21. July 2010 by admin.

Is this video a true representation of bandwidth (speed) over 4G that end users will get? Or like the current “stuff” where that bandwidth / speed capability will be “shared” with all other users on a particular tower?

Here goes…

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

Posted in Cellular Voice and Internet | No Comments »

21. July 2010 by admin.

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/optus-successfully-trials-lte-mobile-technology-with-nokia-sie

Sydney, Australia – July 15, 2010

Optus successfully trials LTE mobile technology with Nokia Siemens Networks in metropolitan Sydney

Optus and Nokia Siemens Networks announced today the successful demonstration of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology operating on 2100 MHz spectrum. During extensive field testing, using pre-commercial LTE USB dongles over 10 MHz of spectrum, the technology achieved peak download speeds of over 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 20 Mbps.

The LTE trials, conducted in metropolitan Sydney as part of the first phase of LTE testing on the Optus mobile network, yielded results showcasing significantly reduced network latency, improved connectivity and enhanced mobile streaming capabilities when compared to 3G. Lab tests reached speeds of up to 73Mbps over 10 MHz of spectrum.

(more at the link above…)

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

Posted in Cellular Voice and Internet | No Comments »

21. July 2010 by admin.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66J2ZT20100720

By Tarmo Virki, European technology correspondent

HELSINKI | Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:35pm EDT

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has won an eight-year contract worth more than $7 billion in the United States, a deal analysts said could be the largest order ever placed in the mobile telecoms gear industry.

Under the agreement, NSN will build and operate a high-speed wireless network for Harbinger Capital Partners’ new LightSquared venture.

The deal, which is still subject to final approval from both boards, comes a day after NSN said it would buy Motorola’s telecom network equipment business for $1.2 billion.

Analysts said the deal and the planned Motorola unit acquisition would boost NSN in the North American market where so far it has struggled. NSN generated just 6 percent of its revenue in the last quarter from the region.

“In the U.S., big operators have so far been skeptical to outsource their business. The deal is a great reference when this starts to change,” said Hannu Rauhala, an analyst with Pohjola in Helsinki.

Susan Spradley, the head of NSN’s North American business, said outsourcing would likely become more popular in the U.S.

“Will this be an ongoing trend? I think to a degree it is,” Spradley said.

Sprint Nextel Corp signed a $5 billion outsourcing deal with NSN’s bigger rival Ericsson last year.

Spradley declined to give the names of the companies who had made it to the shortlist but said they included all the top vendors.

“This was a very hard-fought-for business,” she said.

Nokia Siemens plans to use its remote network operations center in India extensively to manage the new network.

NEW FAST NETWORK

LightSquared, a newcomer to the U.S. wireless market, plans to build an open wireless broadband network using Long Term Evolution (LTE), a fourth-generation technology that transmits data at a faster rate than has been done previously and at a lower cost.

The new nationwide LTE network will consist of some 40,000 cellular base stations and cover 92 percent of the U.S. population by 2015.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T and MetroPCS have also unveiled plans to launch LTE networks in the United States.

LightSquared said its network build-out is expected to create more than 100,000 direct and indirect private sector jobs over the next five years.

The venture named former Orange executive Sanjiv Ahuja as its chairman and chief executive, and said it planned to raise up to $1.75 billion in debt and equity.

Harbinger and its affiliates have invested $2.9 billion in the venture.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said it in a statement it welcomed the formation of LightSquared and its investment plans.

WATERSHED DEAL?

“It has the potential to be a watershed moment in the U.S. wireless industry,” said Dan Hays, a partner at management consulting firm PRTM.

Hays said LightSquared was looking for mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) partners in wireless carriers, which could include Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile USA, Leap Wireless and U.S. Cellular.

Well-known brands like Wal-Mart and Best Buy could also show interest, Hays said.

MVNOs are carriers that do not own infrastructure but rent airtime from other network owners.

Lightsquared will become a direct rival of Clearwire, which is owned by Sprint Nextel and cable companies.

Clearwire has a similar strategy of renting space on its network to partners who use it to directly market wireless services to consumers and is in the process of building a network to cover markets with 120 million people by the end of the year.

“We expect this announcement to be perceived as negative for Clearwire in particular and wireless providers in general as there is investor desire for fewer, not more, players in the space,” Wells Fargo Securities analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote in a note to clients.

“We would note, however, that Harbinger is starting from nothing and it will take a long time before it had a presence in the market,” she added.

NSN — whose key rivals in the United States are Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent — is a 50-50 venture of Nokia and Siemens.

