Interview: NSN's Sue Spradley on LightSquared's Wholesale Mobile Data Paradigm
by Sue Spradley
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Wholesale Applications Community Sets Course
The Wholesale Applications Community, which was formed earlier this year by global telecommunications operators looking to build an open alternative Apple's iTunes and similar storefronts, has taken its first steps.The initiative has formally registered as a not-for-profit corporate entity based in the UK, named a prestigious board of directors, and joined forces with the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL). Peters Suh has been named the CEO of the Wholesale Applications Community. Most recently Peters was the CEO of the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), a joint venture between China Mobile, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone. Prior to JIL, Peters held a number of executive positions at Vodafone, Fremont Communications and AirTouch. The company announced that Michel Combes, Vodafone Chief Executive Europe has been elected Chairman of the Wholesale Applications Community, and Jean-Philippe Vanot, Deputy CEO, France Telecom has been named as Vice Chairman. In addition to Combes and Vanot, the WAC board of directors includes:
- John Donovan, CTO, AT&T
- Li Zhengmao, VP, China Mobile
- Olivier Baujard, CTO Deutsche Telekom
- Alex Sinclair, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, GSMA
- Dr Hyun-Myung PYO, President of Mobile Business Group, KT Corporation
- Dr Kiyohito Nagata, SVP, NTT DOCOMO
- Sung Min Ha, President Mobile Network Operation Business Unit, SK Telecom
- Napoleon Nazareno, President and CEO, Smart Communications
- Tetsuzo Matsumoto, Senior Executive Vice President, SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp.
- Marco Patuano, Head of Domestic Market Operations, Telecom Italia
- Vivek Dev, Group Director of Global New Services, Telefónica
- Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO, Telekom Austria Group
- Morten-Karlsen Sorby, EVP and Head of Corporate Development, Telenor
- Dick Lynch, EVP and CTO, Verizon
WAC aims to establish wholesale applications ecosystem that provides a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services. Network operators would be able to distribute applications through their respective application storefronts and charge users through their existing phone bill. In this model, developers will set the application price and will receive a revenue share for the transaction. The revenue share will be defined on an operator-by-operator basis.
WAC aims to publish its initial specification and components of its SDK to developers in November. This specification will be based on W3C standards and create a strong platform for developing rich mobile web applications. WAC will also provide backwards compatibility for devices based upon the current JIL and BONDI specifications.... > More
Qualcomm Sees Opportunity in Electric Vehicle Charging
Qualcomm has formed a partnership with ECOtality to implement cellular connectivity into charging stations. The solution will allow ECOtality to use a commercial cellular network to manage its Blink brand charging station operations, transfer usage data, download firmware updates and publish availability to electric vehicle drivers in real time.
ECOtality plans to begin deploying cellular-enabled charging stations this year under the EV Project, a $230 million project involving the U.S. Department of Energy; ECOtality's subsidiary, ECOtality North America; and more than 40 project partners.
The EV Project is the largest deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in U.S. history, including up to 8,300 fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and nearly 15,000 at-home and publicly available charging systems. All chargers to be deployed under this program, as well as those carrying ECOtality's recently unveiled Blink brand, will contain Qualcomm technology to communicate over cellular networks.
Clearwire Sells WiMAX Operations in Ireland to Imagine
Imagine Communications Grouphas acquired Clearwire's Irish operations. As part of the transaction, Clearwire will become a minority shareholder and will nominate a representative to Imagine's board of directors. Other specific financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Imagine gained 50mHz of spectrum when purchasing Irish Broadband in 2008, added more spectrum in a Comreg processin 2009, and with Clearwire Ireland Limited's spectrum now has over 120mHz of crucial 3.4/3.6mHz spectrum. Following the Clearwire transaction, Imagine will have nearly 400 high sites nationwide to facilitate the rapid roll out of the WiMax network.
Imagine expects that the WiMax network will cover 90 percent of Ireland within two years, with prices undercutting Eircom by 50 percent.
Ceragon Acquires Advanced Carrier Ethernet NMS Technology
Ceragon Networks announced an agreement to acquire the right to use and further develop advanced Ethernet network management software which will accelerate enhancements to its end-to-end network management system (NMS).Ceragon did not name the developer of this technology but said the deal will enhance its FibeAir platforms and its PolyView management solution. The development effort is expected to simplify the design and management of complex Ethernet backhaul networks. Among the features is the ability to manage Ethernet services across multiple technologies and vendor domains, as well as to assign and manage differentiated service level agreements (SLAs) while ensuring high quality of service (QoS) from end-to-end.
Lockheed Martin Tests Through-The-Earth Wireless Communications
Lockheed Martin is testing a "MagneLink" Magnetic Communication System (MCS) that transmits magnetic waves through the earth without wires. The system could be used by the mining industry to provide voice communication and texting for miners trapped following a collapse or other accident.
Lockheed Martin said its portable, two-way, voice- and text-capable emergency communication system operates at ranges sufficient to communicate from the surface into deep underground mines.
"During the test, MagneLink MCS performed superbly," said Warren Gross, MagneLink MCS program manager. "The system interfaced with hand-held radios similar to the Miner Emergency Radios (MERs) and functioned as a multi-band receiver, establishing communications with multiple MagneLink MCS units without the requirement for the MCS units to be on the same channel to receive transmissions."
"While the data boom is finally upon us, the viability of the business has eluded most – operators have become increasingly preoccupied with the associated high costs of data delivery versus the lag in expected revenues. Our study proves that success in mobile broadband can deliver efficiencies – radio access networks can enable sustainable, cost-efficient broadband offerings to subscribers by leveraging existing base station sites to their fullest capacity."
Marc Rouanne, Head of Network Systems, Nokia Siemens Networks 11-May-10
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