Subscribers to the nation's largest cell phone carrier have something to crow about: Cingular has a great range of innovative phones. From simple voice phones to smartphones, the big GSM carrier has all the bases covered.
Some even take advantage of Cingular's EDGE network, the closest thing to a truly nationwide cellular high-speed data network available today. While its speeds may feel more like dial-up than broadband at times, you can't beat EDGE's availability—you can access the Internet from almost anywhere you can get a Cingular cell-phone signal.
Another cool thing about the carrier is that you can also take unlocked foreign phones and activate them on Cingular's network, for a truly exotic experience. Here are some of our favorite handsets from the carrier with the big orange logo.
Nokia 3220 Teens will love the flashing disco lights and spastic vibration of this rugged phone, which lets them SMS and instant message to their hearts' delight. And it can take some hard falls without damage.
Motorola V551 A best-seller for a reason, this midrange phone is all-around great, with a stylish body, a good keypad, a bright screen and even Bluetooth for wireless headsets and file transfer.
Motorola RAZR V3 Coming in silver, black, and soon pink, the RAZR defines high style in cell phones. Even the upcoming Motorola SLVR and PEBL won't detract from its sharp sheen.
Nokia 6682 The latest Nokia smartphone is, first and foremost, a phone. It also packs in a 1.3-megapixel camera and the ability to run thousands of third-party Symbian applications.
Audiovox SMT 5600 For almost year now, the SMT 5600 has wowed us with Microsoft Smartphone power in a tiny little body. It syncs with PCs like a champ and even plays TivoToGo television on its small-yet-big screen. It's amazing nobody else has duplicated its successes.

By Robert Poe

 

In-flight Internet access is finally here, but the big question is whether it will go the way of in-flight phone calls--straight into the ground--by pricing itself out of the market.
The very idea of Wi-Fi on airplanes has generated plenty of buzz, not least from business executives keen to be up-to-date on their emails during tong-haul flights. On the other hand, the same executives have been able to keep in touch via onboard satellite phones for years, yet the service never really caught on.
Most observers blame the failure of airborne voice service on the cost of calls, typically something like $3.99 per minute. And rates remained high despite the fact that there was originally at least some competition, though most of that has disappeared.
As such, competition is the best hope for keeping in-flight broadband prices down and the service viable.
Perhaps the most productive competition will be between satellite-based and direct-to-ground broadband services. Each has significant costs that, as with in-flight phone service, will tend to keep prices high unless competitive pressures force them down.
For example, satellite-based services, such as Boeing's Connexion, require each aircraft to have things like a data transceiver/router, satellite antenna, and several 802.11b access points, and also have the recurring charge of satellite time. Direct-to-ground broadband will require both on-board equipment and specialized ground equipment, such as broadband-capable cellular base stations with "upward-looking" sectors.
It's unclear who would win any speed competition. Connexion currently offers download or "onboard" data speeds of 5 Mbps per aircraft, to be shared among all in-flight users, with "offboard" speeds of 1 Mbps. The system can boost onboard links to 20 Mbps when demand warrants it.
The data speed of direct-to-ground technology remain to be determined, but will presumably be adequate for most users. A more important difference is that Connexion is available over oceans, which means it will compete with direct-to-ground services only on domestic routes.
Whatever the competition and availability, prices will definitely have to come down for in-flight Internet to be a big success, according to Meta Group analyst Peter Firstbrook. Connexion, which is available on airlines including All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines, charges fiat-rate fees from $14.95 on short flights to $29.95 for long flights.
That's a lot better than what in-flight phone calls cost, but Firstbrook believes it's still too high to make a mass market. "It would have to be similar to the Wi-Fi I can get in airports and hotels," he says. "I think people would be willing to pay from $10 to $20 for 24 hours access."
Theoretically the integration of Connexion into Internet roaming services could make it more palatable for users paying for roaming services that include Wi-Fi. BT Infonet, for example, officially added Connexion to its MobileXpress mobile data service last month. However, MobileXpress users are still billed the full $29.95 for long-haul flights for using Connexion in addition to their usual MobileXpress fee, although Marc Patterson, vice president and general manager of Mobile Data Services for BT Infonet, says the value lies in both the in-flight coverage and the "consistent, familiar login experience" for MobileXpress users.
Intensifying the challenge is the fact that the travelers most likely to use the Internet on the ground may not actually need to do so during their flights. Notes Garner analyst Rachna Ahlawat, "Right now most business travelers use that time quite efficiently."

By Amanda C. Kooser

 

WHENEVER YOU SEE A movie from the late '80s or early '90s, something always stands out: The cell phones are gigantic. Compare one of those toaster-size devices to the svelte flip phone that's in your pocket, and you're amazed at how far they've come.
Today, we have cameras, PDA hybrids, extensive phone books, internet access, ring tones that sound like songs on the radio, and entertainment applications all built into our cell phones. So what will the future of mobile phones bring? Rather than trying to figure out what phones will look like in a decade (they'll probably be implantable), we wanted to take a peck into the next few years.
By the time you're ready to upgrade your current phone, the capabilities could be very different. One thing holding back the hardware is the limitation of current batteries. Battery technology just doesn't move that fast. Expect slow capacity gains, but also expect to keep a charger handy as more and more power-hungry features are built in.
A couple of years ago, everybody was breathless at the thought of 3G broadband services coming to U.S. cell phones. So far, 3G isn't coming down like a tidal wave so much as a trickle. But the good news is that it's finally arriving. Early adopters take note: Major cities like Dallas, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle will be the first to benefit
AT&T Wireless' service allows data transfer at speeds of about 320Kbps with streaming video and audio available. Verizon Wireless' network, currently running in San Diego and Washington, DC, goes up to 500Kbps. Look for Nextel and Sprint to make progress on their versions before year's end. Entrepreneurs in smaller markets will have to wait a bit for services to become available.
Peter Skarzynski, senior vice president of wireless terminals at Samsung Telecommunications America, points to KOrea as an example of where cell phone services in the United States will eventually end up, albeit a few years behind. "Next year, you'll start seeing things [in Korea] like video on demand, and things like m-commerce [mobile commerce] the year after," he explains. Megapixel camera-phones are new on the U.S. market, and 2- and 3-megapixel versions are on the horizon. Videophones will become increasingly popular as services such as news feeds catch up. Skarzynski expects wide-based broadband to be a reality by the 2006-07 time frame. Then you can start thinking about videoconferencing on your cell phone.
Location-based services are another matter. With E911 requirements being met and GPS services hitting the mainstream, getting directions or even location-based marketing offers could become commonplace. But, once again, don't hold your breath. The phones will be ready before the services themselves are. "There are lots of capabilities in our phones still to be tapped," says Skarzynski.
Work is underway to meld two of the most popular wireless technologies: cell phones and Wi-Fi. Currently, the carriers are trying to figure out how to handle the handoff between the two to allow for a seamless experience. The phone hardware will be out widely in the first part of 2005, with manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, NEC, Nokia and Samsung all onboard. For businesses equipped with Wi-Fi and VoIP, this could be a big step to reducing phone bills. Imagine walking into your office and having your mobile phone automatically switch your call over to your VoIP network.
But the news on the mobile phone front isn't exactly all sweetness and light. Viruses and worms are setting off warning buzzers across the industry. Though they are concerns, most users don't need to worry much, says Muzib Khan, vice president of product management and engineering wireless terminals division with Samsung Telecommunications America in Richardson, Texas. "You could cause trouble by buying or downloading uncertified applications," he says. Entrepreneurs need to stay on top of security issues in much the same way they take steps to protect desktop computers with anti-virus software, firewalls and employee training. The same will apply as issues of cell phone spare and telemarketing crop up.
Put it all together, and here's what your future mobile phone might be like: You're out at a coffee-house for lunch, checking your calendar and e-mail while listening to a streaming MP3. An impromptu videoconference call comes in--you work out the details of a sales contract with your mobile sales representative. You then take an old-fashioned telephone call from a client, and it hands you over to your VoIP system as you step back into the office. Expect many challenges as these innovations hit the market over the next few years, but the upshot will be more flexibility for mobile entrepreneurs.

