LightSquared's CEO Resigns

Following its failure to gain regulatory approval, LightSquared announced the resignation of its CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja. He will continue as Chairman of the board. The company is currently searching for a new CEO.


LightSquared also affirmed its intention to work through the regulatory issues and ultimately build a wireless network.


Philip A. Falcone, CEO and CIO of Harbinger Capital Partners stated:


"LightSquared's objective, through its wholesale business model, is to provide increased competition and lower prices in the telecommunications industry, and to bring broadband cellular phone service to rural areas that currently don’t have such service and that has not and will not change. That has been our vision from day one....


"We are, furthermore, committed to working with the appropriate entities to find a solution to the recent regulatory issues. We, of course, agree that it is critical to ensure that national security, aviation and the GPS communities are protected. I am confident that working together, we can solve this problem and bring the American consumer the lower priced 4G wireless alternative they need and deserve."http://www.lightsquared.com

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Intel's Medfeld Atom Processors Offers LTE/3G/2G

Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Intel CEO Paul Otellini disclosed plans to expand Intel's smartphone silicon ambitions, including early smartphone design engagements with Orange, India's Lava International, ZTE, and Visa.


Specifically, Intel announced plans for three new smartphone SoCs. The Intel Atom processor Z2460, formerly codenamed “Medfield,�? will now support speeds up to 2GHz. Intel also announced the Atom Z2580 processor that doubles the performance of the Atom processor Z2460, and features an advanced multimode LTE/3G/2G solution. Intel will sample the Z2580 in the second half of the year with customer products scheduled in the first half of 2013. For handsets in emerging markets, Intel disclosed plans for the Intel Atom processor Z2000, featuring a1.0 GHz Atom CPU and supporting the Intel XMM 6265 3G HSPA+ modem with Dual-SIM 2G/3G. Intel will sample the Z2000 in mid-2012 with customer products scheduled by early 2013.


Intel has previously announced a partnership with Motorola Mobility.


Intel also announced sampling of its XMM 6360 platform, a new slim modem 3G HSPA+ solution supporting 42Mbps downlink and 11.5Mbps uplink for small form factors.


Building on these 32nm announcements, Otellini discussed how the Atom processor will outpace Moore’s Law and announced that Intel will ship 22nm SoCs for carrier certification next year, and is already in development on 14nm SoC technology.
http://www.intel.com

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KT Selects Mindspeed Chips for LTE Small Cells

KT has approved Mindspeed’s Transcede SoC baseband processors for its LTE small cell dual mode (LTE and 3G) small cell base stations.


“Mindspeed is delighted that our Transcede platform has been chosen by KT for their next-generation femtocell development project," said Dr. Naser Adas, vice president and general manager, wireless and customer premises equipment (CPE), at Mindspeed. “We have been impressed by KT’s expertise and experience in LTE Cloud-RAN small cell technology and look forward to supporting their new product development efforts."


Separately, Mindspeed announced a collaboration with JUNI to jointly develop LTE femtocells and other small cell dual mode 3G/LTE solutions. The collaboration combines Mindspeed’s carrier-grade Transcede SoC baseband processor solutions with JUNI’s development expertise.
http://www.mindspeed.com

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Alvarion Shows its Wi-Fi Offload Solution with Hot Spot 2.0

Alvarion introduced its Wi-Fi mobile data offload solution for 3G and LTE networks. It implementation uses two-way beamforming Wi-Fi technology to provide access to the Internet. Alvarion offers an embedded access controller direct tunneling from base stations to the operator’s core. The solution is Hot Spot 2.0 and 802.11u ready permitting a cellular-like experience over the Wi-Fi network with zero-configuration from the user.


http://www.alvarion.com

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Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile Sign lightRadio Architecture Deal

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile have signed a co-creation agreement under which teams from the two companies are conducting joint development and test activities on a series of lightRadio projects at Alcatel-Lucent’s Stuttgart lab.


