Wireless Blog

International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009 A today announced that Qualcomma s co-founder Dr.

Dell Mini 10 now has GPS option. There aren't that many netbooks out there that offer integrated GPS functionality so it is good to see more companies focusing on making GPS available at least as an option.

Accessory vendor Macally on Wednesday announced a number of new products for the Mac, including several wireless input devices and two "eco-conscious" laptop stands.

The European Union has dramatically slashed the rates that wireless carriers can charge consumers roaming across the EU's member states.

Previous rate reductions introduced in 2007 cut the cost of voice roaming calls within the EU by 70 percent. Under the new rules that went into effect Wednesday, noted EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding, EU roaming charges have been reduced by a further 60 percent.

"The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end, thanks to the determined action of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and all 27 EU member states," Reding said. "From today, all Europeans making calls or sending texts with their mobiles can experience the EU's single market without borders."

The Downside for Carriers

Though the new EU rules are limited to reducing the rates that wireless operators charge each other, Reding expects the changes will make it much cheaper for roaming consumers to place and receive calls, send text messages, and surf the Web on mobile phones.

"I call on the mobile industry to pass these savings on to data roaming customers swiftly," Reding said. "The commission and national regulators will monitor data roaming charges very carefully and assess next year whether the roaming market is finally becoming competitive."

The new rules come at an inopportune time for the region's wireless carriers. The EU's earlier roaming cuts have already had a negative impact on the carriers, which previously had "made margins on inter-country calls, and particularly on data roaming," said Jessica Ekholm, a Gartner principal research analyst. T-Mobile said earlier this year that "lower roaming revenues and newly introduced regulation on roaming and termination charges had a negative impact on revenues."

Due to foreign-exchange fluctuations, the recession, and higher unemployment, there has been a decrease in the number of people traveling, which has led to lower roaming...

The formation of a patent pool for technologies related to near field communications is gathering steam with one of the major players in the field, Via Licensing Corporation, signing up Motorola Inc.

Cisco Systems on Tuesday discussed its Web-based software strategy at a press conference that outlined new features and functions for its WebEx conferencing service. By adding more software, including voice integration, into WebEx, Cisco is moving into Microsoft's territory.

Microsoft is both a Cisco partner and a rival in the Web-conferencing space. Recent Cisco acquisitions suggest the company is going to become more aggressive about competing with Microsoft in cloud-based services that make up its unified communications suite.

Cisco hinted at the ability for business users to create documents and share them through the WebEx platform. That would be a direct threat to Microsoft Office, which generated $60 billion last year. Cisco also said it plans to introduce a telepresence product for homes in coming years. But the WebEx changes are the key focus for Cisco's services business.

Competing with Microsoft

"This does compete with Microsoft more than some may think," said Zeus Kerravala, a vice president at The Yankee Group. "Besides WebEx, Cisco has quietly made a couple of other acquisitions. One is PostPath, which is a hosted e-mail product, and the other is Jabber, which is a presence technology."

Cisco's acquisitions make it possible for the company to integrate hosted e-mail and instant messaging into WebEx. That could shake up the market. Microsoft has traditionally had the competitive advantage by virtue of its stronghold on desktop applications. But Cisco is strong in networking and VoIP and is finding ways to gain an edge in e-mail and desktop software.

"If Cisco is going to take market share from Microsoft in areas where Microsoft is strong, it's not going to be by out-Microsofting Microsoft," Kerravala said. "What I mean by that is that if Cisco tried to build its own version of Exchange, it would fail. So Cisco is going to create this movement to the...

Microchip Technology Inc. has released two additions to its IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee portfolio for short-range, low-data-rate embedded wireless networking.

Customers to benefit from BT Openzone partnership and upgraded software O2 today announced that its mobile broadband customers will have access to thousands of BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots for the first time.