Author: Martin

Android and Huawei + T-Mobile and Prepaid

Android, Huawei, T-Mobile and prepaid, a very interesting combination! T-Mobile has just announced in the UK and also in Germany that they will ship Huawei's first Android smartphone in October. That's interesting from a number of different angles and the press release contains a couple of other interesting points:

First, Huawei has tried for some time to enter the mobile phone business with very mixed results to say the least. With Android they are launching another attempt and have found a mighty ally in their quest, T-Mobile. Announced back in February 2009 at the Mobile World Congress, Huawei seems to have pretty much met their projected release date. With T-Mobile going public, that probably means that both hardware and software must be well on their way, otherwise T-Mobile wouldn't push it that strongly.

Second is the price point: T-Mobile UK has announced that it will sell it in a prepaid bundle (no strings attached, no monthly contract) for 179 pounds, which is around 215 euros at the current exchange rate. For a smartphone with large display and touch screen, that sounds like an ultra-competitive price. It even undercuts Nokias 5800 low price touch phone, which currently sells for around 290 euros.  Let's see how processor speed, camera and other features work out at this price point. And that's only the initial price. I'd say it's quite likely the price will drop over time. Also interesting that T-Mobile UK announces the phone together with a prepaid offer. Definitely not targeted at the high-end market then.

Third is the data option: The post linked to above quotes the T-Mobile UK representative saying that an all you can eat data option for the device is 5 pounds a month. I guess they won't allow tethering but even without, the price is quite stunning and only a third of the current rate described here. 5 pounds a month on a prepaid SIM will probably make mobile Internet access interesting for even more people.

Orange in the Metro

Over the past year I have noticed that the Orange 2G and 3G network was getting slower and slower in the Paris metro, especially during rush hour. At some point it was almost unusable, with Opera Mini page load times exceeding 15 seconds. The strange thing was that it affected both the 2G and 3G network, so it's difficult to tell if this was due to an overload on the air interface or some other bottleneck in the system. Whatever it was, however, it has improved a lot lately. Opera Mini pages are now loading very quickly again and the e-mail client retrieves incoming messages in a flash. What ever you have done, dear Orange, it has worked. Or is it just that all the "Blackberries" are on vacation at the moment? Let's hope not…

Growth of the Number of Smartphone Operating Systems

About two to three years ago, a lot was written about mobile network operators and mobile developers and their difficulties resulting from the need to develop and maintain their offerings for number of different mobile operating systems and Java implementations. These days, however, I don't come across such reports often anymore.

I find that a bit surprising because instead of the number of mobile operating systems going down and thus also the concerns of network operators and developers, the number has actually gone up. Especially in the smartphone sector, Nokia and Microsoft no longer have a dominance and the list has become quite long these days:

  • Nokia with Symbian / S60,
  • Nokia with Maemo 5,
  • Microsoft with Windows Mobile,
  • Google with Android,
  • Apple with the iPhone OS,
  • Palm with the PalmPre WebOS,
  • RIM with the Blackberry OS.

Some are still more niche than others but all are quite popular in the news media and except for Palm, who's limited to CDMA for the moment (but probably not much longer), devices of all vendors can be seen in the street.

Also it seems the platform of choice for software development has shifted. Some years ago, you were working on Nokia / Symbian if you had a cool application. These days, I don't hear much of that anymore, with most developers having gone to the Apple platform.

So while for developers and network operators things are probably not getting any easier, the good things I see in diversity are more competition resulting in interesting new developments and better resiliency of the ecosystem against pandemic malware attacks.

The Cloud and Denial of Services

I am not a huge fan of services in the cloud, as discussed here towards the end of the presentation. Instead, I much prefer to have my services and data securely running and stored behind a firewall in my own home network readily accessible over a secure connection over the Internet from my wireless devices.

In the past weeks, lots of denial of service attacks have been launched on Twitter and some mashups and front-ends were blocked for days because they could not have been distinguished from the DoS attack. In effect, no Twitter service for me when I wanted to use it a number of times.

These incidents made me think about my views on connected home services again. Dabr, the Twitter front-end I use on my mobile device can also be installed on a different server, e.g. at home, and would thus probably not have been an indirect victim of the DoS attack. Another thought was what would happen, if in the future a very popular web based service would be the target of a DoS and you wouldn't be able to use your critical applications for days. Not from home and not from the mobile either. Not a nice thought.

Sure, it's possible to launch a DoS attack on connected home services, too but it's unlikely that anyone would go through all the pain and expense just to make life difficult for one person.

I guess that, too speaks for distribution of private services rather than concentration in the cloud.

The Nokia N900 – Escape from the Cloud and Jail?

Next week Nokia World 2009 will be held in Stuttgart and while I am waiting for the press to give me the details of the event while I am roaming in the Scottish highlands I've been thinking a bit about what Nokia's recent announcements around the new Nokia N900 could mean for the future of mobile devices.

