1. Articles from Caroline Gabriel

    1-24 of 29 // 1 2 »

    1. Patents Goldrush Set to Slow as Firms Seek Royalties Not Lawsuits

      Explore (Jan 31 2012) Smartphones

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Research Even Apple must soon realize that its barrage of litigation has created a cold war which is generating no value and hurting consumers. The major players are more evenly balanced than they were a year ago, so big portfolios like InterDigital’s and Kodak’s will not attract the massive sums seen at Nortel and Motorola. Now the newly enriched IPR holders will focus on turning their assets into pots of gold, a process which will compensate, in some cases, for tough product markets, but only raise prices for mobile buyers. The crazy goldrush for wireless patents which we saw last year is likely to fizzle out in 2012 as the major players achieve the portfolios they need to avoid one firm having a clear upper hand over the others. Apple sought to assert that upper hand, but has run into a stalemate, winning some lawsuits on the basis of its huge store of IPR in user interfaces, and device and software technologies, but losing others because of its relative weakness in mobile patents. In the past week, it has won a round in the courts against Samsung and lost one, appealed to extend an HTC ruling and been sued yet again by Motorola, and that pattern is likely to continue until the iPhone maker decides there are better uses for its cash mountain than lining lawyers’ pockets.  Motorola filed its latest lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the hand of Google can be seen, even though the IPR-driven acquisition has not yet been approved by the European Commission. The suit, as spotted by patents expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, claims that Apple is infringing on six Motorola patents in the iPhone 4S and – a ...

      (Read Full Article)

    2. EE’s spectrum auction may prove more popular in the UK than Ofcom’s

      Explore (Jan 17 2012) 4G , LTE

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Research The U.K. may be waiting longer than most for new LTE spectrum auctions, but a batch of 1.8 GHz frequencies should come to market in the next month, as a result of the formation of Everything Everywhere (EE) in 2010. Ironically, these licenses could attract fiercer bidding than the 2.6 GHz spectrum, due to be auctioned late this year, with some experts questioning the short-term gains for operators in that band. EE, the U.K. joint venture between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, is about to appoint Royal Bank of Scotland to oversee the rare auction process, which could raise as much as £400 million (U.S.$620 million), according to sources who spoke to the Financial Times (FT) newspaper. EE’s parents submitted their joint venture plan to the European Commission at the start of 2010, rather than the U.K. competition authority, perhaps because they expected faster and more lenient treatment given the huge presence of both firms across the EU. The European body green-lighted the merger in March 2010, subject to EE relinquishing a quarter of its 1.8 GHz spectrum (30 MHz). The resulting sale will bring some valuable spectrum to market at a time when the operators have been forced to wait until at least late 2012 for the sale of 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz LTE licenses. These allocations have been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges over how sub-1 GHz frequencies are distributed among the main cellcos. As Vodafone and O2 are the only operators already holding these low frequencies--with their 900 MHz GSM licenses--EE has argued they should be restricted in how much 800 MHz digital dividend spectrum they can acquire. The two cellcos retort that 800 MHz will be more valuable ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   British Telecom

    3. Small cells will drive LTE-Advanced investment within two years

      Explore (Oct 12 2011) 4G , LTE

      By Caroline Gabriel, Rethink Research LTE may be commercially deployed on every continent now, but it remains in its early stages, with most roll-outs confined to a few metro areas and HSPA(+) providing the workhorse technology. Nonetheless, industry talk and optimism has already shifted to the next generation, LTE-Advanced, with Ericsson talking up the 1 Gbps speeds seen in its new testbed and carriers starting to plan for the future. There are echoes of 3G here; for many, “true 3G” did not appear until HSPA or even HSPA+ was available, and some operators even had the luxury of skipping the first iteration altogether. The same will be true in LTE, where many HSPA (and WiMAX) cellcos plan to push that standard to its limits before making any serious investment in the newer platform, which may enable them to go straight to the greater efficiencies of Advanced. Even some new entrants are mulling that approach, notably Dish Network in the U.S. Carriers are not just interested in LTE-Advanced because it may finally enable “true 4G” data rates, with peaks of 1 Gbps while stationary, as defined by the ITU. As a new study by Rethink Technology Research indicates, their focus is more on how Advanced bakes the new way of building mobile data networks—small cells, HetNets, carrier aggregation and so on—more deeply into the standard than current 3GPP specs. They are hoping that techniques they have started to use in HSPA and LTE to improve their cost efficiencies and capacity will be simpler and cheaper to achieve in Advanced. In its survey of almost 300 mobile operators worldwide (full results to be published next month), Rethink found that the carriers’ top three objectives for deploying LTE-Advanced by the end of 2015 are: to reduce cost of delivery by ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   London   Lte-A

