UK Operators Opt for SyncE Backhaul

Mobile Broadband Network Ltd. (MBNL), the networks joint venture between U.K. operators Everything Everywhere Ltd. and 3 , has signed an eight-year backhaul capacity deal with Virgin Media Business Ltd. worth more than £100 million (US$161.4 million), the two parties revealed today.

Virgin Media Business is building 14 regional aggregation networks across the U.K. using Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE)-enabled packet transport equipment to handle the data traffic generated by 35.2 million mobile users (of which 27.5 million are Everything Everywhere customers). Virgin Media Business says the new networks will offer MBNL backhaul aggregation links of 1 Gbit/s.

Virgin Media Business is clearly keen to stress the perceived benefits of deploying "ground breaking" SyncE infrastructure, noting that this will be the U.K.'s first such backhaul network.
According to one backhaul sector expert, SyncE is certainly an appropriate choice for next-generation backhaul networks, though Virgin Media Business may need to think about additional enhancements in the coming years if it is to keep up with its main mobile backhaul wholesale capacity rival, BT Group plc.

"Synchronous Ethernet is one of the key standards for packet backhaul synchronization," notes Patrick Donegan, senior analyst at Heavy Reading . "Over time, Virgin Media will probably need to add IEEE 1588v2 for time/phase synchronization to remain competitive with BT as Long Term Evolution (LTE) is rolled out. But for the short and medium term, Synchronous Ethernet does what's required and does so according to the physical layer synchronization model that operators are most familiar with in mobile backhaul environments," adds Donegan.
The deal is good news for Swedish transport infrastructure vendor Transmode Systems AB , which has landed an eight-year deal worth an estimated 150 million Swedish kronor ($23.3 million) during the next 15 months.

Transmode, which announced its entry into the mobile backhaul infrastructure market in September 2009, is supplying its Ethernet Mobile Backhaul product that's built on its Native Packet Optical architecture.
The deal includes the provision of the vendor's Ethernet Muxponder family (EMXP) and Ethernet Demarcation Units as well as a new ROADM-based network.

"Working with Transmode we're looking to transform backhaul networks by delivering a unique service that deploys fibre-based Ethernet services to cell sites," noted Virgin Media Business managing director Mark Heraghty in a prepared statement. "We're best placed to deliver the speed and capacity that mobile companies need. With a fibre-based core network, we’ve got big ambitions for this market and see it as integral to the growth of our overall market share. Our partnership with Transmode makes our proposition all the more compelling."
Transmode's share price remained unchanged at SEK 43.50 in morning trading on the Stockholm exchange. The company joined the public markets earlier this year.

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Qualcomm's CEO says sci-fi future already here!

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Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs believes the future of tech – in all its sci-fi glory – is already here, presenting amazing opportunities as well as serious challenges.

Speaking to Om Malik on Qualcomm Live, Jacobs discussed the embedding of wireless into almost all objects, in a world where mobile phones became more of a remote control than a talk enabled device.

“People will be injecting sensors into their body,” he said, adding, “it may sound like sci-fi, but it's not that far-fetched.”


Jacobs said the world of mobile was following a “natural progression,” and evolving as it moved forward. “We're on a path now and people get it,” he explained.

Speaking of some of the advances in telemedicine, Jacobs admitted that while physicians in the Western World tended to adopt new technology at a slow pace, the same was not true of the developing world, nor of the over-the-top (OTT) fitness and wellness industries, which were pushing ahead with new sensor technologies.

“The emerging market is a huge trend for wireless,” said Jacobs, giving the example of teledermatology, whereby smartphones could be used to snap photos of skin diseases on people in remote locations and sent off to experts for immediate analysis.

Qualcomm's engineers are also working on a model of the human brain, Jacobs revealed noting the firm's engineers were busy developing “really cool and interesting stuff that's way out there.”

In terms of current core businesses, Jacobs discussed the growing level of integration in chipsets to reduce costs, saying the firm was using a more “trickle up” effect rather than the standard trickle-down from higher end products. Qualcomm, he said, was also working hard to push out reference designs to partners, which he claimed cut down on development time and cost for OEMs wanting to push out products quickly and cheaply in the emerging markets.

The Qualcomm chief also spoke briefly about the Atheros acquisition, saying it had been key in the firm's strategy to come out with “different radios targeted at different kinds of applications.” Jacobs also said Qualcomm as a company tended to make smaller acquisitions and would continue to do so.

“We're not just a CDMA company, we're a wireless technology company,” he said outlining Qualcomm's plans for pushing the envelope by expanding network capacity, building “super cheap” base stations and continuing to develop augmented reality into “real 3D.”

Microsoft Windows 8, due to launch in just over two weeks, would also herald a “huge amount of creativity” said Jacobs, mulling the possibilities of new thinner, lighter computing designs running on ARM chips.

For all the good technology brings, however, Jacobs admitted he did also have fears for the risks the world now faced because of it.

“I worry about cyber security,” he told Malik, outlying his concern for a ‘Blade Runner' type situation should the country's infrastructure ever get hacked.

One thing Jacobs isn't overly concerned about, however, is an ongoing bout of patent wars. “the patent stuff will settle itself out,” he posited, noting that for its part, Qualcomm preferred to “create more peace” through cross licensing.

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Who Wants WebOS?

It's all about software this week as Google acquires a hardware business and Hewlett-Packard Co. gets rid of one.

Who wants webOS?: HP doesn't want to build the hardware for webOS, but it may have to convince someone else to, since it can't license a platform it's giving up on. The companies that are emerging as potential suitors for the operating system have included the obvious handset makers without an OS to call their own, High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) , LG-Ericsson Co. Ltd. or Samsung Corp. , and then some non-hardware players like Facebook or Amazon.com Inc.

What's next for HTC: Speaking of HTC, the company sent out press invites teasing a pre-IFA press event to "see what's next." Samsung has a competing event set for the same date, Sept. 1. Both will likely show off their forthcoming Android-based handset lineups, but -- given the news storm of late -- there could be a surprise or two in the mix.

Samsung seeks software: HTC and Samsung are smart to be thinking about what's next now that Google is set to own Motorola Mobility Inc. Most seem torn over whether the deal is good for Android's handset partners because of the patent protection or bad because it potentially makes Google their hardware competitor. Either way, Samsung isn't sitting idly by. The South Korean company is reportedly stepping up its software game, looking to acquire companies and talent to make sure it stays competitive at both the hardware and the OS level. 

Apple weasels in: Apple Inc.  never likes to sit out a busy news week, letting others hog the limelight. This week was no different as rumors popped up that the iPhone maker is testing Long Term Evolution (LTE) devices with its carrier partners. The latest in the iPhone 5 saga also has an AT&T Inc.  VP telling employees to gear up for a "really, really busy next 35-50 days." With August slipping away, most now believe the iPhone 5 will be announced at the end of September and shipped in early October. 

Happy new iPad 3!: Luckily Apple never has to be the one making the news splash, because rumor-mongers always do it for the Cupertino giant. According to The Wall Street Journal's sources, Apple is working with components suppliers for the next version of its iPad, set to launch early next year. iPad 3 is expected to have a larger, high-res touchscreen, and the company has reportedly placed parts orders for about 1.5 million iPad 3s in the fourth quarter.

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