Femtocell Industry Awards 2009

The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, today announced the winners of the inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards. The awards recognise outstanding achievement within, and contributions to, the femtocell industry. The awards were presented at a gala dinner at the Femtocells World Summit in London last night.
The winners for the Femtocell Industry Awards 2009 are:
1. Award Category: Femtocell or femtocell network element design and technology innovation
Award Winner: ip.access Ltd - nano3G Enterprise Solution
The nano3G represents an evolution of the femtocell into the enterprise environment. Not only does it support the 3GPP's new femtocell standard, it also represents a step up in coverage and capacity.

2. Award Category: Femtocell service (commercial, prototype or demo)
Award Winner: ip.access Ltd - Facebook virtual fridge notes
The service implements a "classic" application use case - where the subscriber receives a reminder message when arriving at home - but with an innovative extension that enables the message to be composed and sent using Facebook.

3. Award Category: Progress in commercial deployment (vendor or ecosystem)
Award Winner: NEC Corporation
This recognizes NEC's strong traction in the market with several commercial contracts in place and several live trials underway with operators around the world.

4. Award Category: Significant progress or commercial launch by a large carrier
Award Winner: Sprint Nextel Corp.
This recognizes this commercial launch, which was the world's first commercial deployment of femtocells.

5. Award Category: Significant progress or commercial launch by a small carrier
Award Winner: Cellcom
For Cellcom’s deployment of the world's first IMS-based CDMA femtocell network for consumers and enterprises.

6. Award Category: Contribution to femtocell standards (individual or company)
Award Winner: Taka Yoshizawa, Thomson
For his pivotal role in defining the femtocell management specifications by working through the Femto Forum, the Broadband Forum and the 3GPP.

7. Award Category: Enabling technology (components, subsystems, modules etc.)
Award Winner: picoChip Designs Ltd -picoXcell™ PC302 SoC.
This optimized system-on-chip, which supports the 3GPP's new femtocell standard, embodies five years of femtocell experience, comprehensive interoperability testing and numerous real-world deployments.

8. Award Category: Social vision - use of femtocells for social / economic / environmental development
Award Winner: Softbank Mobile Corp - Niimi project
The project illustrates how femtocells can be cost-effectively deployed to deliver services in rural environments where existing coverage is limited.

9. Award Category: Award for individual contributions to Femto Forum activities
Award Winner: Chris Fenton of Telefónica-O2
For achieving architectural consensus as chair of the Femto Forum Network & Interoperability Working Group.

“The judges were extremely impressed by the high quality and number of award submissions which reflect the health and innovation of the femtocell industry,” said Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum. “The femtocell industry is rapidly evolving as major advances are made in the technology, standards, services and applications - these awards recognise and reward this progress. Our congratulations to the winners and to all those who participated.”
The awards were open to the whole industry and were judged independently of the Femto Forum by a panel of distinguished analysts, journalists and industry experts, chaired by Professor William Webb, Head of R&D at Ofcom.
For more information on the Femtocell Industry Awards, please visit: http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/aboutforum.php?id=96

Virtual Wi-Fi

Meru Networks has announced "virtual ports" for its wireless networks - a development it claims will finally enable Wi-Fi to replace Ethernet by making it as reliable as a switched Ethernet port.

The new fast version of Wi-Fi, 802.11n, can match the performance of Ethernet, but it can still be unpredictable, said Meru's vice president of marketing, Rachna Ahlawat. Virtual ports, introduced to the latest software on Meru's wireless controllers, give each user a dedicated network service, which can be tied to quality of service and delivered data rates.

Laptops and phones connecting to a Meru network with virtual ports will each see a dedicated BSSID or Wi-Fi Mac address, analogous to a wired switch port, said Ahlawat. This will follow the user throughout the network.

"It's like having a wired network port following you, hopping from radio to radio as you move," said Meru's chief architect, Joe Epstein. "One client can't affect the performance of others," added Ahlawat.

"The approach is very interesting," said analyst Craig Mathias of Farpoint Group, "providing greater control over the relationship between the infrastructure and a given client. I'm looking forward to testing it."

