ideas and applications for the wireless future

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January/February 2011

Filling the app gap

Networks establish their role in the apps ecosytem
Inside:

Published By

3D mobile inside out

How 3D will outlast the novelty factor

GPS in urban canyons

The solution: more satellites and more sensors

volume 14 number 1 january/february 2011

cover_story

10 Filling the app gap

Where do cellcos fit in with the apps ecosystem in 2011? Part of the answer lies within their own network, but major cellcos are also banking on a horizontal strategy that keeps their existing business models intact

analysis/commentary the_Signal

features one_to_one

4 The year of mobile insecurity

14 3D mobile from the inside out

Movidius reveals what it takes to enable 3D video in cell phones, and why this time around, 3D will outlast the novelty factor that usually drives it before interest fizzles out

Mobile OS vulnerabilities, leaky apps and SMS attacks are just some of mobile security issues youll be hearing about in 2011
research_note

8 LTE activity in Asia: more than you think

Hong Kong and Japan were the first and most high-profile LTE launches in Asia, but theyre far from the only markets with active LTE plans

location

16 Taking GPS down and deep

Even with A-GPS, cell phones with GPS still struggle with urban canyons and indoor navigation. The solution: more satellites and more sensors

regulars

20 wireless_horizon: whats next in the wireless industry

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wireless asia_jan/feb 2011 1

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news_analysis

5 Aussie telcos hit by floods

The Queensland floods have taken their toll on telecom infrastructure

6 RIM delivers monitoring system to India

RIM says it fulfills the governments surveillance requirements but still cant decrypt corporate emails

7 DoCoMo makes LTE launch deadline

The service is big on speeds but short on coverage and devices

5 Motorola completes handset division split

Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions are now trading separately on the NYSE

6 Taiwan to kickstart Wimax2

State-run ITRI is working closely with ten local manufacturers to kickstart the uptake of Wimax2

company_profile Managing director Jonathan Bigelow jbigelow@questexasia.com Group editor Joseph Waring jwaring@questexasia.com Global technology editor John C. Tanner jtanner@questexasia.com Senior reporter Fiona Chau fchau@questexasia.com Art director Dick Wong dwong@questexasia.com Production & design manager Pauline Wong pwong@questexasia.com Group publisher Gigi Chan gchan@questexasia.com Account director, Asia Pacific Jessie Cheung jcheung@questexasia.com Senior sales & marketing executive Candace Ho cho@questexasia.com Human resources & administration Janis Lam jlam@questexasia.com Administrative executive Yan Lai ylai@questexasia.com Business manager Eunice Chan echan@questexasia.com Accountant Ivy Chu ichu@questexasia.com Accountant assistant Cannis Wong cwong@questexasia.com Accounts Clerk Shuki Yuen syuen@questexasia.com Circulation director John Lam jlam@questexasia.com Assistant circulation manager Allie Mok amok@questexasia.com Senior circulation assistant Shipman Kwok skwok@questexasia.com Circulation executive Karena Wong kwong@questexasia.com Contributors Canberra: Dylan Bushell-Embling London: Michael Carroll Tokyo: Mike Galbraith

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The signal
John C. Tanner

2011: the year of mobile insecurity

f theres one thing certain in life besides death and taxes, its probably New Years predictions from analysts speculating on what the big issues and trends for telecoms will be in the next 12 months. And of course, magazine editors are no different. So heres my personal contribution to the crystal-ball meme: mobile security. Which may sound obvious a number of security experts have already pegged 2011 as a boom year for mobile spyware, malware, viruses and other threats as smartphones become more and more popular. But in fact, mobile security will be far bigger than that. Certainly smartphone security is going to be a problem, but not just because the threats are growing. Its also a question of how secure mobile OS platforms are to start with, and the answer is: not as much as they should be, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Naturally no OS platform is bug-proof or invulnerable, but PC and server OS platforms have compensated by becoming very good at reasonably open disclosure of security bugs and fast distribution of patches to fix them. Mobile OS vendors, by comparison, are way behind the times, says the EFFs Chris Palmer. Apple, for example, has been known to release patches for bugs several months old. And Google routinely releases Android patches without announcing them, and with the security fixed unmarked among the other fixes and enhancements included in the release. Complicating things for Android is fragmentation, as OEMs and cellcos tend to tweak Android to add unique features and sometimes remove standard ones, which creates more vulnerability risks, says Palmer (who briefly worked at Google on Android framework security, according to his bio). And while third-party patches may not be illegal under laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, they will almost certainly void your warranty. The EFF is advocating third-party patches as a marketpressure tactic to get OS vendors to up their
4 jan/feb 2011_wireless asia

own security game. PC and server Another mobile security issue for 2011 OS platforms is apps leaking private data. A December have become report on the Wall Street Journal web site claimed that many popular apps for iPhones very good at and Android phones transmit personal data reasonably from the phone to third parties without the open disclosure users knowledge or consent. The WSJ tested 101 apps, and found of security 56 of them secretly transmitted the bugs and fast phones unique device ID described by distribution of mobile advertiser exchange Mobclix as a supercookie that marketers track, only patches to fix it cant be deleted or blocked like regular them. Mobile cookies to mobile advertising companies, OS vendors, by while 47 apps transmitted location-based info and five sent personal details such as comparison, are age and gender. way behind the To be fair, its unclear just how big a deal this is, since the data is still anonymous from times the ad networks point of view, and a device ID isnt the same as, say, a photo ID card. But it sounds scary to the average mobile user especially the tracking part and users may react the same way they react to each new Facebook privacy controversy. Finally, even feature phones wont be spared on the security front this year. In December, researchers demonstrated how to eavesdrop on GSM calls and text messages using various software programs, four $15 handsets and a laptop. The following month, another group of researchers demonstrated a so-called SMS Of Death attack on feature phones that exploits the ability of the SMS protocol to send binaries (small programs) to the handset, effectively enabling attackers to send malicious messages that can shut down the phones (see this issues Wireless Horizon on the back page for details). All that, and we havent even gotten into the ongoing saga of RIM being pressured by governments to enable email/data surveillance, or the India governments ban on 3G video calls and possibly even 3G data services until operators can provide a way to eavesdrop on them. One way or another, John C. Tanner youll be hearing a lot more about mobile Global technology editor security this year. l jtanner@questex.com
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news analysis

