Verizon Wireless, the biggest mobile company in the US, China Telecom, the third biggest mobile company in China, and Japanese operator KDDI, will announce their plans to adopt the GSM standard at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The GSM standard is used by more than 3bn people in 212 countries, but operators in the US and the Far East currently use different technology called CDMA. The change comes in advance of mobile operators’ plans to roll-out next generation 4G networks, which will allow users to watch high-definition TV on their mobile phones. Vodafone and O2 have already done trials on 4G or Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks in Britain. O2 is using Slough, the Berkshire town lampooned by Ricky Gervais in The Office, as guinea pig to test 4G, which will provide up to 20 times faster mobile internet. O2 has drafted in Chinese company Huawei to install Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in six mobile phone masts across the town to allow people to talk to each other via high definition video conferencing and play PlayStation games while on the move. If the trial in Slough is successful, LTE, or 4G, coverage could be available in towns and cities across the country by 2011. The new service promises to put an end to the frustration caused by the current 3G and 2G networks “dropping” calls and failing to load internet pages at busy times. Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSMA, said Verizon, KDDI and China Telecom’s decision to move to the GSM standard would make it easier for all operators to roll-out compatible 4G networks. Ben Wood, director of research at CSS Insight, said booming demand for internet access via data dongles and smartphones, particularly the iPhone, has pushed existing 3G networks to breaking point. “The roll-out of 4G has been accelerated by the problems with over-saturated 3G networks, particularly in London,” he said. “Operators are realising that the speed and reliability of networks is increasingly important.” Ronan Dunne, chief executive of O2 in the UK, has apologised to customers for the poor service many have experienced trying to access the operator’s overcrowded data network in London. This has led rivals Orange and Vodafone to trumpet their recent entry to the iPhone market with claims that they offer greater coverage and reliability. Separately, Orange, O2 and 10 other mobile companies will join together to create a new mobile phone application store on Monday to challenge Apple’s dominance of the highly profitable market. The operators will join with handset makers Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG.Big US, Chinese and Japanese mobile operators to adopt Europe's GSM standard
Three of the world’s biggest mobile phone companies will join the European mobile phone standard on Monday as they prepare to build next-generation mobile networks to cope with arrival of data-hungry devices like Apple’s iPad computer.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
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