by Jeffrey Rothfeder

Hanaro Telecom is trying to make a living in a risky environment. The eight-year-old Korean-based company recently completed the installation of a 100-city, fiber-optic broadband network on which it hopes to piggyback data, video, voice, internet access, music and, in time, links to wireless systems. It's an exciting agenda, perfectly suited, it would seem, to what everyone says consumers desire: the ubiquitous network, or the proverbial "what I want, when I want it, where I want it."
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
But as eye-opening as Hanaro's business plan is, its perils are impossible to ignore. Even in Korea, Hanaro could be facing a muted reaction to its products and services. Its future may be reminiscent of the past in the U.S. when the Internet and telecommunications bubble burst, leaving companies like Qwest, Global Crossing and even AT & T, among many others, holding expensive, sophisticated networks with no place to plug them in.
After all, with no telephone companies anywhere in the world yet making serious money on their Web-focused offerings, how can anyone predict what consumers will be willing to pay for? "Right now, the DNA of [telecom] carriers is that they are connection providers," Prashant Pathak, a partner at McKinsey, told attendees of the "Wired and Wireless Broadband Network Convergence" panel. "Feed and speed has been their business model. But they have to address supply-side economics; they need a 'customer back' perspective to determine the [products and services] that customers will want. Otherwise, there will be a lot of stranded capacity and capital."
Hanaro's CEO Chang Bun Yoon understood the skepticism, but noted that the world had changed since the spate of high-speed telecom failures. Digital content, capabilities and networks, especially in countries like Korea, have become so much more interoperable through better standards and a keener understanding that isolated islands of technology are of little use. Further, the world is moving closer to an era of true broadband convergence, says Yoon, a time when voice, data, video, audio and computer animation will be tied together through high-speed Internet access.
That, Yoon adds, puts Hanaro in a privileged position. "Operators are searching for new opportunities of growth in convergence," Yoon said. "To a telecom provider, convergence can mean the long-awaited chance to go beyond providing just connections. For instance, convergence meets the consumer in home networks and entertainment content; it meets construction in the smart home; it meets retail and financial services in ecommerce."
The wide gap between Pathak's and Yoon's divergent points of view--chiefly, a challenge to completely rethink the telecom business vs. the notion that if we build a great network, customers will come--was the primary focus of much of the panel discussion.
One concern expressed by some on the panel was whether telephone companies are innovative enough or possess a sufficiently nimble culture to take advantage of the potential technological breakthroughs anticipated from broadband convergence. Indeed, just the possibilities of convergence are beginning to change the business landscape. Incumbent telephone companies like Hanaro, KT (the nation's biggest telecommunications company) and KTF, KT's wireless subsidiary, may not be the ultimate financial beneficiaries of broadband convergence.
Cable TV companies are already making inroads into home broadband networks with modems that allow them to offer Voice over Internet Protocol, ecommerce, portals, music, games and other services via PC or television set. It's likely that these companies will align with cellular providers and notebook makers to offer these same services to people on the go. Intel, for one, is leading the charge for the WiMAX standard, which would deliver top-quality broadband to laptops. And cellular phone, PDA and other small equipment manufacturers are adding functions to their devices that enable them to do everything--viewing as well as producing photographs and videos--that broadband convergence is currently expected to deliver.
With all this activity, and a consumer base that is still inchoate, it's likely that only the most creative companies will draw significant profits from convergence. "Convergence is a whole set of technologies for allowing competition across platforms," said John Davies, Intel vice president for sales and marketing. "It's driving competition across different devices."
But Davies added that he believes that convergence companies are looking at their potential markets too narrowly. He challenged the telephone executives--Hanaro's Yoon and KTF's executive vice president Joo Young Song--to consider going beyond the consumer market. "I think there's opportunity to make businesses and industries more effective using this fabulous infrastructure," Davies said. "What about health care or field service workers? Convergence applications that blend data, audio and video could increase productivity and bring down costs in almost any industry."
That sentiment, though, was dismissed by KTF's Song, who spoke enthusiastically about an agreement between his company and Hyundai to provide advanced global positioning systems in all the Korean automaker's vehicles. "The Korean market is a consumer market," he said. "We have not found a compelling application for business in terms of wireless convergence."
Even if that's true, Pathak said, all the companies now eyeing the broadband convergence arena are going to have to forge partnerships with other businesses. This isn't a go-it-alone technology; convergence by its definition is a collection of multiple technologies and applications. To offer a convergence product, companies will have to meld their areas of expertise. "Convergence will not be company against company but value chain vs. value chain," said Pathak. "It's ecosystem-based competition as opposed to firm-based competition."
An excellent model of that, Pathak said, is the partnership that began in 2002 between Yahoo and SBC to offer Yahoo content and services over SBC's DSL lines. Recently, the companies expanded this joint venture to provide video-on-demand, Internet radio and online photos for home-entertainment devices, such as television sets and stereo equipment. In addition, Yahoo-SBC signed a deal with Cingular Wireless to offer multimedia content to the cellular provider's subscribers. "Companies have to work with companies they didn't have to work with before," Pathak said.
Yong Shu, vice president of Asia Pacific region for Riverstone Networks, which provides network management equipment to carriers, service providers and cable companies, offered a dire warning to companies that don't appreciate the importance of new partnerships. He predicted a period of industry consolidation and pointed to the swallowing of AT & T by Cingular and SBC as an example of how weak companies will fare. "What do you expect? In five years when a customer comes to your shop, what is he going to buy? Will he want 100 Mb/s [broadband service] or Internet TV or certain entertainment applications? [If we don't offer these], we will die."
And, in an unlikely sentiment from a network supplier, Shu added that telecom providers are probably giving too much attention to the network itself. "We focus too much on technologies," Shu said.
That brought a sharp rebuke from Hanaro's Yoon. "If you do not have a strong enough telecom service provider, there is no convergence at all," he said. "So the infrastructure matters. You can't ignore that."
Telephone executives say they're also trying to adjust as the market changes and be there when it finally settles down. "A carrier like us is continuously evolving," said KTF's Song, who demonstrated cell phones that were carrying high-quality broadcasts of Korean soap operas. "We just want to develop a mixture of fixed and wireless convergence to allow the customer to always be connected. Profitability? There is no time-frame for profitability."
Those are the same famous last words uttered during the Internet boom. Broadband convergence, though, is a much bigger market with much higher stakes. This time, the Korean telecom companies hope, the rules are different enough that massive investment without profits is the right strategy--and that they will still be standing when broadband convergence pays off.

