DSL remains the dominant broadband access technology, accounting for 59.8% of fixed broadband connections in the 30 countries of the OECD at the end of 2008.
For the first time since the technology came to the mass-market, however, the majority of net additions during 2008 were not DSL, which accounted for only 46.2% of new fixed broadband lines, according to the latest research figures released by Analysys Mason, global adviser to the telecoms, IT and media industries. (www.analysysmason.com).
 
According to research by Analysys Mason, cable is taking a growing share of new connections and, despite the economic downturn, residential
fibre-to-the-home(FTTH) is also gaining line share.

“Operators are competing in one or more of three areas: price, speed or content and services,” explains Martin Scott, Senior Analyst at Analysys Mason.

“Cable operators have at least a marginal advantage in all three of these areas, but content and services is their true advantage. Cable operators frequently have larger content portfolios and longer-standing relationships with rights holders. Because at the core of their service bundles they have TV, spend on which seems to be relatively protected in the recession, cable operators are likely to be best positioned to maintain their share of net additions in 2009.”

Scott says that, while 8Mbit/s is considered ‘fast enough’ by consumers in many markets, this speed is only achievable on a small proportion of lines that use ADSL. Cable operators following the DOCSIS3.0 upgrade route to next-generation access (NGA) often find it less costly than DSL operators to build fibre closer to the home, which often makes cable’s case for ultrafast broadband appear much more attractive than that of telcos, he explains.

“DSL may be losing net additions across the OECD in general, but France, Germany and Mexico still demonstrate a strong bias towards DSL, so it appears that there are still quite a few years left for the world’s dominant broadband access technology. Advances such as dynamic spectrum management (DSM) are still being made.”

 

 

This posting on zdnet.com by Jason Perlow is an example of VoIP in combination with DECT 6.0 for making free calls. This is an US one, but in many service procviders around the world deploy comparable services.
Why do we post this in the CAT-iq blog, you might ask.

Well simple, suppose the product called OOMA had a CAT-iq connector instead of DECT Connector, the quality of the audio (speech) would be superior and many other IP based services via the CAT-iq hadset / product would be feasable.

The article contains one minor misstake. It is not a 'wireless DECT 3.0 phone base station (an inexpensive Panasonic set)' as mentioned, but a 'wireless DECT 6.0 phone base station (an inexpensive Panasonic set)'.

Read the article.

An interesting article about the different frequencies and DECT 6.0. For those who don't know what DECT 6.0 is, that is the DECT implementation in the United States.

The dawn of the 21st Century has technology running at such a fast clip that even the most enthusiastic person can get tired of trying to keep up with it all. Regarding cordless phone technology, the recent arrival of DECT 6.0 not only begs the question of what it actually is, but also might provoke a debate over the pros and cons of different cordless phone frequencies. Let's take a closer look at the three dominant frequencies today and try to answer the question: if they could talk, what would they say?

Read the complete article, written by Paul Wise.

DECT technology in the baby room.

The Philips AVENT baby monitor offers DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication) technology that guarantees a secure, private connection with crystal clear sound and guarantees zero interference to give mom and dad complete control, comfort and assurance.

Read the complete article.

 

 

 

Although cellular handset will continue to dominate shipments of devices with integrated GPS, the next growth spurt will come from mobile consumer electronics (CE) and mobile computing applications, reports In-Stat.

Mobile computing and CE devices will comprise over 100 million units in 2013.

"With growing attach rates and market maturity, GPS chipset providers must carefully evaluate which technologies to integrate into single chip solutions," says Jim McGregor, In-Stat’s Chief Technology Strategist. "Integration of the RF front-end and base band processor may not be enough. For example, which radio makes the most sense to integrate with, given the single mini-card slot of PC-based platforms?"

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Although the number of devices shipping with integrated GPS is increasing, the attach rates and the devices shipments have been hampered by the faltering economy.
• By 2012, there will be more CE devices with integrated GPS shipping than there are stand alone personal navigation devices.
• Mobile computing holds a lot of promise for GPS with 26 million GPS enabled units shipping in 2013, but there are barriers. In the netbook segment for example, cost, integrating yet another antenna, only one mini-card slot will inhibit adoption.
• CPUs must be integrated (ARM, x86, Mips, etc.) to manage the host processor load.
• Infrastructure radios (802.11, Wi-Max, LTE etc.) are likely candidates for integration.

