TELECOMS NEWS

Archive for the ‘Telecoms News’ Category

Many Taxi companies and businesses that need customers to contact them from public locations such as retaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, railway stations, bus stations, airports, hospitals and hotels are taking advantage of GSM technology in the form of the GSM Taxi Phone.

This type of Taxi Phone uses a standard mobile phone SIM card to provide an easy way for customers to contact the taxi company and make a booking request.  Many GSM Desk Phone manufacturers have adapted their standard office GSM Desk Phones and made them wall mountable and included features like Hot Dial (a revised version of baby call) so that the user simply has to lift the handset and the taxi phone automatically dials the required number.  These developments, together with the low cost of these Taxi Phones (approx £60.00) and the low cost of GSM mobile phone SIM cards make this an ideal solution to replace expensive landline taxi phone solutions.

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What has Digital TV got to do with 4G Mobile?

Well, it is in fact very closely linked and it’s critical that the Digital TV Switchover we are all hearing so much about these last years goes ahead completely in 2012. The Government and broadcasters have been working hard for the last 10 years on making sure we are all moved off the old analogue delivery method and onto Digital. Most people have a DigiBox or it built into our TV sets and the final furlong is in sight now.

But have you asked why? Sure, it seems obvious that the signal quality will be better with HD channels being broadcast and new transmission techniques and more channels on Freeview but there is much more to it than that.

The radio waves in the UK are very busy and have been for some time. We all watch TV, listen to the radio, use our Mobiles and use a host of other wireless devices from WiFi to remote keys for cars and doors. All of this needs to operate within a known frequency band whether it is a licensed or unlicensed frequency band. Be very afraid if you start to interfere with some other electrical function or critical service – you may have the RA (Radio Agency) to deal with! To do a serious explanation of UK frequency spectrum would take a PhD thesis but the critical factor in all of this movement from Analogue TV to Digital TV is to free up the airwaves to launch 4Generation Mobile Broadband services.

It now transpires that this will not be all smooth running and that there will be some interference at the cross over points in the frequencies, particularly around 800MHz. Practically this is going to mean that whoever wins the licenses to operate 4G services is going to have to find some solution to delivering the broadcast services free from interference. This might involve using filters; it might involve paying for a satellite or cable service to those homes affected.

But why would you do that when you are building a super fast mobile network capable of delivering rich media content particularly video? Surely the technology will allow for a facility to deliver to individual homes; after all it is designed to run up to 1GBit/s to a static location. What remains to be seen is will it be economical to do so if a large number of homes have to be guaranteed a broadcast service above and beyond the other mobile connections that will be demanding rich media services.

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From then to now?

Many many years ago when the yuppie hoard roamed the western world there came a really useful form of communications in the form of a portable phone. Portable was the description but it was more akin to ‘luggable’ and came in the form of a small suitcase or brief case connected to a car battery or similar. At the time they were the rich business man’s toy and remained so for some time with the key advantage being that you could tell your wife that you were on the way home and to put the dinner on! How things have changed over the last 25 years!

Analogue technology was very quickly replaced by Digital at the beginning of the 90’s and GSM was born. This was a natural evolution from a specification that was developed in the Nordic countries called NMT (Nordic Mobile Telecommunications). It was such a good fit that it became the major template for the new standard although the operating frequencies necessarily had to change. Operating frequencies and their availability remains a major theme of all development discussion in this space to this day and is likely to always remain so. Incidentally, this left two major telecoms vendors in a remarkably good position to supply the world with mobile terminals and Nokia and Ericsson started to clean up with one company becoming almost preeminent for the whole of the 90’s and even into the 00’s. But, as Nokia now know, nothing can ever be taken for granted.

What grew up behind this development was a battle between Europe /Asia and the USA and Japan. The major market developed in Europe and Asia and the USA lagged behind. Japan managed to maintain a considerable growth and innovation with their standards approach but it had little to do with the rest of the world and just made it a difficult market to enter for western suppliers. This is a whole historical piece on its own but is really just an interesting subject conversation and considered opinions as to how this period became so complicated.

Things are much clearer now however, or are they? Now we are heading through the 3G period, with 2G almost forgotten, (although used by us all on a daily basis) and with many improvements being layered on top of the old standard. Now we see HSPA in its two main varieties HSDPA and HSUPA, the D and the U in both cases standing for Download and Upload. These services provide High Speed access to mobile at and around fixed broadband speeds where network is available.

