Motorola today unveiled its first WiMAX USB adaptor, the USBw 100. This thumb-drive-sized device is available in three versions to connect to WiMAX networks in each of the three bands approved for use around the world – 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5 GHz. The Motorola USBw 100 plugs directly into laptop computers to provide mobile and nomadic wireless broadband connectivity, both indoors and out. It is expected to be available in Q4 2008.

Motorola's wi4 WiMAX USB adaptor has been designed with multiple antenna technology to provide reliable, high-speed connectivity in the various and unpredictable environments where users expect service, especially indoor home, business and coffee shop environments, as well as on-the-go in a mobile world. The USBw 100 delivers increased range and higher throughput when compared with single-antenna solutions. When used with Motorola's dual antenna Diversity Access Point (DAP) /Wireless Access Point (WAP) 400 Series, both uplink and downlink performance are significantly enhanced.

The device, which easily plugs into the USB port, seamlessly connects the laptop computer to a WIMAX broadband network for reliable, easy, high-speed connection for e-mail, web surfing, video and audio streaming, GPS services, Internet phone calls and other uses.

"Our new USBw 100 adaptor will let people enjoy desktop-like performance while on the go with their laptop computers by giving them wireless connectivity to a WiMAX service provider's broadband wireless network," said Charles Riggle, senior director of strategy and business development, WiMAX devices, Home & Networks Mobility. "With hundreds of thousands of commercial WiMAX CPEs shipped to date, the USBw 100 is the latest addition to our portfolio of award-winning devices that are providing fixed, nomadic and mobile connectivity to our WiMAX customers around the world."

TeliaSonera and its subsidiaries LMT and Omnitel today announced it will bring iPhone 3G to Latvia and Lithuania on September 26.

"This represents another strategic step for us in the development of the mobile broadband market and further strengthens our position in the Nordic and Baltic region," said Kenneth Karlberg, president, Business Area Mobility Service, TeliaSonera. "Following the successful launch of iPhone 3G in the Nordic countries and in Estonia, we are happy to offer iPhone 3G to our customers in Latvia and Lithuania."

Omnifone has today announced it has signed an international
strategic partnership with Sony Ericsson, to power a wide range of unlimited
music phones. The service, PlayNow plus, is due to debut with Telenor in
Sweden later this year.

Martin Blomkvist, Director and Head of Global Content
Acquisition & Partner Management, Sony Ericsson stated, "Omnifone was the
clear partner of choice for PlayNow plus. As the leading independent
provider of unlimited music services, Omnifone has enabled us to deliver the
most innovative and attractive solution for our operator partners and
end-users."

The PlayNow plus-enabled mobiles will come bundled with up
to 1,000 pre-loaded tracks at purchase and, at the end of the initial
subscription period, will enable consumers to retain a specific number of
their favourite tracks in a DRM-free MP3 format for use on their next phone,
desktop computer or any other digital music device.

"Omnifone's partnership with Sony Ericsson for PlayNow
plus will drive global mass market uptake of legal unlimited digital music
downloads on mobile," said Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone. "Walkman is the
world's most iconic portable music brand and Omnifone is partnering with Sony
Ericsson to bring a fully integrated unlimited music downloads service to
millions of Walkman mobile users, with the potential to increase operator
music revenues whilst providing unlimited music to consumers, with the
ability for consumers to convert their favourite tracks and keep them
DRM-free forever."

PlayNow plus consumers will also be able to download
unlimited amounts of music to their desktop computer, using PlayNow plus
Desktop, which synchronises effortlessly with the PlayNow plus mobile
experience, using broadband and 3G/HSDPA connectivity.

PlayNow plus over-the-air music downloads will utilise the
state-of-the-art high quality eAAC Plus format, with very fast track
downloads. PlayNow plus is integrated into Sony Ericsson's TrackID
music recognition service enabling unlimited direct-to-device music sampling
and downloading for no additional cost. PlayNow plus is also fully
compatible with the Sony Ericsson PlayNow a la carte service which allows
consumers to purchase individual music tracks DRM-free, on a track by track
basis.

Omnifone and Sony Ericsson have agreed licensing terms with
Universal Music Group, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, EMI Music, Warner

Music
Group and leading independents for DRM-free Keep Your Favourites (KYF) for
Sony Ericsson handsets with unlimited access to a vast international content
catalogue, localised for each individual market.

Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, Universal Music
Group International stated; "We believe the combination of Omnifone's leading
edge unlimited music capability paired with Sony Ericsson's popular range of
music phones will have lasting implications for the delivery of digital music
services globally. Consumers will have the ability to download, play and
share music, on the brand of devices which were ultimately responsible for
starting the mobile music revolution."

"The PlayNow plus service offers music fans an innovative
and exciting new way to explore SONY BMG's rich catalogue," commented Thomas
Hesse, President, Global Digital Business and U.S. Sales, SONY BMG MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT. "With such a vast collection of songs accessible through their
mobile phones, consumers will have the opportunity to enjoy their favorites
and also discover new music and new artists. We think this service is a great
solution for consumers because it makes the listening and discovery
experience more fun than ever before."

Ian Whitfield, Vice President, Digital Business Development
for EMI Music: "As the digital music market continues to evolve, EMI's role
is to bring artists and their fans closer together by giving consumers
innovative, effective and legal ways to enjoy our artists' music how they
want to and PlayNow plus is a perfect example of this. With the
experience and reach of Sony Ericsson behind it, PlayNow plus is a very
exciting new service for music consumers and we're very pleased to give it
our support."

Eric Daugan, Vice President, Digital Business, Warner Music
EMEA, commented, "Sony Ericsson and Omnifone have both separately pioneered
the evolution of mobile music, so we're delighted to now be working with
their combined expertise on this highly innovative service. By bringing
together a simple, compelling user experience with first class music-enabled
devices, PlayNow plus is a hugely attractive consumer offer and
represents an exciting step forward for mobile entertainment. This
wide-ranging music service will be a powerful platform through which fans
will be empowered to quickly and easily discover, explore and enjoy our
artists' music wherever they are, whenever they want."

T-Mobile has today announced the international launch of the world's first Android-powered mobile phone in partnership with Google.  Available soon only for T-Mobile customers spanning two continents, the T-Mobile G1 combines full touch-screen functionality and a QWERTY keyboard with a mobile Web experience that includes popular Google products such as Google Maps Street View, Gmail, YouTube and others.

"We are proud that T-Mobile is the first operator in the world to launch an Android-powered mobile device," said Christopher Schläffer, Group Product and Innovation Officer of Deutsche Telekom.  "Since 2005, Google has been an established partner in T-Mobile's groundbreaking approach to bringing the open mobile Internet to the mass market. With the T-Mobile G1 we are continuing our strong tradition of being pioneers in the world of the open Internet."

Cole Brodman, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, T-Mobile USA, said, "The Internet and the mobile phone are both indispensable tools for our hectic lives, but only a fraction of us access the Web on our phones.  The T-Mobile G1 is our opportunity in the US to accelerate the mass adoption of the mobile Web, by unleashing Google innovation with a unique software experience that mobilizes the Google services hundreds of millions of consumers rely on every day."

"Increasingly, connectivity does not just mean a phone call, but rather access to the world's information," said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms for Google. "Today's news signifies an important first step for the Open Handset Alliance: with Android, we've opened the mobile web not only for millions of users, but also to mobilize the developer community that understands the next most important platform in the world rests in the palm of our hand."

With an intuitive user interface and one-touch access to Google Search, the T-Mobile G1 is also the first phone to provide access to Android Market, where customers can find and download applications to expand and personalize their phone.

T-Mobile customers in the U.S. have the opportunity to pre-order the T-Mobile G1, in limited quantities, beginning today.  The device will be available at select T-Mobile retail stores and online in the U.S. beginning Oct. 22, for a price of $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement.  The T-Mobile G1 will also be available in the United Kingdom beginning in November, and across Europe in the first quarter of 2009.  Countries include Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

People use their mobile devices to access a wide range of sites, according to Opera Software's State of the Mobile Web report published today. While big destinations such as google.com and facebook.com get significant attention and traffic on the  mobile Web, it is the smaller sites that drive most of the visitors, says Opera. The trend, known as the Long Tail, demonstrates that mobile Web usage increasingly mimics its traditional desktop counterpart, as browsers become more capable and users become more comfortable with the experience.

