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Your advert here!!! Technical Editors:
Last modified: | Mobile Insight Vol: 8 Issue 345 December 2006Telephia's mobile TV results puzzle
O2 Jet Sagem phone gets woman pregnantWhile it has been recently reported that Japan's NTT DoCoMo has just released a handset that indicates the best time to procreate, a British woman using a French phone has already given birth. Brit Karen Donelan bought a Sagem MyC-3B handset in Andorra and discovered that it contain an app called the Pink Schedule. She put in details of her menstrual cycle and became pregnant on the first day the phone suggested. Karen gave birth to her son Aaron around three months ago. Karen also wrote to the Chinese software house that developed the program to thank them. So female designer Momoko Ikuta who designed the pregnancy advisory handset for DoCoMo has been well and truly pipped to the post.
The full Inquirer story ... Handset helps woman get pregnant Carbon off-set handset deal offeredObviously aiming at 'concerned citizens' in the UK, Fones4free.com, an online handset reseller is offering a free 'carbon off-setting' certificate to those signing up to an LG phone contract. The scheme would normally cost around £135 for 18 months worth of cover – equivalent to reducing an average Brit's emission of 12 tons of carbon per year. The scheme is run by Climate Care who admit that the "offer does not relate to the [carbon] emission in manufacture or delivery of the handset." A certificate is issued by Climate Care on behalf of Fones4Free 30 days after a customer signs up for an LG KG320 (aka Noir' handset on contract with Fones4Free. The mobile comes with a leather cover; 1.3 megapixel camera with flash; and 128 MB of flash memory. Fones4free's picture of the LG320 even has wind turbines as a screen – to enhance it's 'Green' credentials. Climate Care claims it supports a number of carbon reduction projects, such as forest restoration, renewable energy and improving energy efficiency.
The full Inquirer story ... Do your bit with carbon
off-set handset Ofcom to boost WiFi/WiMax signalsUK comms regulator, Ofcom, will soon permit services providers to pump up the power used by their WiFi and WiMax base stations according to SkyPilot's vp for product management, Brian Jenkins. That will lead to dramatic increase in the number of cities planning to deploy wireless broadband networks. According to researchers, In-Stat – the number of cities expecting to deploy such networks was 100 in 2004, rising to 400 in 2006 but by 2010 there should be 1,500. Ofcom published a report recommending a 'power increase for wireless broadband access' back in May. An Ofcom spokesperson told Mobile Insight that there's been no update on the recommendation. However, Jenkins told Mobile Insighthe expected the increase to be given the nod any time now. Which is good news for SkyPilot which provides the necessary backhaul for such networks using mesh technology. To date most of the company's products have been rolled out in the Americas but in Europe SkyPilot has supplied Bamboo Telecom in Malaga, Spain and Mvox in Germany. The company sees its technology as being deployed mainly in areas where building a fixed line network would be uneconomical. That translates to blanket WiFi coverage in big cities and broadband along with Internet telephony being deployed in remote areas. Mobile Insight believes that mesh technology – where a high speed (45 Mbit/s) connexion can be shared by all users connected to any node on the mesh – is just as applicable to cellular networks as it is WiFi networks. It would be a good way of providing the backbone for HSDPA coverage where currently a slow fixed line connexion has to be shared by multiple users
The full Inquirer story ... Ofcom boost for WiFi arrives
Cellular specialist, UbiquiSys, has struck a deal with Sony's UK Technology Centre to enable its miniature cellular base station to be sold into the residential market.
By utilising Sony's skills in mass market electronic goods production and distribution, the company's ZoneGate offering should "cost substantially less than a cellphone," according to Ubiquisys CEO, Chris Gilbert.
Technically known as a 'femto' access point, the ZoneGate plugs into the owner's DSL service. It then provides 2G or 3G access indoors or in areas where 3G reception is poor.
Gilbert reckons that the drop in the cost of 2G/3G silicon, as well as advanced radio frequency planning techniques, have made the femto access point feasible.
The device will require its own SIM card so Ubiquisys expects to sell to the network operators who in turn will reach customers through existing retail outlets.
He predicts that the existence of affordable femto products will increase the number of cell sites an operator possesses from somewhere in the region of 6,000 to more like 2.6 million.
Using a femto cell will be more effective than other techniques which the operators are toying with such as UMA which connects a cellular handset to DSL via WiFi. With a femto point, any cellular handset can make a connexion.
Chris Gilbert explained that the ZoneGate's secret weapon is its own Java engine. This will enable operators to program the units to provide a variety of extra services.
Trials of the ZoneGate should start in Q2 2007 and Sony has the option to take
on the product on a global basis.
ABI
Research forecasts that by 2011 there will be 102 million users of femto
products on 32 million access points worldwide. |
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