One year ago Jakajima and DECT Forum organized the CAT-iq global design competition amongst the design students around the globe. 

Here are some ideas. CAT-iq offers much more than just a phone!

For more information go the site of the CAT-iq design competition.

Konftel announced the new Konftel 300M, the world’s first 3G conference phone for businesses. Scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2010, the Konftel 300M will be the first conference phone to accommodate a SIM card for full-on adaptation to today’s rapidly growing number of Mobile offices.

To compete in an increasingly mobile work environment, business professionals need the ability to communicate clearly from wherever they happen to be. No wonder so many companies are opting for mobile solutions instead of traditional switchboards with fixed-line phones. And no wonder wireless offices are a strongly growing trend in the global business community. Business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan predicts the Mobile office market will see substantial growth—up to 300 percent—from 2009 through 2015 (revenue 2009: $1.7 billion. Forecast 2015: $6.8 billion).

Trend-setting features based on sound values
Konftel 300M delivers 3G-network communications with the same sophisticated features as Konftel’s award-winning fixed-line 300 series phones—including OmniSound2.0. OmniSound’s impressive audio performance delivers superior sound quality for maximum teleconferencing efficiency. Other innovative Konftel 300M features include memory-card recording, text messaging, and a conference guide for quick and convenient multi-party dialling. The Konftel 300M comes with a rechargeable battery giving you up to 48 hours of talk time and a charging cradle.

The Konftel 300M is indispensible in situations that call for flexibility coupled with uncompromising sound quality. It also offers a USB connection to computers, making the Konftel 300M ideal for companies with unified communications (UC) solutions.

China accounted for 37% of all new broadband Internet subscribers added worldwide in the first quarter of 2010, according to new statistics from iSuppli. And with the country's rapid growth set to continue, the analyst firm is urging vendors to work on a long-term China strategy or risk missing out on a highly lucrative market.

The company did not provide full subscriber figures for Q1, but said that China saw sequential growth of 57% during the quarter, making it the fastest growing global market. Based on figures from April and May, the second quarter will likely see "the blistering growth" continue, iSuppli added, predicting that new additions for that quarter will hit 5.5 million.

iSuppli forecasts that China will be home to 183.9 million broadband subscribers by 2014, up from 103.2 million in 2009.

Ratliff pointed out that growth in China is being driven at least in part by a government stimulus plan that will see $22 billion injected into the rollout of fibre access networks in the country by the end of 2011; the project will cover the establishment of over 80 million fibre broadband ports. Naturally, the analyst firm predicts that Chinese vendors such as Huawei, ZTE, Shanghai Bell Alcatel, and others will be the main beneficiaries of the stimulus programme and of broadband growth in China. But there is still an opportunity for foreign players. iSupplis recommends that Western vendors partner with local Chinese companies or deepen their existing ties with the top domestic vendors.

Grid Net, the smart grid communications provider known for championing WiMAX as the best option for transmitting energy data between meters, utilities and consumers, announced that it is partnering with Oracle’s utilities division to sell network and meter management software.

Oracle delved deep into the smart grid software space last year, when it launched an end-to-end solution for utilities integrating smart grid systems into their offerings. This bundle includes Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Essentially, it offers software to help utilities parse all the data flowing in from smart meters into actionable information, and to help them more efficiently serve their customers.

Grid Net will be selling these products to complement its own software offerings: the PolicyNet SmartGrid Network Management System and Smart Network Operating System. Basically, it has landed a plum alliance with this Oracle deal, buddying up with one of the companies that has been serving utilities for years.

That said, Grid Net is not the only firm Oracle has formed this kind of relationship with. It is also working with other smart grid software providers eMeter and AMX International, as well as smart meter builder Sensus.

Software is an increasingly vital component of the electrical grid. Updating hardware, like meters, substations and the like only happens once every couple of decades. Now that many of these have been revamped with modern technology, software can be used to update them in the interim.

The deal between Grid Net and Oracle is advantageous for both parties for several reasons. It will allow Grid Net to quickly expand and diversify its relationships in the utility industry and to move outward from its core WiMAX strategy before it gets pigeonholed. It will also give Oracle another valuable startup partner in providing utilities with all the tools they need to further their smart grid strategies.