    4. UK Remains Europe's Mobile Maverick, but the Penalty May Be Further LTE Delays

      Explore (Sep 13 2011) 3G , 4G , LTE

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research The U.K.'s sometimes awkward position somewhere between Europe and the U.S. has shaped its telecom policy and made it something of a maverick in the wireless world. It embraced deregulation ahead of its EU counterparts, and more effectively than in the U.S., resulting in a highly competitive market. This has created a dynamic landscape in which operators and the regulator often make daring decisions, but these can result in the country being left outside the mainstream in policy terms, a factor whose negative implications are clear in the much-delayed 4G spectrum auctions. The upside and downside of the U.K.'s independent line were seen this week, with regulator Ofcom leading the way on white spaces but admitting that auction time scales were still threatened by operator wrangling over caps and floors. One historic legacy of the U.K.'s off-center mobile policy has been the division of GSM spectrum between its operators. Vodafone and O2 (then BT Cellnet) were given 2G frequencies in 900 MHz and Orange and T-Mobile (formerly Mercury One-to-One) in 1.8 GHz. Hutchison 3 then entered as a 3G-only challenger. This created a situation more akin to that in the U.S., where different carriers have different bands, than in the rest of Europe, where most operators have allocations in each of the main frequencies. The U.K. policy has come back to haunt it at the LTE stage, especially once Ofcom green-lighted the refarming of 2G spectrum for 3G or LTE. The disputes over which of the operators has the superior assets for mobile broadband build-out and profitability--and whether the lucky ones should, therefore, be penalized in future auctions--have dogged the 4G process and turned the U.K. from the frontrunner into ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE

    5. NGMN's Calls for an LTE Patent Pool will be Futile in Current IPR Climate

      Explore (Sep 6 2011) 4G , LTE , WiMAX

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research The operator-driven technology body, the Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN), has called for the industry to adopt patent pools for LTE, calling these "the best way to speed up the successful implementation of LTE by giving licensees a safe and efficient way to secure the necessary licenses and have reasonable, as well as predictable, [intellectual property right] IPR costs." But despite such demands from many wireless standards agencies looking to reduce the royalties and the legal risk associated with emerging platforms, the patents war continues to escalate, raising the question of whether the mobile sector will ever accept the logic of the pool. While many of the current high-profile disputes focus on software, user interfaces and device design, control of essential 4G IPR is also considered a major factor in the evolving wireless balance of power. It saw a group of players led by Apple outbidding Google for Nortel's 4G-heavy portfolio, and paying a huge $4.5 billion, and Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility will also bring it a wide range of IPR that is directly related to LTE technology. Such deep pockets and high-stakes power games risk eclipsing the efforts of groups like ETSI (which wants all patent holders to declare their hand at the earliest stage of defining standards) or patent pool advocates like the WiMAX-oriented Open Patent Alliance (OPA). That alliance was formed to devise a pool for WiMAX, a technology which often touted its more open approach to IPR as an advantage over the norms of the cellular industry and the 3GPP platforms. It had hoped to interest the LTE community in its activities too, but early interest in pooling seems to have been overshadowed by the determination of some major IPR holders, like Qualcomm and ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE

    6. Samsung Steps Up its Bid to Become a Software Player, Eyeing Acquisitions

      Explore (Aug 23 2011) Mobile Internet , Smartphones

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research  If the Google-Motorola deal confirms one conclusion about the modern mobile industry, it is that power has convincingly shifted from hardware to software. Rivals that are sanguine about Motorola's still impressive product engineering skills are scared that the firm will gain early access to new Android features via its future parent. Increasingly, the main way to differentiate an Android device is via a strong user interface, like HTC Sense, or distinctive app store--and Apple has clearly shown how an integrated hardware/software experience and a compelling user interface can make up for all kinds of mediocre hardware specs. In this environment, the traditional, spec sheet-focused handset makers have been vulnerable. Nokia's much maligned former CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, saw that clearly and before most of his rivals, but the strategy he outlined to turn the Finnish giant into a Web and software firm was over-ambitious and often poorly executed. Hence, Nokia's conversion into a chattel of the biggest software player of them all, Microsoft. HTC has been moving rapidly to accumulate software and media assets, but the biggest cultural change is that being kicked off at Samsung. The Korean vendors have been the ultimate in prioritizing hardware innovations over user experience, but in the past few years, Samsung has been hiring huge teams of developers and building up its software expertise. Now, the company's chairman, Lee Kun-hee, has called on senior executives to explore options for expanding the firm's own software platform, including possible acquisitions of its own. According to insiders who spoke to the Korea Herald, Lee called a meeting on Wednesday with top managers and told them that Samsung needed to enhance its software competitiveness to match the hardware advantages the company enjoys. The firm has ... (Read Full Article)

