3GVision, a global supplier of mobile barcode reading solutions, has announced a partnership with French Connecthings, to extend use and compatibility of 2D barcode reading technology to most mobile phone models in France.

Connecthings, a specialist in providing barcodes and contextualized-location and time based content management systems will help publishers, advertisers, government agencies and local businesses create 2D barcode campaigns and mobile applications. The campaigns will use Flashcode technology, the official national barcode standard of France as well as QR and DataMatrix barcodes. Any phone equipped with a sufficient resolution camera will be able to read all barcode types, off pretty much anything, including print, provided that the user has the Flashcode reader pre-installed on their device or downloads 3GVision's barcode reading application, i-nigma.   

The i-nigma barcode reading application can already be used in the City of Toulouse to fast-track mobile subscribers and tourists to location and time based content like directional maps and timetables, printed on bus shelters and street furniture. Mobile subscribers scan Flashcode, QR and Data Matrix barcodes with their mobile phone camera and gain instant access to virtual guides of the city, maps, real-time location based messages and multimedia content.

"We are always striving to offer the best solutions to our customers and we believe that i-nigma can provide a vital element in facilitating traditional to digital connections and making mobile barcodes use more attractive in France," said Laetitia Gazel Anthoine, CEO Connecthings. "The partnership comes amid fast-expanding use of mobile phones, including the iPhone and other smart phones and scanning 2D barcodes for quick and easy access to desired information and multimedia on the mobile web will give added value to mobile subscribers."

"Connecthings vision and market experience will expand the opportunity for 3Gvision in France," said Mendy Mendelsohn, CEO 3GVision. ‘By enabling customers to scan Flashcode and other 2D barcodes with their camera phone, we are making it more convenient for mobile subscribers to use barcode technology. This opens up the door for many more French customers and tourists to enhance their mobile internet experience and provides better opportunities for advertisers and marketers to reach their target audiences."

The i-nigma end-to-end 1D/2D mobile barcode solution is comprised of a 'highly intuitive and simple' barcode creation, campaign management and reporting platform enabling fast and reliable web service for creating and web-linking barcodes to information and promotional offers. The solution includes tools to enable real-time tracking of on-going campaign success based on number of codes scanned and response volume by location, time, user segmentation and media type enabling advertisers and marketers to instantly overcome many of the challenges of managing and planning successful campaigns, particularly real-time insight on performance and their target audience.

Ubiquisys, a provider of 3G femtocells, today announced the release of Femto-Engine, said to be the world's first software femtocell, effectively separating femtocell functionality from the underlying hardware foundation. Femto-Engine software is said to deliver sophisticated self-organising intelligence, tested with hundreds of mobile devices and hardened through commercial deployments in networks such as SoftBank and SFR.

At the same time, the company announced its "Engine-Ready" hardware programme allowing manufacturers to rapidly produce low-cost devices without having to invest in costly 3G network expertise. Ubiquisys also unveiled the first product forged from this new system, the G3-mini, manufactured by SerComm, which sets new standards in price, performance, miniaturisation and energy efficiency.

For operators, Femto-Engine software is said to provide a sophisticated, proven and ready-to-deploy femtocell at a breakthrough price point for mass-market commercial adoption. It enables a wider range of hardware options for consumer, enterprise and open space applications.

For OEMs, the "Engine-Ready" programme offers a fast track to producing commercial-grade femtocell hardware. Ubiquisys provides a complete hardware blueprint certified for use with its software, and takes care of selecting the key components, including the baseband modem and RF chipsets. The 3G network complexity is encapsulated in the Femto-Engine software, allowing OEMs to focus on product variety and cost-optimisation. The programme also provides a fast track to integrating femtocell modules into a variety of home and enterprise networking appliances.
 
"This announcement from Ubiquisys is an important step forward for the femtocell industry. This evolution of the Femto concept will enable almost any electronics manufacturer to make femtocell-enabled devices," said Stuart Carlaw, Chief Research Officer, ABI Research. "This type of software based development will be crucial in realising the goal of having femtocell technology embedded in multiple device types and form factors at price points that are acceptable to OEMs, carriers and consumers alike."

"By encapsulating femtocell complexity in our Femto-Engine software we are enabling a more effective femtocell ecosystem. OEMs can follow the DSL and WiFi model to cost-optimise the production of femtocell hardware and quickly integrate the technology into more and more products.

