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3G Features March 2006
3G Features March 2006
The new local authority service, launched in March, makes use of the most advanced 3G network in the UK to provide information on local council services to more than 3.2 million customers on the 3 network. By presenting the HSDPA technology in a ready-to-implement version, PTC has again confirmed its leading position on the Polish market of wireless data transmission. It is worth stressing that in 2001 PTC was the first mobile operator in Poland to present voice transmission in a UMTS network
 
Mobile TV provider Kamera has signed a content deal with South Korean Wireless broadcaster U1 Media, which sees Kamera delivering its entertainment news service WOW! TV to the newly-launched channel.  
Dell devotees now can have Cingular Wireless' critically acclaimed BroadbandConnect service built into their mobile systems beginning today with the availability of a new line of Dell Latitude(TM) notebooks. The spread of high speed mobile data services is driving the increasing adoption of wireless modems in laptop computers, according to a new study from ABI Research.
 
Vodafone Netherlands and Ericsson announced they have entered into an exclusive managed services partnership. Under the contract, Ericsson will be responsible for the management of the access part of Vodafone Netherlands' GSM, GPRS and UMTS radio networks.
  
Design innovation and the promising 3G user experience influenced European handset sales during the 2005 holiday season, according to Telephia, the leading provider of performance measurement information to the mobile industry. Ericsson was awarded with a USD 23 million contract for GSM and GPRS expansions with added EDGE capabilities for the entire network. The expansion will enable Jawwal, Palestine's leading mobile operator, to offer mobile broadband services to 1 million subscribers with EDGE capability.
AlanDick has developed and installed a unique cellular, emergency service and maintenance radio solution for a motorway tunnel system in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that duals as a massive storm drain during flash floods. 3G Touch Solutions, a provider of corporate information systems solutions, and Socket Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:SCKT), an innovative provider of mobile productivity products, today announced Kelleher Corporation
Axesstel, Inc. will unveil a new product line of 3G wireless broadband gateways during CTIA Wireless 2006, being held April 5-7, 2006, at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.
The market for full track music downloads to mobile devices was twenty times larger at the end of 2005 than it was twelve months earlier, a new study from ABI Research has revealed.
Commercial services will provide mobile connectivity at download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps per second for business customers on the orange(TM) mobile network operated by Partner. Pantech Group - the number two mobile phone manufacturer in South Korea - announced today that it has signed a groundbreaking agreement to supply GSM handsets to Glory Star, the second largest cell phone retailer in Vietnam, as part of its plans to boost its presence in the rapidly growing South East Asian market.
Motorola unveiled its latest 3G handset, the Motorola E1070. Specially designed to deliver the power of 3G technology, the Motorola E1070 offers extraordinary entertainment, communications and versatility. Spirent Communications announced that China Mobile has selected Spirent's Landslide Performance Analysis System to test 3G Packet Core Network equipment, including Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN) and GPRS Gateway Support Nodes (GGSN).
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced that it applied today to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for a license to set up experimental outdoor wireless stations to test WiMAX, a new wide-area wireless broadband network technology, based on the IEEE 802.16e standard.
AirWalk Communications, an IP Radio Access Network (IP-RAN) developer for CDMA wireless voice and data networks, announces plans to offer CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A technology that delivers the latest 3G applications and services.
" Their rapid ascension to being the front-running mobile music service has already shown 3’s potential to have a positive effect on music industry revenues in addition to showcasing emerging artists.” UbiquiSys Ltd announced the successful demonstration of its ZoneGate home access point system to some of Europe's major service providers.
"The bundling of 3G phones, services and subscriptions is an opportunity to modernize the terminal device base in Finland. Potentially this paves the way for an increased usage of more advanced mobile services,
"The ability for operators to deliver new, revenue-generating services with increased network intelligence enabled by EV-DO Revision A will provide a powerful competitive advantage," said Doug Wolff, vice president and general manager, CDMA, Nortel.
 
Research and Markets has announced the addition of Emerging Wireless 2006 to their offering. The recent certification of commercial WiMAX gear represents a major milestone for the 802.16 industry but competition looms from existing and evolving IP based wireless technologies.
 