    7. Huawei’s New Cybersecurity Tsar Will Not Break Down US Barriers

      Explore (Aug 10 2011) LTE , WiMAX

        By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research Huawei has made its latest move to assuage security fears in key markets by appointing its first global cybersecurity officer. It has hired the former U.K. government Chief Information Officer John Suffolk, who will report directly to CEO Ren Zhengfei. The main aim is clearly to improve Huawei’s chances of getting infrastructure business in the U.S., where it has been almost entirely excluded from major deals by security concerns. Its chances look slim--given the depth of feeling against the Chinese major, and since it has missed the current round of major wireless upgrades--but it could improve its access to other important markets... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE

    8. Mozilla and Baidu join battle for the new cloud OS

      Explore (Aug 3 2011) Mobile Internet

      By Caroline Gabriel The battle for the conventional "fat" mobile OS is won and lost. But the fight to control the user interface to the cloud is wide open, and with Apple and Microsoft on the back foot, a Linux-based winner looks logical. Google has pitched Chrome OS, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has webOS and Intel has MeeGo. Now enter Mozilla and Chinese search engine Baidu. In all cases, this is not about building a native software platform and controlling the APIs and tools that define a mobile experience. Instead, it is about devices that are mainly used to access Web apps and data stored in the cloud--which means a minimalist OS just for vital functions... (Read Full Article)

    9. Nerves About LightSquared May Have Left Field Clear for Dish to Buy Spectrum

      Explore (Jul 20 2011) 4G , LTE

        By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research It was more with a whimper than a bang that Dish Network found that its $1.38 billion stalking horse bid for TerreStar’s mobile satellite (MSS) spectrum had been successful, after a scheduled court-run auction failed to materialize because there were no other bidders. There were two more interesting aspects than this anti-climactic victory—what Dish will do with its new asset and whether the lack of competition means U.S. satellite spectrum has been fatally tainted by the controversy over the LightSquared project.  Dish Network must still overcome a few last hurdles—complaints to the court by Space Systems/Loral, which built the TerreStar satellites, and from AT&T, which has resold the existing satellite phone service. But these are relatively minor problems and should be sorted out without too much ado.  So what will Dish do with its purchase? The issue here isn’t about signals coming from a satellite, as MSS spectrum in the 2 GHz S-Band was originally designed to support, but from a terrestrial base station, using the Ancillary Terrestrial Component, which has revolutionized the business model of the MSS bands. It is this technology that underpins LightSquared’s plan to build a national LTE network in L-Band satellite frequencies—plus an FCC waiver that allows it to offer services that do not include a satellite component at all.   Of course, that project has run into hurdles far higher than Dish’s challenge from Space Systems/Loral, in the shape of potential interference with the GPS system in neighboring frequencies. That could drive LightSquared out of the terrestrial market or force it to move its rollout to the spectrum contained in its partnership with Inmarsat. But that would be a far more modest deployment than it ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   National Telecommunications and Information Administration   Kevin Fitchard

    10. Femtocells Make a Truce with Wi-Fi for Data Offload

      Explore (Jul 6 2011) 3G , LTE , Wi-Fi

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research Femtocells may have entered the consumer mainstream on the back of improved indoor coverage, but for carriers, one of their real attractions is the chance to offload data from overstretched 3G networks. There has been something of a war between the femtocell suppliers and those pushing Wi-Fi offload, but at last week’s Femtocells World Summit in London, it was notable that the femto vs. WLAN dispute had quieted down. This is because the operators themselves are eager to use any spectrum and technology they can get their hands on to cope with the rise in data traffic in urban areas, and so the emphasis has shifted to pooling both resources. Doug Pulley, CTO of femtocell silicon leader Picochip, stressed the point that unlicensed spectrum--and therefore its key technology, Wi-Fi--will not drop out of the cellco equation just because LTE comes along. Pulley was keen to see new air interface options, notably LTE for the license exempt bands. WiMAX was the last standard to promote a vision of spanning licensed and open frequencies, but its 5 GHz profile gained little support as its agenda shifted toward 2.5 GHz and mobile broadband. It could still be revived as an unlicensed option for vertical applications like public safety but in the short term, Wi-Fi is the dominant technology. The femto community knows it needs to accommodate this, indoors and in public access, as most operators will look to tap into all available bands, and femtocells will need to support that strategy. Picochip is showing the way via a joint development with InterDigital, an initiative that has created a dual-radio gateway in which cellular and Wi-Fi run concurrently, to offer a "super-connection" across licensed and unlicensed frequencies. The converged gateway architecture puts a carrier ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   London

