The DECT Forum, the international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry, is pleased to announce the availability of CAT-iq White Papers. The White Papers – part 1 “voice” and part 2 “data” – outline the current status and the future profile descriptions of CAT-iq – the technology of choice for voice and data applications.

CAT-iq stands for Cordless Advanced Technology, Internet and Quality, and is the global technology initiative from the DECT Forum, designed for IP-voice services in the next generation networks. CAT-iq focuses on high quality wideband Audio VoIP as well as low bit-rate data applications. The CAT-iq profiles are split between voice and data services, with CAT-iq 1.0 and CAT-iq 2.0 providing features to support key voice enhancements, and CAT-iq 3.0 and CAT-iq 4.0 providing features to support data.

CAT-iq is firmly positioned as a key broadband access technology. CAT-iq has the unique opportunity to continue cordless telephony’s conquest of huge segments of the world’s population, and introduce data services into homes complementing those offered by WLAN and Bluetooth. When reach, standby and talk time, cost and of course voice quality are paramount, CAT-iq is the technology of choice. The Certification process for CAT-iq 2.0 will start in September 2010, enabling market deployment of a new generation of products of various manufacturers before the end of this year.

“The White Papers – part 1 “Voice” and part 2 “data” – provide a comprehensive and detailed portray of the CAT-iq technology and its profiles. With first CAT-iq 2.0 products being available still in 2010, the White Papers will feed the growing interest in CAT-iq as a leading global wireless technology”, says Daniel Hartnett, Chairman of the CAT-iq Working Group within the DECT Forum.

The White Papers are publicly available on the DECT Forum’s CAT-iq website

The DECT Forum, the international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry, is pleased to announce that CETECOM ICT Services GmbH (Germany) and Nemko AB (Norway) have been appointed first CAT-iq 2.0 test laboratories.

The CAT-iq 2.0 certification program is on track and will start in September, enabling the market launch of CAT-iq 2.0 products before the end of 2010. The DECT Forum has appointed CETECOM and Nemko as Qualification Laboratories to assess and test products submitted by applicants in accordance with the test plan and the other procedures required by the CAT-iq 2.0 Qualification Program allowing products to be certified according to the specification. In addition to meeting the requirements for CAT-iq certification, both laboratories are accredited by their national accreditation bodies as being compliant with the standard ISO/IEC 17025.

“With the appointment of CETECOM and Nemko as the first test houses for CAT-iq 2.0 certification we are confident that we have selected the most experienced and reliable partners”, says Daniel Hartnett, Chairman of the CAT-iq Working Group within the DECT Forum. “With these appointments, the certification of CAT-iq 2.0 can start in September 2010. I am expecting market launch of certified CAT-iq 2.0 products before the end of this year.”

“We are very pleased to be selected by the DECT Forum as a certified test house for the CAT-iq 2.0 certification”, says Andreas Ehre, Head of Business Development, CETECOM ICT Services Germany. “Our long expertise in global testing and certification services in communication technologies – including our role as qualification test laboratory for CAT-iq 1.0 certification – guarantees that we will be able to meet the strong demands of the DECT Forum and the entire wireless communication industry.”

“Nemko services include full testing and certification of wireless telecommunications products“, says Frode Sveinsen, Chief Engineer, Nemko Norway. “Our laboratories are all highly recognized in their respective markets. We are pleased that Nemko as a test house will be part of the deployment of the CAT-iq technology from the very beginning.“

The quest for connectivity continues to drive Consumer Electronics (CE) manufacturers to enable their products with Wi-Fi technology. The next 5 years will see an increase in the number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, from over 500 million in 2009 to nearly 2 billion in 2014, according to In-Stat. Devices leading the pace of adoption include Blu-ray players/recorders, e-readers, and digital televisions.
 
Some of the research findings include:

• Mobile devices with Wi-Fi will still dominate shipments.  In 2013, shipments of mobile phones with embedded Wi-Fi are projected to exceed ¾ of a billion units.
• E-readers Wi-Fi attach rates will increase from 3% in 2009 to 88% by 2014. 
• 29 million digital picture frames will be shipped in 2014; 53% will be Wi-Fi-enabled.

