Mobile World Conference Announcements

The Mobile World Congress 2008 moves into high gear today, bringing together some 13,000 companies and 100,000 visitors in Barcelona. The GSM Association, which sponsores the show, is the global trade association representing more than 690 GSM mobile phone operators across 214 territories and countries of the world.

Google’s Android mobile platform will be demonstrated (video) on a Texas Instruments-powered handset while new handsets are being rolled out by Sony Ericsson, with 10 new phones, Samsung with eight new products, and -megapixel camera uploads directly to Flickr with geotagging.
Nokia four new mobile phones. The Sony Ericsson C702 Cyber-shot uses built-in aGPS to stamp location data onto every photo you take with its 3.2 MP camera and the Nokia 6220 5-megapixel camera uploads directly to Flickr with geotagging. LG Electronics and LG-Nortel are demonstrating how LTE can deliver high-speed wireless Internet.

Some of the announcements today include:

• Kineto Wireless is creating a UMA-enabled 3G solution based on NXP’s Nexperia UMTS chips. Unlicensed Mobile Access dual-mode handset services are now focused on delivering UMA phones with 3G capability,” said Ton Van Kampen, vice president of business development for NXP. Kineto’s UMA client software allows customers to seamlessly roam and handover between the cellular 3G UMTS network, the 2.5G GSM/EDGE network, and home or enterprise Wi-Fi access networks.
• Broadcom announced a chip offering support for the three most popular open operating systems for smartphones - Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux. Broadcom also announced a reference design that brings advanced handset features to mass market including a 3.2 megapixel camera with GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM.
• Motorola will showcase their ROKR E8 and MOTO Z10 and license its mobile WiMAX chipset reference design, the Motorola WTM1000, and essential IP licenses for the company’s portfolio of patents to third parties in a move designed to encourage the innovation and proliferation of new WiMAX-enabled devices. Motorola also unveiling its first WiMAX chipset reference design licensee. Enfora, a leader in wireless monitoring and asset management applications, plans to integrate the Motorola WTM1000 solution into its suite of eWiDE wireless networking solutions. The WTM1000 chipset-based radio is scheduled to debut in Motorola’s line-up of WiMAX mobile devices for various carriers around the world, including Sprint Xohm.
• Sierra Wireless added two new products to its lineup of HSPA mobile broadband modems, the AirCard 885E ExpressCard and the Compass 885 USB modem for use worldwide.
• NEC is connecting real world phones to the “Second Life” with their IP Voice and Media Solution. Visitors can enter Second Life and control an avatar to make calls to another person in the real world by using the NEC communicator.
• The WiMAX Forum will hold a media luncheon and news event on the “State of the WiMAX Industry” in Barcelona. This event plans to address expected WiMAX device availability, global network deployments, and updates on mobile certification.
• Alvarion announced they will be the first WiMAX vendor to join the HP Developer and Solution Partner Program. Alvarion will demonstrate its end-to-end 4Motion Mobile WiMAX solution based on HP software at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
• Nokia’s new dual-band HSDPA N96 doubles internal memory to 16GB from the N95, while adding LED lights to the 5 megapixel digital camera for flash and video lighting.
• Samsung’s Ultra III U900 “Soul” is a metal-encased slider, only 12.9 millimeters thick, with a 5 megapixel digital camera and face detection along with Bang & Olufsen sound.
• Nortel Networks and Motorola both had live LTE radio networks running at the conference, while Qualcomm announced it would begin shipping multimode LTE-CDMA and LTE-UMTS chipsets in 2009.
• Cisco will showcase mobility applications to change the way people connect, collaborate and access entertainment on the move including DVB-H, Three-Screen Video and VoIP for Mobile Operators. The Cisco WiMAX Radio demonstration included the Cisco BTX-MX8 WiMAX Basestation, the RFS8 Antenna System, and a selection of Cisco and third-party subscriber stations (customer premises equipment [CPE])
• The GSM Association announced that it is partnering with Mofilm to present a short film showcase for mobile phones. The partnership follows the success of last year’s experimental Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, a collaborative pilot between Sundance Institute and the GSMA.
• Mobile Television announcements included an announcement by Carriers Orange and T-Mobile to rollout of a broadcast mobile TV service in the UK this year using existing cellular spectrum and the TDtv technology developed by embedded-software-systems provider NextWave Wireless. Meanwhile, Nokia’s new N-96 featured a built-in DVB-H receiver for digital TV signals in Europe and Asia.
• Texas Instruments said it had developed a chip to support cell phones with mini projectors and another chip that would let users record high-definition video on their phones. TI claims it’s pico projector chips are ready for production.
  
• Qualcomm introduced a slew of new chips including an integrated ARM11 applications processor running at 528 MHz, a multimedia chipset, a seventh-generation gpsOne engine with support for Standalone-GPS and Assisted-GPS modes, and support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM radios.
• Wi-Fi hotspot aggregator Boingo announced an unlimited-use, $7.95-per-month plan for its entire global network of 60,000 hotspots at the 3GSM cell phone trade show today. The inexpensive plan will work on cell phones, PDAs, and a Belkin Wi-Fi phone—just not on laptops. It’s truly $7.95 for unlimited use, according to Boingo’s Jonathan Mendelson.
• Spotigo’s Wifi-based Positioning Solution can now be downloaded free from their website. Any WiFi device can be located just by the received WiFi signal patterns.
• Nokia made a big splash with its Media Network, an alliance of more than 70 publishers and operators including Sprint, Discovery, Hearst and Reuters. The company claims ads are already yielding average click-through rates of 10% with a potential reach of 100 million mobile consumers. It leverages analytics technology from Enpocket, which Nokia acquired last year. Comverse launched a mobile advertising solution to deliver ads through text, multimedia messaging, visual voicemail, ringback tones and on the wireless Internet while Ad-funded mobile game publisher Greystripe reported a click-through rate of more than 4% during a two-month campaign for Yahoo Inc.’s oneSearch mobile Web portal.
• Worldmax, a new broadband wireless access provider in The Netherlands, has selected communications solutions provider Alcatel-Lucent to deploy one of the first commercial WiMAX 802.16e-2005 networks in Western Europe, in Worldmax’s 3.5GHz spectrum.

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