According to the annual Mobile Life Report from the Carphone Warehouse, youngsters consider their mobile phone as their best friend and choose it over all other forms of electrical entertainment.
The report is the latest stage of a research project started in 2006 assesing the impact of mobile phones on people’s lives. The fifth report titled, Mobile Life Report 2008: the connected world, questioned 6,000 people in the UK and US to explore the relationship adults and youngsters have with mobile and internet technology.
- October 12th, 2007
- 11:54 am
The number of broadband subscribers worldwide increased 4.9 percent over the second quarter to a total 313.6 million, according to figures from market researcher Point Topic. Some 14.6 million additional subscribers were added in the three months to June. Year-on-year, the broadband market grew 27.2 percent, with over 67 million new subscribers added since June 2006. The broadband penetration in the world population was 5.5 percent at the end of June, up 0.3 point from March and up 1.2 points from a year earlier. On a regional basis, 27.6 percent of all broadband subscribers are in western Europe, 22.8 percent in North America, 20.7 percent in southeast Asia and 17.3 percent in the Asia Pacific region. Western Europe and North America have the highest penetration among the population, with both at 21.7 percent. As for countries with the highest broadband penetration, Denmark leads with 35 percent, followed by the Netherlands and Monaco. DSL remained the dominant access technology during the quarter, with 206.6 million connections, followed by cable modem with 68.6 million and FTTx with 33.9 million.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 14th, 2007
- 7:45 am
Equipment vendor impacted by spending freeze by U.S. mobile operators; lifting of Qualcomm import ban provides glimmer of hope.
Alcatel-Lucent issued its third profit warning this year on Thursday, sending its shares into free fall.
Citing weakness at its North American operations, the Franco-U.S. equipment vendor revised its revenue forecast for full-year 2007 and admitted that profitability is likely to be negatively impacted.
“Alcatel-Lucent now expects its full year 2007 revenue growth to be flat to slightly up,” the vendor said in a statement. It had previously predicted growth in the mid-single digits.
The news comes as a significant blow to Alcatel-Lucent, which is struggling to allay investor fears over stability and strategy in the wake of last year’s merger and a subsequent string of poor quarterly results. In August the company announced the resignations of chief administrative officer Frank D’Amelio and president of science, technology and strategy Mike Quigley, both of whom were heavily involved in the merger process.
“The downward revision in the revenue forecast is based on the most recent and updated discussions with some wireless customers in North America,” the vendor said. “Alcatel-Lucent is now seeing a change in capital spending with those customers in 2007, compared to what it had anticipated.”
Consequently, the company is not seeing the predicted increase in volumes that would have offset pricing pressures, it added.
“It is worse than we had feared,” said Nomura International analyst Richard Windsor, acknowledging that Alcatel-Lucent’s two major CDMA customers in the U.S. – Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel – have “put the brakes on spending, causing revenues to be materially lower.”
Windsor attributes the spending freeze on the part of the carriers to the legal battle between Qualcomm and Broadcom, that saw a ban imposed on the import into the U.S. of mobile handsets containing Qualcomm chipsets.
However, a U.S. federal appeals court judge overturned the ban on Wednesday, after a number of companies, operators and vendors included, protested that as Broadcom filed its patent complaint against Qualcomm only, the International Trade Commission did not have the authority to block imports by firms other than Qualcomm.
The decision will be welcomed by all parties in the CDMA industry, and pave the way for spending to resume.
“Consequently we are comfortable that in 2008 revenues from CDMA infrastructure will flatten out and that good profitability will return,” says Windsor.
Meanwhile Standard & Poor’s notes that it is not just Alcatel-Lucent’s CDMA business in North America that is proving to be a thorn in its side.
“We think the reasons are wider and also see market share losses in 3G (Ericsson) and price competition from Ericsson and Huawei,” said S&P analyst Clara Van der Elst.
“In market share terms we believe the company continues to lose out.”