Aussie telcos hit by floods

he devastating floods that struck the Australian state of Queensland in December and January have not only killed dozens of people, forced the evacuation of over 200,000 more, and caused billions of dollars in damage, but also have taken their toll on telecom infrastructure. Telstra alone is reportedly facing a repair bill of up to A$50 million ($49.9 million). While Telstra has said it will not be able to assess the full cost of repairs until flood waters finally recede, Merrill Lynch has estimated that it could cost up to A$50 million based on the repair costs of the Victorian bushfires of 2009, according to The Australian. The Queensland floods have killed 30 people, according to various reports. Fourteen were still missing as we went to press. In economic terms, the costs of the floods could reach as high as A$30 billion, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver told ABC News. Weeks of flooding in Queensland

took a severe turn for the worse in midJanuary, causing service disruptions for Australian operators and ISPs. Some areas of Queensland may be without telecom services until at least the end of January, the Australian reported. Both Telstra and Optus estimate it could take three months to completely fix and replace all the affected equipment. Telstra revealed that early restoration work was being hindered by the fact that 262 of the operators exchanges were in areas that remained red zones, inaccessible to engineers. Telstra said its workers are primed to move in whenever it becomes safe to do so. Optus meanwhile said it had identified at least five exchanges that will need to be completely rebuilt, and that mobile services remained unavailable in some regions, including the Brisbane CBD. Optus warned that some of its operational mobile sites were at risk of going down due to power outages. The companys mobile towers in one region were running on battery power, and the floods

were too extreme to install portable generators, Optus said, making service interruption likely. Until we are able to gain access to all our affected sites, the full extent of the damage to our infrastructure will not be known, Optus general manager for corporate affairs Clare Gill said. We have assembled a senior management recovery team which is now focused on the recovery effort. A fiber link between Sydney and Brisbane was also cut. Optus subsidiary AAPT said its services had been impacted by this break, as well as disruptions in a number of other Sydney-to-Brisbane links. Vodafone Australia reported loss of mobile services in several parts of Queensland on January 11, including the Brisbane CBD for several hours, caused by flood damage to its exchange facility in Coorparoo, a Vodafone spokesperson said. l Dylan Bushell-Embling

Motorola completes handset division split

otorola completed the split of its device business in early January, with its handset arm Motorola Mobility now trading on the NYSE using the ticker code MMI. Motorola Solutions, which will focus on devices such as public safety radios and handheld scanners, will use the code MSI. Motorola Mobility will have an estimated market cap of around $9

billion. Motorola is betting on the split to help turn around the run of losses from the unit. Motorola Mobilitys when-issued price has grown 25% since the start of trading, according to the WSJ, while Motorola Solutions shares have fallen by around 6.5%. Motorola has for years been under pressure from shareholders, including activist investor Carl Icahn, to split its lossmaking handset unit. Motorola

Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha warned in December that the handset company is likely to report a loss in its maiden quarter due to competitive pressures. Meanwhile, Motorola hoped to complete the sale of the bulk of its wireless infrastructure business to Nokia Siemens Networks for $1.2 billion, before the handset split, but the deal has been delayed by a lawsuit from Huawei Technologies regarding IP assets. l Dylan Bushell-Embling

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news analysis

news analysis

RIM proposes monitoring system for India

IM has developed a BlackBerry monitoring solution for the Indian government it says fulfills the nations surveillance requirements but one that still cant decrypt corporate emails. The company said in January it had completed development of an access system for its Messenger and public email services that will allow carriers to meet legal obligations on lawful interception. RIM, which had been under pressure to enable state surveillance of its services by January 31, said in a statement sent to the media that it was pleased to have completed the solution before this mutually-agreed deadline. But the company said the solution

DoCoMo makes LTE launch deadline

short bursts
>> SK Telecom plans to launch LTE services in Seoul in Q3 this year, according to new CEO Ha Sung-Min. >> LG Uplus reveals plans to roll out 50,000 Wi-Fi zones by year-end to help boost the networks capacity. >> The US FCC approves a net neutrality framework for wired and wireless networks. As expected, cellcos get a lighter touch under the framework. Also as expected, top Republican Congressmen are vowing to repeal it. >> Indias 3G operators will reportedly be banned from offering data services in one week unless they can demonstrate the ability of law enforcement officials to monitor data traffic in real time, according to The Economic Times of India. >> Indian security agencies have also called on 3G operators to delay the launch of video calling because it lacks the equipment to monitor the service. >> The US FBI charges four men including employees at chipset firms AMD, Flextronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) with trading insider information on their own companies, as well as company customers like Apple. >> China Mobile will reportedly begin TD-LTE trials in six cities in the first quarter of 2011, indicating the operator is edging closer to a commercial launch. >> The 3GPP has accepted a technology pitched by Nokia Siemens Networks and T-Mobile USA that promises to increase the peak HSPA speed to more than 650 Mbps. >> Hong Kong regulator Ofta will auction more 3G and 4G spectrum in February to help meet booming mobile data demand. >> Idea Cellular taps Nokia Siemens Networks to build and manage its HSPA networks in four circles, as well as supply equipment. >> True Corp secures the takeover of Hutchisons mobile operations in Thailand for 4.35 billion baht ($144.7 million). >> Qualcomm strikes a deal to sell its unpaired FLO TV spectrum to AT&T for just under $2 billion, and confirms it will shut the TV service in the spring. >> Reliance Communications launches 3G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and the northwestern city of Chandigarh. RCom also signs a $1.93 billion financing deal with the China Development Bank Corporation (CDBC), most of which will be used to refinance RComs 3G spectrum fees, according to Londons Financial Times.

does not apply to its highly-encrypted corporate email service, reiterating that it is unable to provide access to these messages as it does not retain a copy of customers decryption keys. It said setting up an email server in India the governments suggested solution to the impasse would not work because the security architecture on its BlackBerry Enterprise Server is identical worldwide. In an update to customers, RIM said it had been assured that all its competitors will be pressed to provide the same lawful access capabilities if they had not done so, Press Trust of India reported. It was unclear as we went to press whether the government, which had

originally demanded complete access, will be satisfied with RIMs partial solution. India has already reportedly rejected at least one of RIMs draft monitoring proposals. RIM revealed earlier in the month that it could take 18-24 months to deliver an effective enterprise email monitoring solution. Meanwhile, RIMs security saga is continuing in Indonesia, where it has already agreed to develop a porn-blocking solution for BlackBerry devices. Government officials there are also pressuring RIM to establish a local server to enable lawful intercept. l Dylan Bushell-Embling

