Smart Wi-Fi

RIM Re-Joins the Wi-Fi Calling Party

2012-01-31T10:16:00.000-08:00

For some unspoken reason, RIM had removed the Wi-Fi Calling functionality, possibly a
symptom of the firm’s general malaise. But its reintroduction as part of the new OS suggests strongly that its removal did not go unnoticed.

Read the rest of the post I wrote for IP Telephony.

My Wi-Fi Offload

2011-12-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

To get a better idea of how much data is actually offloaded to Wi-Fi, I downloaded NetCounter, an app available for free from the Android Marketplace.

The reality is that most mobile operators can only count bytes that traverse their packet data infrastructure (SGSN/GGSN). Typically they can't see what gets routed directly over Wi-Fi (perhaps there's an exception if using CarrierIQ).

So how much data actually goes over Wi-Fi versus the cellular network?

The vast majority of my data is over Wi-Fi. For the past two months, I have logged 1,907 mb through my smartphone - with 205 mb over cellular and 1,702 over Wi-Fi.

Percentage-wise, that's a 90/10% split.

Granted I'm Wi-Fi savvy, plus I'm using T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling service which encourages me to turn on, and leave on, Wi-Fi when I'm at home and in the office.

Also I spend the vast majority of my waking time within range of Wi-Fi both at home and in the office.

Of course, this is a sample size of one, but still quite telling. Wi-Fi is certainly the work-horse of my mobile internet experience.

Nielsen - Telling the US smartphone story

2011-12-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

I’m always on the look-out for a good resource which highlights what’s really happening in the mobile market. Recently I’ve been turning to quarterly reports published by consumer preferences company Nielsen.

The most recent Nielsen Q3 2011 Mobile Survey report is packed with interesting tidbits on the US smartphone market.

I particularly like their chart on smartphone ownership by OS by manufacturer:

In another post on another blog, I commented how the word “voice” didn’t appear in the report until page 24… a testament to how we use our smartphones today – as mobile internet tools, messaging machines, game-stations, and apparently last as an actual phone.

Republic Wireless turns mobile world upside down

2011-12-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Republic Wireless... heard of them? It's a little company with a big concept.

You may have heard about their $19/month 'unlimited' service offer in the US. This is certainly what's garnering headlines.

But for mobile industry watchers, it's not the price but the approach which is turning the mobile model upside-down.

The concept is that people spend the majority of their time indoors (home, office) and within range of Wi-Fi.

Rather than relying on expense and limited cellular spectrum, Republic 'requires' subscribers to use their service predominately over Wi-Fi. Yes, they offer a 'fall back' to Sprint when out and about, but per their customer service agreement, Republic will cut you off if you use too much of Sprint's network. Wow.

There have been plenty of discussions about turning Wi-Fi into a global, mobile network. Trilogy Partner's CEO John Stanton said he spoke with Steve Jobs in 2006/2007 about creating Apple's own mobile network based on Wi-Fi.

And now Republic has taken such a service to market.

We've known for quite some time that the majority of mobile usage happens indoors. And it's these indoor locations which are most difficult to cover from outdoor macro cell towers. This problem, combined with the compelling rise of smartphones as a constant companion, has fueled the rise of Wi-Fi usage within mobile networks.

What Republic is showing is that a 'mobile service' doesn't need to be exclusive to cellular spectrum or radio towers.

In this case, cellular is a service delivered 'over the top' of Wi-Fi. The implications are profound.

Will Republic succeed? Unlikely. They don't have the brand awareness/marketing firepower to make a dent in the hyper-competitive US mobile market.

But as US operators look to lower costs while trying to address massive data demand, they will quickly realize Wi-Fi is for more than just simple data offload.

Smart Wi-Fi drives data offload

2011-09-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Based on data recently released by Validas, which analyzes the mobile-phone bills of consumers, T-Mobile looks to be the only US mobile operator able to control its data surges from increased smartphone usage.

An article in Fierce Wireless reported Validas' research compiled between June 2010 and July 2011. It showed Verizon with the highest percentage of increase in data usage with AT&T second and Sprint in third place. Yet T-Mobile had a slight decrease.

Is T-Mobile able to increase data offload because of Smart Wi-Fi? It is the only operator of the four with an active and successful Wi-Fi data offload service -- Wi-Fi Calling, based on Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi technology. Smart Wi-Fi gives T-Mobile subscribers a reason to connect their smartphones to Wi-Fi – and thus offload the cellular network. So it would follow that its offload is very positively impacted and that is what sets it apart from its competitors.

With data surges developing into a major issue for mobile operators, competitive solutions abound. Could T-Mobile have found the one that truly has an impact? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Wi-Fi Calling for Emergency Response

2011-09-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

On the T-Mobile blog the other day, there was a post about its Persistent Communication Solutions powered by T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling for Government technology. Have you heard about it?

It's a really valuable and important program as it allows first responders – including police, firefighters and EMTs --

"to stay connected during emergencies with the same phone they use every day, without having to switch to a different device, even when commercial wireless networks are out of service. It also enables wireless communication where no commercial networks exist – so first responders can stay connected even in the most remote areas."

You can read more about it at the T-Mobile blog post.

It ties in for us regular folk, too. As I blogged the other day, Wi-Fi Calling came in quite handy in recent weeks post-earthquake on the east coast and also during and after the Hurricane Irene havoc for people who had electricity and wanted to reach out to friends and family to check in. Cell towers got knocked out and networks were overly congested. Wi-Fi Calling gave many some peace of mind.

It's great to learn about T-Mobile's programs like this -- it's not something we often hear about. Have you been in a situation where Wi-Fi Calling really helped you? Tell me about it in the comments.

Rogers, Fido expand international wi-fi calling

2011-08-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

It looks like MobileSyrup got an early tip that Canada-based mobile operators Rogers and Fido have launched an “International Wi-Fi Calling” add-on. For operators concerned about preserving roaming revenues, here’s a great way to capture additional value from users traveling abroad.

Rogers has been gradually growing its Wi-Fi Calling service, starting with an offer geared toward students and expanding wi-fi calling to address business’ needs. According to the article, the new add-on gives subscribers with capable phones that ability to use these phones during international travel.

They are charging either $25 or $40 for 30 days of service plans for this. According to the article, $25 gives you international roaming rates and unlimited Wi-Fi calling back to Canada. For $40, you get unlimited local calling and long distance, plus Unlimited Wi-Fi calling. The fine print states that “Calls made back to Canada over Wi-Fi will not be charged against shared roaming plan minutes.”

Wi-Fi Calling Post-Earthquake

2011-08-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

Mobile phones provide a level of accessibility and convenience we've never had before. And in times of crisis, they are the first things we look to in order to connect and get reassurance. Of course, that's why all the mobile operators reported clogged networks in the Northeast US Tuesday when nearly the entire East Coast into parts of the Midwest started rumbling from the earthquake.

Mobile operators took to Twitter to encourage subscribers to try email and other ways of communication. But many T-Mobile customers had an edge with Wi-Fi Calling. Through Twitter, we read first-hand accounts about how Wi-Fi Calling helped families and friends to connect.

Here's just a sampling of the tweets about how helpful Wi-Fi Calling was post earthquake:

@johnashtonedgar: @TMobile #Tmobile Wi-Fi calling would also help alleviate the stress on the network in earthquake affected areas. #EastCoastEarthquake

@NuShrike ironically, I'm hearing it's #WiFi calling that still works on East Coast @TmoNews @TMobile @kinetowireless @alfranken @SenatorSanders

@MadBlackPoet This wifi calling is very useful in times like these. Damn, cell towers jammed.

@Luton13 #tmobile wifi calling working like a champ...thank you magenta for innovating even when towers are not working

@signofthegrind @MsCat215 most cells are down or overloaded. Unless u use wifi calling

@JGarc1187 Put that android or blackberry to work... Use wifi calling.. It works to make calls and text..I hope everyone is ok...

@Brownnotes215 If you can't make calls use wifi calling to make calls

@msparisknight Wow that earthquake was crazy! Thankful for wifi calling

@HaisamIdo Thank u @TMobile for providing free Wi-fi Calling on my #android phone. I was able to send SMS during #earthquake !!!

@FACEofDIAMONDS - Now calling Mom using Wi-Fi calling. If you need to reach loved ones with no service I can help you through Wi-Fi calling.

Follow these tweets and more at Twitter.com/KinetoWireless.

Have you had any experiences where Wi-Fi Calling helped you when you really needed it? Tell us in the comments.

Not Resting on our Laurels

2011-08-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

Second quarter was a strong and positive one for Kineto. We're not resting on our laurels, mind you, but I do want to share them with you.

By the end of Q2 2011, Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi Application was officially on 15 additional Android smartphones. This brings the total number of Smart Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones to more than 30 from the industry's leading manufacturers, including HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Samsung and ZTE.

Other highlights:

• Orange UK has expanded its Signal Boost service (based on Smart Wi-Fi) to offer the following nine smartphones: Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Ace; the LG Optimus Me; HTC Wildfire S, Cha Cha and Desire S; along with the Orange-branded Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Stockholm.

• T-Mobile USA introduced six new Wi-Fi Calling-enabled smartphones, including the Samsung Dart™, Samsung Gravity™ SMART, Samsung Exhibit™ 4G; HTC Sensation™ 4G, T-Mobile® G2x™ with Google™ and the T-Mobile® Sidekick® 4G, providing customers with enhanced network coverage and the ability to experience high-quality voice and data on their home Wi-Fi networks.

• ZTE will now pre-load Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi Application onto select new Android-based smartphones.

• Huawei will now pre-load Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi Application onto select new Android-based smartphones.

Read the full Kineto Q2 milestones press release.

Want to keep up to date on Kineto activities? Subscribe to this blog's feed and follow Kineto on Twitter @kinetowireless.

Part of a Winning Team

2011-08-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

ZTE has been on a bit of a roll lately. The company opened a major network testing and development center in London and quickly followed up that announcement with another that it shipped 35 million mobile handsets in the first half of 2011, up 30% on-year, and it's smartphone sales grew by 400% in the first six months of the year to 5 million units.

It's a strong partner, and we're proud to see ZTE supports Smart Wi-Fi in the market as well. The company is pre-loading Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi Application onto select new Android-based ZTE smartphones, starting with the Skate, coming soon in the UK.

Wu Sa, director of Mobile Device Operations for ZTE UK, said: "Devices such as the ZTE Skate are proving very popular with both operators and consumers, and we're happy to be working with Kineto to integrate Smart Wi-Fi into devices for carriers that want to take advantage of the benefits of UMA."

ZTE is on a winning streak, and Smart Wi-Fi is now part of that streak.

Read the full ZTE and Kineto press release.

Tesco boosts coverage in stores

2011-07-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, their goal probably wasn't specifically to 'boost coverage', but this week, Tesco, the

’s largest retailer, announced it began trialing free Wi-Fi throughout its stores.

I’m sure Tesco can use Wi-Fi for many internal inventory and store management requirements. Plus I suspect they want to try location-based things to put ads on people’s smartphones as they walk the isles.

But for Orange UK subscribers with Signal Boost, Tesco just made sure everyone gets great in-building coverage when they are doing their shopping.

You don’t need a femtocell for that.

Smartphone owners are savvy about their Wi-Fi and want more of it

2011-07-28T14:57:00.001-07:00

The proof is in the survey of 420 smartphone owners in the US that we commissioned in May 2011 and was conducted by MarketTools® Zoomerang®:

74 percent of smartphone users in the United States are interested in a mobile operator-provided service that uses Wi-Fi to provide lower cost calls.
72 percent of smartphone users are interested in an application that uses Wi-Fi to improve cellular coverage.
Nearly nine out of 10 (89%) of respondents have smartphones with Wi-Fi.
77 percent have Wi-Fi at home; 54 percent have it at their place of work.
62 percent of people who own smartphones with Wi-Fi use the Wi-Fi four or more days each week.
30 percent say they use Wi-Fi because it is faster than the cellular network; 19 percent because it is easy to access the internet.
30 percent have smartphones with a Google Android operating system (OS); 26 percent use Apple iPhone OS; and 22 percent use a RIM OS.

As we all read about in tech and general publications regularly, smartphones have become the dominant mobile phone technology, and their users have aggressively embraced Wi-Fi for a variety of reasons. This trend appears to be continuing on its upswing with no sign of abatement.

Cost and coverage continue to be key issues plaguing the mobile industry, and solutions that address those issues are of great interest to subscribers. This survey finds that subscribers are truly interested in utilizing Wi-Fi capabilities more and are open to operator-provided services.

There are plenty more stats and information about customers by operator and by smartphone type available at Kineto.com.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you may recall that Kineto commissioned similar 2010 smartphone surveys in the US and UK.

Do these 2011 survey results coincide with what you think is going on in the market? Tell us what you think and what in the comments.

Amplifying Orange UK's Signal Boost

2011-07-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Did you read about the event, Amplify 2011, we hosted in June in London for media and analysts? It was an opportunity for us to talk about Smart Wi-Fi and for Orange UK to talk about it's successful Signal Boost service.

Watch this video from the event:

I've written before about some of the highlights from the presentation by Orange UK's Director of Product Marketing Paul Jevons. Read more about them in my previous post about the event.

Some other highlights from the evening that you can watch and hear for yourself in the video include:

- Kineto showcased some of the nearly 30 Android devices on which our Smart Wi-Fi application is available, including smartphones from Huawei, HTC, Samsung and LG.

- Jevons talks about how "brilliantly simple" Signal Boost is because of the Smart Wi-Fi app

- Jevons talks about Everything Everywhere's plans to "roll that [Signal Boost] out across the T-Mobile base in the UK later this year."