This follows the non-binding MoU signed between Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile in mid 2011. It also builds on the collaboration between the companies on the delivery of superfast mobile broadband using TD-LTE technology.


Alcatel-Lucent said this collaboration help to accelerate the smooth commercial introduction of the lightRadio product family to meet China Mobile’s business initiatives and support growing customer demand for high-bandwidth mobile broadband services.


Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, said: "The ability for us to pair with the world’s largest mobile provider to gain deeper insight into its customer behaviours and the way services are evolving will ensure we develop lightRadio in the right direction. The knowledge we gain from implementing lightRadio to support the delivery of mobile broadband services to 650 million people will help us to meet the growing demand for services across the globe.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile provider, had around 650 million subscribers at the end of 2011.

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Ericsson Pitches Self-organizing Networks

At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012, Ericsson is launching a self-organizing networks (SON) Optimization Manager that automates the process of optimizing the capacity, coverage and quality of mobile networks.


The company is taking a number of the network optimization and management features developed for LTE and extending them for multi-standard networks. Whereas optimization is traditionally a slow, complex process carried out at regular intervals by teams of network experts, SON Optimization Manager automates the process.


Ulf Ewaldsson, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Head of Group Function Technology & Portfolio Management at Ericsson, says: "SON Optimization Manager is based on a simple idea - increasing automation to overcome increasing complexity. We call this Smart Simplicity, because it simplifies operators' processes and makes them more efficient."

http://www.ericsson.com

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Ericsson joins OpenStack

Ericsson has joined the OpenStack project, an open-source community dedicated to creating cloud software. Ericsson plans to contribute to further developing OpenStack to support carrier-grade services and applications. OpenStack provides a flexible alternative cloud management solution that is based on open-source components.


At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012, Ericsson is demonstrating a unique virtual data center manager solution based on OpenStack that coordinates three data centers distributed across different continents. Slices of virtual data centers are created at the three physical locations and are bound together through elastic networking. This forms a separate distributed virtual private cloud, with seamless end-to-end operation and multi-tenant support provided by associating one or several distributed virtual private clouds with each tenant.


Also at MWC, Ericsson and recently acquired Telcordia are demonstrating an integrated cloud-management stack based on OpenStack.


http://www.ericsson.com
http://www.openstack.org

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NEC Delivers 2048 QAM Microwave Transmission

NEC announced plans to implement 2048 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (2048QAM) within its iPASOLINK microwave product family in the second half of 2012. This will deliver up to 40% per-channel capacity relative to the systems commonly in operation today which employ up to 256QAM. Furthermore, NEC's design also supports a full sequence of Adaptive Modulation in all steps from 2048QAM down to QPSK. The company said this feature allows scalable addition of capacity without compromising the reach and availability of transmission links deployed in the network.


Atsushi Noro, deputy general manager of NEC's Mobile Wireless Network Division, said: "In recent times we have seen a great deal of innovation in microwave technologies driven by the need to support next generation networks: high capacity, new carrier frequencies, packet transport, QoS aware adaptive modulation, smaller and more power efficient equipment, and others. Many of these technologies were pioneered by NEC thanks to our extensive research and development capabilities proven by years of market leadership. 2048QAM is the latest development from NEC and we are confident we will deliver further innovations."http://www.nec.co.jp

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Ceragon Networks Posts Reports Record Q4 Revenues

Ceragon Networks reported revenue for its fourth quarter which ended December 1, 2011 of 2011 reached $118.5 million, up 77% from $67.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2010, and up 2% from $116.1 million in the third quarter of 2011.
Net loss (GAAP) for the fourth quarter of 2011 was ($8.2) million or $(0.23) per basic share and diluted share, compared to net income of $3.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, or $0.11 per basic share and $0.10 per diluted share.