Taiwan to kickstart Wimax2 this year

he next generation of the Wimax standard will be commercialized this year, industry officials promised as they gathered in Taiwan for technology meetings in January. Wimax2, based on the 802.16m standard, will be backwards compatible with the current Mobile Wimax platform, but with faster data rates, and enhanced security and power efficiency. It will also support wide 20 MHz channels. The Taipei meetings were a prelude to the finalization of the IEEEs 16m standard in March, which would set the scene for products to appear at the end of this year. The certification and interoperability testing processes, which were lengthy

for the current 16e platform, should be far quicker this time, because it is an extension of an existing standard, and because many lessons have been learned about how OFDMA-based devices behave. Once 16m is approved this quarter, manufacturers will be able to pre-install the technology and begin the testing programs. Rakesh Taori, vice chair of the 802.16 working group, told IDG that key enhancements will be better battery life for devices; privacy protection for users and their locations; and the doubling of bandwidth, which will enable data rates that will leapfrog those of LTE and get closer to the goal of true 4G, at 100 Mbps while mobile. Taiwans state-run Industrial

Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is working closely with ten local manufacturers to kickstart the uptake of Wimax2. Taiwan has been a critical player in the Wimax market, placing the weight of its vast manufacturing community behind the technology and aiming to create a national mobile broadband network based on 16e. This is a technology that Taiwan feels it can influence in IPR terms too, unlike 3GPP standards. That way well be able to exercise our competitiveness in terms of patents or our manufacturing, an ITRI engineer, Song Ting-chen, said in an interview. Some of our contributions have already been accepted by the international community. l Caroline Gabriel/Rethink Wireless

TT DoCoMo made good on its plans to launch its LTE service on Christmas Eve, but like other big LTE launches in 2010, the service is big on speeds but short on coverage and devices. DoCoMo launched the service, branded Xi (pronounced crossy), in the urban centers of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, with data speeds up to 37.5 Mbps for the downlink and 12.5 Mbps for the uplink outdoors, and up to 75 Mbps downlink speeds for indoor users. Users traveling out of LTE range will be handed over seamlessly to DoCoMos 3G network. However, the service is only being offered as a data-only service for laptop users. DoCoMo said it plans to introduce LTE-compatible handsets, including voice service over its 3G network, by March 2012. DoCoMo said via its newsletter that it will have spent over $400 million on its LTE network by March this year, by which time it will cover 7% of the population with about 1,000 base stations. DoCoMo plans to spend over $3.6 billion on network build-out by March 2013, with 15,000 base stations serving 40% of the population, and 70% coverage planned by March 2015. DoCoMo also said it expects 25% of its 3G user base (around 15 million subscribers) to migrate to Xi by March 2015. While thats not a large percentage, DoCoMo also said it is banking on LTE and subsequent new content services like cloud computing and augmented reality apps to boost its data revenues well beyond voice. The operator aims to hit a consolidated operating income target of at least $10 billion by the end of its fiscal year ending in March 2013. l John C Tanner

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research

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LTE activity in Asia: more than you think

Hong Kong and Japan were the first and most high-profile LTE launches in Asia, but theyre far from the only markets with active LTE plans By Dianne Northfield and Phil Marshall
ervice providers and regulators across Asia Pacific are raising above the spectrum availability challenges that have dogged LTE adoption in the region. In 2010, global LTE trial activity gained significant traction. Excluding trials conducted by the 18 operators that have now launched commercial services, Tolaga Research has identified 123 active and completed LTE trials globally, spanning 65 nations. Thirty six of these trials were recorded in the Asia Pacific region (see chart, p. xx). In November 2010, Hong Kongs CSL became the first operator in the region to launch commercial LTE services. This deployment is also a world first with the operator launching a dual mode UMTS/LTE network supplied by ZTE using spectrum in the 1800, 2100 and 2500 MHz bands, with Samsung USB wireless modems. In Japan, LTE is being targeted towards sophisticated mobile broadband market offers, initially to serve dongle-connected PCs and subsequently smartphone devices. NTT DoCoMo is aggressive in its commercialization of LTE, albeit with limited initial spectrum resources. DoCoMo launched its network on December 24, 2010, using PCS spectrum at 1.8/1.9GHz, with plans to use 1.5 GHz spectrum in 2012. Both Softbank and KDDI currently plan to commercialize LTE in 2011. Softbank also plans to trial TDD-LTE using spectrum in the 2500 MHz band; spec8 jan/feb 2011_wireless asia

trum which it acquired from Willcom in March 2010. As EMobile continues to rollout its 3G network, it is positioning itself for an LTE push in the near future by deploying network infrastructure that can be easily upgraded to LTE. To address scarce radio spectrum availability, LTE implementations in Japan will use 850, 1500, 1700 MHz and PCS bands, which have been availed through extensive re-banding initiatives. In South Korea, both KT and LG are trialing and will be capable of commercializing LTE after July 2011, in the newly reallocated 900 MHz and 850 MHz bands. SK Telecom is trialing LTE using

its existing 2100 MHz spectrum with plans to also launch commercial services in 2011. China Mobile has partnered with all the major infrastructure vendors and players like Qualcomm to pioneer TDD-LTE with its extensive holdings in the 2300 and 2600 MHz spectrum bands. China Mobiles efforts have had a huge impact on the global sentiment for TDD-LTE. Globally, we expect dual mode TDD/FDD LTE devices to become an industry norm after 2012. LTE trials are active in Malaysia and Singapore; however spectrum allocations remain a challenge. In Malaysia, the
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follow suit in the short-term. Temporary licenses have also been granted to Viettel, FPT Telecom (EVN), CMC Group, Saigon Postel and VTC. Reliance/Infotel and Qualcomm have launched TD-LTE trials in India using 2.3 GHz spectrum. Both activities allude to the potential launch of LTE services in India in 2011. Other players in the region are also considering the TD-LTE path. Malaysias Asiaspace, which holds spectrum at 2300 MHz, is also investigating a TD-LTE trial in concert with Qualcomm. The lesser known LTE stories Operators in emerging markets Taiwans Chunghwa Telecom including Indonesia and the Philippines launched an LTE trial with Ericsson and are pursuing LTE initiatives that are NSN in Q2 2010 using 2500 MHz FDD aimed at delivering basic fixed wirespectrum. In Q4 2010, it is trailing LTE less broadband services. In Indonesia, at both 700 and 2500 MHz. FarEasTone Telkomsel is trialing LTE at 1800 MHz. is trailing TDD-LTE with China Mobile Licenses at 2.3 and 3.3 GHz have been and VIBO is in the process of upgrading awarded in Indonesia, although they are to HSPA+. currently limited by technology prescripLTE deployments are facilitated by tions specific to Wimax. technology neutral Wimax licenses In the Philippines, Globe Telecom is issued to four holders of 2500 MHz aggressively pursuing LTE trials at 2100 licenses, although regulatory review is MHz and has requested additional specrequired for the technology-specific trum in the band along with bandwidth Wimax licenses of operators FITEL and at 700 MHz. Smart Communications VeeTIME. Taiwans regulator is support- is also conducting trial activities in the ive of releasing digital dividend spectrum Philippines. for the provision of mobile broadband In other markets like Thailand, where services, although it is unlikely to be 3G has yet to be deployed, we anticipate available for commercial use until 2016 that operators will bypass HSPA entirely to 2017. as they focus on LTE. In December 2010, Trial licenses have been awarded in Vi- Thailands TrueMove launched an LTE trial in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent. etnam in the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz bands for In other nations in the region, regulaa period of one year, and are expected to be auctioned in the Q4 2012 timeframe. tors and operators also have LTE on the radar with commercialization strateBoth VNPT and VDC have launched gies. While 3G licensing is pending in LTE trials and other operators are set to
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regulator recently issued nine licenses in the 2.6 GHz band with specific spectrum assignments pending, and in Singapore the regulator is attempting to reclaim 2.3 and 2.6 GHz licenses that were previously issued for BWA (aka Wimax) service. In 2010, Celcom Malaysia, Maxis Communications and Telecom Malaysia were all involved in LTE trials, as were M1, SingTel and StarHub in Singapore. Commercial LTE launches in these nations are envisaged in the 2012 to 2013 timeframe, as is also the case in Australia, where Telstra, Optus, 3 Australia and Vividwireless are all trialing LTE across a range of spectrum bands 850, 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz, and at 2500 MHz using experimental licenses prior to licensing in this band, which is expected in 2013.

