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 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.

Berne, Switzerland, December 3, 2008. The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home communication industry, and Jakajima are pleased to announce the winners of the International CAT-iq Student Design Competition.

 

With the CAT-iq Design Competition 2008 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. The jury of international experts has made the decision for the first three prizes. Winners will be invited to the DECT CAT-iq Conference 2009 in Amsterdam; the awarded design studies will be presented during the conference (February 3-4, 2008) to industry experts.

Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum, is pleased to disclose the three winners of the CAT-iq Design Competition 2008:

 

The quality of the submitted designs was high but very diverse. The winning concepts were distinctive and well presented. The final decision on the runner up prize was not so easy as there were several ideas that made the choice difficult.

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First prize (10.000 €) goes to: Jelly Web, by Conrad Kroencke, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria

Comment of the jury for First prize:
Innovation level was very high and a good approach to embed CAT-iq in home entertainment equipment. The idea has a distinctive design language and very good graphic presentation and is a completely thought through concept.

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Second prize (5.000 €) goes to: Spectrum, by Werner Helmich, Twente University, Department Industrial Design Engineering, Enschede, The Netherlands

Comment of the jury for Second prize:
High level of innovation and a great design. Interesting new attempt for sound/voice communication. 

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Runner up price (1.000 €) goes to: Follow Me Phones by Joris Zaalberg, University of Technology, Department Industrial Design, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Comment of the jury for Runner up prize:
Using special awareness to move in and out of conversational areas is very innovative and offers new ways of communication amongst people.

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“I would like to congratulate the winners of the CAT-iq Design competition on behalf of the home communications industry. The jury was very impressed with the creativity and innovative quality of the entries and it was difficult to choose the winners. I would like to thank students from all over the world for their participation”, says Erich Kamperschroer. 

About DECT Forum and Jakajima:
The DECT Forum is the international industry association of the home communication industry. With more than 670 million devices sold and growing to more than 100 million devices per year, DECT, DECT 6.0 and CAT-iq are worldwide-adopted technologies with high relevance for cordless voice and broadband home communication. The DECT Forum is located in Berne, Switzerland. Full members of the DECT Forum are currently: American Telecom, Ascom, Avaya, AVM, Binatone, CCT, DSP Group, Gigaset Communications, GN Netcom, Infineon, Kirk, Panasonic, Philips, Plantronics, RTX, Sagem, SiTel, SGW Electronics, Telematrix, Thomson, Topcom, Unical, Uniden, VTech. For more information please visit us at: www.dect.org  www.cat-iq.org www.catiqdesigncompetition.org

Jakajima is an independent market intelligence and innovation company for the telecom, ICT, and consumer-electronics trade chain. Jakajima is based in Nuenen, Netherlands. Please read more at www.jakajima.eu.

The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home communication industry, announces in its most recent market forecast a rapid growth of CAT-iq enabled gateways, reaching more than 65 million home gateways in 2012. The CAT-iq enabled handsets will follow a similar trend with a growth to 115 million devices by 2012.

 

CAT-iq, the global technology platform for wireless voice and light data communication, is the successor to the reliable DECT standard. CAT-iq is designed for the next generation of IP networks, operates in a protected frequency band, and is available in almost every region of the world.

 

The most important benefits of the CAT-iq technology are: superior telephony, full in-house IP connectivity, giving CD quality audio and radio, widescreen messaging, intelligent device management via remote control, energy saving plus real plug and play.
CAT-iq has been developed in particular to support the transformation of global telecommunication networks from the “Plain Old Telephony System” (POTS) to “All-IP” networks. The DECT Forum is aware of this massive
challenge since 1 billion fixed lines worldwide have to be transformed from POTS to All-IP. The transformation, which is already happening, will see its completion in some countries in 2010 and therefore the DECT Forum
expects that the deployment of CAT-iq will increase significantly from 2010.

 

The DECT Forum forecast acknowledges the growth of voice and data gateways, and foresees that cordless DECT phones will be replaced by CAT-iq handsets. Therefore, most future telephones will be CAT-iq enabled,
including PSTN phones. Legacy DECT base stations and WiFi modems will be replaced by DECT/CAT-iq enabled voice and data gateways.

 

“The DECT Forum has shown in the past that it publishes the most accurate and reliable forecast of DECT and CAT-iq related devices. In this new forecast DECT Forum members have studied CAT-iq enabled gateway and
handset deployment, based on their own market knowledge of different regions, e.g. North America, Europe and APAC”, says Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum. “However, it is not in the scope of the DECT Forum to develop and sell detailed market research data. Therefore the DECT Forum endorses forecasts from worldwide analyst firms that will provide further regional insights of different markets.”

