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.“

MIPS Technologies, a provider of processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications and business applications, announced that support for the MIPS® architecture is included in new SkypeKit™ developer tools available now from Skype. Through the SkypeKit closed beta program, MIPS Technologies has developed a Skype reference implementation for the MIPS® architecture—the leading architecture for the digital home.

Skype is software used by individuals and businesses to make video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Developers now have the ability to build Skype functionality into MIPS-Based™ devices such as DTVs, set-top boxes and digital media adaptors. 

According to Art Swift, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies, “We are pleased to offer our licensees yet another key piece of the picture for next-generation connected devices. By participating in the SkypeKit beta program, our licensees and their customers can now develop Skype solutions to enable Skype users around the globe to communicate through a range of MIPS-Based products. The MIPS architecture offers compelling performance and power consumption advantages. These advantages, together with the work we are doing with platforms such as Skype, Android™, Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, Yahoo! TV Widgets and others, are enabling our customers to quickly and easily create the next generation of innovative SoCs.”

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

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.

Hewlett Packard is rumoured to have shelved plans to launch tablet PCs and smartphones based on Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 7 and Google’s Android platforms in order to concentrate on webOS-based devices. The Wall Street Journal’s 'All Things Digital' blog is among those to suggest that HP may be reconsidering its multi-OS strategy in light of its US$1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in April, which saw it inherit Palm's highly-regarded webOS smartphone platform. HP had originally planned to launch an Android-based tablet computer in the fourth quarter of the year, but sources say this has now been delayed. HP was also one of the eight vendors announced by Microsoft to be developing a Windows 7 smartphone, but its name was absent from a list of vendors presented by Microsoft at a partner conference this week.

In separate news, Business Insider reports that as many as 16 firms may have competed with HP to buy Palm, including five serious potential suitors. According to sources, Apple, Google, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion and Lenovo all submitted bids.

Pierre Yves Plaza Tron of Telefónica I+D, and Project Coordinator at Beywatch will speak about BeyWatch, the project on energy efficiency for the Home environment and Neighborhoods, related to technical issues like wireless vs wired, system requirements around smart grid for home appliances/consumer electronics, OS platforms, role of the operator etc.

About Telefónica I+D
Founded in 1988, it contributes to the Group's competitiveness and modernity through technological innovation. To achieve this aim, the company applies new ideas, concepts and practices in addition to developing advanced products and services.

It is the largest private R+D centre in Spain as regards activity and resources, and is the most active company in Europe in terms of European research projects in the ICT sector (Information and Communication Technology).

It currently collaborates with technological leaders and numerous organizations in 42 different countries - among which figure more than 150 universities located in different parts of the world. It also participates in the most important international forums on technological know-how, thus creating one of the largest innovation ecosystems in the ICT sector.

Products such as the public phones in the booths currently used by Telefónica (1990), the large fixed and mobile network management systems (1990), data switches (1991), Internet access services (1996), developments for digital homes and connected cars (2000), the prepaid system for mobile phones (1999), interactive a la carte digital television (Imagenio) (2004), new services for television and the new business models on Internet (2006)... are just some of the projects the company has worked on.

Over the last few years, within the global market Telefónica I+D has grown to become a network of centres of technological excellence that stretches far beyond the Spanish borders, extending its R+D activities to offices situated in Barcelona, Granada, Huesca, Madrid, Valladolid, São Paulo (Brazil) and Mexico.

about Beywatch
BeyWatch is a 30-month research project supported by the European Commission (DG Information Society and Media) aiming at ICT tools for environmental management and energy efficiency. BeyWatch will develop an energy-aware and user-centric  solution, able to provide intelligent energy monitoring/control and power demand balancing at home/building & neighbourhood level.

To reach its objectives, BeyWatch has undertaken the following:

• Design ultra-low energy-consumption white-goods

• Implement methods, techniques and services to reduce the power consumption in smart/green homes/blocks/neighbours by intelligent control of electrical devices

• Generate hot water and electricity from renewable energy sources at building level,

• Elaborate business plans and business support system (BSS) applications that will help the users and providers to reach beneficiary contracts

• Motivate user's awareness, towards less CO2 emissions on the whole energy value chain (production, transportation, distribution, supply) and cleaner environment.

Alcatel-Lucent today said it has acquired ProgrammableWeb, a developer Web site featuring a large application programming interface repository and a growing number of tools to help programmers build connected applications.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but given that the deal is more about bringing on board content and data rather than a typical hardware/software acquisition, the final price tag was likely not high. The Web site will continue to operate independently, though site lead John Musser will become an Alcatel-Lucent employee – he was already in orientation training on Monday – and the vendor will work to integrate the site’s data into its API and developer tools.