Starwave Mobile announced a mobile licensing agreement with Hong Kong-based Artificial Life, Inc. to exclusively publish localized versions of Artificial Life's famous 3G games, V-girl(TM) - your Virtual Girlfriend and V-boy(TM) - Your Virtual Boyfriend, in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. This highlights one of the key risks mobile network operators (MNOs) face with Mobile TV - becoming casualties of a dis-intermediation process that would minimize their role in the Mobile TV value chain or remove them altogether. MNOs missed the mobile music boat; clumsiness towards Mobile TV could have a more negative impact.
All New Video Plc (ANV) has developed one of the largest mobile value added (3G) infrastructure networks in Europe, allowing mobile content providers and network operators to promote and develop their content over 3G mobile, IP and ISDN connections.
“Further roaming regulation is unnecessary and could have unforeseen consequences,” said Rob Conway, CEO and member of the board of the GSMA.
 
The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that the CDMA2000® industry in the U.S. is playing a key role in wireless’ next big opportunity: the $10 billion mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market.
 
“We are extremely satisfied with the response of the audience to such an innovative service” says Marco Porcaro, CEO of Mobaila. “There is an enormous potential in the developing of self-generated video entertainment formats. Mobile media company 3 today celebrated another success in its campaign to bring greater value to mobile customers in the UK. The success followed victory in a High Court case brought against 3 by its mobile competitor O2.
Vodafone K.K. announced that on 25 March 2006 it will commence nationwide sales of the Vodafone 804SS, a new 3G handset by Samsung Electronics. The Vodafone 804SS represents Samsung’s first mobile phone for the Japanese market.
QUALCOMM Incorporated and Inventec Appliances Corporation (IAC), a global leader in smart handheld devices and Internet appliance solutions, specializing in multimedia, broadband and wireless technology convergence,
 
Vodafone now offers its customers in Germany mobile broadband services at DSL speed. The necessary technology is supplied by Siemens: High Speed Data Packet Access (HSDPA) accelerates data downloads from the Internet to mobile devices over wireless networks that use the W-CDMA standard.
  
"It seemed to us that delivery of the World Cup matches live to mobile phones would be a fantastic opportunity for the development of mobile TV services" said Jonathan Kendrick, "The range of available applications accessible via a mobile handset is going to rapidly expand over the coming years," said Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics Research.
”The bundling ban relating to the sale of mobile phones in Finland has partly caused the low awareness of new mobile phone services among the Finns compared to many other European countries. China Digital Communication, one of the fastest growing battery components manufacturers ( see above ) in China, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Galaxy View International, Ltd.
QUALCOMM Iand Verizon Wireless announced that Verizon Wireless' V CAST service and QUALCOMM's BREW solution are helping meet the growing demand for high-quality mobile games.
"CopperEye was a key enabler of Vodafone UK's ability to quickly demonstrate the value of capturing and analysing high-volume GPRS probe data," said Derek Johnston Head of Service and Performance Management for Vodafone.
QUALCOMM Incorporated and China TechFaith Wireless Communication Technology announced plans to found a new company to focus on the development of application software for wireless devices.
Optimus, a mobile operator within the Portuguese Sonaecom group, has chosen Ericsson's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for the delivery of new multimedia and converged services. Ericsson will also enhance the Optimus 3G network with its market-leading mobile softswitch and HSDPA solutions.
It was something of a fall from grace considering that way back in 2000, the SL45 was the handset to be seen with, while the SL55 practically invented the slider form in 2003.
Unity Wireless announced that it has won a significant portion of a bid to supply China's ZTE Corporation with power amplifiers for the production of 450MHz, 800MHz and 1,900MHZ base stations in 2006.
TThe latest frontier of convergence is the broadcasting of TV content to mobile phones. The media industry is becoming excited about the possibility of offering broadcast TV content to mobile handsets – but is there a robust business case for operators when their 3G spectrum remains under-utilized? T-Mobile is launching High Speed Data Packet Access technology in its mobile communications network. HSDPA, an extension of the wireless standard W-CDMA, boosts transmission speeds in mobile networks.
ierra Wireless announced the introduction of the company’s product line for EV-DO Revision A networks. The AirCard 595 wireless wide area network card and the MC5725 PCI Express Mini Card embedded module are designed to take advantage of the increased speed and functionality offered on the next-generation EV-DO networks
“HSDPA has potential to take off in a way that 3G didn’t because of its much faster download speeds and lessons learned from the 3G experience,” said Renz. “3G operators are already looking to grow data revenues as fast as they can. "Users of our advanced smartphones expect predictive text input capability as part of the overall feature set of the device," said Brendan Press, Head of Enterprise Marketing, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications,
“As China’s first proven RFIC design house with transceiver and power amplifier (PA) chips in mass production, Comlent, during the past three years, has invested over 10 million US dollars to establish a leading position in China. BBC Executive Board Member Responsible for New Media and Technology, Ashley Highfield, is in charge of the British public broadcaster’s output on Internet, interactive TV, broadband and mobile. In the new cross-platform entertainment environment,
As part of the agreement, all services offered will bring the familiar look and feel of MSN Messenger and MSN Hotmail on a PC, to a 3 mobile - providing customers with a convenient way to stay in-touch on the move using an experience with which they are already accustomed.
The acquisitions will enable DoCoMo to better serve many Japanese travelers who visit Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and enable the islands' residents to benefit from DoCoMo's world-leading mobile technology.
SAGEM Communication unveils the my800X, a 3G mobile phone that completes its multimedia range. Stylish and packed with features, this mobile is an outstanding example of cutting-edge technology. Samsung Electronics demonstrated its commitment for global mobile phone market, showcasing Samsung’s hero 3G and 2.5G handsets with the latest design and technology at CeBIT 2006.
Sagem Communication (SAFRAN group) unveils the my900C, it’s a hot new multimedia mobile phone. With both EDGE and UMTS technology, SAGEM's latest innovation lets you make the most of broadband wherever you are, on whatever network, with the best service quality available. The OPTIMA Network Management solution consists of the following comprehensive suite of products which can be tailored to provide the Wireless Operator with a unified complete network view:
 