The feature is made possible by Meru's existing virtual cell architecture, said Ahlawat. This "virtualises" the Wi-Fi network, so access points do not all have separate identities: the BSSIDs are centralised, and network resources can be pooled for all users. Virtual ports take this further, by partitioning the pooled resources, to deliver service level agreements to individual clients, said Ahlawat.

Most rival wireless network equipment can also set up multiple BSSIDs, sometimes called "virtual APs," for instance to provide multiple wireless networks for guests and contractors on a site. But they cannot offer virtual ports, because the BSSIDs are held on the individual access points, and not centralised and pooled, Epstein said. "In that situation, attempting to assign a BSSID per client would be wrong - the network would rapidly run out of addresses. Without pooling, virtual ports would be the utter worst case of preprovisioning - not a virtualisation solution."

"Aruba, Cisco and others are trying to find ways to optimise a hublike technology," said Epstein, making a comparison with the old-fashioned hubs that shared access to Ethernet networks until they were replaced by switches which give each client its own port. "They make it work as well as a hub can work, but there will still be a difference between that and a switch-like technology."

Virtual ports can't make capacity out of nothing, acknowledged Epstein: they still share the bandwidth of a limited number of channels. But Ethernet switches are also limited by the uplink bandwidth - and the virtual port puts the two technologies on an equal footing: "The reaction of a switch to load is predictable."

The virtual port was designed for fast Wi-Fi in mind, using the IEEE 802.11n standard, but works on the previous 802.11abg standards, and is already available on Meru's 802.11abg products, said Epstein.

Cell phone study shows adverse testes results

Male cell phone users who carry their devices like 21st century six-shooters might want to reconsider where, exactly, they put them. A new study from the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic has suggested a link between cell phones and sperm damage. Specifically, the study said, when in close range to the testes and in talk mode, the cell phones damage sperm.

Studies were taken on 32 men with similar sperm health. One group was placed for an hour within 2.5 centimeters of a cell phone in talk mode at 850 MHz. The transmission, the study said, led to an increase in "oxidative stress" which, in laymen's terms, apparently means damaged sperm. Even worse, there may be a relation to testicular cancer as well.

This isn't the first time this particular medical team has found a link between cell phones and sperm problems. A previous study of 361 subjects showed men who use their cell phones more than four hours a day have "significantly lower sperm counts." A CTIA spokesman, while supporting "good science," also pointed to other studies that show no link between wireless usage and adverse health effects.

Alcatel-Lucent gets WIMAX Certification

Paris, September 4, 2008 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has been awarded the WiMAX Forum Certified seal of approval for its WiMAX 802.16e Compact Base Station at 2.5GHz. This achievement further confirms Alcatel-Lucent’s leadership in WiMAX and its commitment to accelerate the development of a global and open WiMAX™ eco-system.

Alcatel-Lucent’s infrastructure portfolio is made up of products that strictly comply with the 802.16e-2005 standard (also called Rev-e), which supports fixed, nomadic and mobile services. The company’s “Open CPE Program” is helping to accelerate the availability of terminals by encompassing comprehensive interoperability testing programs with WiMAX chipset and end-user device suppliers.

This significant milestone is also the first step toward the certification of the company’s entire portfolio of WiMAX solutions already available in other licensed frequency bands and deployed in several networks worldwide, including some in commercial service today in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Alcatel-Lucent expects its 3.5GHz equipment to be WiMAX Forum Certified by end of 2008.

“Alcatel-Lucent is proud to receive the WiMAX Forum Certified designation, which acknowledges the development efforts we have made over the last four years,” said Karim El Naggar, Vice President and head of Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX activities. “Customers can be confident that Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX solution complies with the most stringent requirements of the standard and smoothly interoperates with any WiMAX Forum Certified device.”

Karim El Naggar pointed out that, unique in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent systematically guarantees strict alignment of features and compliance at 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5GHz, as part of its global mobile WiMAX™ strategy.He noted that with 30 commercial contracts and more than 70 trials around the world, ”Alcatel-Lucent is the undisputed leader in the WiMAX market,” he said.

