IrelandOffline has produced a map (below) that shows the areas that will be served with the next generation of spectrum. It warns that areas outside of these locations could eventually see older 2G and 3G equipment become obsolete and as a result basic coverage will be impacted.
According to Eamon Wallace of IrelandOffline, the policy decision by ComReg equates to just 12pc and 6pc of geographic coverage depending on the metric chosen.
“Thousand of mobile phone users in rural Ireland could be left without coverage due to this policy decision."
He said that had a different process been chosen called shared Radio Access Network (RAN), operators would have shared infrastructure and be in a position to deliver reasonable mobile broadband services in rural locations.
“Sweden did the process right, they set up shared RAN for the more rural parts of the country, all the operators pooled and shared the infrastructure which delivered reasonable mobile broadband in remote areas.
“Other countries, such as the UK, have either reserved a spectrum block specifically for increases in rural coverage in their auction or as in the case of Germany in 2010 the regulator went further and refused to allow 4G services to go active in lucrative urban areas until rural areas with patchy coverage had been covered first. This rural extension took two years once operators were forced to accelerate rural coverage to get at the high-value customers," Wallace said.
The forthcoming 4G auctions
ComReg said in March that provided there are no further objections, a current consultation should be the final step before a date for the auctions is set.
The spectrum auctions are critical because as well as paving the way for 4G technologies like LTE that are featured in the new iPad with speeds up to 73Mbps possible, former 2G bands can be used to provide 3G coverage to greater swathes of the population.
In total, 280 MHz of sub-2 GHz spectrum (ie, 140 MHz of paired spectrum) will be made available, more than doubling the currently licensed assignments in these particular bands.
ComReg said it will be a combinatorial clock auction, meaning it allows bidders to make packaged bids over multiple rounds of bidding within a prescribed timeframe.
But what can we do with the spectrum?
Wallace said the spectrum to be auctioned this summer includes the most valuable rural spectrum at around 800mhz, formerly in use for analogue television.
“It is valuable in rural areas because it reaches a longer distance and penetrates well into buildings where people may be found, a key weakness of the 2100mhz/2600Mhz spectrum in use for 3G devices.
A simple rule of thumb to measure the throughput of radio systems is the bits per Hertz measure.
“Currently (and for the foreseeable future) the value is between 3.5 to 5 bits per Hertz. This is part of the Shannon Limit and is a physical limit, even the mobile marketing departments can't break this limit, no matter how they like to spin mobile broadband successes.
“Investment decisions will be made in Madrid (O2) and Berkshire (Vodafone), the question will be asked 'what are our coverage requirements?' The answer will be 70pc population only so the investment will only go to meeting that requirement. As the 2G and 3G gear becomes ever more obsolete will it ever be replaced if the coverage requirements are not there?
“The whole process was designed to maximise revenues rather than to provide coverage to consumers," Wallace said.
Warnings of another broadband bottleneck
Wallace's views appear to be backed up by Ericsson's submission to the ComReg consultation on the spectrum auctions.
ComReg is proposing a 70pc population coverage obligation. Ericsson strongly believes such a target is wholly inappropriate for the following reasons: It fails to maximise the potential economic impact that the delivery of broadband in this spectrum could achieve.
"These bands are the only bands where high levels of coverage are economically viable. It makes no logical sense for coverage conditions to be lower in these bands relative to the higher bands, eg, 3G services that have been licensed in the 2100 MHz band. In fact, if anything, it should be the other way around, with more stringent coverage obligations applying in the lower bands and more relaxed coverage obligations in the higher bands.
“There is a real danger that in the longer term operators may be forced to reduce their coverage from the current 99pc+ level we currently enjoy, down to a level at or close to 70pc of the population. This is because mobile operators in Ireland could well experience difficulty in securing access to scarce capex resources given that the financial returns to be made from such investment are significantly better in higher-growth markets overseas.
“Such an outcome could lead to market failure and the resulting necessity to expand the National Broadband Scheme from its current 10pc demographic to one as high as 30pc with consequent costs to the state.
