www.voiceandip.co.uk

On the IridiaBlog in the main we like to talk about the VoIP and GSM industry in general but now and again we make a plug about our own business (something has to pay the bills !!!)

We have recently seen a demand from users who wish to purchase GSM and VoIP gateways online as they feel they have enough technical competence to implement them themselves with out the need for a reseller. So due to popular demand we have launched Voice and IP our on line store at www.voiceandip.co.uk

You are able to purchase our most popular gateways online and we will be adding more products over time. You will receive our usual high quality after sales service.  Pop over and have a look.

Carriers Split over Skype Capability of New Nokia Handset

It seems that Nokia have caused a storm with some carriers over their plans to integrate Skype in all its new N series handsets. Some carriers are concerned about potential lost revenue from cheap calls made through Skype, as well as Nokia’s perceived attempt to own the customer.
 
According to Mobile Today, an ‘operator source’ said it was another example of Nokia trying to build an ecosystem that’s all about Nokia and reducing the operator to a ‘dumb pipe’.
 
Nokia’s Skype plans have split the operators – T-Mobile and 3 support it, while O2 and Orange have vented their anger at the plans in high-level group discussions. They’re pretty against it, basically
 
So much so that O2 and Orange may both refuse to carry the N97, due for a June launch

We always like to see how the carriers opinions change as T-Mobile was rumoured in the past to have blocked VoIP traffic on their network.

More information on the story here

What is LTE ?

Next week sees the  GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona  and there will be a lot of discussion about LTE or Long Term Evolution and of course this week saw the 200th Birthday of Charles Darwin the man who first realised and discussed the concept of evolution.

So what is LTE ?

LTE or Long Term Evolution is the 4th generation (4G) mobile broadband standard and has been designed to be the successor to the current 2.5G and 3G technologies of GSM/UMTS. Currently it is in development and is considered to be the competitor to WiMAX.

Like WiMAX  this technology will provide broadband services wirelessly, but instead of transmitting signals via microwaves, LTE utilizes a radio platform. Users will need an LTE modem to access the network, which will be available in a number of formats such as USB, PCMCIA, or built in to a laptop, of course it will also provide Internet access on mobile phones and PDAs.

This super fast network, which is promising peak download rates of up 100Mbps, will provide an alternative to DSL, cable, satellite, and dial-up Internet, which will be a big boon to people living in areas that aren’t currently serviced by a high-speed network. It will also free people from the burden of having to find a WiFi hot spot when they are on the road – as long as you have an LTE modem, you can connect to the Internet anywhere in the service provider’s coverage area!

Key Points:

• Downlink peak data rates up to 100 Mbps
• Uplink peak data rates up to 50 Mbps
• Reduced latency to 10 msec round trip delay time between user equipment and base station

We are hearing more and more announcements about equipment availability for LTE so it seems that this technology will happen and carriers have a vested interest to deploy it to stave off new WiMAX networks that are under way.

Maybe they could have just called it 4G

GoodBye 2008 – Hello 2009

It is that time of year when we like to reflect on what has happened during the year and look forward to what will be in 2009. Here in the UK the ‘Credit Crunch’ has dominated the headlines and had an effect on business in all areas and for sure the effect will be felt in 2009 and passibly beyond.

Ignoring the Credit Crunch for now, then 2008 has seen VoIP widely adopted and accepted by businesses and we all need to try and continue this in 2009, where clear savings can be demonstrated then businesses will be looking for for such technology.

Early indications have shown that GSM gateways will be more readily adopted as for the vast majority of businesses really big savings on mobile costs can be demonstrated and remember to talk to us about our ranges from Topex and Teles.

Happy New Year to all our readers and here is to a successful 2009 despite it all

Femtocell Technology Stutters

We are still hearing a lot in the Press about Femtocells however it seems several of the large mobile operators are having second thoughts due to unresolved technical issues and unclear business cases.

The concerns were voiced at the recent Femtocell Europe 2008 conference when SFR said it had delayed selecting a Femtocell supplier because of the undefined industry standards, they said they do not now expect to deploy this technology until sometime next year at the earliest.

Vodafone Group owns 44 per cent of SFR and they participated in Vodafone’s group-level request for proposals for Femtocells last year, but it now said “we are assessing another technology in parallel,” said Thierry Berthouloux, network solutions director at SFR. “However, we have decided to extend that assessment period and have put this process on hold to give equipment suppliers time to consolidate roadmaps. There’s no point making a decision today.”

According to those close to the situation, the issue for the major operators in agreeing to a standard is the need for clarity on 3GPP status and the lack of resource being provided by the larger femtocell vendors to achieve this.
For more on this story:

See the full story here

Visit the 3GPP Homepage here

Has the UK got a New Mobile Operator ?