While conservative timeframes for commercial deployments in the majority of nations in the region are focused on 2012 to 2014, the potential for expedited rollouts is significant
Bangladesh, this delay has not halted GrameenPhones LTE network upgrade plans with a contract awarded to Huawei in November 2010. Operators in Cambodia are examining their options for LTE, and in December 2010, the Cambodian Government awarded a contract to Russias Alltech Telecom to deploy an LTE network. Nepals regulator is also studying the prospects for LTE. Meanwhile, Mongolias G-Mobile is one of six CDMA operators around the world that has requested approval from the ITU to upgrade to LTE using spectrum at 450 MHz.

Momentum
There is huge momentum growing behind the Asia Pacifics road to LTE. While conservative timeframes for commercial deployments in the majority of nations in the region are focused on 2012 to 2014, the potential for expedited rollouts is significant. Evidence in support of an earlier shift to LTE is seen in both the surge of operator trial activities and network upgrade activities, along with operator testing of LTE prospects in already assigned spectrum bands. There is also a notable trend on the regulatory front as a number of regulators are seeking solutions to 4G spectrum incumbency issues and prospects for the early release of new spectrum suited to LTE. l Dianne Northfield is Vice President of Research, and Phil Marshall Chief Research Officer and founder, of Tolaga Research
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cover

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Filling the app gap

Where do cellcos fit in with the apps ecosystem in 2011? Part of the answer lies within their own network, but major cellcos are also banking on a horizontal strategy that keeps their existing business models intact By John C. Tanner

hatever else you can say about 2010, it was a huge year for mobile apps, and not just for Apple. According to app store analytics firm Distimo, prices are going down but the volume of new apps is growing phenomenally. Apple doubled its app count in 2010, while Android Markets volumes grew sixfold, and BlackBerry App World and Nokias Ovi Store each showed triple digit growth (see sidebar, Apps away!, p. xx, for details). But while thats good news for Apple, Google, RIM and Nokia, as well as apps developers, the question, as usual, is what it all means for cellcos apart from extra data traffic. Cellcos have been struggling with this question since Apple launched the App Store in 2008, and the question has grown more pertinent as other mobile OS storefronts have taken off since then where do operators fit in an OTT apps-driven market that doesnt require their direct participation? That question was at the forefront of last Novembers Mobile Asia Congress, and the question itself is complicated further by the likelihood that its not only a matter of smartphones growing more popular which they are, according to analyst projections that expect them to outnumber feature phones in the next five years but also the ways they influence the evolution of user behavior. The growth of wireless connectivity, social networking and broader access to the Internet via mobile will change the way people interact and be entertained, and will create new commerce opportunities, HTC chief Peter Chou remarked onstage during the opening MAC keynotes. The smartphone of the future will be your most intimate companion, your

of the companys business transformation strategy. The most important aspect of business transformation is to provide unique and competitive services, to include offering value added functions that can only be offered by operators, such as authentication and billing, he said at MAC. Carriers can offer unique value to customers and avoid the risk of becoming a dumb pipe. More to the point, cellcos have an opportunity to target enterprise customers with that unique value-add, says Sharat Sinha, managing director for the managed and cloud services division at Cisco Systems, in part because much of the opportunity in the consumer segment has already been commandeered by the mobile OS vendors and other OTT content providers. In the consumer segment, most of the major OTT players have already taken control Apple and Google and the likes of them because of the end device and the application in the cloud connection, Sinha told Wireless Asia. Telcos can make use of their network characteristics for specific apps around electronic banking, for example, but that is limited in scope, because all the major OTT players have taken up a significant part of the value chain. As such, he says, there is a significant opportunity for cellcos to target enterprises, particularly SMBs, with apps and services that leverage their ability to create a hosted and secured cloud environment, from software-as-a-service to platform-as-a-service and even infrastructure-as-a-service. When you look at hosting and collaboration services on top of a data center, telcos Enterprise play The fear of becoming a dumb pipe has control about 80% of that value chain, he already driven many cellcos to think of ways says. Targeting enterprises also makes sense to leverage their network assets as a differentiator. Ryudi Yamada, president and CEO because they tend to look for the kinds of security guarantees and SLAs that operators of NTT DoCoMo, cites it as a key element
wireless asia_jan/feb 2011 11

main device for communication and information it will be your content portal, your physician, your wallet, said Chou. The computing paradigm is shifting from the PC-based desktop to a new era of mobile Internet that is more self-defined and socially driven. That paradigm shift has spurred industry leaders to call for a more open-minded approach to mobile services. Applications are changing the mobile ecology. We need to be open-minded to explore new fields, new business models, and cooperation with new partners, said China Mobile president Li Yue. Of course, how a given cellco distills that into an actual strategy will inevitably vary. China Mobile, for example, is banking on a combination of media apps and daily life apps that focus on transforming the smartphone into a daily productivity tool (i.e. a smartcard that pays your bus fare and opens your front-door lock). But a key theme that has emerged is the importance of focusing on the cellcos key strengths namely their billing relationships with the customers and their network assets to add value where OTT competitors cant. Thats starting to happen now, but its not just stopping there. Cellcos have also been busy developing a horizontal apps ecosystem that will see fruition early this year, and could not only make cellcos a relevant force in the overall apps game, but also do so in a way that keeps their existing business models more or less intact.

