Tech Lover

Sierra Wireless has announced its smallest USB 3G modem, the Compass 597. This new modem will utilize the EV-DO Rev. A networks with speeds up to 3.1 Mbps and 1.8 Mbps for downloads and uploads respectively. It features a microSD card slot, a built-in GPS receiver and a connector for an external antenna for boosting the signal strength.

The Compass 597 is largely viewed as an answer to Novatel’s U727 mobile broadband card. Sierra’s previous offering were bested by the U727’s better GPS integration and flip-out antenna, as well as its ability to double as a microSD card reader.

The Compass 597 is due to be released in the second quarter of 2008.

http://www.phonenews.com/sierra-wireless-announces-compass-597-tiny-ev-do-card-2850/

It has been in the works for a long time, just over a year now and at this point many were thinking the approval would never happen. However, it seems the latest two month extension for the merger deadline was just was they needed. The Department of Justice has approved Sirius’s $5 billion buyout of XM Radio, however no information was given on just when the merger will officially take place.

According to the DOJ: “Evidence Does Not Establish that Combination of Satellite Radio Providers Would Substantially Reduce Competition”

Keep reading for the full Department Of Justice Statement below…

http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/breaking-sirius-xm-merger-receives-approval/

Internet firm upbeat on mobile Internet, but analysts note there will always be a need for fixed broadband; mobile advertising potential tied to take-up.

In the next decade more people will log on to the Internet using a mobile device than on their computers, Yahoo predicted on Thursday.

Within 10 years more people will be accessing the Internet from their mobile, than in the home from a PC,” said Geraldine Wilson, vice president of connected life at Yahoo Europe.

“In emerging markets most people’s first contact with the Internet will be with a mobile phone,” she added.

Speaking at a presentation in London Thursday, Wilson conceded that the cost of using mobile data services needs to come down, that handsets need better interfaces, and network speeds need to improve to really drive uptake, but insisted that these three key issues are already being addressed.

“We have to be careful because there have been many false dawns of Internet on the mobile, but I think we will look back at 2007 as when things started to happen,” she said.

Still, Wilson’s comments should not be taken to mean that the mobile Internet will substitute fixed-line access.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if in future more people access the Internet from a mobile device, but it won’t lessen the need for fixed-line broadband,” said Jonathan Coham, an analyst at industry consultancy Ovum.

He said the choice of mobile broadband over fixed depends on the kind of Internet applications that consumers are using.

“Some applications will be more suited to the mobile, such as email, or unlimited music downloads,” said Coham.

“Bandwidth is the main benefit of fixed-line access, and there will always be services like IPTV that require high bandwidth, consistently,” he commented.

Yahoo’s Wilson also spoke of the obstacles facing Yahoo in the mobile advertising space that need to be overcome in 2008.

“It’s a huge education job to get advertisers on board, and to make them comfortable enough that they want to spend money,” she said.

Companies like Yahoo also need to keep building up more partnership agreements with operators and handset makers in order to generate the kind of scale, and as a result, reach the number of consumers that advertisers look for, she added.

Most recently, in mid-November Yahoo inked a number of deals to provide operators in Latin America and Asia with the mobile version of its search engine, oneSearch.

“Again, it depends on the mobile Internet becoming mass market,” said John Delaney, principal analyst at Ovum.

“At the moment more people are using the Internet on their PC, and for longer… which is more attractive to advertisers,” he said. But as mobile Internet uptake increases so will its value to advertisers.

Furthermore, Delaney pointed out that fixed broadband is delivered on a per-household basis, whereas mobile broadband potentially provides a direct link between the consumer and the advertiser, enabling the latter to target consumers more effectively.

Wilson said that in 2008 Yahoo is looking to further personalise users’ mobile Internet experience.

“We want to add in more local content in our mobile search listings,” she said.

Source: http://www.totaltele.com/View.aspx?ID=96801&t=2

China’s second-largest mobile phone carrier, China Unicom, announced that is willing to hold talks to make Apple’s popular iPhone device available in the Chinese market. Initially, they refused to sell iPhone in China (read this article).

But seeing how popular it is, they are willing to give it a shot. “It seems that iPhone is hot in some markets. We are willing to discuss with Apple,” said China Unicom executive, Li Zhengmao, at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau.

Zhengmao cautioned, however, that China Unicom hadn’t yet talked with Apple about the device, and that its main rival, China Mobile Ltd. is already negotiating with the American hardware giant. It is not yet clear whether a possible deal between Apple and China Mobile would be exclusive.

So far, the Apple iPhone has been made available in the United States, Britain, and Germany, and will make its debut in France later this month.

Source: www.teleclick.ca/2007/11/china-unicom-open-to-selling-apple-iphone-in-china/

Worldwide video downloads will grow from 215 million in 2008 to more than 2.4 billion in 2012, with online movie rentals accounting for more than half of these, according to a recent study by ABI Research.

ABI predicts that rental, downloadtoown, and subscriptionbased distribution models will gain significant traction as new technology linking the internet and TV becomes commonplace. Internet movie rentals will likely begin to cut into the traditional video store market, accounting for about half of all online video downloads.

“The opening up of rental for video on iTunes is not surprising, given that is how most consumers looking for legal paid movie downloads will choose to acquire them,” commented ABI researcher, Michael Wolf, on Apple’s recent decision to enter the online video market. “Distribution offerings for movies that are in attractive release windows and that offer easy viewing on a TV or portable screen will see the greatest success.”

But challenges remain for online video services, according to ABI, especially as cable and telecom operators move to dominate the market with legacy Video On Demand offerings. Unattractive online ownership and rental terms offered by movie studios may also pose obstacles.