As advertisers and operators seek out the best business model, 2006 will be a year of experimentation for the emerging mobile advertising market. The next five years will see a shift by major brands from simple SMS mobile marketing to more sophisticated multimedia advertising.
 
“This original and innovative campaign strengthens 3’s reputation as a pioneering, creative company. It enhances the relationship we have built with MSN over the past twelve months and highlights features of our unique SeeMeTV channel in a relevant way. DOVADO has added support for WCDMA/HSDPA PCMCIA modems from Huawei, Option and Novatel Wireless as addition to the present list of supported modems, those being from Flarion (Qualcomm), IPWireless and UTStarcom.
"We continue to enhance the capabilities of our Roaming Client system," said Biju Nair, PCTEL's Vice President and General Manager of its Mobility Solutions Group.
While most cellular operators have largely written-off the billions of dollars spent on 3G spectrum licenses at the start of the decade, next generation networks are now widely deployed and new networks continue to come online.
Tapuz Mobile, a developer of unique fun and community content and applications for mobile, today announced that the BLOGTV, the 3G reality video service, has won ‘Best Made for Mobile Video Service’ category in the GSM Association Awards. When Vodafone launched 3G services in November 2004, the Company announced that it expected over 10 million customers to be using Vodafone live! with 3G by 31 March 2006. Vodafone today announces that this target has been achieved.
According to a recently released mobile phone market share study from leading information technology market research and advisory firm IDC, LG Electronics MobileComm, Inc. (LG Mobile Phones), secured the number two spot for all mobile phone technologies in U.S. for 2005, selling just over 25 million handsets during the year, increasing its market share to nearly 17 percent. Being the major driver of 3G & large data entertainment services amongst the mobile end-users, music is a significant part of the strategic plans at Sony Ericsson. Music has almost become the top most criteria in the development of Sony Ericsson phones.
Neven Vision announced that its biometrics face recognition software has been adopted by NTT DoCoMo to enhance the privacy and security of personal data and transactions on cell phones. odafone K.K. announced the development of the Vodafone 905SH by Sharp, a new 3G handset capable of receiving “One Seg” terrestrial digital TV broadcasts. The new model is planned for June 2006, a time scheduled for international football matches.
Skyworks Solutions announced that its Intera front-end module (FEM) for wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) applications is commencing production in support of several forthcoming platforms from a leading handset OEM. ACCESS Co., Ltd. announced that Nokia’s first FOMA™ handset —the NM850iG — launched by NTT DoCoMo, Inc., will offer three ACCESS products: a FOMA-compatible browser (ACCESS’ NetFront™), an email client, and JV-Lite™2 Wireless Edition, a Java execution environment for embedded wireless solutions.
Aeroflex and 7 layers have announced a partnership on 3G mobile handset conformance testing under which the 7 layers test and service facility in UK will use Aeroflex’s 6401 AIME/CT conformance system complete with inter-system handover capability (ISHO) for its 3G handset testing requirements. Voice traffic and subscriber growth continued to drive GSM and CDMA rollout in less developed regions, and applications like music and video clip download, multimedia messaging, and online gaming drove 3G deployment in more developed markets in 2005,”
Even as markets approach saturation and prices continue to fall, spending on mobile services in Central and Eastern Europe expanded last year and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. "Orange is a market leader for large-scale deployment of HSDPA networks in Europe and Nortel has been playing a key role in helping Orange prove the commercial viability of HSDPA technology," said Christine Landrevot,
Skype, the fastest growing Internet Communications Company and Hutchison 3 Group, the leader in 3G mobile services, today announced an agreement to enable Skype communications on 3G. NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today that preparations to market the 3G FOMA™ NM850iG handset have been completed, and that sales of the new model will begin on March 17, 2006 at DoCoMo sales channels nationwide.
3, the mobile media company, announced the launch of a datacard with the best 3G coverage in the UK. The 3 datacard is on sale today from £39.99. 3 also announced a co-marketing agreement with Skype today, which will see 3 customers able to access Skype internet services through 3's datacard. Option NV announced that TIM, a Telecom Italia company (Milan: TIT), has selected and is at present commercialising Option’s GlobeTrotter 3G/EDGE ‘HSDPA-Ready’ data card. Customised to meet the TIM’s specific requirements,
Huawei Technologies announced that Starcomms Nigeria Limited (“Starcomms”), Nigeria’s largest private telecom operator, is to deploy Nigeria’s first 1xEV-DO-based mobile broadband network. It is also one of Western Africa’s first CDMA2000 1xEV-DO networks leveraging Huawei’s latest third generation CDMA2000 1xEV-DO platform.
HSDPA significantly improves the data speeds that can be delivered over a mobile data network. It is just the first of a number of technological advances that are within the 3G standard which can be rolled out incrementally over 3's existing 3G network.
Sachio Semmoto, Founder, Chairman and CEO of eMobile, says: "We have selected Ericsson as our partner because of its well-regarded track record in the global market, its experience in Japan and its state-of-the-art and flexible support system. "This broad deployment in a major market illustrates the value of Red Bend's FOTA client technology," said Yoram Salinger ( nset above ) , CEO of Red Bend Software.
All customers of 3, Ireland's newest mobile network, will no longer have to pay higher call charges to domestic or UK numbers while roaming in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. "Nokia recognizes the significant impact these spectrum licenses will have in North America and have optimized our equipment and services for planning and deploying wireless networks in these new bands," said Mark Slater, vice president, Networks, Nokia.
 