(Additional reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore and Sinead Carew in New York; editing by Karen Foster and Vinu Pilakkott)

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

Posted in Cellular Voice and Internet | No Comments »

21. July 2010 by admin.

http://www.cable360.net/ct/news/thewire/Nokia-Siemens-Backs-New-U-S-Wholesale-LTE-Network-with-$7-Billion_42337.html

Today marks the launch of LightSquared, a new nationwide 4G-LTE wireless broadband network integrated with satellite coverage. As a U.S. wholesale-only, integrated wireless broadband and satellite network, LightSquared will provide wireless broadband capacity to a diverse group of customers, including retailers; wireline and wireless communication service providers; cable operators; device manufacturers; Web players; and content providers.

The LightSquared network will allow these partners to offer satellite-only, terrestrial-only, or integrated satellite-terrestrial services to their end users. This wholesale-only business model ensures LightSquared has no conflict of interest with its customers. LightSquared seeks to transform the wireless broadband industry to one that fosters innovation, creativity, and freedom of choice via the first truly open and net neutral wireless network.

(and another clip of this …)

The nitty gritty details

Harbinger is taking advantage of a ruling made in 2003 by the Federal Communications Commission that allows satellite firms to also offer terrestrial wireless services as long as they provided dual-mode devices and the terrestrial aspect of the network is “ancillary.” Seeing the demand for wireless Internet rising, satellite companies and their private equity backers flocked to the space, banking on the fact that the satellite companies owned a chunk of the airwaves that are so essential for providing mobile broadband service.

However, mobile broadband via satellite is a slow, clunky affair that requires large, temperamental devices and delivers speeds of less than 1 Mbps down. Broad adoption, which is what LightSquared will need, requires terrestrial networks to deliver faster service and modern devices on that network that appeal to consumers. Boulben notes that LightSquared will be able to offer partners three options for coverage: satellite-only, terrestrial-only or a combination of the two.

All told, LightSquared has access to 59 MHz of spectrum through its own holdings, a lease agreement with Inmarsat and some other purchases. But only 13 MHz of the 59 MHz of that spectrum will be available for terrestrial-only services. That’s not a large amount for what will likely be the most popular type of service that LightSquared’s reseller partners will want. Boulben says the company plans to deploy its spectrum for LTE in 5×5 MHz chunks (with 5 MHz allocated to the downlink and 5 to the uplink). The breakdown for the spectrum holdings are 46MHz in the so-called L band at 1.6 Ghz, 8 MHz at 1.4 GHz band and 5 MHz at the 1.6 GHz block that’s not in the L-band. Those last two are where the terrestrial-only networks could be deployed.

The issue with the combined network boils down to the device and network speeds. Having a dual-mode device has historically meant big compromises on style and battery life. Plus, satellites can’t offer fast speeds like the LTE network could. Beurbon said that new chips inside devices, to be detailed later this year, make the combined satellite and terrestrial devices less clunky. He also says that a new, larger satellite SkyTerra is launching will help reduce the need for big antennas and battery-draining radios inside handsets or broadband dongles.

(More at the link above)

Alan Spicer Comments:

I’m not sure what this means … it doesn’t mention AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, or anybody like that. So what this could mean to *real* people on the ground (or on marine vessels) is still a question mark (?).

LTE is,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution,

for those that didn’t know. Reportedly both Verizon and AT&T will migrate into LTE in the coming years. So will AT&T and Verizon buy into this wholesale LTE network in order to kick off their LTE initiatives?

Sprint is already doing WiMax and I believe that is their 4G initiative. Sprint and Verizon (aside from Sprints WiMax) are CDMA cellular networks on the telephone and 3G side.

So anyway, I thought this was interesting…

An additional note, http://gigaom.com/2010/07/20/nokia-siemens-networks-wins-7b-contract-to-build-harbingers-lte-network/, this thing is not built yet … and could be 5 (to 8?) years in building.

* Isn’t harbinger a word?

har·bin·ger   /ˈhɑrbɪndʒər/  Show Spelled[hahr-bin-jer]  Show IPA
–noun
1. a person who goes ahead and makes known the approach of another; herald.
2. anything that foreshadows a future event; omen; sign: Frost is a harbinger of winter.
3. a person sent in advance of troops, a royal train, etc., to provide or secure lodgings and other accommodations.
–verb (used with object)
4. to act as harbinger to; herald the coming of.

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

Posted in Cellular Voice and Internet | No Comments »

21. July 2010 by admin.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/201421/apples_iphone_4_antennagate_gambit_pays_off.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl 

Alan Spicer Commented:

 Look on the bright side … at least they won’t be hacked (as much as Windows) and subjected to viruses and malware. Because already supposedly they were too low in Market Share to be worth messing with. Now they are even lower in market share?