MZA has recently released its “Worldwide Consumer Cordless Telephone Analysis” report for 2008. This report details historic and forecast market trends as well as providing analysis of key competitor market shares.

 

In 2007 the total number of base units sold declined by 4% to just over 117 million units, compared with 122 million units in 2006. This decline was influenced predominantly by a 12% decline in the North American market. The Latin American market showed strong growth of 25% and the Asia Pacific and Eastern European regions witnessed 3% and 8% growth respectively. Western Europe and Middle East and Africa markets witnessed marginal declines. Despite the fall in total base units sold, worldwide handset volumes remained robust at 166 million units in 2007.

 

In respect of segmentation by technology, DECT technology continued to grow its share and accounted for 47% of total volume. Analogue’s share fell to 33% with the remainder of the market being made up of other digital technologies (predominantly 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz).

 

DECT technology’s growth in share was largely attributable to phenomenal growth in the North American market, where the technology was only licensed in 2005 and yet in 2007 accounted for 13% of total base units and is predicted to grow to more than 50% by the end of 2008. Latin America and Eastern European DECT market also witnessed strong growth.

 

Supplier Brand Share
Five major brands currently dominate the worldwide consumer cordless telephone market. Panasonic retained their number 1 position in 2007 with their share rising to 19% of base units shipped (all technologies). They were followed by Uniden, Thomson/GE/Alcatel Vtech and Siemens (now renamed Gigaset Communications), all of whom command market shares of between 9% and 11% of the worldwide market.

 

DECT now commands a significant share of the overall consumer cordless telephone market and as such the supplier brand positions within the DECT market, influence strongly overall success. Panasonic and Siemens (now Gigaset Communications) continued to vie for first position, with Panasonic just usurping Siemens to take the number one position in DECT base unit sales in 2007. Siemens (now Gigaset Communications) followed closely behind, with Philips, Thomson/GE/Alcatel, Binatone and VTECH also being significant.

 

Outlook
Many of the regional markets (notably Europe and North America) are increasingly saturated with growth in market volume being driven by replacement of existing models with more feature rich models and in North America the displacement of analogue and 2.4GHz/5.8GHz by new DECT technology models has driven market volumes.

A relatively flat market is predicted worldwide between 2008 and 2013 as growth in lesser developed market such as Eastern Europe, MEA, APAC and Latin America is offset by declines in North America and a flat market in Western Europe. DECT technology will continue to take share from other technologies and by 2011 is predicted to account for almost 80% of total worldwide market volume.

About MZA

The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home communication industry, 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.

 

“Now in its 13th year the DECT CAT-iq Conference will maximize your networking time by new formats: strategy roundtables, audience think tank, open floor discussions and interactive panel sessions. And for your pleasure you can join a canal dinner on a typical boat cruise, which is unique for Amsterdam”, says Giles Cummings, Head of Events Informa Telecoms and Media. “The program of the conference is designed to explore new opportunities with CAT-iq in the IP era. Experience the challenges ahead.”

About DECT Forum

Plugwise developed a plug which sends, receives, measures, and switches. This device is placed between the plug and the socket. Each plug connects to other plugs most efficiently. This results in a highly reliable wireless network.

Each plug sends the measured energy consumption to the Plugwise PDA or the Plugwise software programme installed on your own PC. This programme allows the user to monitor energy use and simultaneously offers automatic switching on the basis of user-customized switching schedules.

These schedules may for instance be synced with arrival and departure times, day and night rhythms, and values of energy consumption (among other things: standby-killer). All this is possible for each individual appliance, room, or group of appliances of your choice. In addition the programme includes functions such as budgeting and advice on saving energy. Because of the wireless network the system allows easy extension with additional Plugwise products.

This technology uses Zigbee in combination with a mesh system. Opportunities for CAT-iq?

The consumer broadband Internet market could be set to follow the same trends as the voice market when it comes to fixed-mobile substitution – if operators can improve on connection speeds for mobile broadband services. 

In a new report published on Tuesday, telecoms consultancy Analysys Mason says that 47% of all broadband subscribers in Europe will access the Internet through mobile networks by 2013.

 

The report also predicts that in five years' time, nearly a quarter of all broadband-equipped households could be using mobile networks only, foregoing a fixed connection altogether.

 

"Take-up of broadband via mobile USB modems has surprised many in the fixed broadband space – and, indeed, the mobile business – and the early indications are that consumers in Europe are using mobile broadband as a substitute for fixed," said a statement from Analysys Mason.

 

Indeed, the GSM Association announced in August that global HSPA mobile broadband subscriptions had hit 50 million, rising from 11 million a year earlier.

 

Read the full article.