Interesting to see that the in-Stat guys are overlooking CAT-iq as a possible infrastructure radio, as mentioned in the last bullet.

And what sort of CE products do they mean?

There has been a major jump in usage, page views and data transfers for Opera Mini this month. In March 2009, more than 23 million people used Opera Mini, a 12.1% increase from February 2009 and more than 157% increase from March 2008. Those users viewed more than 8.6 billion pages in March 2009. Since February, page views have gone up 17.4%. Year over year (YoY), page views have increased 255%.

The full State of the Mobile Web report is available from this site.
 
The growth in data transfers also highlights the value Opera Mini offers global operators. In March 2009, Opera Mini served 148 million MB of data to handsets worldwide. Since February, the data consumed went up by 19.3%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed 90% on average. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed nearly 1.4 PB of data in March. Since March 2008, data traffic is up 319%.
 
About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. 

 

New CAT-iq product will be able to link to the web directly. Some of these products will be able to have a browser. Could Opera be one of the browsers? 

 

According to a new study from Ovum, the global analyst and consulting company, global economic downturn depressed valuations and dealmaking in the telecom sector in 4Q08.
Based on Ovum’s report, titled Financial Deals Industry Insight – Telecommunications (4Q08 edition), M&A deal count was 129 in 4Q08, from 192 in 4Q07, with only four deals valued above US$1B, from 10 in 4Q07. Public stock offerings dried up, from 14 deals in 4Q07, to just two in 4Q08: both from carriers based in the relatively robust Middle East & Africa region. Private placements also fell, from 25 deals in 4Q07 to just six announced in 4Q08: five small ones, and a large one in Asia Pacific: Telenor’s $1.2B for a 60% stake in India’s Unitech Wireless. Venture financing was flat year-over-year in 4Q08 (deal count and value), with most funds targeting US-based vendor start-ups.

Matt Walker, Ovum principal analyst and author of the report, says “the financial market turmoil resulted in the acceleration of some deals, but uncertainty was the dominant factor. While this uncertainty lasts, there is incentive to sit and wait, until expectations and valuations stabilize. Preliminary analysis of 1Q09 results confirms this view, but finds activity picking up in some areas.”

Noting that telecom is a huge industry worldwide, with service revenues of roughly US$1.4 trillion in 2008, and network capex of $200 billion, Walker says it was inevitable that the industry be impacted by macroeconomic conditions. However, he adds, “Telco financial health is stronger than several years ago. The industry has a variety of funding mechanisms available, and it is still perceived as central to economic growth”. Further, in several large markets – such as China, the US, Germany and Australia – telecom players are receiving government support (e.g. direct subsidy, tax breaks, and so on) aimed at offsetting the recession’s impact on telecom’s fortunes.

As for the outside advisory piece of telecom dealmaking, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Citigroup led the legal and financial advisory rankings in the telecommunications sector, respectively.

Figure 1 (attached) shows the legal and financial advisor ranking tables for 2008 within the telecom sector.

legal_advisors_ranking.pdf (6,81 kb)

 

Looking ahead, M&A activity is likely to pick up again in late 2009, with deals concentrated in emerging markets after a couple of large ones in the US in 2008 (Verizon-Alltel and CenturyTel-Embarq). After a relatively quiet 2008, vendor M&A in 2009 will likely be more significant, as exemplified by the (non-telecom) acquisition of Sun by Oracle on April 20. Venture financing should be broadly consistent with 2008, when wireless, software/applications, and chips were the hottest segments, along with a smattering of deals in the optical, packet, and FTTx/IPTV area.

As for public offerings, as long as stock markets remain jittery, telcos and vendors will look to private placements and other vehicles for needed capital. Emerging markets may see more public offerings in 2009, as was the case in 2008, when the biggest public deals globally came from Turk Telecom ($2.0B IPO in May) and Zain Saudi Arabia ($1.9B in March).

Håkan Rippe appointed Head of Corporate Development at Enea.
 
Enea®, a global software and services company focused on solutions for communication-driven products, today announced the appointment of Håkan Rippe as its new Senior Vice President Corporate Development. He will be responsible for strategic and structural development including mergers and acquisitions.
 
