Wireless Asia articles from September 2008

Wireless Asia archives from September 2008

Let's talk about the future.(THE SIGNAL)
September 1, 2008... Recently I experienced a true geek moment when I saw a keynote presentation from Intel CTO Justin Rattner at the annual Intel Developer Forum. Rattner's theme was a daring one--rather than simply look back at 40 years of Intel history, he also...

Wimax and C-band still plagued by interference issues.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
September 1, 2008... Wimax networks operating in the extended C-band are still generating signal interference for satellite operators, despite warnings last year from industry organizations that C-band coexistence between Wimax and satellite was impossible. ...

Last-minute Wimax for Malaysia.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
September 1, 2008... After almost 18 months of delays and a regulatory ultimatum, Malaysia joined the Wimax club with the launch of services by PacketOne, REDtone and Asiaspace Dotcom at the end of August. P1 was first out of the gate, and while it's deployed...

802.11r enables fast handover for VoIP Wi-Fi.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
September 1, 2008... The IEEE has completed 802.11r, the newest Wi-Fi specification that lets Wi-Fi devices roam quickly between access points, a move that could greatly improve VoIP performance on enterprise LANs. The IEEE 802.11 standards were originally...

GSMA to power 118,000 base stations with green energy.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
September 1, 2008... The GSM Association has stepped up its push to promote green technology with a new program that aims to establish 118,000 new and existing base stations using alternate power sources in developing markets by 2012, saving up to 2.5 billion...

T-Mobile and Nortel Networks successfully conduct a LTE test connection while driving in a car in range of three cell sites on a highway in Bonn, Germany.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... T-Mobile and Nortel Networks successfully conduct a LTE test connection while driving in a car in range of three cell sites on a highway in Bonn, Germany at an average speed of 67 kph, with data rates of up to 170 Mbps for downloads and up to...

Department of Telecom.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... India's Department of Telecom amends its 3G policy to allow successful foreign bidders to acquire Indian operators without waiting for the mandatory three years.

National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Thailand's National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) expects to award licenses for 3G mobile phone services by the second quarter of next year with or without the presence of a new regulator.

Mass Rail Transit (MRT).(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Singapore's Mass Rail Transit (MRT) system will allow access to 3G wireless services for commuters in its North East Line.

Pakistan's Warid Telecom will deploy solar-powered base stations.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Pakistan's Warid Telecom will deploy solar-powered base stations from Huawei Technologies.

Thailand's Mae Fah Luang University will deploy the first Cisco-powered Wimax.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Thailand's Mae Fah Luang University will deploy the first Cisco-powered Wimax network in Asia Pacific.

Intel.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Intel plans to extend the frequency ranges supported by its Wimax chipset next year beyond the 2.5-GHz profile.

Firetide.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Firetide supplies equipment for a wireless mesh network deployed in Korea's Chungcheong Province by service provider KT Corp. The network provides IP-based ubiquitous sensor network services for managing water and agricultural systems, among...

iFORTE.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Indonesian Wi-Fi solutions firm iFORTE deploys a wireless network in one of Jakarta's newest and most modern malls.

Hotgate Technology.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Hotgate Technology is rolling out a free public Wi-Fi network in Penang, Malaysia.

Panasonic will use Qualcomm's Gobi mobile internet solution.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... Panasonic will use Qualcomm's Gobi mobile internet solution in its "Toughbook" line of laptops.

A new high speed train sprinting between Beijing and Tianjin will have wireless access.(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... A new high speed train sprinting between Beijing and Tianjin will have wireless access deployed by Siemens and Commscope's Andrew.

Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA).(SHORT BURSTS)
September 1, 2008... The Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA) has approved content protection specs for WirelessHD.

DoCoMo bets on Super3G: NTT DoCoMo is preparing to roll out its pre-standard Super3G technology ahead of LTE. It's a risky move, but DoCoMo is under enough competitive pressure that it can't afford to wait until 2010 for commercialized LTE.(RESEARCH NOTE)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NTT DoCoMo has always been the most aggressive cellular operator in terms of early adoption of technology, and carries huge amounts of R&D activity and IPR in 3G systems. This led to the operator deploying 3G before...

Beyond the wallet: new adventures in NFC: mention NFC in mobile tech circles and people will think of mobile wallet applications for transportation and convenience stores. But cellos facing limited margins from such services are looking for new mobile NFC apps, from smart posters to P2P transfers. Now if they just had some NFC handsets ...(Cover story)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the wide array of wireless applications that have come and gone over the years, few have seemed like such a sure win as contact less payment cards armed with short-range RF chips. The prospect of paying for...

Navigate the city: improving GPS accuracy for urban pedestrians: GPS-based apps for pedestrians are challenging in urban canyons where they're most likely to be used. One solution could be replacing the navigation engine of the GPS chipset with a software-based overlay linked to a GIS database.(APPLICATION FOCUS)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mass-market GPS applications have mainly focused on car navigation over the last five years. A wide range of applications can be foreseen for pedestrians as well: multimodal navigation, local search, and social...

