Sunday, July 3, 2016

Intel Teams with BMW and MobilEye for Autonomous Driving

BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye announced an alliance to combine their strengths in automotive, technology and computer vision to bring solutions for highly and fully automated driving into series production by 2021.

In a press conference in Munich, the companies said their goal is to develop future-proofed solutions that enable the drivers to not only take their hands off the steering wheel, but reach the so called “eyes off” (level 3) and ultimately the “mind off” (level 4) level transforming the driver’s in-car time into leisure or work time. This level of autonomy would enable the vehicle, on a technical level, to achieve the final stage of traveling “driver off” (level 5) without a human driver inside. The timeline calls for self-driving fleets by 2021.

“Highly autonomous cars and everything they connect to will require powerful and reliable electronic brains to make them smart enough to navigate traffic and avoid accidents,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. “This partnership between BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye will help us to quickly deliver on our vision to reinvent the driving experience. We bring a broad set of in-vehicle and cloud computing, connectivity, safety and security, and machine-learning assets to this collaboration enabling a truly end-to-end solution.”

http://www.intel.com

BT to offer Direct Access to Oracle Cloud

BT will begin offering direct access to the Oracle Cloud in the final quarter of calendar year 2016.

With BT Cloud Connect for Oracle FastConnect, customers can use a private connection based on BT’s IP Connect VPN service, which is designed to predictably, securely and consistently exchange large volumes of data between the Oracle Cloud and their own on-premises environment. BT will connect directly to Oracle’s Cloud locations in Amsterdam and London, giving customers access from anywhere in the world to services provided in European data centres. Through pre-provisioning via BT Cloud Connect, BT can cut the typical dedicated connection deployment time from months to days.

The Oracle Cloud supports 70 million users and more than 34 billion transactions each day and runs in 19 data centres around the world.

“Cloud is the fastest growing part of Oracle’s business,” said Thomas Kurian, president of Product Development, Oracle.“This partnership will help our customers leveraging the Oracle Cloud execute on their business strategies by taking advantage of the breadth and depth of BT’s global network and its Cloud Connect offering for their high bandwidth connectivity needs.”

http://www.btplc.com/
http://www.oracle.com

Deutsche Telekom Opens Narrow-Band IoT Prototyping Hub

Deutsche Telekom has established a Narrow-Band IoT (NB-IoT) Prototyping Hub that brings existing and potential customers together with Deutsche Telekom’s pool of specialized and highly skilled IoT developers. The aim is to increase time-to-market speed to the benefit of business and consumers alike. Most importantly, Deutsche Telekom’s B2B customers will be able to gain crucial market insights which will allow for rapid market entry, as well as build flexible and highly scalable NB-IoT applications and business models that will be effective for years to come.

DT said Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology is currently one of the most widely discussed innovations in M2M communication for the Internet of Things, with analysts anticipating around three billion LPWA connections by 2023. The technology is especially optimized for applications with low bandwidth requirements (from 100bit/s to just a few Kbit/s), such as smart parking, smart metering or smart waste management, and enables a much deeper indoor penetration than currently available (+20db compared to GSM). With low power consumption and a battery life of up to 10 years, the technology is environmentally friendly and ideal for mass production and deployment.

"Our aim is to provide our customers with IoT solutions that work worldwide based on international standards," says Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Chief Technology Officer, Deutsche Telekom. "The NB-IoT technology is a future-proof and reliable solution that supports international operations and will enable a meaningful and broad IoT ecosystem for our customers in the coming years."

https://www.telekom.com/innovation/317738

BT Smart Hub Packs 7 Wi-Fi Antennas

BT is launching a new Smart Hub that is optimised for strong Wi-Fi performance.  It comes with 7 antennas and the ability to deliver 3x3 11b/g/n/ac in the 2GHz band, and 4x4 11a/n/ac in the 5 GHz band. It also comes with the latest chipset and has built in advanced filters that automatically block interference.

Pete Oliver, MD consumer, commercial, marketing and digital, BT, said:“Customers want a quality connection throughout their homes and the new BT Smart Hub delivers the UK’s most powerful wi-fi signal so customers can enjoy wi-fi in more places. It’s packed with the latest wi-fi technology and is the only router from a major UK broadband provider to offer 7 antennas to offer unbeatable wi-fi range”.

http://www.btplc.com/news/#/pressreleases/bt-smart-hub-launches-with-the-uk-s-most-powerful-wi-fi-signal-1446529

MWC Shanghai Attended by 53,000 Visitors

This year's Mobile World Congress Shanghai, held 29 June – 1 July, attracted 53,000 visitors from 104 countries. The event hosted nearly 550 exhibitors, with 64 percent of exhibiting companies coming from outside of China. The conference programme attracted more than 4,100 attendees, with over 57 per cent of delegates holding C-level positions, including over 300 CEOs. Nearly 840 international media and industry analysts attended the event.

“We are thrilled with the results of our 2016 Mobile World Congress Shanghai, which set new records for attendance and exhibition,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “This was our largest and most ambitious event in Asia, with many new event features and programmes for business attendees and consumers alike. It truly showcased the power of mobile and its impact in our everyday lives.”

http://www.gsma.com