This does wake up the masses, to something I think they have been a bit clueless about… The fact that an iPhone or any other cell phone is a Two Way Radio. It’s time for everybody to get their Ham Radio license and learn how to operate radio equipment. You get to be a bit more intimate with your personal wireless device. Learn where its antennas are at. And learn how to hold and orient the thing for a better signal.

It’s probably also highlighting other things. Like lousy cellular coverage in some areas. I used to be on a 2nd Floor in a City just west of here … I knew where all of the towers were and several of them were very close. Now I’ve moved and I’m in a 1 story structure. I also have a good idea of where the cell towers are … and they are quite a bit farther away. And I’ve been getting dropped calls and low signal bars indoors anyway because of it. I guess I could either throw away my Motorola 3G Razor phone … orrrrrr I could try to orient it it some to try and get better signal.

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

Posted in Main | No Comments »

18. July 2010 by admin.

Earlier I blogged on here about the Emergency Radio Operations Demonstration and Contesting in the C3i AC4XQ Amateur Radio Field Day 2010. I just received more pictures that others had taken, including …

Alan Spicer - KA4UDX and Greg - K4YAN in Amateur Radio Field Day 2010

More pictures of the AC4XQ 2010 Amateur Radio Field Day are here:

http://www.marinetelecom.net/AC4XQFieldDay2

http://www.marinetelecom.net/AC4XQFieldDay3

and the original:

http://www.marinetelecom.net/AC4XQFieldDay2010AmateurRadioHamRadio

—

73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

———————-

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

Posted in Main | No Comments »

16. July 2010 by admin.

I posted this also as a comment on:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/201095/rip_apple.html

Alan’s Note: You need to read the article, and other reader comments below it, to understand the context of my comments … so without further ado - rolling my comments now:

The Pirates of Silicon Valley, the movie. MS stole Dos from IBM, Both Apple and MS stole the GUI from Xerox Parc. And I’m glad I didn’t have to look up the other things. Marketing! That’s all that has to work. That an getting lucky almost every time in the timeline of things. Sony had Walkman, I’m sure that MP3’s would have come out on another device eventually even if not the iPod. Money helps push things out as well. And as long as you pick the right things in the timeline … you keep making the money.

I don’t think this iPhone problem is going to kill Apple. Any more than Window Me or such a thing killed Microsoft. Might have put a bit of fly in the ointment… but definately not dead yet. Interestingly MacOS is now based on Unix … I didn’t say they didn’t program quite a bit in software on top of that. But I thought that was a good thing. Also the Mac computers are Intel … which is fueling a debate (and lawsuits and trying to kill companies) over companies making Mac Clones. Apple seems to nurture a Hardware Company thing and thus just can’t let it go that other could now build a Mac Clone that can boot the OS. I’m not a super duper GUI fan … I prefer quite often to get down in the core of things. But you have to have a GUI to run the pretty things. The same goes for phones, I personally don’t care to have my phone be an Operating System - especially one where a company controls what applications that I can run. But things are getting smaller and more “touchy” (no pun intended) and there’s nothing wrong with that. I might get a touchy phone or touch with only WiFi myself one day soon.

It’s all good. Let’s just let them solve their hardware, algorithm, and customer support problems and get on with life. It does make good Trash TV to trash Apple, and I’ve been tempted by the Devil myself because I’m a blogger as well. But I think there’s still some good to those old Pirates at Apple. It’s the American way. We rob from the rich so we can get rich and then rob the masses to stay rich. Something like that.

(Not that I ROB people or anything, … those final comments were meant to describe the Free Enterprise System in this country and how a lot of things got done in the past, and still get done today, by American Enterpreneurs and Companies.)

—
Alan Spicer
http://blog.marinetelecom.net

Posted in Main | No Comments »

14. July 2010 by admin.

Matej, in Maritime on LinkedIn, recommends…

 http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=150395062&gid=119261&type=member&item=24616346&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emaritime-connector%2Ecom%2FNewsDetails%2F8832%2Flang%2FEnglish%2FObama-Issues-New-Offshore-Drilling-Moratorium%2Ewshtml&urlhash=43Xd&goback=%2Egde_119261_member_24616346

Frustrated twice by the federal courts—which had overturned his original temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling—President Obama Monday evening decided to do what most of us have probably wanted to do when denied by someone in a position of authority: he went ahead anyway. (Sometimes it’s good to be President.) Interior Secretary Ken Salazar directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM)—the government agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS)—to issue new suspensions of deepwater drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, while investigators continue to look at the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

(By the way, I like MMS’s new name—apparently the White House decided that the quickest and cheapest way to add regulation and enforcement to offshore drilling, which had surely been lacking, was just to put it directly in the name.)

