Wireless Updates from San Jose and Chicago

Posted on October 10th, 2008 in Weissberger, wireless by Alan Weissberger
Update from US Telecom’s Executive Briefing in San Jose

At the US Telecom Association’s 2nd Annual Executive Business Forum this week in San Jose, CA, Link Hoewing, Verizon’s VP of Internet and Technology Policy, stated that Verizon Wireless plans to roll out LTE in early 2010 (that’s about 18 months from now!) with, "possibily 75M bit/sec downstream rate." 

At the same conference, Robert Brown, Wayport’s Director of Business Development for Strategic Roaming and Managed Services stated that WiFi hot spots are growing very rapidly and that more and more people on the move are using WiFi devices (e.g.cameras, MP3 players, mobile phones) for Internet connectivity. Wayport is largest operator of WiFi hotspots in the U.S. and the largest managed WiFi hot spot service provider (they manage AT &Ts WiFi network).

Note: The agenda and some of the presentations for this excellent conference are at:

http://ustelecom.org/Events/EventSubPages/Second-Annual-USTelecom-Executive-Business-Forum-Agenda.html

Please let me know if you have questions or request for my take on any of the presentations I heard.

So with LTE moving faster than expected at the high end and WiFi hot spots increasing dramatically at the low end, where does that leave mobile WiMAX? We review important take aways from WiMAX World in Chicago and results from SPRINTs XOHM WiMAX launch in Baltimore this week.  Then we offer an opinion and conclusions.   Good reading!

WiMAX World and More….

The 2008 WiMAX World show wrapped up this week in Chicago and offered a nice perspective on the industry and the possibilities of full-mobility, wireless broadband connectivity. This article lists 10 key points from the show.

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2008/october/Top-10-Key-Take-Aways-from-WiMAX-World-2008

Reaching into WiMAX’s Pocket  By Rhonda Wickham WirelessWeek - October 03, 2008

This week’s WiMAX World wasn’t exactly the all-out enthusiastic trade event you might expect from a technology that launched its first commercial U.S. mobile network the day before the show doors opened. The mood was decidedly tempered as most folks were pondering the economic situation that was playing out on the world stage around them.
What should have been an exuberant time for this new sector was instead tarnished as many conversations were punctuated with financial feasibility questions.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/Reaching-into-WiMAX-Pocket.aspx

Sprint’s 4G Xohm WiMax: How fast is it?

The following link provides an excellent summary of the real world speeds and the real world devices (the Nokia tablet device is especially interesting) available in Sprint’s WiMax deployment in Baltimore. 

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9116844&intsrc=hm_ts_head 

XOHM WiMAX Broadband Service Debuts in Baltimore

Earlier this week, Sprint officially launched XOHM TM (its mobile WiMAX commercial offering) in Baltimore, MD. “This is truly an historic day with the birth of a completely new Internet-based business model that alters the dynamics of the traditional telecom industry,” explained Barry West, president of Sprint’s XOHM business unit. “Wireless consumers will experience WiMAX device and XOHM service innovation on multiple levels as the computer, Internet, telecom and consumer electronics industries converge to redefine wireless mobility.”

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2008/september/XOHM-WiMAX-Broadband-Service-Debuts-in-Baltimore-0929

Xohm Could Restrict Usage By Brad Smith, WirelessWeek - October 03, 2008

When Sprint’s Xohm launched in Baltimore earlier in the week, the launch raised some questions about the future. Are there usage restrictions? Are there more devices coming? What about long-term pricing? Where and when will other markets launch?
Atish Gude, senior vice president for mobile broadband operations for Xohm, answered some of those questions Thursday in his keynote to WiMAX World 2008. Others didn’t get answers.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/Xohm-Restrict-Usage.aspx

Alvarion Notches WiMAX Win in the US Heartland with Wisper

Midwest based Wisper chooses Alvarion to supply a dual spectrum WiMAX deployment in both 2.5 GHz and 3.65 GHz. In what is the first dual-frequency deployment of WiMAX radios in the US, Minnesota-based Wisper chooses Alvarion to supply both a 2.5 GHz licensed spectrum solution and a 3.65 GHz lightly regulated spectrum solution.