- Orange UK reports "genuine and material improvements" in customer satisfaction and retention

- 80% of customers say it is easy to set up and really easy to use; and more customers say it's becoming an influence in their decision of handsets

Watch the Amplify 2011 video for more. After you see it, come back here and let me know what you think. Did you learn anything new?

Pitfalls and the mystery of femtocell deployments

2011-07-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

Reporting from Avren's Femtocell World Summit, Light Reading's Michelle Donegan captured some of the pitfalls of femtocell deployments.

"Thilo Kirchinger, Vodafone's principal connected home manager, said that the need for indoor voice coverage is the trigger for most customers to buy a femtocell."

It remains a mystery why a consumer would 'buy' a femtocell. But as long as they are being sold, femtocells will be relegated to a 1% solution.

Mr. Kirchinger also commented that "data offload is not a proposition that can be sold to customers."

No surprise here, customers don't care about offload, that's strictly an operational benefit. The trick is creating incentives that change user behavior. T-Mobile US now offers free calls over Wi-Fi as incentive to get subscribers to use Wi-Fi and reap the benefits of offload.

"Vodafone Greece's new products, innovation and wholesale group product manager, Polychronis Tzerefos, said that femtocells are a customer-retention tool, not an acquisition tool, and that operators should expect to subsidize them heavily."

I think the consensus in many other markets is that femtos work best for retention - as a tool for the 'save queue'. Complain you plan to leave your operator, and they overnight a femtocell to your house. The math is easy.

Putting a femto in a pre-sales retail environment raises some uncomfortable questions. If your coverage is so great, why do you have a femtocell product? If I have coverage problems, will you give me a femto?

"Among the technical challenges the operator encountered, Tzerefos said there is lot of integration to be done with existing business systems, customer relationship management, business intelligence and customer self-care portals."

This is a story we've heard time and time again. Many focus on the cost of the femtocell as the key item, but there is a tremendous amount of back-end integration and cost associated with deploying them.

"And as for marketing the femto service, Tzerefos shared that there was much internal debate about, "How do you sell the customer coverage when you're supposed to have the best coverage in Greece? How do we explain they need a solution?"

And this is the beauty of a Smart Wi-Fi solution. It's an application that puts the customer in charge. If they have coverage problems, they can use their Wi-Fi to fix it. In today's self-service environment, this is one message which resonates clearly.

Femtos still on the sideline

2011-06-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

In an article published this month on Fierce Wireless Europe, Paul Rasmussen writes what many in the industry already know, that femtocells are still on the sidelines.

Mr. Rasmussen quotes Ovum analyst Steven Hartley saying femtos remain to costly and complex for a mass-market coverage solution.

Speaking quite candidly, Ericsson CTO Hakan Eriksson stated "the femtocell solves no p

roblem from my viewpoint."

Pointing out the obvious, Mr. Eriksson goes on to say that "all the devices that are generating mobile data are Wi-Fi enabled."

Not a good coverage play, not a good offload play... it's no wonder Femtos remain on the sidelines.

With more than 200m Wi-Fi access points installed in the world today, it seems that Wi-Fi is the dominate in-building wireless technology.

Boosting Signal Boost

2011-06-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

This week Kineto held an event in the UK to announce the availability of new Android smartphones with Orange’s Signal Boost service.

Signal Boost, as the name implies, uses Wi-Fi to boost the mobile signal of Orange customers when they are at home or in the office. Signal Boost was quietly introduced to the market a couple years ago, and has become key service offer.

Director of product marketing Paul Jevons said a few words about the success of the Signal Boost service. Here are some of the highlights:

The Signal Boost customer base has grown by more than 50% in the last 6 months, carrying millions of calls every month.
Signal Boost has “positive customer retention,” and customers say that “there is an improvement in coverage and call quality” when using the service.
Customers appreciate Signal Boost. 50% say the Signal Boost feature influenced their handset choice, and 80% rate it as “easy to set up.”
A “large portion” of active Signal Boost customers consider it “an essential feature.”

The event was hosted at Tutton’s in Covent Garden. Their private, underground “vault” rooms were an ideal place to highlight how Wi-Fi and Orange’s Signal Boost service can bring mobile services anywhere.

The event resulted in a lot of great coverage in Telecom TV, Total Telecom, Recombu, Pocket Lint, CNET and more.

A bit more of Rogers’ Wi-Fi Calling Service

2011-05-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

A new article on TheTelecomBlog.com explains Rogers' service to customers. Read How to WiFi Enable your Cell Phone: A Review of Rogers new WiFi Calling for Business.

Still not sure how it works? Read more about the technology at Smart-Wi-Fi.com and WiFiCalling.net.

Would free calls make things better?

2011-05-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

There was an article the other day on Fierce Wireless entitled "Enterprise not thrilled with Wi-Fi offload strategies."

The article alludes to enterprise IT networks carrying employees' smartphone data traffic over their Wi-Fi infrastructure.

This is a fundamental problem with offload - it's not a consumer (or business) feature/benefit. Offload is something that is for mobile operators. In return for providing offload, the mobile operator ought to provide something in return.

Would free calls make things better?

Last week, T-Mobile introduced free calls over Wi-Fi via its Wi-Fi Calling service. Now domestic calls to any number, placed over Wi-Fi, don't count against the subscriber's plan minutes or bucket.

In effect, T-Mobile is offering its customers a benefit for using Wi-Fi.

Rather than begging or pleading with people to turn on Wi-Fi for offload, T-Mobile is providing a positive incentive to use Wi-Fi (free calling); and in return, T-Mobile gets the benefit of offload.

Oh yeah, they get other benefits too. Wi-Fi Calling boosts in-building coverage - and happy subscribers with good coverage churn less.

It seems like one operator has finally hit on a plan to actually increase Wi-Fi usage in the home and office.

T-Mobile rolls out free calls over Wi-Fi

2011-05-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Once again, TMoNews.com scooped everyone else with the news that T-Mobile is announcing FREE calls over Wi-Fi starting May 13^th. Per the internal memo in the article, it seems like there’s no doubt. A few calls today to local shops in Silicon Valley confirms it.

What does this mean? Free means free. For subscribers with Wi-Fi Calling capable phones that are powered by Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi Application, calls over Wi-Fi will now NOT count against the plan bucket. Previously, calls over Wi-Fi were charged like calls over cellular.

Since initially launching last November, T-Mobile has focused its Wi-Fi Calling service on reducing churn by improving coverage and customer satisfaction.

By expanding Wi-Fi Calling to free calling plus better coverage, T-Mobile is able to drive offload by providing positive incentives for people to turn on Wi-Fi at home and in the office – the two locations which account for 50-66% of mobile data usage.

T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling service gives subscribers what they want: better service at a lower cost.

For mobile service providers looking to encourage Wi-Fi offload, Smart Wi-Fi delivers powerful incentives that change consumer behavior.

I think there are some big implications about telephony, the future of voice, even femtocells, in this service offer. And certainly, T-Mobile continues to lead the pack in customer service. See what subscribers are saying at WiFiCalling.net/twitter.

What do you think about this announcement? Let me know in the comments.

Forbes Reports on Impact T-Mobile / AT&T Merger on T-Mo’s Beloved Wi-Fi Calling

2011-05-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

Forbes Tech Reporter Elizabeth Woyke explored what the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile would mean for Wi-Fi Calling, T-Mobile's service that has attracted much love and attention from subscribers and industry watchers.

Many customers rely on Wi-Fi Calling to better manage their wireless costs, she writes, and it's an interesting topic to keep an eye on.

Read the Forbes article and let me know what you think.

More Smart Wi-Fi for Orange UK Subscribers

2011-05-10T10:10:00.001-07:00

We've been hearing about some subscriber demand for more UMA/GAN-enabled devices from Orange UK. And, as reported in MobileBurn.com, Orange has delivered the HTC Desire S Android with Orange's Signal Boost service.

Can you hear the applause?

This is the second Android phone available from Orange with its Signal Boost (UMA) service. It's now listed on the Orange site. The other is the LG Optimus One, another strong Android smartphone. Plus, Orange also added the Nokia E5, which is optimal for business and personal use. Signal Boost is based on Smart Wi-Fi.

Mobile Burn's reviewer is a fan of the Desire. You can read his full review and watch the video tour at http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=13905.

AT&T CTO: Subsidizing femtocells won’t fix our network

2011-05-02T14:25:00.001-07:00

Wow, that's a pretty blatant statement, and it's the title of an article by Devindra Hardawar at Venture Beat.

We've been following the femtocell market since it's inception four years ago.

It's clear the bloom has come off the rose, and that the reality of what femtocells can, and can't, do is clear.

I think what's really being said is that in places where the femtocell is deployed a long way from a macro signal, things work pretty well.

But in areas with marginal or good AT&T coverage, the femtocell introduces more interference, outweighing any benefit of added capacity.

In addition, by drawing a line in the sand saying "data on femtos count against data caps," AT&T has clearly pigeon-holed them into 'save' solution for people with zero coverage.

What about data offload? What about places with marginal coverage?

Certainly a Smart Wi-Fi solution would work. Wi-Fi, completely agnostic to the macro cellular network, doesn't interfere at all. Plus it's already in the places where people want coverage - the home and office. And it helps to drive offload, because 50-66% of mobile data usage occurs in the home/office.

We could have this problem licked in no time.

Signal Boost is “Brilliant”

2011-04-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting article in The Independent the other day. The author, David Phelan, wrote a piece called “How I FINALLY found a way to make a phone call.”

He pointed out the problems that a lot of Londoners have – even in the middle of town, coverage is spotty. It’s Orange’s Signal Boost (powered by UMA and Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi Application) actually solves the problem in the end.

“This story, you’ll be glad to know, has a happy ending in the form of UMA. This stands for Unlicensed Mobile Access or as I think of it, Ultimately My Answer. It’s a service which is unique to one network but luckily, it’s Orange. It connects my phone to my wi-fi for calls, so poor GSM signal is irrelevant. But it’s a brilliant trick. Now my phone just, you know rings.”

More satisfied customers

2011-04-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

(Click on image if need to view it bigger for reading.)

Wi-Fi Continues to Dominate

2011-04-20T17:03:00.001-07:00

According to new research from IHS iSuppli, shipments of electronic products with embedded WLAN will exceed one billion units for the first time in 2011.

As Fierce reported:

"The firm said that number of connected devices will continue to grow exponentially--surpassing 2 billion in 2015--as wide local area network (WLAN) connectivity increasingly becomes a standard feature in devices. IHS iSuppli said consumer electronics, computer, communications and automotive products with built-in WLAN connectivity such as Wi-Fi will reach 1.2 billion units in 2011, a figure that represents a 35.8 percent increase from 880.4 billion in 2010."

Clearly, Wi-Fi is the dominant in-building technology around the world. We read more and more about the growth of Wi-Fi every day. And with Smart Wi-Fi, it is the perfect complement to the macro cellular network.

Why? Well, don't just take my word for it!

"In today's world of connected electronics, consumers expect seamless access to Internet communications, services and content in any place and at any time," said Dr. Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst for communications and consumer electronics at IHS in a press release.

Need more proof points for the importance and value of Wi-Fi to the mobile network? Here are just a few. A quick web search will reveal many more:

- Wi-Fi may just be the glue to hold AT&T, T-Mobile networks together from Dan Jones of LightReading

- T-Mobile talks up its Wi-Fi Calling Advantage

- In US, 62% of Internet connected homes have Wi-Fi

- Operators rushing to Wi-Fi

Do you think Wi-Fi is fast becoming a necessity for mobile operators to integrate? Let me know in the comments.

“Wi-Fi Calling is Awesome”

2011-04-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

That’s what Sascha Segan, lead analyst for PCMag Mobile, concluded after his business trip to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2011 and subsequent family vacation around Spain.

Segan writes:

“Wi-Fi calling is awesome. Making phone calls while roaming usually costs $1 or more per minute. Skype is one way around this. T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling feature can be even better, as it lets you make and receive calls using your U.S. phone number and standard T-Mobile service plan.”

Need I say more?

But I will. Our team who attended MWC 2011 also had lower numbers for our expense reports because we were able to stay in contact with our families and colleagues cheaply with Wi-Fi Calling. For international travel, it’s a no brainer.

Wi-Fi May Just be the Glue to Hold AT&T, T-Mobile Networks Together

2011-03-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Dan Jones of LightReading, a tough critic of the mobile operator landscape, taped this brief video at CTIA 2011 in which he discusses how T-Mobile and AT&T can tie together their networks in the early days of the merger.

He says the combination of assets - AT&T's vast network of public wi-fi hotspots and T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling service - can be brought together ahead of the hardware for the 3G and eventually LTE networks: "Think of Wi-Fi as the glue that will hold it all together before we get to fourth generation services."

Watch the video below. What do you think about Dan's prediction?

The 0.2% Solution

2011-03-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

At the “Path to 4G” event hosted by Fierce Wireless, and held in conjunction with the CTIA 2011 show in Orlando, Sprint’s vp of network development Iyad Tarazi disclosed that the company has 0.1 million femtocells deployed.

I think the word ‘disclosed’ is key.

0.1 million (aka 100,000) femtocells is nothing to be proud of, but honestly, I don't know what Sprint's expectations were.

Let’s consider the history. Sprint launched their ‘Airave’ to much fanfare in August 2008. At the time, the devices were featured prominently in their retail shops. And in August, 2010, Sprint actually offered to give them away for FREE.