Indeed, Nomura’s Windsor suggests there may not be much of a future for Alcatel-Lucent in the GSM/UMTS space, also citing increasing pressure from arch-rival Ericsson.
“Some very hard questions need to be asked about the viability of Alcatel-Lucent’s presence in this business,” he said.
Alcatel-Lucent said it will provide an update on its plans when it announces third-quarter results on 31 October.
According to Dow Jones Newswires, Alcatel-Lucent’s share price fell to €6.32 earlier today, its lowest level ever, although the stock has since rallied.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 13th, 2007
- 11:34 am
Alcatel-Lucent has lowered its outlook for full-year sales and warned for deteriorating margins. It now predicts sales flat to slightly higher this year, on a constant euro-dollar exchange rate. Previously the network equipment maker had forecast revenues to grow in the mid single digits. The company forecast third-quarter revenues up slightly versus Q2, and then strong sequential growth in revenues over the fourth quarter. Additionally a change in revenue mix has had a negative impact on profitability at the company, especially in the current quarter. Alcatel-Lucent expects just a breakeven operating result in Q3, excluding any extraordinary items. The company attributed the cut in sales growth to lower capital spending among mobile carrier customers in North America, with the higher volume growth needed to offset pricing weakness. Elsewhere, revenues have been strong, in particular at wireline, enterprise and the Asia-Pacific business. Alcatel-Lucent reiterated its target for full-year merger synergies of EUR 600 million pretax, and said it may accelerate cost cutting in certain affected markets.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- August 10th, 2007
- 1:50 pm
Submarine transport cable provider Hibernia Atlantic plans to construct an undersea fibre optic cable system. Hibernia Atlantic will deploy a branching unit off its existing northern cable and give Iceland direct connectivity to North America, Ireland, London, Amsterdam and the rest of continental Europe. The new cable link will provide connectivity to Iceland at 192 X 10 Gbps Ethernet wavelengths. The cable system will allow communications traffic from Iceland to go either east or west with direct access to 42 cities and 52 network points of presence and the ability to steer traffic around major metropolitan areas and bypass traditional backhaul routes. Hibernia Atlantic projects the system will become fully operational for customer traffic in the fall of 2008.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Hibernia Atlantic has announced a plan to construct a new submarine fibre-optic cable system connecting Iceland to its northern Atlantic submarine cable system. Hibernia Atlantic will deploy a branching unit off its existing northern cable, giving Iceland direct connectivity to North America, Ireland, London, Amsterdam and the rest of continental Europe. The new cable link will provide connectivity to Iceland at 192×10Gbps Ethernet wavelengths, the only one of its kind in the region. This allows for communications traffic from Iceland to go either east or west, with direct access to 42 cities and 52 network points of presence (PoPs) and the ability to steer traffic around major metropolitan areas and bypass traditional backhaul routes. Hibernia Atlantic projects the system will become fully operational for customer traffic in the autumn of 2008.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Motorola has announced the Motomagx mobile Linux platform. Up to 60 percent of the company’s handset portfolio is expected to be based on Linux in the next few years, with the Motomagx platform playing a key role in this mobile Linux strategy. The first products based on Motomagx are the Motorokr Z6 and the Razr2 V8 handsets, currently available in select markets worldwide. The Razr2 V8 is the company’s first Linux-based mobile device for the North American market. The Motomagx platform is designed to support a wide range of content created by third-party developers.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
The number of people taking advantage of the benefits of mobile broadband will exceed one billion by 2012, with high-speed packet access (HSPA) contributing more than 70 per cent to this increased popularity, according to Juniper Research.
Over the next five years, almost one in three mobile subscribers will make use of mobile broadband, driven by demand from connectivity-hungry users in Western Europe, North America and to an extent, China and the Far East, claims the analyst, who is predicting that the associated total revenue for mobile broadband services will top $400 billion globally, annually during the same time frame.