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2008/october/alvarion-notches-wimax-win-in-the-us-heartland-with-wisper

DCT/Weissberger Opinion:

For a long time, mobile WiMAX was said to be the first 4G like mobile broadband service with a 3 or 4 year lead time over LTE. However, that window of opportunity for WiMAX is shrinking fast, as the WiMAX commercial rollouts have been delayed while carrier LTE plans and progress have accelerated. There seems to be much more telco focus and endorsement of that technology then WiMAX is enjoying, especially among Tier 1 mobile carriers.

Conclusion:

So it appears mobile WiMAX is being squeezed into a small niche market in developed countries like the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S. we observe expanding WiFi hotspots and WiFi based fixed broadband access putting severe cost pressure on WiMAX. With the financial crisis, how will WiMAX providers justify the high build out and deployment costs when they will have to charge very low rates to compete with free (or almost free) WiFi? What about the cost of mobile WiMAX CPE, especially on PDAs, smart phones, gadgets, etc when WiFi is already built into those for almost no cost?

At the same time, the lead time mobile WiMAX has over LTE deployments is shrinking fast. So where does that leave the market for mobile WiMAX? We have long stated mobile WiMAX would be predominantly used for fixed wireless broadband access in developing countries (without wireline infrastructure) and for DSL substitution in rural areas that can not be cost effectively serviced by DSL. Our opinion has not changed based on this week’s breaking news and conference reports. We also do not see any progress on the "Internet in your pocket" type of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) that Intel talked about at our ComSoc SCV January 2008 meeting.

Do you agree with this analysis or do you have a different opinion?

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IPTV Middleware - A New Player in Town

Posted on September 11th, 2008 in Viodi View by Ken Pyle

The announcement of Ericsson as a middleware provider is interesting, as their solution supports Internet Multimedia Subsystem and is from a player that is big enough to make a difference in this space, especially as it relates to delivering video across multiple devices. This approach promises increased blurring between applications (e.g. caller ID on TV, control of TV via mobile devices, etc.). This offering may have the big carriers rethinking their previous IPTV strategies.  Click here to read Lightreading’s take.    

 

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An Unhealthy Industry: Telecom reports indicate continued contraction in revenues and growth

Posted on July 29th, 2008 in Weissberger by Alan Weissberger

Having just analyzed recent reports from telecom companies, we conclude that the telecom recession/ depression continues. Revenues are falling way short of expectation, growth is limited to mobile data, and profits are minuscule with the exception of Verizon (VZ). But even at VZ, the growth seems to be coming almost entirely from new wireless data services for mobile subscribers, while customer installations for FiOS seems to be stalling (despite the huge build-out cost and heavy promotion). Perhaps the most important earnings report tidbit was that VZW (a joint venture between VZ and Vodafone-UK) said its churn rate — the pace at which customers defect to other carriers — fell to 1.1 percent from 1.2 percent in the previous quarter. By comparison, Sprint Nextel has a churn rate of 2.45 percent.

Comment:  With all the consolidation that has taken place in telco land- both in the network operator and equipment spaces- one would expect profit margins to be a lot higher, due to less competition and the power of scale. But they aren’t. The industry seemed to be a lot healthier in the late 1990s when competitive carriers were expanding their business to both enterprise and residential customers. But alas, they were wiped out after the dot com bust and stock market meltdown of 2000-2002. An entire food chain/ ecosystem collapsed shortly thereafter as the innovative new equipment companies had no one to sell to and the software and services companies had no one to support.

Growth engines: Telecom growth today seems to be restricted to developing countries which have little or no fixed line infrastructure. Mobile data continues to grow everywhere with more and more people wanting to access the Internet on the move. Mobile video and multi-media services over broadband wireless networks (e.g. WiMAX, HSPA, LTE) may provide an engine for future growth, but that remains to be seen. We hope telco video (both FiOS-RF and IPTV based delivery of broadcast video) will succeed, as it would provide real competition for the monopolistic cable companies that charge ever higher prices for digital video and provide terrible customer service. However, we are concerned with FiOS apparently stalling as indicated in the VZ report below.

Here’s a roundup of relevant telecom company reports in the past week:

Nortel warns of U.S. market woes, shares fall

Wojtek Dabrowski ,  Reuters  August 01, 2008
 
TORONTO - Nortel Networks Corp said on Friday its quarterly loss tripled on restructuring charges and currency exchange losses, and its shares fell as the telecom equipment company warned that a tough U.S. market is choking wireless spending by carriers.  The loss widened to $113 million, or 23 cents a share, from $37 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest results included $67 million in restructuring charges and a loss of $21 million, primarily from mark-to-market losses on interest rate swaps.
 