ProgrammableWeb, per its name, is focused largely on helping developers build Web applications. But as telecom and the Web have merged, it has pulled in telecom APIs into its repository, as well. Those include a few APIs from incumbent operators – such as from France’s Orange as well as Alcatel-Lucent’s own recently released API bundles. Better represented on the telecom side are so-called Telephony 2.0 players, like Twilio, Cloudvox or Skpe, which have built their businesses on their open API strategies and merging telecom with the Web.

For Alcatel-Lucent the acquisition is the latest in a series of steps in building cloud-based developer enablement tools and programs to help telcos better play in the application game – while ultimately helping Alcatel-Lucent sell more network gear, application servers and integration-enablement platforms. (Read: Can Alcatel-Lucent really play in the apps game?; Alcatel-Lucent tries its own app integration play; Alcatel-Lucent pushes app play, vision.)

Founded in 2005, ProgrammableWeb maintains a repository of over 2000 Web APIs, which are accessed by a community of hundreds of thousands of developers. The site also offers daily news, analysis, case studies, technical resources and tools, including automated API monitoring and update services (capabilities Alcatel-Lucent’s Merling said it hopes to help further automate as well as integrate into its own tools, including a recently launched developer dashboard).

In a blog post, ProgrammableWeb’s John Musser said the “partnership gives us the resources to scale by delivering more timely and focused coverage, expanding our directory and adding new services for developers. By joining with Alcatel-Lucent we are part of an organization with a compelling vision to be a bridge between developers, enterprises, and service providers, which neatly fits our long-term strategy.”

As for Alcatel-Lucent, Merling said the vendor’s management team “got [the acquisition] right away.” While helping carriers build tomorrow’s networks remains the vendor’s main business,  "this is about the other side of that, the front end of the business, and what do you have to expose to make a developer ecosystem happen,” she said.

The attendance fee for the two day conference on 19/20 october 2010, High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, The Netherlands is for:

DECT Forum members
€ 599,- (19% VAT excluded)

Others
€ 699,- (19% VAT excluded)

You can register online and pay online.

The CAT-iq technology has more and more impact on the global communication market for telecom, IT, consumer electronics and home automation products. Facing the challenges and the opportunities of CAT-iq now and in the future, the Conference will bring together the whole ecosystem of companies currently deploying CAT-iq technology, building the CAT-iq infrastructure and designing the applications to make this a success.

The Conference will tackle technical challenges, discuss efficient and innovative solutions, show new business opportunities and will give an outlook into the CAT-iq future.

With the standardisation and imminent certification program for CAT-iq 2.0, the industry has reached an important milestone and technology inflexion point, enabling innovative products and wireless services for IP based broadband home communication.

The first CAT-iq Conference will provide first-hand information about the entire process of CAT-iq certification as well as for future applications and next generation CAT-iq profiles. 12-15 presentations (25 min. plus Q&A), a panel discussion and an exhibition area will concentrate on topics of interest related to different CAT-iq challenges.

Instructions for abstract, presentation, posters and demonstrators:
The abstract as base for the submission of a paper should contain the title, author(s) name(s), email address of the corresponding author and the involved company (ies) followed by a short summary of not more than 250 words, which clearly summarizes the presentation paper and its key messages. 

6 conference topics
We are looking for speakers to adress the below six topics from a marketing and /or technical perspective.

Standardisation, Certification, Qualification

• What is the status of the standard currently?


• What are the challenges for a successfull certification program.

Home automation, Smart home, Smart metering

• Market size/potential, applications, competing technologies.

HD-voice / Telecom integration, Multi room audio / music

• Challenges, Opportunities, Competing technologies

DECT Low Power

• What is needed to make DECT the technology of choice for low power wireless applications?

Enterprise systems and applications

• Challenges, Opportunities, Competing technologies

Development tools (Hard-, software and systems), Operating systems / Platforms and API

• Can Android win out in the DECT high end market, Is linux/symbian an option.
• Can a Generic API unlease the potential of CAT-iq?

The abstracts will be made available on the conference website seminar progamm. The presentation paper will be made available for download for the participants after the conference.

We are looking for...

• Technically and/or marketing wise challenging presentations that will provide a better understanding of technologies and/or markets
• Practical information that can be immediately put to use back in the work place
• Speakers with a desire to share their expertise and vision
• Speakers with strong organizational and speaking skills and good presentation materials

We are NOT looking for...

• Presentations that focus on the features and benefits of your company's latest products

Contributions can now be submitted by using this form.

If you have questions about submitting abstracts, please contact: Pieter Hermans at p.hermans@jakajima.eu.

Sponsorship
Additional sponsoring opportunities are available for exhibitors. Please contact Dick Vreeswijk at d.vreeswijk@jakajima.eu for information on how to exhibit at the CAT-iq developers conference.