So after three years and giving them away for FREE, Sprint’s been able to actually pawn off 0.1 million devices. With 50 million subscribers, this works out to a paltry 0.2% of the subscriber base.

How many of these units are actually active? Many people I speak with who got a femtocell (not necessarily from Sprint) say they tried it and discarded it.

Compare this with T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling service, which has roughly 5 million subscribers. Of course they aren’t active all the time, but it’s certainly a lot more than 0.1m.

T-Mobile Helps Customers Stay Connected to Japan

2011-03-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile US announced last week that it will waive call charges, Wi-Fi Calling and text message charges to and from Japan, in an effort to provide some relief to customers with loved ones in the ravaged country.

Here are the terms of the offer:

T-Mobile USA is enabling phone calls to Japan for postpaid customers without charges for international long distance through March 31, 2011, and retroactive to March 11, 2011.
T-Mobile postpaid customers can make Wi-Fi calls to and from Japan free of charge through March 31, 2011, and retroactive to March 11, 2011.
Text (SMS) messaging is also free of charge to and from Japan for T-Mobile postpaid customers through March 31, 2011 and retroactive to March 11, 2011.

Plus, customers can donate $10 by texting "REDCROSS" to 90999. There's no charge for those texts.

We just wanted to help spread the word, and our hearts go out to those people in need.

Three, Two, One, Launch!

2011-03-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

At CTIA yesterday, T-Mobile announced three new phones with Wi-Fi Calling.

First up, the lightening fast G2x from LG (aka Optimus 2x). This new device sports the Tegra dual-core processor from NVIDIA. As the review said, “applications literally felt like they were opening and closing instantly.” Throw in Wi-Fi Calling, and this phone is sure to be a winner.

Next up is the “Astound”, or Nokia C7. Of course Nokia’s position in the US market is slim. But after using the phone on the Nokia stand at CTIA, I have to say it isn’t half bad. It’s not a ‘web’ phone like Android or iPhone, but as Sasha Segan suggests, it could be “T-Mobile’s best feature phone”. Best feature: Wi-Fi Calling!

Finally is the new Sidekick 4G from Samsung. In July 2010, T-Mobile asked loyal Sidekick customers to “stay tuned for exciting updates in the months ahead.” I guess they meant 9 months ahead, because the Sidekick franchise has been reborn with this cool new devices – which includes Wi-Fi Calling.

It's clear that T-Mobile is continuing to aggressively pursue their Wi-Fi Calling advantage in the Market. More than half of all phones available on T-Mobile's website today are Wi-Fi Calling enabled. It looks like this is a winner.

T-Mobile, AT&T and Me

2011-03-22T04:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday’s announcement that AT&T was going to buy smaller rival T-Mobile did come as a surprise to many in the mobile industry.

At a reception for the CTIA Wireless show being held in Orlando (ironically hosted by Sprint), talk of the merger was a central topic for the night.

But rather than thinking about it in macro terms, I wanted to think about what it would mean to me, both a T-Mobile subscriber and being involved in providing Smart Wi-Fi (aka Wi-Fi Calling) to T-Mobile.

One of the reasons I’m passionate about Wi-Fi Calling is that it’s a critical tool for me. I get one/two bars of edge service in my house and virtually no 3G. Yet every time I pick up my phone at home, my signal is strong because of Wi-Fi.

So I was pleased when I saw Sasha Sagan’s post yesterday titled “The Five Best T-Mobile Features ATT Must Keep”, I was excited to see others excited about Wi-Fi Calling:

2. Wi-Fi Calling. AT&T and Verizon say their networks are so good that you should never need a backup. T-Mobile is humble enough to admit that, yeah, sometimes a Wi-Fi signal is better than a cellphone signal. T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling solution is the best in the business. It's a lifeline in weak-signal areas, and it saves you big bucks abroad.

The others are good ideas too (‘Stock’ Android devices, true HSPA+, “Even More Plus”, and Great Customer Service), and are important to me as a consumer. But I'm amazed by the number of tweets that are directed at having AT&T perpetuate Wi-Fi Calling.

@LunaticSX: It’d be awesome if T-Mobile USA’s UMA WiFi calling (http://bit.ly/f5i9wm ) became available to all AT&T customers, as well.
@gwapz: I just hope AT&T adopts T-Mobile UMA features.
@mikethewhite: @TMobile Please don't let At&t ruin #wificalling it's your best feature by far. (and non contract even more plus plans)

In the short term, Wi-Fi Calling should continue unabated. It’s a significant sales and customer care advantage for T-Mobile. Longer term, I’ve always believed that AT&T was an ideal operator to benefit from tighter Wi-Fi integration.

Wi-Fi Calling for Canada Businesses

2011-03-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

Three cheers for Canada's Rogers Wireless ... a steady UMA workhorse for years now! Last week, the operator announced it launched Canada's first Wi-Fi voice service for businesses. The goal? To address business' need for reliable and cost-effective connectivity. It's an expansion of Rogers' existing UMA service packages for studentsRogers' UMA for Students, which it launched last summer.

This quote from the press release explains the value Rogers wants to deliver its business customers with the new service plan:

"Our business customers are telling us they need flexible connectivity that just works - no matter where they are. And they want it at a predictable, competitive price," says Gordon Stein, Vice President, Business Segment, Rogers Communications Inc. "With this service, business people can be confident that all of their calls will be clear as they move seamlessly from registered internal Wi-Fi systems to the Rogers 3G network. This combination of flexibility and cost certainty is a powerful advantage for growing businesses."

There's an accompanying video interview with telecom analyst Jon Arnold where he talks about the flexibility of the service and the ease of use. He says: "Wi-Fi calling is a smart and simple way to make your business voice communications dollars work better for you. It's nice to see companies like Rogers thinking like a customer and bringing services like this to market."

There's also a whitepaper (PDF) and a new web page.

If you're in business in Canada, check it out.

Nokia C7 To Come with Wi-Fi Calling?

2011-03-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

Nokia keeps delivering Wi-Fi Calling phones for T-Mobile. Here's another example, offered up by PocketNow.com.

Well done Nokia. The C7 joins a long line of Wi-Fi Calling enabled phones at T-Mobile, the E73, the 6301, the 6086. And there are probably more.

T-Mobile Talks Up It's Wi-Fi Calling Advantage

2011-03-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

At Mobile World Congress, T-Mobile’s Josh Lonn spent some time talking with several different editors about the company’s success with the Wi-Fi Calling service.

In Monica Alleven’s article “Wi-Fi Calling is Talk of the Town,” she quotes Mr. Lonn saying “We believe this is more effective [than femtocells].”

Mike Dano with Fierce Wireless wrote that T-Mobile has approximately 5 millions Wi-Fi Calling users today, with about 1.25 million on the new Android version of the service.

In Total Telecom’s piece, “Wi-Fi Offload? There’s an app for that,” Mary Lennighan quotes Mr. Lonn saying: “We’re putting [coverage] on the device side rather than something that plugs into the wall.”

Network World’s Nancy Gohring’s trend piece on ‘small cells’ on femtocells and Wi-Fi covered both sides of the debate. But T-Mobile’s quote hit the nail on the head. “Wi-Fi is robust. Why do something as complicated as a femto?” questioned Mr. Lonn.

But it was TMoNews that really summed up the situation, writing “Personally, I believe T-Mobile hit a home run with the Wi-Fi Calling service over that of a femtocell.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Wi-Fi Accounts for 50% of mobile user connections to Internet

2011-02-03T08:24:00.000-08:00

So says a new study by Bango, as reported by Fierce Broadbandwireless. Rather than attaching over the cellular network, users are turning to Wi-Fi to surf the web. Wi-Fi accounts for half of mobile device connections to the internet.

Wi-Fi is the primary in-building wireless technology, and people primarily use access the internet on their smartphones and tablets when at home or in the office, so this really isn't such a big surprise.

Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) to get Wi-Fi Calling

2011-01-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

The long awaited firmware update for T-Mobile's Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) phone should start today, according to comments made by Cole Brodman at T-Mobile's Investor Day conference yesterday.

With more than 1 million units in the field, this is a huge push for Wi-Fi Calling.

Here's a link to the original article from PC Mag.

T-Mobile: The Wi-Fi Calling Carrier!

2011-01-20T16:35:00.000-08:00

At T-Mobile's investor relations day in New York, new CEO Philip Humm, CTO Neville Ray and CMO Cole Brodman made this presentation. While there are many fascinating facts, for those of us at the Smart Wi-Fi blog, we were drawn to slide 54. Given the (moderate) controversy about T-Mobile and femtocells this week, I think we know one thing for sure:

T-Mobile is the Wi-Fi Calling Carrier!

Or said another way, it's unlikely that T-Mobile will drop Wi-Fi Calling in favor of femtocells. They may choose to add femtocells to their coverage portfolio, but one might want to ask why?

Slide 41 - "Wi-Fi coverage to bolster in-home coverage and broadband"
Slide 44 - "Wi-Fi provides improved coverage and offloads capacity"
Slide 54 - "Broad portfolio across all Android and BlackBerry smartphones"

T-Mobile Femtocells: Yes, No, Maybe

2011-01-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week Michelle Donegan at Light Reading reported that an unnamed source at the operator confirmed that "the carrier will have 3G femtocells as part of its product portfolio in 2011".

As one might expect, the post was light on details - there was no timeframe and no vendors because T-Mobile was 'still in the process of selecting them.'

Then today, Kevin Fitchard at Connected Planet posted that "T-Mobile USA has no plans to offer a femtocell and will continue to focus on its dual-mode Wi-Fi fixed mobile convergence strategy," adding "at least that's what we're hearing from T-Mobile."

I think the answer is clear: a definite maybe.

It's a blog, so let's speculate: Why T-Mobile would want to offer a femtocell:
Everyone else is. ATT, VZW, Sprint all have a femtocell, they don't want to be left out. Undoubtedly there are T-Mobile customers who would be willing to pay for a femtocell to get better coverage at home.

Why T-Mobile wouldn't want to offer a femtocell:
It's not at all clear that people want a femtocell service - especially if they have to pay for it. Of course, some do, but recall that earlier this year the Femto Forum announced that there were 'more femtocells in the US than macro cell towers'. They pegged the number at 350,000 units.

Let's do some math. Between the three largest carriers in the US, servicing some 230,000,000 subscribers, they have managed to sell (or give away) 350,000 femtocells - or about 0.1%. No wonder 2010 was the 'year of the femtocell', or was it 2009, or 2008..., or maybe it will be 2011.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile seems to be rocking the Smart Wi-Fi. It's part of their hottest selling '4G' phones the MyTouch 4G and Google G2. Plus with Wi-Fi installed in an estimated 50,000,000 homes in the US, Smart Wi-Fi has a HUGE head start when it comes to installed base.

T-Mobile Launches Motorola Cliq 2 with Wi-Fi Calling

2011-01-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

Somehow I manged to squeeze in to the Motorola stand at CES last week.

The stand was jam packed with people there to see the new Motorola tablet, zoom.

But equaly popular were Motorola's lineup of Android phones, including the Cliq2.

The phone I found shows T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling app pre-loaded on the desktop.

Great news for T-Mobile and Wi-Fi Calling enthusiasts.

Wi-Fi Calling Contest Winners

2010-12-17T13:10:00.001-08:00

We had great fun around the office recently judging the videos submitted for our Wi-Fi Calling video contest. The creative and earnest messages really impressed us, and it was hard to decide who would win new Android smartphones. We had put a call out for videos from people who love or need Wi-Fi calling, how and where they use it, or how it's changed their lives. We asked people to capture their enthusiasm and passion for Wi-Fi calling/UMA, and did they ever! Some of them truly made me laugh out loud.

We ask our three lucky winners to send us their wish lists of new Android smartphones, and we are sending each of them one of their top choice phones:

Maybe it was the holiday spirit, but we found it difficult to pare down the submissions to just three. We were feeling generous, so we took it a little further and awarded two more winners with honorable mentions. Kaya Smith and Jacob Garcia both get their choice of an LG Optimus or Motorola Defy.

On top of all that, we also awarded an Android to one winner of our simultaneous Twitter contest. Congratulations to @android_flash.

Congratulations to all our winners. Haven't watched the videos yet? Go check them out at WiFiCalling.net. Which one is your favorite? Let us know what you think in the comments here or tweet us @kinetowireless.

Guest Blogger: Jeff Brown, Kineto Wireless

2010-12-02T12:17:00.001-08:00

Thankful

During a long Thanksgiving weekend here in the US, I had time to reflect on Kineto's opportunity. I spent the previous three weeks in Europe and Asia visiting mobile operators of all shapes and sizes, and I realize Kineto has a lot to be thankful for.

To begin with, everywhere I went smartphones dominated the discussion. Product plans for 2011 were heavily weighted to smartphones, with feature phones quickly playing a marginalized role. Smartphones for the high-end; the mid-tier; even entry level; plus post and pre-paid…it seemed like everyone wanted to talk smartphones.

Of the platforms, Android continues to have an outsized share. I often refer to a Gartner report from November 2010 which shows Android growing from 3% to 25% of the total smartphone market share in just one year. This is staggering growth, made even more impressive because the overall market doubled in the same timeframe.

And finally, mobile operators have fully embraced Wi-Fi. It seemed that any discussion about smartphones and/or Android included Wi-Fi. It isn't a question of whether Wi-Fi technology will play a role in the mobile internet, it's just a question of how big the role will be.

With this foundation, Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi products are being embraced with open arms. Smart Wi-Fi takes the benefits of Wi-Fi to the next level, enabling operators to deliver improved coverage to their subscribers -- something that isn't available with basic Wi-Fi.

Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi Application is now available on 10 different handsets from operators in North America and Europe. Smart Wi-Fi is the right product at the right time, and Kineto has plenty to be thankful for.

Android gobbling up market share

2010-11-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

Here's an abosolutely staggering chart based on data from Gartner Research released in November 2010.

The chart shows the year over year growth of the smartphone market, which nearly doubled (96%). By itself, that is truly impressive. But more astounding is the growth of Android market share, coming from 3% to 25% in just one year.

In a market that is doubling every year, Android was able to grow significantly faster than all other platforms.

Apple basically held it's own, growing at the same rate as the market (roughly double). Of course the real tragities are the sub-market growth of RIM and MSFT.

With Android devices now covering the high-end, mid-tier and entry-level market segments, it's growth potential looks unstoppable.

Nov. 30 Deadline for Video, Twitter Contests

2010-11-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

Have you submitted your video yet for our WiFiCalling contest? If not, you better hurry. The final deadline for submissions is TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30! There are three chances to win a brand new Android smartphone, so the odds are in your favor.

If creativity is holding you back, just take a look at the fan videos posted on the site today - they may provide just the inspiration you are looking for.

And remember, you don't have to have a Wi-Fi Calling / UMA service to enter. Tell us how much you wish you had it. The contest is open worldwide.

If videos really aren't your thing, but you want some chance at winning a new Android smartphone, you can also enter our Twitter contest. Between now and November 30, simply tweet this message for a chance to win:

RT for a chance to win latest #Android Smartphone from @kinetowireless http://bit.ly/bZVUPA with our #wificallingcomp

Visit WiFiCalling.net for contest details and rules (there aren't many) and to submit your video.

Follow @kinetowireless on Twitter for more updates and winner announcements in December. Good luck!

Battery Life - Keeps getting better

2010-11-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

Engadget editor Chris Ziegler recently reviewed Motorola's new Defy. In case you forgot, this is Motorola's new 'party phone', water resistant, scratch-proof screen, something about rolling around in the sand (watch the commercial...). This is also the Oprah phone... the phone given to the audience members of Oprah's first show of her last season.

But I don't want to talk about all that. The Defy comes with Wi-Fi Calling. Some industry commentators continue to propagate the rumor that excessive Wi-Fi use drains a smartphone's battery. That may be the case, unless that phone has Smart Wi-Fi technology.

In Chris' review, he actually credits Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Calling (aka Smart Wi-Fi), as the reason why the battery performance was "stellar."

"In our experience, the Defy seems to have stellar battery life, which is relatively hard to come by among Android phones. Not only we were able to consistently make it comfortably through an entire day on a charge, but we were surprised to find that after putting the phone away with about 75 percent charge, it was still on with 21 percent remaining two days later. Granted, it spent most of that time in WiFi calling range (which disables the cellular radio), but many smartphones give up the ghost from 100 percent charge in less time, so we were pleased to see that."

Smart Wi-Fi... actually making Wi-Fi on Smartphones 'smarter'.

Orange UK launches LG Optimus with Signal Booster

2010-11-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the LG Optimus appeared on the Orange UK website. It's the first Android phone which supports Orange UK's "Signal Boost" feature which is based on UMA Technonology.

At press time, the phone was listed as having a talk time of 29.1 days... I'm sure that's supposed to be standby time, and I'm pretty sure it's not 29 days... but hey - there's no doubt that UMA powerful stuff.

The LG Optimus was released at T-Mobile US a couple weeks ago with the same UMA technology, albeit under the commercial name Wi-Fi Calling.

The Optimus is part of a new category of low-cost Android-powered smartphones. The phone is free with a two year commitment at both Orange and T-Mobile.

Wi-Fi Calling Comes to T-Mobile Android

2010-11-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

Today's the day...T-Mobile is now selling four phones with Wi-Fi Calling. Finally.

With today's big push is around '4G', it turns out that T-Mobile's two flagship 4G phones both support Wi-Fi Calling.

The MyTouch 4G comes with Wi-Fi Calling pre-loaded on the handset.

The G2, the other phone in the '4G' launch, gets Wi-Fi Calling added as an 'over the air' update occuring over the next week.

In addition, two of T-Mobile's entry level Android phones are available with Wi-Fi Calling.

The LG Optimus (free with 2 year contract) and the Motorola Defy ($99 with 2 year contract) are both available with Wi-Fi Calling.

Today's the day - taking Wi-Fi and Android to the next level.

Wi-Fi Playing a More Crucial Role in US Mobile Carrier Growth

2010-11-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

…and femtocells don’t appear to be.

I was reading Roger Cheng’s latest piece covering AT&T’s use Wi-Fi. The company announced they supported 106.9 million Wi-Fi connections in Q2 2010. It’s certainly impressive.

But was struck me more was the utter lack of discussion about femtocells. Recall that just a year or two ago, AT&T’s femtocell launch was eagerly anticipated by the company, along with the mobile (and femtocell) industry.

Yet skip ahead, and AT&T continues to laud its use of Wi-Fi with nary a word on its femtocell deployment. It's like they have fallen to the side of the road.

Perhaps it’s reflected in a release the Femto Forum put out the other day. The Forum announced that there were “more femtocells deployed that macrocells” in the US.

At first blush, that sound like good news… until the details come out.

According to the announcement, there are ‘conservatively’ 350,000 femtocells deployed by Sprint, Verizon and AT&T in the US, versus 256,000 macro cells. But with the ‘big three’ serving about 230 million subscribers, 350k femtocells deployed isn’t very impressive.

Even converting to households, it isn’t much. I found another study which says 75.8m homes in the US have broadband, a pre-requisite for a femtocell, so we're at 0.4% penetration. (versus 62% for Wi-Fi).

I know, femtocells are just getting started, and there’s plenty of room for growth. But at the end of the day, ATT is touting it’s Wi-Fi connection numbers, not it’s femtocell deployments.

Video Contest for UMA, Wi-Fi Calling Fans

2010-10-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

If you read this blog, chances are you're a fan of Smart Wi-Fi, powered by UMA. We're trying to harness the power of the excitement of people like you with a new video contest for anyone who loves, needs or craves being able to make calls over Wi-Fi on their smartphones.

Submit your story in a short video to WiFiCalling.net, and you could win one of three new Android smartphones.

The contest is open to participants worldwide, especially those who use T-Mobile USA’s Wi-Fi Calling, Orange’s Unik or Unique, Rogers’ Talkspot, Cincinnati Bell’s Home Run as well as people who don’t have such a service but wish they did.

We're accepting video submissions at WiFiCalling.net through November 30. On December 15, we'll announce three winners, and each will get a new Android smartphone (exact phone to be determined at time of announcement).

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Everything Everywhere talks Smart Wi-Fi

2010-10-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Everything Everywhere, the new powerhouse operator in the UK created by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile, held an investor conference on September 28th.
In laying out their strategy for market domination, we happened to notice that UMA (aka Smart Wi-Fi) was to play a role.
This isn't that much of a surprise, given Orange UK has been quietly selling a UMA service for some time. But Orange has been mum on the service...until now. They are seeing how smart Wi-Fi can be used to help them provide everything to everyone everywhere their customers spend the most time -- the home and office.

Rogers adds UMA to new Blackberries

2010-10-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Rogers Wireless in Canada has offered "TalkSpot", a UMA-based service, to their subscribers for some time. Just this week, they added two new Blackberry phones to the line-up, including the Bold (9700), Curve (9300) and Pearl (9100). Check out the post here. I think the upgrades were specifically to support 3G devices.

Shouting from the rooftops... with great coverage!

2010-10-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

The CTIA show last week was very exciting. T-Mobile USA announced it's new built-in Wi-Fi Calling solution, based on Kineto's Smart Wi-Fi technology. It will be available in "a wide selection of Android™-powered smartphones, including the recently announced new T-Mobile® myTouch® and Motorola DEFY™ with MOTOBLUR™." Both smartphones are expected to be available in time for the holidays.

T-Mobile has offered Wi-Fi Calling for a few years, but this announcement is about expanding the service and committing to the Android OS. T-Mo stated in its announcement Wi-Fi Calling for Android is anticipated to be available on a growing selection of T-Mobile’s Android-powered smartphones in the coming months.

Per the press release: "T-Mobile’s expansion of Wi-Fi Calling to Android smartphones is an excellent innovation, and part of our ongoing initiatives on behalf of our customers to enhance indoor coverage,” said Torrie Dorrell, vice president, connected family products and services, T-Mobile USA.

The UMA and Smart Wi-Fi fans have come out of the woodwork recently and are making this busy time very exciting. Fans of the T-Mobile UMA Facebook page celebrated the news and other sites, such as TMoNews.com and GigaOm, wrote about it.

Follow the Kineto Twitter stream to receive up-to-the-minute news and read other coverage of these announcements.

What do you think about T-Mobile's commitment to Wi-Fi Calling on Android smartphones...will you run out and buy one?

Smart Wi-Fi for Froyo

2010-09-22T17:46:00.001-07:00

This week, Kineto announced availability of its Smart Wi-Fi Application (aka UMA) for Android 2.2 (aka Froyo).

The response was overwhelming.

There was coverage all around TMonews, TelecomTV, even Facebook.

Personally I’ve received hundreds of emails from people asking about the App. When will it be available, how can they get it. Clearly there is pent up demand for Smart Wi-Fi on Android.

Frankly, I think it was less about the actual announcement, and more related to the video we released showing the App in action (sort of… actually watching someone make a phone call is pretty dull… until you have no coverage).

Don’t worry, as commercial details become available, we’ll keep you posted. But for now, keep telling the world “I WANT MY UMA!”

Loyalty is a three letter acronym

2010-09-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Kevin Tofel wrote a piece for GigaOm today titled "With Today's Smartphones, Carrier Loyalty is Fleeting". He covers a survey by NSN which showed that smartphone owners are least likely to stick with their current carrier.

That got me thinking... what things drive loyalty?

In the US, the iPhone has an outsized impact. It is a highly coveted device, exclusive to a single operator. In the article, Kevin offers his own insight, saying to generate loyalty, operators should strive to provide great coverage at a reasoable price. And if they can supplement their network with some desirable value-add service, all the better.

With that said, how about Smart Wi-Fi (aka UMA)?

In a Sept 13th post, Om Malik said the reason he sticks with T-Mobile is because of UMA technology on his Blackberry Bold.

Wow. Here's a tech trendsetter who eschewed iOS and Android because of a feature on a phone provided by his carrier. Powerful.

But dig deeper, and read the comments posted to Om's article. You can immediately get a feel for the passion and emotion people have about UMA and T-Mobile:
- "UMA for us is a godsend."
- "I agree that [UMA] is a great differentiator…"
- "I rely on UMA to keep me connected…"
- "I love UMA on my Nokia phone…"

It goes on and on.

So mobile operators, the next time you're thinking "What can I do to increase loyalty?" I would check out Smart Wi-Fi (aka UMA).

Guest Blogger: Jeff Brown, Kineto Wireless

2010-09-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

Wi-Fi for Mobile TV

If there was one thing (aside from the great competition) that those of us in the mobile industry took away from the World Cup earlier this year, it was that consumers want their mobile TV. Unfortunately for operators, this is yet another burden on their already overworked networks. I can only imagine what's going on this week with the US Open final delayed until Monday.

Once again, it is so clear to me that Wi-Fi, more specifically, Smart Wi-Fi, is the ideal solution.

Ericsson reported in March 2010 that data traffic had overtaken voice traffic for the first time in the mobile industry's 25-year history. In June 2010, UK operators O2, Orange and Vodafone teamed up to test a TV broadcast service which would enable consumers to view television channels on their handsets. IMB, the selected broadcast medium, requires costly transmitters that must be added to base stations. Moreover, new handsets need to be developed that have integrated IMB chips. This is a costly and complex undertaking.

There is a better solution. With Smart Wi-Fi, all mobile services are securely delivered to the smartphone over the Wi-Fi connection. Operators achieve complete network offload, as all voice, data and internet traffic, and not just internet/web services, can be routed over wi-fi.

Read the article I wrote recently published in Mobile Marketing Magazine for more on this topic.

Can you blame people for not wanting to miss a minute of those compelling games? With Smart Wi-Fi, operators can give the people what they want, for a fraction of the price.

T-Mobile remains quiet on Android/UMA

2010-09-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Om Malik, a committed UMA enthusiast, wrote that T-Mobile has not made any direct statements about support for UMA on its burgeoning line of Android devices.

T-Mobile's true plans for UMA remain locked in Seattle, where hopefully we'll get some clarity in the coming months.

Meanwhile, read the comments posted to Om's article by other UMA fans. There is a LOT of pent up demand for UMA on Android. Or check out the new T-Mobile/UMA Facebook fan page created by T-Mobile customers hungry for UMA on Android.

It should be noted that Kineto, purveyor of UMA/GAN technology, announced availability of its "Smart Wi-Fi Application" for Android back in March 2010. Smart Wi-Fi is their UMA/GAN-based client.

In US, 62% of Internet connected homes have Wi-Fi

2010-09-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

A while back there was an EU study which showed that 50% of internet connected homes in the EU had Wi-Fi. I found that number very impressive.

Here's a newer study which shows Wi-Fi in a 'staggering' 62% of US internet connected homes (page 9).

For those interested in the US market, this is an informative report. It was sponsored by Arbitron, a company which tracks radio usage. Therefore there is quite a bit on how consumers listen to traditional radio along with internet radio. But it also looks at overall trends in the population with respect to social media and traditional mass communications mediums. Check out the bit about FM radios in cell phones.