"We shall actively participate in our industry's ongoing structural change to continuously develop Enea. Håkan Rippe has a genuine corporate development experience from the global software and services industry that makes him perfect for the new role at Enea", said Per Åkerberg, president and CEO, Enea.   
 
Håkan Rippe has worked with corporate development in the IT- and software industry for 15 years and has participated in more than 30 corporate transactions. In 1999 he joined Telelogic where he contributed to multiply the size of the company through several strategic acquisitions. Since 2008 Håkan Rippe has been a Business Development Executive at IBM's Rational Software unit.
 
Håkan Rippe has a M.Sc. from Chalmers in Gothenburg. He will start at Enea in May 2009.

Silicon, OEM, Cable and Content Partners Embrace Adobe Flash Platform for Televisions, Set-Top Boxes and Blu-Ray Players 

 

At the 2009 NAB Show, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the extension of the Adobe® Flash® Platform to connected digital home devices with an optimized implementation of Flash technology that delivers high definition (HD) video and rich applications to Internet-connected televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and other devices in the digital living room.

Major System on Chips (SoC) vendors, OEMs, cable operators and content providers including Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs, and others announced support for the optimized Flash technology today. The Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home is available immediately to OEMs and the first devices and SoC platforms with support for the optimized Flash technology are expected to ship in the second half of 2009.

 

The Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home now enables the delivery of HD Web videos to digital home devices via the Flash Video (FLV) file format. Consumers will be able to enjoy rich, interactive viewing experiences and amazing new ways to engage with HD content on televisions.

Flash technology-based applications will allow users to quickly switch between television programming and Web content outside the Web browser. With the optimized implementation of Flash technology, content providers are able to extend their reach to millions of connected digital home devices, and cable operators and device manufacturers are able to develop new services and powerful user interfaces that deliver immersive experiences.

 

Delivering Flash technology to the digital home builds on the vision of the Open Screen Project, a broad industry initiative to deliver a consistent runtime environment across devices. Announced in May 2008, the initiative is dedicated to enabling Web content and standalone applications across televisions, desktops, mobile devices and other consumer electronics that take advantage of capabilities of the Adobe Flash Platform. For more information, visit the site.

Why is this new product interesting for the CAT-iq blog? Well read the article first;

 

 

 

Enjoy music with no limitations with the all-new Jabra HALO.  Boasting wireless connectivity via Bluetooth® wireless technology (or a corded option), a hip and trendy design and amazing sound quality, this device is perfect for discerning music lovers who want to enjoy their tunes wherever they are.  With the ability to connect to a mobile phone, an MP3 player, a laptop and even a TV, this little beauty is the only device you’ll need to hear the latest chart-toppers.

 

With a touch-sensitive control panel neatly tucked away on the side of the headset, you can even pump up the volume remotely.  And there’s no need to worry about missing a call when you’re streaming music from a

mobile because the Jabra HALO simply fades out your sounds to allow you to answer. 

 

Developed by innovative headset solutions provider GN Netcom, the Jabra HALO features the classic over-the-head design that exudes coolness and is the ultimate in sophisticated music accessories.  With intuitive on/off functionality, a discreet display to reveal battery and connectivity status, a touch volume control and a foldable headband, it is small enough (weighing just 80grams) to go where you go yet big enough to make a powerful fashion statement.

 

The HALO is compatible with any Bluetooth® wireless technology (A2DP) music-playing device and all 3.5 mm. music playing devices.  It has the versatility to switch between wireless and wired connectivity, so you just need one headset to hear the sweet sounds from your mobile phone, laptop, MP3 player or even TV. 

 

Crystal-clear sound quality also demands crystal-clear call quality and the HALO won’t let you down.  With Noise Blackout™, an exciting noise-cancellation technology that eradicates ambient sound, the person you are calling will feel like you are actually talking to them in person!  Exclusively developed by GN Netcom, Noise Blackout™ uses dual microphones to capture sound while intelligently filtering background noise to offer premium audio quality. Used together with advanced DSP technology and Audio Shock Protection that monitors incoming audio volume, sound is innovatively balanced to block out background sound, leaving both sides of the call with a natural-sounding voice quality that’s second to none.

 

Now the reason for this posting.

Bluetooth could easily be 'changed' into CAT-iq. HD quality sound, long reach and low energy consumption.
CAT-iq industry, think about that!!