“With regard to a minimum broadband throughput, given the right licensing conditions, these bands are capable of supporting average end-user speeds of between 20Mbps and 95Mbps today. In Ericsson's opinion, it makes no sense to have a minimum average user throughput less than that required by the NBS," Ericsson's submission read.
John Kennedy
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Nokia after the purge: It's so unfair - The Register
Analysis Last week Nokia did exactly what analysts have been begging it to do for years - it took an axe to the company's bureaucracy and purged the leadership. The latest 10,000 redundancies leave the company with its smallest workforce since 1998. Nokia's reward was a further 18 per cent fall in its share price. Thanks, markets.
The announcements included plant closures, redundancies, a big executive purge, and cash from the sale of Vertu. It also included the acquisition of assets - presumably IP - of imaging company Scalado. This should have been better received, you might think.
The reason is that Nokia began to step back away from one of the three burning platforms identified by Elop last February. It no longer looks like Nokia has the appetite for a fight in all segments of the mobile phone business, from low-margin high-volume Asian markets, to mid-range touchscreen phones, to high-end smartphones.
The axe swung through Meltemi, an unannounced Linux-based successor to S40, and Qt, with Smartphone staff redeployed to beef up S40. What's left of Qt, acquired with the company Trolltech, could still be spun out, but it won't amount to significant money – perhaps at most a tenth of the €200m received for blingphone manufacturer Vertu.
But did Nokia have any choice - and is this a bad thing?
None of the old Tier 1 manufacturers play in the feature phone market anymore: Motorola and Sony (as Sony Ericsson) have already stopped. If Nokia insists on competing here it needs to do so from a low-cost base – the value will come from bundling Maps and other assets into the phones. Smarterphone was an excellent acquisition, but presumably porting applications like Maps (which are already on S40) to the new platform was considered too slow and expensive. As we wrote here on Thursday, Nokia now doesn't have any indigenous platform software capacity beyond S40 – it is now utterly dependent on Microsoft and Microsoft's execution.
It's worth remembering that Apple was in a similar crisis for three years in the mid-1990s, posting huge losses. In that period Apple marketed an Apple camera, called QuickView, an Apple set-top box, and lots of Apple laser printers. People forget all these now – and tend to remember only the hugely expensive, technically advanced tablet that few people wanted, the Apple Newton. To save the business, Jobs cut the non-core product lines. Elop is doing something very similar.
But as I wrote here two years ago, shortly before Elop's appointment, Nokia doesn't have such a luxury. At the time, Apple served important print markets in which specific skills, and many suppliers and service companies were Apple-based. In the consumer market, migrating away from Apple was a pain. And the purchase cycle in these markets was several years. Nokia, on the other hand, is entirely a consumer business in which switching away from the platform can be done painlessly every 24 months: or even in an instant.
This is not to deny the enormous cost on people and communities of the job losses. The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat carries a report on the impact on Salo – a Nokia town. It isn't pretty.
Elop has by several estimates until the end of 2013 before Nokia runs out of cash. If he fails, it will be because Nokia's board didn't institute radical change in 2007, change that would have nipped the later, explosive growth of Android. It certainly had the raw materials to do so, Qt was part of that, as well as the scale and reach. Many commentators who insist that Nokia needs to compete in the midrange simply underestimate how competitive the Asian handset market is. Elop spelled it out in the Platforms memo, the parts no one likes to quote.
Nokia is by some distance the most important and accomplished European technology company – and it still remains so today. But the margin of area for execution is now almost zero, and much of that is out of Nokia's hands. ®
Nokia announces the launch of Nokia 808 PureView mobile phone - AME Info
Since its global launch in February, the Nokia 808 PureView has received multiple awards, including Best New Mobile Device at Mobile World Congress 2012, as well as an award for Best Imaging Innovation for 2012 from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA).
Vesa Jutila, Head of Smartphones Product Marketing at Nokia, demonstrated PureView's revolutionary imaging features to an elite group of journalists, bloggers and photographers in Jeddah, and said: "Nokia revolutionizes high-end smartphone imaging and sets a new industry standard with the Nokia 808 PureView. With this smartphone, you can capture the sharpest and most detailed pictures ever, and it is easier than ever to relive and share your experiences."
"But this is only the start: we're going to carry on developing the PureView technology for our future smartphones in ways that will again revolutionize the imaging experience," he concluded.