However, one thing is clear, in developed markets (the US, EU,…), Wi-Fi is the preferred method for service delivery within the home.

Walt reviews femtocells

2010-08-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Walt Mossberg, the venerable consumer technology editor for the Wall Street Journal, reviewed femtocells today. Specifically, he reviewed the AT&T microcell.

The interested reader can check out the whole article here.

Be sure to read to the end, when Walt describes what it took to make the femtocell work in his son’s basement apartment. In the end, they needed to use Wi-Fi to extend an Ethernet connection into the basement.

It took Wi-Fi to make the Femtocell work. Ironic.

Of course, with a Smart Wi-Fi App on the phone, Walt and his son could have gotten the coverage boost of a femtocell, using the Wi-Fi which was already in the apartment.

Become a Fan on Facebook

2010-08-19T10:45:00.001-07:00

Looks like there is a new fan page for T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling service on Facebook.

Take a moment, become a fan.

Wishlist for Droid X: Smart Wi-Fi (UMA) Support

2010-08-16T11:51:00.001-07:00

Motorola's Droid X, the newest high-end Android device from Moto for Verizon, was recently reviewed by Hubert Nguyen at Ubergizmo. Hubert's only wishlist item for the phone: Smart Wi-Fi (UMA) support:

Wishlist

UMA: given that Verizon's CDMA isn't compatible in most international networks, it would be very nice if the Droid X could have UMA support. UMA would let users reach the carrier's network over WIFI. Unfortunately, T-Mobile is the only US carrier to support UMA at this point.

We understand, we wish for it too.

Rogers Adds Wi-Fi-Based Services for Subscribers

2010-08-09T10:28:00.001-07:00

Rogers Wireless in Canada has announced new a host of new services, including a BlackBerry Rogers student plan for those with smartphones which support UMA or Wi-Fi - these subscribers can now get unlimited Wi-Fi calling. Plus, calls made from Wi-Fi access point don't count towards monthly minute allowances, which is perfect for students on Wi-Fi enabled campuses.

These improved unlimited family and student plans make it easier for students and their families to stay connected during the school year.

The Unlimited Student Plan also delivers an extensive list of unlimited features for students, such as unlimited messaging, unlimited social networking and unlimited evenings and weekends.

This was reported first on RedBoard, the official blog of Rogers Communications, and we read about it on Phones Review UK.

Recent Wi-Fi survey results tell us that 78 percent of people in the United States and 74 percent of people in the United Kingdom who own smartphones with Wi-Fi capabilities would be interested in an application that would use Wi-Fi to deliver 'five bars' of coverage at home or in the office.

It's great to see Rogers, a long-time proponent of UMA and using Wi-Fi to improve coverage, offer discounted calling and keep subscribers happy, once again lead the marketplace with new Wi-Fi-based service offerings.

Smartphones on a tear

2010-07-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Q2 2010 numbers are in, and people love smartphones! According to Strategy Analytics, and covered in a piece on RCR Wireless, smartphone shipments jumped 43% year over year. More impressive is that 60m units were shipped in Q2. That works out to nearly 20% of the total number of handset units sold worldwide. Very impressive.

As a result of a recent smartphone survey sponsored by Kineto Wireless, we know that over 80% of all smartphones have Wi-Fi. The next step must be Smart Wi-Fi.

MobiTV App Prohibited From Working over Wi-Fi

2010-07-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

For mobile operators, there is an ugly truth about basic Wi-Fi offload that no one wants to talk about: the packet services you can collect revenue for can not be offload to IP, or worse yet, aren’t even accessible when Wi-Fi is on.

MobileCrunch writer Devin Coldewey covered the story of trying to run AT&T’s MobiTV service on his Android phone.

AT&T supports ‘basic’ Wi-Fi offload, which means the Wi-Fi radio dumps web traffic directly to IP, but must maintain a 3G connection for any operator hosted service.

But the problem with basic Wi-Fi offload is that revenue generating packet services, like MobiTV, can’t be offloaded to Wi-Fi because there’s no secure connection from the mobile core network to the smartphone. Whoops.

Smart Wi-Fi addresses this specific problem. Smart Wi-Fi creates that secure connection between the handset and the mobile core network so paid packet services like MobiTV (and visual voice mail, and MMS, etc…) can be delivered to the subscriber over Wi-Fi.

Throw in 3G data caps, and Smart Wi-Fi is better than sliced bread.

The operator wins two ways: first, they can continue to sell data services that actually make money, rather than simply transporting non-revenue generating YouTube traffic. Second, they can offload those valuable data services to Wi-Fi.

The subscriber wins two ways as well. First, they get access to the service over lightening fast Wi-Fi. Second, by using Wi-Fi they avoid the tiered data cap.

Wow, Smart Wi-Fi looks like it’s a win-win-win-win situation.

Give us our Wi-Fi! US & UK Survey Reveals Consumer Demand for Wi-Fi Services

2010-07-27T09:33:00.001-07:00

Seventy eight percent of people in the United States and 74 percent of people in the United Kingdom who own smartphones with Wi-Fi capabilities would be interested in an application that would use Wi-Fi to deliver 'five bars' of coverage at home or in the office.

Eighty eight percent of these people in the US, and 80 percent of people in the UK would also be interested in a service from their mobile operator that would give discounted calling when the phone was connected to Wi-Fi.

It's interesting to see how similar the US and UK numbers are. These numbers are the results of two online surveys conducted in Q2 2010. The surveys were completely independent of each other and were conducted by two different companies. Yet, the level of interest in more Wi-Fi-based services is high across both geographies.

The US survey was done by MarketTools Zoomerang of 330 US smartphone owners. The UK YouGov online omnibus survey focused on the 23% of nearly 2,200 respondents in the United Kingdom with smartphones.

I encourage you to read the full survey overviews for more data and graphics available at Kineto.com.

More highlights:

In the US -

43 percent of people who own smartphones with Wi-Fi capabilities use the Wi-Fi every day.
45 percent of those people use Wi-Fi because it provides easy access to the Internet, and 43 percent use it because it is faster than the cellular network.

In the UK -

50 percent of people who own smartphones with Wi-Fi capabilities use the Wi-Fi every day;
40 percent say they use the Wi-Fi because it is faster for accessing the internet; 50 percent say because it is easier.

Smartphone users are embracing Wi-Fi and seem to want to be able to use it more. There's an opportunity for mobile operators to tap into this tremendous interest and encourage Wi-Fi usage to increase network offload, improve network coverage/performance and gain increasing benefits by offloading traffic to the fixed network.

Read all the rest at Kineto.com. And there's plenty more. Then, tell us what you think in the comments.

Telefonica launches mobile VoIP

2010-07-15T16:54:00.001-07:00

About 9 months ago, Telefonica purchased VoIP service provider Jajah for $207m. Today, it was announced that Telefonica is rolling out a new service called 'O2 Gloabl Friends' based on the Jajah technology.

Certainly we're glad to see mobile operators taking the VoIP threat seriously. Telefonica, with large operations in Europe and South America, may have been feeling the heat of Skype, now the largest service provider of international voice traffic.

For other service providers, there is an easier way than buying a VoIP provider. Based on the 3GPP GAN specification, it's possible to turn existing voice services into VoIP services.

No new VoIP gear, no new VoIP systems, it's all based on the existing voice network already installed. GAN turns the internet into a generic access network for all your mobile services, including voice. Products exist today!

Affordable Androids Abound

2010-06-21T11:36:00.001-07:00

Android devices are showing distinct signs of picking up speed, as evidenced by Orange's recent announcement it will launch a low-cost LG Android smartphone in Europe later this year.

Orange also reveals its new 'affordable smartphone strategy,' which includes Huawei, ZTE and Gigabyte devices, among others. Lowering smartphone costs will make services more accessible to a larger group of subscribers. So it appears it will be a win-win for Orange - top-notch phones on a strong operating system pulling in more subscribers.

Patrick Remy, Orange's vice president of devices, said: "At the beginning of 2010, 15% of Orange portfolio was smartphones. This will rise to 30% by the end of the year, and will be 50% by 2013."

That seems right in line with the smartphone growth analysts are predicting and other operators are reporting globally.

Why a femtocell is 'of no value'

2010-06-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure I agree with everything Andy Abramson says in his recent blog post titled "Why a femtocell/microcell is of no value once Apple iOS comes out", but he's certainly spent some time thinking about the issues. Any anyone who gives props to Smart Wi-Fi (aka UMA) is on the right track for this blog.

Video Interview: Jeff Brown Comments on AT&T's Move to Tiered Data Pricing

2010-06-03T11:48:00.000-07:00

Kineto Wireless CEO Jeff Brown took a few minutes to comment about AT&T's announcement yesterday that the company has created a new tiered data-pricing structure for subscribers. The move is making waves in the industry.

Jeff talks about the changing role of Wi-Fi to mobile operators, evidenced by this and last week's announcement that AT&T is launching a free public Wi-Fi trial in Times Square, New York.

He touches on how Smart Wi-Fi could be the next step for operators to maximize the use of Wi-Fi for network offload.

Jeff says he thinks we'll see more and more operators moving to Wi-Fi to give users a really good experience, whether they're on the 3G network or the Wi-Fi network, which should be transparent to the user.

Operators Rushing to Wi-Fi

2010-06-01T16:09:00.001-07:00

Light Reading Mobile reporter Michelle Doneghan reported last week that Deutsche Telekom is the latest operator to announce it is using Wi-Fi to offload its 3G networks.

Olivier Baujard, DT's CTO, keynoted the Open Mobile Summit in London last week and told the reporter, "the operator would like to offload 20 percent of its cellular data traffic in an outdoor environment onto WiFi hotspots, and that it is now offloading just "a few percents" of its traffic."

The article also references a Heavy Reading report published recently and authored by Gabriel Brown, "WiFi Offload for Mobile Operators," that talks about the many active Wi-Fi engagements mobile operators have undertaken as they've moved "from a position of hostile objection to passive acceptance, and now active engagement."

The next logical step will be for them to realize there are ways to get more from their Wi-Fi services and make the customer experience smarter and better. This will result in improved indoor coverage and battery performance, easier access to Internet and data services, churn reduction, competitive VoIP response where operators are still keeping subscriber minutes on Wi-Fi, and even greater increases in network capacity.

As someone who has been evangelizing Wi-Fi for years now, I say woo hoo! I thrill to the sound of mobile operators embracing the benefits of Wi-Fi. Now, let's see the leaders take it to the next logical level.

Video Interview: Smart Wi-Fi Saves Company Money

2010-05-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

We've been seeking out enterprises that use Smart Wi-Fi services, such as T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling. Here, Steve Robey, Kineto's IT Manager, talks about his experiences with Wi-Fi Calling and how it benefits the company with notable cost savings. (Lots of Steves here.)

Guest Blogger: Jeff Brown, Kineto Wireless

2010-05-26T11:58:00.001-07:00

Today, I'm pleased to introduce a new guest blogger, Jeff Brown, CEO of Kineto Wireless, the key innovator and leading supplier of solutions that enable delivery of mobile services over broadband.

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Smarter Wi-Fi for Smart Phones

I just concluded a whirlwind tour down-under. It was my first time visiting Australia and New Zealand, and both countries certainly were beautiful. And, mobile services and smartphones are exploding in popularity there, just like in the US, Europe and Asia.

It turns out there is quite a bit of overlap in the work day between Kineto's home office in California and Sydney, so much so that I found myself making and receiving numerous calls throughout the day. Like many international travelers, I rely on email from my smartphone. However, history has taught me that roaming, particularly for data, can be very costly.

I found myself relying heavily on Wi-Fi to stay connected. Fortunately, office buildings, hotels and airports and even ferry terminals all had Wi-Fi coverage.

Yet the best tool I had was Kineto's own Smart Wi-Fi application for Android devices. The application, that I'm testing, works on my Android smartphone in conjunction with my mobile operator's services in the US to provide me a virtual connection over Wi-Fi anywhere in the world.

When my phone was on Wi-Fi and the Smart Wi-Fi application was attached, I had a virtual local connection in the US. No international roaming bills; I paid standard rates for all the calls I made to the US. That saved me a bundle.

For international traveling, I found the benefits really add up quickly.

Now that I'm back in the US, as always I'm still using Wi-Fi for better indoor coverage, faster data access and more reliable 3G services.

T-Mobile offers this as a service -- Wi-Fi Calling. It's based on UMA/GAN technology and is available on a range of BlackBerries today. There's no additional cost for Wi-Fi Calling, and many corporate customers have used it to significantly reduce their phone bills.

The service is also available from other operators in other countries, like Rogers in Canada, as well as Orange in the UK and France, to name a few.

I strongly recommend T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling service, especially for anyone traveling internationally. We use it extensively and it has saved us huge amounts on roaming costs for both data and voice.

Stand up and be counted!

2010-05-20T11:30:00.001-07:00

The time has come for those of you who can't live without UMA/GAN to stand up and be counted.

Google tracks user interest in features/capabilities on Android. Item number 6242 is "UMA enabled Android OS". Click on this link to get to this screen:

Now do two things:

First, make sure to 'Star' the feature. This is simply clicking on the grey star in the top left to make it yellow.

Second, take a moment to add your comment and write up how much you love UMA. Tell Google that UMA/GAN support should be native in the OS.

Companies like Kineto are already working with individual handset manufacturers to add UMA/GAN support into their individual platforms, but native support in Android would dramatically increase the availability of handsets supporting Smarter Wi-Fi.

Smartphone handsets surge

2010-05-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

Gartner released some figures on the mobile phone market, and smartphones in general. The information was covered in this article in Total Telecoms.

