Set to $25.3bn by 2009 as enterprise discovers real-time‚ efficiency savings   

With a growing awareness of the operational benefits and efficiency savings of real-time data monitoring, wireless telemetry (or AMR – Automated Meter Reading) will lead the evolving growth in M2M markets over the coming 3 years and beyond, according to industry analysts Juniper Research. Accordingly, revenues are set to rise from $11.6bn in 2006 to $25.3bn by 2009, says Juniper.

The substantial rise in revenues – expected to quadruple by 2011 to $40.8bn – will contrast with limited growth in telematics from $6.4bn to $11bn in the same period – owing to current widespread usage in many commercial vehicles due to legislation, says Juniper. Other outlets including security and surveillance, highway and public transport signs, and health care will show encouraging signs rising from a cumulative low of $2bn in 2006 to over $9bn by 2009.

Dr Therese Cory, report author, believes the figures represent a great potential for real-time electronic data to transform enterprise performance and efficiency: “The utility industry is a prime example of how, by networking and remotely monitoring machines, data can be analysed and collective behaviour understood in new ways. For example a real-time unified view of how power is used will help safeguard this increasingly rare resource.  And what can be measured can be controlled, and ultimately optimised.”

To date, however, growth has been restrained. M2M projects are notoriously long-term investments taking years to initiate, due to large budgets, the length of the decision making process, and time needed to put together a custom solution from several supply chain players. Despite these hurdles, Therese insists the signs are positive: “Earlier in 2006 the Italian energy company Enel completed an installation of 30 million AMRs. The cumulative cost of this project up to 2005 was $4.48bn. In the same year, only 6 million meters were providing readings, increasing revenues by $1bn.”

“Similar cost and benefit patterns are expected across the whole of the wireless AMR segment. Certainly, making the business case will become easier as more companies bite the bullet and provide success stories for others to learn from.”

At the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, 12-15 February 2007, 18 of Ireland’s leading telecommunications companies will be showcasing the best of Irish mobile innovation at the Enterprise Ireland pavilion, Hall 1, Stand 1F17.

Ireland is officially one of Europe’s heaviest users of mobile phones with the highest ARPU in Europe of €47.06, compared to the European average of €32.24.  The Irish also have the highest voice minutes usage per month in Europe at 237 minutes per month.

Ireland is widely recognised as a centre of excellence for the development of mobile and wireless technologies.  The exhibiting companies are all at the forefront of their respective industry sectors, in areas ranging from mobile blogging and advanced personalization to dual-mode handsets and multi-party SMS.

As a result of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom, Ireland now has over 70 mobile/wireless technology companies. Supported by the Irish government and government funded research institutions, Irish telecoms companies continue to win substantial deals with tier-one fixed and wireless operators, regional players and cable companies throughout the US, EMEA and Asia-Pac markets.

Enterprise Ireland, will be hosting the following companies at 3GSM 2007:

•    ACCURIS NETWORKS – offer seamless subscriber roaming between existing cellular networks and IP based networks.
(www.accuris-networks.com)

•    ALATTO TECHNOLOGIES – provide value added service solutions for mobile operators including TRIBES, a powerful Google-type facility compatible with all mobile phones.
(www.alatto.com)

•    ANAM – produce innovative messaging solutions to mobile operators which enable the extension of existing revenue streams and the creation of new business models.
(www.anam.com)

•    ARANTECH – supply Customer Experience Management (CEM) systems to communications service providers. Arantech solutions help them to improve revenue, service quality and brand.
(www.arantech.com)

•    ASAVIE TECHNOLOGIES – the developers of AccessMyLan, a hosted VPN service which enables mobile and fixed-line operators to deliver value-added secure remote access solutions to their subscribers.
(www.asavie.com)

•    CAPE Technologies – offer software solutions and advisory services for the global telecommunications and content industries. Its domain expertise is focused on managing the revenue chain in telecom networks.
(www.capetechnologies.com)

•    CHANGINGWORLDS – a provider of intelligent wireless portals and personalization solutions.
(www.changingworlds.com)

