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?

Despite all the hype around mobile apps, only a minority of consumers download them on a monthly basis. Research released this week based on a survey of more than 25,000 European adults shows that only 4 per cent of all mobile users and 15 per cent of smartphone users download apps at least once per month.

According to Forrester, the researcher which carried out the survey, the fact that 21 per cent of all European mobile users consider apps to be an important feature when choosing a new mobile handset highlights a large gap between the limited actual usage of apps and consumer awareness.

This limited usage is primarily due to the combination of two factors: identified as the small number of exhaustive offerings available, and the fact that only recently shipped smartphones come with native application stores embedded.

The exception to this rule, unsurprisingly, is Apple, with 64 per cent of European iPhone users downloading apps on a monthly basis. But while the numbers look impressive — more than five billion downloads and $1bn paid to developers in the two years since the launch of the Apple App Store – Forrester analyst Thomas Husson expects that the limited number of paid apps means it is likely that a significant number of independent developers have not recouped their investments.

Husson notes that the recent launch of Apple’s iAd platform is a way for Apple to maintain attractiveness, allowing third parties that provide free apps to develop sustainable business models. But he also notes that in the longer run – with around 80 would-be application stores available worldwide as of June 2010 – few players will be able to address the key factors that will make them a success.

In this respect, Husson argued that the market opportunity for app stores is somewhat overhyped, and said players should be looking at sources of inspiration other than Apple to provide a unique user experience. “Expect successful players to look at Amazon.com and Facebook, which provide open platforms with unique social, personalization, and recommendation features, rather than to copy and paste Apple’s model,” Husson said. Indeed, we can expect the concept of app stores to expand to other connected devices and platforms.

Successful market players will be those capable of creating a viable business model for third parties and developers; providing third parties with marketing and merchandizing tools; and those offering a wide choice of payment and pricing options along the lines of in-application billing, operator billing, and subscription models.

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.

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.

Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola today jointly announced that the companies have entered into an agreement under which Nokia Siemens Networks will acquire the majority of Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure assets for US $1.2 billion in cash. The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. 

As part of the transaction, Nokia Siemens Networks expects to gain incumbent relationships with more than 50 operators and to strengthen its position with China Mobile, Clearwire, KDDI, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.

Nokia Siemens Networks expects that based on revenue, with the addition of the Motorola wireless network infrastructure business, it will become the #3 wireless infrastructure vendor in the United States, the #1 foreign wireless vendor in Japan, and strengthen its current #2 position in the global infrastructure segment.
Motorola’s networks infrastructure business provides products and services for wireless networks, including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE. This business is a market leader in WiMAX, with 41 contracts in 21 countries; has a strong global footprint in CDMA with 30 active networks in 22 countries; and a robust GSM installed base, with more than 80 active networks in 66 countries; and excellent traction with LTE early adopters.

Approximately 7,500 employees are expected to transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks from Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure business when the transaction closes, including large research and development sites in the United States, China and India. Motorola retains the iDEN business, substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business and other selected assets.

The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010 and therefore do not expect the transaction to have any impact on Nokia Siemens Networks’ financial performance in 2010. 

Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola also are exploring a global relationship in the public safety arena. This relationship would combine Motorola’s leadership in providing solutions to public safety organizations with Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercial LTE solutions.