"The macro environment in the U.S. and the U.S. carrier spend continues to be challenging," Chief Executive Mike Zafirovski told analysts during a conference call. He said this has hurt sales related to CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access, wireless technology….

Bell Canada to Cut 2,500 Jobs

by the Associated Press July 29, 2008
BCE Inc. said it is cutting about 2,500 positions at Bell Canada, representing about 6% of the unit’s total workforce, as it attempts to streamline its management and lower costs……

SK Telecom Profit Dented By Marketing Costs

WSJ By IN-SOO NAM July 25, 2008

SEOUL — SK Telecom Co. reported a worse-than-expected 26% decline in quarterly net profit, pressured by higher marketing costs and a fall in wireless-data revenue…….

Sprint to Sell Cellphone Towers, Use Money to Pay Down Debt 

WSJ By AMOL SHARMA July 24, 2008

Sprint Nextel Corp. agreed to sell nearly all its cellphone towers to a private-equity-backed firm called TowerCo in a deal that will generate about $670 million in cash for the struggling wireless carrier……

Write to Amol Sharma at amol.sharma@wsj.com

Earnings Rose at AT&T, but Revenue Misses Forecast 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS July 24, 2008

AT&T, the telecommunications company, reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that contained signs that the weak economy was catching up to its previously steady results…………

TV Service Stalls for Verizon, but Increase in Wireless Customers Keeps Earnings Strong 

 The New York Times,  By LAURA M. HOLSON July 29, 2008

Verizon Communications is having a harder time pushing its television service, which competes with the big cable companies, but the company said the slowing economy had not hurt its cellphone business.

Motorola Reorganizes Unit before Earnings Report

Forbes ByElizabeth Woyke, 07.28.08

In an ongoing attempt to revitalize its business, Motorola will restructure one of its largest units into three groups. Analysts, however, are focusing on how the Schaumburg, Ill.-based telecom equipment maker plans to shore up profits……..

Chairman Tchuruk, CEO Russo To Step Down From Alcatel-Lucent

By LEILA ABBOUD and JETHRO MULLEN  July 29, 2008
 
PARIS — The architects of the trans-Atlantic merger that created Alcatel-Lucent two years ago are stepping aside, leaving a telecommunications-equipment firm still struggling to figure out how to survive in an industry plagued by increasingly brutal competition and eroding profits……
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121731277019992807.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news
 
Comment:  The founders of the French-US telecom equipment maker are finally leaving the company created by the merger from hell. Their departure should help end the group’s nationalist paralysis. But the timing is awful.  No successor has been named for either post. Without a succession plan Alcatel-Lucent looks as lost as ever.  The outlook doesn’t look much brighter for the rest of the year, as economic woes make telecom operators reluctant to spend to upgrade their networks.  Alcatel-Lucent still expects the overall telecom equipment and services market to remain flat in 2008.   However, their share will likely decline.
 
"I don’t think it should be seen as good news," said WestLB analyst Thomas Langer. "What you need in such difficult times is true leadership." Mr. Langer, who has a "sell" rating on Alcatel-Lucent stock.
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
 
Addendum:  Unfortunately, More of the Same —— August 7, 2008
 
Deutsche Telekom Net Profits Slump
 
By Rhonda Wickham  WirelessWeek - August 7, 2008
 
Deutsche Telekom AG reported that its Q2 net profit fell 35% due to economic and business effects such as 1-time charges, a stronger euro and higher interest payments.
The operator posted net profits for the period ended June 30 of $607.2 million, down from $929.7 million a year earlier, when the company booked a gain from the sale of T-Online France.
Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile USA, saw revenue fall 2.9%, due to the strong euro against the dollar and pound.  DT also saw a 7.1% decline in its German fixed-line customers to 29.82 million from 32.09 million. Its retail broadband customers grew 23.5% to 9.9 million. Total mobile customers increased 8.7% to 125 million, with the U.S. customer base rising 12.3% and Europe increasing 7.5%.
Sprint customers continue to flee, base drops to 51.9M
 