Currently the WiMAX Forum has more than 530 member companies including service providers, regulators, equipment vendors, chip vendors and content providers. Alcatel-Lucent is a member of the WiMAX Forum board.

“The first series of Mobile WiMAX certifications by the WiMAX Forum represent a critical milestone for the WiMAX industry as it will further accelerate the availability of interoperable solutions and ensure widespread adoption and deployment of WiMAX technology and products,” said Ron Resnick, President of the WiMAX Forum. “Alcatel-Lucent is playing a key role in taking that important step with the WiMAX Forum, enabling the global WiMAX community to benefit from fully interoperable infrastructures and devices.”

To earn this certification, Alcatel-Lucent’s 802.16e WiMAX products underwent rigorous and extensive series of tests by the WiMAX Forum's lead certification laboratory partner, AT4 wireless, spanning protocol conformance, radio conformance and interoperability testing.

“Achieving Mobile WiMAX certification is the result of the teamwork between leading wireless companies and our lab people, the most experienced in WiMAX certification testing world-wide. That is why AT4 wireless would like to thank Alcatel-Lucent for its key contribution towards putting in place the necessary process and tools,” said Fernando E. Hardasmal, Deputy General Director at AT4 wireless.

In addition to being a board member of the WiMAX Forum, Alcatel-Lucent is a founding member of the Open Patent Alliance formed by key industry players to advance WIMAX 4G technology.

Orange Romania will sell iPhone 3G on 22 August

Orange Romania, part of France’s mobile telephony operator Orange, on Wednesday said the new iPhone 3G handset, to be launched in Romania on August 22, will sell for prices ranging between EUR179 and EUR489, based on the type of model and subscription.

Orange is the only mobile telecom operator to sell the iPhone 3G terminal in Romania, following a deal France’s Orange signed with U.S. Apple Inc. in May to sell its iPhone in several European countries, including Romania.

Apart from Romania, Orange said it will sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland and its African markets later this year.

Apple launched the iPhone in the U.S. in June last year. The handset combines the features of a mobile phone, web browser and audio and video players.

Orange Romania is the top operator on the local mobile telephony market, with 10.01 million customers reported end June.

The company reported a 9% hike in its first half revenues to EUR628 million.

Huawei attacks the European market

Huawei Technologies, the China telecommunications equipment maker, is to step up sales efforts in Europe in a move that will raise pressure on western rivals.

Zhou Ming Cheng, Huawei's European marketing director, told the Financial Times the group had achieved sales of $2bn (£1bn) in Europe in 2007, up from $770m in 2006.

Mr Zhou said Huawei aimed to lift European sales this year, implying it was seeking to raise market share at the expense of rivals Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Huawei's aggressive overseas drive is putting pressure on Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens, which reported losses last year, and Ericsson, which saw net income fall.

"I do believe that in the coming few years we are still growing very fast here," Mr Zhou said.

"The European market is one of the biggest in the world - very strategic to the company. So we put more investment in and we believe we will have a better and better position here."

He claimed that the 2006 merger between Alcatel and Lucent and the joint venture between Nokia and Siemens had given Huawei sales opportunities because fixed-line phone and mobile operators did not want to be dependent on a restricted range of equipment suppliers.

During the past two years, Huawei has been winning wireless infrastructure contracts with European mobile operators by edging out Alcatel-Lucent, Eric-sson and Nokia Siemens.

Vincent Rech, an analyst at Société Générale, pointed to contracts won by Huawei in 2007 with Vodafone in Greece, Romania and Spain; France Telecom in Belgium and France; and Telefónica in Germany. The contracts underline how Huawei is moving beyond China and other emerging markets.

But while it is enjoying growing success in Europe, Huawei has made limited progress in the US. Mr Zhou said sales of $100m were achieved in the US in 2007.

The 2007 annual report of Huawei, which is not a public company, said it generated revenue of $12.6bn and net income of $673.5m.

Mr Zhou played down suggestions by rivals that it was aggressive in its pricing of contracts so as to win orders.

He described Huawei as a private company and denied it received financial support from the Chinese government.

