The commercial deployment of femtocells is a "little way away," said Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, speaking at the mobile operator's Q3 results announcement on Thursday.
He insisted that the company is making progress, but warned attendees not to "look at 2008" for femtocells.
"Maybe 2009 will be the year for femtocells," said Sarin.
For more information on Vodafone's third quarter revenue and customer announcement, see Total Telecom.
Sprint WiMAX plan back on
U.S. mobile operator Sprint Nextel is back in serious talks with erstwhile WiMAX partner Clearwire, according to various sources from accross the Atlantic. This time, however, any new partnership would likely involve investment from other parties - Google and Intel have been most frequently named as potential candidates.
Sprint and Clearwire dissolved their WiMAX partnership last November, reportedly because of difficulties financing the project. The mobile operator's new CEO Dan Hesses has been under pressure to clarify Sprint's position regarding its planned $5 billion WiMAX network rollout since he took over from Gary Forsee late last year.
Sprint and Clearwire dissolved their WiMAX partnership last November, reportedly because of difficulties financing the project. The mobile operator's new CEO Dan Hesses has been under pressure to clarify Sprint's position regarding its planned $5 billion WiMAX network rollout since he took over from Gary Forsee late last year.
T-Mobile to launch Android handset
News just in from one of Total Telecom's roving reporters in Berlin:
"T-Mobile is set to introduce this year a handset based on Android software, which is likely to be unsubsidised. "
The phone will be one of a handful of Android-based handset models that will make it to market in 2008.
T-Mobile was named as one of Google's operator partners when the Internet giant unveiled its open standards-based mobile handset project late last year.
"T-Mobile is set to introduce this year a handset based on Android software, which is likely to be unsubsidised. "
The phone will be one of a handful of Android-based handset models that will make it to market in 2008.
T-Mobile was named as one of Google's operator partners when the Internet giant unveiled its open standards-based mobile handset project late last year.
Hot topics
With next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona rapidly approaching, we're starting to get some idea of what the key themes will be for this year's event. My inbox is full of invitations to meet from hundreds of companies covering the whole gamut of telecoms technologies and services.
Some hot topics are already starting to emerge. Femtocell providers hit the headlines for the first time last year, and there appears to be strong interest again this time around, despite the fact that telecoms operators are still proving quite cagey on the subject.
Expect to hear a lot about advertising and ad-funded services; the debate on whether customers will accept advertising in return for subsidised content is still raging. Similarly, the options for mobile music and mobile TV will be on the agenda.
Social networking promises to attract a significant amount of attention this year, alongside mobile messaging in its various forms. And we're expecting a lot of talk about location-based services.
And it wouldn't be Barcelona without a strong presence from emerging market operators, would it?
What do you expect to hit the headlines this year? Let us know by voting on Total Telecom's new MWC poll:
http://www.totaltele.com/PollsArchive.aspx
Some hot topics are already starting to emerge. Femtocell providers hit the headlines for the first time last year, and there appears to be strong interest again this time around, despite the fact that telecoms operators are still proving quite cagey on the subject.
Expect to hear a lot about advertising and ad-funded services; the debate on whether customers will accept advertising in return for subsidised content is still raging. Similarly, the options for mobile music and mobile TV will be on the agenda.
Social networking promises to attract a significant amount of attention this year, alongside mobile messaging in its various forms. And we're expecting a lot of talk about location-based services.
And it wouldn't be Barcelona without a strong presence from emerging market operators, would it?
What do you expect to hit the headlines this year? Let us know by voting on Total Telecom's new MWC poll:
http://www.totaltele.com/PollsArchive.aspx
Everything Going Mobile
Three months in and we're starting to see some real traction with the Total Telecom mobile site, www.totaltelecom.mobi
If you haven't tried it yet, tap in the URL above into your mobile device, or simply text 'TELECOM' to 84477
Designed specifically with mobile usage in mind, by award winning experts, New Visions, Totaltelecom.mobi gives you all the latest news in brief snippits - ideal for when you are out and about.
Additionally watch out next month for the mobile addition of our news service, direct from the Mobile World Congress.