Last year we picked up a report by RBS projecting a full 50% of all handsets sold in the world in 2014 would be smartphones. They projected something like 1.6b units, and 800m are predicted to be smartphones.

Along comes this report to show that the world is well on it's way. While Gartner is projecting the global handset market to grow 11-13% in 2010, they are reporting 49% year over year actual growth for smartphones. With 54.3m smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2010, it's easy to project 325m units in 2010, easily extrapolated to 800m units in 2014.

However, consider the implications of 800m smartphones shipped in 2014. Today networks are groaning under the impact of a tiny fraction of that many smartphones. And one trend which I haven't seen reported, but seems to be true in my focus group of one, is that the longer people have smartphones, the more data they use.

I think consumers become confortable with email, then venture into different elements of the smartphone experience, moving pictures, recording videos, hitting Facebook, watching YouTube videos and streaming Pandora. These last two are particular new favorites of mine.

I don't listen to the radio in the car anymore, I just start Pandora and let my smartphone deliver internet radio to my car. And YouTube has become a very easy way to kill time when I'm waiting... for the kids at soccer practice or at the airport or whereever.

The need for Smart Wi-Fi is growing as fast as the shipment of smartphones.

Guest Blogger Shannon Lucas of T-Mobile on Differences Between MVS & Wi-Fi Calling

2010-05-19T10:51:00.001-07:00

Recently, I've received a lot of questions from customers about the difference between RIM's new MVS 5.0 with Wi-Fi Calling (based on SIP) and T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling (based on UMA/GAN). There are some pretty important differentiators between these two services.

I see them as complementary solutions that address different user profiles. Customers who are mostly campus-based can take advantage of MVS with SIP while they are in the office or connected to their enterprise network through a VPN.

T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling allows customers to extend their PBX extension to their mobile phone over Wi-Fi and provides seamless mid-call transitions between the cellular and Wi-Fi networks. The T-Mobile solution also allows you to use MVS over Wi-Fi in public locations without having to have that VPN back to the corporate network.

T-Mobile launched Wi-Fi Calling four years ago, and the technology has had a lot of time to mature in the market place. It can also be used without MVS to provide coverage and the ability to make calls for free while on Wi-Fi. It's also simple to set up and use.

Both solutions offer benefits to enterprise users, but T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling provides a level of freedom and free calling for enterprise customers even when not connected to the VPN.

Responding to VoIP

2010-05-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

In my mailbox this week are several emails from Ovum touting their new report "Mobile Operator Response to VOIP: the six steps". We don't have an Ovum account, so I don't know what the six steps are, but there are several steps operators can take, using their existing infrastructure and a Smart Wi-Fi solution based on 3GPP GAN, to address mobile VoIP.

1. Turn Mobile Voice into Mobile VoIP. Mobile operators have a huge technical, market and competitive advantage with their existing circuit voice service. The 3GPP GAN specification enables operators to turn Mobile Voice into Mobile VoIP. The existing voice service is transformed into a new, cutting edge VoIP service... and the best part is that it doesn't require a massive new infrastructure upgrade. With Smart Wi-Fi, mobile voice becomes a Mobile VoIP icon/application which can be distributed far beyond the confines of the mobile phone.

2. Compete where the competition is. Most mobile VoIP occurs over Wi-Fi. Subscribers have access to Wi-Fi in the home and at the office. With Smart Wi-Fi, the mobile operator can create a low cost calling service that's available only when the mobile phone is attached to Wi-Fi. The advantage? Mobile operators don't have to drop prices when the user is in their car or traveling, only in the same places where there is actual mVoIP competition, when there is Wi-Fi available.

3. Bundle your mobile VoIP service with USB dongles. USB dongles have been a tremendous success for mobile operators. The mobile operator now has a platform on the subscriber's 'other' device, their laptop. And yet operators haven't chosen to embed a mobile VoIP client into the USB dongle. With Smart Wi-Fi, a mobile VoIP client using the existing mobile voice network can easily be embedded with the USB dongle. This is certainly better than giving subscribers high-speed mobile data service, and then leaving a gaping hole for voice that requires a quick download from Skype.

4. Embed mobile VoIP onto the iPad. While launched here in the US, the iPad 3G is about to take off in Europe. Guess what's missing? Any type of voice service, operator-based or otherwise. With Smart Wi-Fi, operators could easily have their own mVoIP app pre-loaded onto the iPad. Sure, users may still choose to download Skype, but at least they have the option to use the operator's service.

5. Extend mobile VoIP to non-cellular devices. Once the stodgie old 'mobile voice' service has been transformed into a shiny new Mobile VoIP service with Smart Wi-Fi, it can be used on non-mobile devices. It can be downloaded to laptops, desktops, iPads without 3G, the list goes on and on.

6. Address the ILD disparity. This is the most controversial decision to make. Kineto Wireless conducted a survey several months ago and found that the primary use for a third party mobile VoIP application is to place (outbound) international long-distance (IDL) calls. I have a colleague who only turns on Wi-Fi on his iPhone to place Skype calls to relatives around the world. As long as there is a tremendous arbitrage opportunity, subscribers will jump through the hoops to use alternative mVoIP services. This is immensely profitable for operators, so there is no hurry to collapse the market.

But I think everyone sees the same evolution which transpired in the fixed network coming to the mobile network. Today calls to fixed lines in most developed markets are about $0.02/minute. As mobile termination rates continue to decline, mobile ILD will continue to decline as well.

It's clear to me that there are two major trends occuring in the mobile voice market. One is that the revenue per minute is declining, and will continue to decline for some time.

The second trend, which I think is coming faster than people realize, is that the total number of minutes served will begin to decline. There is a new generation of subscribers who talk less. They view the mobile phone as a text, email, IM, Facebook tool. Making a voice call is distinctly secondary. We can see it in the network trends (Ericsson: data overtake voice traffic), in Smartphone UIs (Blur, Sense, ...), in the service plans (Vodafone: £15/month gets 300 min voice, unlimited texts).

The implications are profound for mobile operators. Less revenue per minutes, less minutes overall, sounds a lot like the fixed line voice world.

To conclude, mobile operators have tremendous influence in the market, they have spent billions to create brand awareness, and now with Smart Wi-Fi, they can leverage their most valuable service, voice, beyond a mobile phone.

Rumor Mill: T-Mobile getting UMA on Android?

2010-05-14T17:04:00.001-07:00

Two articles showed up yesterday, one on the Android Guys blog, and covered again on Electronista. The comments to the Android Guys post were pretty funny. There are still a lot of people who love their UMA. I don't think T-Mobile helped the situation by changing names of different products because it does get pretty confusing.

"Wi-Fi Calling" is the name of the original UMA service. The original name from T-Mobile was HotSpot@Home, but that got changed to Wi-Fi Calling.

Then they launched their fixed line VoIP product called "@Home". But HotSpot@Home and @Home are not the same things.

As for the $10/month all you can call plan, I'm not 100% sure, but I think they dropped new sales of that. When T-Mobile dropped prices aggressively on unlimited plans in early 2009, it was difficult to charge extra for unlimited Wi-Fi Calling.

We have been saying for a while that T-Mobile should just make calls over Wi-Fi free, like nights and weekends. No fee, just free!

This is something available to enterprise customers today.

Wi-Fi Turns 25... and I feel old

2010-05-05T15:38:00.001-07:00

Last week there was a great article by Peggy Albright covering 25 years of Wi-Fi. I guess 25 years ago, the FCC made a decision to open up three spectrum bands, 900 mHz, 2.4 gHz, and 5.8 gHz with little oversite other than to suggest that devices 'play nice with others'. These three sandboxes were opened up for entrepreneurs to create the future.

Wi-Fi, Cordless phones, Bluetooth and certainly many other products/technologies have flourished in the unlicensed playspace. Entire industries have formed based on the availability of the spectrum, and organizations have developed specifically to sheppard the tenant of 'playing nice with others' into an impressive range of innovations and specifications that have resulted in products that actually work together.

I could wax on about the wonders of Wi-Fi or the importance of local wireless networks, but it dawns on me that perhaps the most important lesson to take away from this is that, given the right set of circumstances, human creativity is nearly unstoppable.

Guest Blogger Shannon Lucas of T-Mobile on MVS + UMA

2010-04-29T11:16:00.001-07:00

I talk to customers every day and ask them to tell me what's on their wishlist to meet their technology and communication needs. Just yesterday, I sat in a room with a customer who spoke to me about how he can't wait for the day when all the networks converge; when users have one device that seamlessly moves back and forth between Wi-Fi and next generation mobile networks.

I sat there with a knowing smile, just nodding, because the solution that I was about to propose addresses all of his needs and then some.
The RIM Mobile Voice System solution with T-Mobile's UMA BlackBerries can provide the PBX extension that he (and many other companies) is looking for. MVS not only gives users single number reach capabilities, but it also allows users to make on-net international calls, reducing the international long distance spend. UMA allows companies to make Wi-Fi based calls for free, even internationally. Now, they can work together.
After I had gone over the MVS/UMA ROI slide with my customer, I asked if I could move on. He replied, "No. I am in love with this slide."

It really is fun to be able to give customers exactly what they want.

T-Mobile offers Wi-Fi Calling with MobileOffice(SM), an exclusive solution that enables organizations to extend their desktop phone functionality to a mobile device. Customers using Wi-Fi Calling with MobileOffice can now use the BlackBerry(r) Mobile Voice System (MVS) to mobilize PBX systems, bringing office phone features to BlackBerry smartphones. This will further improve productivity and reduce telecom costs, and I'm going to continue to spread the good news.

Read more from Shannon Lucas on this blog.

RIM, MVS and UMA

2010-04-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

This is the week of RIM's big Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) event in Orlando. Hence the flurry of announcements related to new RIM devices, the new RIM 6.0 OS, and the addition of Wi-Fi calling to the MVS product.

Considering T-Mobile offers a UMA-based 'Wi-Fi Calling' service and offers MVS with 'Wi-Fi calling', there may be some confusion in the market. Is MVS competitive or complementary with UMA? The short answer:

They are complementary solutions.

UMA is the delivery of mobile services over Wi-Fi. With UMA-enabled BlackBerries (in this case), subscribers use their mobile services the same over Wi-Fi as over the GSM/cellular network. UMA offers two specific benefits to the subscriber: improved mobile coverage via Wi-Fi; and lower-cost calling, primarily due to T-Mobile's 'unlimited Wi-Fi Calling' offer for enterprises. We like to say that UMA makes the mobile phone "work better and cost less".

MVS addresses a different problem. The new Wi-Fi calling feature in MVS extends a subscriber's fixed-line PBX extension to their BlackBerry. Personally this isn't something I would want. If I really want someone to get ahold of me, I give out my mobile number. If it's not urgent, I give out my desk phone. But there may be subscribers (or enterprises) that want to push the fixed line onto a BlackBerry. More importantly, I think there are enterprises interested in managing how employees use their mobile phones and how accessable they are on their fixed lines. But I digress...

The point is that both MVS and UMA offer an overlapping benefit: lower cost calling. With UMA, it takes the form of mobile calls over Wi-Fi not using the bucket of minutes assigned to the enterprise. With MVS, it comes by not using the mobile network (and therefore the mobile operator's billing system) and routing calls through the enterprise PBX (and over negotiated fixed line contracts).

Therefore, it is possible to deploy MVS (ie put a PBX extension on a BlackBerry) with or without UMA. And conversely, it's possible to have a UMA-enabled BlackBerry without the MVS client. Ergo - it is also possible to have a BlackBerry with MVS *and* UMA.

For IT managers, what's better? Well, it comes down to what problem is being solved. UMA offers two benefits: lower cost mobile calls and better cellular coverage.

MVS offers at least two benefits: lower cost calls through by routing Wi-Fi calls through the PBX, better management/control of mobile calling and the ability to put a fixed line on the mobile phone.

For mobile operators, it's clear that UMA retains control of the call through the mobile network, where MVS takes Wi-Fi calls off the mobile network and into the fixed-line PBX.

To conclude, MVS and UMA are not competitive, they are complementary technologies, solving different problems for the enterprise.

Smartphones Overtake Feature Phones in US by 2011

2010-04-28T06:05:00.000-07:00

Just consider the title of this post: Smartphones will overtake feature phones in the US in a little more than 18 months. That is a truly impressive prediction.

Roger Entner, the SVP of Research with Nielsen's telecom practice recently posted an article explaining why the research company believes that the US market is rapidly moving to smartphones.

What makes this statistic even more impressive is that today (Q2 2010), Nielsen concedes that just 21% of US consumers have smartphones. They are projecting a 30 percentage point swing in phone ownership in the next 18 months.

Personally, I completely believe it. I have likened the jump from feature phone to smartphone in my life to the jump I made from dial-up to DSL 10+ years ago. I remember thinking "Dialup is fine, I don't really do that much on the computer." People would gush about how wornderful DSL was, but concrete benefits (beyond "it's faster") were hard to come by. But once I moved to DSL, I knew at that moment I would never go back to dial-up.

I think it's the same with smartphones. I can never go back to a feature phone. I was at a little soiree this weekend talking with a fried who works at Cisco. He never seems to be at the office.

He whipped out his iPhone and showed me why. Cisco has an internal instant messaging application with an iPhone client. He opened the client, changed his status, and suddenly he was 'working' to his contacts wtihin the company. Then he showed me the WebEx client for the iPhone. He can listen to the conference call while viewing the slides, all from his iPhone. Unless someone walked by his cube, no one would know he wasn't in the office.

