Wireless

From left to right: Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm CEO; Irwin Jacobs, chairman and former CEO of Qualcomm; Steve Largent, CTIA president and CEO

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET )

SAN DIEGO--Executives from mobile chipmaker Qualcomm said Thursday at the CTIA Fall 2009 show here that more wireless spectrum is needed to sustain current trends in wireless data traffic. The father-and-son duo who serve as chairman and CEO of the company respectively also warned against stringent Net neutrality regulation.

Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm's founder, former CEO, and current chairman, and Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm's current chief executive, took the stage at the event with CTIA CEO and President Steve Largent for a conversation about the past and future of the wireless industry. As part of the discussion, both Jacobses said that more wireless spectrum is needed to keep up with the pace of customer demand for wireless Internet services. And they warned against strict regulation that could restrict operators' ability to manage their networks.

The CTIA, which is the lobbying organization for the wireless industry, has been pushing the Federal Communications Commission to allocate more spectrum for auction. The group sent a letter recently asking the FCC to allocate an additional 800 MHz of spectrum.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said during his keynote address here Wednesday that finding more spectrum is the No. 1 priority for the agency. And he promised that the commission would do all it can to encourage more efficient use of spectrum, as well as, reallocate spectrum and find new spectrum to auction off.

Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm's current CEO, said that engineers are at their limit in terms of squeezing out efficiencies within the current bands of spectrum. Qualcomm, which was founded in 1985, has been instrumental in the development of the wireless industry. The company holds hundreds of patents and its engineers have invented technology that is fundamental to most cell phones used throughout the world today.

"We've done what we can in the lab to make mobile devices more efficient," he said. "We will have to use different tricks now to get to the next level."

He said that wireless operators, when building the next generation of 4G wireless networks, will have to build more dense networks with towers spaced closer together. He said managing the interference among these radios will be a challenge but that engineers will be able to figure it out.

The elder Jacobs also suggested using femto cells, which create personal cell sites to boost cellular phone signals in homes or offices.

The younger Jacobs said that wireless operators also need to add more capacity to their backhaul networks. This is the part of the network that connects the wireless tower to the carrier's backbone network. And the problem today is that many connections from the cell towers to the backbone don't have enough capacity to support the traffic coming from within the cell sites.

"With data there are large peak to average ratios," Paul Jacobs said. "Data traffic is very bursty, which means you need more head room in the backhaul network."

But even with increased capacity throughout the network, wireless operators will also have to manage their networks to handle the growing data traffic. Paul Jacobs added that the industry must be careful to avoid overly burdensome regulation that could interfere with this traffic management. He also said strict Net neutrality rules could hamper the development of new business models, such as the one that's used for the e-reader by Amazon Kindle. Customers who buy the Kindle don't sign up to a wireless service. The service is bundled into the cost of the device.

Paul Jacobs' comments echoed sentiments expressed by Ralph de la Vega AT&T's wireless CEO during his speech on Wednesday. De la Vega referenced "broadband hogs," who use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. And he said it is important, especially with respect to wireless networks, to make sure that a few subscribers don't eat up all the bandwidth so that there is nothing left for other customers.

The comments come as the FCC prepares to make its Net neutrality principles for an open Internet official regulation. Critics of Net neutrality regulation, such as the phone companies, say they don't want to lose the ability to manage their networks. And de la Vega said specifically that he doesn't believe that wireless and wireline networks should follow the same regulations.

But Chairman Genachowski said he understands that Internet providers and wireless operators in particular need to manage their networks.

"We recognize there are differences between wired and wireline network technologies," Genachowski said during a press conference Wednesday. "They are different networks. And because they are different, I have said the rules that are adopted need to allow for reasonable network management. But we need to have clear rules of the road for everyone regardless of how they access the Internet."

Paul Jacobs said Thursday that he thinks Genachowski understands the wireless industry's challenges. But he said that other regulators and politicians may need more of an education.

"During the Internet bubble there was all kind of funding for dark fiber," he said. "And I think people thought carrying those bits was free. But it's not. It's expensive. And I think the regulators may not realize how expensive it could get."

Qualcomm will offer its FLO TV on a handheld television, putting this existing service on a dedicated device for the first time.

Qualcomm's FLO TV Personal Television

(Credit: Qualcomm)

FLO TV, the Qualcomm-owned provider of a live mobile TV service, unveiled the FLO TV Personal Television on Tuesday, with availability slated for holiday season at retailers.

