Replies to post #59591 on InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[mschere]

My comment..NEC I-Mode 3G handset due shortly in Europe..

DoCoMo to recruit i-mode operators against Vodafone



By Simon Marshall, for TOTAL TELECOM, in Cannes
25 February 2004

Japanese operator talks up i-mode incremental ARPU, benefits against Vodafone's Live! service.



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NTT DoCoMo provided evidence on Wednesday that it claims proves its i-mode service offers enough incremental revenue opportunities for European operators to consider it an effective weapon against Vodafone's Live! service.

NTT DoCoMo's i-mode content model came under fire earlier this week from Portugese operator Optimus, which said i-mode could soak up its pre-paid voice revenues.


But DoCoMo was today keen to show that ARPU in new figures – which indicate between 6 and 10 euros per month per subscriber – is incremental, and therefore a money-spinner for operators that deploy i-mode profitably.

“This ARPU figure from us is a real number,” Takeshi Natsuno told TOTAL TELECOM, indicating that the data had been taken directly from i-mode operators such as KPN, E-Plus and Telefonica Moviles. He explained that there are few sources for publicly checking ARPU figures from operators.

“According to the investment banks, Vodafone is not providing this [level] of ARPU numbers, which shows that i-mode is winning in Europe,” he claimed.

The new figures also show that more than two million users now subscribe to the i-mode service in Europe, as at the end of last month.

“The major difference between us and Vodafone is that Vodafone Live! is not an active subscriber base,” asserted Natsuno. “We have an active subscriber base because [active] subscriber numbers are everything to content developers,” he added, perhaps not surprisingly, since DoCoMo famously gives 90% of content revenues to its developers.

DoCoMo plans to upgrade i-mode services in Europe to more closely reflect the functionality of its popular service in Japan as operators roll out 3G in Europe this year.

“We're going to introduce I-mode in Europe with the same quality as in Japan,” said Natsuno, “[and] we will also synchronise activity in Japan with Europe.”

This should pave the way for new partnerships with Samsung, Panasonic, Sagem and Siemens to release i-mode handsets into Europe and Asia. In particular, DoCoMo will introduce the NEC m900i handset – which is 3G only and Macromedia Flash-equipped - into the European market later this year.

It is, however, being cagey about further operator partnerships in Europe. It has existing deals with KPN Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, WIND, Bouygues, E-Plus FarEasTone Telecom and BASE NV. COSMOTE Mobile Telecom is due to launch i-mode services to coincide with Greece hosting the Olympic Games in Athens this year. Natsuno declined to name further potential i-mode operators, although clearly expects to sign others this year.

“We are getting a lot of enquiries from potential i-mode operators in Europe,” he said. “They want to have a weapon to fight Vodafone [Live!], and so they are thinking about i-mode very seriously.”

DoCoMo plans to take a hard line with approaches from operators that are not interested in adopting the same content revenue model that appears to be behind i-mode's five-year success in Japan.

“The European telecoms mindset is stuck on owning the subscriber, [but] the Japanese way is to share [Internet] content revenue so that the content eco-system will grow,” said Natsuno. “No-one can own a subscriber, and we will reject anyone with a telecoms mindset.”

[Eneerg]

3GSM: Operators looking for HSDPA technology
Harry Yeates

The development status of HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) technology has been the subject of many conversations at 3GSM, variously for the network capacity benefits it promises, or for the increased bandwidth available to each user.

“Most of the interest is from operators,” said Rupert Baines, v-p of marketing at Bath-based PicoChip Designs. “They are very quietly screaming for it.”

PicoChip, whose key focus is 3G baseband processing, is seeing interest from customers wanting to apply its massively parallel signal processing technology to other wireless tasks, such as HSDPA and the 802.16 WiMAX standard for wide area broadband access.

However, it is unclear when exactly HSDPA products will become available. Although test firms are keen to claim they have kit for it, whether it is actually available now isn’t obvious.

“It’s easy for people to say they have HSDPA test... But it’s a long way to being commercial,” said David Patterson of Qualcomm. “Being reasonably aggressive, 2006 would be about right for products.” However, Patterson said factors such as network maturity could easily affect that prediction.

Qualcomm will begin sampling its MSM6275 chip, which will support EDGE and HSDPA, by the end of this year. Initial products will be specified to offer downlink speeds of 1.8Mbit/s, rather than the 14Mbit/s upper limit often touted. “Our approach is to start at 1.8Mbit/s and get that working right,” said Patterson.

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[rmarchma]

Mschere this article on HSDPA and IDCC deserves a read and then a reread by everyone. Thanks for finding and posting!

By Anne Morris, TOTAL TELECOM, in Cannes
24 February 2004

The technology is not 4G, stresses InterDigital.


What does the mobile industry need to show at Cannes to ensure 2004 will be a successful year?
Have your say here


Buzzwords and acronyms usually abound at the 3GSM World Congress and the 2004 event is no exception.

This year's hot potato seems to be HSDPA – or high-speed downlink packet access to the uninitiated. Essentially, HSDPA makes 3G better – by improving data speeds to levels that we all thought we were going to get with 3G mobile services anyway.


Some have even described HSDPA as 4G – but whatever 4G turns out to actually mean it is not HSDPA, said wireless technology specialist InterDigital. HSDPA is more like 3.25G.

"HSDPA is to 3G what EDGE is to GPRS," commented Jim Nolan, vice president, system engineering, at InterDigital. "It's a modification" that provides data rate benefits through the improved optimisation of spectrum, he added.

Current 3G speeds generally average out at around 144 kilobits per second per user – far from the once-promised 2 Mbps. But with HSDPA, speeds could be boosted to more than 384 Kbps per user, Nolan said.

He thinks it is essential for mobile operators, faced with competition from high data-rate technologies such as wireless LAN and fixed lines, to add more competitive data rates to their 3G service offerings. And he said there is going to be a growing demand for data – at least if the model seen in Japan is anything to go by.

Japan is a good example of how an efficient network and good handsets can boost subscriber uptake of functionality and applications, said Charles Rip Tilden, COO of InterDigital. Obviously, it cannot be said for certain that this model will be repeated everywhere else in the world, he added.

InterDigital is working on its own HSDPA product and thinks the technology is a "year-plus" away.

But if HSDPA is not 4G, then what is?

"There is no industry consensus on 4G," said Tilden. But it is often envisioned as "a network of networks" where all air interfaces are converged and interoperable with one another.