The boundary line that formerly distinguished Korea's highly developed broadband and mobile networks is fading. In one direction, broadband connections are becoming mobile with extensive Wi-Fi (e.g., KT's Nespot) and soon WiBro networks (e.g., KT and Hanaro). At the same time, mobile phone technologies are starting to reach broadband-type speeds, as EVDO comes more widely available and as WCDMA services are launched. Convergence is nigh and the new Korean network likely will be one of the first of its kind in the entire world. Convergence will mean that Koreans have seamless access to fast, robust information wherever they happen to be in the country.
The Korean mobile and broadband networks, while both very advanced, have evolved separately and are quite different in their composition, network architecture, and business models. Therefore, it should be no surprise that there is no exact picture of what the future network will look like. The Korean model has had to be dynamic to reflect the merger of two very dynamic Korean telecom sectors. Even the official name of the new network has undergone a series of transformations, currently settling on broadband converged network (BCN).
To fully understand the BCN, it is important to understand where different network elements fall into place in the wider scheme of total connectivity. The BCN is being touted as one massive IP network to which Koreans can connect from a wide range of terminals and from nearly all locations.
For a society to achieve the goal of total connectivity, the network must use many different technologies, some of which are more suited to certain environments than others. In essence, different services and activities optimally are provided by different types of connectivity, and the BCN should leverage each technology's comparative advantage. For example, video streaming of movies to a household is best done over the broadband, wired network while mobile telephony in the subway may be most efficient over the existing mobile networks. The key then is ensuring that each of the disparate networks can communicate with each other and pass traffic among themselves via IP.
Network-specific services (e.g. SMS) should move away from being solely a mobile technology and should be accessible via any IP-enabled terminal. This creates the need for new network architecture. The BCN will demand an entirely different type of network plan that involves building a third type of data service.
In many countries, mobile operators have envisioned being able to encroach on the fixed-line broadband market through their 3G and eventually 4G offerings. Likewise, broadband providers have been eyeing mobile data provision, until now the domain of mobile carriers, by using WLAN technologies such as Wi-Fi.
However, neither broadband nor mobile operators are suited perfectly for offering fast, mobile data. Broadband networks are too stationary since Wi-Fi and other WLAN technologies ranges are short and there is no effective handoff ability. This makes it less effective for use in moving vehicles. Mobile networks, on the other hand, don't have enough bandwidth to offer truly high-speed, broadband-type connectivity, as was highlighted by SK Telecom's experiment with video-on-demand on its CDMA network.
Korea's policy-makers, broadband providers, and mobile operators have come up with a plan to develop a new data network that is more efficient at offering mobile data than either broadband or mobile.
This plan is called WiBro, or "the portable Internet." The portable Internet is a technology that fits well between WLAN and IMT-2000 in terms of mobility and speed. It would offer a 1 Mbps connection to users for a flat monthly fee. The three licensed operators have not said how much they will charge but industry watchers assume the prices will be about US$ 15 per month, for flat-rate access.
The strategies of the three licensed operators for the 2.3 GHz plan vary:
* KT, for example, has already introduced a seamless offering through its Nespot Swing, a bundled package where users can roam between its own Wi-Fi hotspots and its competitors' CDMA2000 1x EVDO networks, when out of Wi-Fi range. WiBro will allow them to take this latter traffic onto their own network;
* The portable Internet promises to further expand SKT's network in a more cost-effective manner than relying on CDMA alone. Because of their limited bandwidth availability, CDMA networks are only cost effective for voice and non data-intensive applications.
* For Hanaro Telecom, WiBro offers a chance to fight back against its loss of market share and traffic to mobile operators, as well as a chance to become a mobile operator itself.
The portable Internet has several advantages over WLAN and IMT-2000 for delivering data. While Wi-Fi is limited to a range of roughly 100 meters, WiBro will be accessible in a 1 km radius around a base station and be accessible at speeds around 60 km/h. WiMAX will be accessible over a much greater range, though probably not from fast-moving vehicles. Mobile carriers are especially interested in portable Internet technologies because of their significant investment in cell towers throughout the country that can be leveraged quickly to offer portable Internet. This upgrade can be effectuated simply by adding a second set of radios on the towers.
Portable Internet technologies, as envisioned, could handle a majority of mobile data traffic while voice calls will be routed over the existing CDMA and W-CDMA networks. This plan leverages the comparative advantages of each technology and allows Koreans an effective way to have fast data access everywhere. However, portable Internet technologies can also accommodate VoIP traffic streams relatively simply, and in this sense would compete more directly with existing mobile networks.
In this sense, the fixed-line operators, like KT and Hanaro, are positioning themselves to offer services, like KT's One-Phone, which provides users with a telephone with a unique number that can be used on both fixed and mobile networks, and will automatically route via whichever link is cheapest for a particular call (e.g., jumping onto a fixed-line network via a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiBro, WiMAX, 3G or 2G interface).
Korean handset manufacturers are also interested in portable Internet technologies as a stimulus for their products. Manufacturers such as Samsung and LG will build multiband phones that work on a variety of networks. Future mobile handsets, like KT's One Phone 26 may have the ability to access the different types of networks: CDMA2000 1X, W-CDMA, Wi-Fi, and portable Internet technologies. Both Samsung and LG make it clear that the technology for building these multifaceted handsets is currently available, but they simply are waiting for word on how the network will evolve before building in portable Internet functionality.
Seoul's DongDaeMun market is a good example of how Koreans function at all hours of the day. The market's busiest hours are between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Restaurants are all open, sidewalks packed, and traffic jams common at 3 a.m. For shoppers, DongDaeMun is a clothing paradise and reflects the constant, always-on attitude of Koreans. Much like the DongDaeMun market, the mobile information society in Korea is always open, always busy, and there is always something to do.
Koreans apply the same vigor of shopping in the middle of the night at DongDaeMoon to the mobile connectivity. Koreans are heavy mobile users with a typical user making 4.1 hours of calls a week, roughly 1,000 minutes a month. In addition, the average mobile user also sends 42 SMS messages a week (6 per day, 168 a month).
People in their 20's make the most phone calls, while teenagers are the heaviest SMS users, far outpacing any other segment of the market. Similarly, Koreans use computers, on average, around 14 hours 36 minutes per week, of which 11 hours 30 minutes (almost 80 percent) is online. Again, it is 20-year-olds that are the most intensive users of both PCs and the Internet. Those in the 30-to 39-year bracket have the greatest offline use of computers while 12- to 19-year-olds seem to be online most of the time that they use the computer.
This high correlation among Korean wired and wireless users highlights the complementary relationship among the two access technologies. Some 93.8 percent of mobile Internet users also use the wired Internet. However, of those that do not use the wireless Internet, only 63.8 percent use the wired Internet such as broadband. This is an important and key aspect for the Korean mobile information society, highlighting the important role that a converged network will play.
A Home Information Gateway?
Korean mobile operators and handset manufacturers envision a society where mobile phones replace keys, wallets, credit cards, as well as function as the control for all the user's appliances. Many of these services are already available in Korea with several mobile operators offering home networking and application control over their 3G networks.
One of the most advanced services is SK Telecom's Nate service that can interact and control networked appliances from afar. Mobile handsets play a vital role in this vision of an intelligent home network. This network will enable a household of appliances to be controlled remotely via a mobile phone or over another IP connected device.
Government Target
The Korean government hopes to have 10 million homes with intelligent networks by the year 2007; roughly 61 percent of all households in the country. MIC has determined that intelligent home networks should play a key role in the government's overall ICT strategy and will target the industry with US$213 million (Won 249.3 billion) of investment from 2004 until 2007.
In addition, the government is assembling a set of initiatives to set the foundation for intelligent networks. These include developing a home network platform that combines communications, broadcast video and gaming. In July 2003, the government started a one-year test project to develop a home network platform based around the Linux operating system. Linux was chosen to avoid the expensive licensing fees of proprietary operating systems. ETRI currently is working on developing the platform and testing it for use.
The Korean government's targeted investment in intelligent home networks will also establish an RFID research center, as well as helping to establish RFID, sensor networks, and the BCN. Korea's telecom manufacturers also are involved in developing intelligent home network systems. Samsung and LG are creating network-ready appliances, along with complementary technologies such as power line communications (PLC) for connecting the appliances to the network, middleware and microchips.
There is immense interest in being able to control all devices in a home via a mobile phone. However, the vision is not clear entirely on how users will make the best use of this networked environment. RFID chips on food packaging in the refrigerator are commonly used as an example. Users would be able to check remotely which foods they were out of via their mobile phone. Other examples have shown that the air conditioning in an apartment could be turned on and off.
The problem with these examples is that while they are both convenient uses, the benefits may not be able to outweigh some of the privacy issues and costs associated with the service. This may delay rollout until a secure network that people trust has evolved; and that may take time.
The story represents an edited and abridged extract of Ubiquitous Network Societies: The Case of Korea. This updated case study has been prepared by Taylor Reynolds, Tim Kelly, and Jeong Jin-Kyu for the Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and we wish to thank ITU for permission to reproduce.
Wireless Subscribers in Korea (000)

 

2004      2005    2006    2007    2008

 

36,300  39,000  41,800  44,700  47,500

 

Source: ITU, TIA, Wilkofsky Gruen Associates

Student unions across the UK are offering a new product for students that combines a flexible broadband contract with free voice calls over the Internet.
The two new packages, Everythingstudent Broadband and Everythingstudent Talk, include broadband Internet access from UK broadband Internet provider, PIPEX, and free calls using Voice over IP (VoIP) from Perfect Branding, from GBP21.99 per month.
Everythingstudent Broadband is available in a variety of speeds, with a 50GB download limit, and offers a reduced fee during the summer months. Everythingstudent Talk is a service, which allows students to call other VoIP users for free via the Internet. In addition, the package from Perfect Branding reportedly offers low cost calls to landline and mobile phones from GBP0.015 a minute and a range of features such as free voicemail, three way calling, SMS call back and a personal telephone number.
Everythingstudent Talk and Everythingstudent Broadband are available now to all students that hold a valid NUS (National Union of Students) Extra or NUS Card.

