Declare Your Cellular Independence!

In honor of America’s Independence Day, which we will celebrate tomorrow with hotdogs, burgers and fireworks, some lucky folks can declare their cellular independence.

Mobile subscribers that use Orange UK’s Signal Boost service or T-Mobile US’ Wi-Fi Calling can rely on Wi-Fi for calls and texts in areas they use their phones the most.

That’s why Kineto has teamed with UK technology site MoDaCo in a contest to give away an HTC One X equipped with Signal Boost, powered by Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi technology. Find out how to enter on the Signal Boost contest page.

With London preparing for the Olympic onslaught of an estimated five million visitors, most armed with smartphones, clever people who can make the most of the Wi-Fi on their mobiles will have a leg up. Wi-Fi has become a critical part of the network capacity solution. Virgin Mobile is deploying Wi-Fi in the Underground. Plus, fixed-line provider BT has pledged it will make 500,000 Wi-Fi access points available.

It will be great. But don’t just take my word for it. The technology continues to get rave reviews.

“I used it on the first Orange San Francisco and the Monte Carlo, and it’s a fantastic app,” commented Christian E. on a recent MoDaCo article. “I really can’t understand why every operator doesn’t have a version for every phone. It saves them money/bandwidth and gives the customers better service, it’s not often you get such a win-win.”

Happy 4th of July!

A Wi-Fi Renaissance

Total Telecom reported today that Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) predicted that seamless WiFi offloading solutions will begin deployment within the next 12 months.

"The complementary relationship between WiFi and mobile networks is finally becoming a reality," said WBA’s Chairman Chris Bruce.

With Kineto’s software, it’s been a reality for some time. For years, we’ve been focused on the opportunity for mobile operators who recognize the benefits of Wi-Fi for offload and coverage.

Reporter Lewis Dowling mentioned T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling service based on our Smart Wi-Fi technology as an example of an operator solutions that successfully use Wi-Fi. He also mentioned steps Cisco, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent are taking to enable this operator shift.

Bruce added: "Fixed and mobile operators alike are leading a WiFi hotspot renaissance in a renewed effort to sate the seemingly unquenchable desire for ubiquitous broadband connectivity.”

The smartphone deluge has been going on for years already and is only growing. Operators need to try to get out in front of it. With Wi-Fi, they can.

RIM Re-Joins the Wi-Fi Calling Party

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.

Wi-Fi Calling for Emergency Response

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.

Part of a Winning Team

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

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

Pitfalls and the mystery of femtocell deployments

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.

Signal Boost is “Brilliant”

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.”

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

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?

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

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.

Guest Blogger: Jeff Brown, Kineto Wireless

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.

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

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.

Rogers Adds Wi-Fi-Based Services for Subscribers

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Informal Surveying

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.

Smart Offload for Smart Phones

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.

Breathe Easy with Wi-Fi

“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”

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.