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Enterprises want security and some level of privacy for content as well as things like bandwidth control and scalability. Telcos can do that better than OTT players
can offer, Sinha adds. On the consumer side, if the link breaks a couple of times or theres a little delay theres not much of an impact. But for enterprises, they want security and some level of privacy for content, and telcos are in a position to provide that, as well as things like bandwidth control and scalability. Telcos can do that better than OTT players. Ironically, this advantage also enables operators to partner with OTT content/ service providers who need that kind of secure value-add, Sinha notes. Companies like SAP and Oracle have been coming out with on-demand services, and when they do they typically tie up with telcos to deliver those services, whether its purely white-labeled or joint-branded, he says. Apps are usually either missioncritical or handle the core functions of that SMB, therefore theres a level of SLA that needs to be provided thats closely tied to bandwidth and network availability.

Security value-add
Security could also prove to be an attractive value-add for consumers as smartphones become more prevalent. Last October, Juniper Networks made just such a pitch with its Junos Pulse mobile security solution, which enables cellcos to provide antivirus, personal firewall, device moni-

leverage their network chops at least in the future is providing a seamless multiscreen experience from one device to another, says Sinha of Cisco. The idea there is that if youre watching a program on television and you leave toring/control, anti-spam and loss/theft your home, you can continue watching that protection to smartphones. While the solu- program on a small device, he explains. tion is aimed mainly at enterprises, cellcos That requires someone storing your sescan also use it to target consumers who are sion and your identity, and that cant be unaware of just how much personal data provided by someone over the top because they store on their smartphones (from the telco knows how much bandwidth need email and text messages to photos and even to be provided to the end device and knows health and financial data) until their devices the characteristics of that device. Thats not get lost or stolen. reality yet, though. Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager for the service layer Going horizontal While the above examples are ways celltechnologies business group at Juniper cos can chase VAS revenues outside of the Networks, explains that while the solution apps ecosystem as it currently exists, thats involves a client on the smartphone connot to say cellcos have no role to play in the tinuously scanning for spyware, malware, apps game. Operators have already banded viruses, spam, etc, and monitoring the together under several different initiatives in phone to enable data backup and remote order to assert their role in the overall apps commands such as locating it when its development space. lost, wiping data if it cant be found and Two initiatives have been driven by the restoring data if/when it is found, all of that has to be connected to the service provider GSM Association OneAPI, which aims headend, which may be a managed service to help cellcos open their billing assets to apps developers in a standardized way, and offered by the service provider, or it may the Wholesale Application Community be self-management where the consumer (WAC), which is working to establish a neugoes in and says please find my phone, tral wholesale framework for apps developwipe it, those kinds of things. But its that ers. WAC which released its first SDK last connection to the service provider thats high value-add that the service provider can year is building a widget framework based on specs already developed by JIL (Joint Inmonetize. novation Lab) and OMTP (via its BONDI Bauhaus adds that he has seen cases standard). WACs specs will allow developwhere people would be willing to pay between $15 and $30 a month just to find a ers to create web apps and widgets with lost phone, let alone the other 95% of what richer functionality, and via a single entity this solution does. There are also what Id that allows them to bypass the headaches of call secure communities of interest think writing for various OSs. More to the point, about your company, financial services WAC combined with OneAPI also gives cellcos a way to participate more directly and healthcare. Each of those is an opportunity either for the consumer in the apps ecosystem not only by offering WAC widgets, but also adding differentiated to pay a VAS fee, or a company or value to them via their own APIs. supplier. A third initiative and one thats been For operators with quad-play around for a couple of years is the LiMo assets, another way they can
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Foundation, an operator-led group that counts NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone among its founders that is developing an open-source Linux-based OS for handsets intended as a neutral alternative to vendor OSs from Apple, Google and Microsoft. All of this LiMo, WAC and OneAPI is the result of operators collaborating in order to establish a strong horizontal ecosystem to compete with or at least counter-balance the strong vertical ecosystem from Apple and the elaborate ecosystem Google is establishing around Android, says LiMo Foundation executive director Morgan Gilles. The neutral device platform enables the operators to have freedom of choice in terms of which application environments and which app stores they deploy in conjunction with the handset, Gilles told Wireless Asia. Android is obviously tied in with Google, so its a channel to market for Google apps and advertising, whereas in the LiMo case, operators have freedom to deploy their own app stores and work closely with the WAC infrastructure and establish their own value. Practically speaking, he adds, These platforms are knitted together through APIs, that determine the flow of added value through apps and content into the core business model of the operators. So you have a marrying of business strategy and technology strategy. What all this means in terms of the bottom line is, of course, too early to tell. WAC was scheduled to open for business at the Mobile World Congress in February as we went to press, and while the LiMo Foundation says 65 handsets are on the market running LiMo, thats from just four handset makers NEC, Panasonic, Samsung and Motorola (with the first two accounting for most of that figure). Gilles says more devices will becoming out with the latest version of the LiMo platform in the second half of this year.
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One thing it wont mean, Gilles insists, is a fundamental change in the cellco business model. The traditional business models are still pretty much intact for operators the core platform and core technology is the network, and the revenue stream is pretty much still ARPU-based, he says. The additional activities are really intended to extend that core technology platform and augment the value provided to users. Gilles illustrates the point by comparing the relationship between cellcos and WAC with the relationship between Google and Android. Googles core platform is search and advertising, and Android itself doesnt generate much revenue, but it does put Google search and advertising in the hands of mobile users, and offers Android apps make it more attractive to users, he says. From an operators perspective, WAC apps delivered via an operators own app store makes the operators network more attractive to consumers, but the main revenue stream is still the traditional one. If nothing else, DoCoMo chief Ryudi Yamada certainly sees it that way. At a time when cellcos have been wondering how to get by as data ARPUs arent growing enough to offset the decline in voice ARPUs, Yamada says the current smartphone/apps trend can actually reverse declining ARPUs with the right strategy. Yamada says DoCoMos various content initiatives from i-mode and i-appli to push services like i-concier and i-channel have boosted packet data revenues to account for nearly 50% of ARPU already. We have set a target to increase that to over 50% of ARPU this fiscal year, and to halt the decline of aggregate ARPU in FY2011, and then help it to recover and grow in FY2012, he said. Were well positioned to achieve that with apps and smartphones. l

