Mobile World Congress Coverage

We are in the throes of Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona. The sun’s been shining, the transit strike was averted and the crowds are huge.

We were pleased to see news of our Smart VoIP made it into the GSMA’s MWC show daily (see page 6).

In case you missed it, we also got coverage for the Smart VoIP announcement in PC World, GigaOm, Fierce Broadband Wireless and a few other places.

See our Smart VoIP announcement.

“Wi-Fi Calling is Awesome”

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.

Offloading in Barcelona

"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.

UMA @ MWC

First, I’d like to apologize for my utter lack of blogging over the past couple of weeks (months…?). It has been a bit hectic getting ready for Mobile World Congress, as well as for some other cool things we have in the works (yes... that's a teaser).

At MWC, UMA was certainly not as hot a topic as femtocells, but it continues to be a successful service offer for the providers offering it. There are so many companies with UMA products that the community's become a 'who's who' of the mobile industry.

Orange was a major supporter of UMA and its own Unik service at MWC. Executive Vice President Yves Tyrode spoke during the "Mobile and the Converging World" session on Tuesday and reinforced important messages about Unik:

• Unik generates higher household ARPUs
• Unik subscribers churn less than average

But he also took the time to talk about why UMA is key for the company's mobile TV service. The service was launched with two new 3G UMA phones, the Sony Ericsson G705u and LG Secret KF-757.

• UMA provides a seamless experience, switching the streaming TV signal from 3G to Wi-Fi.
• UMA and Wi-Fi complement the 3G macro network with high bandwidth and a strong signal indoors.
• UMA, with it’s SIM-based authentication, satisfies DRM requirements for delivery over Wi-Fi.
• There are an increasing number of high-end multimedia phones with UMA.

In addition to the presentation, Orange hosted the 2^nd Annual UMA Innovation Awards with an elegant affair on their stand. The awards recognized innovation and excellence in UMA-enabled handsets.

A highlight of the awards program was the Innovator's Award, presented to the company which has demonstrated unique innovation in UMA over the past year. This year’s winner was T-Mobile US for its highly successful fixed-line VoIP service based on UMA.

In wandering the Orange stand, the handsets on display were primarily Unik/UMA devices, again reinforcing the company's commitment to UMA.

One announcement the UMA community was hoping for was an unveiling of the HTC Jade, a phone rumored to have UMA support. Unfortunately, no such announcement was forthcoming. But CTIA is just around the corner…

Of course the Kineto stand had its regular display of all UMA-enabled products. With 24 handsets, three terminal adaptors and five handset platforms on display, it’s clear UMA devices are abundant.

There were plenty of rumors about Telia’s re-launch of their UMA service, as well as Orange’s push into the UK, Spain and Poland. There were even rumors about new UMA-enabled devices from Nokia, perhaps even N series phones.

In retrospect, 2008 was an excellent year for UMA. And all indications show that 2009 will, once again, exceed expectations.

Acme joins the UMA team

A trend in the industry is to integrate higher level security capabilities (VPN tunnels) into network interface points such as Session Boarder Controllers (SBCs). Picking up on this trend is Acme Packet who announced earlier this week a new line-up of products to meet the security needs of a UMA-enabled network. The products blend Acme's traditional SBC with the functionality of a UMA security gateway (SeGW).

Unfortunately, due to the late announcement, we weren’t able to get them on the list of UMA companies at MWC, but stop by to see them in Hall 4.

Femto's frenzy

In the drive up to Mobile World Congress, there has been ‘femto frenzy’ of press releases. A large chunk of the news has been from UMA-based femtocell players.

Sensing an opportunity to play a significant roll in the market, UMA-based femtocell manufacturers have been aggressive about making the case for UMA as the ‘most viable’ path to standardization of a RAN Gateway/ ‘Iu-over-IP’ architecture.

There are rumors that there may be some operator announcements at MWC regarding UMA-based femtocell trial activities. We’ll be sure to update the site as the news comes in.

1. NEC and Kineto propose approach for rapid femtocell standardization
2. Motorola announces a family of femtocell solutions
3. NEC and NETGEAR team to develop an integrated 3G access point for femtocell solution
4. Kineto ready to support commercial femtocell rollouts
5. NETGEAR and Kineto to showcase 3G femto home access solution at MWC
6. NEC announces trial of femtocell solution with mobile operators
7. Kineto and Ubiquisys announce successful interoperability testing between Zonegate and UNC
8. Femto Forum steps up drive for harmonized network integration

As one insider told me that only "...relentless evidence of practical deployments and practical challenges overcome" will convince the market that UMA is the most viable technology for a femtocell /network integration standard. This looks like the start of some relentless-ness.