Symbian Limited, the market leader in open operating systems for mobile phones, today announced the launch of its new, world-class partner program, Symbian Partner Network .
The WiMAX Forum is talking up the European Commission’s decision to allow both TDD and FDD on the 2.6 GHz (2500-2690MHz) frequency band. The 2.3, 2.6 and 3.5 GHz frequencies are key bands for Mobile WiMAX technology, explains the Forum, and allowing both Mobile WiMAX (using TDD) with FDD-based cellular technologies like GSM and LTE, should assure them access.
The 2.6 GHz decision* was unanimously supported in the European Commission’s Radio Spectrum Committee, and it affords European Union administrations to make decisions in relation to the technology, services and usage that can be deployed within the band.The intention is that the market can decide which technology to deploy in this band, determine the most appropriate use of this spectrum, and create significant opportunities through opening the spectrum which will benefit all consumers.
This decision was made in addition to the recently published European Commission Decision 2008/411/EC harmonising the 3.5 GHz band for electronic communications services and represents a key milestone in the drive to advance new liberalised approaches to spectrum management within the European Commission WAPECS (”Wireless Access Policy for Electronic Communications Services”) initiative.
With the 2.6 GHz regulations now in place, EU administrations can proceed with spectrum awards for this band as a matter of priority.
But can different TDD and FDD technologies effectively share the same band without causing problems? Oh, sure, says The Forum, we’ve got white papers.
Ericsson is not convinced. They expect LTE to dominate.
NTT DoCoMo today announced that it will launch BlackBerry Internet Service in Japan on August 1st allowing individual BlackBerry users not connected to a corporate BlackBerry Enterprise Server to connect ...
AT&T’s deployment of U-Verse services in Tennessee, which commenced this week, could provide an unusual showcase of three-way competition in the country’s most active hotbed for municipal fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), says Telephony Magazine.
This week AT&T pledged to spend $400 million rolling out U-Verse services to 56 Tennessee towns over the next two years. The announcement came with the enactment of a state law passed earlier this year granting statewide franchises for video services.
Tennessee has more municipal fiber projects than any other state, according to Michael Render, president of research firm RVA. AT&T claims to have more than 1 million customers in the state with Comcast the dominant cable provider.
Tennessee already has five active municipal broadband projects and more on the way. And at last count, municipalities there already had 33,000 video customers among them. Only Washington state has as many public fiber projects, but many of its deployments are from public utility districts as opposed to municipalities.
Tennessee’s largest muni fiber project is in Jackson, where the local utility company has been turning up FTTH customers since 2004, passing the 10,000 customer mark three years ago.
The Jackson Energy Authority of Jackson, Tennessee, selected Wave7 Optics’ Last Mile Link. After the first year of operation, nearly 8,362 homes and businesses were using “Eplus Broadband” service.
The municipal electric utility in Clarksville, CDE Lightband, has been rolling out fiber this year with the goal of offering voice, video and 10-Mb/s symmetrical broadband service to about 50,000 residences. So far, despite delays, hundreds of customers have been turned up, the company says.
Meanwhile, EPB, the electric utility in Chattanooga, recently secured a $26-million loan to fund triple-play services over its existing FTTP network. Like CDE Lightband, EPB helps justify the cost of fiber deployment by using the network initially for remote meter-reading. EPB expects to complete the network upgrade for telecom services this summer, launching service early next year. Its goal is to reach 80% of its utility customers in three years and all 167,000 of them in five years. And its plan assumes a 35% to 45% take rate.
Consumers in some markets are already anticipating a competitive three-way market for residential telecom services.
Competing against Comcast should be a snap. Comcast and Time/Warner treat their customers like morons.
The new version is designed to enable faster service provisioning, easier monitoring and greater flexibility by simplifying how complex product offerings and services are handled.
NBC Universal plans to use its coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games to launch a new system for measuring viewership across an array of different media, including video-on-demand, cellphones and the Web, as well as traditional television, reports the Wall Street Journal.
NBC hopes the new system — which will be offered to advertisers at the start of the new fall season — will persuade advertisers to buy ad time on newer media such as VOD and cellphone video.