For more information on the service, you can visit the main Total Telecom website at www.totaltele.com/mobile
Orange Tightens Control Over Innovation
Orange makes no secret of its strategy to ensure a cut of the revenues generated by content. But it also wants to prevent equipment and software manufacturers sucking all the value out of the markets for media and content services, which Nokia is addressing with Ovi, and have a bigger say in how services evolve.
"The big mistake with 3G was to let equipment manufacturers do it alone," said Didier Lombard, CEO of Orange during a press tour last week of the company's Technocentre, a pressure cooker for the company's R&D and marketing divisions. Housing 1,000 employees, the Technocentre was set up in 2006 to galvanise the efforts of its marketing and research and development teams, and aims to churn out dozens of new services and products a year. [see Total Telecom, October 2007 ] Upcoming products from the centre include high definition mobile television delivered via UMA to the company's dual band GSM-Wifi phone, called Unik.
Orange wants innovative products to account for 15% of its revenue stream in 2010, up from 6% in 2007, says Lombard, with much of that innovation driven by Orange's own efforts (although the company has relationships with third parties such as Microsoft and China Telecom.)
Orange spent 1.7% of its annual revenues on R&D in 2007, up from 1.1% in 2003 and makes several tens of millions of Euros a year out of intellectual property, said Lombard. The company spends 30% of its spend devoted to fundamental research – although the term "fundamental research" encompasses strictly commercial demands such as the shrinking of set top boxes. "We want to avoid the effect Xerox," says Lombard. "Xerox invented everything, but didn't earn a cent."
Orange's development teams are also working to ensure their networks can underpin new online advertising models.
"There is a new, more sophisticated [model of online advertising] in which we are engaging, of much more targeted ads that correspond with the [users' precise] interest at a given moment," Lombard told journalists.
"We could have a model whereby [advertising] revenue is only attributed when the ad works. That will develop very quickly … and the network will evolve," said Lombard.
"The big mistake with 3G was to let equipment manufacturers do it alone," said Didier Lombard, CEO of Orange during a press tour last week of the company's Technocentre, a pressure cooker for the company's R&D and marketing divisions. Housing 1,000 employees, the Technocentre was set up in 2006 to galvanise the efforts of its marketing and research and development teams, and aims to churn out dozens of new services and products a year. [see Total Telecom, October 2007 ] Upcoming products from the centre include high definition mobile television delivered via UMA to the company's dual band GSM-Wifi phone, called Unik.
Orange wants innovative products to account for 15% of its revenue stream in 2010, up from 6% in 2007, says Lombard, with much of that innovation driven by Orange's own efforts (although the company has relationships with third parties such as Microsoft and China Telecom.)
Orange spent 1.7% of its annual revenues on R&D in 2007, up from 1.1% in 2003 and makes several tens of millions of Euros a year out of intellectual property, said Lombard. The company spends 30% of its spend devoted to fundamental research – although the term "fundamental research" encompasses strictly commercial demands such as the shrinking of set top boxes. "We want to avoid the effect Xerox," says Lombard. "Xerox invented everything, but didn't earn a cent."
Orange's development teams are also working to ensure their networks can underpin new online advertising models.
"There is a new, more sophisticated [model of online advertising] in which we are engaging, of much more targeted ads that correspond with the [users' precise] interest at a given moment," Lombard told journalists.
"We could have a model whereby [advertising] revenue is only attributed when the ad works. That will develop very quickly … and the network will evolve," said Lombard.
Trip to the country
I went to Vodafone's HQ today. After travelling on two packed tube trains, two overground trains (one VERY slow one) and finally a bus, I was cursing the mobile phone operator for not setting up its global HQ in London.
When I got there I realised why they are still located in a relatively small backwater outside of London, namely Newbury: It's not so much an HQ as a small village! Caught a glimpse of Arun Sarin coming down the stairs, and deputy CEO Vittorio Colao also popped his head round the door of the meeting room I was in to give a cryptic message to Steve Pusey.
Anyway, watch out for a face to face with Steve Pusey, CTO of Vodafone Group, in March.
When I got there I realised why they are still located in a relatively small backwater outside of London, namely Newbury: It's not so much an HQ as a small village! Caught a glimpse of Arun Sarin coming down the stairs, and deputy CEO Vittorio Colao also popped his head round the door of the meeting room I was in to give a cryptic message to Steve Pusey.
Anyway, watch out for a face to face with Steve Pusey, CTO of Vodafone Group, in March.
