Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Ericsson to Offer End-to-End Mobile Banking Solution

Ericsson is launching a new business line that will offer mobile financial services. Ericsson said it will offer an end-to-end solution and associated business and operational model, fulfilling all necessary regulatory, legal and security requirements, in cooperation with its operator customers and innovative players in the financial sector.


"A new market is opening up consisting of consumers whose first meeting with banks will take place over a mobile phone and who may never own a plastic credit card. People who may never enter a bricks-and-mortar bank now have the opportunity to "walk" into a virtual bank using their phone. They will also benefit from more reasonable fees for routine transactions such as transferring funds", says Semir Mahjoub, Head of Ericsson Money Services, Ericsson.
http://www.ericsson.com

India's Former Telecoms Minister Arrested

Authorities arrested Mr. A. Raja, India's former telecommunications minister, as part of an investigation into the 2G licensing scandal. Raja's personal secretary RK Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura were also held.

AT&T Readies Mobile Hotspot Application

AT&T is preparing to release a mobile hotspot application that enables customers connect multiple devices from their smartphone via Wi-Fi. Pricing is set at 2 GB of data usage for $20 a month when bundled with AT&T's Data Pro plan ($25 / 2GB). In other words, the combined AT&T Data Pro plus AT&T Mobile Hotspot will provide 4GB for $45 per month.
http://www.att.com

NSN Sees 5X GSM Performance Boost for SmartPhone Packets

Nokia Siemens Networks announced a new Smart Resource Adaptation software feature that enables GSM networks up to five times more smart device users with higher data throughput and less congestion. The software technique allocates packet resources based on actual use of smart device applications.


Nokia Siemens Networks said the performance boost is made possible due to the current mismatch between packet sizes traversing GSM networks. According to the company, GSM networks have been optimized for data applications that create large packet sizes and require high throughput.


However, about half of the total data volume handled by these networks today is generated by smart applications that actually produce small packets.


"If these applications are not effectively accommodated, they will end up blocking available data traffic channels, resulting in severe network congestion and slower data speeds for users," said Prashant Agnihotri, head of GSM/EDGE product management, Nokia Siemens Networks.


The new Smart Resource Adaptation software feature allocates radio timeslots on the network for applications according to actual use. This frees data traffic channels for applications that require high throughput.


NSN calculates that by managing packet radio resources more efficiently, the software can deliver up to five times higher GSM radio network efficiency for applications that generate small packets.


The Smart Resource Adaptation feature will be available in the second quarter of 2011.
http://www.nsn.com
  • In August 2010, Nokia Siemens Networks announced a unique Dynamic Frequency and Channel Allocation (DFCA) feature that that it claims will double GSM network capacity within existing spectrum. DFCA leverages a combination of software capabilities to increase the traffic carrying capacity of existing sites, while improving network quality. This, in turn, minimizes the immediate investment in additional sites, reducing the total cost of ownership. An added benefit is a huge increase in energy efficiency per subscriber.


  • In January 2009, Nokia Siemens Networks announced the successful implementation of Orthogonal Sub Channel (OSC) technology to carry four calls in one GSM radio timeslot. This effectively doubles the voice capacity of the GSM radio network. The OSC demonstration was conducted as a drive test using four handsets sharing only one radio timeslot and without compromising the call quality. The demonstration, which was held on January 21, used existing commercially available GSM handsets. Nokia Siemens Networks said the OSC demonstration was the first of its kind The company is actively contributing to the standardization of OSC and is planning to have the technology commercially available in 2010.

Egypt Restores Internet Access Amidst Street Chaos

The Egyptian government permitted the nation's four ISPs to reboot at 09:29:31 UTC (11:29am Cairo time). The Renesys blog tracked the service restoration, which progressed over the course of about 25 minutes for most routes to be reestablished. Facebook and Twitter were also restored.
http://www.renesys.com/blog/#latest

SiTime Debuts Highest Performance Silicon MEMS Timing Platform

SiTime introduced its new "Encore" Silicon MEMS timing platform for telecom, networking, wireless and storage systems. Like all of SiTime's oscillator offerings, Encore offers pin compatibility with existing quartz-based solutions, while delivering the highest stability, phase noise, jitter and aging performance.



Performance on the Encore platform includes:

  • ± 0.5 PPM frequency stability.


  • 650 femtoseconds of integrated RMS random phase jitter, measured over 12 kHz to 20 MHz. With this performance, Encore-based products are an excellent fit for Telecom, Networking, Wireless and Storage applications.