We are now moving slowly towards 4G and LTE services and these are expected in the UK in 2013 if all goes to plan. Briefly, LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and is a subset of the overall 4G standard. As usual, there are standards, and there are standards; which leaves some confusion. The major hardware vendors are all rushing to get their interpretation of the ‘standard’ out there and working to prove a point and accelerate growth. Certain parts of Scandinavia, USA and Arabia are already starting to offer trial services although the terminals are not in the mass market yet.  The consideration of these standards and services requires considerable explanation but for now, let’s have a look at the quantum jump in speeds we can expect in the future if all works out perfectly – which it won’t!

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A new GSM Doorbell will call your mobile phone when the visitor presses the doorbell. The GSM Doorbell will also establish a video call so you can see who is calling.

The GSM Doorbell is just like a door phone but enables you to answer callers to your door from the convenience of your mobile phone or smart phone.

The GSM Doorbell uses a SIM card to provide low cost GSM connectivity and convenience for this low cost GSM doorphone solution.

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The Option iCON 711 is the latest 4G Modem available in the UK.  The iCON711 is a HSPA+ Modem which means that it can work with the HSPA+ Networks in the UK to provide download speeds up to 21Mbps.

This 21Mbps Modem simply connects into the USB port of your Laptop or PC and provides high speed mobile broadband connectivity.  We tested the iCON711 4G Modem with the three network and got 11Mbps download speed which we were very impressed with.

You can also plug the iCON711 into a suitable 4G Router or Travel Router that has a USB slout for the connection of a 3G or 4G USB Modem to enable your HSPA+ Mobile Broadband Connection to be shared between multiple wired or wireless users.  By using the iCON711 4G Modem with a 4G router you can create a wireless hotspot and enjoy the benefits of 4G mobile broadband.

The iCON 711 USB 4G Modem also features a TS9 Antenna Connector which converts the TS9 connection to an SMA Antenna connection so you can connect a 4G Antenna to boost your 4G signal reception.

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The LM Technologies LM021 3.8G HSPA+ USB modem is an unlocked 3G modem with a CRC9 Port providing worldwide roaming and connectivity, so there are no contract ties to worry about – you can use any sim card from any of the operators worldwide and switch between them.

The modem has an external antenna port. This enables the modem to connect to our 3 dBi external antenna (LM256). With this antenna attached, there is up to a 25% signal boost – meaning that the LM003 will stay connected in more remote or built up locations for longer.
Setup is easy as the software is installed directly from flash memory on the modem itself – no CD-Rom required. Offering a 21.6Mbps download rate and up to 5.6Mbps upload rate anywhere in the world via your 3G SIM Card.

A micro-SD slot on the LM021 4G modem now accepts a memory card for up to 16 GB (Gigabytes) of memory. A simple slide-in of a micro-SD memory card allows the modem to double as a flash drive to maximize the flexibility of available USB ports.

LM021 Features

• Unlocked High Speed Mobile Broadband Modem
• CRC9 port for external antenna usage – upto 25% signal boost with the LM256
• Quad-Band Class 12 GSM / GPRS / EDGE Wireless Mobile Broadband Modem
• High Speed Download – up to 21.6 Mbps and High Speed Upload up to 5.76 Mbps
• Supports – GSM bands 850Mhz / 900Mhz / 1800Mhz / 1900MHz
• Supports – HSUPA UMTS bands 2100MHz   - 3GPP TS 27.005 / 3GPP TS 27.007 supported
• Full USB v2.0 compatible device
• Micro SD Card Slot (16 GB max)
• Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS 10.4.9 -10.6

The LM Technologies LM021 4G Modemis a great value mobile broadband USB Modem from a reliable and trusted brand.  The LM021 4G Modem will be shipped with LM Technologies new Connection Manager Software. One of the features on the CM will be that the 4G dongle will turn the Laptop or PC into a Hotspot which will allow 5 other devices to share the internet from one dongle and one data SIM.

The LM021 is due for launch in the UK in April 2012.

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The eagerly awaited Panasonic NS1000 Phone System is now available from stock from most UK Panasonic Phone System dealers.

