Verizon Wireless and Samsung deliver 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot
Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is available for order. You can purchase your Samsung 4G LTE Hotspot from 3Gstore for $99.99 after $50 mail in rebate.
Key features:
Share 4G LTE internet connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices at the same time
4G LTE customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage areas
Backward compatible with the Verizon Wireless 3G network
Dimensions: 2.32â€(H) x 3.54â€(W) x 0.45â€(D)
Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot customers can take advantage of Verizon’s 4G LTE network by subscribing to a 4G LTE mobile broadband data package starting at $50 monthly access for 5GB. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network, launched in December 2010, is the fastest, most advanced 4G network in the United States, providing speeds up to 10 times faster than Verizon Wireless’ 3G networks. Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network currently reaches one-third of all Americans, with plans to expand the network to the company’s entire 3G coverage area over the next three years.
About Verizon Wireless:
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s fastest and most advanced 4G network and largest and most reliable 3G network, and serves more than 94 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 82,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone.
NII Holdings announces pricing of senior notes
NII Holdings, Inc. today announced the pricing of the offering, through its wholly owned subsidiary NII Capital Corp., of $750 million principal amount of 7.625% Senior Notes due 2021. The issue price to the public is 100% of the principal amount of the notes.
The size of the offering was increased from the previously announced $500 million to $750 million. The sale of the notes is expected to close on or about March 29, 2011. The notes will be issued by NII Capital Corp. and guaranteed by NII Holdings and certain of NII Holdings’ other United States subsidiaries.
Goldman, Sachs & Co., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated are acting as joint book-running managers for the notes offering.
‘Pruned’ microchips are faster, smaller, more energy-efficient
An international team of computing experts from the United States, Switzerland and Singapore has created a breakthrough technique for doubling the efficiency of computer chips simply by trimming away the portions that are rarely used.
According to experts, they believe this is the first time someone has taken an integrated circuit and stated, ‘Let’s get rid of the part that we don’t need. What they’ve shown is that they can boost performance and cut energy use simultaneously if they prune the unnecessary portions of the digital application-specific integrated circuits that are typically used in hearing aids, cameras and other multimedia devices.
Krishna Palem, who heads the Rice-NTU Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID), and his collaborators at Switzerland’s Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) are unveiling the new pruning technique this week in Grenoble, France, at DATE11, the premier European conference on the design, automation and testing of microelectronics.
Pruning is the latest example of inexact hardware, the key approach that ISAID is exploring with CSEM to produce the next generation of energy-stingy microchips.
The probabilistic concept is deceptively simple: Slash power demands on microprocessors by allowing them to make mistakes. By cleverly managing the probability of errors and by limiting which calculations produce errors, the designers have found they can simultaneously cut energy demands and boost performance.
At DATE11, Rice graduate student Avinash Lingamneni will describe probabilistic pruning, the novel technique the team created for trimming away the least-used portions of integrated circuits. Lingamneni used the method to create prototype chips at CSEM. The test prototypes contain both traditional circuits and pruned circuits that were produced side by side on the same silicon chip.
Lingamneni added that their initial tests indicate that the pruned circuits will be at least two times faster, consume about half the energy and take up about half the space of the traditional circuits. He hopes that the system performs even better in the final tests, which are still under way.
As per Christian Enz, who leads the CSEM arm of the collaboration and is a co-author of the DATE study, the cost for these gains is an 8% error magnitude, and to put that into context, they know that many perceptive types of tasks found in vision or hearing applications can easily tolerate error magnitudes of up to 10%.
Palem added the next hurdle for pruning will be to use the technique to create a complete prototype chip for a specific application. Lingamneni added that he hopes to start designing just such a chip for a hearing aid this summer.
Palem also said that based on what they already know; they believe probabilistic computing can produce application-specific integrated circuits for hearing aids that can run four to five times longer on a set of batteries than current hearing aids. The collaboration between ISAID and CSEM was a key to achieving these results.
Android Tablets and Apple IPad expected to capture the market
A new research report has revealed that much of the growth in the computer market for 2011 is estimated to come from the tablet/pad market, which will ship some 52 million units this year. Of these shipments, Apple is expected to account for over 75%, leaving approximately 12 million units for other vendors.
Researchers anticipate that the iPad’s success will continue, and even accelerate, with the arrival of the thinner, lighter and faster iPad 2. This growth means, however, that ‘traditional’ PC companies, notably Microsoft, Intel and AMD, are likely to lose market share during the year.
Pads are disrupting the PC refresh cycle in highly penetrated markets. Their innovative user experience has captured the imagination of consumers, who are extending the life of their existing hardware, while taking an interest in pads.
Researchers also urge vendors not to dismiss the opportunity for pads in business: The number of affluent, highly-mobile executives buying pads will increase quickly in 2011. Likewise, vertical market adoption of pads, especially in healthcare and education, will gain momentum, as more appropriate applications are built.
For every 10 pads sold this year, researchers estimate that five netbook or notebook sales will be lost, across both consumer and enterprise markets. This trend will be most pronounced in developed markets, such as the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, the Nordics, Benelux, Australia and Japan.
It is also expected that the notebook PC category will grow nearly 8% in 2011, despite the impact of pads, thanks to the ongoing Windows 7 refresh and improving business confidence in the commercial sector. Netbooks, however, will decline by about 13% to 34 million units.
Overstocked retail channels in many countries, including the United States, much of Western Europe, China and Indonesia, will further hinder notebook growth in the first part of the year. Even Russia, where high oil prices have led to a PC boom, has become oversupplied.
