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Optus Up 4G Ante V Telstra

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Look out Telstra: Optus to have the biggest 4G network after Vividwireless Group acquisition.


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Optus has completed its acquisition of Vividwireless from the Seven Group, giving it access to spectrum previously held by the communications company.

The telco also announced to invest in two major 4G LTE-TDD testing facilities in St Marys in Western Sydney and at Macquarie Park In preparation for a “major national LTE-TDD network rollout in 2013.”

 This will give it the “the highest capacity 4G network in Australia,” the telco says, outrunning rival Telstra.

Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex (LTE-TDD) is an advanced version of TD-LTE technology as used by NBN wireless services, and is already used by 4G operators in China.

Telstra, who beat Optus to the post last year to launch the first 4G LTE network in Oz, already has 100,000 customers on its ultra fast mobile broadband service.

Optus claims its 4G LTE service is “significantly faster than existing 4G networks.”

Telstra’s typical download speeds are 2Mbps – 40Mbps, uploads of 1Mbps – 10Mbps, while Optus reckons its 4G network has typical download speeds from 25Mbps to 87Mbps.

Optus has now gained access to up to 98MHz of spectrum in the 2.3GHz band across key population areas, after receiving ACCC and FIRB approval for the Vividwireless acquisition and was advised by ACMA of its willingness to reissue key spectrum licences, previously held by that company.

Optus released first 4G service to NSW areas of and the Hunter region in April and will now expand the service to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth by middle of the year, it confirmed. Telstra has already rolled out its 4G network to all capital cities and many regional areas.

“The successful completion of the Vividwireless deal reinforces our commitment to being a leader in 4G and in providing Australians with a range of high speed mobile services,” Kevin Russell, CEO, Optus Consumer.

The Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, welcomed today’s 4G investment by Optus and even managed to get a plug for the NBN, saying:

 

“The Optus announcement complements the Gillard Government’s investment in the National Broadband Network.

“Mobile operators know that high-speed fixed-line broadband infrastructure is critical to meeting future demand for wireless data.

“Smartphones, tablets and other portable devices are an important part of how Australians get online and involve themselves in the digital economy.”

High speed mobile broadband on 4G is set to explode in Oz with 7 million devices in use by 2016, local analysts Telsyte predict.

Galaxys Invade: 1 in 3 Phones Are Samsungs

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It’s a two horse race, but is one falling behind?
Samsung was the star performer in the mobile race in 2013, fuelled by “robust” demand for Galaxys, as analysts warn rival iPhone may have peaked.

Samsung mobile ascention continues in 2013, accounting for one in three mobiles shipped, according to analysts Strategy Analytics, as Galaxy S 3, Mini and now S4 (on sale here since last week) continue to grow in popularity.

Around 50% of all phones shipped were smartphones as demand for “dumb” or basic phones dipped.

Mobile phone shipments fell 1 per cent to 373 million in Q1 2013, blamed on macroeconomic challenges in Asia, Europe and North America, and slowing demand for 2G feature phones.

Samsung shipped a record high of 106.6 million mobiles – up 4%- compared to same time 2012, while Apple grew just 0.7 percent shipping 37.4 m iPhones in Q1 2013, notes Woody Oh, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

But Apple iPhone is “approaching a peak”, warned Oh, adding the once darling of the smartphone industry will “need to launch new models, or partner with additional major carriers like China Mobile, if it wants to expand significantly” beyond its current 10 per cent share.   

Former No. 1 phone maker Nokia also suffered last quarter, shipments fell a massive 25 percent to 61.9 million, blamed on weak demand for Nokia’s once-loved dumb phones and Symbian smartphones. 

Read: Samsung Galaxy Pushes Profit 42%

However, Windows 8 may save the day for the Fins “if it can expand aggressively its fast-growing Lumia [Windows 8 phones] and Asha ranges this year, there is still potential for Nokia’s position to stabilize or recover,” says Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics.

And although the smartphone industry still a two horse race, there are some rivals coming up the far side.

LG held fourth position with 4 percent share of the global mobile phone market but is now pushing its smartphone credentials via its Optimus range, helped by “above-average” growth with 18 percent last quarter.

Chinese giant ZTE delivered 4 percent share of the global mobile phone market but is experiencing heightened competition in core markets like China and Western Europe from rivals such as Coolpad and Samsung.

Analysts IDC figures were more subdued than Strategy’s – and said Samsung shipped 70m smartphones in Q1, and grew a whoppng 60% compared to same time 2012.

