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.

Kineto Turns UMA into "Smart Wi-Fi Offload"

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

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

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

“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.

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

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

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

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

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”

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

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

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

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.

Sony Ericsson Dominates User Survey

In an informal survey on UMAToday.com, 48% of web site visitors who voted selected the Sony Ericsson G705u as the best UMA handset, as compared to the LG KF-757 with 26.27% and Samsung’s P270 with 25.33%.

Sony Ericsson launched its G705u in September 2008. Us UMA enthusiasts rejoiced because, not only was this Sony Ericsson's first UMA devices, it was one of the first 3G/UMA devices ever. Orange was the first to grab the phone for its Unik customers.

The G705u features include a 2.4-inch display with automatic screen rotation courtesy of an accelerometer, aGPS with Google Maps for Mobile, 1GB included M2 memory, built-in FM radio, RSS reader, and full HTML browser. It also features a 3.2 megapixel cam that can capture video and then upload directly to YouTube under a new partnership with Google.

There’s a new survey at UMAToday.com now. Let us know what you think about femtocells.

What Are You Gonna Do Now, Mr. Operator?

Google Voice is coming out of beta, and the blogosphere is buzzing. Unfortunately for mobile operators, this is yet another over-the-top competitor that threatens to take over.

GigaOm’s Om Malik doesn’t mince words when he states:

“The Google Voice app essentially reduces the cell phone carrier to a dumb pipe.”

Google recently announced it will soon make its voice service widely available to users in the U.S. Mobile versions will allow users to manage Google Voice connections accessing and playing back voice mails, sending and receiving SMS messages and reading message transcripts, as well as making local and long distance calls from mobile phones. The apps will be fully integrated with contacts on the phone, so you can call via Google Voice straight from your address book.

Here's a screenshot from GigaOm:

In a Fierce Wireless article, Mike Dano purports that "[Google Voice] should give entrenched wireless operators pause. They've based their businesses on providing voice calling to millions, and if they can't at least stay on top of the innovations in that segment, what hope do they have of remaining relevant in a mobile broadband future?”

While FMC services like UMA and femtocells don’t provide all the bells and whistles of Google Voice, these services can go a long way for operators when competing with over-the-top services. One of the key features continues to be discounted international calling, and operators can bill calls made over Wi-Fi and/or femtocells at a dramatically reduced cost per minute, attacking one of the most important consumer issues.

UMA Workaround?

When will we get UMA on the Android? I’m not the only one lamenting this sad state. Chatter on the Android Forums is chock full of techies hoping for a workaround or that T-Mobile will add it. Consumer demand is there, it’s time to get UMA on these new Android products.

Sprint Embraces Wi-Fi

Sprint in the US is not and has never been a UMA operator. Still, I’ve written about the company before. Now, Sprint is making things a little more interesting for the dual-mode handset market.

"Sprint is embracing WiFi in all its major devices going forward," Jeff Clemow, the carrier's director of business product marketing, was quoted in a recent article in Fierce Wireless.

"It is now a requirement for all our PDA equipment suppliers to include WiFi," Clemow said, pointing to the new Palm Pre, which sports Wi-Fi, as evidence of the carrier's new position. "Several quarters ago we made a conscious decision to require all of our PDA suppliers to support Wi-Fi."

We have to say it. Sprint is behind the eight-ball on this whole “Wi-Fi is the way thing.” RIM has been leading the device market with Wi-Fi (and UMA-enabled) BlackBerries for some time, and spoke about how it was inevitable back in May 2008. The whole European market’s been bullish on Wi-Fi for some time now. In a study published in summer 2008, the European Union reported that within the EU27, 46% of households with internet access have Wi-Fi.

Even with a femtocell service, Sprint is realizing the best way to provide offload is with Wi-Fi. Now let’s talk about UMA…

A UMA-Enabled iPhone?!

Someone is making a compelling case for a UMA-enabled iPhone, and, surprisingly, it’s not me.

In a recent article in PC World, IT Manager Michael Scalisi writes that he likes the new iPhone 3GS; Apple did a good job. However, it doesn’t quite cut it for business users.

"...However, the lack of a keyboard, UMA and better battery features allows the competition an edge with business users.”

Michael proposes the 3GS ‘B’ – another version of the much-loved iPhone. The B stands for business. That, he says, is what will cut into RIM’s ‘remaining share of the smartphone pie.” And, it’s a good business decision for Apple.

Michael makes a compelling case. It’s what I’ve been dreaming of for quite some time.

The argument is simple and a win-win for Apple and business users. Michael sums it up:

“A business model iPhone with a full QWERTY keyboard, UMA and a longer battery life would eliminate some of the last reasons for BlackBerry users to abstain from switching to an iPhone.”

VoLGA Webinar Redux

Did you get a chance to listen in live to the webinar the VoLGA Forum sponsored with Light Reading? If not, the replay is available now.

The topic was "Solving the Voice & SMS over LTE Problem." The focus was on understanding the issues from an operator's perspective. The concept of VoLGA, or Voice over LTE via the existing 3GPP UMA/GAN standard, is to “elevate” voice and SMS services to become packet applications over LTE. Today there is no viable mechanism to support SMS over LTE. VoLGA can be used to deliver SMS over LTE and solve this immediate issue facing service deployment.

Gabriel Brown, a senior analyst with Heavy Reading who covers the LTE landscape, introduced the topic and discussed the current landscape. The bulk of the presentation was by Franz Seiser, head of core network architecture with Deutsche Telekom (formerly T-Mobile International).

Listen to it at your leisure. Interested in more about VoLGA? Visit the VoLGA Forum site and VoiceoverLTE.com.