Verizon Unwraps iPhone

Verizon Wireless finally told the world that it will start selling the iPhone, but the carrier toiled in secret with Apple Inc. for two years to make it happen.

The country's largest wireless carrier said it would have the iPhone in stores on Feb. 10 starting at $199, the same price charged by rival AT&T Inc., which has had the phone to itself since its launch in June 2007.

The move will give Apple an important new source of sales in its biggest market for the iPhone and help it compete with rival Google Inc., which had made inroads for its Android operating system by teaming up with Verizon to develop high-end smartphones.

It also will shake up the U.S. wireless market, ending a deal that has driven much of AT&T's subscriber growth and forcing smaller carriers like Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA to compete against bigger rivals armed with an immensely popular phone.

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Ruckus Wireless' Wi-Fi Approach to the Mobile Broadband Challenge

The bandwidth challenges inherent to today's mobile broadband services are well-reported, particularly with the heavy usage of AT&T's iPhone customers on its 3G network. Although mobile broadband network upgrades continue, operators are looking at other solutions to reduce network constraints. Wi-Fi is one such solution, and most of the activity has been focused on encouraging users to leverage the Wi-Fi connections on their smartphones along with the in-home access point (which is now found in nearly 30% of U.S. households).

However, Ruckus Wireless today announced what it calls "carrier grade" Wi-Fi products - including an outdoor access, a backhaul bridge, indoor equipment, and sytem-wide remote Wi-Fi management software - positioned as a strategic solution to the demand for mobile broadband access. Ruckus notes that the consumption of mobile bandwidth is outpacing revenue growth, and operators will need a Wi-Fi solution to augment 3G and 4G networks.

We're pleased to welcome Ruckus Wireless to our CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit - 15 and 16 November - in Amsterdam. They will be represented on a panel discussion titled Mobile Broadband: Devices, Strategies, and Consumer Demand.

AT&T Launches Wi-Fi Hotzone in Chicago

AT&T announced the launch of an AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in Chicago that will complement the mobile broadband experience for AT&T customers who use Wi-Fi enabled devices while in Wrigleyville — the neighborhood of restaurants and shops surrounding Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. The new Wi-Fi hotzone provides coverage along the streets and in the outdoor areas of Wrigleyville on the south, east and west sides of the stadium.

The Chicago AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone is the third to be deployed as part of a pilot project to examine using Wi-Fi to supplement AT&T's mobile broadband coverage in areas with consistently high 3G traffic and mobile data use. The first pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone launched in New York City's Times Square in May, and customer response has been positive; as a result, additional Wi-Fi hotzones have been turned up in downtown Charlotte, N.C. and now Chicago.

AT&T is using wireless technologies to mobilize everything that's important to customers – their favorite content, apps, entertainment and social networks. AT&T today delivers the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, as well as the nation's largest Wi-Fi network, giving customers the best combination of speed and coverage.

The popularity of Wi-Fi service — particularly on mobile phones — has grown tremendously. In the second quarter 2010, AT&T handled 68.1 million Wi-Fi connections on its network, compared to just 15 million in the same quarter last year. Customers have made 121.2 million connections in the first half of 2010, already far surpassing the 85.5 million connections made in all of 2009.

Many of the most popular AT&T smartphones support auto-authentication at AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots, making it automatic and convenient for customers to connect. Customers can log onto AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones and more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots nationwide without it counting toward their monthly smartphone data usage.

AT&T's Wi-Fi network complements its wired broadband and wireless 3G networks, offering Wi-Fi connectivity at popular locations like retail stores, restaurants and coffee shops from coast-to-coast. For more information click here.

Thomson unveils simple and seamless video integration solution between IP networks and 3G mobile services

Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, has brought its experience to bear on the growing market for video communications and announces the launch of the new Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway. With the new product, it is now simple for operators to set up multimedia services – including calls, video blogging and even live television access – and allow 3G mobile and fixed IP devices to share video.

The Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway connects mobile networks and IP/IMS based networks by integrating the 3G video protocol (H.324m) with the SIP voice over IP protocol. It also provides the bi-directional transcoding to serve the codecs each device requires. As well as point to point calls, the Gateway also offers access to server-based functionality such as push video, video blogging and video mail. With the appropriate equipment, a subscriber could establish video surveillance at home or place of business and view it on a mobile phone.

One of the barriers to 3G mobile video has traditionally been the considerable connection delay when placing calls, due to the need to exchange a number of messages to establish parameters. The Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway solves this by implementing the Windowed Numbered Simple Retransmission Protocol, which bundles all signalling into a single batch and dramatically improving call set-up time.

The Cirpack 3G Video Calls Gateway is part of the pre-integrated Thomson VoIP solution and fully interoperable with Cirpack softswitches and media gateways. It runs on standard, off-the-shelf IT platforms with full redundancy for high availability while retaining the best price/performance ratio. It is simply scalable to very large numbers of simultaneous video calls by adding software licenses rather than costly hardware.

For more information, visit www.thomson.net.

Mobile carriers working to increase ARPU

There will be over 4.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide by 2013, of which over 3.5 billion will be served by 3G technology, and there will be no shortage of competition for this immense population of users. Mobile carriers have to provide enhanced and personalized services in order to reduce subscriber churn while also building average revenue per user (ARPU). Samsung, now the No. 2 mobile handset maker, is unveiling its mobile applications storefront for users of Samsung Symbian and Windows Mobile devices (an extension of the Samsung Mobile Innovator developer program) during the Mobile World Congress event in February 2009. Although this store will be open only to U.K. consumers initially, the company will expand it to other nations if the U.K. store is successful with consumers.

This development is one more significant step in the mobile app space, which has been under accelerated development since 2008 following Apple’s success. The market has included these developments:

>> September 2008: The press first reported Microsoft’s mobile app store SkyMarket, followed by rumors that Microsoft will announce it at Mobile World Congress in February 2009.

>> October 21, 2008: Research in Motion announced its Blackberry application storefront will open in March 2009; developers will get 80% of the revenue from sales.

>> October 22, 2008: The Google Android Market went live with 50+ applications; Google promises to give developers 70% of the sales, with 30% going to carriers and for billing settlement.

>> January 9, 2009: Palm announces plan to launch its WebOS App Catalog.

As the consumer app download market grows, fragmentation could become a negative factor in the mobile OS market. Will Apple leverage its App Store’s success to lock in users just as it did with its iPod+iTunes franchise? The more fragmented the market is, the more leverage Apple could gain. CONNECTIONS™ will feature multiple sessions discussing the implications of such a move in the mobile industry.

Babelgum Mobile launches FREE TV services with Vodafone Customers

A free Web TV service, Babelgum Mobile combines the full-screen video quality of traditional television with the interactive and social networking capabilities of the Internet.

Immediately launching a 6 month trial, Babelgum Mobile, a new Internet Mobile TV service allows Vodafone UK contract customers with mobile internet bundles to enjoy a wide range of video clips including film, music, comedy, animation, nature, travel and sports FREE of charge.

This mobile application is available to download from Vodafone live!, initially for contract customers with data bundles for the popular Nokia N96, N95 and 6210.

Known for its innovative, original programming, Babelgum Mobile's customers can access content that’s clearly Webinspired with the accent on interactive entertainment. Clips are short, fun, and unconventional and include viral videos.

Integrated with social networks and streaming via Vodafone's 3G Network, Babelgum Mobile allows users to share videos, vote for favorites, and participate in competitions.

For more information, visit http://www.babelgum.com/ .