 By Sue Marek  Fierce Wireless-  August 6, 2008
 
Sprint Nextel disappointed investors once again with some less-than-stellar second quarter results. In particular, the company continues to lose customers at a rapid rate–it lost 901,000 customers in second quarter, giving it a total of 51.9 million customers, compared with 54 million the end of the same quarter last year. On the revenue front, the operator had a second-quarter net loss of $344 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of $19 million. Revenue fell 11 percent to $9.06 billion. Wireless revenue was $7 billion, also a decline of 11 percent year over year.
In a call with financial analysts and investors this morning, Sprint executives tried to mitigate the damages by singing the praises of the company’s "Simply Everything" unlimited voice and data plan and the introduction of Samsung’s Instinct smart phone. CEO Dan Hesse repeatedly talked about how Simply Everything is encouraging stabilization among its customer base and has performed better than expected. In addition, he talked at length about how the Samsung Instinct is driving more data usage among customers.
Sprint also said it plans to make an offering of $3 billion in cumulative perpetual convertible preferred stock but executives wouldn’t go into any details on that offering. Last month Sprint agreed to sell almost all of its towers to private tower company TowerCo for about $670 million in cash. The company planned to use the proceeds to pay off debt.
 
 
Qwest Q2 profit heads south, along with outlook

By Dan O’Shea  Fierce Telecom- August 6, 2008
 
On the heels of having its four-market forbearance petition rejected, Qwest Communications reported a 24 percent decline in profit to $188 million as part of its second quarter earnings summation. Revenue was down about 2 percent overall to $3.38 billion, and because the Federal Communications Commission rejected Qwest’s request for forbearance from access charge regulation, the telco will not be able to realize more revenue through higher wholesale pricing.
The telco adjusted its outlook lower for the rest of the year, saying that revenue growth will be only about 2.5 percent. Qwest also reported that access lines declined about 8 percent to 12.2 million. Positive news included an addition of 32,000 satellite TV subscribers via Qwest’s partnership with DirecTV, growth of about 9 percent in Internet and video revenue, and a rise of about 14 percent overall in broadband subscribers.   All in all, this particular earnings report could not have been how Qwest CEO Edward Mueller had hoped to celebrate his first anniversary as chief. Looking back at the past year, Mueller has made a few changes here and there, and a couple of major decisions–most notably Qwest’s icing of Sprint as its wireless partner (though that wasn’t really a hard decision), and the company’s $300 million commitment to FTTN, but not for video. Is the company any better off than it was one year ago?
 
 
Qwest Posts 24% Profit Drop, Cuts Outlook for Year
 
By ANDREW LAVALLEE   WSJ   August 7, 2008
Qwest Communications International Inc. reported a 24% drop in second-quarter profit and lowered its outlook for the year, as land-line losses and market-share declines in its broadband unit continued to drag down the company’s results.
Revenue fell 2.3% to $3.38 billion.  Qwest ended the quarter with 12.2 million access lines, down 8.2% from the year-ago quarter, following similar land-line losses from AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. Qwest is feeling the strains of the weak economy, particularly in states like Arizona and Iowa, where the real-estate market has been hard-hit.
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121802422646016645.html?mod=telecommunications_primary_hs
 
 
MetroPCS’s Net Slips Amid Rising Costs, Lower Per-User Revenue
By DAVID BENOIT  WSJ- August 7, 2008
 
MetroPCS Communications Inc. posted a 13% decrease in second-quarter net income as falling revenue per user and rising costs offset continued subscriber gains. The wireless provider recorded net income of $50.5 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with $58.1 million, or 17 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest results included a three-cent charge on the firm’s investment in auction-rate securities.  Revenue rose 23% to $678.8 million from $551.2 million. The mean estimates of analysts according to Thomson Reuters were for earnings of 17 cents a share on revenue of $679.1 million.
Average revenue per subscriber was down 3.3% and the cost per user rose slightly. But total operating costs surged 30%.
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121810880138720237.html?mod=telecommunications_primary_hs
 
 
Vonage Narrows Loss, But Turnover Remains High
 
By ANDREW LAVALLEE  WSJ  August 8, 2008
 
Vonage Holdings Corp. narrowed its second-quarter loss but added far fewer customers, in part because it cut back on advertising. The Internet-phone company, based in Holmdel, N.J., reported a loss of $6.9 million, or four cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $23.2 million, or 15 cents a share. Revenue climbed 11% to $227.5 million.
The rate of customer defections, or churn, fell to 3% from 3.3% in the previous quarter. Vonage — which provides phone service to households through Internet access lines — has struggled to reduce turnover in a saturated and competitive telecommunications industry. Total wireless churn at competitors such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC’s joint venture, was 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively.
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121814662502922101.html?mod=telecommunications_primary_hs
 