Revenues for the full year of 2011 were $445.3 million, up 78% from $249.9 million in 2010. Net loss on a GAAP basis for 2011 was $(53.7) million or $(1.49) per basic share and diluted share. Net income for the year 2010 was $14.1 million or $0.40 per basic share and $0.38 per diluted share.


"As a result of our continued strong execution, we reported higher revenues, gross margin and profitability for the fourth quarter," said Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon. "I am delighted to report that the integration of the Nera business is complete. We believe our decision to seize the first-mover advantage in the latest round of industry consolidation, combined with the rapid integration, positions us to continue to grow and to gain market share as the #1 wireless backhaul specialist.


Geographical breakdown, fourth quarter of 2011:


Europe: 24%

Africa: 21%

North America: 8%

Latin America: 21%

India: 10%

APAC: 16%

http://www.ceragon.com

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Infrastructure Winners at Mobile World Congress

Winners of the 17th Annual Global Mobile awards in infrastructure and services categories at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:


Best Infrastructure Technology

Winner: Alcatel-Lucent - lightRadio Network


Best Mobile Broadband Technology

Winner: KT - KT's Premium WiFi Solution


Best Technology Breakthrough

Winner: Vodafone Group PLC - Quad Rate Technology: an evolved path doubling the efficiency of mobile voice


Best Cloud Based Technology

Winner: Appcelerator - Titanium Integrated Development Platform


Best Enterprise Mobile Service

Winner: Fiberlink - MaaS360


Best Consumer Mobile Service

Winner: Google - Google Maps for Android


Best Network Product or Solution for Serving Customers

Winner: Turkcell - Turkcell TiklaKonus


Best Product, Initiative or Service for Underserved Segments

Winner: Safaricom - Grundfos


Best Smartphone

Winner: Samsung - Samsung Galaxy S II


Best Feature Phone or Entry Level Phone

Winner: Nokia - Nokia C3-00


Device Manufacturer of the Year

Winner: Samsung


Best Mobile Tablet

Winner: Apple - Apple iPad 2


Best Embedded Mobile Device (Non-Handsets)

Winner: AT&T - Garmin GTU 10


The full list of winners and finalist for the 2012 Global Mobile Awards is available at:http://www.globalmobileawards.com/winners2012.php

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Cisco Leaps Forward in the Small Cell + Hot-Spot 2.0 Market

Cisco is pushing ahead into the market for carrier-grade, end-to-end Wi-Fi and small-cell infrastructure.


At Mobile World Congress, Cisco unveiled Next-Generation Hotspots (NGH) for seamless roaming, as well as a new Small Cell Gateway based on the Cisco ASR 5000 Series Mobile Multimedia Core Router.


For its Wi-Fi access points, Cisco is now embedding Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA)-approved NGH technology based on the Hotspot 2.0 specification established by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The company has deployed over 12 million access points, the majority of which can now be upgraded to support NGH. These include access point solutions aimed at in-flight Wi-Fi, retail hotspots, stadium and large venue coverage, and extensive data offload deployments. Seamless Wi-Fi carrier roaming uses the SIM card and the network for authentication, making it much easier for users to access Wi-Fi networks where available.


Upgrades to the Cisco ASR 5000 Series Mobile Multimedia Core Router will now enable operators to manage subscriber and service information while integrating 2G/3G/4G LTE and femtocell (licensed) networks with Wi-Fi (unlicensed) networks. Potentially, service providers could also manage the Wi-Fi infrastructure of enterprise customers, providing their roaming users with seamless secure access to additional hotspots under this framework. PCCW, the mobile operating division of HKT, recently completed a commercial trial of the highly secure roaming provided by NGH via Cisco's service provider Wi-Fi solution in locations around Hong Kong.


Cisco is also working with Shaw Communications to deploy an extensive and advanced Wi-Fi network in Western Canada to provide broadband wireless access. The company cited other notable small cell deployments with AT&T, BT, Portugal Telecom, and Thailand's TrueMove H, among others.
http://www.cisco.com

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