Author: Martin

Ever since I first visited the Fraunhofer FOKUS institute almost exactly two years ago, I've remained in contact with the researchers there as they are working on interesting research projects in the wireless core network and IMS domain. Next month, on the 14th and 15th of October, they are hosting a follow up to their IMS conferences in the previous years called "Future Seamless Communication" or FUSECO for short. They've got a long list of interesting topics and speakers for their conference both from the industry and academia, something I always enjoy as both sides can learn a lot from each other. If you are interested in wireless core network topics it's definitely a conference not to be missed. Here's the link for a closer look. Enjoy!

On of the shortcomings of current 3G networks compared to fixed line Internet connections is that to save power and network resources, most networks today put the connection into Idle state from which it takes considerable time (around 2.5-3 seconds) to come back into a fully active state. A solution for this is the Cell-PCH state from which the mobile can return into a more active state in less than a second. However, this state is not activated in many networks yet. For details on the topic see here, here and here. Lately, I have discovered that there are a number of live networks who have begun using Cell-PCH.

The latest example is Vodafone in Italy in some areas (e.g. in Rome, but not in Naples). While the other three networks in the country put the connection in Idle state after around 5-6 seconds in DCH state and around 30 seconds in Cell-FACH state, the Vodafone network puts the packet connection to my mobile into Cell-PCH state after having been in the fully active state for 5-6 seconds and 5-6 seconds in the Cell-FACH state afterwards. As my N95 does not support fast dormancy, I much prefer this behavior as my battery noticeably lasts longer and reaction times after reading a web page on the device for more than 30 seconds is much faster.

Back in 2006, UMTS was still a more or less new kid on the block and during my travels I often experienced interoperability issues with devices working well in their home network but not so well in other networks when traveling abroad. Here's an example. Things have considerably improved since then but still every now and then things go wrong. Here are some recent observations from Italy:

• My now already somewhat old N95 just won't stay in the WIND network in manual selection mode. At some point it looses the network and miraculously reappears on the TIM network. I've never seen before that the device would just go to another network while in manual network selection mode. Definitely a first.

• My default 7.2 Mbit/s 3G USB stick, which I would consider very stable in my German home network, every now and then completely looses the connection to the WIND network in Italy despite good network coverage and no movement and goes into network search mode. Quite incredible. Also it sometimes completely hangs and doesn't react anymore. Only a power cycle brings it back to live.

• It seems the stick quite frequently has a problem to go from Idle to Cell-DCH state. In such cases, the stick tries for about 30 seconds to change the state before it succeeds and data flows again. Totally unacceptable. The only thing that helps is a constant ping which keeps the connection at least in Cell-FACH state.

Luckily I still have my somewhat old Huawei E-220 with me. Despite being a bit bulky and only HSDPA 3.6 Mbit/s capable (no HSUPA), this is the most stable piece of 3G hardware I ever had and it displays non of the issues described above.

This year for the first time, data roaming prices in Europe are for the first time low enough for my mobile device Internet use, which is mostly Opera Mini and e-mail. With a still high price of around 2 Euros per megabyte, I wouldn't dare using it with a computer but for mobile browsing using compression and fine-tuned e-mail settings I use about 1 to 2 MB a day. That saves me the pain of carrying two devices simultaneously. Obviously for the notebook, I still prefer a local SIM card with a data option. But from a consumer point of view we are on a good way. I wonder how long it will take before I will dare using my home SIM card with a notebook, too!?

In the past couple of years I wrote a number of posts on how wireless Internet access for example via a 3G USB dongle will for some people be a good replacement for the DSL line at home (see here and here). During my recent stay in Italy I also found evidence of this there.

Two of my friends have each decided that a DSL line at home is too expensive and have given it up in favor of a 3G USB stick in one case and tethering the phone in the other case. As they are not heavy users, the amount of data included in their monthly option is more than enough for their use both at home and while underway. For heavy users and multi-member families with several devices at home that's not an option but for singles and single Internet connected device households its an interesting option to save money.