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IEEE ComSoc-SCV Workshop: Location Based Technologies and Services

Posted on June 26th, 2008 in Weissberger, wireless by Alan Weissberger

Summary of Location Based Technologies and Services Workshop

[June 19, 2008, Crown Plaza Hotel, San Francisco International Airport] 

Alan J. Weissberger
IEEE ComSoc- SCV Secretary and Program Chair
Backgrounder:  
Yankee Group tele-briefing report on Location Based Services and Technologies:
Speaker Remarks
1. Dave Reid, Director of Business Development, SiRF Technology Inc. http://sirf.com/
 
The world is on the go (which implies that mobile telecom services and devices will grow rapidly). SiRF believes that location awareness brings convenience to our lives. SiRF is predominantly a (fabless) semiconductor company- with the largest market share of discrete GPS chips and related intellectual property. SiRF powered mobile devices include personal navigation devices (PNDs), handheld GPS receivers, smart phones, feature phones, personal media players (PMPs), and in-dash car navigation systems. 
 
There are many types of Location Based Services (LBS’s) being deployed and being considered by network operators: navigation, social networking, location based advertising, mobile commerce, transportation, child locator, pet tracker, etc. New mobile broadband networks, like WiMAX, will be location enabled; so will new devices, including Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and even location aware watches. Applications and content are intersecting and this will lead to innovative new mobile services with location awareness. Enterprise customers have led applications in location for a long time, but the consumer market for LBS could now be poised for faster growth.
 
Verizon Navigator (offered by VZ Wireless) is the most popular LBS and most successful navigation service in the world (5M subs). VZ Navigator offers audible turn-by-turn directions for $10 per month.
 
 
LBS’s (mostly navigation) will continue to command a pricing premium over other wireless add-on services, e.g. music, ring tone, games.   In the future, LBS will be a key revenue generator for network operators. Nokia announced they would have location awareness in all their devices (Nokia uses TI processors). 
 
Location Based Technologies: While GPS is only one of several location-based technologies (others include cell site location, broadcast TV signals, WiFi AP locations, RF signatures- see graphic below), its accuracy is better than the others. Assisted GPS may be used to enhance performance when signal propagation conditions are poor (e.g. when surrounded by tall buildings or when the satellite signals are weakened by being indoors or under trees). In pure GPS location tracking, it typically takes 30 or 40 seconds for a GPS device to compute a location if it does not have recent ephemeris data for the GPS satellite network. Otherwise, locations are computed once a second or faster. 
 
Sky Hook Wireless (http://www.skyhookwireless.com/) creates a database of WiFi Access Points (APs) as the basis of its WiFi Positioning System. It uses the native IEEE 802.11 radio (already on mobile devices) to deliver accurate positioning worldwide.
 
Dave Reid was kind enough to provide this chart of Location Tracking Technologies:
 Location Tracking Technologies
Notes:
RSSI = Received Signal Strength Indicator
 
TDOA = Time Difference of Arrival
 
Cell ID will assume location is in the midpoint of the cell (this could be inaccurate if person is at the cell edge or on the border of adjacent cell?)
 
SiRF has proposed a LBS Systems Architecture. They have an ecosystem in place to develop, test and market location based applications. SiRF provides end- to- end solutions and has engaged in partnerships with various companies.
 
 
2. Jon Metzler, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Rosum Corp. http://www.rosum.com/
 
Location determination capability is becoming a "table stakes" requirement for device makers and semiconductor companies. LBS’s should be considered as a utility - like electricity that can be turned on and off. 
Rosum is the first and only company to harness over the air, broadcast TV signals for position location. The key advantage of this approach is that TV frequencies were designed to penetrate walls, ceilings and trees, in order to deliver a good video signal indoors. The company was founded by original GPS architects to deliver always-on location awareness where GPS fails – indoors and in urban canyons. Rosum is a provider of location, timing and frequency calibration solutions for Mobile TV Device and Home Telecommunications markets. In particular:
 
  • Mobile TV Devices: cell phones, notebook PCs, and PND/PMPs equipped with TV tuners
  • Home Telecommunications: femto cells for the home, and E911 (E112) for Wireless and VoIP subscribers
  • Among recent milestones for the company:
    • Rosum Announces Successful DVB-H Positioning Trial with UK’s National Grid Wireless (6/25/08)
    • 2Wire Selects Rosum TV+GPS Location and Timing Solution for E911/ Home Telecom products using femtocells (3/31/08)
  • Rosum Signs Collaboration Agreement with Intel - Will Enable TV-Location on Mobile Devices (10/07)
But why use Broadcast TV signals for position location? 
 