Orange will bring iPhone 3G to Romania on August 22

Bucharest - August 6, 2008. Orange Romania today announced it will bring iPhone 3G to Romania on August 22. iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone plus 3G networking that is twice as fast*, built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs hundreds of third party applications available through the new App Store.

"We are excited to be the only network provider to offer iPhone 3G in Romania from August 22. With our 3G/HSDPA capabilities and widespread broadband coverage, Orange customers in Romania will be able to enjoy the full iPhone 3G experience,” said Richard Moat, CEO Orange Romania.

Orange customers are welcomed to attend the official launch of iPhone 3G at midnight on August 22. The doors of six Orange shops across the country will open simultaneously: Orange concept store in Bucharest and the Orange shops in Iasi (Anastasie Panu Blvd.), Cluj (21 Decembrie Blvd.), Brasov (Muresenilor St.), Timisoara (Republicii Blvd.) and Constanta (St. Stefan cel Mare).

Starting August 7, customers can register online their pre-order at www.orange.ro/iphone.

The combination of widespread EDGE, Wi-Fi, 3G and HSDPA networks mean customers can fully enjoy the mobile Internet almost wherever they go. In addition, Orange will offer a range of new tariffs plans and benefits for iPhone 3G customers. Details of pricing and availability will be announced soon.

Cisco acquires Pure Networks

SAN JOSE, Calif. - July 23, 2008 - Cisco today announced its intent to purchase privately held Pure Networks, a Seattle-based leader in home networking-management software and tools. Pure Networks' home networking-management solution allows users to easily set up and manage a home network and connect a range of devices, applications and services within a home.

Cisco believes the industry is amid a transition from Home Networking 1.0, in which home networks are largely designed to share a broadband connection that links PCs and peripherals, to Home Networking 2.0, in which the multimedia-enabled home will be comprised of a multitude of disparate network devices, applications and services that are connected to one another. The acquisition of Pure Networks provides Cisco with a fully integrated home networking-management solution that will also serve as the foundation for the development of new applications, tools and capabilities for consumers to use in an increasingly "connected life" at home, at work and on the go.

Pure Networks currently partners with Cisco to provide the software infrastructure and tools used to create the Linksys Easy Link Advisor (LELA) which allows a consumer to more easily set up, organize, manage, secure and use a home network. The acquisition strengthens Cisco's vision of the network as the cornerstone of the "connected life" by enabling further development of the existing LELA platform which will serve as the base for new multimedia-enabled applications, tools and capabilities. Pure Networks' products and solutions can also provide the foundation for service providers to manage home networks on behalf of consumers.

"With the rapid proliferation of networking technology and new consumer electronics devices, the ability to quickly and easily connect to a range of devices, content and services throughout the home is becoming paramount to achieving a satisfying consumer experience," said Ned Hooper, senior vice president for Cisco's Corporate Development and Consumer Group. "Pure Networks' network-management innovations will provide Cisco and Linksys with a key underpinning to take home networking to the next level of ease of use."

The Pure Networks acquisition follows Cisco's "build, buy, and partner" innovation strategy focused on capturing market transitions to expand existing product categories and enter new markets. By attaining Pure Networks' valuable network-management technology and intellectual property along with a dedicated research and development team, Cisco will be able to further advance its consumer strategy.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $120 million in exchange for all shares of Pure Networks. The acquisition of Pure Networks is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be complete in Cisco's first quarter of fiscal year 2009. Upon the close of the acquisition, Pure Networks' employees will remain in Seattle and be integrated into Linksys, led by Mike Pocock, Linksys senior vice president and general manager.

ZTE to help Ethiopia Telecommunications build national network

SHENZHEN, China — ZTE Corporation ("ZTE"), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions is exclusively developing Ethiopia's nationwide network to cover 14 major cities in Ethiopia, including Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. This cooperation marks ZTE's continuous success in penetrating Ethiopia, after reaching an agreement with ETC to help construct IP-backbone network late last year.

As part of the agreement, ZTE will help ETC establish two separate networks that will allow ETC to provide NGN and BTS related network services by deploying ZTE's GSM bearer network optical solutions. ZTE will play a role in helping ETC to establish Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) by deploying ZXMP M800 high-end optical transmission equipment, and Access Network by using ZXMP M600, Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexer (CWDM) system with Fixed Service Access Gateway (SAG).