The Panasonic NS1000 is a market leading VoIP Phone System from the leading small phone system manufacturer.  The NS1000 phone system uses the latest Voice Over IP Technology enabling easy deployment of Panasonic IP Phones including the KX-NT range (KX-NT321, KX-NT343, KX-NT346 and KX-NT366) and the new KX-UT range of Panasonic SIP Phones (KX-UT113, KX-UT123, KX-UT133 and KX-UT136).  The Panasonic NS1000 Telephone System can also be used with other SIP Phones including Aastra IP Phones, Grandstream IP Phones, Cisco IP Phones, Yealink IP Phones, Snom IP Phones, Polycom IP Phones and Linksys IP Phones making the NS1000 an ideal choice for customers with existing handsets that might want to migrate their IP Telephony to the Panasonic NS1000 Communications Server Platform.

The Panasonic NS1000 can utilise SIP Trunk services and can also use legacy ISDN telephone lines if require.  Put the Panasonic NS1000 is your diary.

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There has been reported a large scale power cut in West London. At 11:30 PM on Friday 3rd February 2012 there was a power failure across West London. At present the cause is unknown. Traffic lights and street lights are dark as well as bars, restaurants and businesses. There are no reports of terrorism and official sources can offer no explanation at this time as to the reason for this massive power failure in West London.

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The annual freeze is upon the UK with forecasts of snow and freezing temperatures and of course the possible disruption to business inlcuding staff shortages as employees refuse to struggle through dangerous conditions to get to work.  In this age of high speed internet and multitude of communications options it should be easy for desk based employees to work from home and it is not as expensive as you might think as long as you have made some preperations.

The obvious first choice is using VoIP (Voice Over IP) so that home based employees, even temporarily snowed in ones, can communicate with the office and customers seamlessly.  As long as they have a reliable ADSL connection at home and a PC with suitable headset they can quickly establish a connection with the office phone system to remain a productive member of the team.  Even if your business does not have a VoIP or VoIP enabled telephone system you can plan ahead by installing a VoIP Gateway which will easily upgrade your existing phone system to provide basic VoIP connectivity as a backup for this type of situation.  The Telecom FM Onestream VoIP Gateway will connect to your small business phone system and provide VoIP connectivity for both the office phone system and also allow home workers to connect using an IP softphone on their computer or they could use an IP Phone at home and be able to answer incoming calls and transfer them back to the office.  The Onestream Gateway also fetures a built-in GSM Gateway so the company can reduce their call charges to mobile phones or provide easy, low cost mobile extension functionality for their mobile workforce.

The next thing that a home based employee will need to do is access their office PC and applications from their home computer and this is easily achieved using a basic VNC service or a paid for remote access solutions such as gotomypc or logmein which are easy to set up and allow the user to work as though sitting at their desk.

With a little planning, and maybe a small outlay for items like VoIP Gateways which can provide additional benefits such as reduced call charges throughout the year, most small businesses can easily survive the cold snap.

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What is the future for Close Circuit TV with Mobile Broadband speeds reaching Fixed Broadband speeds in the near future?

Video is such a major part of our lives that we tend to take it for granted when it is all around us from the TVs in our homes to Youtube on our PCs and Smart Phones. But the expansion in speed in the Mobile world, 3G, UMTS, HSPA and 4G services is starting to open up possibilities that have never before been practical or even feasible.

Security services for example – On every corner in most major European cities you will find CCTV cameras but it is not so practical to put these systems into certain areas that would seriously benefit from monitoring and surveillance. High risk or secluded areas such as bus stops, remote storage, public vehicles and rural locations where data network availability has been limited or not even present. Wide area Broadband services now open up the possibility of providing a host of security services to remote locations and to bring back live video capture. Often legacy systems require local storage and some form of manual intervention to recover recordings. If a theft or attack is recorded the owner or authorities need to play catch up after the event to piece together the evidence. Not withstanding that the mobile operators need to offer suitable data packages for these applications it is certainly an application waiting for the service and there is a plethora of High Speed 4G CPE waiting to connect these networks. Broadband is no longer the exclusive domain of the fixed operators! There a host of legacy systems awaiting retrofit and more new systems to install which, too date, have been impractical to deploy. 4G is going to be a major contributor to making these systems a success.

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