American Tower Corporation announces close of initial tranche of Cell C tower portfolio in South Africa
American Tower Corporation announced today that it has, through its local South African subsidiary, acquired approximately 960 existing towers from Cell C (Pty) Limited for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $140 million, using cash on hand, local financing, and funds contributed by South African investors who currently hold an approximate 25% minority stake in the subsidiary.
American Tower expects to acquire from Cell C approximately 440 additional existing towers during 2011 for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $60 million, subject to customary closing conditions.
Pursuant to the transaction, which was previously announced in November 2010, American Tower may acquire up to an additional 1,800 towers that are either currently under construction or will be constructed over the next two to three years for an additional aggregate purchase price of up to approximately $230 million. Cell C will be the anchor tenant on each of the towers being purchased.
About American Tower
American Tower is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of broadcast and wireless communications sites. American Tower currently owns and operates approximately 36,000 communications sites in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, Mexico, Peru and South Africa. For more information about American Tower, please visit www.americantower.com.
LightSquared and the United States GPS Industry Council File Their First Joint Report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
LightSquared, the nation’s first wholesale-only integrated wireless broadband and satellite network provider, and the United States Global Positioning System (GPS) Industry Council (USGIC), the leading organization worldwide representing the interests of the satellite navigation industry and users, announced both the filing of their first joint report as required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the formation of a technical working group required by the FCC.
Last month the FCC granted LightSquared’s waiver to integrate terrestrial broadband network wireless services with satellite communications along with a requirement to complete an interference study. The grant required several interested parties who use neighboring radio spectrum to establish a working group to fully study potential interference concerns and, in particular, to identify any measures necessary to prevent potential interference to GPS.
LightSquared and the USGIC, working cooperatively, issued their first joint filing to the FCC Friday, February 25. It outlines the key milestones for the overall analyses that they plan to conduct together. The next report will be filed in March, and it will provide the FCC with details about test plans and procedures. Joint filings providing progress reports will be delivered to the FCC each month, with the final report due June 15, 2011.
Motorola Solutions,Verizon Wireless to offer LTE services to public safety customers (US)
Motorola Solutions has announced that it has entered into an agreement with the USA based Verizon Wireless to bring all the advantages of an advanced wireless communication solution to public safety customers across the United States.
According to Motorola Solutions’ statement, the agreement offers public safety agencies access to real-time management and control, enhanced nationwide roaming and site sharing of existing mobile broadband sites for rapid deployment and economies of scale.
Beyond the fact that the agreement leverages Verizon’s LTE network, no technical or practical information about the agreement was offered.
HTC to release two Facebook Optimized phones
HTC is about to launch two new smartphones keeping social networking as the main focus- the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa. Both the phones feature a dedicated Facebook button for one-touch access to the key functions of the Facebook service that are integrated throughout the HTC Sense experience.
According to Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business for Facebook, they have worked closely with HTC for several years on bringing Facebook to their devices. HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are the next stage. HTC has brought Facebook to these two new devices in an innovative way enabling people to connect and share easily whenever they want, wherever they are.
The Facebook button on HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are context-aware, gently pulsing with light whenever there is an opportunity to share content or updates through Facebook. With a single press of the button, users can update their status, upload a photo etc.
The handsets feature Android Gingerbread 2.3.3, the latest version, and use the latest iteration of HTC Sense to integrate Facebook throughout the HTC Sense experience. When a user makes a phone call, the dialer screen displays their friend’s latest status and photos, and even tells them if their birthday is approaching. The same updates are also displayed when users receive a call from a Facebook friend.
The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa smartphones will be available to customers across major European and Asian markets during Q2 2011. In the United States, HTC has signed an exclusive sales deal with AT&T.
LTE to overcome WiMAX and dominate 4G shipments
Driven by widespread mobile network operator adoption, LTE will have more than nine times as many subscribers as WiMAX by 2014. Worldwide LTE subscribers will rise rapidly during the next two years, and in 2012 will surpass those of WiMAX, the current leading 4G air standard. In 2014, LTE subscribers will reach 303.1 million, compared to 33.4 million for WiMAX.
With WiMAX enjoying a two- to three-year head start in next-generation network deployments, it presently enjoys a major advantage in market share in the 4G segment. However, with LTE supported by most of the leading wireless operators worldwide, it will rise to surpass WiMAX in 2012 and then dominate worldwide during the following years.
LTE subscribers worldwide are expected to top 14.9 million in 2011, as compared to 6.8 million last year. In comparison, global subscribers in 2011 on LTE – championed by most tier-one MNOs globally, such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless in the United States, as well as Vodafone and TeliaSonera in Europe – are projected to reach 10.4 million. But while that total is smaller than WiMAX numbers, it reflects an astonishing leap from just 702,000 users in 2010 and virtually zero in 2009.
Although the International Telecommunications Union has announced that neither LTE nor WiMAX are officially 4G technologies, industry vernacular has adopted the designation for both. Regardless of how they are categorized, this set of next-generation mobile wireless standards is characterized by very high data-transmission speeds, flexible width channelization and perhaps, most importantly, low-latency packet transfers. As is normal for the industry, while older wireless technologies such as 2G and 3G continue to be in use in every part of the world, the transition to higher-speed broadband networks is under way, and the race is on to determine which 4G technology will provide the expected performance and enhancements from day one.
At the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Verizon Wireless used the event as a platform to officially introduce 10 LTE devices from four different original equipment manufacturers, utilizing four different core-chipset partners. Of the 10 new devices, three were media tablets, four were smart phones, two were notebooks and one was a mobile hotspot. The new entries beefed up Verizon’s previous LTE lineup of two USB dongles introduced last quarter.
An estimated 10 LTE operators worldwide have launched to date, and more than 30 new operators will start LTE services this year.
For WiMAX, the majority of operators can be found in Europe, followed by the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa and then the Americas.
