WirelessMoves

When you perform a manual network search in the UK today, you'll see 5 networks on the display. They are in no particular order:

• O2
• Vodafone
• T-Mobile
• Three
• Orange

But in fact with the recent decision of the UK regulator to allow network sharing between Vodafone and O2, there are a mere two mobile networks left in the UK. And non of the above mentioned 5 companies are actually operate one of those networks anymore. And here's why:

T-Mobile and Orange have merged and are soon going to be re-branded Everything Everywhere (EE) for consumers as well. From what's in the press they have already begun to put their network together, which reduces the number of companies to 4.

And then there's the UMTS network sharing deal between EE (form the T-Mobile side) and Three UK in a common company called MBNL (Mobile Broadband Network Limited). On their web page they write:

"Having successfully delivered the consolidation project, MBNL is now responsible for managing the consolidated network of sites including the 2G and consolidated 3G radio access networks for Three UK and Everything Everywhere. We are also responsible for the delivery of all site upgrades to continuously improve the consolidated network."

So we are down to three, i.e. MBNL, Vodafone and O2. But now Vodafone and O2 have been allowed to share their network as well, perhaps to 'compensate' the two companies for EE's early LTE start in the 1800 MHz band? As part of the network sharing agreement, Vodafone and O2 will establish a new network operator called "Cornerstone" that will manage and operate their consolidated network.

In other words, in the future there will only be two networks left in the UK:

• MBNL
• Cornerstone

I really wonder how under such circumstances competition will continue to flourish!?

In effect, Vodafone will be unable to differentiate from O2 and EE has no real means to differentiate from Three. They all claim that using their own spectrum will keep competition alive but I strongly doubt that. After all, everything is shared, from the antennas, to the base station to the backhaul. Only core networks will remain in the hands of the 4 'hollow operators'. So what for example if one gets a capacity issue in some locations? If the company had its own base station it could simply add a carrier. But that won't work so easily now because the base station and backhaul is shared. Is there enough capacity and room left for another carrier? Also, putting another base station into place close by will be difficult as the partner that shares the network might not want to do that. Perhaps putting micro base stations somewhere under direct control of the parent? Again difficult because neighbor cell relationships and handovers need to be coordinated. No, probably not possible with a shared network either. And even without that the bill is likely to come later when 'real' network operator asks for more money after the contract expires.

So it's down to two networks in the UK and it's going to be difficult to impossible to revert that trend if things don't work out for the consumer. A hazardous and unnecessary experiment…

Recently I read that one of the 4 big network operators in the US supposedly has 37.000 base stations in the country. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

Well perhaps, but only until you compare it to other places in the world. Take Vodafone Germany for example. Back in 2009 they said that they have 20.000 GSM base stations, so about half of that number above. But, it's for a population of 82 million compared to almost 314 million in the US and a landmass that is significantly smaller than the US. From that point of view 37.000 base stations is not very much and explains a lot…

Back in 2009 I reported on 3GPP standardizing a feature for mobile devices and SIM cards referred to as 'In Case of Emergency' or ICE. The idea behind it was, and still is, to offer a standardized way to store emergency contacts and information and to give access to the information to first responders such as medics, doctors and hospital personnel. Standardized is the important word here because it should be easy for first responders to find and access the information. Unfortunately the idea never really took off, and I think that's a real shame for the mobile industry as a lot could be achieved to help in medical emergencies with little effort. But at least some parts of the idea seem to have made it into some mobile devices. Take a look at the picture of a recent Android device I saw in Korea that has a default 'ICE' group in the phone book. I don't know how much this will help in practice as I had no time to see if the information is accessible from the password screen. Without that the information would inaccessible to first responders as most people lock their devices these days. However, it's a first step and perhaps the idea will spread and be developed some more.