The Long Tail, a phrase coined by Chris Anderson in a Wired article and expanded upon in his book, "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More", illustrates the true value of  the Web in that more people can access a variety of niche sites pertaining to their interests. Opera says it has long maintained that Web use on mobile devices would begin to conform to established usage trends as walled gardens fell and more people could access the full Web. Opera says its research shows this trend is well underway.

"In most areas of the world, people are visiting a full range of Web sites," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "The evidence of the Long Tail on the mobile Web proves people will browse the Web on their phone just like they do on their home PCs, where the value of the Long Tail has been shown repeatedly. This is also exactly why the Web beats all manner of other mobile platforms and our vision of One Web is becoming a reality."

Global highlights from the State of the Mobile Web, August 2008 report:

– In the month of August, Opera Mini was used by approximately 17.3 million users, a 9.1% month-on-month increase from July and more than 357% compared to August, 2007.

– Opera Mini users viewed more than 4.1 billion pages in August. Each person using Opera Mini viewed approximately 242 pages on average. Since July, page views have gone up 11.7%. Since August 2007 this number is up 337%.

In August, 17.3 million Opera Mini users generated more than 60.3 million MB of data for operators worldwide. Since July, the data consumed went up by 12.1%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed 90% on average. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 603 million MB of data in August.

The UK top 10 list also showed very little change since July. Bebo (which was number 8 in May, number 7 in June and number 6 in July) continues to climb in the rankings, pushing Live Search to the number 6 spot.

Top 10 sites in the U.K. (# of unique users)
1) google.com
2) yahoo.com
3) facebook.com
4) bbc.co.uk
5) bebo.com (up from 6)
6) live.com (down from 5)
7) wikipedia.org
8) youtube.com
9) msn.com
10)myspace.com

Data in the report is based on aggregate and anonymous statistics from Opera Mini servers. All percentages are based on a snapshot of the Top 100 sites for each region. Beyond providing a snapshot of worldwide browsing trends, Opera's "State of the Mobile Web" highlights the browsing trends in the ten countries where Opera Mini is most popular: Russia, Indonesia, India, Ukraine, China, South Africa, the United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Germany.

Alcatel-Lucent has announced the launch of the 7705 SAR – Fixed Form Factor (7705 SAR-F) and enhanced operating system software.

The expansion of the 7705 SAR family is claimed to bring significant feature enhancements that respond to operator demand for more bandwidth and scalability at lower operational costs – from core to the cell site.

The 7705 SAR-F enhances a fully managed, complete end-to-end solution for carriers moving from TDM/PDH transport for mobile backhaul to Carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS networks. New features and functionality of the single-rack unit 7705 SAR-F include: cost-effective scaling, resiliency/redundancy covering synchronization, uplinks and power feeds as well as extreme temperature
hardened characteristics (-40degrees C to +65 degrees C).

In addition, the 7705 SAR-F leverages Alcatel-Lucent's SR OS software to support new advanced functionality, provide consistent end-to-end operations and network management. The 7705 SAR-F is available with class leading port density (16 x T1/E1 plus 6x 10/100 and 2 GE ports in 1 RU) and provides strong evolution capability for mobile and wireline operators to migrate to IP/MPLS to support 4G/LTE in the future.

"The one unit aggregation router product category is an important one for
many 3G and 4G operators looking to migrate to IP backhaul," said Patrick
Donegan, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading. "It enables the cost and performance
benefits of IP to be extended out from the core of the network all the way to
the cell site."

Alcatel-Lucent also announced the availability of Release 1.1 of the 7705 SAR family software. Release 1.1 includes an end-to-end synchronous Ethernet capability, which is important as operators make the transition to Ethernet for mobile backhaul in order to fully exploit its cost and bandwidth efficiencies. The synchronous Ethernet features augment a range of end-to-end synchronization techniques with independently validated industry-leading performance. As well, the new release includes High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) offload enhancements which enable cost-effective and flexible offload using GRE (Generic Routing
Encapsulation), to complement existing support for MPLS.