•    CICERO NETWORKS – produce voice over wireless IP (wVoIP) solutions which enable service providers to deliver fixed and mobile convergence services to their enterprise and residential customers.
(www.ciceronetworks.com)

•    MACALLA – arrange top-up, bill pay, banking, remittance and other services including cross-border transactions.
(www.macalla.com)

•    MOBILEAWARE – specialise in Mobile Service Infrastructure (MSI), a unified technology framework for creating, delivering and managing mobile business solutions.
(www.mobileaware.com)

•    NEWBAY SOFTWARE – produce products and services which create dynamic communities based on new mobile media technologies.
(www.newbay.com)

•    OPENMIND NETWORKS – develops, deploys, and supports Message – OS, a telco grade messaging platform which provides a unified management, access and control layer for SMS and MMS services in a telecom network.
(www.openmindnetworks.com)

•    SILICON & SOFTWARE SYSTEMS – catering for mobile DTV software solutions. S3’s onHandTV client software manages the reception of TV and data services over broadcast and unicast bearers, delivered to multiple mobile devices.
(www.s3group.com)

•    TANGO TELECOM – supply real-time convergent charging and intelligent messaging software to the global telecommunications market.
(www.tango.ie)

•    TRUST5 – a provider of market-leading mobile portal and content solutions. The company delivers a range of proven and scalable download, entertainment, community and information services.
(www.trust5.com)

•    VALISTA’s market offering targets the growth of digital commerce by offering comprehensive merchandising, payments and settlement solutions and managed services.
(www.valista.com)

•    VIMIO – supply media distribution and content solutions to major Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Vimio offers mobile operators and content providers an end-to-end solution for live TV and multimedia content distribution on one platform over CDMA, GPRS, EDGE and 3G networks.
(www.vimio.com)

•    XIAM TECHNOLOGIES – enables operators to individually market targeted mobile content to subscribers and capitalise on cross-and up-selling opportunities.
(www.xiam.com)

Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government trade and technology board, focuses on developing world-class Irish companies.  All the companies exhibiting at the stand are at the forefront of their respective industry sectors, in areas ranging from advanced personalization, TV to mobile and Voice over Wireless IP.

Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) will be exhibiting its WiMAX devices, demonstrating its WiMAX solutions and unveiling its WiMAX SoC roadmap on Stand 2.1C50, at the 2007 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next month.

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Fujitsu is one of the founding and board members of the WiMAX Forum and will use the event to showcase its highly integrated one-chip MAC and PHY mixed-signal baseband SoC, designed to optimise performance and power consumption using 90nm low-leakage process technology, and well-suited for PC cards and mobile devices.

Visitors to the Fujitsu stand at 3GSM will enjoy the very first public demonstration of its mobile WiMAX SoC targeting WiMAX Forum Wave 2 certification, showing how it is possible to enjoy all the advantages of home broadband, particularly video, via mobile multimedia applications. The demonstration will show how video clips stored in the server are sent as a stream to the PC via the prototype Fujitsu mobile base station with the baseband SoC used in a mobile station.

This mobile WiMAX SoC fully complies with IEEE 802.16e-2005, and incorporates highly integrated, scalable1024 FFT OFDMA PHY and full MAC processors; adaptive modulation schemes including 64QAM, 16QAM, QPSK and BPSK; interface for MIMO RF modules, in a small-footprint FBGA package.

Tektronix, a leading worldwide provider of communications network management and diagnostics solutions, has announced that Othmar Kyas, Director of Strategic Marketing for its Network Diagnostics product line, will deliver a technology breakout panel presentation on Radio Optimization entitled, “Techniques & Tools for Testing and Maximizing the Performance of W-CDMA,” on February 15, 2007 during the 3GSM World Congress, to be held in Barcelona, Spain.

While W-CDMA/UMTS provides an important evolutionary step in 3G mobile communications, it also presents challenges for successful deployment for wireless service providers because of the inherent complexity. Kyas’ presentation will highlight the importance of implementing a proactive test and monitoring strategy to ensure a high quality of service for the network. Kyas will examine how a well-designed test strategy improves overall network operational efficiency and quality – which ultimately leads to satisfied customers.