ZTE's ZXMP M600 is a highly integrated CWDM transmission system, supporting 18 wavelengths and a maximum rate of 2.7 Gb/s. It features an open multi-service access model and high flexibility in consolidating voice and data services.

Moreover, it can be widely deployed at the convergence and access layers of large-scale metro network, the backbone, convergence and access layers of small to medium sized metro network, as well as the private network of utility infrastructure. With its high deployment flexibility and large capacity, ZXMP M600 helps telecom carriers lower operating cost.

"With our state-of-the-art optical transmission solution, we believe we can provide a smooth transmission route for Ethiopia's telecom network to help them satisfy their customers' demands for multi-service transmission within GSM, CDMA, IP and fixed line. ZTE is committed to playing a key role in bolstering Ethiopia's telecom infrastructure, and in return, boost its economic growth," said Mr. Han Ling, ZTE's vice president and general manager, optical network products.

ZTE has established close partnerships with over 500 operators in more than 120 countries, and has completed several large-scale backbone transmission network projects in different countries. Its optical networking products have been widely deployed by several countries and regions globally, such as Europe, Latin America, South Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa and Middle East. According to the latest statistics released by Ovum RHK, ZTE is ranked second in terms of global market share for LH Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), with high potential of maintaining its positive growth in the market.

Nokia acquires Symbian

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced it has launched a cash offer to acquire all of the shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own, at a price of EUR 3.647 per share. The net cash outlay from Nokia to purchase the approximately 52% of Symbian Limited shares it does not already own will be approximately EUR 264 million.

Nokia has received irrevocable undertakings from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. and Siemens International Holding BV to accept the offer, representing approximately 91% of the Symbian shares subject to the offer. Nokia also expects Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to accept the offer.

The acquisition is a fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, announced today by Nokia, together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.

"This is a significant milestone in our software strategy" said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. "Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers."

"The wide support for this initiative, uniting the industry around the Symbian platform, reflects the strong gravitational pull it has for application developers and other ecosystem players. We will drive efficient, open innovation by unifying the platform and simplifying the software supply chain, leveraging our experience from mobile devices. Nokia is strongly positioned to realize the benefits of open innovation, as well as accelerating time to market, enabling us to meet and exceed consumer expectations for leading converged devices and experiences", Kallasvuo continued.

Symbian Limited is the software company that develops and licenses Symbian OS, the market-leading open operating system for mobile devices. User interfaces designed for Symbian OS include S60 from Nokia, MOAP (S) for the 3G network and UIQ, designed by UIQ Technology, a joint venture between Motorola and Sony Ericsson. A privately-owned company established in 1998, Symbian has its headquarters in London, UK and other offices in the United Kingdom, United States and Asia (Bangalore, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo).

"Ten years ago, Symbian was established by far sighted players to offer an advanced open operating system and software skills to the whole mobile industry", said Nigel Clifford, CEO of Symbian. "Our vision is to become the most widely used software platform on the planet and indeed today Symbian OS leads its market by any measure. Today's announcement is a bold new step to achieve that vision by embracing a complete and proven platform, offered in an open way, designed to stimulate innovation, which is at the heart of everything we do."

Mobile devices based on Symbian OS account for 60% of the converged mobile device segment (source: Canalys, 12 months to Q1 2008). Symbian OS represented approximately 7% of all mobile device sales in 2007, up from 5% in 2006 (source: Strategy Analytics). To date, more than 200 million Symbian OS based phones have been shipped, over 235 models, from 8 vendors and on more than 250 mobile networks around the world. More than 4 million developers are engaged in producing applications for Symbian devices.

Nokia expects the acquisition to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2008 and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. On a reported basis, Nokia expects the transaction to be dilutive in 2009, approximately breakeven in 2010, and accretive in 2011. On a cash basis, Nokia expects the transaction to be dilutive in 2009 and accretive in 2010 and 2011. After the closing, all Symbian employees will become Nokia employees.

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