To me, the current smartphone market by and large looks as follows:

S60

For the moment I am still stuck with my S60 driven Nokia N95. The OS so far is closed source but anyone can develop programs for it and does not depend on Nokia to allow or certify anything if the developer thinks the user can handle a couple of warnings during program installation. To get rid of them, programs can be certified by Nokia / S60, which takes a bit of time, but unless the program does something really malicious, Nokia / S60 have no preconceptions on what should be allowed or not. While this sounds all great and a lot of applications are available, S60 has lost a lot of mindshare in the past 18 months. Many developers are now preferring the iPhone OS or Android when it comes to new and cool stuff. On top, Nokia has decided to strip out a couple of cool features in its latest phones such as VoIP, a killer argument for me against buying another S60 phone in the future.

The Jail

And then, of course, there is the iPhone. Great marketing, great user interface, very easy to use. Unfortunately, it has no multitasking and Apple is pretty opinionated on what should run on the iPhone and what not. The latest Apple / Google quarrel is a good example. No, thank you, not my piece of cake, either. When I buy a device, I should be the one to decide what I want to run on it and what not.

The Cloud

Next, there's Android. Based on Linux and undoubtedly very innovative, it is most useful if the user shares his private data with Google servers in the cloud. From a usage perspective, it's great, as your e-mail, address book, documents, etc. are available and synchronized between all devices of a user. I like that a lot but I don't like sharing my private data with Google or with anyone else for that matter. Private synchronization or connected home services are the way forward to me. For details, see here.

The Rest: And then there are OS'es like Windows Mobile and the the Palm Pre's WebOS which either fall into one of the categories above or in between.

The N900 – To The Rescue?

So what I want from a mobile device is quite simply described:

  • An OS for which new and innovative programs are developed for
  • Multitasking
  • My private data should be treated privately
  • I decide which programs I want to use on my device and no one else.

Or in short: The same experience as I have on my PC and my netbook: I decide!

With Nokia announcing the Linux / Meamo based N900 smartphone I am getting my hopes up again a bit. Maemo has already been around for a number of years now on Nokia's Internet tablets so I have a fair idea of what it is and what it is not. While I've so far not been very impressed by it due to lacking 2G / 3G support, wrong form factor and slow speed, Nokia seems to have an answer to all of that with the N900. 600 MHz processor speed should hopefully take care of speed issues, 2G/3G network support has been added and the physical dimensions of the device are in the same ballpark as my current N95. Also, Nokia says that it will be VoIP capable.

On top, Maemo, at least up until now, has been a very open platform from various angles: First, it's based on Linux so it's very well known in the developer community. Second, unlike with Android, where applications developers have to work with a Java framework for their applications and have no direct access to the OS, Maemo works just like a PC based Linux distribution: (Almost) everything is fully open to developers, existing programs can easily be ported to Maemo and there is no lengthy certification process. In other words, while Android is based on Linux but doesn't give access to it to applications, Maemo fully does, unless, Nokia decides to remove that openness in the new version of Maemo. Let's hope not.

So if Nokia plays it right, they will make developers happy, they will make users like me happy and they've sold their first smartphone in two years to me!

Diversity Rules

But don't get me wrong here, I don't argue for a full and open Linux phone to be the one and only answer. I think there's also a place for devices that do fewer things, that are not as configurable and expandable, that are more tightly controlled. The reasons for that are plenty: Ease of use, better support from manufacturers or network operators for users, etc. etc. While many users might want that on their PC world and thus might prefer it in the mobile world too, there are many, like me, who thrive on openness!

VOLGA – Voice over LTE via GAN – A Technical Introduction

Volga-pic A main feature that is missing in LTE so far is a viable standardized system for voice calls for the short and medium term. Sure, 3GPP has specified CS fallback and many network operators are hoping for IMS in the long-term. However, in my opinion, both leave LTE very exposed on the voice front at least over the next couple of years.

That's why I am a fan of VOLGA, short for Voice over LTE via GAN as it offers a smooth way of connecting the already existing voice infrastructure to LTE. I've already voiced my thoughts on it here and here, but blog posts can't really go into the technical details. So with the kind support of Kineto Wireless, I've assembled a whitepaper about VOLGA to describe how it works and its advantages and disadvantages compared to other voice over IP systems for wireless networks. So if you have a bit of time and are interested in the details, have a look and enjoy!

Is (Mobile) VoIP Driving Down Voice Prices?

In a discussion around VoIP someone recently said to me that he thinks that "non-network operator supplied" VoIP is having a big impact on voice prices, both in fixed and mobile networks. I am not quite sure this is yet the case, however. When looking at prices for fixed and mobile voice calls, it can be observed in most countries where telecommunication was liberalized a decade or so ago, that prices are falling. This has consistently been happening over that time, long before VoIP came up.

From my point of view, falling fixed and mobile voice prices are more a result of competition between incumbent and startup telecom companies, who are offering voice services over circuit switched technology.

Technology has advanced, so in many cases, voice calls are transmitted over IP in the backbone networks of network operators and also internationally, but that's still virtual circuit switching and not 'end to end' VoIP over the Internet. Sure, there are services such as Skype, which are free while the call stays between two users of the same service but all people I know use it as additionally to circuit switched services rather than a replacement.