    11. Samsung and NEC Both Eye Japan as a Springboard for a RAN Comeback

      Explore (Jun 29 2011) 4G , Backhaul , LTE

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research Japan has always been an important market in which to be seen for mobile vendors, because of the advanced nature of its rollouts. However, its carriers have often pursued semi-proprietary routes that have not lent themselves to international scale--most famously with DoCoMo's early but off-center implementation of W-CDMA, FOMA. However, with LTE, the Japanese majors are moving early but in a fully standardized way, and the competition for their favors is hotter than ever. And it goes beyond the usual suspects, providing a launchpad for two suppliers hopeful of an infrastructure comeback:  Samsung and NEC.  Both these companies largely faded away in the W-CDMA sector, but both are claiming competitive advantages that will allow them to take on Ericsson and Huawei in LTE. In NEC's case, this is a prescient and strong focus on small cells to build extensive self-organizing 4G networks, a strategy the firm will show off at this week's Femtocell World Summit in London.   NEC has home advantage, and already works closely with DoCoMo, but Samsung is also confident of Japanese growth, citing its own selling point--its experience and market lead in the other 4G technology, WiMAX, which includes contracts with Japan's UQ Communications. Now the South Korean giant has announced a deal with UQ's largest stakeholder, and Japan's second cellco, KDDI, for LTE gear.  Samsung will supply KDDI with LTE equipment for a commercial launch next year. Like NEC, the South Korean is emphasizing Japan's dense urban communities and high demand for broadband. In its statement, it said it would offer its customer "the first and the most optimized LTE solution for hotspots in extremely dense user areas that require higher capacity mobile broadband, whilst simultaneously improving service quality in weak ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   London   UQ Communications

    12. It’s Not Just Nokia; the Market Is Tough for All the Traditional Handset Makers

      Explore (Jun 14 2011) Mobile Broadband

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research. It's been a distressing week for the traditional handset makers. Nokia has destroyed so much shareholder value in recent times that it may face a breakup, according to one analyst, while LG acknowledged its own handset turnaround would be a long process; RIM faces a disappointing quarter; and Motorola is struggling for differentiation. In this sea of gloom, even Samsung has lost some market share, according to the latest comScore estimates, while Sony Ericsson scarcely figures on the radar. This leaves the redoubtable Apple and the shining HTC as the star performers, while a host of newer entrants knock on the door, hoping to be part of the new, redefined generation of phone makers. Part of the problem for the market, as far as vendors, operators and some consumers are concerned, is that Android as a platform is establishing an unassailable lead, but its spoils are shared between hundreds of players because of the low bar to entry and the huge apps base. This means that even the big successes of Android, such as Samsung, are seeing their market share and margins under pressure, while for consumers, there is often little differentiation between the handsets on offer. That limited ability to differentiate using vanilla Android then incurs huge additional costs for those seeking to stand out--on marketing and branding campaigns to catch the attention of consumers, and on distinctive overlays or content such as HTC Sense or Motoblur. This raises hopes for those supporting less universal OSs, such as bada (Samsung), Windows Phone 7 (Nokia and others), MeeGo (LG and ZTE, possibly) or the proprietary OSs. But the volumes of the Android juggernaut are hard to resist, and Nokia is the only firm backing a non-Android open OS on its own ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   NSN   Merrill Lynch

    13. LightSquared Could Play King Maker in US Spectrum Arms Race

      Explore (Jun 8 2011) 4G , FCC , LTE

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research. The U.S. spectrum contest has gone well beyond auctions and has become an arms race, with three key coalitions building up their forces via alliances. Having steadily snapped up small operators for years, Verizon Wireless and AT&T both have programs to bolster their presence via deals with spectrum holders in rural regions, the public sector and other areas where valuable frequencies are in play. AT&T, of course, sees additional spectrum for LTE as the key motivation to acquire T-Mobile USA. And Sprint possibly has the most ambitious plan of all, to create a unified network of its own frequencies and those of Clearwire and perhaps LightSquared—making the third cellco the market leader in terms of capacity and the ability to support wholesale services. Sprint should announce its 4G and spectrum strategies soon, although many of its moves will depend on the outcome of the AT&T bid for T-Mobile, the opposition to which Sprint is leading. In the meantime, its best defense against the likelihood of a strengthened duopoly at the top is to build up capacity and coverage, seeking to be a magnet for other operators that feel threatened by AT&T’s moves, notably the cablecos. In this complex war game, LightSquared will be in an interesting position with its plans to create a wholesale LTE network in mobile satellite spectrum. The company could be seen as a king maker—if it forms an alliance with Sprint, as many expect, it will certainly transform that company’s competitive position, but this week it is reported to be exploring alternative options, even a deal with AT&T. However, it cannot be too confident—without an alliance with any of the big three, its business case could start to look less attractive, primarily because Clearwire could be revitalized by a Sprint pact. The envisaged arrangement would see the WiMAX operator migrate, over time, to LTE; pool its vast spectrum holdings with those of Sprint; and have its network hosted on its largest shareholder’s new Network ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   Rural Cellular Association   Department of Justice