The TV signals offer high power (1 MW ERP typical), low frequency (50-750 MHz), frequency diversity (wide 6 to 8 MHz channels, multiple channels per tower), and horizontal signals (less attenuation from roofs and walls). Moreover, the terrestrial TV infrastructure is highly correlated with population density and broadband penetration in the U.S.   In a one on one test of TV Positioning vs. GPS based location tracking, GPS failed at three of six indoor locations in the SF Bay Area.
Editors Note: GPS vendors, such as SiRF and others, would likely question those test results.  However, Rosum uses third party testing in order to address concerns of competing technology vendors.
 
The best of both worlds might be a hybrid approach - where GPS and TV based positioning are combined in one device. In that case, GPS would be used outdoors, while TV positioning would be used indoors and in canyons (where GPS often fails).
 
The location technology and device market is consolidating, with many mergers and acquisition of key players, e.g. Nokia acquiring mapmaker Navteq. Other market themes of note:
  • Online mapping arms race between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo
  • Combination Personal Navigation Device / Portable Media Players (PND / PMPs)
  • Convergence of PNDs and Communications devices (i.e., cell phones) 
Two popular hand held devices with LBS and positioning technology:
  • Blackberry with Google Maps and GPS positioning
  • Apple iPOD Touch with Google Maps and 802.11x (WiFi) based positioning
What Comes Next for LBS’s?
  • Connected (not silo’d) use of location information with two categories foreseen:
    • Groups: self-chosen affiliations, such as Social Networks
    • Swarms: (anonymous) use of location for ITS enhancements
  • Resolution of privacy issues (TBD)
  • Growth in new LBS’s such as: Social Networks, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Connected Navigation, and Local Search/ Advertising (Google and Yahoo)
 Panel Session
 
The author chaired a panel session with the two speakers. It consisted of a few pre-planned questions for discussion, audience Q and A, and a wrap up question about the nature of future devices for LBS’s (cell phones, iPODs, other gadgets, or Mobile Internet Devices=MIDs). The panelists agreed that the big software companies (including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Oracle) all had LBS initiatives underway. They also believed that the smart phone (cell phone + Internet + LB technology) would dominate the LBS market, especially over non-voice capable MIDs.
 
Jon later amended his panel session remarks regarding MIDs: "If you define MIDs as including devices with integrated WiFi, such as the mylo or iPod Touch, then yes, I believe that market will develop. With that said the overall cell phone market will still remain much larger."
 
The author thanked the panelists and the audience (35 attendees) for their participation in this very enlightening and informative workshop. We also thanked IEEE SECON for sponsoring the workshop in conjunction with their annual conference.
Addendum: Critical issues for mobile network operators
 
At a VoiceCon- Spring 2008 panel on LBS’s, the critical issues for mobile network operators were identified:
  • Security and privacy-authentication, authorization, encryption, etc.
  • Application integrity - to prevent apps from harming network or users
  • Power dissipation and utilization
  • Flexibility and customizability
  • Integration of new value added services (e.g. location)
  • Billing: What to charge for a new service? Flat rate vs. Usage based (metered)
Postscript: Location Based Social Networking from Verizon Wireless
 
On June 26, 2008, Verizon Wireless announced that its location based social networking service- known as loopt - is now available to its subscribers. The original announcement this past March anticipated an April launch for the service, but according to Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson, “technical issues, pricing issues and running the application through some traps before launch,” caused the delay. Regarding security and privacy, Nelson said: "We’ve strengthened the privacy capabilities even further. We will be pinging customers on a regular basis to let them know their loopt account is active and that they can be tracked."
 
Loopt’s CEO Sam Altman had previously stated that privacy had been one of the biggest issues facing the uptake of location-based mobile social networking and that solving them is a key step toward achieving inter-carrier LBS services.   Evidently privacy is no longer a problem- at least not for Verizon Wireless.

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