And here's the post I hinted at earlier on cellular network coverage in the popular district I've been reporting about with an antenna on everything that does not move. Think I exaggerate? Then have a look at the screenshot on the left, produced with output from my Cell Logger App. Each red dot is the location at which a change to a new, so far, useen cell has occured (i.e. cell ping-pongs already removed!). The cell density is incredible, about one cell every 50 meters (have a look at the map resolution). And that is only SK's network which uses 3 carriers in this area. Signal levels are also way higher than in most other places I have performed measurements so. Signal strenghts up to -40 dbm are not unusal there. And no, I am not kidding, it is really -40 dbm. The meter never went far below -65 dbm in that area. In that 600 x 400 m area (0.25 km²) I walked up and down there were no less than 15 individual cells! Compare that to, lets say, busy areas in Cologne were cells are typically spaced apart 300 meters.

In a previous post I had a couple of nice pictures on wired and wireless chaos in a popular Seoul district. One might wonder if there are any cables that are deployed underground? To my surprise there are! Here's a picture of a KT crew deploying a new cable on a Sunday. I had a look down into the cable duct and there were lots of others already there, pretty much in the same chaos as those on the poles. The cable was manufactured… by Samsung 🙂 Is there anything that this company does not manufacture?

After my somewhat down to earth mobile network experiences in Beijing I've traveled on to Seoul, Korea and here, network connectivity was just the opposite. Internet hotel access was fast, 3G mobile networks were everywhere, voice quality in calls to Europe was superb and my email and web browsing via the UMTS was again as it should be: Yes, fast. Just around the corner from the hotel were small shops and restaurants that seemed very popular with the local youth. People are stylish and everyone seemed to carry at least two Samsung smartphones with at least one in active use at any time. Many people in restaurants were students working with books and their notebooks, connected to the Internet of course. I've seen a lot when it comes to mobile network usage but this is a new dimension. So obviously I wondered how mobile network operators cover this area!?

I'd say government employees in French libraries complaining about headaches after Wi-Fi access points for visitors were installed would drop dead instantly from self inflicted fear in this area. It seems that everything that does not move has several antennas on top or on the side.  Cables from telephone poles outside seemed to spread out in a big web to the houses nearby in total chaos, Wi-Fi access points are mounted to poles and even to cable loops themselves (picture one on the left). Antennas on seemingly every second rooftop pointed in all directions (second picture on the left) and were almost as plentiful as the Wi-Fi access points at street level.

And then there were those strange antennas at street level everywhere that seemed to be pointed in random directions down alleys, at buildings and many of them seemed to be, well, not quite pointed into the direction anymore as originally intended. The third picture shows a not out of the ordinary example.

I tried to figure out what exactly those antennas are for. Some of them say "KT Wibro" on the side which is descriptive enough but none of those I had a closer look at with my mobile tracer seemed to emit a 3G signal. After I saw those antennas again in other less frequented parts of the city in even more impossible locations I am pretty much convinced they connect to home Wi-Fi routers or are  at the other end of indoor repeaters.

Despite the wired and wireless chaos, it seems to work as my calls got thorough, my Internet worked and probably also for the people glued to the screens of their smartphones in the streets. Stay tuned, in the next post I'll get somewhat more technical with an insight on on cell density, interference and signal strengths in this area.

When it comes to novels and movies that involve computer security, many book authors only have a superficial knowledge and at the point where the thief, agent, etc. uses a 'sophisticated' device that discovers the code for a security system digit by digit I usually switch off in disgust. But there are exceptions such as Mark Russinovich's novels.

Mark is one of the guys behind Sysinternals, bought by Microsoft a couple of years ago and has intimate knowledge Windows and its security architecture. And lately, he's ventured into the domain of writing cybercrime fiction. I first discovered his book "Zero Day" last year when I was in Seattle via a recommendation on the weekly Security Now podcast with Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson. Otherwise I'd probably have never picked up a copy as his name was unfamiliar to me. I read it within a couple of days and was totally addicted as the scenarios were very realistic.