So why are VoIP services still lacking popularity today? I think it's quality of service and ease of use, in which end-to-end VoIP is still very much behind traditional circuit switched voice. That doesn't mean VoIP isn't catching up, but in my opinion we are not yet at a point where VoIP is a serious threat to circuit switched fixed and wireless voice.

As always, comments are welcome.

LTE Test Network with 20 Base Stations in Austria

Heise news reports today about an LTE field trial T-Mobile is performing right now in Innsbruck, Austria and lists some interesting details about it:

  • Base stations: The outdoor test network consists of 20 base stations with three sectors each, supplied by Huawei.

    Note: That's a good network setup to test the impact of neighbor cell interference, a major factor that limits throughput in live networks. If the network vendor has implemented a test mode in the base stations, it might even be possible to simulate neighbor cell interference as there are probably not enough mobiles yet to generate meaningful load in all cells of the setup.

  • Backhaul: Fiber backhaul (200 MBit/s) is used. Looks like Innsbruck has good network infrastructure in place!
  • Frequency band: The 2.6 GHz frequency band is used.
  • Throughput: Downlink up to 35 MBit/s, uplink up to 31 MBit/s with a 20 MHz carrier.

    Note1: That sounds quite realistic as there's probably not much interference from neighboring cells yet due to the limited number of mobile devices used in the trial.

    Note 2: Broken down to a 5 MHz carrier for easy comparison with HSPA, the speed would have been 8.75 MBit/s (disregarding statistical multiplexing gains of a broader channel). I wonder what the speed would be today with HSPA+, 64QAM (no MIMO) and suitable devices. I suppose it would not be much less. Happy to hear your thoughts on this!

  • Round trip delay times: 21 ms. Very nice, current HSPA technology in live networks have a round trip time of around 100-110 ms.
  • Mobile device used: No names given but the picture in the original post is interesting!

    Note: Looks like the devices they used are still early proof of concepts. Side note: The LG dongle sized LTE mobile I've seen at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year was already a lot smaller.

MIMO Testing Challenges

Over at Betavine Witherwire there's an interesting post on the challenges of consistently testing multi-antenna devices which will shortly appear on the market. The author of the post mentions that even without MIMO, 3G network capacity could increase by 50% if all devices are equipped with multiple receive antennas and sophisticated noise cancellation algorithms. Obviously that also translates in higher throughput per device. Consequently, network operators are likely to be very interested in these developments and accurate testing of the performance enhancements is a must.

While many tests with mobile devices today are performed with the air interface simulated over a cable, that won't work that easily anymore for MIMO and receive diversity as the antennas in the device are effectively bypassed. It's the antennas and their location and shape inside the device, however, that will make the big difference. More details in the post linked to above.

So I wonder if it's possible to model the impact of the antennas by simulating their characteristics in addition to the signal path with a simulator box that sits on the cable between a real base station and the mobile device)!?

A formidable challenge and I look forward to what the guys in 3GPP RAN4 come up with.

Apartment Hunting, The Internet and Mobile Technology

Looking for an apartment is a tough job as you can probably imagine, especially if you are looking far away from your home town. Here are some reflections from an Internet and mobility point of view from such an undertaking.

Preparation

No idea how apartment hunting worked in the days before the Internet and mobile phones, but I am sure the experience must have been tough. The non wireless part of the search from a technology point of view is of course the Internet and good web portals with apartment offers. For Germany, Immobilienscout24 is a good place to start. From there, I assembled a list of apartments I wanted to see and contacted the real-estate agents for appointments a couple of days before traveling to my new hometown. Already here, mobile technology helped a lot as most agents are not really sitting around in their office waiting for their desk phones to ring.

Navigation

Once on the ground, the mobile phone on my end came into the game. Most agents called me a day or a couple of hours before the meeting to make sure I hadn't lost interest. I big time saver for them. A big time saver on my end was Nokia maps on my N95 as navigating through an unknown city is much easier that way. When new to a town, for example, it's often confusing when one should get out of the bus or tram unless of course there is some mobile GPS help in your phone and you can see the destination in the maps application and your location relative to it in real time.

Netbook Help

After having seen some apartments and getting a first feeling for the city and the different neighborhoods,  I decided that some parts of town I hadn't considered so far would also be a good place to live.  The netbook I recently bought and a wireless Internet connection were quite helpful while still out and about to find some more interesting places to see. This worked well and the mobile phone was very useful to contact agents and arrange for a meeting immediately or the next day.  That saved a lot of time as well as it's not necessary to wait until you are back home in the evening. Instead, it can be done between two appointments.

Remove all the technology invented in the past 20 years from this experience and it would have looked entirely different.

The Future

I can't remember exactly where I've seen it before but I can imagine that augmented reality could help to make the process even smoother in the future. Hold your GPS and compass enabled camera phone into the direction of a street you think would be nice to live in and your location and direction will be sent to a server on the net (just like my apartment search portal I used manually). The server then queries the database, returns the available apartments close by that fit my preferences and the phone shows them as an overlay to the image I see on the screen. Yes, I can well imagine that and it would have been great to have it as I often thought that a street looked particularly nice and that it would be great to find something here. Well, still in the future today, but I wonder if 20 years from now people will wonder how they could have ever found an apartment without this technology!?