"The announcement reinforces the breadth and depth of the
Alcatel-Lucent portfolio for mobile backhaul," said Stephane Teral, Principal
Analyst, Service Provider VoIP, IMS, and Mobile Infrastructure, Infonetics.
"Solving the synchronous Ethernet is critical for the successful evolution to
Ethernet in mobile backhaul. As HSPA data volumes continue to ramp, the
networking solutions for networking offload should prove attractive as well."

"As mobile operators look beyond 3G to long-term evolution
(LTE) their networks will move to all-IP for its operational and cost
efficiencies. To enable this Alcatel-Lucent is delivering the industry's most
comprehensive and integrated mobile solution, from the IP backbone through to
the cell tower," said Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel-Lucent IP activities.
"The introduction of the new 7705 SAR-F and enhancements to our SAR family
demonstrate our commitment to continuous innovation and technological
leadership in the IP/MPLS market for mobile service providers."

ProRail further invests in its GSM-R telecommunications system ProRail, the Dutch railway infrastructure provider, is upgrading its telecommunications system in conjunction with MobiRail, a joint venture between Nokia Siemens Networks and the Dutch telecom operator KPN.

MobiRail is providing an end-to-end solution for ProRail, incorporating network design, site acquisition, construction works, logistics and project management that will result in a complete network upgrade within three years. The project will ensure a timely upgrade launch of network elements.

The Nokia Siemens Networks GSM-Railway (GSM-R) solution mobilizes and unites digital communications for railways by carrying signaling and operational information directly to train operators, enabling faster speeds and greater traffic density.

"The upgrade of the GSM-R system keeps the network up-to-date and enables ProRail to provide more high quality enhanced railway services. Especially the GPRS upgrade offers new possibilities in using the system," said Henk Dijkstra, GSM-R ProRail manager.

"Nokia Siemens Networks is striving to provide world class GSM-R systems and solutions so as to support secure operations, high quality services and an efficient railway transportation for ProRail," said Paul Broekhuizen, Account Director for Railways at Nokia Siemens Networks in the Netherlands.

ProRail is the only GSM-R license holder in the Netherlands and the present upgrade will prepare it to comply with the continued amendments of the European Integrated Railway Radio Enhanced Network (EIRENE). The network upgrade will enhance the GSM-R network to support new railway services such as Infoplus, the system providing travel information to passengers on railway station platforms, including real-time train schedule information displayed on information screens or announced by means of voice messages.

The upgrade also will cover the GSM-R Operations Support Systems (OSS). As a result, ProRail will commission railway@vantage, now an integral part of the Nokia Siemens Networks GSM-R solution. Nokia Siemens Networks is the world's No. 1 GSM-R vendor by the number of commercial networks and the length of operational lines, with more than 20 GSM-R networks deployed in 15 countries and serving some 50,000 km of railways. In the Netherlands, Nokia Siemens Networks has partnered with KPN to set up the joint venture of MobiRail for the Dutch GSM-R market. The upgrade agreement builds on the cooperation between MobiRail and ProRail that dates back to the year 2000.

Spirent Communications, a global provider of performance analysis solutions, maintains its leadership in Assisted GPS (A-GPS) testing by becoming the first test system vendor to validate all the A-GPS test standards on its UMTS Location Test System (ULTS). Mobile device manufacturers, chipset vendors and mobile operators now are now said to have access to a single test platform that runs all the validated A-GPS test cases required by the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and the PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB).

With all validated A-GPS test cases now available on a single automated test system, Spirent ULTS is claimed to significantly improve device verification, certification and time-to-market cycles. It also limits the need for test engineers to work with multiple test platforms or platform configurations, which can complicate and delay the testing process.

The mobile community relies on A-GPS test standards to certify that mobile devices conform to industry specifications prior to market deployment. With the recent validations of the 3GPP TS 51.010 GSM Signalling Test Cases, Spirent ULTS now supports validated WCDMA and GSM test cases from 3GPP Standards TS 34.171, TS34.123 and TS 51.010, as well as the OMA SUPL V1.0 ETS.

"Our global customer base relies on our expertise to successfully develop and deploy A-GPS solutions. This expertise led to Spirent's involvement in the writing of many of the test cases in the standards bodies," said Richard Catmur, Location Product Segment Manager at Spirent Communications. "Having all current A-GPS test standards validated in a single platform will significantly increase the pace at which our customers can certify their devices."