“There is a significant global opportunity for both enterprise and residential in-building wireless solutions,” commented Andrew Davison, Director, Information Technology, Scottish Equity Partners.
 
Sensing the special interest of the worldwide Mobile Operators in the HSDPA standard, TOPEX presents at CeBIT the industry’s first HSDPA Wireless Broadband Router. Downloading mobile data over HSDPA was up to 4 times faster using Flash Networks’ NettGain system in a field test in a live network in Western Europe. Likewise, perceived bandwidth was tripled in the trials.
Plus, they can download the latest full length audio and video music tracks, watch live Mobile TV, play multiplayer games, check out national news, sports & AFL video highlights, and get up to date scores for sports matches – direct on their 3 mobile. During the year, 3G Broadband will be progressively extended to other cities (Porto, Braga, Coimbra, Aveiro and Leiria this June) and regions of mainland Portugal and the islands, reaching the main urban areas by the end of the year.
Sierra Wireless and TELES Communication Systems announced that TELES has selected the Sierra Wireless MC8755 Mini Card embedded module to provide 3G wireless connectivity for its TELES.iGATE fixed- to-mobile wireless gateway system.
The next couple of years will witness the delivery of mobile TV in Europe over a variety of standards and technologies, including digital audio broadcasting (DAB), terrestrial-digital media broadcast (T-DMB), digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) and cellular multicasting.
LG Electronics said it has agreed to supply its LG-U900 mobile phone, which supports the digital video broadcasting handheld ( DVB-H ) standard, to Italian mobile telecommunications service provider, Hutchison. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. demonstrated its commitment for global mobile phone market, showcasing Samsung's hero 3G and 2.5G handsets with the latest design and technology at CeBIT 2006.
Kim Jeong-seok, director of VK's strategic marketing department, said, "We affirmed again at this exhibition that a thin, slim model and convergent technology are the global market trends in mobile phones," adding, T-Mobile will be the first mobile operator to broadcast twenty matches from the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ live to its customers’ cell phones, thereby ensuring that football fans will not miss a single goal, penalty or pivotal scene when on the move.
Mobile industry body The UMTS Forum participated at the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-06), being hosted from 7 to 15 March in Doha, Qatar. On this occasion Mr Yoshio Utsumi, ITU Secretary-General, welcomed the new partners including the UMTS Forum at today's "Connect the World Partners' Panel".
KDDI announced that it has successfully completed field trials of a Mobile WiMAX system, the first in Japan to be built in accordance with IEEE802.16e, in the central Osaka area.
DyLogic announced the international launch of Mirial UMTS, the first and only video softphone natively working on both Circuit Switch (3G UMTS, with H.324M) and Packet Switch (IP, with SIP or H.323) networks. SAMSUNG Electronics unveiled its fully-loaded slim phones for the first quarter, including the world’s slimmest 3G phone at a bare 14.9mm thin – the SGH-Z540.
HSDPA offers a win-win opportunity for both customers and Vodafone - it delivers on the promise of 3G to provide broadband-like services whilst on the move," comments Michael Ransom, Research Director for Wireless at Current Analysis.
ABI Research is examining 15 of the most influential mobile operators in the global market. The first five operators under the microscope are Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, NTT DoCoMo and Verizon Wireless.
LG Electronics announced that it will launch its DMB (Digital Mobile Broadcasting) phone business in Europe with the first release of handsets in Germany in May. Samsung breaks the storage limit in mobile phones by introducing the world's first mobile phone equipped with a 8GB hard disk drive (model: SGH-i310).
Showa Denko K.K.’s (SDK) 0.85-inch-diameter hard disk media, the smallest in the world, has been adopted by Toshiba Corporation in its latest mobile phone “MUSIC-HDD W41T”. Vodafone K.K. today announces that on 10 March 2006 it will commence nationwide sales of the Vodafone 904T, a new 3G handset by Toshiba.