In addition to delivering his presentation, Kyas has been selected to chair the subsequent panel question and answer session.

Kyas will leverage his more than 18 years of experience in the telecommunications test market and his experiences working with Tektronix’ network diagnostics customers and the company’s Mobile Protocol Test (MPT) solutions. Tektronix’ world-class expertise in protocol analysis and its MPT solutions enable the transition from 2G to 3G and beyond with consistent introduction of first-to-market applications for successful development and deployment of GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA and Mobile Video.

Actimagine, the first company to create a video codec specifically designed and optimized for mobile devices, is to unveil major announcements and demonstrations of its patented Mobiclip technology. This will be a major step forward in its strategy at 3GSM on booth 2G08 Hall 2 – from 12-15 February in Barcelona.

Actimagine will be the first company to demonstrate video content on TV via mobile phone with a quality never reached today, even by video iPods. It is also holding private viewings of the beta version of its breakthrough server-based massive encoding solution. The idea is to offer to content providers, aggregators and sharing sites a solution that will allow them to have their content available for anyone on all kind of mobile devices. Content can be premium content, but also advertising or user generated.

Based on Actimagine’s Mobiclip video codec, which pioneers high-quality content with low CPU-requirements, the encoding solution is fast becoming the de-facto standard for mobile content format. Actimagine will reveal its aggressive plans to embed its technology in all mobile devices though licensing partnerships with manufacturers and its plans to make the technology available under licence to organizations including content distributors, aggregators and sharing sites.

As a member of the ARM Connected Community, Actimagine will also provide demonstrations on ARM’s stand at the show.  To introduce the next step of its strategy, the company has achieved an eight-fold improvement in decompression rate with no increase on CPU requirements.

“In the next 12 months, we will see mobile phones fulfill their potential as ‘video iPods’ and become the ‘third medium’ of entertainment after TV and cinema” says CEO of Actimagine André Pagnac.  “For this to happen and for the market to reach its tipping point, manufacturers must ensure they select the right technologies to make the experience for users as positive as it was always intended to be. That is, users can go anywhere and still have access to all the information and content they want. That’s our ambition!”

Actimagine is exhibiting at 3GSM World Congress (Barcelona) on 12-15 February 2007 on booth 2G08 in Hall 2 and on the ARM booth, 1C01 in Hall 1.

Mobile Cohesion, the UK based telecommunications software company, will be launching HYDRA/LIVE – its unique hosted 3PRM solution – at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona from February 12, 2007.  The company will also be announcing more customer implementations of HYDRA, as well as a HYDRA-based service delivery platform (SDP) at the show.   

HYDRA/LIVE takes key partner relationship management functionality from HYDRA and makes it available to operators who need a hosted ASP application for partner management today. 

Hutch Thailand is already using the HYDRA/LIVE solution to allow it to gain better visibility and control of its growing network of partners. 

Commenting on the announcement, Per Lindblad, Mobile Cohesion’s CEO said: “HYDRA/LIVE is an excellent means for operators that currently have no structured processes for managing content and application partners to hit the ground running with a best of breed solution.  It’s a classic web based solution that replicates many of the tried and tested features of HYDRA.”

He continued, “Let’s face it – many mobile operators today are grappling with issues like provisioning new partner solutions, revenue sharing and a host of other profit and performance issues with the third party partner network.  HYDRA/LIVE provides operators with an easy and proven solution today – with no investment in infrastructure required – that gets them over a massive management hurdle.”

International M2M specialist Telit Communications will unveil a series of innovative products, including a new UMTS/HSDPA module and a CDMA-dualband module at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February 2007. In addition, Telit will showcase a wide range of innovative M2M applications at its stand (Hall 1, 1E44), thereby demonstrating the impact of M2M on a variety of vertical markets.