But, it’s not all good news. The availability - or lack of - suitable devices, such as handsets, data cards, laptops and so on, may prove a big factor in determining just how rapidly the technology is adopted in practice as mobile broadband is a device-based technology, according to Juniper’s report entitled ‘Mobile Broadband Markets: EV-DO, WiMAX, HSPA & Beyond 2007-2012.’
“HSPA’s in-service status in 2007 makes it already the most advanced mobile broadband technology, with many further deployments due in the near and medium term. For the 3G service provider base, HSPA represents a software upgrade rather than a new network investment. HSPA will also benefit from technology ‘leap’ subscribers in the developing nations, and handset churn elsewhere, with users migrating to HSPA-based broadband as the norm,” said the report’s author Howard Wilcox.
“Over the last year there has been significant activity in the mobile WiMAX market, including many trials and contract announcements by leading vendors and operators. Mobile WiMAX is now positioned to achieve a single digit per cent proportion of the global mobile broadband subscriber base by 2012. This will represent a significant attainment for this new mobile platform. We believe that the WiMAX market will see substantial growth after 2012, as new networks are built out and new applications are adopted.”
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
US-based security technology company McAfee saw its revenues for Q2 increase by 13 percent to USD 314 million from the year ago quarter. Revenues from North America were USD 163 million, up 8 percent from USD 151 million. Outside North America, international revenue was USD 151 million, up 20 percent from USD 126 million. Revenues from Europe, the Middle East and Africa grew by 14 percent, Japan grew by 15 percent, the Asia Pacific grew by 53 percent and Latin America grew by 80 percent. Revenue from corporate customers grew to USD 182 million, up 9 percent. Consumer revenue was USD 132 million, a 19 percent gain. Net income was USD 49.4 million, up 58 percent from USD 31.4 million. The company saw its operating income of USD 41.1 million vs USD 27.7 million. McAfee expects net revenue in Q3 to be between USD 305 million-325 million. For the full year, McAfee expects net revenue of USD 1.26 billion-1.3 billion.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
TerreStar Networks Inc. has selected Alcatel-Lucent to supply a next generation solution for a significant test as TerreStar prepares to build an integrated mobile satellite and land-based communications network in North America, believed to be the first of its kind using the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to deliver universal access and personalized services over standard wireless devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
For the lab trial, Alcatel-Lucent will provide an IMS service delivery architecture that can enable TerreStar’s service provider customers to rapidly develop and integrate communications applications into the next generation network. TerreStar and its channel partners will test the ability of this new platform to help provide some of the fastest service provider response in the industry to new commercial market opportunities through rapid provisioning and deployment of new applications.
TerreStar, which has begun deploying its network for commercial launch in 2008 expects to operate as a carrier’s carrier, providing integrated next generation terrestrial and satellite mobility services to communications services providers¡ªsuch as wireless carriers, satellite vendors, wireless operators, and electric and telephony cooperatives¡ªand also providing services directly to companies and government entities.
“This type of innovative solution helps ensure that we can rapidly deliver the on-demand services over a mobile, ubiquitous next-generation satellite and land network that commercial service providers and enterprises need,” said Dennis Matheson, CTO at TerreStar.
“We are excited to work with TerreStar in helping transform communications in North America. Alcatel-Lucent’s leadership and experience in IMS-based services, innovation and operational capabilities can help TerreStar move swiftly along its path to deploy the first integrated satellite and land mobile broadband network and to bring ubiquitous mobile IP applications and services to North America,” said Cindy Christy, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s North American business.
Alcatel-Lucent’s solution for TerreStar will include key elements of its IMS portfolio including IMS session controller, consolidated subscriber management system, IMS media server, presence server and IMS application server. The combined capabilities can allow TerreStar to deliver an advanced set of services with multiple flexible quality of service options including: location based services which use presence technology to determine whether a person is available on the network, “push-to” technology that enables the convergence of voice, push-to-talk-over-cellular and push-to-view, to create personalized, presence-based services.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Youth’s best friend - Mobile! (UK)
