New World record for wireless optical transmission
Cellular-News reports today...
Italian and Japanese scientists have demonstrated a laser based wireless communications system which has achieved a record transmission of 1.28 Terabit/s (or 1280 Gigabit/s) in a free air link between two transceivers installed on the roof of the CEIIC building and on the roof of the Building A at the Italian National Research Council around 210 meters away.
Now that's fast, very fast! Read the full story
here.
Labels: industry insight, quick-news
Crazy Christmas for laptop-inclusive mobile broadband!
Laptop manufacturers are putting massive emphasis on the mobile sales channel to boost sales of notebooks this Christmas.
LG mobile has also announced its first foray into notebooks with the Netbook X110, released via its mobile arm rather than its electronics segment. There will be two versions of the X110, which has 1GB of RAM and an 80GB storage capacity. It will be available exclusively via Phones 4U until the end of the year, before it is made available through conventional PC channels.
"Laptops are going to be big this Christmas," said LG Mobile UK sales and marketing director John Barton. "We know people want to be able to access the internet in its entirety, wherever they are. Now we're allowing them to do just that from a feature-rich device with all the styling people have come to expect from LG."
Laptop manufacturer Asus has included notebooks in its product line for the first time this year and expects to shift 400,000 units in the three months to Christmas.
"The [
mobile broadband] deals have created a gap in the market – 96 per cent of the people who buy these deals have at least one PC or laptop and buy this one as a second," said an Asus spokeswoman.
HP head of telco channel Graeme Badenoch: "It's a very important part of the market for us. The
bundling of PCs with broadband is definitely here to stay and embedded SIM cards are going to significantly increase from now."
Elonex said its 'One' laptop, launched in February, said sales via its exclusive retail partner
Carphone Warehouse had gone "crazy".
So, the message from us at Mobile Broadband Info is; get your
laptop-inclusive mobile broadband deal quick before stock runs out in the run up to Christmas.
Labels: laptop, mobile broadband
Post Office ponders MVNO option
The Post Office is considering launching a mobile phone service after the success of its move into the residential broadband market, which has given the company more than 500,000 customers only a year after the launch.
Having just reduced its broadband prices, the Post Office also reckons that it is benefiting from the credit crunch as cash-strapped homeowners look for the best deals in the market.
Telecoms is a crucial area for the Post Office as it looks to increase revenues, and it is roughly on track to hit its target of a million broadband users by 2011, according to Martin Moran, head of telecommunications at the Post Office.
"In a funny sort of way the credit crunch is helping us," said Moran. "We have always wanted to be not the cheapest but certainly among the three cheapest in the market but still have excellent customer service."
The Post Office's broadband and home phone service has been particularly popular among lower income households, as it allows consumers to pay cash at their local branch rather than signing a direct debit. But the worsening economic climate has attracted consumers from higher socio-economic groups.
But the vast majority of the Post Office's broadband users are still new to broadband. More than 80% are using broadband for the first time, while half of those have never used the internet at all. Broadband growth has slowed after it reached about 70% of the UK, as most households with a computer are online. To help get the rest of the country online, the Post Office is considering ways to make it easier for first-time buyers to get a PC - a service could appear next year.
It is also very interested in offering a mobile phone service, using the infrastructure of one of the five existing mobile phone networks. Moran said a mobile phone service was still "in the planning" stage but something could also be rolled out next year.
Who knows, in 12 months time you could be popping to the Post Office to pick up a
mobile broadband dongle!
Labels: industry insight