Budding directors on 3, the mobile media company, have earned over £100,000 by contributing to the company's unique SeeMeTV channel, thanks to its policy of rewarding customers. T-Bay Holdings announced today its timetable on 3G phone development. 3G is a specification for the third generation (analog and digital PCS were the first two) of mobile communications technology.
Mobile TV is a key example of the digital convergence between networks, devices and content. And digital convergence is important because it is a carrier of new business opportunities, Mobile content and technology development company, ROK Entertainment Group, today announced the launch of the world’s first ‘text for mobile TV’ service for mass-market 2.5G handsets.
Results from pilots on broadcast (DVB-H) mobile TV services amongst consumers in Finland, the UK, Spain and France have revealed clear consumer demand for such services as well as important indications over future business models for commercial mobile TV services. Cingular Wireless announced the immediate availability of Cingular Video on-demand streaming video service with a large selection of popular mobile content.
Latest research from Informa Telecoms & Media shows that HSDPA networks are expected to be switched on in all major Western European markets before the end of 2006
The idea of watching TV or streaming video on a handheld device is not yet main-stream, but telecom providers are spending millions developing services in hopes of riding the expected wave of increasing consumer adoption.
Mobile media company 3 has won “Best Digital Music Service” at this year’s Music Week Awards, an event recognising the best in the music business. 3 beat competition from Napster, Yahoo, Vodafone and Orange to win the digital music category.
T-Mobile launches commercial High Speed Downlink Data Packet Access (HSDPA) networks, supplied by Nokia, in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands,
 
"3G competition is steadily increasing in regions like Hong Kong, and this deployment of the first 3G mobile TV service is a real differentiator for Hong Kong CSL," said Wilson Lo, executive director of Golden Dynamic.
 
"Our collaboration is a win-win for both the service provider and the base station equipment manufacturer," said Steve Sifferman, executive vice president of operations with ArrayComm. Avanquest Software announced the launch of BVRP Mobile Phone Suite, giving owners of new Intel(R) Centrino(R) Duo mobile technology-based laptops effortless Internet access almost anytime and anywhere without the need of a PCMCIA card or having to search for WiFi hot spots.
NTT DoCoMo announced today that they have developed the third-generation (3G) FOMA™ SIMPURE™ series of basic and compact handsets for people who do not require highly sophisticated functions.
The report demonstrates why RF transceiver solutions are a critical part of 3G handset systems, and evaluates technology and market trends as well as the approaches of successful vendors.
To ensure smooth rollout of HSDPA in the course of this year, reliable T&M solutions for user equipment (UE) and networks are called for. The R&S CMU300 checks HSDPA settings at Node Bs (UMTS base stations) and performs measurements on the physical HSDPA channels. To further enhance our growing status VK will exhibit a total of 17 models, among them four models integrating camera and MP3 functions in the 8.8 mm super slim VK 2000
The SAGEM myW-7 uses two onboard cameras to graft video onto voice communication. It can even switch seamlessly between cameras to change the viewpoint: another of the reasons why SAGEM myW-7 is gifted with ubiquity. 3 launched the UK’s first 3G network on 3rd March 2003, setting out to challenge the status quo in the UK mobile market by offering customers a new generation of communication, entertainment and information services. By August 2005,
Hong Kong based Artificial Life, a provider of leading edge mobile technology and applications today announced that it has successfully launched the Taiwanese version of multiple award winning 3G product KPN Mobile announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei") in which Huawei will be the provider of KPN's UMTS core network equipment.
 