Specifically, this research provides a five-year forecast for Wi-Fi CE devices, and CE device shipments and Wi-Fi attach rates, segmented for: 
Gaming Consoles 
DTVs
Set-Top Boxes
Personal Video Recorders
DVD and Blu-ray Players 
Media Adapters 
Printers 
Multifunction Peripherals 
Handheld Games 
PMPs
Digital Cameras 
Portable Camcorders and IP Network Cameras
PDAs
Mobile PCs 
Portable CE Devices 
Cellular Handsets 
Routers, Residential Gateways, and Standalone Access Points

Virtualisation and connectivity have allowed a rebirth of hosted solutions. Today’s incarnation – cloud services – seek to provide large enterprises as well as small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with scalable, affordable and secure access to applications and infrastructure over public or private networks.

Lack of IT staff, high-cost IT resources, consumer adoption of social networking hosted solutions, a move towards simplified enterprise network environments, remote working, mobility and capital limitations are driving the technology industry towards cloud services. However, traditional channels to market and legacy vendors in the space provide large barriers to adoption for cloud solutions.

This report presents a five-year worldwide enterprise cloud services forecast by channel to market. This approach allows communications service providers (CSPs) and vendors to understand their unique positioning in the market and plan for future growth in the eight regions of the world.

Enterprise cloud services: worldwide forecast 2010–2015 by Analysys Mason answers the followingquestions:

• What is the global opportunity for cloud services for CSPs, vendors and registered IT partners?
• What is the large enterprise versus SME opportunity for cloud services?
• What is the opportunity for cloud services in developed Asia–Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Latin America, emerging Asia-Pacific, the Middle-East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, North America and Western Europe?
• Which key technology areas – applications and infrastructure – are leading the way into cloud services?
• Which application and infrastructure vendors are thought-leaders for cloud services?
• What are the market drivers for cloud services?

Although slow progress best describes the fate of wireless HD chip vendors in 2010, the five-year outlook is for a robust triple-digit growth rate of wireless HD video-enabled products through 2014 according to In-Stat.  The number of shipments is projected to rise from the current levels of less than 1 million to nearly 13 million by 2014.


Some of the findings include:

• Alternative video transmission technologies, WHDI, WirelessHD, and WiGig Alliance, are vying for a dominant position.  Among the differentiating factors are whole-home range, price, and performance issues, single source, and time-to-market issues. 
• WHDI and WirelessHD chip ASPs will both fall over 25% annually through 2014. 
• WirelessHD, is championed by chipmaker SiBeam and backed by NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and LG.   
• WHDI (backed by AMIMON) and WirelessHD (backed by SiBeam) device shipments will both grow at triple-digit annual percentage rates through 2014.   
• WiGig Alliance members include: Broadcom, Dell, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, NEC, Nokia, NXP, Panasonic, and Samsung. 
• Strong competitive technologies include various flavors of Wi-Fi, Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi) initiative, and Sony’s TransferJet.

Recent In-Stat research “Wireless HD Video Technology:  WHDI and WirelessHD Establish Market, While WiGig Establishes Specification”, explores the three key wireless HD video transmission technologies of WHDI, WirelessHD, and WiGig Alliance. The report tracks the annual penetration through 2014 of all three technologies into 14 different applications within the following product segments:

• Consumer Electronics
• Personal Computers 
• Mobile Phones 
• Industrial/Medical applications

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart electricity meters in Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.9 percent between 2009 and 2015 to reach 111.4 million at the end of the period. Providing consumers with detailed information about their electricity consumption the new generation of meters give customers control over energy costs and create financial incentives for energy savings. Moreover smart meters constitute the core building blocks in future smart grids that will incorporate a wide range of technologies related to renewable generation, distribution network optimisation and energy conservation.

The report identifies France, Spain and the UK as the next countries in Europe where smart metering will become introduced, following major rollouts in Italy and the Nordic region. “In the past year, EDF, Endesa and Iberdrola – three of the absolutely largest electricity network operators in Europe – have launched large-scale pilots in France and Spain, respectively. Next year, these deployments will evolve into nationwide rollouts in these countries”, said Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “On top of that, the UK’s largest electricity and gas retailer British Gas has launched the first major smart metering project for residential customers in the country. These developments in combination with rollouts in several other European countries will drive strong market growth over the next five years.”

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.