Last month, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo said it sold more than 160,000 faulty mobile phones. The carrier said its new FOMA N900i handset, built by NEC Corp., suffered from a software glitch that would cause the phone to reboot if a user tried to save certain kinds of images and files to the phone’s memory.
However, DoCoMo did not have to launch a potentially costly and complicated recall to fix the problem. Instead, the carrier’s users simply downloaded a software patch to fix the problem themselves-an event that was likely the world’s first example of a full-blown, over-the-air repair service for mobile phones.
“It was very successful,” said Luosheng Peng, chief executive officer and co-founder of DoOnGo Technologies Inc., the company behind DoCoMo’s OTA repair effort.
DoOnGo is one of a growing number of companies selling OTA technology to the world’s carriers and handset makers. The technology allows wireless providers to remotely repair mobile-phone software glitches and even introduce new phone services. Such offerings could cut down on the costs associated with recalling and fixing faulty phones-troubles that total $8 billion annually, according to one industry player.
Most desktop computer users at some time or another run into a software glitch. Sometimes such problems require a trip to a repair store, but usually users can fix the glitch by downloading software patches from the Internet. Indeed, software downloads are regularly used to update computer programs and even revise operating systems.
The same may soon be true in the wireless industry. The more technologically complex mobile phones become, the more likely the phones will suffer from software bugs. Wireless carriers rigorously test their devices for such glitches. However, such testing often leads to delays in commercial introduction, which could lead to a loss of customers as shoppers look elsewhere for cutting-edge phones.
The solution, then, is OTA technology. But how exactly does this technology work, and what is needed for a successful deployment?
On March 7, DoCoMo discovered a software bug in its N900i series mobile phone. The NEC device works over the carrier’s W-CDMA network and features a 1-megapixel camera and video calling. The bug caused the device to shut down if users tried to save pictures and messages of a specific size. Released in December, DoCoMo had already sold 160,000 of the phones.
On March 9, DoCoMo alerted users to the problem through a posting on its Web site and messages sent directly to all of the affected phone owners. Users could take their phones to DoCoMo shops to have the bug fixed, or they could download the software patches themselves.
“The usage is quite simple,” said DoOnGo’s Peng. “People were excited about the OTA.”
DoCoMo’s messages included a mobile Internet link where the software patch was available for download. Users could either click on the link and start the download process when they received the message, or they could schedule a time later in the day or week to conduct the download. DoCoMo staggered the delivery of the messages so that the download server wouldn’t be overwhelmed if every user decided to begin the download process right away. Further, the system would allow users to schedule downloads only at times when the server would be free.
“This is very well designed,” Peng said.
Once users clicked on the download link, DoCoMo’s download server ran a check on the phone model to ensure it was the right one. The system then asked for the user’s DoCoMo password to validate the process. After the user was authenticated, the system would set up a secure SSL connection between the device and the network to begin the download process. Once the download was finished, the user received a message asking if he wanted to reboot his phone. If the user selected “no,” he could schedule another time to do the reboot, but if he selected “yes” the phone would reboot itself and install the software patch. After the patch was installed and the phone completed its reboot, the user would receive a message advising that the process was complete.
“You get a very good view of who has done what,” Peng said. “It’s very good for customer care.”
The system required two major components: software on the phone that could manage the download process and the software upgrade, and a server that could deliver the software package. The system also relied on a secure connection and relatively snappy transmission speeds.
DoCoMo’s OTA repair service caps several years of work for DoOnGo. The company worked with NEC to install its software on the company’s phones and previously managed a point-of-sale repair service for the devices. The point-of-sale service allowed DoCoMo retail employees to upgrade and repair software issues by plugging NEC phones in to a computer. The next step, Peng said, was to offer a similar repair service over the air. “The carriers are looking into OTA seriously,” he said.
Founded in 1999, DoOnGo reached financial break even last year and now counts more than 30 million mobile phones carrying its OTA software. The company works with NEC, Panasonic, Sharp Corp. and China Unicom, and Peng said the company recently signed a deal with a U.S. carrier customer. Peng declined to name the U.S. carrier.