Our readers will know we always have an eye for something a little bit unusual or slightly off the wall as sometimes our industry can be a little bit predictable to say the least. Well during the last few days we have seen some press that there is a new mobile provider in the UK.

Normally an announcement like this is big news – it seems that UK01 has announced itself as the latest operator having been the winner of U.K. regulator Ofcom’s recent spectrum auction where it acquired frequencies in the 1800MHz band. However their licence is limited as only allows it to deploy a low power network with very limited coverage so users of the service will need to be very close to a base station to make a call.

In an attempt to get its service up and running quickly UK01 has signed a deal with WiFi hotspot operator Spectrum Interactive which will enable UK01′s GSM base stations to be installed in the latter’s phone kiosks. Normal dual mode GSM handsets will be able to access the UK01 network but users will have to manually select UK01.

This service reminds us of the good old Rabbit phone that was provided by Hutchison who later went on to become Orange but that service failed as it was an outgoing call only and the base stations were limited.

We hope they can find a niche in the market to exploit.

VoIP Destroying the Planet or Saving it ???

We always love the way a business can use a particular hot topic to help promote sales, and right now saving the planet is a real leading news item so a lot of companies have latched onto this to help promote sales.

The part we particularly like is the different angle companies are taking on this depending on their products – lets look at a few different examples on this.

Mitel are promoting their green credentials based on the fact that VoIP and Unified Comms means less travel and more home working and of course less travel is good for reduced carbon emmissions. Mitel states ‘Consider that a roundtrip from New York to Chicago produces 0.35 tons of carbon and flying the U.S. coast to coast accounts for one ton of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases per person. In this regard, teleworking helps spare the environment 3.6 tons of pollutants per teleworker per year.’

OnRelay states that the 25 million IP desktop handsets projected to be purchased in 2008 will consume 1.6 billion Watts of power. They say replacing the majority of those IP desk phones with mobile phones should result in a 74 percent savings in power costs. On Relay also state it is also important to note, that the business transition to mobile phones does not increase the total amount of energy used by mobile phones, because most business people already carry at least one mobile device. Indeed, OnRelay MBX’s ability to separate personal and business in the same mobile device can serve to reduce the number of mobiles carried and charged.

Finally we have Citel who manufacture a legacy desk phone to IP PBX gateway and they say this is a more eco-friendly solution than ripping out old handsets and cabling to install new Cat 5 and more expensive IP phones.

For us here at Iridiacom anything that reduces emissions and waste has got to be a good thing but we leave it for you to decide who is making the best arguements.

SIP is SIP ???

We have been working with the SIP protocol for a few years now and we are big fans of it and how it has moved the VoIP industry forward together as one without the need for larger manufacturers or developers using their size to ‘force’ standards forward.

So what do we mean when we say SIP is SIP, well the point we are making is how SIP devices, servers, end points etc work together – many people in the industry assume if you buy device x then it will work with server y or provider z, well this is not the story in the majority of cases.

When we connect two SIP devices together in most cases they will work and you can make or receive a call but the problems arrive in the details and the services you need, items such as Caller ID, message lamps, call transfer, busy lamp field can often cause problems and in most cases take a long time to slve usually required one of the developers to make a small change or update.

So the moral of our story is that you should always test a device before saying it will be compatible and once you have some devices working together then stick to them.

FMC is dead long live….???

We are starting to see reports now that Fixed Mobile Convergence is dead and the new King in town is Mobile Unified Communications (MUC ???)

So what does that mean ? – there has been a lot written about FMC and what it can or cannot do, essentially FMC brings the mobile user into the business enterprise by offering single-number access, dual mode phone (GSM/WiFi), VoIP calls on WiFi within the enterprise to reduce the cost of calls. We can compare this with UC that relies on Femtocell technology that extends the reach of the mobile cellular network within the home by using a special mini base station plugged into a home broadband connection, this has the advantage that a regular GSM handset is used.

It will be interesting to see which flavour emerges as the strongest – many FMC applications and handsets are starting to be implemented but we see this is heavily driven by businesses in the enterprise sector on the other side of the coin the Femtocell technology is now being trialled heavily and we see this being driven more by the cellular providers as a method to protect future revenues.

iPhone goes open

We see Apple have announced that they are now supporting third party applications for the iPhone including WiFi based VoIP. As mentioned in a previous blog Truphone have already released a demonstration model late last year, they have confirmed their interest here and indicated they would be developing a fully fledged application.

Not only have Apple opened the iPhone up to external developers but they have also announced a $100 million developer fund from its VC partners called KPCB’s iFund™. There is now an SDK available for developers that allows applications to be tested on a regular iMAC before they are used on the iPhone. You can see it here

We are looking forward to see what external developers produce espescially in the VoIP area and many observers are waiting to see what happens with Skype and what applications they will surely produce.