BARCELONA, SPAIN: The ongoing recession in global markets is yet to discourage telecom majors from innovating new technologies for service providers and consumers.

The Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona saw new technologies for location based services, video/ audio streaming, enterprise applications, mobile advertising, and mobile publishing, among other things.

All top vendors have tried to grab the mind share from the visitors with their innovative offerings and colorful displays.

However, the business slowdown has affected the number of visitors this year, according to some of the regular exhibitors.

LTE turns reality

It seems LTE has become a serious business for some of the operators in global markets. For instance, Verizon Communications has announced the company’s LTE deployment plans. The deployment of LTE is expected to make Verizon Wireless the first operator to commercially launch the next-generation technology.

After conducting three LTE trials over a 12 month period, Verizon Wireless has selected Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson for its RAN contract. Existing incumbent vendor Nortel was not in the list. Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel Lucent will be the key suppliers of IMS kit, while Starent Networks will be a packet core network supplier.

Verizon Wireless is planning to offer LTE services in around 20 to 30 markets in the US in 2010. “After 2010, we will begin a process of providing coverage of the entire US by 2015,” says Dick Lynch, CTO, Verizon Communications. The company did not disclose financial outlay involved with this major deployment.

However, there are some concerns about LTE deployment among some of the operators.
Hamid Akhavan, CEO, T-Mobile International, said one of the major issues affecting the rollout of LTE was spectrum availability in Europe.

Operators like China Mobile, which is planning to migrate its 3G TD-SCDMA standard to next-generation LTE using the TDD version of LTE, has some apprehensions. China Mobile is looking for the availability of interoperable devices that can support both versions. Chipset suppliers including ST-Ericsson and Qualcomm are developing equipment capable of supporting both FDD and TDD technologies in a single device. Meanwhile, Verizon, Vodafone and other mobile operators will use the FDD version.

A number of mobile applications are going to see more acceptances among global operators. Social networking site MySpace expects half of the visits to its portal will come via mobile phones in two-to-three years. The expected growth from the present 15-20 per cent is attributable to the growing popularity of smartphones.

Effective implementation of telecom standards has been a major concern for operators. The GSMA and 17 top mobile operators and vendors will implement a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones.

The initiative is expected to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers. This initiative lead by GSMA will result in an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption and elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.

The group has set a target that by 2012 a universal charging solution (UCS) will be widely available in the market and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface.

“The mobile industry has a major role to play in tackling environmental issues and this programme is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. “There is enormous potential in mobile to help people live and work in an eco-friendly way and with the backing of some or the biggest names in the industry, this initiative will lead the way.”

The initial group of companies who have joined the GSMA's UCS initiative include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Green Power

Green solutions has found some space at the Mobile World Congress. A number of mobile phone manufacturers have revealed they will develop solar-powered handsets. Major companies such as Samsung, Digicel and ZTE have revealed their plans for the handsets.

GSMA is working with Dialog Telekom to deploy ten solar and wind-powered base stations in Sri Lanka as part of its Green Power for Mobile programme.

The trial, which will deploy five off-grid and five on-grid base stations, has seen two sites go live this month and a further eight sites will go live in March and April this year. The goal of the trial is to demonstrate different options available and the commercial viability of rolling out mobile networks using renewable forms of energy.

The base stations, which rely on a sophisticated methodology for calculating the optimum mix between solar and wind technology, such as the size of the wind turbine or solar panels, will save up to 109 thousand litres of diesel per annum and cut carbon emission by up to 294 tonnes per annum.

At present, off-grid base stations have primarily been powered by generators running on diesel fuel, which is increasingly expensive, generates carbon dioxide emissions, and can be difficult to transport to remote locations. There are also issues with the reliability of the electricity grid in Sri Lanka. The trial will also investigate powering on-grid base stations, during downtime, with renewable energy.

Launched last year, GSMA's Green Power for Mobile programme is backed by 25 mobile operators. The initiave aims to help the mobile industry to take advantage of renewable energy to power 118,000 new and existing off-grid base stations in developing countries by 2012. Today less than 2,000 base stations worldwide are powered by renewable energy sources.

Digicel, supported by the GSMA Development Fund, has completed the second phase of its green power network implementation and is using wind and solar energy solutions to power 25 base stations on the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu. Digicel, a mobile operator in Vanuatu, now carries more than 60 per cent of its network traffic on base stations powered by renewable energy sources.

Digicel, which launched commercial service in June 2008, recently completed the second phase of the project, bringing the current number of green-powered base stations to 25. In 2009, Digicel plans to install a new wind turbine to an existing wind farm to power a portion of its sites, enabling the operator to reduce its annual power bill.

Finishing Shots

Ericsson, which hired a huge space to showcase its products and services, announced AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) Wideband, a GSM/WCDMA standardized speech technology that enhances voice quality and clarity in mobile networks to noticeably higher levels than today's mobile and fixed telephony networks, even in whispered conversations or environments with high background noise. The new speech-compression algorithm doubles voice bandwidth without extra radio and transmission requirements.
 
Results from consumer trials show that consumers appreciate the higher voice quality and make more and longer calls. The higher voice quality is ideal for telephone meetings and can contribute to a reduction of business traveling which will improve productivity and lower environmental impact.
 
“We are ready to roll-out this impressive voice quality feature in all Ericsson-supplied GSM and WCDMA/HSPA networks in the world. This is the starting point of a voice quality revolution that will change telephony as we know it today,” Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson, said.
 
Google’s Android operating system is also making waves at the mobile world congress. Vodafone has joined the growing list of mobile operators offering smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system. The company has selected HTC’s new Magic handset, with exclusive rights to market the device in the UK, Spain, Germany and with SFR in France, and non-exclusively in Italy.

HTC was the first handset manufacturer to launch an Android handset, associating with T-Mobile last year. Meanwhile, Huawei will ship its own Android handset later this year, whilst most other big vendors – with the exception of Nokia – are also expected to launch similar devices.

When Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corp. along with its leading mobile partners -- HTC, LG and Orange -- unveiled new Windows Mobile 6.5 phones with new features, the company created opportunities for offering better consumer experience.

“Windows phones bring together the best of the Web, the PC and the phone so you can connect instantly to the experiences you care about, no matter where you are,” Ballmer said at a packed press conference. “We’re working with partners across the industry to deliver a new generation of Windows phones that break down the barriers between people, information and applications and provide great end-to-end experiences that span your entire life, at work and at home,” he added.

The Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona will be remembered for its innovation, and the urge by vendors and operators to offer quality experience to consumers during a recession.