“Studios are locked into the same 24hour ‘oncestarted’ viewing window and similar pricing for all online rental partners,” Wolf explained. “We believe that over time they will begin to offer greater flexibility, in particular as DVD and other physical media continue to mature and new consumer InternettoTV hardware expands their audience of consumers.”

Source:
www.teleclick.ca/2008/01/onlinevideodownloadstoincreasetenfoldby2012abipredicts/

Many telecom industry observers believe Google will have a hard time making the transition from search engine giant to network operator. Could the transition to equipment maker be any easier? Nyquist Capital analyst Andrew Schmitt thinks Google is doing just that, using offtheshelf chips to build 10 Gbps Ethernet switches because commercial options available allegedly didnt fit its needs.

If thats true, it could shake up the market for 10 Gig E gear, or at least give equipment makers in that market a good scare. It could also give everyone questioning Googles telecom moxie further food for thought. Maybe Google is ready to take the telecom leap.

Source:
http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/spotlightgooglebuilding10gigegear/20071119

China is planning to submit a homegrown fourthgeneration (4G) mobile data specification to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in either 2008 or 2009, according to Wen Ku of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry. The Chinese 4G technology will allow users to surf the web and transmit files much faster than current 3G standards, Ku says, giving it strong potential in the wireless multimedia sector. China’s failure to deploy 3G mobile broadband technology, however, which stems largely from an ongoing standards dispute between carriers and the Communist government, has raised doubts about the country’s ability to compete globally in the emerging 4G sector. The search for a dominant 4G standard is set to begin next year, with the ITU begins accepting proposals from countries around the world. The first 4G networks will likely see commercial deployment by around 2010.

Source:
http://www.teleclick.ca/2007/10/chinaprepares4gmobiledataspecificationforitu/

The Challenge: Reducing global connectivity costs while increasing coverage

The Solution: iPass Mobile Office and iPass Device Management

The Result: Reduced connectivity costs by 33 percent and support calls by 37percent while increasing coverage

“iPass Device Management exceeded our expectations for migrating users to the Mobile Office service. It was totally transparent from a user perspective, with no deployment-related issues reported.” - Ileana Gonzalez, Manager of Customer Care, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a global cruise vacation company that operates Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Pullmantur. The company has a combined total of 34 ships in service and six under construction. It also offers unique land-tour vacations in Alaska, Australia, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

THE CHALLENGE

Providing service in the travel industry requires a fair amount of travel. Just ask Royal Caribbean employees who require reliable access to e-mail, reservations systems and other corporate resources as they sail between countries and continents.

Unfortunately, making a connection was becoming an adventure for many of these on-the-go employees due to the lack of global access points offered by Royal Caribbean’s remote access provider.

“A lack of points of presence was a growing concern, creating productivity issues for employees and IT support staff,” reports Aurora Aday, manager of NetCom Solutions at Royal Caribbean. In addition, the cruise leader was taking a closer look at remote access costs. Royal Caribbean was paying access fees for all users, whether they were active or not, and help desk calls were impacting budgets as well.

After reviewing several proposals, Royal Caribbean decided to make a departure from its previous vendor and move forward with iPass.

THE SOLUTION

Royal Caribbean had an ambitious schedule that involved updating all mobile users within two weeks. However, the company needed a way to install iPass Mobile Office and remove the previous remote access client from 800 notebook systems - many of which are mobile at any given time.

That’s when an iPass representative informed the company about its Device Management service. Device Management is a simple, cost-effective way to manage remote and mobile devices when they connect to the Internet. Among other capabilities, Device Management includes an intelligent software distribution engine.

In January 2006, the IT crew at Royal Caribbean began a rapid migration to the iPass Mobile Office service. First, the help desk team emailed all remote notebook equipped employees a link to download the Device Management agent. Once employees clicked on the link, the Device Management service handled the rest.

Since many Royal Caribbean employees use dial-up links as they travel, downloading the 7.9MB iPassConnect client could have presented complications. Fortunately, Device Management cruises through large software distributions. Its intelligent mobility features allow users to remain productive as downloads occur in the background using spare bandwidth. Dynamic bandwidth throttling trickles downloads to mobile systems during periods of user activity and bursts downloads when connections are idle. The solution’s resumable download feature lets updates continue where they left off over multiple sessions.

THE RESULT

Royal Caribbean achieved its goal of migrating 800 mobile users to the iPass Mobile Office service within two weeks.

“We had a very short window to deploy the iPass Mobile Office service,” says Ileana Gonzalez, manager of customer care at Royal Caribbean. “The training required for Device Management was minimal, and the solution greatly reduced the need for internal resources. Without Device Management our IT staff would have had to create and distribute CDs to many mobile employees.”

“iPass Device Management exceeded our expectations for migrating users to the Mobile Office service. Deployment was straightforward for our users and IT staff,” states Gonzalez. “It was totally transparent from a user perspective. In fact, no deployment-related issues were reported.”

As for the iPass Mobile Office service, Royal Caribbean is equally impressed. According to Gonzalez, “Since using iPass Mobile Office, coverage-related complaints have decreased significantly, and we’ve achieved the cost reductions we were looking for.”

Today, Royal Caribbean only pays access fees for active users using a pooled-minute model, allowing greater flexibility and cost control. The company has realized a 33 percent savings each month over the company’s previous vendor, which charged a license per seat for all potential users. Likewise, the number of remote-access-related trouble tickets is down 37 percent.

Mobile Office also includes Web-based access to iPass intelligent Online Quality (iOQ) reports for real time connection usage and performance feedback. Royal Caribbean runs iOQ reports each month for cost analysis and internal billing allocation to the business units. The company’s help desk also has access to iOQ connection data to accelerate troubleshooting. With all this being said, Royal Caribbean is very happy it got onboard with iPass.

Source: http://www.phoneplusmag.com/hotnews/7bh1313444.html