It also ranks LG, and chinese makers Huawei and ZTE in the top 5 smartphone makers. Disappointingly for HTC who sells Android OS phones, were nowhere to be seen in the top 5 ranking.

LG and Huawei in particular enjoyed massive growth this year – up 110% and 94% respectively, according to IDC.

IDC says vendors shipped 216.2 million smartphones in 1Q13

What’s ‘The Future of Computing’?

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It’ll be all about storage and power usage, says HP Labs CTOMartin Fink, CTO and Director HP Labs, has laid out the future of computing. 

Speaking at the NTh Symposium in California last week, HP Labs CTO predicts data and power usage will be the big issues of the future in IT,  according to US reports. 
Computers have not changed much since the 1950’s, the only difference is everything is now virtualised, he says. 
But new technologies in storage, power consumption are about to change computer architecture as we know it.  
HP Project Moonshot

“So for 60-plus years, we have been doing computing the very same way. We have the CPU. It does the basic math. We have some main memory. And we have some sort of IO, which is typically storage, and eventually became a lot of networking. 

“And when we virtualize it, we’ve basically recreated the exact same thing in virtual form.”
HP Labs is the PC giant’s innovation hub, which anticipates future IT trends. Seeing as HP missed the mobile revolution, it has now gone hard into R&D and enterprise solutions. This is set to be driven further by CEO Meg Whitman. 
With the onslaught of ‘big data’ at enterprise level, its not even about petabyes anymore, Fink says his team started thinking “thinking at the exabyte range” when trying to solve future data needs. (An EB is equivalent to 1 billion gigabytes0.
He also predicted power usage by IT, computers will be a major issue of the future, with cloud data expanding possibilities. 
“If we actually took the cloud and called it a country, on a power consumption basis, the cloud would be the fifth-largest country in the world. … And, we are barely scratching the surface of the amount of data that’s going to come at us.”
Fink also referred to technologies including HP’s Project Moonshot server which runs off mobile technology, saving rakes of power. The Hp.com website is now powered on the equivalent power of 12 60-watt bulbs, he said. 
Fink also branded copper cables as ‘energy-sucking devil’ and reckon “we will use 16,000 times less energy per bit to process [data] by moving from pure copper-based systems to photonics-enabled systems.”  
IT energy consumption is an issue we need to look “holistically” he warns, and avoid placing blame on someone else. 
“Why don’t we start thinking about the problem in terms of how we stop using energy in the first place.” 
HP Labs CTO also spoke of how the industry is breaking away from conventional memory solutions, to new technologies such as PCRAM and memristor, as a replacement for Flash, SSD, DRAM and SRAM. 
 

Development of memristor is currently under development by teams including Hewlett-Packard, SK Hynix and HRL Laboratories.

In October 2011, HP Labs announced the commercial availability of memristor technology within 18 months, but remains to be seen. 
“The power requirement for memristor is almost nothing, yet it will scale to a couple petabytes of capacity in a few years,” he said. 
“We can achieve levels of scale that are much more significant than we can reach with flash or DRAM.”

Score! Sydney’s ANZ To Get Wi-Fi

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‘An interactive playgound’: Sydney’s Olympic Park ANZ stadium to get Wi-Fi

Telstra will supply the 83,500 seater ANZ stadium with in-stadium high-density Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) coverage for the next five years, it was announced today.

Telstra will use the Cisco Connected Stadium WiFi solution, deployed in sports venues around the world.

Purposely built for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, ANZ Stadium is the only venue in the world designed to host five professional sports – rugby league, rugby union, Aussie rules, football and cricket.

Sports spectators can make greater use of mobile technology, tweet, view replays and statistics, order food and beverages from their seats, and will ultimately watch IPTV and other online content at games.

The new network will also simplify ticketing, helping fans find the quickest way to their seats.

“The first stage of the rollout will connect sponsor content to WiFi devices throughout the stadium, allowing information, announcements and video content to be displayed to fans,” says Daryl Kerry, Managing Director of ANZ Stadium

Telstra is currently looking to rev up its digital media business, as traditional revenues from phones disappear.

“This technology will further enhance ANZ Stadium’s reputation as one of the world’s greatest sports and entertainment venues,” says Kathy-Anne McManus, Telstra Enterprise & Government.

“We’re proud to be introducing technology that will improve the customer experience when visiting ANZ Stadium, and ultimately allow fans to engage with IPTV and other online content.”

The ANZ Stadium WiFi network will be rolled out in the coming months, and available to the public from the start of the 2014 NRL season.