By Cade Metz

 

For the past hundred years, since radio was invented, scientists have tried to prevent wireless signals from interfering with one another. They want signals to arrive at their destinations separate and undisturbed, not scrambled together.
Yet in a remarkable twist of logic, researchers at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies' research institute, have embraced interference and used it to build a wireless system that's several times as fast as today's cell-phone services. This system, known as Blast, achieves much higher speeds by splitting each call into several different signals, transmitting and receiving with multiple antennas. The signals do interfere, but with its cleverly arranged antennas, the system can recover each signal and deliver an undisturbed call.
"Initially, sending and receiving with multiple antennas sounds like a bandwidth-destroying technology," says Jeff Jaffe, head of Bell Labs. "But the bandwidth actually scales up linearly with the number of antennas."
For years, researchers have struggled to equip notebooks, handhelds, and cell phones with broadband wireless connections. But companies can't just increase the power of each user's signal, because the signals will interfere. "It's the party effect," says Reinaldo Valenzuela, head of the Blast project. "If everybody shouts a little louder, nobody can hear."
Sending multiple signals across the same, limited spectrum seemed equally hopeless. If signals are sent from three transmitters to three receivers, for instance, the signals will scramble together on each receiver. But researchers at Bell Labs noticed that if they placed receivers roughly a wavelength apart, each received a slightly different scramble of data. This simple realization gave rise to Blast, which separates the interfering signals using a special set of algorithms.
The process is a bit like solving multivariable equations in algebra. If you have one equation with three different variables, you can't solve it. If you have three equations with three variables, you can find the value of each variable in a heartbeat. Blast embeds a different marker in each signal sent. Then, by comparing data from each receiver, it picks out these markers—and thus the attached signals—one by one.
Using ten antennas, Blast has achieved 20 to 40 bits per second per hertz, more than 300 times the rate of today's cell-phone connections. Interference is a good thing.

UK telecomms company BT plc has entered into an agreement with mobile phone retailer Phones 4u that will see BT Broadband being sold in Phones 4u retail outlets.
Also as part of the agreement BT Broadband will be made available from the Phones 4u web site at http://www.phones4u.co.uk. The Phones 4u outlets will provide all of the equipment needed for the customer to get online in-store and will supply installation advice as well as information on the benefits of broadband.

By Amanda C. Kooser

 

Now that cellular networks are starting to achieve broadband speeds in major markets, entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the faster data speeds on their mobile phones. But there's no reason you need to be limited to your phone. Why not bring your laptop or PDA to the party? Assorted hardware devices let you capture data over broadband cellular connections.
For example, OmniWav Mobile's MBR-1100 (www. omniwav.com) is an in-vehicle system that lets you connect any Wi-Fi or Ethernet-enabled device to the internet. The vehicle broadband package costs $979, and the data service contract through Verizon Wireless is about $80 for unlimited use. Its range extends up to 300 feet, so you can still get online out side your car. A portable package version is also available so you can connect at your hotel, at a trade show or at a customer's site.
For a less expensive alternative, check out Novatel's Merlin V620 Wireless PC Card Modem (www. novatelwireless.com), which runs about $100 with a service plan. It also works with Verizon's EV-DO network and will keep your laptop connected on the go. Generally, data speeds aren't quite up to your office broadband line, but they're sufficient for use on the road. Check provider websites to see if these services are available in your area yet. As broadband network rollouts continue, expect the number of similar solutions and providers to grow.

An Internet phone service aimed at the increasing number of consumers moving from landline services has been unveiled by Tesco, a supermarket retailer based in the UK.
Around 8.1m households in the UK currently have broadband Internet access and can use Voice over IP (VoIP) to make phone calls online. However VoIP use has to date stayed mainly within the more technically minded computer users and Tesco has developed its service to be more in line with normal telephone use, though the phone is plugged into a computer.
Tesco will allocate a unique phone number to customers which will include an area code but can be taken with the user if they move house. The company claimed that its Internet phone service will focus around value and simplicity and said it expects consumer adoption of Internet calling to increase following the introduction of its service.
Tesco Telecoms will introduce the service in conjunction with Freshtel, an Internet phone company based in Australia.

 

 

By Tim Goral

 

A COALITION OF 14 EDUCATION GROUPS LED by the American Council on Education filed suit in January against the Federal Communications Commission to block new surveillance rules from taking effect. Behind the concern is the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) that requires telecommunications companies to enable wiretaps by law enforcement agencies. Last fall, the FCC amended CALEA to include broadband access and internet phone services--the kind found at colleges and universities.
The Bush administration contends the new capabilities will help fight terrorism, yet others worry about privacy violations--not to mention the expense of complying with the rules.
"If CALEA requires the replacement of a substantial portion of network equipment, the cost to the entire higher education community could total billions of dollars," the brief reads. Citing the careful long-range planning that goes into technology expenditures, ACE--along with the Association of American Universities, the American Association of Community Colleges, and others--maintains that the compliance target of spring 2007 would require funding to be diverted from other programs, resulting in possible course eliminations and tuition increases.
While economics are at the forefront of the controversy, the suit also speaks to concerns about growing government intrusions on privacy and free speech. Many believe the government's actions cast a pall over constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the National Security Agency, also in January, to stop illegal domestic surveillance. The ACLU was joined by educators who claim the program intercepts vast quantities of international telephone and internet communications by innocent Americans without court approval.
One of the participants in the suit told University Business that colleges and universities should be deeply concerned about the effect of the government's actions on academic freedom. "Professors and students can get caught up in the net of warrantless intercepts of phone and e-mail communications, and this could compromise confidential interviews they may be conducting on sensitive matters," notes Larry Diamond, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "The problem is potentially very serious for political science research but could also affect research in a wide range of other disciplines, including history, sociology, anthropology, and religious studies. Keep in mind that the people we are in touch with or whose interviews we are internally communicating about need not be terrorists. If they have been in touch with people who have been in touch with people who are suspected of being terrorists, then, according to what has been reported about this warrantless surveillance program, these innocent people, by two or three degrees of separation, may still be monitored, and so may the researchers who are in communication with them or who are writing back to their professors about them."
Left unchecked, he says, "I think it is likely that over time the power of the government to monitor what we do will expand, and academic freedom will likely shrink in proportion to it."

 

 

By Craig Ellison

 

In an announcement that's sure to send ripples through the consumer Voice over IP (VoIP) market, America Online announced April 7th the rollout and availability of AOL Internet Phone Service in 40 markets across the United States. Additional cities will be added in coming months.
The new offering appears to be similar to other consumer VoIP services offered by providers such as AT&T (CallVantage), Verizon (Voice Wing), Vonage, and others. (For more on these VoIP providers, see our "Talk Is Cheaper" roundup). AOL's position as one of the nation's largest ISPs and a major content provider affords it a unique opportunity to bundle its VoIP offering with the company's other services.
For new AOL customers with their own broadband connection, AOL's introductory offer of $29.95/month includes unlimited local and long distance calling within the U.S. and Canada plus unlimited access to AOL's services. At the end of six months, the price increases to $39.99 per month.
Current AOL members can choose from one of three plans. Introductory pricing starts as low as $13.99/month for unlimited local and regional calling plus $0.04/minute for long distance
There is a one time charge of $5.00 for the terminal adapter, plus an additional $9.95 for shipping and handling. There is no activation fee, but there is an early cancellation fee of $50.00 if the service is terminated by a subscriber within the first six months.
AOL's offering includes unified voice, e-mail and instant messaging. You can manage and retrieve voice mail and e-mail messages using either a standard touchtone telephone or via an Internet-connected computer. You can also respond to e-mail via telephone. In doing so, your response is recorded and sent to the message originator as an attached .WAV file.
Though the initial rollout offers an impressive amount of messaging integration, the service does lack some features offered by competing VoIP service providers, such as virtual numbers and 800 services. But it's a competitive market. Look for AOL to plug the missing holes in its feature set fairly quickly.
In some areas AOL will be offering Time Warner's Digital Phone service as an alternative. Visit aol.com for more information on this and other aspects of the service.

