An Ignoble Experiment

2. Qualcomm joins Mimosa, others in pushing FCC to open 10 GHz for mobile broadband

Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is planning to add Hotspot 2.0 technology to its growing, Xfinity-branded public Wi-Fi network, further evidence that the cable operator plans to leverage Wi-Fi as a way to sell service to smartphone and tablet customers--and thereby potentially cutting into a business currently dominated by wireless carriers like AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ).

A Comcast representative confirmed to FierceWirelessTech that Hotspot 2.0 technology is on the MSO's roadmap and its devices would be capable of using the technology, though the representative declined to provide any other details, including a timeline for when Comcast's Xfinity Wi-Fi network would be able to support Hotspot 2.0 connections.

The news comes as little surprise; Comcast and other cable companies have made no secret of their interest in Wi-Fi. Earlier this week, Comcast announced it now counts more than 1 million Wi-Fi hotspots around the country, which Comcast said represents the nation's largest public Wi-Fi network. Comcast's Xfinity-branded public Wi-Fi network is available in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and elsewhere, as well as participating businesses and residential locations.

Comcast is also a member of the CableWiFi consortium, which includes Bright House Networks, Cox Communications, Optimum and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC). The consortium's members allow their respective customers to roam onto the public Wi-Fi networks of other members; the group said it currently counts 200,000 hotspots.

Finally, Comcast hinted at a broader Wi-Fi future in its recent FCC application to merge with Time Warner Cable. "A ubiquitous Wi-Fi network built by Comcast could make a 'Wi-Fi-first' service, which combines commercial mobile radio service with Wi-Fi, a more viable alternative. One prominent commenter has suggested this could be 'a highly disruptive wireless offering,' and 'a game changer,'" Comcast and TWC wrote.

Wi-Fi users currently must actively sign on to a new Wi-Fi network, but Hotspot 2.0 technology would change that. Hotspot 2.0 is an interoperable Wi-Fi authentication and handoff technology that enables automatic, seamless data roaming between Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular networks. The Wi-Fi Alliance offers a certification program for Hotspot 2.0 devices under its Passpoint brand. Devices that pass this certification testing can be referred to as "Passpoint devices." Because Passpoint certification is based on the Wi-Fi Alliance Hotspot 2.0 specification, one tends to see the terms "Passpoint" and "Hotspot 2.0" used interchangeably, though that is not technically accurate. Hotspot 2.0 has an access point technology counterpart called Next Generation Hotspot (NGH).

Thus, the incorporation of Hotspot 2.0 into Comcast's Wi-Fi network would essentially allow Comcast to offer Wi-Fi roaming and offload services to smartphone and tablet users. Such a scenario could play out in a number of ways, including a Hotspot 2.0 roaming relationship between Comcast and a smartphone user's wireless carrier, or a smartphone vendor could directly support Hotspot 2.0 in its devices' settings.

So far, no major wireless carrier has voiced complete support for the Hotspot 2.0 standard, though many have said they are evaluating it. Boingo Wireless is one of the few major companies that has already installed Hotspot 2.0 technology into its public Wi-Fi network. Boingo offers Hotspot 2.0 technology at 23 U.S. airports.

Read more about: CableWiFi, Wi-Fi
back to top

This week's sponsor is Oracle.
	Whitepaper: Customer Experience for Service This Executive Brief explores the role of service and support in creating great customer experiences, the service goals market leaders use related to customer experience and the Oracle approach for empowering new service experiences. Download today!

By Mike Dano

Comment |

3. True-Grit Wireless tries to rise from Cell-Loc's ashes

Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) added its voice to a growing chorus of companies and individuals urging the FCC to open the 10 GHz - 10.5 GHz band for wireless communications. Further, Qualcomm urged the FCC to use Authorized Shared Access technology to allow the spectrum to be shared with licensed mobile operations when and where incumbents are not operating.

Qualcomm has already suggested ASA technology to the FCC for the 3.5 GHz band, and Qualcomm said ASA "can similarly allow the 10.0 to 10.5 GHz band to be integrated into mobile networks and provide a predictable quality of service when and where incumbent users are not operating. Carrier aggregation technology also can allow mobile operations in the band to be combined with other bands to enable increased data speeds and an improved user experience."

Qualcomm's filing with the FCC builds on a petition for rulemaking filed by Mimosa Network pointing out that the 10 GHz - 10.5 GHz band is currently allocated for radio location and amateur radio use, and also could be used for mobile broadband applications. Specifically, Mimosa noted that the 10 GHz - 10.5 GHz band could be used for microwave backhaul in an effort to complement the FCC's current evaluation of the 3.5 GHz band for small cell deployments.

Qualcomm agreed that the 10 GHz - 10.5 GHz band could be freed for mobile broadband uses, but said that the 10 GHz could be used for purposes beyond backhaul. "Opening access to the 10 GHz band using ASA and small cells should be given serious consideration because it can enhance and expand mobile broadband network capacity," Qualcomm noted. "Small cells that incorporate the 10 GHz band identified in the Petition can be particularly useful. Indeed, given that wireless signals at 10 GHz have higher loss than the sub-3 GHz signals used by macrocells today, small cells deployed nearer to users, where the signal propagation path is much shorter, offer a technically viable option that can take increased advantage of spectrum reuse opportunities."

Qualcomm also said ASA technology could be used in the 10 GHz band where there are already some existing users. "Implementing ASA at 10 GHz would similarly allow the band to be integrated into networks that support mobile operations and provide a predictable quality of service when the band is available for such use, and therefore greatly enhance and expand mobile broadband network capacity."

This isn't the first time Qualcomm has urged the FCC to consider ASA technology for spectrum sharing. Last year Qualcomm also pushed ASA as an option for the 3.5 GHz band, and has received support from carriers like T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS). More recently, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) jointly urged the FCC to approve the three-tiered sharing framework proposed by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) for the 3.5 GHz band.