Operators and their customers benefit from a wider choice of femto devices at much lower prices, all powered by the proven sophistication of Ubiquisys Femto-Engine software," said Chris Gilbert, Ubiquisys CEO.

"SerComm has already demonstrated the potential of this new model with the G3-mini, which breaks new ground in terms of performance, price and time-to-market."

The low-cost G3-mini consumer femtocell from SerComm is the first Femto-Engine powered femtocell. It stands just 8cm tall, consumes less than 5W of power, yet it features performance of up to 8 simultaneous calls and HSPA+. 

A global survey conducted by Nokia Siemens Networks, is said to have found that the strategies of the world's leading telecoms operators are dominated by the challenges arising from providing transparent and open mobile internet services. Improving network performance to increase customer satisfaction, while coping with the mobile data surge caused by social networking, mobile app stores, TV services and voice over IP, top their business needs, says NSN.  

The study involved one-to-one interviews with the business leaders of 70 communications service providers from 42 countries. Its aim was to provide a comprehensive overview of these telecoms operators' business needs through 2012.

"The boundary between mobile telecoms and the internet has all but disappeared," said Frederic Astier, head of customer operations marketing, Nokia Siemens Networks.

"This study tells us that telecoms operators increasingly see their value, and competitive differentiation, in increasing customer satisfaction through improving network quality, while acting as a content broker for social networks, mobile app stores, TV and voice over IP services."  

The study showed that communications service providers are much clearer than they were a year ago about their future role in a combined telecoms and internet ecosystem. While voice calls remain at the core of their business, about 78 percent said they plan to open their network as an intelligent bit pipe for new solutions, by while 69 percent said they intend to bundle voice with other content.

More than half the respondents said that improving customer satisfaction was their most important strategic goal over the next three years. This was followed by targeting a reduction in operating costs. In addition, respondents recognized the need to transform their businesses from telecom- and network-driven organizations into efficient customer-centric, IT organizations. The study is an important contribution to the current debate on net-neutrality, claims NSN.

While this debate has mainly been focused on open internet access in relation to fixed broadband, the onset of truly mobile internet services demands that telecoms consumers, regulators and service providers also consider the implications for net neutrality in relation to mobility. According to NSN, the study highlights the unique challenges and opportunities that truly transparent, open, mobile internet access creates in relation to quality of service and the additional network capacity and performance challenges for wireless communications.

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Huawei today announced a successful live trial of LTE with Telefónica O2 UK, the first fully operational operator LTE trial in the UK. During the trial, a cell peak downlink rate of 150Mbps is said to have been achieved in the Slough area, the headquarters of O2 in the UK. A recent showcase is also said to have demonstrated real life case studies of future consumer demands on a mobile broadband LTE network, including high definition video streaming, mobile gaming, high speed file transfer and video conferencing. 

Following the recent announcement made by Telefónica, O2's parent company, to commence trials of the new 4G LTE/SAE (System Architecture Evolution) technology, Huawei is said to be the first of Telefonica's trial LTE vendors to have successfully implemented a live trial LTE network. Huawei's end-to-end LTE/SAE solution is claimed to provide an all-IP, high speed, low latency and highly spectrum efficient mobile network.

Derek McManus, CTO of O2 UK, commented "We are pleased to collaborate with Huawei on this LTE trial, which will allow us to better understand this emerging technology and prepare us in offering our customers next generation mobile broadband services in the future."

Samuel Sun, Managing Director of Huawei UK, said "Huawei is very keen to be involved with the Telefónica O2 UK trials for LTE/SAE technology. We have demonstrated our state-of-the-art mobile technologies and capability to deliver on our promise. These trials will give an excellent reference to Telefónica O2 for the evaluation of LTE technology."

TeliaSonera and Ericsson have launched 4G services commercially to customers in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway.
 
Kenneth Karlberg, President and Head of Mobility Services, TeliaSonera said: "We are very proud to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services. Thanks to the successful cooperation with Ericsson we can offer 4G to our customers in Stockholm earlier than originally planned."

Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson added: "The new era of mobile broadband has just begun today. With LTE, so-called 4G, your mobile broadband experience is moving to unequalled levels. The LTE speed gives you an absolutely effortless feeling of broadband access."

