Move aside Java, lets sip some Latte

BANGALORE, INDIA: Both Java and Latte are flavors of coffee. Kopi Java is coffee produced in the Indonesian island of Java and means strong, black and sweet coffee with some powdered Java beans also added. Latte, on the other hand literally means milk in its original Italian. Latte now stands for milk coffee, which in Italian translates to caffelatte (coffee and milk), similar to caf au lait in French and caf con leche in Spanish.

This column is not about coffee, but about Java and LTE. Java the programming language was developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle Corp). Java was formally released in 1995 and lets application developers "write once, run anywhere". Java has become one of the most influential programming languages and is widely used in web and mobile apps.

LTE (latte) is a very recent development and refers to enhancements to the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecoms System). LTE was announced as Release 8 under the 3GPP (3rd Gen Partnership Project) and is trademarked by the European Telecom Standards Institute. On Aug 15, 2009, the EU said it will invest $25 mn on LTE R&D and deployment.

What do Java and latte have to do at this point? Everything, that’s because both are intimately connected to mobile apps, mobile computing, and mobile broadband. LTE falls under the fourth generation (4G) of radio technologies designed to boost the capacity and speed of mobile phone networks.

The worlds first publicly available LTE-service was launched by TeliaSonera in Sweden and Oslo in December 2009. Japans NTT DoCoMo began testing a new LTE cellular data network on June 8 to ensure Japan remains at the cutting edge of mobile broadband. The LTE network will go into operation in December and should initially deliver upload speeds of 25 Mbps and download speeds of 75 Mbps. The speeds are up to 10 times faster than NTT DoCoMos current fastest service. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless are also planning to convert their wireless networks to LTE.

The aim is not just to have faster data access, but also cut costs. NTT DoCoMo began building its LTE network in December 2009 at an investment of about $4 bn and is now testing it for speed, latency, stability and data integrity before rolling it out commercially in Tokyo first. The telco will cover 50 per cent of populated areas on LTE by 2014 when download speeds are set to reach 300 Mbps and upload speeds about 75 Mbps.

Late last month, Singapore announced its plan to capitalize on the rapidly evolving technology in mobile broadband, including femtocells and LTE telephony.

"The stars are aligned for mobile broadband to take off," says Dr Tan Geok Leng, CTO of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). "We now have the wireless networks in place that offer excellent coverage, we have snazzy smartphones and devices that connect to the Internet, we have very affordable pricing for phone users, and there are applications galore in the wireless mobile space."

As of May 2010, Singapores mobile phone penetration was at 137.5%, compared to 97.8% in 2005. Singapore crossed the 100 per cent mark in 2006. According to Morgan Stanley, on a global basis, mobile access to the Internet will be bigger than the desktop computers access to the Internet in the next five years.

A femtocell is a device that connects to the service providers network via broadband and allows service providers to extend their coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. Consumers benefit from improved coverage and better voice quality and battery life. Vodafone, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon have launched femtocell services in the US and Europe.

Here is how LTE concerns India:

India can jump a generation by moving from 2.5G and 3G - to 4G and LTE.

Qualcomm Inc is keen to build a TD-LTE infrastructure in India, which currently is the worlds fastest-growing wireless market. TD-LTE is 4G wireless standard used by China and is compatible with WCDMA, HSPA and EV-DO standards.

In end-May, India held its first ever LTE conference where Subodh Kumar, Additional Secretary of Telecoms prophesized: "It is not why LTE, but when and how."

4G and LTE is used by 64 telecom service providers in 31 countries, including China Mobile.

"Some 22 LTE based networks would be operational by the end of this year," says Adrian Scrase, head of 3GPP.

"Why should India be different?"

Yes. Why should India not be different and take a tech gap in the mobile stakes?

(The writer is a former Dataquest editor and currently MD of TechTrenders Asia, based in Singapore)