October is going to be an exciting month for me as I'll be in Oxford for a couple of days for two events:

The first is my two day 'Beyond 3G – Bringing Networks, Terminals and the Web Together' course, which follows the lines of one of my books. I am very happy to co-present with Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens and John Edwards of PicoChip who will bring in their great expertise from their angle of the industry. It's scheduled on October 13th/14th and you can find out more about the course via the link above. It would be great to see you there!

The second event which follows on October 15th is the Forum Oxford Mobile Apps and Technologies Conference, an event definitely not to be missed! I've attended and presented in the previous two conferences and I think it's THE mobile event of the year to visit!

In addition, there are two more courses that will run in the two days before the conference that might also be of interest to you: Tomi Ahonen will present his 'Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media' course on October 12th and 13th and Ajit Jaokar has a one day course on 'Mobile Application Stores' on October 14th.

It's going to be a packed week and I am very much looking forward to it!

After many many years of talking about higher quality speech codecs, Orange (France Telecom) is the first network operator to finally activate it in some of its 3G networks.

Having activated the Adaptive Multi Rate – Wide Band (AMR-WB) codec in Moldova about a year ago it seems they are now confident enough it works well and have decided to also switch it on in Orange UK. According to IntoMobile the devices that support the new codec with a software update are the Nokia 5230, X6, E5 and the Samsung Omnia Pro. Have a look at the IntoMobile page, there's an Engadget video that demonstrates the difference between AMR and AMR-WB. A very impressive difference!

While it may take a while before AMR-WB is widely used I can imagine that once people have experienced the difference they might just decide to switch carriers and phones when contract renewal comes up anyway to enjoy HD voice, as Orange calls it, with their most frequent and important contacts. Think wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, children, etc.

For further technical details on HD voice or AMR-WB, have a look at a number of posts I've written about the topic in the past.

Here's an interesting press release from Ericsson, not necessarily for all the self praise but more for the claim at the beginning of the text that it took them 20 years to sell one million base stations and then only three more years for the next million. Here's a couple of thoughts on these numbers:

• As the 20 years are counted up to 2007, the one million base stations must also include pre-GSM base stations as 2G base station shipments did not start until the early 1990's.

• The number shows nicely how mobile networks have spread over the world and how networks have been densified over the years to serve more users, increased use per person and increasing wireless Internet access bandwidth demands.

• It also shows that prices of base stations are declining as otherwise, Ericsson would have made a lot more money in the past three years than in the past 20.

• A base station of 20 years ago has little in common with a base station today when it comes to size, power consumption and capacity. When GSM first started, huge cabinets were required that could only support a few carriers. 

To summarize: Compared to 20 years ago, base stations have significantly shrunken in size and their capacity in number of simultaneous voice calls and also available data rates is orders of magnitude higher than in the early days. Together with decreasing prices this is what is required to serve the continuously increasing demand, both on the voice and the packet data side.

Congrats to Ericsson!

Computer World editor Mikael Ricknäs seems to have taken a little trip to Sweden to give the live LTE network there that operates on a 20 MHz carrier in the 2.6 GHz band as well as their 3G network a try. Very interesting numbers he gives in his report indeed, with peak downlink speeds of 59.1 MBit/s and peak uplink speeds of 18.2 MBit/s. Also, the reported HSPA speeds of up to 8.5 MBit/s (in a 5 MHz carrier) are quite notable. For the details, here's the link again to the article.

(Via LTE Watch)

SK Telecom over in Korea, one of the most advanced wireless countries in the world when you speak to Tomi Ahonen, has recently announced how they intend to increase their wireless network capacity. This article in the Korea Herald mentions capacity upgrades via six sector cell site compared to the 3 sector sites mostly used today, using Wi-Fi in areas where people requiring Internet access are mostly stationary, as well as femto cells and LTE. In other words, further capacity increases will mainly be achieved by further shrinking cell sizes on the macro layer and by building a very small cell grid with femtos and Wi-Fi to cover demand in very busy areas.

This makes me wonder at which point network operators will not charge you for a femto anymore but actually reduce the price of a DSL/mobile bundle when a subscriber puts a femto in place connected to his DSL line for general use!? 5 years from now, or maybe 10? I'll link back to this post when we are there 🙂