January 2012

Recently, a lot of people have been asking me: “Will small cells be the end of the macro network?” No way. Small cell growth will be explosive, to match the need for higher data capacity in mobile networks … but the macro layer is still the best way to handle about half of the anticipated traffic on future networks.

The GSM telecom operators in India added 7.55 million new subscribers in the month of December last year, according to new figures released by the Cellular Operators Association of India.

I try to not feel sorry for huge, multi-national conglomerates. This is due mostly to the fact that they always seem to forget my birthday, unless they want me to buy something.

Shares of Chinese handset maker ZTE Corporation (0763.HK) rebounded a bit today after plunging Thursday on concerns about the company’s lawsuit with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and worries about its 2011 …

Desktop or laptop users are a bit more likely than tablet users to make a purchase from a retailer’s website, but those tablet users who do buy something are big …

The Supreme Court of India on Friday set aside a Bombay High Court judgement asking Vodafone International Holding to pay income tax of $2.18 billion on an overseas deal between Vodafone and Hutchison Essar, news agencies reported.

The Global Mobile Suppliers Association reported that there are now 269 LTE-enabled user devices, manufactured by 57 companies in the market. This is a six-fold jump in six months and …

Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel‘s board of directors approved the potential framework  for the auction of radio frequency in the 451 MHz to 458 MHz band; 461 MHz to 468 MHz …

Avaya unveiled a new version of its unified communications solution targeting small- and mid-sized enterprises that includes new capabilities for SME, including mobile collaboration and productivity. Avaya noted that among …

Mobile connectivity for objects and devices is growing enormously. Never before have so many devices been able to “talk to each other” like they can today – from mobile hotspots being embedded in cars to a home security system alerting its owners that a tornado is approaching. The machine-to-machine market enables some of the coolest consumer apps to the most critical emergency communications.

The wireless industry has settled on a single interface for 4G networks, LTE. Gone are the holy wars, first pitting GSM against CDMA; then W-CDMA against EV-DO; and finally HSPA/LTE against WiMAX.

As we turn the page into 2012, we believe it is an opportune time to offer our own version of a Top 10 list to take a page out of Mr. Letterman’s playbook.

The positive buzz about Nokia’s Lumia 900 is sounding very sweet to Qualcomm, maker of the 1.4-GHz Snapdragon APQ8055 chipset that powers the smartphone. After several years with no business …

Bharti Airtel, one of the leading telecommunications company, has renewed its contract with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for another five-years to manage and maintain its networks in eight circles of India.

LightSquared continues to cry foul in its ongoing attempt to secure governmental approval to use its 1.6 GHz spectrum assets to launch a mobile telecommunications service. Throwing together a last-minute …

Audience, a maker of sound processing chips used in Apple’s iPhone, hopes to find a big audience on Wall Street. The company has filed for an initial public offering to …

AT&T Mobility (T) stirred up the market late yesterday announcing changes to its mobile data plans that increases both the cost and yield of those packages. The carrier said that …

Lime, the Caribbean unit of Cable & Wireless Communications, is soliciting more business from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Caribbean by extending its suite of cloud-based services, the …

Near field communication (NFC) is on its way to getting launched in Brazil and could become a reality at the end of this year, told RCR Wireless News Mustafa Almansur, NFC programme leader …

The International Telecommunication Union announced the specifications for next-generation mobile technologies – IMT-Advanced or 4G – after the ITU Radiocommunication Assembly meeting in Geneva. The ITU reported that LTE-Advanced and …

Brazilian mobile penetration is expected to grow from 124% in 2011 to 153% in 2016 and IPTV services are expected to increase from 21,000 subscriptions in 2011 to 1.5 million …

India and Sri Lanka have signed an agreement for establishing a mechanism of technical and institutional cooperation in the field of telecommunications, with the purpose of development of telecommunications in both the countries.

During the last two years we’ve seen an increase in attacks on smartphones and mobile devices. We’ve run across rootkits, botnets and other malware. Attackers have moved on from simple destructive malware to spyware and malware that makes them money.

Emerging markets operators will hold off on LTE deployments in favor of upgrading their 3G networks to HSPA+. This technology provides spectral efficiency and headline data speeds similar to current implementations of LTE for the price of a software upgrade in most cases.

One of the biggest stories of 2012 will be whether anyone credibly challenges Apple and Google in mobile phones and the apps, content and services ecosystems that support them. Time is running out for Microsoft and RIM to convert consumers upgrading from featurephones; stealing subscribers away from iOS and Android will be an even more difficult task.