Mobile broadband - upto 50 billion devices connected by 2020

Mobile broadband market is now entering its second wave, where one size no longer fits all, mobile broadband is complementing fixed broadband rather than cannibalizing it, and prepaid and smartphones are fast emerging to join dongles. Service innovation, product differentiation and user experience - rather than pricing - will be the key factors going forward, according to industry sources.

• Ericsson, the market leader predicts up to 50 billion devices are expected to be connected by 2020 and  some 3.4 billion will be broadband users by 2015 from a mere 360 million in 2009. 
• Nokia Siemens Networks had much earlier predicted upto 5 billion devices connected by 2015. Latest reports indicate that  by July,2010 it is already achieved.

Ericsson tips machine-to-machine communications (M2M) as a key component in the future growth of the mobile industry, driven by devices such as smart meters, tracking solutions in the logistics industry, digital signage, cameras, and vending machines which can reorder for themselves
Mobile broadband is the name used to describe various types of wireless high-speed internet access through a portable modem, telephone or other device. The phrase "Mobile Broadband" is largely a wireless carrier marketing tool. The actual "non-Mobile Phone" Mobile networks are very small subscriber base (Mobile WiMax, iBurst, Flash-OFDMA, IPW and portable Satellite terminals) compared to Fixed Wireless Broadband. 

• A misleading vendor tactic is to quote the peak Mast speed as the user speed. This is like quoting exchange total speed for DSL or total cable bandwidth for Cable users. It has little resemblance to real world performance.
• Another misleading tactics often used by standards proponents are for eg. stating WiMax or Mobile broadband. WiMax other than splitting the available spectrum and is in trouble where most large telecom operators stopped any development on WiMax.

On 11 December 2002, the IEEE Standards Board approved the establishment of IEEE 802.20, the Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) Working Group.The mission of IEEE 802.20 is to develop the specification for an efficient packet based air interface that is optimized for the transport of IP based services. The goal is to enable worldwide deployment of affordable, ubiquitous, always-on and interoperable multi-vendor mobile broadband wireless access networks that meet the needs of business and residential end user markets.


The main barrier to the take up of mobile broadband will be the coverage the mobile phone networks can provide, in many areas customers will not be able to achieve the speeds advertised due to mobile data coverage limitations. In addition, there are also issues with connectivity, network capacity, application quality, and mobile network operators' overall inexperience with data traffic. Demand from emerging markets fuels a large share of growth in Mobile Broadband over the coming years. Without the need to start from the basis of a widespread fixed line infrastructure, many emerging markets leapfrog developed markets and use Mobile Broadband technologies to deliver high-speed internet access to the mass market.

The global Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of standards - which includes GSM, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA and LTE – is the most widespread way to deliver mobile broadband. 3GPP standards are serving about 90 percent of the world’s mobile subscribers.

Best bluetooth headset. Radiation? Noise cancellation? Speech quality! Check this!

For a long time, I was researching to buy a bluetooth headset. Heard many horror stories of ear pain, reduced speech and audio quality, easily loosing the headsets. Invariably I saw everybody dumps the headset usage after initial enthusiasm and would use it rarely for long drives! Why? Any good headsets which addresses these issues? I decided to pilot my friend's jawbone bluetooth headset after using headsets from sony ericsson, plantronics, nokia and jabra.

The Jawbone Icon or Jawbone Prime (us.jawbone.com)- classy, stylish, safe , noise reduction and excellent voice quality. No ear pains, as it comes with adjustable and very comfortable ear holders and so no chance to loose it as well. It is very important to see the manual and first understand where the button locations are, due to the very sleek and stylish design.

My favourite model and what I strongly recommend Jawbone, based on my piloting experience and  research  on price and usage experience of other headset models.

Tips to understand and avoid Mobile phone radiation, for your health!

If you are worried about the potential hazards of cell-phone radiation, here are few ways to reduce your risk:

• Use a hands-free headset
• Extend the antenna during use
• Limit calls inside buildings
• Avoid calls inside closed spaces like lift /elevator
• Use the phone in open spaces as often as possible
• Limit use by children. 

What are Radio waves? Radio waves transmit music, conversations, pictures and data invisibly through the air, often over millions of miles -- it happens every day in thousands of different ways! Even though radio waves are invisible and completely undetectable to humans, they have totally changed society. Whether we are talking about a cell phone, a baby monitor, a cordless phone or any one of the thousands of other wireless technologies, all of them use radio waves to communicate.

Transmitter and Antenna: When talking on a cell phone, a transmitter takes the sound of your voice and encodes it onto a continuous sine wave. A sine wave is just a type of continuously varying wave that radiates out from the antenna and fluctuates evenly through space. Sine waves are measured in terms of frequency, which is the number of times a wave oscillates up and down per second. Once the encoded sound has been placed on the sine wave, the transmitter sends the signal to the antenna, which then sends the signal out.

Cell phones have low-power transmitters in them.The position of a transmitter inside a phone varies depending on the manufacturer, but it is usually in close proximity to the phone's antenna. The radio waves that send the encoded signal are made up of electromagnetic radiation propagated by the antenna. The function of an antenna in any radio transmitter is to launch the radio waves into space; in the case of cell phones, these waves are picked up by a receiver in the cell-phone tower.

All cell phones emit some amount of electromagnetic radiation.There are two types of electromagnetic radiation: Ionizing radiation - This type of radiation contains enough electromagnetic energy to strip atoms and molecules from the tissue and alter chemical reactions in the body. Gamma rays and X-rays are two forms of ionizing radiation. We know they cause damage, which is why we wear a lead vest when X-rays are taken of our bodies. Non-ionizing radiation - it is typically safe. It causes some heating effect, but usually not enough to cause any type of long-term damage to tissue. Radio-frequency energy, visible light and microwave radiation are considered non-ionizing.

The added concern with non-ionizing radiation, the type of radiation associated with cell phones, is that it could have long-term effects. Although it may not immediately cause damage to tissue, scientists are still unsure about whether prolonged exposure could create problems. This is an especially sensitive issue today, because more people are using cell phones than ever before.

At high levels, radio-frequency energy can rapidly heat biological tissue and cause damage such as burns, according to a recent report from the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional agency that audits federal programs. The report went on to state that mobile phones operate at power levels well below the point at which such heating effects would take place. The amount of radiation emitted from the devices is actually minute, and the U.S. federal government places limits on how much radiation a cell phone can emit. Radiation levels are tested based on the specific absorption rate (SAR), which is a way of measuring the amount of radio-frequency energy that is absorbed by the human body. In order to gain license in US, a phone's maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram. Reference: Siemens mobile users guide, US FDA, FCC, howstuffworks and several technical websites.

It's still unclear as to whether cell phones actually cause any significant damage to the human body. Studies continue to contradict one another on the issue. Additional studies may shed some light on the true effects of cell-phone radiation, but will likely only confuse consumers even further. In the meantime, millions of cell-phone users take whatever risk may be involved in using the devices