 

European Telephony over Internet Protocol (ToIP) provider Annatel Networks has announced the launch of its Internet phone service in the UK.
Annatel said that companies in the financial and production industries are coming around to the benefits of ToIP, and are gradually combining their IT and telephone links to cut costs. The company's new service is accessed through the use of an ANNABOX box between the router and telephone connection on a network, and also through the use of ANNASOFT software that allows phone calls to be made through computers.
Annatel's ToIP services are available in various packages starting at EUR9.90 per month, excluding tax.

UK wireless broadband company Broadreach Networks and IP telephony company Skype have announced that they are offering users the chance to make free calls over the Internet via any of Broadreach's 350 Wi-Fi hotspots around the UK.
The companies said that all users will need is to download a free Skype account, and they will then be able to make free Internet calls via Wi-Fi to other Skype account holders. Users can also call landlines and mobiles for a fee. The system - called Skype Out - has 28m users worldwide, and has so far attracted 940,000 UK users.
Skype said that it is planning to launch other pay services including voice mail, video conferencing, and Skype In - which would allow users to receive calls from mobiles and landlines. A spokesperson for Broadreach said that it is delighted to be offering Skype users free access through its hotspots, reports the BBC.

If you're a Skype user, you know how annoying it can be to fumble around for your headset when you receive an incoming Skype call. The Internet Phone Wizard from Actiontec solves this problem. At just under $70, this small (1.1 by 4.6 by 3.4 inches, HWD) USB-powered appliance lets you connect an analog phone to your computer as another means of interfacing with Skype. At the same time, you can also have a traditional analog phone line connected to the device so you can make and take regular landline calls on it as well. There is a USB port on the back of the appliance for connecting to the Skype client on the PC, as well as two analog phone ports (one for your phone line and the other for attaching the phone).
The Internet Phone Wizard installs as a USB audio device under Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Installation requires running the included CD and takes only a couple of minutes. A small program links the device to the Skype client program on your PC so they can communicate. You have the choice of using the Skype client as you normally would, or you can simply initiate calls the old-fashioned way, with the telephone.
When you receive an incoming call, the phone rings and two indicator lights on the front panel show you whether you're receiving an "Internet" call (Skype) or a "Regular" call. The device allows you to switch between the two types of calls by hitting the pound key twice on the touch-tone keypad of the attached phone. You can easily assign a speed-dial number to your Skype contacts within the PC interface, making it simple to dial them directly from the telephone keypad
We made several free Skype-to-Skype calls from New York to California, as well as a call from New York to Japan using the Internet Phone Wizard. The parties called said our call quality was indistinguishable from a conventional landline call. Calls to non-Skype members require users to sign up for the Skype Out service. You would then purchase credits using a credit card. Pricing is done in Euros and the current minimum is 10 Euros, or approximately $13.30. Skype Out calls within the U.S. and to the U.K. and most of Western Europe cost $0.022/minute. Skype Out calls to Japan cost $0.0245/minute. Of course, when calling European cell phones, the caller pays for the cellular air time (unlike in the U.S., where the recipient pays). For example, calls to a U.K. cell phone cost $0.262/minute—quite a difference from the land-line rate. A complete listing of international call rates is available on Skype's Web site.
The Internet Phone Wizard provides Skype users the convenience of answering calls on a traditional phone. And if you're feeling adventurous, you can hook it up to a cordless-phone base station and use your landline phone and Skype service anywhere in your house.

SK Telecom Co, South Korea's biggest mobile phone operator, said Wednesday it has launched a new version of cell phone Internet service as part of its efforts to find a new growth area in the nation's saturated market.
The new wireless Internet service, which is based on an interactive user interface in the mobile phone's window, include a personalized digital character, short text messaging and personalized programs that let users to know about 10 kinds of information such as news, weather, television programs and movies, SK Telecom said. The new service allows users to talk to or manage their personalized digital characters on the handset screens.
"As the mobile phone use environment becomes more sophisticated and diversified, customers increasingly want to quickly and accurately find needed information via mobile phones," said Yoon Song-yee, senior vice president of SK Telecom.
The new service requires customers to buy new handsets and pay additional fees, with a monthly subscription charge of 1,200 won
So far, three such handsets made by LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. are available on the market, SK Telecom said.
SK Telecom is trying to persuade customers to spend more on wireless Internet to diversify its revenue sources. SK Telecom controls more than half of South Korea's mobile market with 19 million subscribers. Around 39 million people, or 78 percent of the country's population, subscribe to mobile phone services in South Korea as of the end of March.

DRIVING ONLINE shoppers to your website isn't always best; your company might connect better with prospects over the phone. Instead of paying for ads or clicks, you can now buy one-on-one conversations.
Through pay-per-call advertising you can promote a phone number instead of, or in addition to, your URL. Many people would skip surfing your website to buy right now. A flat tire, a toothache or a lost cell phone needs immediate resolution. People pressured for time could be searching the web impatiently for a restaurant or a florist. An ad displaying a phone number is a shining beacon.
FindWhat.com and Citysearch (www.citysearch.com) are leading the way with internet pay-per-call advertising. FindWhat.com advertisers can choose up to five keyword categories and one geo-targeting option: national, regional, state, city or ZIP code. It costs $10 per year for the listing, a minimum per-call bid price of $2, plus 10 cents per minute for calls over 10 minutes. There's a bid price because, just as with its pay-per-click program, FindWhat.com advertisers outbid each other to secure better listing positions.
Citysearch charges a flat fee of $2 to $12 per call received, depending on the category. Advertisers can choose an unlimited number of categories and either a national or local campaign. The listing positions are ranked based on several factors, such as the advertisers' distance to city or ZIP code searches done by users.
When pay-per-call prices are the same as pay-per-click prices for competitive keywords, calls are actually cheaper because a call is a lead while a click is just traffic. But don't open your phone lines until you can make each call count. Train your phone personnel to complete specific actions, such as collecting contact information, processing orders, upselling orders or cross-selling related items, and offering freebies to nonbuyers. Pay-per-call isn't just about getting the immediate sale. Use it to increase your per-order revenue and grow your lead database.
58% of internet users have deleted cookies--files used to track user web traffic;
39% delete them monthly.

VoIP: Note to IP telephony solution providers: if you want to play in VoIP, make sure your equipment is compatible to corporate environments.
That was the message from a YankeeBrandMonitor study on IP telephony, released last month. Attributes such as stability, reliability and quality outweighed "future" benefits, such as being a technology leader and innovator, according to buyers surveyed.
The study ranked Cisco Systems and IBM as the top two suppliers of IP telephony equipment in terms of deployment preference by buyers in the next two years, though Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group enterprise infrastructure vice president, noted that the market is still in the early-adopter phase, and "there are many other solutions providers nipping at their heels."

Despite a slow-down in growth in 2003 (just 23% compared to 80% in 2002), VoIP traffic in now growing at twice the rate of traditional switched voice and accounts for 11% of international calls. Growth in 2004 was forecast at 40%. According to TeleGeography, global voice traffic reached nearly 200 billion minutes in 2003, 22 billion of which was carried over the Internet. The impact of VoIP technology is greatest on routes into developing markets, where high settlement costs make VoIP a worthwhile alternative. For example, VoIP traffic to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh more than doubled in 2003. In markets like these, VoIP can account for a quarter or more of incoming calls.

