LiMo’s Lino announced on 18 phones

THE LiMo Foundation, an open source consortium that has developed a Linux-based platform for mobile devices, has announced 18 mobiles phones from leading manufacturers that use its platform.

Announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Foundation said the announcement was just the first wave of handsets that will use the LiMo Platform.

The initial LiMo handsets confirmed at MWC are from by industry leaders including LG Electronics, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung.

“The breadth of the initial wave of LiMo handsets—18 models from 7 vendors—consolidates LiMo’s role as the unifying force within Mobile Linux and highlights the strong momentum established in the 12 months since LiMo was launched,” Limo Foundation executive director Morgan Gillis said.

The LiMo Platform leverages standards and other open-source projects, and is a modular, hardware-independent architecture built around the Linux operating system. It offers a secure run-time environment for support of downloaded applications.

Launched in January 2007, LiMo Foundation is open to all vendors and service providers in the mobile communications marketplace, including device manufacturers, operators, chipset manufacturers, independent software vendors, integrators and third-party developers.

“We look forward to the continued, rapid rollout of LiMo handsets, further expanding LiMo’s market reach and unifying the Mobile Linux ecosystem,” said LiMo Foundation chairman, Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DoCoMo.

“The mobile industry is embracing Linux and openness as the key enablers of lower device development costs, increased flexibility and quicker time to market for innovative services of all kinds. LiMo Foundation is driving these trends.”

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Coonan holds Telstra to 3G promise

GOVERNMENT has completed the first of two audits on regional mobile telephone coverage aimed at ensuring Telstra honours promise that its Next G network will match or exceed the coverage of its older CDMA.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said in a statement government was closely scrutinising the rural coverage audits as well as Next G handset availability to ensure consumers were not penalised by Telstra’s move to 3G technology.

At the height of the debate over the T3 sale last year, Telstra announced it planned to shut down the existing CDMA network in January next year, but committed to making its Next G mobile network coverage as good or better than CDMA.

Senator Coonan said she welcomed Telstra’s announcement last week of a Next G upgrade that included new cell technology with a 200 km range and higher speeds, but reminded Telstra of its commitment nonetheless.

“The Government is also mindful of Telstra ensuring there is a smooth transition to the new network for its customers, particularly those living in rural, regional and remote areas,” Senator Coonan said.

It is a sensitive issue in the bush, where Telstra CDMA is often the only available network and is heavily relied on. And in an election year, nothing is being left to chance.

“An independent audit comparing Next G coverage with CDMA coverage is a key part of verifying Telstra’s public assurance that it will not shut down the CDMA network until Next G provides the same or better coverage and services,” Senator Coonan said.

“Even if this assurance is met, Telstra has stated that the CDMA network will not be switched off before 28 January 2008,” she said.

A working group established by the Minister is currently considering other issues relating to the CDMA-Next G transition, such as the information Telstra is providing customers, handset availability, coverage, and contractual matters.

But it is network coverage that is most critical – both to rural and regional Australians, and to a Government seeking re-election.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has now completed its audit of CDMA at a broad selection of about 100 sites across the country. The sites include flat, mountainous and average terrain, wet rice-growing country and river flats, and while they include the city and regional centres, the focus was on rural, regional and remote areas.

The field tests and analysis of CDMA coverage was the first of two national audits to be completed this year. The second will test coverage of the Next G network once Telstra advises that the new network is fully deployed.

Regardless of Telstra’s newly majority-private state, mobile phone coverage is a critical issue in rural electorate all over Australia.

The Nationals’ support of the T3 Telstra share offer was not won until it had it had a firm commitment from the company and from the government that the Next G third generation mobile network coverage would be the same or better than the CDMA network on which rural Australians rely.

Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce and NSW Nationals Senator Fiona Nash both actively and aggressively lobbied both inside and outside the joint partyroom to make sure mobile coverage did not suffer either because of the sale or because of the move the 3G technology.

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Election year jitters as Telstra cranks Next G

JUST days after announcing surging profits from wireless data traffic, Telstra has cranked up speeds on its Next G third generation mobile network from 3.6Mbps to 14.4Mbps.

In addition to quadrupling the Next G data transfer rates, the company also announced plans to extend the effective range of Next G cells in regional centres from 50 kilometres to 200 kilometres.

Telstra says the improved geographic range of the Next G cells will ultimately provide network coverage to 98.8 per cent of the Australian population.

The company said the extended cell coverage made the Next G system the first in the world to switch on the 200 kilometre-range cells.

Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo said more than 400,000 subscribers had signed up to Next G since the third generation network went live last October.

Politically, the company needs its world-first 200 kilometre cell technology to succeed.

Telstra has already said it will switch off its ageing CDMA network – which is the only mobile system available to many rural and regional Australians – in January next year.

It has also promised its Next G network would provide the same or better coverage before the CDMA network is turned off. The Nationals in Canberra – NSW Senator Fiona Nash and Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce – intend on making sure Telstra keeps that promise.

Regardless of Telstra’s majority-private ownership, in an election year mobile coverage in the bush is an issue the Nationals are prepared to die in a ditch over.

Mr Trujillo used the weekend Next G upgrade announcement to talk up the coverage issue.

“This is a major leap from the 50 kilometre range that was typically supported on our Next G network, and is an important step towards equaling, and in some cases exceeding existing CDMA coverage,” Mr Trujillo said.

Briefing analysts in Sydney last week, Mr Trujillo said Telstra had topped one million 3G mobile subscribers, with a total of 415,000 Next G customers – and that the average revenue per user for these 3G users was $20 per month higher than 2G customers.

The improved multimedia capabilities of the Next G network was changing the way customers used their phones and further driving data traffic, Mr Trujillo said.
“Our Next G customers are using their devices differently to drive dramatic change in usage patterns, migrating from basic voice to content-rich applications,” he said.

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