The implications are staggering on many dimensions, but since this is a blog about smart Wi-Fi, I'll circle back to the need for coverage, capacity and offload. To actually work from your iPhone, a subscriber needs a strong signal for voice and good throughput for data apps like WebEx .

The cellular network is already straining with 21% of the population using smartphones. Imagine when we get to 50% penetration 18 months from now. Smart Wi-Fi is a critical technology for making the smartphone vision come true.

O2 To Compete With Skype

2010-04-19T17:09:00.001-07:00

In an article posted to Fierce Wireless Europe, it appears that O2 UK has developed a new pricing structure for subscribers to make low-cost International calls on their mobile. As reported in the post, O2 will offer subscribers the ability have 'unlimited' (subject to a 5,000 min "fair use" cap) to call one (presumably fixed line) number in one country for just £5/month.

This is a good first step.

Checking O2's International Calling page, this offers significant saving over their published rates, or over their "International Traveler Service" (or ITS) rates, which shows the current retail rate to call the US at £1/minute. Ouch.

In a survey on how consumers in the UK market use mobile VoIP (conducted by Kineto Wireless), the primary use of a mobile VoIP client was to make discount International calls. This makes sense to me. A VoIP client on a smartphone requires the user to decide to launch the application and place a call.

Taking a look at Skype's pricing page, and they offer unlimited calls to any landline in Europe for $7.95/month, or to any of 40 countries around the world for $12.95. [Ed note: No asktrik for 'unlimited' on the Skype page]

We believe that mobile is the next battlefield for VoIP, and International calling is where the battle will be fought.

Can Wi-Fi Marginalize Mobile Operators?

2010-04-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm paraphrasing in the title, but Ian Scales' article at Telecom TV titled "Are mobile operators in danger of losing their 'default' status" was an intriguing tag line which hooked me in.

The premise is that a phone vendor like Apple may decide to simply make Wi-Fi the preferred connection method and leave the macro network as the fall-back status. The article likens the situation to the current 'no smoking' bans in many countries.

Cellular service is relegated to the places where you can smoke... in your car, outside on the street, in the park. But it's not available in the places where you spend most of your time, at home, in the office, in the coffee shop (or pub, depending on your inclination...). [Ed note: a tip of the hat for that analogy... very clever!]

Regardless of the cleverness of the analogy, I must disagree. I don't think this will be the case any time soon. Operators deliver tremendous value through the macro network. And while Wi-Fi is 'everywhere', it's still not actually 'everywhere'.

However, there is a technology which enables mobile operators to continue to deliver service over Wi-Fi as if it were part of their macro network. That technology is called "Smart Wi-Fi", and it's based on the existing 3GPP GAN standard.

So if Apple, or some other vendor, did decide to make Wi-Fi the default connection preference, a Smart Wi-Fi application on the phone would deliver all the operator's revenue generating services (voice, SMS,...) to the subscriber as if they were attached to the macro network. The Smart Wi-Fi App also uses Wi-Fi to improve indoor 3G coverage.

Don't worry mobile operators, Smart Wi-Fi has you covered.

Informal Surveying

2010-04-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

We have an informal survey on the home page of UMAToday.com that we use to capture some information and opinion from our visitors. It's not scientific, nor is it a well-distributed audience, but we do get pretty good responses.

For example, for the past few months, we asked visitors to answer: Do you plan to get a femtocell at home?

After tallying up several hundred votes, nearly 40% (or 39.6% to be exact) answered they never plan to get a femtocell at home, because they use Wi-Fi. Another aha moment for me. That's why we're talking about how to make Wi-Fi smarter and more beneficial to subscribers and operators. As we can see, customers are already using it to solve their coverage problems.

Ironically, another 40% (or 39.7% to be exact) answered they would get a femtocell 'as soon as they're available from my operator.' Is our audience clamoring for femtos? Certainly there's interest. In fact, 13.6% of our respondents told us they have femtocells now, but 8.1% said they'll never get a femtocell, because they don't need it.

It would be fun to dig into the responses in more detail, but these numbers give us an overall glimpse and, quite frankly, the numbers speak for themselves. Ready to vote again? We've got a new survey up today.

Guest Blogger: Shannon Lucas

2010-04-01T10:51:00.001-07:00

Today, I'm excited to introduce another guest blogger. It's been a while since we had a guest featured on this site. I think Shannon Lucas, fixed-mobile convergence architect with T-Mobile US, will have a lot to add to the dialogue. The floor is yours, Shannon:

________________________________________________________

Guest blogger: Shannon Lucas, FMC Architect, T-Mobile US

I appreciate the opportunity to guest blog on this site. I've long been a believer in UMA technology. As an FMC architect for T-Mobile, I've come across a number of technologies. This is one I believe in and that, in my opinion, benefits subscribers and mobile operators.

UMA is important to T-Mobile, and our customers love it. It seems like every day I receive positive feedback from our customers using UMA. They appreciate the improved coverage and the lower bill they get from calling over Wi-Fi. For some, the biggest benefit is using UMA when they travel outside the US and can make low cost calls back to the US.

I'm looking forward to being more vocal on this blog and will be picking some topics to write about. Feel free to make suggestions. More to come soon.

Smartphones are Taking Over

2010-03-31T09:14:00.001-07:00

It's not a secret. Smartphones are EVERYWHERE! I (and others) have been singing that tune for a while.

This week, research firm NielsenWire reported "Smartphones to Overtake Feature Phones in U.S. by 2011."

According to specific statistics:

"the share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device will be a smartphone."

Other useful stats:
- 81% of smartphone owners are satisfied with their device; only 66% of feature-phone owners are satisfied with theirs.
- 50% of smartphone users utilize their phone's Wi-Fi to satisfy the need for fast downloads; this is 10-times the percentage of feature phone owners using Wi-Fi on their phones.
- The percentage of people who use their phone for only voice communications drops from 14% among new feature phone owners to 3% of smartphone owners.

In an analysis of the research on Enterprise Mobility Today, Andy Patrizio writes:

"For the most part, Nielsen attributes the shift to smartphones to a groundswell of new smartphone devices, in particular the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones, plus an 'explosion' of new applications for them and the significant and continued decrease in the prices of those phones and carriers' data plans."

The smartphone revolution is upon us, now let's talk about the traffic demands of all those users.

Growth of Mobile traffic by OS

2010-03-30T10:00:00.001-07:00

This week Gizmodo published the latest data from Admob. [Ed note: It seems that Admod has become the de facto tracker for mobile data]. The chart, from Admob, is very telling:

First, this is traffic in the US. So the iPhone chart is particularly impressive because it's one device on one operator's network. Look out when the iPhone goes CDMA...

Second, I think the spike in Android tracks tothe launch of the Droid phone on Verizon in Q4 2009. Certainly growth in Android traffic was trending up nicely through the first three quarters of 2009, based primarily on the MyTouch from T-Mobile, but there is a definite acceleration of traffic in Q4.

Third, I think it's a bit depressing to see the RIM, webOS and WinMo numbers. These are all good products/technologies, but I think it highlights the emerging split between 'smartphone' and 'web phone'.

Finally, while this is an absolute market share chart, it doesn't capture the overall market growth in traffic. At what rate are these number accelerating? AT&T said traffic on their network was up 5,000% over the last three years. While Android is gaining absolute market share, data traffic in general is skyrocketing and will certainly become an issue for every mobile operator.

Offloading in Barcelona

2010-02-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

"The major network technology issues to take center stage in Barcelona are fairly evident; we identified these in our annual prediction piece earlier in the year. Absent from this list, however, is a theme that stretches across multiple technologies: offload," writes Peter Jarich, a leading analyst with Current Analysis, in an article published on Connected Planet.

Call it offload, traffic offload, smart offload or intelligent offload - it will surely be a key theme at Mobile World Congress next week. Hopefully, live demonstrations and in-depth, in-person discussions will separate the weak from the relevant and viable solutions.

Consultant Dean Bubley agrees with Peter. On his Disruptive Wireless blog, Dean wrote: One of the major trends I'm seeing at the moment is that of mobile network offload - typically "dumping" traffic onto WiFi or other networks to avoid congestion from mobile broadband. I'm expecting it to be a huge feature of this year's MWC / 3GSM in Barcelona."

Peter highlights Wi-Fi and Femtocells as two key offload technologies. Clearly, Wi-Fi is a successful technology and has seen widespread adoption. Operators just need some additional technologies to better maximize the use of it. Operators interested in femtocell deployments can provide subscribers low-powered 3G base stations to provide ‘five bars’ of cellular coverage and better utilize them.

At MWC, Kineto will be demonstrating its Smart Wi-Fi and Femtocell Solutions that solve the capacity crunch; resolve the 3G indoor coverage challenges; and address the mobile VoIP threat.

Dean writes: "What's not clear to me is which of these techniques is the most effective or important overall."

Dean and I have faced off before, and I'm going to try to convince him, rather show him, which is best.

Visit Kineto's stand at MWC in Barcelona February 15-18: Hall 1, Stand A45.

Smart Offload for Smart Phones

2010-02-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

Last week, Kineto and T-Mobile presented a free webinar - Smart Offload for Smart Phones - with Lynette Luna of Fierce. The discussion centered around a new challenge for mobile operators. With the deluge of smartphones in the marketplace, subscribers are becoming accustomed, and in fact are demanding, always-on access to web services at the touch of a finger. And they want it all with perfect coverage, high-speed data delivery and no disruptions in service.

Mobile operatos must handle this flood of data usage, while increasing service performance and improving coverage to maintain customer satisfaction, while keeping costs under control. No easy feat. So what should they do?

In the webinar, T-Mobile and Kineto explain the operator challenges and how Wi-Fi can provide the answers. It is a critical tool for managing offload for mobile networks.

Omar Hassan is senior manager, product development with T-Mobile US, and a Wi-Fi Alliance Board Member. He leads T-Mobile's Wi-Fi product development. Some of his key points included:
• There are 246 million data-capable devices in consumer hands today.
• Operators can leverage popular Wi-Fi to meet and exceed consumers needs.
• Wi-Fi will be critical to mobile operators.

The Kineto portion focused on Wi-Fi solutions for mobile operators:
• Basic Wi-Fi does not improve coverage or solve the capacity problem.
• Kineto's Smart Offload Solutions turns existing Wi-Fi access points into seamless extensions of mobile network.
• With Kineto's solution, there's an App for capacity and coverage.
• Read more about Kineto's smart offload solutions.

The Smart Offload for Smart Phones webinar replay is available now.

Kineto Turns UMA into "Smart Wi-Fi Offload"

2010-01-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

Today Kineto, a leader in the UMA space, announced a new "Smart Wi-Fi Offload" solution. For all intents and purposes, it looks like they have renamed UMA into "Smart Wi-Fi Offload".

Not that it's a bad thing...

In the four years since UMA was introduced, there have been some major shifts in the market. Early UMA deployments were on focused on fixed-mobile substitution (FMS), and relied on feature phones (remember the Samsung G709?).

At the time, FMS (and FMC) were hot topics, but the mobile industry had never heard of an iPhone and mobile operators all believed that had more network capacity than they could ever want or need.

Skip ahead to 2010, landlines are a dying breed, subscribers are getting larger buckets of minutes and FMS is a natural occurrence. But the industry has been blind-sided by the meteoric rise of the smartphones, specifically web-driven devices like the iPhone and my Touch.

I was in a meeting with an industry analyst the other day who casually mentioned that he believes mobile operators will need to increase their current network capacity 10x in the next 3-5 years.

Consider that number for a minute. It’s staggering.

Now consider this: what are the options for an operator to increase their network capacity by a factor of 10?

Add more segments and channels onto existing cells? A good, but finite, idea.
Install more macro cells? Certainly that continues to be important, but even doubling the current number of towers probably wouldn’t increase network capacity 10x.
Femtocells? Certainly this is an important technology, but there continue to be a range of growing pains.
Wi-Fi is a great option. It’s already installed in the homes and offices of these ‘smartphone’ users, it doesn’t interfere with the macro network, and now with Kineto’s solution, it can be added as an application to the range of offending smartphones.

The reality is that to achieve a 10x increase in capacity, mobile operators are going to need to do all these things in earnest, starting today.

I think Smart Wi-Fi Offload is a good first step.

T-Mobile USA Customers Not So Interested in Home Phone Service

2010-01-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

It's a trend that continues to grow -- consumers are dropping their home phone or landline service. T-Mobile USA will be dropping active support for its @Home landline replacement service, according to a recent article by the Associated Press.

T-Mobile had launched this home phone service in July 2008 and had offered it for $10per month. The good news is that this does not impact the company's UMA-based @Home Wi-Fi calling service.

"The needs of our customers are constantly changing, and T-Mobile must foresee and adapt to these changes," T-Mobile said in a statement. "As such, T-Mobile plans to soon discontinue selling the T-Mobile@Home service; however, we will continue to support the service for customers who are @Home subscribers. No changes are anticipated in pricing of the service, nor will this decision impact the Wi-Fi calling (Unlimited HotSpot Calling) service."

The need for UMA to provide offload and improving coverage perseveres!

A Meeting of the Minds

2009-12-04T16:25:00.000-08:00

Every good cause needs a strong adversary. And Dean Bubley has kept me on my toes the past few years with his UMA bashing. It’s nice to finally be on the same side of the fence with our support for VoLGA.

Dean wrote a lively (as expected) blog post about VoLGA to correspond with his whitepaper focusing on the pitfalls of CS Fallback as an alternative to VoLGA.

Dean first wrote about VoLGA when the VoLGA Forum launched, and he expressed his belief that the technology could work. Here’s to hoping others in the marketplace sit up and take notice.