Tektronix is looking to cover all of the bases for VoIP and converged network testing with its Spectra2 large-scale load solution. Users can now perform both sophisticated signaling and high-speed media generation from one system using Spectra2 version 4.0 software and Tektronix Wideband Trunking Interface processing cards. This solution delivers up to six Ethernet, STM-1 or OC-3 interfaces in a single Spectra2 server. Calls can be established with protocols such as SIP, H.323, MGCP and Megaco as well as traditional telephony protocols including SS7 ISUP. Media traffic can be generated across RTP (real time transfer protocol) and TDM voice paths simultaneously to test key network elements such as media gateways. Spectra2 also provides a voice quality analysis tool for TDM and IP networks in one integrated system.
A Spectra2 equipped with a WTI OC-3 board and Spectra2 version 4.0 can generate 2,016 simultaneous calls with media per board, scaling up to six boards for a total of 12,096 timeslots per system. The WTI TRP board delivers 2,000 simultaneous calls with RTP streams per board for a total of 12,000 RTP streams on systems equipped with six boards. Spectra2 version 4.0 can also support 126,000 calls per hour with voice quality analysis (PESQ).

PIPEX is launching VoIP for Business, bringing together a Firewall/Router/Modem device from Virtual Access and broadband telephony from Inclarity. Customers can make free calls between extensions and to 01 and 02 numbers for less than 1p per minute.
Users can access the Internet and make telephone calls simultaneously, without losing voice quality or being exposed to hackers. Voice quality is preserved by reserving bandwidth thus preventing 'clipping' during data downloads. Five simultaneous calls should be possible over a single 512K ADSL connection.
"Of all the features, the most valuable is the ability to manage the Virtual PBX over the Phone Manager web interface," said Pipex CEO Mike Read. "Users go to a secure web page and easily configure the phone to their requirements."

VOIP: The start of the new year means a raft of predictions for telecoms in 2005. One of the more commonly cited trends for the year will be the further development of VoIP, especially in light of the recent rise of local IP telephony services launched over broadband networks, and the emergence of Skype.
Not surprisingly, VoIP guru Jeff Pulver has his own list of predictions for VoIP this year. Some of the choice ones of regional interest include:
* The restart of VoIP IPOs, and the burnout of some VoIP startups "due to lack of marketing funds and customer base and vision"
* Still more major carrier VoIP announcements
* More government scrutiny around the world on VoIP regulation
* Increasing wireless substitution
* Continuing implementation of ENUM (electronic numbering)
* The first dual/multi-mode phones capable of switching from Wi-Fi to cellular.

Hutchison Global Communications and Skype partner to offer a VoIP service in Hong Kong through a co-branded HGC-Skype portal, which is scheduled to be in service this month.

VOIP: More rumors have been surfacing about Google getting into the VoIP business. And while Google is still officially keeping its mouth shut, another analyst has given the concept of GoogleVoIP a thumbs-up.
Ovum chief analyst Julian Hewett said a VoIP play would be "an obvious development for the world's leading search engine." Millions have downloaded the Google toolbar, Hewitt says, so why not a VoIP client?
The appeal for Google is just as obvious, he notes. "Search for something, then 'click here' if you'd like to speak to the company that's selling what you're looking for. Google then collects a fee from the 'sponsor' for each voice connection."

By Henrik Lilja

 

The traditional view of VoIP is that it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, as a 'disruptive' technology, it constitutes a major threat to incumbent fixed-line telecos; on the other, it creates business opportunities for new entrants.
Take ISPs. For them, VoIP clearly represents a vehicle that will allow them to enter a new market territory. Unlike basic internet access services, which are often offered on flat-rate basis, voice is--potentially--a significant new revenue stream. By contrast, traditional fixed-line telcos have seen, during the last decade, the cannibalisation of their business by wireless operators. VoIP now appears to be the next major threat to their business.
That said, VoIP could turn out to be an opportunity for even the traditional telcos. Technological convergence of voice and data onto one platform is fuelling customer expectation and demand for converged services; that suggest that service providers cannot maintain their business by offering standalone voice and internet access services.
However, the major challenge for service providers is to constantly maintain an attractive service portfolio consisting of a mix of voice and data services with high quality and availability. We outline seven critical steps in building a successful VoIP-based business. Each step is inspired by experience and practices from mobile network operators where the strive for a good voice service quality is a constant battle and where, at the same time, major parts of future revenue growth is expected to come from other related services using the latest 2.5/3G technology.
Step 1: integrated customer-service-network
Any successful business builds on an integrated understanding of: customer needs and behaviour; product usage and attractiveness; and utilisation and status of internal production resources. VoIP service providers can gain significant competitive advantage by gathering an integrated customer-service-network view. A clear understanding of the linkages between these three aspects will allow the service provider to optimise the internal operation, network resources and the service portfolio to meet the customers' demand.
Reliable access to data and performance metrics, combined with powerful tools that make the information available to different parts of the service provider's organisation, is the cornerstone to build this integrated business view that is central for the overall business success.
Step 2: attention on perceived voice quality
The only way to gain a detailed knowledge about the correlation between voice service quality and network behaviour is to constantly track both network and service behaviour. The fluctuating behaviour over time of IP networks means that nothing less than continuous monitoring and analysis of voice service metrics and network performance metrics can ensure a full understanding of the network's ability to deliver a toll level of service quality.
Voice quality monitoring addresses parameters such as: listening quality (ie, speech clarity in one direction); side tone quality (ie, the ability of the terminal equipment to give a suitable side tone without echo); and conversational quality (ie, how well duplex interaction between the parties works). The overall voice quality is the sum of the above.
These parameters are quantified using mean opinion scores (MOS), originally by using a number of test persons or using automated test procedures delivering a high degree of accuracy independent of language, age and gender. MOS scores range from 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent) with 'toll quality' PSTN telephony lying in the range of 4.0-4.5 and GSM telephony under good conditions around 3.6.
MOS can now be obtained non-obtrusively for every call in a network. Applications facilitating an overlaying of this information on the whole network and using it together with other key metrics under the next step give the network operator the necessary visibility to manage the VoIP network.
Step 3: new IP performance metrics
The circuit switched world is already familiar with service-centric metrics based on signaling analysis. The most important metrics are call set-up time (CST), network efficiency ratio (NER) and successful call completion ratio (SCCR). NER, CST and SCCR are widely used in service level agreements because they provide a good reflection of user perception. The system monitoring the network--and which also generates and stores these performance metrics--must be flexible enough to provide a complete view of the whole network or for any desired sub-network. It must also be possible to view the performance metrics per customer or customer group, ie, SLA reporting. These signaling based metrics combined with perceived voice quality (MOS) will serve well as the key performance metrics both for SLAs as well as for network monitoring and dimensioning in VoIP networks.
Step 4: integrated monitoring
The newer generations of SIP terminals include native support for reporting of signaling and VoIP metrics (including CST, CSR and MOS) and errors to the service provider (RTCP-RFC.3611). This allows the service provider to complement the monitoring of the core network with information automatically uploaded from the end-user terminals. Thus a system capable of automatically correlating the end-terminal data with relevant network data can immediately report any equipment failure or drop in service quality to service provider. The passive monitoring of the end-user terminals can successfully be complemented by active test solutions that continuously validate the service quality and availability based on pre-defined service scenarios.
Step 5: active use of internal/external SLAs
No chain is stronger than the weakest link. This means that customer perceived service quality is dependent on the performance of all network segments in the service providers' network and interconnect partners. Constant monitoring of QoS and network performance is not only vital to follow up on SLAs, but standardised performance and SLA reports will be the foundation for service providers to determine new internal service goals and to negotiate favorable agreements with interconnect partners.
Step 6: differentiate your service offering
To combat falling ARPU and achieve competitive advantages, service providers should explore new integrated voice and data services. Unified messaging services and various types of instant messaging are just two service examples of converged services that have reached wide adoption. Further, penetration by these services combined with the introduction of new services will ensure high customer satisfaction.
The introduction of new services also poses new challenges. Over time users become dependent of particular services, and users expect services to work every-time and everywhere. The diversity in the service offering unfortunately implies diversity in platforms and solutions. This leads to complex architectures as both direct and indirect service dependences. It is therefore essential to be able to efficiently monitor the service behavior and utilization, and if required troubleshoot sessions across different technology domains.
Step 7: automate fraud and spam detection
A network-wide monitoring system providing a continuous stream of data in real time can provide all the information required to detect unwanted behaviors. 'Fingerprinting' the network by checking network load, authentication profiles and the type of traffic distribution profile over a 24-hour period provides a big picture of normal network behavior. Unwanted behaviors, such as spam and fraud, can then be detected by monitoring network behavior in relation to the normal 'fingerprint'. An automated system for detection and alarming in case of deviating traffic patterns can very well prove to be on of the best investments a network operator can make.
A new mindset is required
It is important not to treat VoIP as just another technology upgrade for the specialists to worry about. The VoIP revolution should encompass the whole organisation within the network operator or ISP. Use valuable experience from mobile network operators where measures have been defined and organisations have been shaped to manage and prosper in an environment where the voice service quality is the basis for customer satisfaction but where most of the ARPU growths come from new associated services.
A new mindset should be build on easy to understand and verifiable service quality metrics creating an awareness of 'how we are doing' throughout the organization. The organisational structure should be geared towards a constant proactive monitoring of these key metrics and use this knowledge on all levels from network engineering, planning, and marketing to customer service in its strive for VoIP excellence.
Henrik Lilja, strategic system architect, NetTest. NetTest is an industry specialist devoted to providing test and measurement instruments and network monitoring solutions designed to empower global telecom leaders and large enterprises to optimise their business performance.
39.Three reports talk up wireless VoIP
A good indicator of how hot a market is, could be the number of research reports published in a short space of time. Last month, three highlighted the subject of voice over Wi-Fi.
Infonetics Research believes wireless VoIP is already spreading steadily in the enterprise and will see even higher growth over the coming four years. Its report says that 113,000 Wi-Fi VoIP handsets were sold worldwide in 2004, bringing in $45m, while global dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular handset revenues reached $6.6m based on over 8,000 handsets sold (these dual mode devices only shipped in Q4). The 2004 figure signifies a very fledgling market, of course, and one that is lagging behind what forecasters had hoped when looking into their crystal balls in 2002-3.
But these figures should grow 'dramatically' by 2009 as more enterprises offer employees flexible mobile access over- different wireless networks. The report identifies the logistics and healthcare verticals as early adopters, because voice over-WLan already has some momentum.
A good indicator of how hot a market is, could be the number of research reports published in a short space of time. Last month, three highlighted the subject of voice over Wi-Fi.
Infonetics Research believes wireless VoIP is already spreading steadily in the enterprise and will see even higher growth over the coming four years. Its report says that 113,000 Wi-Fi VoIP handsets were sold worldwide in 2004, bringing in $45m, while global dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular handset revenues reached $6.6m based on over 8,000 handsets sold (these dual mode devices only shipped in Q4). The 2004 figure signifies a very fledgling market, of course, and one that is lagging behind what forecasters had hoped when looking into their crystal balls in 2002-3.
But these figures should grow 'dramatically' by 2009 as more enterprises offer employees flexible mobile access over- different wireless networks. The report identifies the logistics and healthcare verticals as early adopters, because voice over-WLan already has some momentum.