Apps away!
pple finally started facing some real competition in the app store market in 2010, with its upstart rivals outpacing it by growth in percentage of apps offered, according to Distimo. While the Apple App Store grew the most in terms of volume of applications, doubling its total during the year to nearly 300,000, its competitors showed signs of catching up quickly in terms of developer support. Android Markets volumes grew sixfold to almost 130,000, while BlackBerry App World and Nokias Ovi Store each showed triple digit growth to a respective 18,000 and 25,000 apps, the app store analytics firms 2010 report shows. The proportion of free apps increased across all four platforms, and the average price of apps also almost universally declined, in a trend Distimo said indicated a shift towards monetization methods other than charging for app purchases. The challengers benefited the most from this trend, with the number of free apps on the Ovi Store growing by nearly 900% in 2010 compared to around 260% for paid apps. The disparity may also be down to the unavailability of operator billing for a number of Ovi Store users, Distimo said. Prices for apps across all four platforms also fell more in line over the year, as the market became more standardized. Broken down by category, Apples store saw a trend towards more business and productivity apps while BlackBerry App World had more growth in entertainment-themed products despite RIMs reputation as a business-focused handset maker. The offerings on Android Market and Ovi were more evenly balanced between business and pleasure. l Dylan Bushell-Embling
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Apples rivals are gaining fast in the app race

12 jan/feb 2011_wireless asia

one-to-One

3D mobile from the inside out

3D isnt just for cinemas and flatscreen TVs its also coming to smartphones and tablets, and you wont need special glasses. Paul Costigan, chief operating officer and APAC president of 3D chipset company Movidius, talks to Wireless Asia editor John C Tanner about what it takes to enable 3D video in cell phones, and why this time around, 3D will outlast the novelty factor that usually drives it before it fizzles out.
Wireless Asia: Lets start with what Movidius does in the 3D space. Paul Costigan: To explain that, its easier to step back and explain how 3D works. One of the objections people have with 3D is fatigue and discomfort, and a lot of that is down to technology. What youre doing in 3D is sending a different image to each eye, and your eyes are used to processing the same image and using depth cues to see it and converging it all. If you present two images, if theres any difference in focus or color or angular rotation, your brain gets seriously confused. So theres techniques like rectification and convergence and other things we have to do. systems cant do that. Also, when you mount a camera on a phone, you can have up to seven mounting errors on a lot of different axes: up and down, in and out, and rotational errors. So we have to compensate for those, which eases the job of the manufacturer. We also have to compensate for things like lens angle variance and color balancing. battery power. It also needs to be supplemented by dedicated hardware in the chip for the graphics, audio and all that. So our approach is, we still have that central RISC core, but we use our multimedia processors to be the hardware accelerators, and depending on how theyre configured, they can take care of video or graphics or audio, whatever. Basically we have a smaller chip and we only need to clock it at 180 MHz, whereas a modern-day application processor is up at the GHz level, so we get a big, big power benefit from that. At 65-nm, 180 MHz is nothing. What does this mean in terms of BOM for mobile devices? You have to add two things to enable 3D one is the 3D barrier on the LCD screen that divides what each eye is sent. The barriers add less than a 2x multiple on the LCDs right now and its coming down. Itll approach close to the price of a 2D LCD once the volumes are there. The other add is a chip like ours, the 3D processor, which adds maybe an extra 20% to the total BOM, but its coming down too. One outstanding issue is brightness the barrier knocks about 7% off the brightness of the LCD on a touch screen. Thats being solved too. Mobile operators see video as a major app, but also a bandwidth-hungry one. Will 3D add much to their traffic load? The clever thing there is that 3D technology has been encapsulated within
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the existing H.264 standard its just a normal H.264 transmission that just happens to have the left and right images packed side by side. So the impact on bandwidth isnt as much as you might think. Plus, if youre converting 2D to 3D on the device, then its even less of an issue. But to be honest, when LTE comes, that wont even be an issue. Your first product is a 2D-to-3D converter, but 2D-to-3D films have not gotten the rave reactions of native-3D films like Avatar. Will that be less of an issue on smaller screens that dont require 3D glasses? I think it will, but for a different reason. When you watch video on a handset, its a true one-to-one experience, and you can constantly adjust the distance and the angle of the screen to give yourself the best viewing experience. It sounds simple when you say it people dont know theyre doing it, but they are. 3D viewing is very angle-dependent, especially for glasses-free 3D. How do you determine when 3D is achieving that balance? We cant. Its a totally individual experience. Some people in fact cant see 3D theres a certain percentage of people who just cant see it. It also depends on the distance between your eyes and all sorts of stuff. Thats why we have to make it adjustable, with settings the user can manipulate to get the best viewing experience.
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How does your 3D chipset fit into the device architecture? Weve come up with this multicore processor, and we act as a slave to a host processor. We sit on the memory bus, and we take the cameras and use the memory bus for data exchange between us and the host processor. What do rectification and converOur architecture is software-programgence do? mable, so obviously we can allow simple Rectification basically fixes errors during the capture process. We cant just upgrades to track emerging 3D standards capture an image like with 2D, theres a or even new safety recommendations and so on. Once we put our chip in, it sits as a hell of a lot of stuff that has to be done co-processor beside the main application first. Convergence is the process of decid- processor in a tablet or a smartphone ing what youre going to concentrate on very simple to integrate. But we can offer new features on that very same chip when youre looking at an image. One solution for this is called fixed conver- through different software builds. Also, our multicore processor adgence, where they converge at about 1 to 4 meters. Our solution is different: we dresses a problem youre beginning to decide what the main object is the frame see. If you look at the kind of applicais and focus on that. That means we can tion processors going into cell phones and tablets and so on, theyre all based offer a 3D viewing experience from 75 cm to infinity. So if you point our cam- on ARM processors. The ARM is a era to trees in the distance, for example, fantastic general-purpose RISC thats we can still give a depth effect for those getting faster and bigger, but as you get up to 1 GHz and 2 GHz, its killing the distant objects, whereas simpler 3D
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Movidius COO Paul Costigan So what metrics or benchmarks do you use to determine that its ready for the public? What we aim for in our normal setting is that about 70% of the effect is behind the screen. What you basically have are the parallaxes where your eye is focused. When I look at you now, theres stuff behind you and in front of you, so if the screen is here, we can adjust the depth of the image so 70% of the items are virtually behind that screen and 30% to the front. 3D has famously had some false starts over the decades. Once the novelty factor wears off, whats going to keep driving demand for it? Well, its mostly a video thing, as opposed to still images and things. The other thing is that youre going to see a body of consumers that genuinely expect stuff to be 3D. My kids now expect to see the 3D version of the new movie. 3D has had some false starts, mainly because of the quality, but now is the time for a few reasons. One is that the content is beginning to appear consistently. Another is that the technology genuinely is there to enable comfortable 3D viewing on a mobile platform. And these are active screens, so if people dont want to watch in 3D, they can turn it off and it disappears. Also, we understand now that there is a trade-off between the wow factor and the comfort factor. We can wow you, but youll get tired. So we can make it adjustable. The other thing is that people are also now realizing that 3D doesnt have to mean dinosaurs jumping at you from the screen, and that if you create a depth effect, its more pleasing and a lot less fatiguing on the eyes. If youve seen Avatar, there were only a couple of dramatic scenes where the stuff came out at you, and most of the 3D effect was depth-based. That was a key milestone in the development of 3D. l
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location