FLO, or "forward link only" technology, is designed for multicasting a large volume of rich multimedia content cost effectively to wireless subscribers. AT&T and Verizon already offer FLO TV on mobile phones in the U.S.

Qualcomm says the FLO TV Personal Television is "created with the single focus of delivering high-quality TV." The device receives live and time-shifted content with no buffering, downloading or waiting to view content, according to Qualcomm.

Content includes CNBC, Comedy Central, ESPN, ESPNews, Fox, Fox News, Fox Sports, MSNBC, MTV, NBC2Go, NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Nickelodeon, CBS, CBS College Sports, and CBS News. (Editors' note: CBS College Sports and CBS News are offerings of CBS, which is also the parent company of CNET News.)

Though handheld TV is still somewhat of an unknown quantity, viewership--like that of more traditional big-screen TV-- tends to spike during major national events, according to Qualcomm. Its service saw a surge in viewers, for example, during March Madness--the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.

Qualcomm cited market research from TeleAnalytics that projects a broadcast mobile TV market of $2.8 billion and 50 million users in North American by 2013.

FLO TV Personal Television subscription service starts at $8.99 per month and the device will sell for $249.99. Specifications include a 3.5-inch diagonal screen and weight of of just over 5 ounces. Its battery supports more than 5 hours of active FLO TV viewing or 300 hours standby.

The television uses a capacitive touch-screen allowing channel surfing with a finger swipe. It also includes a built-in stand and stereo speakers.

PASADENA, Calif.--Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has a lot to say about the mobile operating system he held off on--Android--and not so much about the phone he has backed, Palm's Pre.

At Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here on Friday, he said that he's limited on what he can say about how the Pre is doing because Sprint reports earnings shortly.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse (center) speaks with Fortune's Jon Fortt (left) at the Brainstorm: Tech conference, along with Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs (right).

Despite that, he told the audience that the primary constraint for selling the Pre has been the number of devices that Palm has made--not demand for the product, he said.

"There have been shortages of the device," Hesse said. Realistically, he said, Sprint won't know if it is a hit for three or four months. "It's too early to tell."

Hesse also said that Palm Pre returns aren't as high as people think.

"There's things all over people are speculating," Hesse said. "Most of the speculation I read is wrong."

As for Android, Hesse said his company is a big supporter of the operating system, but is glad the company waited until the second version of the Google-backed operating system.

"The reviews say now it's ready for prime time," Hesse said. "It wasn't when it first came out."

Hesse said Sprint will have at least one Android-based device for sale this year.

Qualcomm

(Credit: Qualcomm)

BARCELONA--It looks like mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and handset maker Nokia have finally buried the hatchet.

On Tuesday, the companies, which were once entangled in a bitter legal battle, announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 here that they would collaborate on developing technologies for 3G smartphones sold for the North American market.

The new devices will use Nokia's S60 software, which uses the Symbian OS, and advanced chipsets from Qualcomm that use its Mobile Station Modem technology. The first mobile devices to come out of this collaboration are expected in mid 2010, the companies said. And they will be compatible with technology being developed by the new Symbian Foundation.

Nokia's CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, touted the partnership during a keynote speech at GSMA MWC on Tuesday morning in which he talked about the need for more collaboration.

"We need to be open to change," he said. "We have to work with competitors and our partners in different ways than we have done in the past."

Indeed, the pairing is somewhat surprising considering the two companies' litigious past. For three years, the companies were in a battle over patent licenses and royalty rights. The companies ended up suing each other and finally settled their legal differences in July 2008. As part of the agreement, Nokia agreed to pay Qualcomm back-royalties, plus royalties going forward. Financial terms of the deal were never released publicly.

Though Apple has yet to offer built-in 3G on MacBooks, pairing them up with phones like the Blackberry Storm provides a decent wireless workaround.

The MacBook Air can use the Blackberry Storm as a Bluetooth 3G modem

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

In December, I took the MacBook Air (i.e., the designers of the Air) to task for what I thought was a serious technological gaffe: not building 3G into the Air. At the very least, I thought 3G should have been included in the October refresh of the Air.

But I'm not going to rehash those gripes here (or repeat Apple's likely reasons for not including 3G). This time I bring good tidings.

