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WAP Insight Vol: 7 Issue 295 December 12th 2005MobiTV to light up 3G's dark spectrumHaving paid all those millions of dollars on 3G licenses, few networks -if any - are running at near full capacity. So MobiTV reckons it has the content to entice users into accessing 3G networks. As the name implies, MobiTV's content is basically TV programmes converted into a handset friendly format. In essence it has compression technology which senses bandwidth availability. So if a network starts to become congested, it slows down the frame rate to ease the burden. MobiTV's present offering is classed as 'unicasting' since the image is supplied directly to the user's handset. Other players - such as Nokia which is promoting DVB-H very heavily - suggest that multicasting is the solution. That way one image is sent out simultaneously to multiple recipients. Besides DVB-H, Germany is experimenting with an alternative multicast technology - DMB. While Ericsson has decided to throw its weight behind MBM-S (a sort of TV version of MMS). Multicast's advocates say that unicasting technologies, like MobiTV and Rok Entertainment's service, will eventually saturate a 3G network since they are bandwidth hungry. Paul Mercier, dir of business development with MobiTV Europe points out that his company's services have been running for two years and no network has been brought to its knees yet. "We have 0.5 million active users in the USA and when people tuned in for the Michael Jackson trial verdict, nothing untoward happened," he argued. Similarly in Europe, large numbers tuned into 3's broadcasts of Robbie Williams and Madonna and its network didn't collapse. "That's because our technology is designed to mitigate such spikes," Mercier claimed. He argues that operators actually welcome the chance "to light up all that dark spectrum" ? the surplus capacity on their 3G networks. The next test will be to see what happens in Germany during the (soccer) World Cup when various mobile TV technologies will be put to the test to see what does actually happen. Blade servers - the future for cellularExisting mobile networks can be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century using database technology. And by doing so make use of standard IT hardware such as blade servers. Or so says Xeround Systems.
Migrating cellular networks over to an all-IP based solution is old hat. Yet Xeround Systems claims the mobile network industry's blueprint for this migration path comes with a built-in bottleneck.
The relevant industry standard for an all-IP future is known as IMS (IP Multimedia Systems). The snag is that as soon as a network goes IMS, it will effectively need several databases which can cope with millions of customer records in real-time.
That's a pretty convincing bottleneck. Xeround's solution is to treat database technology like a network itself. Each database record has its own IP address. That way it can physically be stored anywhere on the network.
Currently existing cellular network utilise proprietary hardware systems to cope with the load. Instead Xeround says that they can use more 'open' hardware (blade servers) which it claims will cost operators a fraction of traditional systems.
Additionally, as soon as one particular mobile network application -such as a high volume of SMS/text traffic- begins to stress the network, all the operator needs to do is add in a few more server clusters, Xeround claims. While Xeround's offering is a very "elegant' solution" to the network operator's dilemma, as Xeround CEO Sharon Barkai, put it, WAP Insight wonders whether Xeround can convince its potential resellers to use its technology. Its customers include the likes of Ericsson, Lucent and Alcatel. It only takes one of them to be convinced of the value of using Xeround's software and the others will be virtually forced to follow. Barkai has experience playing in this field. He sold his last startup ? Sheer Networks ? to Cisco. While the operators themselves would love the cost of their hardware to decline drastically, WAP Insight is unsure that the infrastructure vendors will kill the goose that has ? so far ? being laying some very nice golden eggs. Tesco tilts at The Link, Carphone WarehouseThe obvious loser, if the UK's biggest retailer, Tesco, makes a successful move into telecoms specialisation would be The Link - the Dixon Group's dedicated telephony arm. A close second will be The Carphone Warehouse. Yet today, Tesco has launched its first instore telecoms shop in Slough. Many others are predicted to follow suit. This facility will offer mobile phones, fixed line telephones and associated accessories. According to a report in the FT, Tesco telecoms staff won't be paid a commission on sales. That contrasts completely with other independent mobile phone retailers where staff are encouraged to push handsets that are on special offer. Another worry for competitors to worry is that Tesco is already an MVNO - offering mobile telephony over O2's network. Which competes directly with the Carphone Warehouse's Fresh as well as Virgin Mobile. It's not clear whether these new specialist stores will give advice on Tesco's broadband service as well. According to reports, instead of keeping customers in long queues, they will be provided with screens where they can identify the best fit handset by answering a few questions. Vodafone has attempted to speed up customer service by installing vending machines in two Manchester, England stores. WAP Insight still can't find out whose handsets are loaded into these machines. . Stealth texting service launched - almostPiggybacking on the popularity of the Mission Impossible TV series, Staellium has just launched a new mobile service called Stealth Text. It seems to be proving so popular you can't get through to it. The objective is to send people text messages which 'self-destruct' after they've been sent. Customers for this service are expected to be government organisations, the military and naughty celebrities. At 50 pence a throw (plus online data charges), Stealth Text also seems to be aimed at the moderately wealthy. It presently appears restricted to the UK and won't work for sending from 3 mobile phones either. To register with the service, customers simply text the word 'stealth' to 80880. That generates a WAP Push message that contains the appropriate embedded URL. This should take you onto the Stealth site where you sign up for ten messages at a total cost of £5. WAP Insight has spent a whole morning trying to get the service to work. We've managed to sign up but our first self-destructing stealth message has yet to arrive. The company assured us there haven't been any problems previously – so perhaps the volume of traffic has overwhelmed it? One publication had observed that downloading a 'stealth' app to your mobile phone would be a dead giveaway. However, Staellium doesn't use a Java app or anything similar – users simply go onto the WAP site every time they want to send a stealth text. So there is no trail on your handset. Only Staellium keeps records. Nice idea but perhaps they should have tested a bit more extensively before launching? Aldi sparks price war in GermanyThe German market seems to have suddenly developed a taste for low cost mobile telephony. The trend was started by supermarket chain, Aldi, which has just struck a deal with specialist supplier – Medion – to provide it with handsets. According to sources, Aldi has promised to sign up at least 750,000 users to its new service, Aldi Talk, which will actually be hosted on the Dutch owned E-Plus network. This could well make life interesting for British operator, O2, whose performance in Germany has triggered a take-over bid from Spain's Telefonica. It gets even more interesting since the incumbent telecoms provider, Deutsche Telekom, has promised to match the new Aldi tariff of just five (Euro) cents per minute. According to a report in The Business, however, the new tariffs offered by T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom's mobile arm) are still three times more expensive than Aldi. Aldi's decision to play with mobile Telephony appears to have triggered its own rivals in the retailing sector to respond. There are rumours that its close competitors, Plus and Lidl, are both looking at ways of offering a similar service. Perhaps this might give Siemens/BenQ a chance to start selling a few more handsets in its native market?
www.aldi.de
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