3G has been slow to arrive, but next generation cellular networks are finally being widely deployed and new networks continue to come online.
 
NEC has announced the release of “music-on-the-move”, an innovative new mobile content service for Telstra i-mode users. Texas Instruments introduced a new family of interface integrated circuits for true-color, high-resolution video content in handheld electronics.
After having been approached by the 3 network, the pay-as-you-go Mobile Web project was fully implemented in less than two months from initiation, BenQ Mobile and Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS will showcase jointly developed Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) devices enabling mobile TV reception.
"By upgrading our nationwide GPRS network with Nortel's EDGE technology , go mobile becomes the first mobile operator in Malta to offer high bandwidth applications like streaming video on a mobile phone,"
Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung and T3G have announced today that they are bringing next-generation 3G technology to the Chinese market.
 
LG’s recent U880 3G phone set the tone for what looks to be an important year for the Korean company. Can it repeat the success with its familiar-looking 2.5G flagship handset, the P7200?  
Sony Ericsson and Google announced that they have worked closely together to integrate Google's Blogger and Web Search features on Sony Ericsson mobile phones. Quickphone, the UK's first mobile phone vending machine, has garnered a 'Partnering for Innovation' award for two of the companies responsible for its development: Vodafone UK and Fujitsu Services.
Rohde & Schwarz has already taken the lead with its selection of tree and tabular combined notation (TTCN) test cases for the R&S CRTU-W UMTS protocol tester.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is working on a radical plan to restrict Intellectual Property Rights for patents essential to all components of the next version of the 3GPP-based radio standard - Long-Term Evolution (LTE).
SanDisk introduced a 2-gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus card, thus doubling the capacity of its award-winning storage card that combines USB connectivity and flash memory storage. Quintel Technology Limited has successfully installed its first multi-operator, independent variable tilt (IVT) 3G shared antenna solution at Trentham in Staffordshire on behalf of three UK mobile operators.
 
A new GSA survey - 3G/WCDMA-HSDPA Devices Variety & Availability - confirms that the number of 3G/WCDMA devices announced in the market has reached 315, an increase of 129 products over the past 6 months.
 
Vodafone K.K. announced the Vodafone 904SH by Sharp, the first mobile handset to feature a VGA liquid crystal display (LCD). The 904SH is scheduled to go on sale in late April 2006 as a new 3G handset.  
Oki Electric announced that Vodafone K.K has selected Oki's face recognition middleware for their mobile phones. The Face Sensing Engine (FSE) enables instant face recognition using the camera on mobile phones to restrict access to mobile phones. Sony Ericsson takes digital imaging in camera phones to new heights today with the launch of the K800 and K790 phones, the first handsets to carry the Cyber-shot™ brand, a true mark of imaging quality.
Bitfone Corporation announced that 3, the UK mobile media company, has selected Bitfone to launch their over-the-air firmware update service using Bitfone's MVP(tm) solution. Acme Packet announced that Vodafone Spain, part of the Vodafone Group -- the world's leading mobile telephony company, is using Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers to deliver its 3G video telephony services.
The CDMA Development Group (CDG) reported that 3G CDMA2000® accounted for nearly 100% of CDMA handsets sold in 2005. Sales of 1xEV-DO handsets grew from 11 million to 27 million units,
Analysys International says that China's total 3G mobile communication subscribers will exceed 10 million in 2006 and will reach 100 million in the following five years.
Rohde & Schwarz is now offering as many as three updates for its compact coverage measurement system consisting of the Radio Network Analyzer R&S TSMU and the associated R&S ROMES software. Vodafone K.K. announced the launch of content for Vodafone live! CAST, an automatic content delivery service scheduled to begin with the mid-March 2006 rollout of two new compatible 3G handsets, the Vodafone 904T by Toshiba and the Vodafone 804N by NEC.