    14. Telstra’s LTE Plans Are Constrained by Spectrum Limitations

      Explore (Jun 1 2011) 4G , LTE

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research. Australian incumbent Telstra has been the world leader in pushing HSPA technology to its limits, and rather lukewarm about LTE. Even as it announced last week that it would kick off its LTE rollout it was clear that this would just support urban metrozones with particularly heavy data demands, while HSPA+ would remain the workhorse of the national network for years to come. This reignited the debate over whether LTE really is necessarily faster, in the real world, than HSPA+, whose speeds have been stretched massively over recent years. The answer, as Telstra well knows, depends mainly on what spectrum a carrier has available, and whether it can deploy LTE in wide channels, of 20 MHz or more. In these configurations, the 4G technology certainly outstrips 5 MHz HSPA, but the later iterations of the 3G standard support multicarrier deployments—while very few cellcos yet have sufficient spectrum to support wide channels for LTE. This has led Telstra to be very cautious about LTE, despite its ambitious targets for mobile broadband data rates. It already has a superfast HSPA+ network in 850 MHz, which will be upgraded to 84 Mbps later this year, and so its preferred approach is to supplement the 3G coverage supported by those low frequencies with LTE hotzones. Along with rival VHA (Vodafone Hutchison Australia) it is refarming 1.8 GHz GSM spectrum for initial LTE rollout, but both operators have complained that this is inadequate to reap the full benefits of the 4G technology. The 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz frequencies are yet to be auctioned, and no carrier can create blocks larger than 15 MHz in 1.8 GHz, with most limited to 10 MHz in metropolitan markets—insufficient for the high capacity and speeds ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   Wireless Communications Association International

    15. Sprint-Clearwire Marriage Gets Closer; Samsung Eyes Europe

      Explore (May 25 2011) 4G , LTE , WiMAX

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research. As U.S. Senate hearings on the proposed AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile got under way, both of the largest U.S. carriers painted a picture of inevitable consolidation in the country. Verizon Wireless said it had expected the AT&T/T-Mobile move for years, while AT&T said Clearwire and LightSquared should themselves merge, since there would not be room for two wholesale networks. That comment echoed the expectations of many, that both the wholesale carriers will combine their operations with those of Sprint, which says it will announce its 4G plans during the summer. Meanwhile, Vodafone’s CEO said a similar consolidation would be good for Europe, which would reduce the number of customers there—but that has not stopped Samsung from launching a new infrastructure venture for the region. John Stankey, head of AT&T's enterprise business, told Reuters that the best hope for U.S. mobile wholesale providers might be to merge. "We have two people staking out a wholesale play in the market. It's hard in economic theory and it's hard in past practice in telecommunications to ever find a market where two wholesale players ever competed effectively," he said. "There really isn't a profitable wholesale model in wireless today. Do you know one that's making money? Do you know one that's on a trajectory to make money? Do you know of one that's not in jeopardy of running out of money in the next 12 months?" The remarks were clearly aimed at Clearwire, which has failed to find an additional investor, or to raise additional cash by selling surplus spectrum. Increasingly, it is losing its own freedom of action and looks on course to unify its networks with those ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   London   Fujitsu