  • 200 femtoseconds of integrated RMS random phase jitter, using the FibreChannel 8.5Gbps jitter mask.


  • The widest pull range, up to ± 1600 PPM, on VCXOs.


"SiTime has used its Silicon MEMS technology and programmable analog expertise to deliver the best price-performance timing solutions that are available today," said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. "We believe that the Encore platform changes the game significantly as it forms an inflection point in the adoption of MEMS-based silicon timing solutions. These products offer the compelling benefits of silicon -- flexibility, size, power and lead time -- and enable customers to completely eliminate quartz from their systems."



SiTime is currently sampling the Encore chips to customers.http://www.sitime.com http://www.sitime.com/products/Encore

Singapore's Optical Coverage Hits 60%

Singapore is making progress with its Next Generation National Broadband Network. OpenNet, which is the consortium selected to build and operate the passive fibre infrastructure, reported that 60% of buildings in Singapore are now directly connected to the optical network.




OpenNet began the fibre rollout in 2009. The rollout is on schedule and is expected to achieve the target of 95% total coverage by middle of 2012. OpenNet is a joint venture between four partners -- Axia NetMedia (Axia), Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and SP Telecommunications (SPT).



Singapore's Next Gen Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN) officially began commercial operations in August 2010.



OpenNet's charter is to provide a competitive, yet neutral, level playing field environment for all downstream operators, enabling the delivery of rich content and ultra-high speeds of 1Gbps and above per end user.



Nucleus Connect, which is responsible for designing, building and operating the active portion of Singapore's NGNBN, announced the first five Retail Service Providers (RSPs) who will go live on the network: LGA, M1, Singtel, StarHub and SuperInternet. Nucleus Connect is installing GPON and Optical Ethernet equipment for the last mile connection. The company said businesses and home owners can look forward to pervasive, competitively priced, broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Some of the initial services expected from these RSPs include ultra-speed Internet access, IPTV, HD video surveillance and HD digital signage applications.http://www.opennet.com.sg

NeoPhotonics Completes IPO

NeoPhotonics a supplier of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) based modules and subsystems, completed its initial public offering (IPO) and began trading on NYSE under the symbol NPTN.



The stock closed at $13.25 on Wednesday.



The company priced its initial public offering of 7,500,000 shares of its common stock, at $11.00 per share. All shares are being sold by the company. NeoPhotonics has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,125,000 shares at the initial public offering price to cover overallotments, if any.http://
  • In September 2010,NeoPhotonics announced general availability of its Integrated Coherent Receiver (ICR) for 100 Gbps DWDM transmission systems. The ICR is an integrated intradyne receiver based on NeoPhotonics' Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology. The ICR supports the requirements of the OIF Implementation Agreement on 100G Integrated Polarization Intradyne Coherent Receivers. The device provides advanced demodulation to analyze the state-of-polarization and optical phase of a phase-modulated signal relative to an externally supplied optical reference, enabling recovery of the phase-polarization constellation of 100 Gbps Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keyed (DP-DQPSK) format signals. The ICR incorporates four sets of high sensitivity balanced photodiodes with four differential linear amplifiers to provide four output channels at 32 Gbaud data rates.

NSN Launches New FlexiPacket Microwave Backhaul Platform

Nokia Siemens Networks is introducing a new FlexiPacket Microwave platform for backhauling 3G, WiMAX and LTE. The new platform includes software that can be programmed to provide operations for both hybrid and full packet traffic mode, enabling operators to choose any evolutionary path from legacy TDM-base to all-IP backhaul.



Nokia Siemens Networks FlexiPacket Microwave also features an end-to-end point and click service provisioning. The platform can customized with a pay-as-you-grow approach.



The new FlexiPacket Microwave solution comprises of three basic components:

  • FlexiPacket Multiradio (Dual Mode) - fully Outdoor Unit (ODU), full-fledged high-capacity microwave system, featuring a standard GE UNI interface. It provides operations for both hybrid and full-packet traffic mode and capacity upgrade up to 1.2 Gbps per carrier.


  • FlexiPacket FirstMile 200 -- cost-effective peripheral switch optimized for backhauling networks' tail and chain sites.


  • FlexiPacket Hub 800 (Dual Mode) -- a nodal switch supporting up to 14 different directions in one unit for both small and large microwave hubs. Its software can be configured for both hybrid and full-packet traffic mode.


The company notes that its microwave solutions for mobile network backhaul hold a market leading position. It has more than one million transceivers installed worldwide and more than 200 customers in 100 countries.http://www.nsn.com