Telecomms technology company Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSX: NT) has said that it is continuing to drive the mass deployment of VoIP and multimedia services through a series of new strategic partnerships with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technology companies.
The company said that Arcturus Networks Inc, D-Link Corporation Inc, Grandstream Networks Inc, NETGEAR, SIPquest, Sipura Technology Inc and TABLETmedia - which produce SIP-based access devices, data networking products and wireless clients - have joined Texas Instruments, i3 Micro, Polycom and Uniden as part of Nortel's collaborative open client initiative to promote industry-wide SIP adoption.
The initiative will see all the participants focus on bringing to market Nortel-interoperable SIP products that will expand the availability of VoIP services to consumers through products such as analog terminal adaptors and routers for home-based VoIP services. A spokesperson for the company said that the initiative will create a powerful catalyst for the adoption of SIP.

By Mike Hogan

 

IF MEMORY SERVES, it was the Carpenters who popularized that '70s tune "We've Only Just Begun." Bad leisure suit visual aside, that's a pretty good description of where the phone business is headed.
Increasingly, you'll be able to buy premium phone services a la carte without a service call or hardware installation and at pretty reasonable monthly rates. For example, CallWave (www.callwave.com) has a new $4 per month offering called CallWave for Mobile that lets you reroute your cellular calls to any landline or IP-based phone you like.
Mobile Call Screening is simple in operation but lets you do a remarkable thing: listen in while folks leave messages on your cell phone. One button lets you grab the call or forward it to any other phone, conserving those precious cell minutes. Otherwise, the caller's message gets forwarded to your e-mail. Your callers get a toll-free number to use, leaving your current cell number available, and you can take the call on another line even if your cell phone is turned off.
CallWave for Your Home is the latest add-on to a suite of CallWave services that already lets you swap landline and IP calls. For just $8 per month, you can get new toll-free and local numbers whose incoming calls can be forwarded to any landline, cell or IP phone number. An alert on your PC tells you who is calling and, if you don't pick up, any message is forwarded to your e-mail inbox as a WAV file attachment. Faxes to your dedicated CallWave fax number (you get three lines total) arrive as PDF attachments. Competitors such as RingCentral (www.ringcentral.com) sell other bundles of services
CallWave's president and CEO, Dave Hofstatter, estimates that about an eighth of the company's customers are entrepreneurs giving customers in far-flung markets local numbers to call, or providing co-workers who need them with "fax machines" in their inboxes. Individual accounts are set up and managed entirely on CallWave's website, with monthly charges added to a credit card or phone bill.
It's all part of the next step in telecom's evolution: You'll be able to mix and match the services you want and who you want providing them.

Some of the biggest trends of the second half of 2005 will rest on technologies that were hardly on the corporate radar a couple of years ago. Perhaps the most dramatic is voice over IP, which after a brief vogue in the late 1990s fell foul of poor performance and unreliability in early products. Now, with much improved products and the option to use IP to create a converged office/home/ mobile network, VoIP is firmly back on the agenda, as Vonage's massive round of funding indicates.
This was the largest round since the dotcom crash and shows that VoIP is really taking its place as the 'new dotcom', along with many forms of wireless technology. The hope, this time, is that investors will be more circumspect about choosing their start-ups, not throwing money recklessly at any company with magic word 'VoIP' attached.
Some of the traditional IT and telecoms vendors are adapting to the new world more easily than others. Microsoft has had a few stumbles over IP and new communications, but has now launched the new version of its mobile Windows for PDAs and other devices, and has hired some new senior executives to oversee its strategies for mobility, wireless and Vole In this issue we examine its strategies and the moves of its new head of mobile devices, who has transferred from China with a wealth of new ideas.
New technology platforms inevitably bring fights over standards as the users call for interoperability and affordable kit, and the vendors seek control over key emerging markets. The wireless technology Ultra-WideBand, which could be the basis of a major boom in digital media networks, has been stalled by a massive stand-off between two factions led by Intel and Motorola, but there are now hopes of the two camps starting to work together for the common interest of kickstarting an important market.
On the enterprise wireless Lan side, Cisco is seeking to take its usual dominant role by supporting a range of security and interoperability standards that are heavily influenced by its own technologies, particularly those of recently acquired Airespace.
New platforms also bring a rush of mergers as large players look to snap up specialists in the hottest platforms. We profile the bumper crop of acquisitions of the last couple of months.
And of course, many traditional technologies continue to evolve and remain strong. Two in-depth user surveys indicate the main trends. One looks at customer data integration and how enterprises are looking better to exploit the masses of information they hold on clients in their traditional databases. The other, conducted by Arcati, gives a comprehensive overview of the current state of mainframe users.