A year later and Mark has come up with a sequel 'Trojan Horse'. This time I read it on a pad instead of picking up a hard cover version and again finished it within a couple of days and didn't sleep enough during that time. He gives even more technical details in this book and the only thing he got wrong from what I can tell is that to get root permissions on an Android phone, it has to be rooted and not jail-broken. The plot is fast paced and believable, the technical details are accurate and frightening but it's good to know that the protagonist needed some help from his friends at the NSA to get certain kind of data (no spoiler here…). In plots of non-tech authors that would probably have been just a few clicks away.

I'm totally hooked and I hope Mark will come up with another sequel. 5-star recommendation!

When it come to networking equipment in fixed and wireless networks, Chinese companies are selling their equipment to the rest of the world and their components can be found in many western countries. When it comes to network operators in their own country and providing connectivity to destinations outside the country, however, there is quite some room for improvement yet.

After a week in Beijing I have to say it was a bit of a sobering network experience. Both in the hotel and during the conference I attended in a different place, connectivity to Europe was good in early morning hours and my VPN tunnel to Germany established just fine. Over time, the connection got slower and slower and at some point, packet loss was so high that the VPN broke down and would not re-establish again. Even wihtout the VPN, data exchange was hardly possible. In other words, the link to Europe was hopelessly underdimensioned. It wasn't the local connectivity, however, as destinations in the US remained usable. When establishing a VPN tunnel to the US and going to Europe from there, the network remained quite usable. Interesting.

My biggest disappointment were the mobile networks in Beijing, however. There is only one (China Unicom) offering WCDMA 3G and due to a configuration error on the network side I could not use it for data. China Mobile is the other carrier usable with GSM/UMTS devices but only with 2G EDGE. Here, however, Internet connectivity to Europe was very slow to unusable, with page load times of even compressed pages by Opera Mini stretching to 30 seconds or more or timing out altogether. Again probably not due to local speeds but due to an underdimensioned backhaul towards Europe.

And finally, mobile voice calls between China and Europe usually had a very bad voice quality and I and other people had voice calls suddenly interrupted in the middle of the call and were connected to a confused Chinese speaker. During a call? Never had that before. Also, incoming calls usually had random calling IDs and type of numbers, national, international, sometimes even three leading 0's. Amazing that companies dare to ask for 3 Euros a minute for such service.

Not that this has to be that way. In other countries in Asia, such problems are non existent. I don't want to be negative here, but there is a lot of room for improvement here. Time to play catch-up in Beijing!

Everyone occasionally flying long-haul has probably experienced it before: The crappy in-flight entertainment system crashes in the middle of a movie and restaring the Windows-CE based system usually takes the better part of half an hour. Once restarted, navigating through the menu structure is still slow but often the movies work again. But it seems Windows is on the retreat here as well and not only in the church. Recently I've flown on a new Airbus that must have just rolled out from the factory in Toulouse. The in-flight entertainment system was behaving snappily to user input but had a little burb as well. A bit of an annoyance but it revealed what it's running on. Fedora (Linux), Apache Web server and pages generated using PHP. Apache 2.0.54 is just 7.5 years old (see here) but it seems to do the job, when it finds the information required, that is. Anyway, an interesting insight.

Now here is another number of ponder on: Once upon a time, back in the 1990's, GSM base stations where connected via 2 MBit/s E-1 backhaul links. With a data rate of 16 kbit/s required for one voice call, 120 simultaneous calls could be transmitted over such a link, minus some channels for control information. At the time, only a fraction was used and a single E-1 was usually daisy-chained to several base stations. Today, I have a 25 MBit/s DSL line to my home for my own use with a 5 MBit/s uplink. Voice has evolved and half-rate AMR now uses 6.75 kbit/s. Just think about the number of voice calls the DSL line I have for my own could transport: 5000 kbit/s / 6.75 kbits/s = 740. Subtract IP overhead, etc. and we should still be at around 500 simultaneous calls over my DSL line. And even if full-rate AMR was used it would still be 250 simultaneous calls over my private DSL line. Incredible how technology has evolved.