Vodafone.