Grid Net has been on a roll lately, recruiting its new chief strategy officer, Andres Carvallo, fresh off a successful run at Austin Energy, one of the first utilities in the U.S. to deploy smart meters. In March, Cisco Systems took a large stake in the company, taking an obvious interest in its WiMAX technology.

Based in San Francisco, Grid Net has raised several rounds of funding from Intel Capital, GE Capital, Catamount Ventures, and Braemar Energy Ventures.

The DECT Forum is pleased to announce that the first IOP Plugtests™ (Interoperability Test) for CAT-iq 2.0 in cooperation with ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) was successful. With this important milestone CAT-iq 2.0 certification can begin in September 2010.

DECT Forum and ETSI have organized an official Plugtests™ event for CAT-iq 2.0 in Sophia Antipolis (France) in June 2010 where silicon manufacturers, system vendors, OEMs, and carriers have tested the interoperability of their CAT-iq 2.0 implementations against other devices and systems. This successful and well-timed event brought together the following players and suppliers in the CAT-iq space: Cetecom, Dosch&Amand, DSP Group, Lantiq, RTX, Technicolor, and VTech.

With all participants testing against each other, the implementations benefitted from real life test scenarios. The very positive result of the IOP Plugtests™ was that CAT-iq implementations are stable and interoperable. The DECT Forum and ETSI will schedule a second Plugtests™ event in early September.

According to Daniel Hartnett, Chairman of the CAT-iq Working Group within the DECT Forum is this successful Interoperability Test an important milestone for the DECT Forum and the entire value chain of the DECT and CAT-iq industry. This means that the official CAT-iq 2.0 Certification Program can begin in September 2010. The market launch of first CAT-iq devices will happen before the end of 2010.

During the CAT-iq developers conference, October 19/20 2010 Eindhoven, the Netherlands, developers will meet, exchange ideas in order to expand the CAT-iq deployment into teleccom, home automation, smart metering, ultra low power products and service.

About DECT Forum:
The DECT Forum is the international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry. With more than 800 million devices sold and growing by more than 80 million devices per year, DECT, DECT 6.0 and CAT-iq are worldwide-adopted technologies with high relevance for wireless voice and broadband home and enterprise communication. The DECT Forum is located in Berne, Switzerland. Full members of the DECT Forum are currently: Ascom, AVM, Binatone, CCT, Cetecom, Deutsche Telekom, DSP Group, Gigaset Communications, GN Netcom, Lantiq, NEC, Nemko, Orange FT, Panasonic, Philips, Plantronics, Polycom, RTX, Sagem, Samsung, SiTel, SGW Electronics, Swissvoice, Technicolor, Unical, Uniden, VTech.

Landis+Gyr and CURRENT’s European entity CURRENT Technologies International GmbH, have signed an agreement to deliver smart, open and interoperable energy management solutions. The agreement is a key ingredient in addressing the challenge to come in implementing smart grid and smart metering technologies in Spain and Portugal.

Landis+Gyr and CURRENT have joined efforts to deliver standards-based smart grid solutions by integrating CURRENT’s PRIME technology into the Landis+Gyr Gridstream advanced product line.

Due to increased pressure on European distribution systems to handle intermittent renewables, increased load, and new forms of electricity generation along with new two-way communications and data management systems, traditional energy infrastructure is shifting to real time smart systems.

As the world’s leading provider of integrated energy management solutions, Landis+Gyr is also a key member of the PRIME Alliance along with CURRENT. For the deployments with CURRENT, Landis+Gyr combines its state-of-art E450 residential smart electricity meter, which implements PRIME power line communication technology, with its Gridstream AIM software solution – both essential ingredients for establishing powerful smart metering infrastructures, a key step towards realizing the smart grid.

Under the terms of the cooperation agreement, Landis+Gyr will now offer CURRENT Smart Grid® products, which provide seamless integrated solutions, making grids more reliable and efficient. The offer includes the full range of CURRENT hardware and software smart grid products. CURRENT hardware includes the meter data concentrator, intelligent sensors and advanced communications equipment. CURRENT’s OpenGridTM software makes advanced metering possible and optimizes the operation of the distribution grid.