After recently picking up a Blackberry Storm (Verizon), I quickly set it up as a Bluetooth "3G" modem by pairing it with my MacBook Air. The Blackberry uses an EV-DO 3G connection.

The Storm was relatively easy to set up and "tether" to the Air. And the results were better than I expected. Using Speedtest.net, I got download speeds of up to 1,088 Kbps (though it was typically closer to 500-600 Kbps) and uploads of up to 127 Kbps. Not torrential bandwidth but certainly good enough for the occasions when I don't have access to Wi-Fi (or when the Wi-Fi is iffy).

By comparison, on my Hewlett-Packard 2510p ultraportable with a built-in Verizon EV-DO modem, Speedtest.net said I was getting download speeds of up to 1,392 Kbps and uploads of 469 Kbps. (The Air's Wi-Fi connection gets about 2X download and 4X upload more than the Storm.)

As to setup: First, pair the two Bluetooth devices, then configure the phone on the MacBook side, telling it during the configuration process that you want to "Access the Internet with your phone's data connection." In Verizon's case, the account name is yourphonenumber@vzw3.com Then, in the next screen, you select "vendor: other" and "Verizon support, PC5220." (See screen shot of OS X 10.5.6 configuration Network setup.)

Setting up the Blackberry Storm as a Bluetooth modem was relatively easy

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

Do I still wish Apple would build 3G into the MBA? Of course. But I am pretty satisfied with this solution for now. Particularly when it allows me to extract more functionality out of the Storm. (Which as a standalone 3G phone I like a lot and which I will review in the near future.).

Verizon, however, does charge extra for tethering, particularly if the Storm is connected via USB. I have no interest in a USB connection (at least, not at this time) because that defeats the purpose of having a wireless Bluetooth-enabled phone. As people have pointed out, a Bluetooth modem is much more convenient. Particularly for frequent travelers. I can just attach the Blackberry to my belt and use the Air as though it had a built-in 3G modem.

(Note: A reader in Ireland provided the inspiration to use the Storm as a modem when he correctly pointed out that internal 3G access would start to get expensive if you had a modem in each computer, with each requiring a separate subscription. Or would become inconvenient if you kept having to move SIM cards between computers.)

(Also note that a quick search will yield examples of people who have hooked their Blackberry up to a MacBook.)

Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm has developed a new, low-cost computing platform that it hopes will provide an alternative to Windows-based PCs in parts of the world where traditional broadband connections aren't available.

The new platform called Kayak will be based on Qualcomm's dual-core MSM7 series chipsets. Eventually, the design could also include Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipsets, which offer both GSM-based and CDMA-based 3G technologies.

Qualcomm hopes the Kayak platform can fill a much needed niche between Windows PCs and smart phones when it comes to providing Internet-enabled devices in the developing world. PCs or laptops are often too expensive for people in these regions of the world. And because traditional broadband connections aren't available, it's difficult to connect PCs to the Internet.

That said, 3G networks are deployed throughout much of the world. As a result, it's becoming more common for people in developing markets to connect to the Internet via a 3G-enabled smartphone rather than a PC. But smartphones have small screens and keypads and don't provide all the necessary computing power for fully engaging the Internet.

This is where Qualcomm believes its Kayak devices come in. Devices that use the Kayak design could plug into TVs, computer monitors, or have their own built-in displays. They also support a keyboard and mouse and will be able to play digital music files as well as allow users to play 3-D games. And Qualcomm expects these devices to sell for less than $400 when bundled with a 3G wireless service from a carrier, which could hit an important sweet spot in developing markets.

"The broad footprint of 3G networks means that wireless is the answer to Internet access for worldwide markets--especially in emerging regions," Luis Pineda, senior vice president of marketing and product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, said in a statement. "The Kayak PC alternative is a great example of how Qualcomm is leveraging cloud computing over wireless broadband networks to help bring new areas of the world into the global online community for the first time."

Manufacturers can design their own "Kayak" device
Qualcomm will not be manufacturing Kayak computing devices itself. Instead, the company plans to make a reference design and recommended software specifications available to device manufacturers. Manufacturers can then design their own devices based on the Kayak specification.

Taiwan's Inventec is making products based on the design. The devices will be tested early next year over CDMA networks in Southeast Asia, Qualcomm said.