    16. Huawei’s Win at Everything Everywhere May Open More Doors to European LTE

      Explore (May 18 2011) LTE

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research Huawei has scored its first major U.K. wireless infrastructure deal, with Everything Everywhere (EE), the T-Mobile/Orange joint venture. The contract is for 2G only, but it is important for three reasons. It increases the Chinese vendor’s foothold at EE’s parents France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, potentially leading to further business as the two telcos increasingly look to save costs through joint procurement; it helps quiet security fears about Huawei, which were threatening to spill over from the U.S. into the U.K.; and it shows the significance of flexible base station deals, even in GSM, for laying the groundwork for LTE business later. Huawei’s latest win is a four-year contract to upgrade EE’s GSM/EDGE network equipment to improve performance and eliminate duplicate sites. Such a high-profile engagement with the U.K.’s largest cellco will be a great boost for the vendor, even though the value has not been disclosed. It could also lead to further business, since Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom last month signed a joint procurement deal to purchase network equipment across all their territories, in a bid to save €1.3 billion ($1.9 billion) a year. The combined purchasing power of the two giants is about €13 billion a year in wireline, wireless and services. The network that Huawei supplies will, over the next four years, entirely replace the legacy 2G infrastructures of Orange and T-Mobile U.K. It is GSM/EDGE only, since EE’s 3G network is provided by the MBNL venture, a RAN sharing venture set up by T-Mobile U.K. and 3 U.K. Orange then put its own 3G activities into this unit after the EE merger. However, if Huawei proves itself in boosting ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   British Telecom

    17. Google May Have to Fight RPX for Nortel Patents; Chinese Giants in IPR War

      Explore (May 11 2011)

      By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research. Nortel’s massive patent portfolio is set to be auctioned on June 20, with Google the “stalking horse” bidder, having offered $900 million. RIM and possibly Apple or Microsoft are rumored still to be interested in participating, and now a new candidate has entered the ring, a patent buyer representing Sony, Nokia and Cisco, among others. RPX is considering a bid for the 6,000 broad-ranging patents on the table, according to its lawyer. The IPR pile, one of the largest ever to come to market in a single tranche, covers wireless, wireline and other digital technologies, with patents related to 4G platforms considered the crown jewels, as vendors engage in an arms race for LTE assets. In that race, which has seen many of the major vendors suing one another recently, Nortel’s holdings are a “nuclear weapon,” an analyst told Bloomberg. Peter Holden, a partner at Coller Capital, made the comment, and believes the eventual price may hit $1.5 billion or more, with only RPX and Google likely to have the cash and staying power to win. To top Google’s bid, a player would have to offer at least $929 million under the rules of the Canadian and U.S. courts handling Nortel’s bankruptcy. “I believe RPX can go higher,” Holden said. “The Nortel portfolio is a big threat to everybody. Whoever buys this has a very big nuclear weapon.” According to RPX lawyer Andrew Kent, speaking at a bankruptcy court hearing, the firm has put together a group and is now considering a bid, though there were no further details. RPX has spent more than $250 million on buying patents since it was formed in 2008, on behalf of Cisco, Nokia, Sony and others—key names ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE

    18. Patent Wars Complicate Networks Market as NSN Buys Motorola Assets

      Explore (May 4 2011) 3G , 4G , LTE

      by Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research.  Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) finally completed its acquisition of Motorola’s networking activities on Friday, but Huawei, whose lawsuits had helped postpone the event, was already onto a more surprising legal attack – against compatriot ZTE. The smaller of the two Chinese giants promptly hit back with its own countersuits, but is already embroiled in a tit-for-tat round of patent disputes with Ericsson, indicating the intensifying competition in the wireless space, and the players’ desperation to gain a strong IPR foothold in LTE. The fights for market share, and for patents share, are intertwined, and both will define the wireless infrastructure market as it takes on the LTE challenge. Huawei chose Europe to file its complaints, which focus on LTE and, specifically, on mobile broadband data cards – ironically an area where the European Commission (EC) has been probing the firms after accusations of dumping. ZTE hit back a day later with a lawsuit in China, citing LTE patents and demanding compensation. ZTE said it would also take action outside China. Huawei said its rival had failed to heed various “cease and desist” letters and it had been compelled to file suit, choosing the favorite European center for such actions, Germany, plus France and Hungary. "Huawei was compelled to initiate this action in order to protect our innovations and registered intellectual property in Europe," said Song Liuping, chief legal officer, in a statement. "Our objective is to stop the illegal use of Huawei's intellectual property and resolve this dispute through negotiation so that our technology is used in a lawful manner,” he continued, stressing that patents were “among Huawei’s most valuable assets,” the company having spent $2.5bn on R&D last year and a further $222m on patent licensing fees for ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   NSN

