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Posted on 11.30.05 by Nikhil @ 12:18 am
New Orleans, today, announced the first city-owned WiFi network, which will become available to the city in about one year. It will be free to all users. Under Louisiana law, any one locality is not allowed to offer Internet connection speeds of more than 144 Kbps. This WiFi service, however, will offer 512 Kbps. But since the city is still under a state of emergency, it’s being allowed. The rational: with free Internet access available citywide, people and businesses may be attracted to come back. It will also be a good thing for emergency services and police services - which have been under tremendous pressure since the hurricane devastated the city. For now, however, the service is running only in the central business district and the French Quarter - but New Orleans expects to expand the service. The infrastructure for the network was mostly donated by companies such as Tropos Networks and Intel . More details are available at CBS. Filed under: Infrastructure and Miscellaneous and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.30.05 by Nikhil @ 12:08 am
Third generation (3G) wireless networks have been slow to take off, but now that they are showing up, Texas Instruments sees an opportunity to expand its portfolio of wireless chips. The company just announced its 3G chip, which it is developing with NTT DoCoMo. Okay, here is some of the technical stuff about this chip. Its called the OMAPV2230 and it is based on WCDMA UMTS technology. The chip is both a baseband chip as well as application processor. The idea behind it is to allow you to use your handset to get streaming video an play complex games. Of course, you’ll be able to access sites on the Web as well. I expect that this will be a winner for TI because the development of this chip is a bit of a departure from TI’s regular practice. So far, TI has developed its baseband chips according to specs given by individual handset makers, such as Nokia. That’s expensive and limits the market for such a chip. The new 3G chip, however, is not made for any one particular equipment manufacturer. Instead, its a standard chip that should be able to be used by all manufacturers. That means a bigger market opportunity. The chip will be launched in Japan, where 3G is progressing faster than in many other parts of the world. TI will also sell to handset manufacturers in Europe and in other Asian countries. You can read more about this in the San Jose Mercury News. Filed under: Stock Watch and Components and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.22.05 by Nikhil @ 11:41 pm
Cisco has been an unexciting stock for shareholders over the past few years. But things may be changing and I like what I am hearing. In the news today is the announcement that Cisco and ZTE, a Chinese telecom equipment maker, are going to work together to develop data technologies (such as 3G) for Asia. The two companies, which are forming a joint venture, hope to speed up the adoption of their technologies in the area. ZTE brings to the deal expertise in wireless and wireline while Cisco brings expertise in networking. This comes on the heels of lots of other exciting news. Cisco just announced it will acquire Scientific Atlanta (big player in set top TV boxes) and bought Digital Fairway, a voice-over-IP company. It also just launched its mesh networking product for companies. (see my November 9th post by clicking here). As it becomes more clear that convergence will drive success for technology companies, Cisco is doing a lot of things right. Note, however, that the stock is down by about half from its high in early 2004. It seems that none of this good news is being factored into today’s stock price - around $17.55. You can read more at Forbes.com and there is also an interesting article worth readig from Light Reading. Filed under: Stock Watch and Infrastructure and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.22.05 by Nikhil @ 12:49 am
I wanted to let you know that this week, I am taking off a few days before Thanksgiving to spend some time with my family. We’ll be on vacation in Florida. While I intend to keep following the latest developments in wireless, my posts may be less frequent than usual this week. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving! Filed under: Miscellaneous Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.22.05 by Nikhil @ 12:44 am
Forbes Wireless Stock Watch readers know a great deal about UTStarcom. This U.S. based company, the predominant supplier of networking equipment in China as well as in other Asian countries, has been both a terrific performer in my newsletter’s Wireless Portfolio, but more recently, a real dud. The company has recently been hit with a myriad of problems, such as a slowdown for its products in China and accounting and internal control problems. All this has sent the stock spiraling down. Now, there is some talk that UTStarcom could be picked up Ericsson. Ericsson, which recently announced it will buy the U.K, company, Marconi for $2.1 billion, is apparently looking to expand its data networking business in China. One way to do that would be to buy UTStarcom. UTStarcom, by the way, has also been looking for overseas alliances to expand the market for its products. Read more about this rumor at ChinaView.com. Filed under: Stock Watch and Infrastructure and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.18.05 by Nikhil @ 5:59 pm
My two small kids have been asking me for a cell phone recently. Little do they know that if I get them one, its not going to come equipped with an MP3 player, a videocamera and all the cutting edge applications they see me playing with when I bring new phones home to test. Instead, it will be a phone that has two buttons -one “speed dial” button for mom, one for dad, and limited functions. Today, Cingular Wireless just made it easier to start getting these phones for kids under 12. The company is now offering handsets from Firefly. Kids will be able to store up to 22 contacts, but they have to have a password to program numbers in. You can also restrict where incoming calls come from. The reason I am intrigued by these phones is not because I want the kids to be able to gab on the phone - its for security reasons. Theoretically, I could call them whenever I want to make sure they are safe. If they get lost, they can call me. Some phones, with GPS technology, will allow you to track your kids wherever they go. On the other hand, I don’t want to be too overprotective. But if you are interested, you can get more details at Cnet.com. Filed under: Applications and Cutting Edge and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.16.05 by Nikhil @ 7:47 pm