Taking GPS down and deep

Even with A-GPS, cell phones with GPS still struggle with urban canyons and indoor navigation. The solution: more satellites and more sensors. By Frank van Diggelen

s we all know, GPS is practically perfect in every way . . . so long as its outside and unobstructed. Even cell phones can now produce meter-level accuracy under open sky. And, with Assisted GPS (A-GPS), those cell phones have mitigated the two great deficiencies of the original GPS: slow time to first fix (TTFF), and outdoor-only operation. A-GPS receivers can produce TTFF as fast as one second after a cold start, and (sometimes) work indoors. However, there are still many deficiencies in the state of the art of location, particularly in deep urban canyons and inside large buildings. In the latter you will soon notice that even if your A-GPS operates in your house, it does not operate everywhere. The term indoor GPS is rather like offroad vehicle: your four-wheel drive may let you cruise down the beach, but you certainly cannot use it to climb every mountain nor ford every stream. Similarly indoor GPS denotes the presence of a capability not the absence of all limitations. And so what is the future of urban and indoor navigation, and which technologies will prevail? The short answer is: more satellites and more
16 jan/feb 2011_wireless asia

sensors. In this article well look at the technologies that will move us from the era of GPS-only into the future of GPS-plus.

Other GNSS
The most likely addition to GPS will be the other global navigation satellite systems, and all GPS receivers will be replaced by true, multi-system, GNSS over the next two to three years. Not because this will ever fully solve indoor location, but because of the outdoor problem in deep urban canyons. Of the various GNSS systems, those with the most influence in the next few years will be Russias GLONASS, because it is there, and Japans Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) because it is high. The first QZSS satellite recently began functional transmission. So lets use QZSS as an example of why extra satellites are so important in the deep urban canyon. Tokyos Shinjuku district is a typical deep urban canyon and a terrible place for GPS because there are not enough satellites in direct view. This puts receiver designers in an insoluble dilemma: Track only strong satellites, and you will not have enough; or track weak satellites,

and you will measure reflections with large measurement errors because of the extra path length of the reflection. Moreover, the reflected signals can be indistinguishable from direct signals in their characteristics, especially in mobile phones where the antennas are poor, and directional so that signal strength is not a reliable indicator of whether a signal is direct or not. Extra-high satellites can improve horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP). In this case the HDOP improves by about 20 times, from 58 to 3. It is easy to find many similar examples using GPS + GLONASS or any other GNSS combination. More often than not, extra satellites improve the situation significantly. The QZSS system uses inclined
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Altimeters are another MEMS technology. Typically a hermetically sealed cavity on the chip is used to MEMS, accelerometers, and measure change in atmospheric pressure gyros the surface of the cavity is deformed The micro-electromechanical as the outside pressure changes, and systems (MEMS) technique etches the deformation can be measured the silicon on a chip to exploit its using piezoelectric strain gauges. The mechanical and electrical properties. integration of altimeters with GPS A MEMS chip, such as a chip-level is already well established for such geostationary orbits to provide high accelerometer or rate gyro, thus has applications as hiking receivers. Similar elevation coverage above Japan (and, as a tiny moving parts that can sense integration is likely in other consumer by-product, neighboring regions.) In this acceleration or rate of turn, respectively. devices, especially smartphones. respect it is unique amongst the major Both sensors are already common in GNSS: it is exclusively designed to provide smartphones, where they are used to set AFLT, MRL, and Cell-ID good urban coverage of its home region. the correct screen orientation (portrait The three cellular-wireless Compass has a similar component, but or landscape), and for gaming. Because technologies of AFLT, MRL, and Cell-ID ultimately it, like GPS, GLONASS, and they are already there, they are a natural are all components of A-GPS. Galileo, has global ambitions. addition to location technologies, and AFLT (Advanced Forward Link QZSS-capable chips are already found many companies are moving rapidly Trilateration) is a technique used in in mobile phones and tablets available to integrate motion sensors with GPS CDMA phone systems, where the cell in the Asian market. As this article was for improved accuracy indoors and in towers are precisely synced to GPS being written, a Broadcom BCM4751 urban canyons. time. Because of this precise time chip in Tokyo was computing the firstsynchronization, one can use the cellular ever GPS+QZSS position. Magnetic compasses signal to measure range from the cell Like accelerometers and gyros, tower, using time-delay just like GPS. Wi-Fi magnetic compasses are already found CDMA phones with GPS are usually After GNSS, the second-leading in many smartphones. The technology using AFLT when providing position location technology is Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is rapidly evolving, and different indoors. location works by using a database of techniques are used by different suppliers MRL (Measured Results List), is media access control (MAC) addresses to determine magnetic north, including the UMTS analogy of AFLT for nonwww.telecomasia.net wireless asia_jan/feb 2011 17

and locations. When a mobile device senses a Wi-Fi access point, the MAC address and database give the location of the access point (AP). A simple average of many APs gives position accurate to tens of meters. Wi-Fi location is already tightly integrated with GPS in many smartphones. Wi-Fi location accuracy is good enough that it is often mistaken for GPS, especially in cities where the density of APs is large. In Manhattan, for example, there are more than 25,000 APs per square kilometer. Several major companies, including Apple, Broadcom, and Google, have worldwide databases of Wi-Fi AP locations that are used in mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets.

Hall effect sensors, fluxgate compasses, and MEMS. Performance is dramatically affected by nearby metal and severely affected by magnets. You may not think that you are surrounded by magnets, but you are especially in your car where every speaker of your sound system is a magnet and the better the speaker, the larger the magnet. Thus magnetic sensors alone are not a reliable location technology, but integrated with other sensors, such gyros or accelerometers, they can be and are very useful, especially for pedestrian applications.