    19. Small Cells Gain Momentum as ALU Extends China Mobile Deal

      Explore (Apr 26 2011)

      by Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research. Alcatel-Lucent has extended its agreement with China Mobile, focused on developing a new breed of compact base stations for new-style 'cloud RANs'. ALU made a splash at February's Mobile World Congress with its lightRadio launch, which integrates the antenna, radio and amplifier in a tiny six-centimeter cube, while doing baseband processing remotely or in the cloud. China Mobile was announced as the first supporter, and the two firms have built on that to create a full co-development program. This could help Mobile - which is struggling with the TD-SCDMA technology forced upon it for 3G – to leap ahead at the 4G stage, with a whole new approach to building networks, saving cost and power and harnessing the carrier's extensive fiber network (required to connect the tiny base stations to the baseband processing centers). Although lightRadio will not be a commercial reality until next year, it will now gain credibility from being tested in a network the size of Mobile's. The two companies will also work together on expanding the concept further, particularly by adapting alternative power sources such as solar and wind for small base stations. "You don't want to have a tiny cube and then this huge battery, or a tiny cube and a huge windmill, so we have to think about non-traditional approaches to sustainable energy for the cube architecture," Gee Rittinghouse, head of R&D at ALU, told NetworkWorld. ALU was a founder member of the GreenTouch consortium, which aims to reduce RAN power consumption dramatically over the coming decade. Although the latest pact with China Mobile comes hard on the heels of an announcement that ALU would take part in its TD-LTE trials, the firms say they have not yet decided whether they will co-develop ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   CTIA Wireless

    20. Clearwire’s Mexican adventure back on, as LightSquared mulls IPO

      Explore (Apr 20 2011) LTE , WiMAX

      by Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research The world has come full circle, and Intel is once again backing a wholesale mobile broadband network that could change the rules of engagement in a slow-to-change telecoms economy. But this time, it is supporting LTE, the technology it once hoped to pip to the post with an alternative under its own direction, WiMAX. The new project is in Mexico, where Clearwire and local operator MVS Comunicaciones are resurrecting a partnership that foundered a year ago amid license problems. The two operators will also work with Alestra, AT&T’s Mexican joint venture, and with Intel’s support, plan to create a wholesale network in MVS’s 2.5GHz spectrum using TD-LTE, and pursuing a similar business model to that of Clearwire in the US. Alestra would be the first customer and could have an ‘anchor tenant’ position similar to Sprint’s in Clearwire, depending how the shareholdings work out. However, according to Bloomberg, foreign operators are also interested in taking stakes, notably KDDI and SKT, both of which have TDD mobile broadband activities at home. MVS says the group will invest an initial $1.2bn in the new network - $400m from each operator - although the plan still needs to be approved by Mexico’s Finance Ministry and telecom regulator Cofetel. If it gets the green light, this project will finally end the disputes over MVS’s substantial holdings (190MHz) in 2.5GHz, which it acquired as an MMDS operator providing broadcast services. As in the US, MMDS license conditions were changed to allow two-way mobile data, in a bid to stimulate broadband availability and new services in a market with limited competition to incumbent Telmex. MVS was seen, in the middle of the last decade, as a flagwaver for the new ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   Alestra

    21. China Telecom becomes world’s largest CDMA carrier

      Explore (Apr 13 2011) 3G , 4G , LTE

      by Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research China Telecom has overtaken Verizon Wireless to become the world’s largest CDMA operator. Its mobile subscriber base has now topped 100m, according to China Daily, while Verizon’s was 94.13, as of the end of 2010. Verizon has held the top spot in CDMA almost throughout the technology’s history, but is now itself shifting towards the new LTE platform. The same is true of other CDMA majors like KDDI of Japan and Bell Canada, and by mid-decade most expansion of CDMA networks is expected to be in emerging markets, as well as in China. China Telecom will have its own LTE roll-out by then, but it will be in the early phases and the operator has said it plans to enhance its 3G platform for many years to come, providing a valuable potential client for the vendors seeking to prolong the life of their CDMA sales –Alcatel-Lucent and ZTE above all. Its top spot in this equipment segment will give it considerable influence over the development and pricing of networks, an advantage Verizon has leveraged enthusiastically over the years. Telecom is one of the cellcos which have stated the intention of deploying CDMA EV-DO Rev B, which is carving out a role in supporting heavy duty data services in emerging markets, in the face of previous speculation that it would not hit commercial reality because of the accelerated rise of LTE. The CDMA Development Group (CDG) argues that there is still plenty of growth left in the technology, especially in emerging economies – where spectrum will not be available for LTE for years but there is a requirement for affordable data – and in bands geared to rural access, notably 450MHz, where CDMA is the only major technology. Four operators have ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE

    22. 3 could make Sweden first country to have dual-mode LTE services

      Explore (Apr 4 2011) 4G , LTE , Mobile Broadband

      Ever disruptive, 3 Group is set to launch the world’s first LTE network that supports both FDD and TDD (paired and unpaired) modes, years before such a system was envisaged for a commercial roll-out. The company will procure the equipment from ZTE for its Swedish and Danish subsidiaries, Hi3G Access. Most European cellcos are focusing on the FDD flavor of LTE in the first wave of 4G build-out – their existing 3G networks are in paired spectrum, easing integration, and they have generally been leaving TDD spectrum licenses on the table during recent auctions. Many say they will seek TDD frequencies or partnerships at a later stage when data requirements rise, and some, notably Orange, are testing TD-LTE already. But 3 has gone a step further, buying both paired and unpaired spectrum in Denmark and acquiring Intel’s TDD license in Sweden to add to its own FDD frequencies. The company looks set to try to leapfrog rivals in terms of mobile broadband capacity, by supporting both modes simultaneously, and to focus on fixed services too, a strategy it has already used in some of its 3G territories to lure customers. Its challenges will lie in securing cost effective devices, as well as addressing some interference concerns between the two modes. China Mobile, the main flagwaver for TD-LTE, and partner Vodafone have called on the chip and device sectors to support both modes from day one in their products, but there is little indication yet that mainstream suppliers have heeded that call. The deal is a major breakthrough for ZTE, which says it is already involved in 13 TD-LTE trials, but has secured fewer big name wins in European 4G or 3G+ than compatriot Huawei. It will also upgrade 70% of 3’s Swedish HSPA network from 21Mbps to 42Mbps ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   NSN

    23. Huawei and US carriers stress quick fixes as NSN joins ALU in the cloud RAN

      Explore (Mar 28 2011) 4G , LTE , QoS

      This year’s key infrastructure theme is the move towards far smaller cells for LTE, and the deconstruction of the RAN. Alcatel-Lucent stole the thunder at Mobile World Congress last month with its lightRadio launch, while Nokia Siemens has now detailed its own response, Liquid Radio. Both address the trends to small cells, integrated radio/antenna units and virtualized baseband processing. Yet their vision is not being met with excitement in all quarters.Huawei and Ericsson have not yet unveiled such advanced roadmaps, so it is predictable that they would dismiss the ALU and NSN platforms as “concepts”, and push less radical small cell solutions that can be deployed now. But their concerns are echoed by some carriers too, notably Sprint’s SVP Bob Azzi and Verizon’s CTO Tony Melone, both speaking on a panel at last week’s CTIA Wireless show. They agreed that the ‘lightweight radio’ idea was interesting but, at this stage, overhyped, especially the notion that cell towers might be made redundant any time soon. "It will evolve, but I don't see it as transformational. I see it as evolutionary," Melone said. And while his counterpart at AT&T, John Donovan, praised the concept of a centralized ‘Cloud RAN’, he said the technology was not ready yet. “I don't have any of them in my plan for this year. I'm not retiring cell towers," he said.Nonetheless, the cloud RAN idea is being embraced more enthusiastically by some major carriers such as Orange and China Mobile, and so far the new 4G network is being driven strongly by ALU and NSN, both of which badly need to make up ground on Ericsson’s leadership and Huawei’s rapid expansion. While lightRadio was the most prominent infrastructure launch of Mobile World Congress, Nokia ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   LTE   NSN

    24. HP puts webOS at the heart of its new cloud strategy

      Explore (Mar 22 2011) 4G , Mobile Internet

      Hewlett-Packard?s CEO Leo Apotheker has stepped out of the shadows and pinned his company?s colors to the cloud mast. He has the right idea ? don?t try to compete in smartphones, where the company has neither the scale nor brand allure required; instead harness the strengths of the webOS system, acquired with Palm, to drive a business where HP has real advantages. The new strategy, outlined this week, shows clearly that the purchase of webOS was nothing to do with being a mobile device player per se, and everything to do with creating a cloud offering that runs on HP technologies from end to end. As well as launching its own cloud service marketplace to compete with Amazon and Google, HP will preload webOS on PCs, printers and any other product that will be used to connect to that platform.  ?webOS will provide one user interface across home, the business and the enterprise,? Apotheker said.  The dream of the cloud was to be able to access apps, data and content from any browser enabled device, anywhere. Like other vendors, including Amazon itself, HP is trying to narrow that down a little, forcing users to use devices that run its own systems. Also like its rival and template, it will not be able to take too rigid a line on that ? access to its services from Windows, Android and others could hardly be barred, but it will aim to make a superior experience, especially for the enterprise, on its own OS, which will span a wider range of products than any other.   "We intend to be the platform for cloud and connectivity," said Apotheker in his first major presentation since becoming CEO in September, when he replaced Mark Hurd. "HP intends to build and run an HP cloud. We ... (Read Full Article)

    1-24 of 29 // 1 2 »