Mandar Bhide, General Manager, Nokia Middle KSA and Yemen said: "We are delighted to launch Nokia 808 PureView, an advanced smartphone full of advanced and exciting features, which is a testament to Nokia's commitment to delivering innovative mobile phone products for consumers across the globe, and to imaging enthusiasts in Saudi Arabia."
"Nokia's global strategy for growth focuses on a new winning smartphone strategy; such as the innovation we witnessed today with Nokia 808 PureView. This is a key part of this strategy as it pioneers new technology in smartphone handsets and sets a new benchmark for innovations in high-end imaging," he added.
The new smartphone also introduces Nokia Rich Recording technology, which enables audio recording at CD-like levels of quality, previously only possible with advanced external microphones, and also features the exclusive Dolby Headphone technology, transforming stereo content into a personal surround sound experience over any headphones and Dolby Digital Plus for 5.1 channel surround sound playback.
The Nokia 808 PureView features a large, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology. At standard resolutions (2/3, 5 and 8 megapixels), this means the ability to zoom without loss of clarity and capture seven pixels of information, condensing into one pixel for the sharpest images imaginable.
At full resolution, it means the ability to capture an image, then zoom, reframe, crop and resize afterwards to expose previously unseen levels of details. The camera offers unprecedented performance in low-light shots, thanks to the pixel oversampling technology and amazing sensor that captures five times the amount of light. With superior low-light performance and the ability to save in compact file sizes for sharing in social networks, email and MMS, the Nokia 808 PureView smartphone makes it possible for anyone to capture professional looking images in any condition, and view it on any device.
Abdullah Al Mofeed, professional Saudi photographer, expressed his opinion on the pictures he took with the smartphone: "Professional and amateur photographers will get great shots alike, and lifestyle nature photographers will much appreciate the unprecedented details in resolution, thanks to this technology. The thing I like the most about this smartphone is that it offers professional imaging features in a small and portable size."
In addition to superior still imaging technology, the Nokia 808 PureView smartphone also includes full high definition 1080p video recording and playback with 4X lossless zoom and the world's first use of Nokia Rich Recording. This feature enables audio recording at CD-like levels of quality, previously only possible with external microphones. The Nokia 808 PureView also features exclusive Dolby Headphone technology, transforming stereo content into a personal surround sound experience over any headphones and Dolby Digital Plus for 5.1 channel surround sound playback.
In addition to the revolutionary experience offered by the Nokia 808 PureView, a big number of imaging mobile applications are available on Nokia store (http://store.nokia.com) to enhance the user experience, which can be directly downloaded to the smartphone.
Nokia 808 PureView uses a 4 inch multi-touch screen, and the highly damage-resistant Corning Gorilla glass helps protect the screen from scratches and accidental drops. The processor runs at 1.3 GHz and it supports Bluetooth 3.0 and Near Field Communication NFC wireless technologies. The battery can run for 9 hours of talk time, or 550 hours in stand-by mode, and the smartphone can connect to high definition television sets through the HDMI port and DLNA wireless technology, while providing high quality flash light to capture the best photographs and videos in low light conditions.
The smartphone supports syncing calendars, contacts and notes with Microsoft Outlook and can open Microsoft Office and PDF documents and compressed ZIP files. Nokia 808 PureView weighs 169 grams and will be available in the Saudi market in early June.
LAN-Cell 3 Cellular Router Enables Telehealth Applications - YAHOO!
The Proxicast LAN-Cell 3 3G/4G Router instantly provides fast, reliable and secure communications for remote medical monitoring and telehealth applications using the latest high-speed 3G/4G (LTE, HSPA+) cellular technologies.