4G again
To continue with my rant in TTm January 2008 about how much I hate the inappropriate use of 4G to describe technologies from LTE to WiMAX, it was interesting to get Vodafone CTO Steve Pusey's perspective on this today.
Pusey said he doesn't like using the term either, noting that the generational shifts have generally had a "rip and replace" connotation. He doesn't see this as being the case for LTE; instead he sees the implementation of LTE as a gradual process that has already started at Vodafone in its core network.
Pusey said he doesn't like using the term either, noting that the generational shifts have generally had a "rip and replace" connotation. He doesn't see this as being the case for LTE; instead he sees the implementation of LTE as a gradual process that has already started at Vodafone in its core network.
Mobile phones on buses...
It's often amazed me what people will talk about, often at some volume, on their mobile phones in public places. I've listened with interest (usually because I've had little choice when the person sitting next to me decides the 20 minute journey from Angel to Highbury in London is far too long to sit in silence) to conversations about mortgage payments, failing relationships, work problems, problematic colleagues, and so on.
This morning I was treated to a conversation that appeared to be between two BT employees, although I could not ascertain that before I had to get off the bus. But the quote "BT has a policy of letting loose its contract workers immediately", a move that had clearly caused the caller some major problems with a service he and others have been "trying to launch since August" because none of the original implementors could now be found, certainly raised my interest.
The moral of this story is: be careful of what you say on public transport because you never know who might be sitting on the seat next to you. Roll on the days of mobile phones on the London Underground, eh...
This morning I was treated to a conversation that appeared to be between two BT employees, although I could not ascertain that before I had to get off the bus. But the quote "BT has a policy of letting loose its contract workers immediately", a move that had clearly caused the caller some major problems with a service he and others have been "trying to launch since August" because none of the original implementors could now be found, certainly raised my interest.
The moral of this story is: be careful of what you say on public transport because you never know who might be sitting on the seat next to you. Roll on the days of mobile phones on the London Underground, eh...
Barcelona
The invitations to meet companies at 3GSM 2008, or MWC as the GSMA NOW wants us to call it, have started flooding in, and please keep them coming as we'll be setting our agendas soon.
I might add that there are few invitations yet for the fun stuff: so get those cocktail and party invitations rolling in too!
I might add that there are few invitations yet for the fun stuff: so get those cocktail and party invitations rolling in too!
3 to host MVNO
Analysts have been suggesting that U.K. mobile operator 3 should embrace a wholesale strategy for some time. Today the telco took the plunge.
3 on Wednesday announced plans to host a business-focused MVNO for Gamma Telecom. The operator will primarily target SMEs with its own-branded mobile service that will provide both voice and data.
Will this be the first of many wholesale deals for 3???
3 on Wednesday announced plans to host a business-focused MVNO for Gamma Telecom. The operator will primarily target SMEs with its own-branded mobile service that will provide both voice and data.
Will this be the first of many wholesale deals for 3???
Talking Turkey
Is there anybody out there????
The telecoms industry is so quiet this week I can only assume everyone has gone into hiding to sleep off the effects of too much turkey. Doubtless things will kick into life next week with the start of the CES show in Las Vegas. In the meantime, if you have any interesting info - outlandish telecoms gossip, crazy rumours, something you overheard at a New Year's Eve party - then drop us a line!
The telecoms industry is so quiet this week I can only assume everyone has gone into hiding to sleep off the effects of too much turkey. Doubtless things will kick into life next week with the start of the CES show in Las Vegas. In the meantime, if you have any interesting info - outlandish telecoms gossip, crazy rumours, something you overheard at a New Year's Eve party - then drop us a line!
Happy new year!
I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very happy new year, and all the very best for 2008. The year's first issue of Total Telecom magazine has just gone live at www.totaltele.com, and we are now working on the February issue. Check out the features list for the year on our media info page.
The TT team is already gearing up for our next big event - the Mobile World Congress, or 3GSM or even "Cannes" to those of us that have been around for far too long...
So we hope to see some of you in Barcelona to catch up on your plans for 2008.
The TT team is already gearing up for our next big event - the Mobile World Congress, or 3GSM or even "Cannes" to those of us that have been around for far too long...
So we hope to see some of you in Barcelona to catch up on your plans for 2008.
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