For more:
- see this Qualcomm FCC filing

Read more about: Mimosa Network, FCC
back to top

By Tammy Parker

Comment |

4. Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent test new ways of reducing wireless network energy consumption

The head of True-Grit Wireless, who has taken over patents that originally belonged to a geo-location services company formed in the 1990s, is searching for a way forward to leverage that intellectual property.

"At the moment, we're entertaining all options that seem to make sense," said Boston-based serial entrepreneur John Redding, who controls the remaining assets of Cell-Loc Location Technologies.

Cell-Loc, which was founded during 1995 in Calgary, Alberta, hoped to gain market share in the nascent wireless location-based services industry that many in the 1990s expected would be jumpstarted by the FCC's E911 mandate for mobile carriers. Cell-Loc's technology used time difference of arrival (TDOA) hyperbolic trilateration to calculate the location of its Cellocate Beacon RF transmitters.

After years of financial struggle, Cell-Loc reorganized and in November 2011 transferred its intellectual property to a newly formed company, Times Three Wireless.

That company installed a commercial geolocation network in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the technology was used for stolen vehicle recovery services. Times Three had one customer, an insurance company, and its technology was installed in some 50,000 vehicles, said Dave Guebert, Times Three CFO.

But Times Three subsequently ran out of money, leading Redding to buy its assets, which provide the foundation for True-Grit. True-Grit, in turn, is a subsidiary of Redding's firm InFedra, which aims to monetize the assets of struggling companies. Redding also founded Capital Alliances, described as a syndicated private investment partnership that funds emerging companies.

The majority stockholders of True-Grit's predecessor organization, Times Three, are jointly venturing with InFedra. Together, they are seeking partners to help spin out True-Grit or engage in a merger, joint venture or partnership. Alternatively, they are also open to True-Grit's acquisition by a third party.

The True-Grit patent portfolio consists of three issued patents and 22 patent applications with a total estimated market value of about $15 million, according to InFedra.

True-Grit's narrowband wireless data networking system typically works in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and only uses 5 Hz of bandwidth when transmitting. "We're not competing with cellular or Wi-Fi or any of that kind of stuff. It's a very slow native network," Redding said.

The True-Grit network as it is currently being marketed consists of stationary antennas with nearby processing systems; TeleMates, which are receiver/transmitter devices; a centralized datacenter; and Internet accessible operations. A company data sheet claims True-Grit's system can support up to 600,000 TeleMates.

The data sheet also notes that because True-Grit's antennas are receive-only, they do not create interference and can be placed on almost any structure, including cell phone towers.

Guebert said True-Grit's technology could be used for security applications, relaying signals from remote sites, warehouses, shipyards and the like. The technology also could be used for telemetry, transmitting small packets of data in any environment. Examples include meter-reading data or environmental data.

Guebert stressed that in these scenarios, users would need only connect to the True-Grit network and would not have to access cellular or mesh data networks.

True-Grit's backers are pushing a technology vision in which a network might be deployed in a market such as Washington, D.C. Using one antenna, one data center and 1 million TeleMates, the network could be used for metering, security, monitoring or other tasks. Some applications could be offered initially with others being tacked on later.

True-Grit's data sheet says that in metering alone, the system's largely incremental costs to cover Washington, D.C., would be about $2.50 to $6.00 per installation, or $2.5 million to $6 million for the complete network.

For more:
- see this this Infedra webpage

Read more about: True-Grit Wireless
back to top

By Mike Dano

Comment |

5. Cisco, TI recruit partners in IoT ecosystem

Two major wireless network vendors are researching ways to save wireless network operators money by reducing the amount of power they need to run their networks. In separate announcements, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) each announced new efforts geared toward saving energy--and therefore money--in wireless.

First up is Ericsson, the world's largest network equipment provider, which said it is testing two new features--Dynamic On/Off and Dual Connectivity--that are being considered for LTE Release 12. Ericsson said the functions are both geared toward lowering the power requirements of wireless network base stations.

Ericsson said Dynamic On/Off is a feature that mutes a base station when it is not transmitting data. "The benefit is two-fold: inter-cell interference reduction and the possibility for the base station to go in a lower power consumption state," Ericsson said. As for Dual Connectivity, Ericsson said the technology would allow a user to receive data from two base stations simultaneously rather than only from one. "In some cases, users will be able to download a file twice as fast as today due to the dual connectivity to the LTE network. Because users are served faster, base stations are more often inactive and thus can go more frequently in a lower power consumption state," the company said.

Ericsson said it is testing both features in collaboration with ComGreen, a joint academic and industry project partially funded by the German Ministry for Economy and Energy (BMWi).

As for Alcatel-Lucent, the company said its Bell Labs research division launched a website intended to highlight the current energy consumption of telecom networks. The company said the site, GWATT, was developed during the past year based on modeling and analysis done by "experts in Bell Labs Research and the Alcatel-Lucent CTO organization as well as forecasts from external consortia and public information."

Alcatel-Lucent said that, by using GWATT, it discovered that in 2013 telecommunications networks worldwide consumed around 69 Gigawatts of power, or what the company said is the equivalent of about 12 New York Cities. "Almost a third of that energy is consumed by the access network, the wireless and fixed onramps to the Internet that connects users to their content and applications. And that is just the picture in 2013," the company noted.

"We expect to include several new technologies and architectures currently being investigated by Bell Labs and the GreenTouch consortium," Alcatel-Lucent concluded.

For more:
- see this Ericsson release
- see this Alcatel-Lucent post

Read more about: Alcatel-Lucent
back to top

By Sue Marek

Comment |