Pittsburgh, PA (PRWEB) June 18, 2012
Proxicast (http://www.proxicast.com)The new Proxicast LAN-Cell 3 VPN 3G/4G Router is ideal for remote medical monitoring and telehealth applications. The new LAN-Cell 3 provides fast, reliable and cost-effective wireless Internet access over any 3G/4G (LTE, HSPA+) network worldwide. The LAN Cell 3 router is excellent for secure remote patient monitoring and telemedical applications such as:
-
Remote Vital Sign Monitoring
- Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Respiration, Glucose
- Electronic Home Healthcare & Wellness Visits
- Remote Nursing & Telemedicine
- Home-Based Dialysis Monitoring
- Remote Cardiac and Multi-Parameter Monitoring
- Self-Monitoring Medical Devices
- Telesurgery, Teleradiology,Telepathology
- Telemental Heath & Telepsychology
- Ambulances & Emergency Medical Vehicle’s
- Mobile Medical Vans, Trucks & Trailers
- Hospital & Clinical Outreach Programs
“Our telehealth customers are no longer blind to what is happening when their patients go home. They can now can closely monitor and interact with the patient from anywhere,” said Jim Sabol, COO of Proxicast. Typical telemedical applications revolve around disease management and include COPD, Chronic Heart Failure, Diabetes, Coagulation, Arthritis, Depression and Obesity. The LAN-Cell 3 mobile router can be deployed in just a few minutes at a patient’s residence – no waiting for the telephone or cable company to install Internet service. For many rural customers, cellular data service may be their only high-speed connectivity option. Today’s 3G/4G cellular data networks are a fast, reliable and secure way to move medical data.
Often the LAN-Cell 3 mobile router is used to enable basic remote medical monitoring. “It may not be considered cutting-edge, but it save lives and cuts costs,” said Mr. Sabol. Sending medical professionals and equipment to patients’ homes can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars per visit. With the LAN-Cell 3 connected to the necessary medical equipment, remote diagnostics can be performed instantly from any Internet connection. The LAN-Cell 3 is also an excellent communications gateway for mobile and in-vehicle applications such as mobile medical vehicles and community healthcare delivery trailers.
When used on high speed 4G networks, the LAN-Cell 3 makes remote medical video applications and monitoring practical and cost-effective. A doctor or nurse is able to actually see the patient on high resolution video. For example, a patient being treated for diabetic issues may have their glucose monitor connected to the LAN-Cell 3 and an inexpensive video camera can allow remote medical personnel to observe common diabetic wound care issues.
The LAN-Cell 3 accepts almost any Internet or TCP/IP enabled device. Serial-based (RS-232, RS 422 or USB) legacy devices can be connected via an inexpensive serial-to-Ethernet converter. The LAN Cell 3 mobile router can also combine multiple medical and telehealth devices into single 3G/4G data stream utilizing a single cellular account typically costing $50 to $60 per month, saving thousands of dollars per year per site.
The LAN-Cell 3 supports 2G, 3G and 4G cellular modem standards, but the LAN-Cell 3 is specifically designed to take advantage of the new high speed 4G (LTE, HSPA+) networks. It supports many of the currently available off-the-shelf 4G USB modems. With speeds of up to 27 Mbps, many new high-bandwidth mobile applications are now possible. The LAN-Cell 3 mobile router also offers a full VPN with 3DES & AES encryption to keep medical data safe and secure.
Key advantages of the LAN-Cell 3 mobile router include:
- Open upgradable architecture - high speed 3G/4G USB modem slot and external antenna ports
- Supports LTE, HSPA+, EV-DO, 1x, HSPA, HSUPA, HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS USB modems
- Automatic fail-over between 3G/4G Cellular & Ethernet WAN
- Enterprise-Class 3G/4G router with full VPN client + server (IPsec & PPTP)
- Supports 25 simultaneous VPN tunnels with 3DES & AES encryption
- Compatible with Cisco, Juniper, SonicWall, and other VPN routers / software
- High speed Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) 2x2 MIMO - Max data rate 300Mbps
- Wi-Fi is available on the LAN and as a WAN client simultaneously
- (4) port 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN switch + (1) Ethernet WAN port
- Advanced SPI firewall, Quality-of-Service (QOS) & security functions
- Easy management with web Interface & SNMP management
- A rugged industrial-grade steel chassis and unique multi-function mounting base
- Patented USB Modem-LOCK secures USB modem in place
The LAN-Cell 3 mobile 3G/4G router is available for immediate delivery worldwide directly from Proxicast and select resellers. The LAN-Cell 3 is “carrier independent”, supports the new 4G (LTE, HSPA+) wireless standards, legacy 2G and 3G networks, and is user-upgradable to future cellular modem technologies.