"Being first out with new technology gives us unique experience that we can use on all our markets. We will continue the roll-out to offer our customers new communication services for the future," continued Karlberg.
 
Downtown Stockholm is covered with the Ericsson LTE network, making it the largest LTE deployment to date. TeliaSonera's customers are the first to have access to the LTE service by commercially available Samsung LTE dongles.

The two 4G city networks cover the central city areas of Stockholm and Oslo and will be used for mobile data. 4G is the fastest mobile technology available on the market, with claimed speeds up to ten times higher than today's 'turbo' 3G. 
 
TeliaSonera has three nationwide 4G/LTE licenses; in Sweden, Norway and also recently in Finland. The network roll out is in progress to offer 4G to Sweden's and Norway's largest cities.
 
Ericsson has completed commercialization of its LTE products and larger production is ready for further deployment. Interoperability is also said to be tested thoroughly with many different devices in different operators' networks.
 

T-Mobile, Ubiquisys and Huawei Technologies have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct femtocell Interoperability Testing at T-Mobile's labs over the next six months. 

The interoperability tests will involve femtocells from both Ubiquisys and Huawei, which will communicate using the 3GPP's new Iuh standardised open interface. They will be connected to a Huawei Femto Gateway into T-Mobile's core network.  

T-Mobile, Ubiquisys and Huawei say they are are committed to a scalable, multi-vendor femtocell market based on open standards, and the announcement is said to pave the way for operators to select standards-based femtocells and femto gateways from multiple vendors, in the knowledge that they will be fully compatible with each other and their core networks.

"T-Mobile has a long track record of practical innovation in the mobile industry. We are active members of the Femto Forum and the standards bodies, we have completed comprehensive femtocell trials with Ubiquisys and Huawei, and we have made a strategic investment in Ubiquisys. These IOT-tests will demonstrate for the first time that femtocell interoperability is becoming a reality," said Klaus-Jürgen Krath of T-Mobile.

"To reach their full market potential, femtocells must be more like mobile phones – interchangeable with the network they connect to," added Will Franks, CTO and Founder, Ubiquisys. "As a pioneer in this industry, we designed our femtocell from day one to connect to multiple femto gateways, ready for the introduction of a 3GPP standardised interface. We are delighted to be working with T-Mobile and Huawei to demonstrate the huge potential of femtocell interoperability."  

Wan Biao, President of Huawei Wireless Product Line concluded, "We are very pleased to partner with T-Mobile and Ubiquisys for this IOT. This cooperation will be an important step for the whole femtocell industry ecosystem. Since 2005 Huawei began the research on femtocell and has become a leading E2E solution provider with deployments of femtocell commercial and trial networks across the world. 2010 will see the transition for femto to the mass market. Huawei will devote to the
standardization and maturity of the industry together with the operators and other vendors."

A new report published by the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) confirms there are 51 LTE network commitments in 24 countries.

The number of commitments by operators to deploy LTE increased by more than 96% in the past eight months, says the GSA, emphasising the strengthening and global support for LTE as the industry's system of choice for next generation mobile broadband services.

According to the GSA, most mobile network operators include a mobile broadband offer as part of their service portfolio. HSPA dominates the mobile broadband market, with 303 networks in commercial service in 142 countries. A further 51 networks are in various stages f deployment or planning. More than 96% of the world's WCDMA systems have now deployed the HSPA upgrade. A total of 66 operators have committed to HSPA Evolution, otherwise known as HSPA+, to ensure enhanced data throughput speeds, reduced latency, more capacity, lower delivery costs and an improved user experience.

According to the GSA, HSPA operators throughout the world continue to report strong traffic and revenue growth with mobile broadband services. LTE is needed to accommodate the anticipated continuing huge traffic growth for data, and to fully address the mass market, and will further boost network throughputs significantly, reduce latency, improve spectrum and deliver operational efficiencies and performance, for the next step in the user experience, it says.

With the first commercial LTE network launches just around the corner, GSA anticipates that up to 19 LTE networks will be in commercial service by end 2010. Many LTE trials are on-going in all regions, and in the coming months these are likely to lead to a wave of further commitments to deploy LTE being announced, it says.