Asia - Europe Business

4G Mobile Consumer Service Revenue Will Exceed $70 Billion in 2014

As 4G network deployments gather momentum, a substantial 22% of device subscription revenues will come from suites of operator-branded premium services. Total 4G mobile consumer service revenue – including mobile Internet services - will grow rapidly to exceed $70 billion worldwide in 2014.

These 4G services will be optimized to enable a proliferation of mobile devices, such as smartphones, netbooks and PNDs, and many operators will be offering pooled device subscriptions: one user subscription, many activated devices.

Internet access service will be the “killer 4G service” – no surprise considering 4G networks are data-only. However, a suite of premium services will collectively drive significant consumer adoption, revenues and profits, including:

- Location services, such as turn-by-turn directions and POIs

- Multimedia services, such as VoD and P2P video sharing

- Media broadcast services, such as pay-per-view TV and digital radio

- Gaming services, such as multi-player and augmented reality games

These “Web 3.0” services will be integrated with popular Web 2.0 features, such as personalization, community, interactivity, presence, and localization, and will be delivered simultaneously, seamlessly and transparently to ‘three screens’ – PCs, TVs and mobile devices - over the Internet, over cable networks, and over wireless networks.

Lisa

China Telecom to Begin 4G Commercial Ops in 2010

China Telecom intends to begin commercial operation of 4G service in 2010. The company announced its intention at a signing ceremony commemorating its entrance into the GSM Association.

China Mobile has announced plans to launch a 4G demo network based on its TD-LTE standard during the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Lisa

Clearwire launches WiMAX in Europe

US WiMAX service provider Clearwire has launched a commercial network in Malaga, Spain, its first venture outside of its home market. The service covers an area of nearly 600,000 people and is targeting consumers and enterprises with claimed average download speeds of 3-6 Mb/s with bursts over 10 Mb/s. Pricing starts at EUR29.90 a month. Clearwire’s data services are going up against the mobile broadband offerings of the country’s HSPA operators, with Clearwire promising speeds “several times faster than 3G.” The company is also expected to launch another 3.5GHz WiMAX network in the Spanish city of Seville soon.

 

Lisa

Huawei wins first national 4G network deal in Sweden

Huawei has beaten Ericsson in the competitive bid secure to the tender for Swedish operator Net4mobility’s national 4G network. Net4mobility is a JV between Telenor and Tele2 and both parties said that Huawei snared the deal because of its competitive prices.

"It has been a long procurement process in which we discussed both technology and price before settling on Huawei. All actors in this process are strong on technology and have comparable offers. But we opted for Huawei because they met with all of our important parameters," Tele 2 Sweden CEO Niclas Palmstierna said.

 

Net4mobility is planning to roll out a 4G mobile network to 99% of the population by 2013. Construction on the project is set to start next year in the major Swedish cities.

 

The Net4Mobility rollout represents the first nationwide 4G network in Sweden. The deployment also includes increasing the number of base stations for voice traffic in 2G/GSM by 30-50%, with enhanced indoor and outdoor coverage across the country.

 

The win is a blow to Ericsson and its long running competitive tussle with Huawei, particularly taking the loss on its home turf.

 

Ericsson has secured the sole contract for Norway’s third 3G network for new operator Mobile Norway.

 

Lisa

 

China Mobile Picks Sequans for Expo 4G Chips

French 4G chip manufacturer Sequans Communications will provide TDD (TD-SCDMA-based) chips and USB internet cards for China Mobile's 4G demo network during the Shanghai Expo next summer. China Mobile had agreed with Jiangsu GaoTong Technology Industry (GT Mobile) to develop FDD (WCDMA-based) and TDD LTE chips simultaneously.

Lisa

China Telecom, ZTE On Board for LTE

China Telecom plans to trial its 4G EVDO network for the first time in Shanghai's Xuhui District within three years, IT Times reported November 30. China Mobile has announced plans to launch a 4G demo network based on the TD-LTE standard during Shanghai's 2010 World Expo.

Telecom equipment provider ZTE Corp announced November 26 that it plans to cooperate with Vodafone to promote LTE technology.

Lisa

China Mobile Preps Demo 4G Service for Expo

China Mobile plans to launch a 4G demo network based on its TD-LTE standard during the Shanghai Expo next summer. The company has agreed with Jiangsu GaoTong Technology Industry (GT Mobile) to develop FDD (WCDMA-based) and TDD (TD-SCDMA-based) LTE chips simultaneously. GT Mobile released its first FDD LTE prototype chip at the beginning of November.

Telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technology said it has won China Mobile's contract to deploy the 4G TD-LTE network.

 

Lisa

Huawei makes play for LTE patent leadership

Huawei has increased the pressure on its rivals by claiming to be leading the race for being granted LTE patents.

 

The company, which recently demonstrated the world's first LTE mobile broadband internet connection with TeliaSonera in Oslo, said that ETSI had confirmed the award of 147 LTE patents to the Chinese equipment manufacturer.

 

According to Huawei, it was granted patents across several key LTE sub-sectors, such as physical-layer air interface, radio resource management and connection management, and represented 12% of the total existing 1,272 LTE patents assigned by ETSI as of August 2009.

 

Yin Weimin, president of Huawei’s LTE division, said this reflected the company's commitment to operators as they evolve to LTE. “We have always adopted a forward-looking approach and will continue to collaborate closely with the industry in driving the development of next-generation mobile communication solutions.”

 

Separately, the patent portfolio management firm, Sisvel, has responded to a request from the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance to help select the patent pool administrator for parties owning patents essential to the LTE standard.

 

In May, Sisvel called upon the wireless industry for patents and patent applications essential to the LTE standard, in an effort to support the creation of a joint licensing program to make LTE technology accessible to all users on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.

 

This move by the NGMN to establish an open and fair approach to LTE patents has perhaps been motivated by the many long and protracted legal battles that have been fought for years over wireless patent ownership and infringements.

 

Lisa

School Of 3G LTE & Advanced Communications Launched

Informa Telecoms Academy, a leading provider of technology and business training to the global telecoms industry announce the launch of the School of LTE & Advanced Communications. The School of LTE & Advanced Communications delivers a wide portfolio of training courses covering the key technologies in the planning and deployment of LTE and Advanced Communications networks, details of which can be found at www.schooloflte.com.

 

Lisa

Beyond 4G Wireless (3)

The project is also developing systems for space applications, working with the European Space Agency. The reveal details have not yet been made public, probablly the systems will operate in the 100GHz band and are needed immediately.

 

There are various ongoing co-operation projects with industry to commercialise the components and systems, and some components are already at a pre-commercial stage and are being sold in limited numbers. There are also ongoing talks with some of the biggest names in telecommunications, including Siemens, Ericsson, Thales Communications and Malaysia Telecom.

 

In a few years time, everybody will be able to see the results of the IPHOBAC project in telecommunications, in the home, in radio astronomy and in space. It is a completely new technology which will be used in many applications even medical ones where mm-wave devices to detect skin cancer are under investigation.

 

Lisa