In light of the torrent of announcements about VoIP services and equipment surrounding the recent VON conference in San Jose, the central question facing the nascent business resembles the one the kids in the back seat ask on long car trips: Is it here yet? Depending on how rambunctious the kids are, the best answer might be either "not yet" or "pretty soon."
The highest-profile announcements had to do with services. In particular, Vonage noted that it had reached more than 500,000 subscriber lines. That was up from 75,000 at the end of 2003 and 390,000 at the end of 2004. The rate of new subscriber take-up rose from 10,000 per week in the fourth quarter of 2004 to 15,000 a week in early March.
In addition, AOL confirmed previous reports that it would be getting into the IP telephony business soon, using Level 3's national infrastructure and Sonus softswitching equipment. And there were persistent reports that Google is seriously considering getting into the VoIP market, as well as speculation that Yahoo and MSN would soon do the same. VoIP calling is a natural evolution for providers like AOL, Yahoo and MSN that already offer voice-capability instant messaging or even PC-based Internet phone service.
VoIP equipment announcements can be a less reliable indicator of growth prospects than in other markets, because gear such as softswitches can be used to deliver conventional as well as IP telephony services. In one such announcement, Veraz Networks and Sylantro Systems unveiled a tie-up that combined Veraz softswitches and media gateways with hosted communications services from Veraz to provide end-to-end packages for service providers. In another, low-end softswitch maker CopperCom said it had made a deal to incorporate Jasomi Networks session border controllers as part of a turnkey packet-based infrastructure product. And yet another softswitch vendor, Sentito, announced that it had landed an equipment deal with KBT Systems, a provider of wholesale managed services.
Still, softswitches at least represent the next-generation infrastructure that will make ubiquitous IP phone service possible in the future. And at least one announcement represented one of the classic coming-of-age milestones that indicate an industry at least thinks it's on the verge of the big time: the semiconductor announcement. That occurred when Texas Instruments said it had been named Vonage's preferred provider of VoIP silicon and software.
Along with the various signs that the VoIP market is moving along rapidly, there was also a bit of fighting in the back seat. In February, Vonage had complained that a broadband provider was blocking its calls. The FCC fined the provider, Madison River Communications of North Carolina, and it agreed to stop. But Vonage and Nuvio have also since complained that telco and cable broadband providers had been degrading their signals, a subtler form of blocking. Any business that is threatening enough to block is clearly getting big enough to take seriously.
WARY CONSUMER
However two surveys about consumer attitudes towards VoIP services that surfaced before and during the VON conference gave the best indication of where the industry was headed. One by Forrester Research found that only 43% of its respondents had heard of VoIP telephony and only 4% used it. The other, commissioned by Level 3, said essentially the same thing: that 60% of its respondents were unaware of the service, while 4% used it.
Two further questions, though, showed the real path to VoIP's future. Forrester found that only 13% of its respondents were interested in such services. The Level 3 survey, going a step further, found that after having the capabilities and benefits of VoIP service explained to them, 71% said they would consider switching from conventional service.
And that, more than anything else, makes clear what it'll take to make the VoIP telephony business a success: a lot of explaining.
Consumer interest in using VoIP services

 

Interested       13%
Neutral          23%
Not interested   64%

By Al Senia

 

Residential VoIP service is growing ever more popular. But customers appear highly confused about what they are buying and how the technology operates. Furthermore, significant security threats loom on the horizon.
A new report from research firm IDC predicts that U.S. residential VoIP subscribers will hit 27 million by the end of 2009, up from an estimated 3 million this year. Price will drive this high adoption rate, at least initially, but the more robust calling features VoIP offers will become a more dominant factor as carriers educate consumers about the technology.
Will Stofega, senior analyst in IDC's VoIP Services Research Program, notes that carriers and equipment vendors "need to plan for a marathon" because the market still is in an early stage of development.
Furthermore, carriers need to proactively educate and market the value of VoIP to avoid a bloody price war. So far, the technology is marketed primarily by price; Stofega notes that AT&T (with its ad campaign for CallVantage service) is the only VoIP service provider emphasizing features, not merely price.
The winners will use the flexibility of IP to design services that differentiate themselves from their competitors," says Stofega. VoIP's main challenge, he adds, is to "prove that it is just a cheap replacement for POTS service."
All well and good. However, service differentiation might not prove so easy because there's already plenty of confusion about VoIP in the marketplace. A second research report, this one conducted by IQ Research and Consulting on behalf of SunRocket, a Virginia-based VoIP service provider, finds that although consumer awareness about VoIP has grown, only half of consumers realize that Internet phone calls can be made using a standard telephone.
Other interesting findings: Only 47% understand that Internet phone calls don't go through their computer; only 44% realize a technician isn't required to activate IP phone service; and only about 20% know that no special computer software is required to activate VoIP service.
"This survey ... reveals that despite significant progress, most consumers still don't realize how easy it is to use Internet phone service at home," concludes Joyce Dorris, SunRocket's co-founder.
And if all this isn't enough to roil the VoIP marketplace, security experts are warning that the technology poses a credible security threat. Dave Endler, recently elected head of the VoIP Security Alliance (VoIPSA), warns that threats to voice networks from viruses, Trojans and worms are increasing.
And David Lacey, director of information security for the U.K.-based Royal Mail Group, recently warned a security gathering in London that using one network for both voice and data makes enterprises particularly vulnerable and could trigger an electronic "Pearl Harbor-type event" by the end of 2007.

By John Engebretson

 

Heavyweights from several cable companies, including Time Warner Cable senior vice president Gerald Campbell, sat down with representatives of the alarm industry in a meeting at CableLabs headquarters in Denver last month to discuss incompatibilities between VoIP and alarm systems. Namely, rewiring requirements, backup power, and difficulties with transmitting certain alarm industry communication protocols. VoIP providers outside the cable industry face the same challenges, but have yet to take action on this matter. Some of them advise customers to keep their regular phone line for their alarm system, considerably reducing the value of VoIP for the 23% of homeowners who have installed alarms

Imago Communications has announced the results of its end-user research in conjunction with analyst company Ovum into attitudes and usage of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology.
The research reveals that VoIP applications that improve teleworking and employee mobility are the most popular, with both being cited by 61% of respondents when asked 'What applications are driving your move to VoIP?'. Some 86% of respondents also said that wireless VoIP was of 'significant interest' to their organisation.
The importance of improving communications with employees working outside the office was also evident, with 47% of respondents agreeing that enabling mobility was one of their goals, and 44% citing enhanced flexibility and 41% extending functionality to remote workers. A total of 47% said that the more general goal of improving communications was behind their move to VoIP.
The research also suggests that one of the most important reasons why organisations are adopting VoIP is to save money, with 69% of respondents stating that cost savings was a business goal behind the adoption of VoIP.
In addition, 75% of respondents that had deployed VoIP said that it was successful and had met all, or the majority, of their objectives. However 46% of respondents said that they still didn't fully understand the business benefits that VoIP and IP communications could offer and 67% of respondents stated that the interoperability of different suppliers' equipment in an IP network was a major worry.

By John Engebretson

 

After many disappointments, viable local residential voice competition has finally arrived--and it's not UNE-P. It's VoIP-over-broadband.
It seems, in retrospect, that we should have predicted it. Yet no one did. By riding the data connection on a DSL or cable modem, voice calls now can be handled more economically, enabling service providers to offer local and long-distance service for a flat monthly fee.
The hitch is that this service can only be delivered to people with a broadband data connection--which means that its success depends on how widely and quickly broadband is deployed. And since broadband VoIP took center stage a few months ago, I've been wondering whether it will boost or block broadband deployment.
On the one hand, because VoIP makes broadband more useful, it should increase broadband demand. But the incumbent telcos that control the majority of residential DSL lines have not embraced VoIP because it would cannibalize existing voice revenues. Another concern is that VoIP-over-broadband enables a competitor to ride an incumbent's DSL line (and siphon off voice revenues) without the incumbent's knowledge--and telcos' fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) plans face the same technology threat.
To date, the incumbents have taken a defensive approach toward broadband VoIP. Three of the four Bell companies--BellSouth, Qwest and SBC--have attempted to fend off the VoIP threat by requiring DSL customers to also buy local voice service. And despite how distasteful that strategy may seem from a consumer standpoint, one has to admit that it could help prevent VoIP from becoming a broadband blocker.
Ultimately, though, upstart broadband VoIP providers, and even long-distance company broadband VoIP initiatives, are small threats compared to a much bigger one that the telcos now face fr