Readers of Forbes Wireless Stock Watch, know I have been tracking this company for a long time. Shares of UTStarcom soared 23% yesterday to $8.11 before falling back about 10% so far today. Despite the surge in the company’s stock, I don’t think its time yet to call this a turnaround. Here’s why. The stock was up on news that UTSI had won some contracts for its IPTV systems in the Shanghai area. Indeed, the company has won a contract that will allow its system to service some 5000 users. While this is good news, it doesn’t warrant a 23% increase in its shares. Part of the stock’s rise probably comes from the hype that the news generated on television, with reporters gushing about how this IPTV business will one day be worth billions of dollars. While IPTV could be a big business, these are still early days for the technology and it’s not clear how it will evolve. Also, UTSI will likely generate very little revenue from this business based on the latest announcement. The company will also be up against big competitors such Huawei, Alcatel and ZTE. I’ll continue to watch the company closely and let you know when I see a real fundamental improvement at UTStarcom. Filed under: Stock Watch Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.16.05 by Nikhil @ 7:37 pm
Last night, my 8 year old son and I hooked up a new video telephony system to our home PC. I was reaching for the directions while he just went ahead and clicked on the right buttons on the computer, informing me that he was smarter! There isn’t much that is wireless about this, except that this technology allows you to make an audio or video call to any kind of phone - wireless, voice-over-IP or a standard phone. The system, called IVE (pronounced Ivy) is from Sony Electronics and a company called Glowpoint and was just launched today.I spoke with David Trachtenberg, Glowpoint’s CEO and Mike Brandofino, the CTO as well as with Eric Murphy, vice president for integrated visual communications at Sony Electronics. They explained the service lets you make free, unlimited video and voice calls worldwide. The strategy, of course, is to build up a big base of users. Then, with a community in place, IVE will start hosting advertising and perhaps make you listen to an ad before initiating a phone call. There are also upgrades that buy you special features and no advertising for $9.95 per month or $19.95 per month. For now, the free version is just fine. The companies are hoping to start raking in customers, by leveraging Sony’s distribution network. What makes this service interesting is that unlike other Internet-based communication applications, this service combines VoIP with video. It lets you make a call not by connecting to some obscure IP address but by, keying in a phone number - a process we are all accustomed to. You are no longer limited to talking only to other video users on the same proprietary service.Instead you can call other standards-based video users and even those who do not have video access or webcams. I generally liked the service, though the people I called told me that when they spoke, they heard an echo. IVE has told me that there is a way to remedy that - I’ll try. A nice feature is the service’s Video Call Mailbox. Here, video and voice callers can leave a video or voice message when an IVE user is not available. IVE users can also personalize their full-motion video outgoing messages. This is another step on the way to convergence - where we all communicate via video over any kind of device and any kind of network. You can read more about IVE and download it too, by clicking here. Filed under: Applications and Telcos and Cutting Edge and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.09.05 by Nikhil @ 6:13 pm
Cisco Systems recently parked an enormous trailer outside the Hilton Hotel in New York City. Inside, Rick Moran, the Vice President of Product & Technology Marketing and IP Communications at Cisco, showed me some of the company’s latest voice-over-IP equipment. Things like video telephones which let you see the people you are speaking to as well as manage applications. Such technology is increasingly being used in corporations. But what I was more interested to see was Cisco’s Wi-Fi technology. The company is clearly on a path to moving its existing indoor Wi-Fi technology outside and Moran showed me some early dual-mode phones that will allow users to roam between Wi-Fi networks and cellular networks. The opportunities here could be big for Cisco: The company could become a big player in providing the infrastructure needed to develop citywide Wi-Fi networks, of the kinds that Earthlink and Google plan to build. Click here to read more about this from crn.com. Expect to hear more from Cisco about this in the coming weeks. Filed under: Stock Watch and Infrastructure and News Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 11.08.05 by Nikhil @ 2:32 pm
The next time you walk by an old historic building (or just about any building or thing for that matter) you might be able to hold up your cellphone to it and read about it. This, thanks to an interesting application that connects a physical object (like a building) with an Internet Web page. Here’s how it works. A company called Semapedia has created a tag that connects to anything. As long as you have downloaded the Semapedia Reader software to your handheld, you can hold your handheld device in front of the tag (connected to, say, a museum) and it will automatically connect to a Web site that gives you information about the museum. My colleague, Matt Rand, told me about this application and referred me to Semapedia’s site where you can see the technology at work, through pictures. Filed under: Stock Watch Comments: None |
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