This partnership provides customers in Spain and Portugal with an end-to-end solution that is market proven, designed for simple and speedy implementation.

Retailers and service providers building new business models with premium tech support services

Parks Associates finds the development of remote online solutions will complement the growing premium tech support industry, including retailers and service providers, by providing improved marketing channels and enhancing automated and live support services. The international research firm forecasts U.S. revenues in consumer-oriented technical support services will approach $5 billion by 2014, with roughly 50% of the revenues coming from remote technical support services.

The development of remote services across a variety of channels, including broadband providers, Internet security vendors, PC OEMs, and CE retailers, will help meet the demand for premium technical support services, according to Parks Associates' reports Service Providers and Support Services: Analysis and Forecasts and Retailers and Support Services: Analysis and Forecasts.

Service Providers and Support Services: Analysis and Forecasts and Retailers and Support Services: Analysis and Forecasts analyze the markets for U.S. consumer technical support services. These reports examine support offerings from service providers, retailers, OEMs, and third-party software and support vendors. They combine the results from more than 50 industry interviews and Parks Associates' primary consumer data.

Intrinsyc Software International today announced a license and services agreement with Tattu Mobile for RapidRIL telephony technology.

Tattu Mobile is developing a series of Google Android tablet devices based on ZiiLABS ZMS-05 processors. Licensing RapidRIL enables Tattu to integrate a cellular radio and handle the unique features needed for their platform and targeted carriers. Tattu Mobile’s device is targeted at the rapidly expanding tablet device market and is expected to be available in global markets beginning Q4 2010.

Intrinsyc’s RapidRIL supports several radio baseband solutions, such as Infineon, Sierra Wireless and Novatel Wireless, covering various UMTS and CDMA technologies. These solutions give OEMs and ODMs a head start in producing connected devices.

Albis Technologies  announced that it has signed a deal to supply its new SceneGate set-top box to 022 Télégenève SA - naxoo .

The new hybrid (IP/DVB-C) and multimedia SceneGate set-top box will allow naxoo to bring full modularity to market with features such as an external hard drive for PVR, multi-rooming capabilities with UPnP network connection and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth dongle for wireless functionalities. In addition, with 3D capabilities and high quality HD the SceneGate set-top box is one of the most advanced available today.

Albis Technologies has integrated technology from Zappware, its software partner, into the SceneGate set-top box providing enhanced functionality through the iView Flux solution.

BT on Monday announced a partnership through which it plans to bid for the communications network element of the U.K. government's proposed smart metering project, simultaneously hitting out at its main rivals to secure the deal: the country's mobile operators.

The U.K. incumbent telecoms operator has teamed up with infrastructure provider Arqiva and consultancy Detica to build a long-range radio communications network for a smart metering initiative that the government is required to undertake to stay within EU guidelines. The government will publish a prospectus containing details of the project and outlining possible commercial opportunities later this month.

The partners will be supported by U.S.-based utility infrastructure specialist Sensus, which will provide its FlexNet long-range radio technology.

The telco noted that "unlike mobile, [long-range radio] can provide truly nationwide coverage and dependable reception indoors". It also said it has spent 18 months analysing the various communications network options before reaching that conclusion.

But U.K. mobile operators are likely to prove BT's top competitors when the time comes to bid for the communications network portion of the project.

Indeed, early smart metering initiatives in the U.K. have been led by the mobile players.

In March Vodafone signed a "multi-million-pound" contract with British Gas to provide close to 1 million GRPS connections for smart meters, while Orange is working with National Grid to trial smart meters in a number of U.K. households (see the May issue of Total Telecom Plus for more on smart metering and telecoms operators' diversification strategies).

The government's proposed smart metering project will cover 28 million homes and small businesses in the U.K. by or before 2020. The multi-billion-pound project will include a communications network deal estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds.

The EU has set 2020 as the deadline date for the deployment of smart energy meters to the majority of homes and small businesses.