Altimeters

location

The QZSS system is unique amongst the major GNSS: it is exclusively designed to provide good urban coverage of its home region

each IMES transmitter is so low (0.1 to 0.4 nanowatts) that it can only be acquired within about 10 meters of the transmitter. The signal is modulated with a PRN code (PRN numbers 173 to 182) and data: the data contains the location of the transmitter. The system more powerful signals. However, it has technology may be summarized as if synchronized systems. The MRL you can hear me, here you are. And the provides a list of neighboring cell towers been a commercial failure. DTV location, or related technologies, accuracy is inherently about 10 meters. and received power. Received power is may enjoy a resurgence in the future once A fascinating detail of the IMES data used to estimate range, and from this, mobile TV or digital radio (HD Radio message is that it contains (in message position. Accuracy is not nearly as good and DAB digital audio broadcasting) type 000): latitude, longitude and floor as AFLT, but can be decent, especially in number. cities where accuracy may be better than become more widely adopted. IMES is designed to work with any 100 meters, good enough for emergency GPS receiver that can decode PRNs 173 Pseudolites location applications such as E-911. through 182. And, because they are not Well known to precision-location Cell-ID is simply the technique of intended for ranging, the transmitters looking up location in a cell ID database. cognoscenti, pseudolites provide do not have to be precisely synchronized GPS-like signals from ground-based This is analogous to Wi-Fi location, but with GPS or with each other. This makes transmitters. They typically use a not nearly as accurate since cell tower them cheap to build and install. However, transmit frequency that is offset from ranges are much greater than Wi-Fi. they do still need to be deployed in large GPS, but otherwise their signals are like However, although perhaps the least numbers (at least one every 10 meters), exciting, this technique is the foundation GPS so that they can be used with a receiver with the same baseband as GPS. and will require a government-sized of many important technologies. The effort to become reality. Interestingly, Pseudolites can be very accurate, as AFLT and MRL techniques require they might just get it: The IMES system good as five centimeters when using Cell-ID as a necessary component. is defined in an annex to the QZSS A-GPS usually uses Cell-ID for providing carrier-phase measurements. They interface specification from JAXA, the require local, fixed transmitters which the assistance position, a necessary are fairly sophisticated (since they must Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. component of the high sensitivity that But it is not clear how much funding is maintain time and phase coherency A-GPS provides. And Cell-ID alone available for IMES, or if there is any mass to work properly.) This makes them is necessary for E-911 location, when deployment schedule. prohibitively expensive for widespread A-GPS fails. Even if IMES is never deployed, applications. However, pseudolites are Digital TV and radio other, similar local-beacon systems highly valued and widely used in niche Location from digital TV works may emerge. They will require a markets, and will probably remain so. by measuring ranges from DTV government-level (or similar) effort for towers, analogous to GPS and AFLT. the mass deployment required to make IMES and local beacons However, DTV towers are not precisely a system a reality for consumers. IMES stands for indoor synchronized to each other, and so DTV measurement system, and it, or Thus IMES or similar local-beacon location requires the build out of fixed technology may amount to nothing, something like it, could be the most site infrastructure to deal with individual interesting new location technology or it may be a complete game-changer, tower clock offsets. depending on how the game is played of all. IMES is a local-beacon system DTV location is in a way the opposite it works by providing a very weak and how the cards fall. l of Cell-ID. While Cell-ID is intellectually signal that is exactly like GPS, but is Frank Van Diggelen is senior boring, the technique is practically very technical director for GNSS, and chief meant for data-transmission only, important and widely used. DTV, by navigation officer of Broadcom not ranging. Thus it is fundamentally contrast, is an exciting idea, because it This article originally appeared in different from pseudolites, which are can be accurate like GPS but with much designed for ranging. The power of GPS World
18 jan/feb 2011_wireless asia www.telecomasia.net

wirelesshorizon

Recharge your smartphone in minutes

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute claim theyve developed a new type of nanomaterial that tackles the chief limitation of recharging speed for Li-ion batteries (i.e. the faster you discharge and recharge it, the faster it deteriorates and eventually fails). The new material, called a nanoscoop (due to its resemblance to an ice cream cone), is engineered to take that stress. A paper from the Rensselaer team, led by Professor Nikhil Koratkar, demonstrates the ability of a nanoscoop electrode to be charged and discharged 40 to 60 times faster than conventional battery anodes over a hundred continuous charge/discharge cycles. Which basically means you could recharge a smartphone, tablet or laptop in a matter of minutes rather than hours. The same technology could also have major implications for electric car batteries. l

Mind your SIMs

For cellcos looking at M2M services like smart meters and smart traffic light systems, a word of caution: thieves will try to steal the SIM cards and rack up thousands of dollars in phone calls on them. As theyve reportedly been doing in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has installed 600 high-tech traffic lights rigged with GPRS modems and SIM cards to alert the JRA head office if a light malfunctions. But criminals have been targeting the lights, stealing the SIMs from about two-thirds of them and using them to make phone calls worth millions of rand, reports the Guardian (to say nothing of causing traffic chaos by knocking the lights offline in the first place). The stolen SIMs have since been blocked, but adding insult to injury is the fact that the labor cost of repairing the damaged lights is higher than the cost of the actual SIM cards being stolen. With each light costing 22,000 rand (a little over $3,100) to repair, the total repair bill so far is likely to cost the city close to $1.3 million. l

The hottest 3G market in the world: North Korea

Its true: North Korea is leading the world in 3G uptake, according to Telegeography, which ranked more than 171 countries by their level of 3G penetration. To understand what that means, of course, requires understanding what the data is actually measuring: the percentage of wireless users subscribed to a 3G network. North Korea whose sole 3G network, Koryolink, was launched by Egyptian owned Orascom Telecom in December 2008 topped the list with 99.9% of its mobile users using Koryolink at the end of September last year. Koryolinks total subscriber base: 301,199 lines, which out of a population of 24 million (according to World Bank figures from 2009) is not a lot. The fact that members of the public have been barred from subscribing to Sun Net, the countrys sole 2G network, since 2004, is likely factor. Meanwhile, second place went to Japan ranked second behind North Korea, with 94.6% of users connected to a 3G platform. South Korea came in third at 71.7%, followed by Australia (64.6%) and Taiwan (58.1%). l
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Beware the SMS of Death

One of the more common predictions for 2011 among industrywatchers is that smartphone malware will become more common as smartphones grow more popular. But even feature phones are vulnerable to attacks. Researchers in Germany say feature phones can be shut down and knocked off the network via SMS attacks. Two students in the Security in Telecommunications department at the Technische Universitaet Berlin have demonstrated a so-called SMS Of Death attack on feature phones made by LG, Motorola, India-based Micromax Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson that exploits the ability of the SMS protocol to send binaries (small programs) to the handset. Attackers can use it to send malicious messages that can shut down the phones. The availability of Web-based bulk SMS services make this kind of attack both cheap and easy, the report says. Cellcos have two options to prevent such an attack, according to Technology Review: update the firmware of existing phones, or filter SMS traffic for malware, the latter of which is tough because SMS filters are designed to block spam, not binaries. l
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