Bubble Motion Raises $14 Million for its "Voice SMS"

Bubble Motion, a start-up based in Mountain View, California raised $14 million in new funding for its "voice SMS" technology.

The company's BubbleTALK provides a "click, talk, and send" short voice messaging service that works on any mobile phone. Operators can limit the messages to 30 seconds in length.


The new funding came from existing investors Sequoia Capital US and Sequoia Capital India, as well as new investors Comcast Interactive Capital and NCD Investors.http://www.bubblemotion.com

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Ericsson Demos HSPA at 42 Mbps

Ericsson plans to demonstrate end-to-end HSPA Evolution technology with speeds of up to 42 Mbps at this week's CTIA Wireless 2008 in Las Vegas. The 42 Mbps speed is achieved by combining new higher order modulation technology (64QAM), together with 2x2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology. The demonstration will be made using a handheld form-factor device based on Ericsson Mobile Platforms access technology. Ericsson plans to introduce the first step of its HSPA evolution in 2008.


Ericsson's RBS 3000 family of base stations offer support for both HSPA Evolution and LTE. Ericsson's recently launched next-generation radio base station family, the RBS 6000 series, offers a enhanced multi-standard solution that supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA Evolution and LTE, all in a single package.
http://www.ericsson.com

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China Mobile Begins Commercial Deployment of TD-SCDMA

China Mobile (CMCC) will begin commercial deployment of TD-SCDMA in April. TD-SCDMA is a 3G wireless network standard developed by the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT) in collaboration with Datang and Siemens and endorsed by the Chinese government.


Spreadtrum welcomed the news and said it was already seeing TD-SCDMA silicon orders from handset manufacturers. Two of its customers received over 50% of the initial round of 60,000 handset order from China Mobile in January.


Spreadtrum developed the first single-chip dual-mode TD-SCDMA/GSM baseband (the SC8800D) in 2004 and the first multi-mode HSDPA/TD-SCDMA/GSM/GPRS baseband (the SC8800H) in 2007. The company also offers a single-chip TD-SCDMA/HSDPA solution optimized for data cards (the SC8800S) and its Quorum subsidiary announced a TD-SCDMA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE RF transceiver.http://www.spreadtrum.comhttp://www.chinamobile.com

• In February 2008, it was announced that China Mobile has joined LTE (Long Term Evolution) trials already being carried out by Vodafone and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone. The resultant three-way operator trials focus on LTE FDD (the Frequency Division Duplex version of LTE) for use with paired spectrum allocations and TD-LTE (the Time Division Duplex version of LTE) as an evolution of current TD-SCDMA technology to enable the exploitation of unpaired spectrum globally. The three carriers said their trials are designed to explore the performance of LTE with different spectrum types as a potential next generation mobile technology. They will provide an opportunity to adopt a harmonized access platform with global scale and high performance inter-working with the existing technologies of all three companies.

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Verizon Wireless Offers Loopt's Social-Mapping Service

Verizon Wireless will begin offering Loopt's social-mapping service on select mobile phones.




With Loopt, Verizon Wireless customers can leverage their phones' location-based services capabilities to share location information, status messages and geo-tagged photos with their community of friends. Loopt users can view where friends in their private network are located via a map displayed on their mobile phones and connect and share their locations with anyone in their address books or AIM buddy lists. Detailed Loopt maps that show Verizon Wireless users where friends are, what they are doing, and how to meet up with them, transform their Verizon Wireless phones into active social tools to connect, share and explore the real world.


Loopt is permission-based. Users can turn location-sharing on or off at any time on a friend-by-friend basis or for all friends at once.http://www.loopt.com

• Loopt has previously announced support from Sprint and Boost Mobile.



• Loopt, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, is backed by venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates.

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Lockheed Martin Team Awarded $766 Million Contract for Joint Tactical Radio System

A team led by Lockheed Martin has been awarded an initial system development and demonstration contract valued at $766 million for a Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) for the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and other users. The Lockheed Martin Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Stations (AMF) JTRS team will design, develop, integrate, test and deliver advanced, reliable, tactical networked communications solutions providing joint interoperability with secure information flow.


AMF JTRS is an essential element in the Tactical Global Information Grid strategy to provide secure data, voice, and video to the right people, in the right place, at the right time. The initial System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract value is $766 million.


AMF JTRS will network enable and provide interoperable communications for more than 160 platform types including fixed and rotary wing aircraft, submarines and surface ships, and fixed stations world-wide.


Lockheed Martin said its Network Centric Operations Live Flight Demonstration at the end of the Pre-SDD Phase of the Program showed a glimpse of the future with improved situational awareness, tactical voice, video and data interoperability, and communications automation.


The Lockheed Martin AMF JTRS team includes BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. Work will be conducted at locations in Scottsdale, Ariz.; San Diego, Calif.; Tampa, Fla.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Gaithersburg, Md.; St. Paul, Minn.; Wayne, N.J.; Charleston, S.C.; and Chantilly and Reston, Va.http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

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Jean-Pierre Vandromme to Remain as CEO of Golden Telecom

Jean-Pierre Vandromme, the Chief Executive Officer of Golden Telecom has agreed to extend his contract term until December 31, 2009. Golden Telecom was recently acquired by a subsidiary of VimpelCom.



The VimpelCom Group includes companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia. The VimpelCom Group's GSM and 3G license portfolio covers a territory with a population of about 250 million across Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia.


Golden Telecom, is a facilities-based provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services in major population centers throughout Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. It operates metropolitan overlay networks in major cities including Moscow, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Almaty, and Tashkent, and intercity fiber optic and satellite-based networks.http://www.vimpelcom.com

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China Unicom Deploys Motorola's Service Delivery Platform

Shanghai Unicom, a branch of China Unicom, is building a Value-Added Service Platform (VASP) using Motorola's GAMA (Global Applications Management Architecture) Service Delivery Platform (SDP) for mobile data applications.


Shanghai Unicom aims to simplify the current integration and future delivery of data applications through combination services, automated governance, value chain management and consistent user identity. End-user experience will be enhanced through single sign-on across all data services, and with the fast roll out of a wide range of value-added services and applications by leveraging existing service capabilities (messaging, location, browsing and push services, etc.).


As part of the contract, Motorola will provide servers, network equipment and GAMA software customized for Shanghai Unicom. Motorola Global Services professionals will support the modification of its legacy systems such as content downloading system, WAP and LBS (Location Based Service) platforms and the integration of VASP with Shanghai Unicom's existing network environment and its BSS (Business Support Systems). Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.motorola.comhttp://www.sh.chinaunicom.com/

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