The new UMTS/HSPDA UC864 module provides high speed connectivity. The module will also be EDGE-compatible. It is maintaining physical compatibility to its GSM/GPRS complementary GC864, which to this day is one of the world´s smallest GSM/GPRS modules. Thus, the UC864 provides an instant upgrade path for applications benefiting from higher data rates. Visitors at 3GSM will have the chance to watch a live demo presentation of the new module at the Telit stand.
 
In addition, the international M2M expert will showcase its new CDMA-dualband module, the CC864-Dual. The CC864-Dual is a CDMA-1XRTT wireless module designed to have same form, fit and function as its GSM/GPRS counterpart product, the GC864. This enables integrators and developers to design their application once and take advantage of the global coverage and service flexibility afforded by the combination of the two most prevalent cellular technologies worldwide. “With these two new modules Telit once again demonstrates its commitment to providing its customers with the most innovative, cost-effective solutions in the M2M market,” stated Dominikus Hierl, President Telit Wireless Solutions.
 
“The key basis for our success in the market is a total commitment to the M2M market, proven by our innovative technological concepts as well as by our services tailored to the demands of the customers,” says Dominikus Hierl. Therefore Telit is calling on the machine-to-machine (M2M) industry to push the market forward by advocating three core values.
 
–         Business scalable – product families that enable integrators to easily move between products without having to redevelop their application in order to address issues such as an increase in mass volume production, which occurs when going from field trials to commercial scale.
–         Ease of integration – product and service offerings that are designed to accelerate the integrator’s time-to-market and improve the overall development experience.
–         Investment protection – products that shield the integrators and M2M adopters from needless revisions of their application due to ever changing requirements on the wireless M2M device by operators, regulatory bodies and other players. As well as products that are designed to bring technology enhancements to the integrators such as higher data rates and new wireless standards while maintaining backward compatibility in form factor and logical interfaces.
 
“Telit looks at businesses that adopt wireless M2M to see what makes business sense, and then we apply the right combination of technology, logistics, and support to address those business needs,” adds Alexander Bufalino, VP Global Marketing, Telit Wireless Solutions.
 
Beyond its new modules, Telit will also present a wide range of innovative vertical M2M applications for tracking and tracing, industrial automation, security and telemetry. “All these state-of-the-art applications will demonstrate the benefit of M2M technology for daily life”, said Felix Marchal, VP Global Sales, Telit Wireless Solutions. “They will also outline what the near future could look like.”

The next in the series of Radio Frequency Systems’ ‘WiMAX-ready’ adaptive antenna systems – a truly global wideband suite – will  be unveiled at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 exhibition in Barcelona. The  new global W4AxxW antenna solution is part of RFS’s broad and growing suite of IEEE 802.16 worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) – compliant solution set – a set which will include: antennas, RF conditioning solutions, and ‘WiMAX-ready’ in-building solutions.

RFS’s new wideband W4AxxW solution set streamlines and simplifies global WiMAX deployment strategies. Comprising just two models–the W4A25W-90ANV (2.3 to 2.7GHz) and the W4A35W-90ANV (3.3 to 3.8GHz)–the new wideband antenna series supports the widest range of sub-bands currently allocated for WiMAX applications across Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region. Achieving global reach with just two models, the new RFS W4AxxW dramatically cuts inventory requirements and costs, and improves deployment efficiencies.

Purpose-built to meet the exacting needs of emerging WiMAX broadband wireless data networks, RFS’s new wideband W4AxxW series antenna system features precision beam-pattern shaping. The wideband W4AxxW series antenna system provides network managers with a powerful tool to ensure optimal data throughput and a reduction in overall cell-to-cell interference across the WiMAX network.

The RFS WiMAX exhibit at 3GSM World Congress 2007 will also include a sneak preview of its ‘in-development’ WiMAX remote radio head (RRH). Designed to provide transmit output power of 4 watts per channel, the new unit boasts one of the industry’s lightest and most compact form factors. With a total package volume of just 10 litres and weighing only 10kg, the new RFS WiMAX RRH can be either pole-mounted at the tower top, or wall-mounted at tower base.

Based on an open industry standard, the RFS WiMAX RRH will offer premium performance, compact size and reliability. The new RRH is expected to be commercially available at end-2007/early-2008.

