Chinese operators and their suppliers battle depression in 3G market
Story by Caroline Gabriel
The 3G build-out by the three Chinese cellcos did help save the wireless infrastructure market from disaster during the worst of the recession, but now that services are going live and roll-out coming to an end, neither the carriers nor their suppliers are left looking very pleased with the results. On the equipment side, a slowdown in spending in China - as well as delays in the next hoped-for 3G goldmine, in India - created a 1% decline in global... [Read More...]
NSN wins first Indian 3G deal, Huawei and ALU lurking
Story by Caroline Gabriel
Wireless infrastructure vendors have been pinning high hopes on the Indian 3G build-out to fill the gap left by the slowing of Chinese 3G deployments. But actual contracts have been delayed by disputes over government security rules. Now the gates may be opening at last - Nokia Siemens has announced the first 3G deal in the country, with Tata Teleservices. This comes despite the fact that Tata, along with Reliance Communications, was cleared last... [Read More...]
Tablets will come to Verizon LTE soon, and FiOS tablet could be ‘home-changer’
Story by Caroline Gabriel
While the iPad may be scoring consumer points by supporting almost every imaginable mobile behaviour, many other tablets will gain acceptance by enabling a specific function and delivering an optimized experience. Cisco has showed the way with its videoconferencing and home energy management tablets, and of course, Amazon with its Kindle e-reader. One of the most interesting examples of the trend emerged a couple of weeks ago when reports surfaced... [Read More...]
Russia shows how LTE build-out patterns will differ from those of 3G
Story by Caroline Gabriel
Over the past few years, the wireless vendors’ hopes have been firmly focused on the remaining major unbuilt 3G markets, notably China and India. But with Chinese roll-out slowing now, and India’s marred by delays, there is a new source of potential revenue in LTE. Thought this will be slow to gather steam, there are already signs that purchasing will follow a very different pattern to those of 3G. One reason is that many governments and... [Read More...]
The US race to 4G accelerates as Verizon launch looms
Story by Caroline Gabriel
The US mobile broadband market is becoming an Olympic-class race, in words as well as actions. Clearwire continues to expand its network and has an important new deal with Best Buy, but has to fight hard to maintain its headstart over Verizon’s LTE roll-out, as the cellco reportedly ups the ante itself. Meanwhile, Clearwire’s wholesale model will get a new competitor with the LightSquared LTE venture, assuming that delivers real results... [Read More...]