According to a German article in Heise Security researchers in Europe's dedected.org group have published an article during this year's Chaos Communications Congress (25C3) how to eavesdrop on DECT transmissions by using a PC-Card costing only EUR 23. There are hundreds of millions of terminals, ranging from telephones, to electronic payment terminals, to door openers, using the DECT standard.

Read this article for more information.

Just after we have received Sony Ericsson’s press release we received another one from the Open Handset Alliance. Next to Sony Ericsson, 13 other companies made the same move: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone.

New members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices. With these commitments, the Open Handset Alliance will continue to drive greater and faster innovation for the benefit of mobile users and everyone in the industry.

Is this relevant for CAT-iq. Yes in my mind it is. A platform like Android (and Symbian, Windows Mobile and don't forget Apple iPhone) could be used for CAT-iq products as well. Realize what that would help application developers. They can develop the same applications for mobile and other ce/ict products and CAT-iq products.

Mobile chip vendor Broadcom has launched a new combination mobile chip that integrates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM connectivity. The chip - the BCM4329 - is the vendor's first embedded chip to support the 802.11n WLAN standard. Broadcom said that 802.11n connectivity would allow mobile devices to offer speeds of around 50Mb/s making it ideal for multimedia phones. The firm pointed to an ABI Research study that claims that combination chips will account for almost a third of all mobile connectivity solutions shipped by 2012. Broadcom said recently it is planning to introduce a new combination chip every 60 days over the coming months.

Speaking to Mobile Business Briefing, Chris Bergey, director of Broadcom's Embedded Wireless business unit, said that the new chip was a natural migration path for customers using Broadcom's BCM4325, its flagship combination chip launched at GSMA Mobile World Congress in February 2007. Bergey added that the lowering cost of combination chips is allowing an increasing number of mobile devices to offer Wi-Fi connectivity. He noted that the Bill of Materials (BOM) cost for supporting Wi-Fi connectivity in mobile handsets had dropped to around US$3 and that Wi-Fi was now less of a "power-hog" on a handset's battery life than 3G. He said the new chip was suitable for media-centric "feature phones" as well as smartphones and products such as netbooks. In a statement, Broadcom said the BCM4329 is scheduled for "significant production quantities" in 2009.

Chipvendors, when will the first combined CAT-iq / DECT / Wi-FI etc. etc. chip see the light?

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is planning to release a new version of Bluetooth in mid-2009. As expected, Bluetooth 2.2 will deliver transfer rates at higher speeds than previous versions.

The idea of the new High Speed Bluetooth specification is to work with WLAN or USB for improved data rates, and will be known as Bluetooth 10x and Bluetooth 100x, respectively. For this to work, a mobile phone will need to be equipped with WLAN or UWB radio. Hence Bluetooth 10x will be used first, since many of the newer handsets already have WiFi capabilities built-in.

Unfortunately, we don’t know which of the existing devices will be upgradable to the new Bluetooth specification. The way I see it, smartphones should stand first in the line for any upgrades, although some of the modern WiFi-enabled feature phones could also see such an update. Naturally, we’ll get back to you as soon as we hear something new on the subject.

orignal source Cnet

DECT handset maker predicts 3G gateways will lose the 'fight for the living room'; says 25% of mobile infrastructure market will be WiMAX in five years.
Gigaset said Thursday that femtocell technology lacks any kind of viable business model, and will fail to gain any meaningful traction in the consumer market. 

The DECT handset maker, which was spun off from Siemens at the beginning of October, said the only realistic application for femtocells is in an office environment.

"Femtocells will die after a short while because there isn't a business case," said José Costa e Silva, CEO of Gigaset. Speaking to Total Telecom, he said that only "hardcore" mobile phone users will be prepared to pay for femtocells. "They make more sense in offices and high rise buildings where coverage is poor and people are using mobile phones for work, but not in the home," he said. Costa e Silva said he expects consumers will be sceptical of having what is essentially a mini base station in their houses.

read the rest of the article in Total Telecom

The DECT Forum and Informa Telecoms and Media announce that the registration is open now for the 13th Global DECT CAT-iq Conference on February 3rd and 4th 2009 in Amsterdam.

With the release of CAT-iq 2.0 and version 3.0 coming soon, the DECT Forum has reached a milestone and technology shift, enabling innovative products and leadingedge services for IP based broadband home communication. CAT-iq – introduced in 2006 as a new technology standard for All-IP networks and successor of DECT – is reality now and has the potential to leverage the profitability of the entire home communication industry.

“If you are in the home or enterprise communication business or in the broadband home gateway business you should attend the DECT CAT-iq World Conference in
Amsterdam. The quality of information and number of attendees has grown constantly over the last years and I am sure that 2009 will become the most successful
conference ever”, says Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum.

The DECT CAT-iq Conference 2009 will present the winners of the first International CAT-iq Student Design Competition, which has been initiated by the DECT Forum. With the Design Competition the DECT Forum inspired design students from all over the world to create out of the box products and exciting services for the next generation of home communication.

As a participant of the conference you will be able to be one of the first to see exciting award winning CAT-iq design studies and meet their creators.