Power problems for HD mobile video: to be able to bring HD video to end-users without sacrificing battery life, mobile device designers must optimize the power consumption of all components, not just the radios and displays.(TECH CLOSE-UP)
September 1, 2008... As consumers carry mobile phones everywhere to enable constant access to voice communications, even low-cost ones have incorporated audio players, video camcorders and other features to create an always-available, multi-purpose multimedia...

Planning ahead for Wimax RF design: when you plan your Wimax network, make sure you pick the right tool for the job--in this case, a planning tool that's flexible, vendor-agnostic and designed specifically for OFDM systems.(TECH PERSPECTIVE)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Planning a Wimax network usually takes place in two phases--a business plan that is used for costing and traffic/revenue estimates at the proposal phase, followed by a network plan that takes physical and...

Tuning into Wimax TV: mobile TV is a hot topic, which is why mobile operators need solutions that drive more efficient delivery of mobile multimedia. But Wimax operators may already have a leg up in the mobile TV race via efficient unicast/multicast techniques.(TECH PERSPECTIVE)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The market for mobile TV has been somewhat of a paradox. There are endless studies showing mobile TV's appeal to consumers, its being the logical next step in terms of convergence, the widespread availability of...

New Wi-Fi tags for vertical markets.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... Ekahau introduced four new Wi-Fi tags that expand the functionality of its real-time location tracking solutions, the company said. The tags include a personnel badge tag that offers the industry's first two-way Wi-Fi pager capabilities and...

Multi-band RF for Wimax.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... PMC-Sierra added four new multi-band devices to its WiZIRD family of integrated Wimax RF IC solutions These new devices enable Wimax system designers to leverage a single radio design to provide customer premises equipment and network...

Low-cost femtocell system-on-chip.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DesignArt Networks introduced its DAN2200 Wimax femtocell system-on-chip (SoC), touting it as the first complete single-chip femtocell SoC that allows equipment vendors to break the $100 unit price barrier. ...

High-gain, low noise GPS amplifier.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... The ALM-1612 is Avago Technologies' latest high-gain GPS low noise amplifier (LNA) with integrated filter. It can achieve a 0.9 dB noise figure, 18 dB gain, +2 dBm input third order intercept point, and more than 65 dBc of cell/PCS-band...

Wi-Fi chip for in-home HD streaming.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... Celeno's new Wi-Fi system-on-a-chip--the CL1300--can stream up to four concurrent and different HD streams in a home environment. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Triple play service providers deploying IPTV services face significant technical...

Smallest mobile Wimax chip.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... Altair Semiconductor's ALT2150 is touted as the world's smallest and most power-efficient mobile Wimax processor. The ALT2150 implements full Wimax Forum Wave-2 physical (PHY) Layer and Media Access Control (MAC) functionality. It is...

Wimax radio scanner.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... Rohde & Schwarz has launched the R&S TSMW, a universal mobile radio scanner that features two integrated receivers and includes Wimax functionality. The two receivers allow faster operation than solutions that use mobile phones with test...

Multi-band network diplexers.(WIRELESS GEAR)
September 1, 2008... Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) has announced what it touts as the world's smallest and lightest range of diplexers for network overlays, its FD9R6004 wideband diplexer series. The FD9R6004 diplexer series weighs 1.4kg and is only 0.43L in...

Femtocell race heats up ... slowly: until standardization contributes to technical maturity and guarantees interoperability across the ecosystem, thereby driving down implementation and CPE costs, most operators will not be willing to commit to femtocells.(ANALYST VIEW)
September 1, 2008... As with all technologies, some operators seek to optimize first-mover advantage and get to market early. Softhank now joins Sprint in this camp. However, in general we would advise operators to hold back on deploying femtocells until...

Networking opportunities across Asia.(EVENTS CALENDAR)(Calendar)
September 1, 2008... october Oct 13-16, 2008 Annual Mobility World Congress & Exhibition 2008 Bangkok, Thailand Oct 21-25, 2008 Expo Comm China 2008 Beijing, China Oct 27-30, 2008 CASBAA Convention 2008 Hong Kong SAR, China...

Augment your reality.(WIRELESS HORIZON)
September 1, 2008... Ever since location became a hot mobile app, mobile tech companies have been looking at the concept of "augmented reality" (AR), in which digital info is overlaid on the real world. PNDs with digital maps are an early and simple version of...

Nod if you want more headset power.(WIRELESS HORIZON)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bluetooth headsets have always been something of a trade-off: the convenience of wireless with the headache of having to recharge them, or having the battery run out in the middle of a call. US manufacturer...

Nanotubes for tougher cell phones.(WIRELESS HORIZON)
September 1, 2008... A team of university researchers has developed a solution to help your phone's innards take more punishment: tiny, shock-absorbing carbon springs. Researchers at Clemson University and the University of California at San Diego have shown...

Smarter alarm clocks.(WIRELESS HORIZON)
September 1, 2008... Interesting news for people whose handset now doubles for their alarm clock: researchers at Tampere University of Technology and the University of Helsinki have developed a mobile phone app that helps you wake up better. The app--a smart...