(more at the link)

—

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://blog.marinetelecom.net - http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

Posted in Main | No Comments »

10. July 2010 by admin.

Superyacht Owners & Professionals

I run a business, Castle Shipboard Security Program, which provides advanced training in shipboard security and vessel defense. The yacht charter industry is one of our primary client categories. We are member of the US Superyacht Association in Fort Lauderdale. We’d like to be included in your listing. 001-954-529-6124, info@castleshipboardsecurityprogram.com.

Capt. Jeff Kuhlman

—

—
Alan Spicer

DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
Computer Services, Wired/Wireless Networking,
Cell/Sat/Landline Communications, General Consulting…
Marine, Business, Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)

* Cost Savings and Integration of Multiple Internet Technologies
on board Sail and Motor Yachts * Documentation, Operating
Instructions, and Support after the Sale *

* http://www.marinetelecom.net/
* http://www.internetforyachts.net/
* http://www.wifiyacht.net/
* 954-683-3426

Mobile Internet! Step up to the HSPA 3G Fast Internet!

Ericsson W35 released in the USA. This you’ve gotta SEE!!
Better looking presentation than W25 (you might not want to
hide this one in the Doghouse!) + High Speed Upload which
the W25 did not have.
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35/

Livewire: Access Controller (Service Selector):
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Livewire_Service_Selector/

Posted in Main | No Comments »

8. July 2010 by admin.

We flew our American Flag First… 

There was a funny movie made some years back … Saturday the 14th. It was a pun on the Friday the 13th movies. Well we didn’t make any pun, but One Week before the 4th of July, we put up the Stars and Stripes (American Flag) on the top of a portable trailered antenna tower … along with home made antennas and some commercial directional antennas. Our antennas didn’t have rotators … our antenna rotation was done by us by guide ropes. When we wanted to change beam antenna headings we untied the rope and pulled the antenna around to point it in the desired direction.

We had our barbeque … the only fireworks were the radio waves leaving multiple antennas … making contacts with US and Foreign Stations. All to demonstrate that a small privately funded effort (volunteers brought their own radios and antennas, volunteers brought generators, volunteers brough tents, etc. … etc. …) could assemble in a minimum amount of time Emergency Communications Facilities (in a FIELD! in a PARK!) capable of not only local communications but of country-wide and world-wide communications.

* I blogged about this earlier:

http://blog.marinetelecom.net/2010/06/29/ts-480sat-and-a-rag-tag-band-of-ham-brothers-kicked-butt-in-the-2010-field-day/

And I put all of my personal photographs here:

http://www.marinetelecom.net/AC4XQFieldDay2010AmateurRadioHamRadio

* Some of the club members … some of the participants … haven’t seen these pictures yet. Some of my visitors on here may have not seen them yet either. Make sure you go have a look!!!!

* So what! some persons may say. With cellular and all that we have today - who cares? Well I have been through several hurricanes here in South Florida in the past few years. You know you lose commercial power. As time goes on with power loss to the area, the landline telephone system loses “talk battery” so the telephones go dead. Later on cell towers lose power and cellular telephone service goes dead. You could have a battery powered television (if you have a newer digital one with ATSC instead of NTSC) but you cannot talk TO anyone on a portable television. Well we have the capability of providing communications locally, nationally, and worldwide - using amateur radio - despite those traditional services being DOWN. Counties around the US have realized this and have written Amateur Radio Emergency Communications into their Disaster Plans and many have even set aside Emergency Operations Center facilities accommodating Amateur Radio equipment. It’s one of the Good - Public Service sides of Amateur Radio. Amateur Radio is also a lot of fun … and very educational. I think that if an area were to come under such emergency conditions it would definately be good to have persons around that are Amateur Radio Operators that understand how radio communications work … and how to deploy it in an Emergency.

In some of the pictures you will see wires strung from the tower structure … with what looks like a soda can in the middle. That’s a balun … and is the transformer to match the antenna to the transmission line, or coaxial cable. Simple wire antennas, called dipoles, are very basic antennas … in fact most other antennas are based upon them, or at least they are compared to them. Simple wire antennas can be strung up very quickly - but yet provide very efficient signal radiation for communications purposes. In an emergency it might be all that you have. One can be made from simple electrical wire that might have on hand. If you had to make one … all you need is to know the formulas for how long to cut the wire. This is one of the things that you learn in Amateur Radio. One of many things.

—

73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

Posted in Main | No Comments »