NBC isn’t satisfied with measures currently available to track viewing on these different outlets from Nielson, reports the Journal. To collect data for online, mobile and VOD usage, NBC will work with data providers such as research company Rentrak, online measurement firm Quantcast and Web analytics firm Omniture.
During the Games, NBC will issue a daily “Total Audience Measurement Index (TAMI).” It will include measurements of viewership on all the media venues airing NBC’s Olympic programming — the NBC broadcast network, cable channels such as Oxygen and CNBC, NBC’s Web sites, video-on-demand services and mobile programming.
NBC shelled out $894 million for the broadcasting rights to the Beijing games for the 17-day sporting extravaganza. Network executives say this will be the biggest production event in television history, surpassing the $125 million the company spent in 2000 on the Sydney Games.
NBC says ad time on Olympics is about 80% sold and the company says it expects to bring in more than $1 billion in ad dollars.
NBC U is banning the use of any Olympic video online by other news organizations covering the event. Video from the Olympic trials, going on now, must come down on Aug. 7, the day before the games begin.
In related news, AT&T today announced that several headlining artists will record exclusive tracks for the AT&T Team USA Soundtrack to inspire and support U.S. Olympic Team athletes. The songs will be available for download only during the Olympic Games in August through AT&T MEdia Net on AT&T wireless phones and online at att.net/TEAMUSA. Consumers can also access music through NBCOlympics.com.
Music on mobile devices is expected to account for $7.3 billion of the global amount spent on recorded music by 2011, according to new data from eMarketer.
Wi-Fi Planet’s Naomi Graychase posted an article on the University of Oregon mesh wireless network at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon. It used a combination of 5 Cisco Wireless Service modules for the Catalyst 6500 switch, with 10 4400-series controllers to support more than 500 access points, including Cisco Aironet 1500 outdoor mesh access points and Cisco Aironet 1240 lightweight access points.
Related Dailywireless stories include Olympic Mesh and 2006 Olympics Unwired.
DailyTech notes Gigabyte’s M912V packs a wealth of features into their 8.9″ Atom-powered tablet.
It runs Microsoft Vista Home operating system and its screen swivels 180 degrees to lie flat on top of the keyboard for writing on the screen. The display also features a respectable resolution of 1280×768 and is LED-backlit for better battery life, increased visibility, and a thinner panel.
It features a 1.6GHZ Intel Atom processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB SATA HDD, 802.11b/g wireless, Bluetooth, and a 1.3MP webcam. Ports on the M912V include three USB 2.0 ports, VGA port, 56k modem, NIC, an ExpressCard slot, and an internal expansion slot for HSDPA. It weighs only 2.86 pounds and has a small price tag to boot — $699.
It’s due later this month. By that time, the competition should be heating up with the arrival of the MSI Wind ($499) and the Eee PC 901/1001 ($649).
It remains to be seen if the buzz gets anywhere near the hoopla surrounding the iPhone's initial launch last June, but a line has already started forming outside Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York. The iPhone 3G goes on sale at 8 a.m. local time on Friday. Outside the U.S., launch times and dates vary, with the earliest also being July 11.
A World Phone
The newest version of the "phone that changed the world" comes not only with faster 3G connectivity, but a lower price -- $199 for the 8GB model. It is also now in sync with the most prevalent telecommunications networks in countries around the world, and will be available in more than 70 countries.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said the addition of 3G, plus a "dramatic increase" in the number of countries where the iPhone is available, should result in the device selling "considerably greater" numbers outside the U.S. than in the past.
For the U.S. market, he added, the price drop puts the iPhone 3G more in the range of some smartphones.
Greengart noted two differences between this week's launch of the iPhone 3G and last June's launch of the original iPhone.
A big one, he said, is that this time the iPhone has corporate e-mail support. "This opens up the iPhone as a choice for those customers who are interested in a smartphone for its e-mail capability," he said.
Among the criticisms of the original iPhone at launch was its lack of support for enterprise use, and there have been reports of increasing demand among employees to use the device.
'Mobile Computing Platform'
The second big difference, Greengart said, is that the iPhone 3G is "becoming a...
WANT to browse the internet, update your Facebook profile, answer emails, do some eBay shopping and add to your MySpace blog from your car? Technology to bring the information superhighway to our real highways ...
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