RFS will also unveil a new end-to-end solution set that allows remote control and monitoring of tower-top RF components. Fully compliant with the latest revision of the open communications standard of the Antenna Interface Standards Group (AISG), the new RFS suite empowers carriers to cost-effectively optimise their networks in real-time.

The new RFS AISG version 2-compliant product suite frees the end-user from the inherent restrictions associated with proprietary control and monitoring systems, ensuring fast-track network retrofits and greenfield deployments. The solution makes it possible for carriers to control and monitor tower-top components either locally (from the tower base), or remotely from the network’s operations and maintenance centre (OMC).

A true end-to-end 3G solution, RFS’s new AISG version 2-compliant product suite comprises all key antenna line elements–the control network interface (CNI), a selection of tower-mount amplifiers (TMA), an antenna control unit (ACU) and a modem bias-tee. “The day-to-day, hour-to-hour–and even minute-to-minute–network RF monitoring and optimisation that the RFS AISGv2-compliant solution provides is essential in today’s competitive wireless world,” said David Kiesling, RFS Global Product Manager Wireless Infrastructure Solutions. “This is particularly crucial in advanced broadband wireless data solutions, along with mature 2G networks.”

The new RFS AISG version 2-compliant solution set includes RFS’s innovative Network Element Manager (NEM) software – considered to be one of the most intuitive and user-friendly software interface for an AISG version 2 solution set.

Trust5, a leading supplier of mobile portal and mobile data solutions, will officially launch its MIME service (Mobile Internet Made Easy) at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on 12 February 2007. Leveraging Trust5’s extensive experience in the mobile content and portal market, the MIME service enables end-users to quickly and easily discover mobile relevant content and information.

Supporting all major manufacturers, devices and content types, MIME has been designed as an independent portal that provides a simple and easy to use mobile search service. Users can access a directory of sites or content download services using a single input box. The directory and search functions are supported by a database of third-party mobile optimised sites that are crawled by the MIME service.
Displayed results will provide users with a list of related sites that have been profiled by the MIME search engine. While this replicates the service delivered by a traditional internet search engine, it is enhanced by an integrated content download search that returns device-profiled results. As the name suggests, the service has been designed to make the mobile Internet easy for customers to access and use.
MIME will be launched at the Enterprise Ireland Pavilion located in Hall 1, Stand 1F17.

Valista, a leading independent provider of merchandising, payments and settlement solutions, has announced that more than one million transactions per day are now being processed through its Valista Plus solutions suite. The milestone represents a 25% increase on last year. The company makes the announcement as it prepares to showcase the solution at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona.

The Valista Plus suite of solutions and services supports the end-to-end business processes in the digital commerce value chain. These include multi-channel ordering, merchandising, authentication, payments, settlement, delivery, and post-purchase care. All Valista‘s solutions support multiple access channels and payment models including integration with billing and prepay systems, credit card and banking networks, stored value, person-to-person (P2P), proximity payments and loyalty schemes. Valista solutions are available as licensed software or as a managed service.

One of Valista’s most successful customers is w-HA, a subsidiary of France Telecom.  Using Valista’s payment infrastructure (PaymentsPlus), w-HA records an average of 450,000 transactions per day. In partnership with Valista, w-HA operates the first interoperable, multi-carrier, multi-channel and multi-currency internet and mobile payments community. w-HA hopes to commercialise its payments service globally to internet and mobile operators, merchants and retailers, using Valista’s technology. w-HA’s international payments network is experiencing significant growth, with over 1500 participating digital and real goods merchants, mobile operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The number of active users purchasing digital goods and services on w-HA’s network has increased to more than 13.5 million. 
 
According to Raomal Perera, CEO, Valista; “The fact that our customers collectively achieved record transaction volumes in 2006 is leading companies to us to learn how they can replicate this success. We are seeing increasing demand for intelligence in this niche area, which is not currently addressed by other companies in our field.”

Valista Plus will be showcased at Enterprise Ireland Pavilion, Hall 1, Stand 1F17 at 3GSM Barcelona (12-15 February).