Breathe Easy with Wi-Fi

2009-11-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

“I use my nose to breathe, but when I am feeling aggressive or excited, I need to use my mouth to breathe as well. Wi-Fi is the mouth – it helps you breathe better.” So said SoftBank Mobile Corp.'s Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son (pictured below) in a keynote speech at the Mobile Asia Congress. (As quoted in Telecoms Europe.)

“Over 50% of our data traffic happens at home during peak hours, and smartphones have driven our data traffic up ten times,” he said. “We need Wi-Fi to serve that traffic and give our customers a rich media experience.”

And so he says LTE isn’t fast enough for SoftBank. Other highlights of his presentation, as per Telecoms Europe:

Mobile data usage in Japan is already generating enough ARPUs to offset voice ARPU declines. But current HSPA connectivity isn’t enough bandwidth to serve existing usage, and migrating to LTE alone won’t help.

Softbank intends to migrate to LTE, but it’s not good enough to support customers when they use mobile Internet at home.

By 2024, he claims smartphone-like devices will hold 32TB of storage capacity.

Softbank is already selling a line of Wi-Fi enabled handsets, including the iPhone and owns a fixed broadband network that would supply the backhaul for home Wi-Fi users.

This past summer, ABI Research reported Wi-Fi in smartphones will grow from a 45% attach rate in 2009 to a 90% attach rate in 2014. In-Stat recently forecast the percent of handsets with embedded Wi-Fi will more than double during the next two years and said there were 121 models of cellular/Wi-Fi handsets introduced in the first half of 2009, almost as many as were introduced in all of 2008.

Clearly, there are lots of powerful Wi-Fi proponents. The question is, how will operators respond and stay ahead of the curve?

Dual Mode is “In”

2009-11-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

Dual mode is one of the cool kids; part of the ‘in’ crowd. So says In-Stat in its research report, “Wi-Fi in Mobile Phones: Dual Mode Becomes the In Thing.”

Being driven in large part by the Apple iPhone (as we all know), Wi-Fi handset shipments increased by more than 50% from 2007-2008, and keeps climbing.

In-Stat’s research found the following:
• Wi-Fi/cellular handsets are driving hotspot usage. For example, AT&T recently announced that sixty percent of all AT&T Wi-Fi connections in the third quarter of 2009 were made from smart phones and other integrated devices, up from 49 percent in the second quarter.
• The potential for voice over Wi-Fi is gaining popularity, as cellular/Wi-Fi phones become more pervasive and consumer familiarity with VoIP increases.
• The percent of handsets with embedded Wi-Fi will more than double during the next two years.
• There were 121 models of cellular/Wi-Fi handsets introduced in the first half of 2009, almost as many as were introduced in all of 2008.

Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst, explained:

“Wi-Fi’s popularity as a compatible cellular technology is tied to its ability to improve the user experience and also help maintain the quality of the cellular network. A Wi-Fi-enabled cell phone allows for free access to data, and it improves performance.”

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so here, here and here. Read back through this blog; I’m sure you’ll find plenty more.

ATT working on making Wi-Fi a ‘more seamless experience’

2009-10-23T17:21:00.001-07:00

As reported by Ed Gubbins from Telephony Online, AT&T’s John Stankey commented that the company is “starting down the path” of making Wi-Fi and licensed spectrum a “more seamless experience for customers.”

Sounds like UMA to me.

I think Mr. Stankey sees that Wi-Fi can be a quick (huge installed base) and low-cost (consumers already paid for Wi-Fi APs) way to increase capacity in the mobile network (by getting iPhones off macro) as well as improve coverage.

This would be a perfect complement to AT&T’s femtocell strategy as well.

More Femto Optimism

2009-10-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

I’ve been buckled down recently and haven’t come up for much blog air. But this seemed like an important thing to highlight...

Promising news from Infonetics for those with a vested interest in the femtocell market. In an October FMC and femtocell report, the research firm says that combined, sales of FMC network element equipment and femtocell equipment are forecast to grow to $7.4 billion worldwide by 2013. The report also stated the number of 2G/3G femtocells is expected to increase five-fold from 2009 to 2010.

"So far, we have found no evidence of the economic downturn having a major impact on the pace of FMC rollouts, and it has had only a mild effect on the femtocell space,” said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure at Infonetics Research and co-author of the report. “In the first half of 2009, we saw unabated UMA rollouts at T-Mobile USA, Orange, and Rogers Wireless in Canada, with Turk Telekom joining the bandwagon more recently."

Co-author Richard Webb, directing analyst for WiMAX, microwave, and mobile devices at Infonetics, added: “As for the femtocell market…..We expect at least a dozen major operators to launch in 2010, giving this market a kick-start.”

You can read the report highlights on Infonetics.com.

Bringing U-Verse to the iPhone

2009-09-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here's an issue I’ve been puzzling over for some time.

U-Verse, AT&T’s slick new IP TV service, is available in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, I’m too far from the distribution point to get it at my house. But many of my neighbors have and love it.

And like in many suburban neighborhoods, iPhones are sprouting up like crazy.

So, I have often puzzled: why can’t one watch U-Verse TV on one's iPhone?

This is the one mobile TV service that makes sense to me. Not random programming at random times, and not 'video shorts;' actual content I select, available to me, when I want.

Let’s look at the problems and what the answers might be.

First, if there ever was a phone for watching TV, it’s the iPhone. It’s got a great screen with brilliant colors, and the landscape display with 16:9 aspect ratio is ideal for HD TV.

Next, if there ever was a service provider to deliver on the ‘three screen’ vision, it’s AT&T. They are the sole quad-play provider in my neighborhood, delivering voice, broadband, mobile and now TV via U-Verse. And it’s not just any TV. It’s a full streaming IP TV service.

AT&T is particularly proud of its ‘whole house’ DVR, where a single box can stream video to different TVs throughout the home. Surely with this advanced capability, it would be possible to stream the shows stored on the DVR to a ‘third screen’ (e.g. an iPhone).

So what’s the hold up?

I don’t work for Apple or AT&T, so I have no inside knowledge. But clearly the iPhone is capable of displaying a TV service. So perhaps the problem is getting the service to the iPhone. I refer to a paragraph in this article on Digital Trends:

“AT&T does say that, due to network congestion concerns, it does not want television signals traversing its cellular network to iPhones…”

Given the trouble AT&T has had with network congestion, this makes a lot of sense. But this is a paid TV service, not YouTube. There is distinct value in bringing the three screen vision to life for AT&T subscribers.

So what if the U-Verse service was delivered to the iPhone over Wi-Fi?

The U-Verse controller has built-in Wi-Fi, so by definition, homes with U-Verse are homes with Wi-Fi. Plus, using Wi-Fi would keep the TV congestion off the 3G network. Finally, people are likely to watch TV when they are stationary (at least in the US), so that covers places like the home, office and hotspots.

It’s probably more complicated that simply ‘streaming U-Verse over Wi-Fi.’ So what are some of the likely requirements for AT&T to deliver the U-Verse service over Wi-Fi?

User authentication. Just setting a ‘user name/password’ over the Wi-Fi network doesn’t provide enough authentication for a service as valuable as streaming TV. An ideal solution would validate the user based on the SIM credentials of the iPhone against AT&T’s database of U-Verse subscribers to ensure that members of a specific U-Verse household are actually the ones accessing the service.
Security. Delivering U-Verse over Wi-Fi means delivering it over the public Internet. Therefore, a true security solution must be employed.
Location. Undoubtedly there are would be location restrictions on where a user could actually watch their U-Verse service, probably within the US. Thus the service must be able to accurately identify the iPhone’s location (not too hard).

Well, as you might have guessed, there is already a 3GPP approved specification for solving this problem. The GAN specification was designed by mobile operators specifically to address the problems associated with delivering services over the public internet.

The 3GPP GAN standard provides:

SIM-based user authentication over Wi-Fi. A GAN client in the iPhone would use the iPhone’s SIM credentials to authenticate the device against AT&T’s HLR and establish a secure connection over the Internet (nice transition …).

IPSec VPN secure tunnel. GAN transports voice and packet (U-Verse) services between the iPhone and the AT&T network encapsulated in an IPSec VPN to ensure a secure connection.

Operator managed location access. With the iPhone, there are many ways to access and monitor the location, via cellular, Wi-Fi and GPS. When establishing the GAN connection, the operator (AT&T) is presented with all the data needed to decide to enable (or reject) service based on the current location of the handset.

There are so many datapoints, it’s absolutely a no-brainer for AT&T to add GAN to the iPhone.

There is no doubt that other operators with iPhones and their own streaming IP TV service (actually nearly any incumbent mobile/video provider) would benefit as well. If we get started now, maybe we can have it in time for Christmas.

PS - I blatantly copied an image and imitated prose from Dr. Suess's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." This is one of my family's favorite Christmas books. I can identify with it because I often find that "...my puzzler is sore..." too.

Mobile VoIP Client Drives Vonage Stock

2009-08-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Vonage, a pioneer in the fixed line VoIP market, recently announced it was developing a downloadable client for the iPhone. Reuters reports the stock is up 35%. (CORRECTION: On Aug 17th, Vonage closed at $0.38, on Aug 27th, it closed at $1.99, it's up more than 500%).

There is growing interest in downloadable VoIP clients for mobile phones. Skype, the undisputed VoIP leader, developed a client for the iPhone which has been downloaded more than 4 million times.

Unfortunately, mobile operators typically have not been able to respond in kind. Therefore, high-value customers are putting these mobile VoIP clients on Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones and bypassing high international calling rates, and/or using the clients to bypass roaming rates when traveling abroad.

“Mobile VoIP’s an Unstoppable Train”

2009-08-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

I read Dan Jones’ Unstrung column this morning and was inspired to click through to the Unstrung Insider report, “Mobile VoIP: A Disruptive Service Goes Mainstream.”

We are hearing more and more about mobile VoIP, and it is becoming increasingly important to operators who realize they need services to compete with over-the-top providers, such as Skype, Google Voice, Truphone and others. Operators can choose to allow subscribers to download VoIP clients, or they can ban them, as AT&T has done with Google Voice, about which many are up in arms. Seemingly, this is not the way to go.

“But mobile VoIP is an unstoppable train due to consumer demand for less-expensive mobile services, enterprise demand for fixed/mobile convergence (FMC), and the transformation of the network to an all-IP architecture,” writes Research Analyst John Blau in the Unstrung Insider. “Operators will eventually jump on the mobile VoIP bandwagon – if just to gain some experience ahead of all-IP 4G.”

Operators must respond to consumer demand for lower cost mobile services. This is a song I’ve been singing for years now. Clearly, there are many approaches to accomplish this, and mobile VoIP is fast rising to the top of the list.

“Mobile VoIP represents a promising and natural step forward in the continued evolution of the industry,” Blau writes. “At the end of the day, neither consumers nor business people want to think about the data services they use. They simply want to reach into their pocket, pull out a device, and have near-instant access to friends and customers via voice and chat, as well as the ability to surf the Internet.”

It’s up to the operators to decide how subscribers will get what they demand.

Wi-Fi in Smartphones Growing

2009-08-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

ABI Research’s latest FMC report forecasts handset voice connections for business customers will rise from 6.3 million in 2009 to more than 27 million by 2014. FMC voice connections include Wi-Fi FMC connections as well as cellular FMC connections using picocells and femtocells

As reported by Fierce Wireless, practice director Dan Shey said: "While femtocells have been all the rage, dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi phones will also increase enterprise FMC voice access."

The report also stated Wi-Fi in smartphones will grow from a 45% attach rate in 2009 to a 90% attach rate in 2014. Business customers are the primary adopters of smartphones and with increased penetration of Wi-Fi smartphones, this change levels the playing field between cellular and Wi-Fi FMC.

A number of analyst firms have issued positive forecasts for the FMC market in recent months, including Infonetics.

The flood of smartphones on the market is enabling business customers to have their pick of exciting devices, features and apps, and there’s still lots of room to grow.

Buy the full report here.

Uncovering the Motorola Morrison

2009-08-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

You’ve just got to love the mobile handset diehards who dig through FCC filings to see what the next big thing is going to be. The team over at Cell Phone Signal uncovered the scoop on the Motorola Morrisson, the first Android phone from Motorola. It has both 3G and WiFi, and is expected to be UMA ready for T-Mobile US' @Home service.
Per Cell Phone Signal, here are some specs:
* Tri band WCDMA/ HSDPA/ HSUPA 900/1700/2100
* Quad band GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
* Wi-Fi
* HandsFree Speaker
* Photo and Video Camera
* Video Player
* Stereo Bluetooth
* Music Player
* HTML Browser
* Android OS

Pull up a chair, Wi-Fi

2009-08-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

There’s a place for Wi-Fi at the table. So say mobile operators, who used to believe Wi-Fi was a major threat to their bottom lines, according to a recent article in Fierce Wireless.

“Fast-forward to 2009 and the number of connections on AT&T's 20,000-some domestic hotspots totaled 10.5 million in the first quarter. By next year, In-Stat predicts 20 percent of all WiFi chipsets will reside in mobile phones. And BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has promised to include WiFi in its flagship CDMA BlackBerry starting next year, a move that CCS Insight handset analyst John Jackson describes as "seminal."

CDMA is coming to the Wi-Fi game much later than GSM, but it appears to be jumping in with both feet. Qualcomm is currently embedding 802.11 on chipsets, and the demand, they say, is coming from the operators.

When reviewing the benefits of Wi-Fi, well that’s where offload becomes a key consideration for operators in that it can help them offload some of the data traffic from the mobile network. In the end, it provides a better user experience.