About Proxicast’s Family of 3G and 4G Routers
The Proxicast LAN-Cell family of professional-grade 3G routers and 4G routers (LTE, HSPA+) are high-performance, rugged and upgradeable. LAN-Cell routers can connect multiple Ethernet based computers and devices to a single cellular data account for primary or backup connectivity eliminating redundant cellular service for multiple devices. The PocketPORT is the world’s smallest 3G/4G USB Cellular Modem Bridge (mini router). Proxicast products are optimized for corporate, financial, video surveillance, security, mobile in vehicle applications (cars, trucks, buses, trains, boats), industrial automation, solar power, public transit, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) telemetry and SCADA. Popular applications include mobile video surveillance, construction site monitoring, PLCs and industrial controls, remote device data collection, traffic control, point-of-sale (POS), ATMs, mobile Wi-Fi hot-spots and more.
Proxicast products (3G routers, 4G routers, 3G/4G routers, LTE routers, HSPA+ routers, 3G modems, 4G modems, 3G/4G modems and LTE modems) are cellular carrier independent and use either PC-Card or USB cellular modem architecture - and can easily be upgraded. The LAN-Cell and PocketPORT support all major worldwide cellular (wireless) carriers including Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, T Mobile, Rogers, Telus, Bell Mobility, Telcel, Orange, Vodafone, O2, Telstra and others. LAN-Cell and PocketPORT routers support 3G /4G modems made by Sierra Wireless, Novatel, Option, Pantech, Samsung, Huawei, ZTE and others.
About Proxicast
Proxicast designs and manufactures innovative, commercial-grade, rugged industrial, secure wireless communications equipment that enables customers to increase productivity, enhance security, improve operational efficiency and reduce on-going communication costs. Proxicast focuses on wireless equipment for use with all major worldwide cellular standards including (CDMA) EV-DO Rev-A, EV-DO Rev-0, 1xRTT (1x) and (GSM) LTE, HSPA+, HSPA, HSUPA, HSDPA, UMTS, W-CDMA, EDGE and GPRS on cellular carriers including Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Rogers, Telus, Bell Mobility, Telcel, Orange, Vodafone, O2, Telstra and others. In 2003, Proxicast introduced the revolutionary and award winning, LAN Cell Mobile Gateway, the original cellular router. Proxicast is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a privately-held corporation founded in 2000.
Press Contact
Jim Sabol
412-406-7068
Email: jim.sabol(at)proxicast(dot)com
Press photos of the LAN-Cell 3 are available at: http://www.proxicast.com/lc3/LC3-gallery-pr.htm
For more information, visit Proxicast’s web site at http://www.proxicast.com or
call 877-77PROXI / 877-777-7694 (U.S.) or 412-213-2477 (International)
Proxicast, LLC
312 Sunnyfield Drive, Suite 200
Glenshaw, PA 15116-1936 USA
Proxicast is a registered trademark of Proxicast, LLC. LAN-Cell, Modem-LOCK, PocketPORT are trademarks of Proxicast, LLC. All other brand, product and trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Jim Sabol
Proxicast
412-406-7068
Email Information
Nokia 808 Pureview arriving in the UK this week? - Techradar.com
The heavily delayed Nokia 808 Pureview could well grace the UK with its presence this week according to one online retailer.
Amazon.co.uk has the 808 Pureview available for pre-order, with the prospective date of arrival set to June 21 – just three days away.
It seems that Nokia may have been having some issues with its 41MP camera toting-handset, as the 808 Pureview's original release date was slated for April.
Delayed until July?
However Clove, another online retailer hasn't been quite so generous with its 808 Pureview release date, stating on its site: "First stock delayed until mid-late July ."
As for key UK mobile retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U, there's no mention of the Nokia 808 Pureview on their sites, so we have contacted them to find out what their plans are for the handset.
We contacted Nokia to see if Amazon is bang on the money, or if Clove had a more accurate estimate, but the Finnish company would not be drawn in, stating; "we haven't made any announcements about the UK availability of the Nokia 808 Pureview."
From Amazon
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