News
Cellular in St Helena
Multigigabit wireless
St Helena is to have a mobile network installed in 2014
O
ne of the world’s remotest spots, the mid-Atlantic
island of St Helena, is at last to enter the mobile communications age. Under new 10-year operating licences granted by the island’s government, Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) is to expand its telecoms and television services there, upgrading broadband connections and installing the territory’s fi rst mobile network. Hensil O’Bey, chief executive
of Cable & Wireless St Helena said: “We are investing in new telecoms infrastructure, while reducing the cost of tariffs, because we now have the certainty of extended licences and believe that the island’s economy will receive a strong boost from the opening of an airport on St Helena in 2015.”
In brief
Wi-Fi surge: during the London 2012 Paralympic Games, BT saw a peak of one million users on its UK Wi-Fi network for the fi rst time. Infrastructure provided by the company for the summer games included an extensive Wi-Fi network in the Olympic Park described as the largest, high-density public Wi-Fi installation in the world. Accelerating 4G: LTE services are now available from 96 telecoms operators in 46 countries, according to fi gures from the GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), confi rming LTE as the fastest developing mobile system ever. In addition, 292 operators have made fi rm commitments to deploy commercial LTE networks in 93 countries. GSA forecasts that 65 countries will have LTE networks by the end of this year. In 2009, just two networks were launched. On the big screen: the impact of the iPhone 5 has yet to be seen, but Android devices, now with over two-thirds of the market, continue to dominate European smartphone sales, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Phones with bigger screens are becoming more popular, and, Comtech’s data shows that their users become more engaged with the device across a range of functions. Meanwhile Windows phones, despite heavy discounting and the launch of a wave of Windows 8 devices, have done no more than maintain a 5 per cent market share.
6
Message growth: driven by instant messaging, mobile messaging will almost double over the coming fi ve years, according to a forecast from Juniper Research. Mobile messages comprise SMS, MMS, IM, email, RCS/RCS-e and social media messages. Global traffi c this year is expected to total some 14·7 trillion messages. Mobile homes: at this year’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Vodafone and IBM demonstrated the mobile management of a washing machine and other smart home devices. “The smart home market is now a reality and Vodafone is committed to delivering to it”, said Marc Tastayre, Vodafone M2M global business development manager. “The collaboration between IBM and Vodafone is putting in place an open, effi cient and scalable solution for the consumer electronics industry that will enable it to successfully progress the creation of the Internet of Things.” Bluetooth fi tness: a new Bluetooth application profi le designed for personal fi tness devices has been fi nalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. Based on Bluetooth v4.0 low energy technology, the new standards will lead to smart devices which can instantaneously transmit data such as running cadence, stride length and total distance run to Bluetooth-enabled hub devices such as smartphones, sports watches and cycling computers.
LAND mobile September 2012
Positioning indoors
A
Demonstrating a future free of wires are Dr Ali Sadri (left), chairman and president of WiGig Alliance and directorof mmWave Technology, Intel, and Justin Rattner, chief technical offi cer of Intel
M
illimetre waves could soon be in common use in homes and offi ces to connect PCs, mobile devices and consumer equipment at gigabit
speeds, with technology demonstrated by Intel at its annual developers’ forum in San Francisco. T e technology is promoted by the WiGig Alliance, an industry body
formed to establish a global ecosystem of high-speed, easy-to-use wire- less devices that seamlessly work together, using readily available, licence- exempt spectrum at 60 GHz. WiGig promises transmission speeds of up to 7 000 Mbit/s. At the meeting, Intel’s chief technology offi cer, Justin Rattner, showcased
an example of a WiGig docking station, with its capacity to remove the need for almost all wired elements of docking and networking. “Looking to the fu- ture, all computing will become wireless computing, with an ever-increasing demand for faster wireless communication”, he said. “I’m excited by what I’ve seen from WiGig technology so far – not only its multi-gigabit throughput capability, but also the fl exibility of the single technology to support a wide range of CE and PC applications. I look forward to the day when docking my Ultrabook or tablet will not even need to be a conscious exercise – it will be as simple as dropping the device anywhere on my desk and having it automatically connect to a display and peripherals, no wires attached.”
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www.wigig.org
new international industry group, the In-Location
Alliance, brings together 22 companies in electronics and wireless communications to promote high accuracy indoor positioning and related services. Among its members are Broadcom, CSR, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and Sony Mobile Communications. Accurate indoor positioning,
the alliance explains, opens up many possibilities for new mobile services. For the consumer it could mean using real-time navigation inside a building; receiving directions to the right products and personalized product promotions in nearby shops; fi nding the precise location of assets and people; and improved security in emergency situations. The primary solutions will be based on enhanced Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy technology and Wi-Fi standards using existing or coming features of those technologies.
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