"Emerging markets will be a huge growth driver for the telecommunications industry in the coming years," Mark Hirsch, vice president of corporate marketing at Inventec, said in a statement.

Qualcomm's Kayak effort is just one of many that have emerged to help get low-cost, Internet-connected computing devices in the hands of people in the developing world. Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, launched the One Laptop Per Child initiative, which is also trying to provide low-cost laptops to kids in developing regions. AMD, Intel, and Microsoft have also launched efforts to provide inexpensive devices in these markets.

Loopt, the friend tracking software developer, has struck a licensing deal with a Qualcomm subsidiary to help lower the cost of providing location services.

The company will announce Thursday that it has signed an agreement with SnapTrack, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, to use QPoint location-based server software to provide social mapping and other advanced location services.

Location-based services are expected to generate a lot of money for carriers in the future. Already, most major mobile operators are offering some kind of location-based service, such as GPS-enabled navigation or tracking. But the service hasn't taken off in any big way yet.

One of the main barriers has been the fact that the licensing fees on the GPS location information captured by the phone via the SnapTrack technology is very high. Today, carriers must pay at least a few pennies every time a location query is made. This may sound low, but it adds up. And it's a cost that is difficult to make up considering that most targeted location-based advertising generates less cash per query than the licensing fee, said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of Loopt.

"The cost structure for location based services has been out whack," he said. "That's one of the reasons that these services and location-based advertising haven't take off yet."

Under the new arrangement, Loopt will pay a flat fee per month per user, which provides unlimited location queries. This means than instead of paying a few cents for every query, the cost of discovering a location can be scaled back to tenths or hundredths of a cent depending on how many location queries a customer makes in a month.

This makes implementing location-based services much more affordable for carriers, who would like to generate revenue on these services through targeted advertising.

Loopt also plans to provide its location-based technology to other software developers, so that they can develop location-aware applications. The new licensing arrangement with Qualcomm will also allow these software developers to benefit from the Loopt-SnapTrack licensing deal.

Loopt already offers its friend-finding and alerts service to Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Alltel. It also offers its application through Apple's iPhone App Store.

Chipmaker Broadcom announced on Wednesday it is once again suing Qualcomm, claiming the company's sales and licensing practices amount to patent misuse.

The complaint was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego. According to Broadcom's claims, Qualcomm receives royalties twice for its patents by controlling the post-sale use of its already-"exhausted" wireless communications patents. Qualcomm's control over its patents constitutes misuse, Broadcom claims, and has brought harm to the industry and consumers.

The lawsuit continues a series of battles over wireless communications patents between Qualcomm and Broadcom. Most recently, a federal appeals court on Sept. 24 affirmed an earlier ruling in federal court that Qualcomm was infringing upon two of Broadcom's cell phone patents. The appeals court did, however, find that Qualcomm was not infringing upon one other patent in question.

In 2007, the U.S. International Trade Commission banned the import of new models of 3G wireless handsets with Qualcomm chipsets because they infringed upon a Broadcom patent. Broadcom's disputes with Qualcomm over wireless communications technology began in 2005.

Chipmaker Broadcom has won the latest battle in a long patent war with Qualcomm.

On Wednesday a federal appeals court affirmed that Qualcomm is infringing on two cell phone patents. It also upheld an injunction against Qualcomm selling products with technology that infringes the two patents.

But it wasn't a total loss for Qualcomm. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Qualcomm was not infringing on one of the three patents in question. This patent relates to video compression technology.

That said, the court affirmed the judgment of infringement on two other patents. One patent has to do with walkie-talkie technology and the other one involves cell phones that switch between multiple wireless networks.

The permanent injunction contains a sunset provision that allows Qualcomm to sell its products and pay royalties to Broadcom through January 2009. But Qualcomm has developed technology that circumvents the disputed patents, which means newer QChat phones, which use the walkie-talkie technology, aren't affected.

In August a federal judge ruled that Qualcomm was in contempt of an injunction that bans the use of patented wireless technology owned by Broadcom. Qualcomm appealed the decision.

In May 2007, a jury found that Qualcomm had violated patents held by Broadcom that help cell phones process video and walkie-talkie conversations. And the judge in the case ordered Qualcomm to stop using the technology and to pay Broadcom royalties on existing infringing QChat products.

Qualcomm and Broadcom have been battling each other in court since 2005. In the past couple of years, the smaller Broadcom has aggressively defended its patents and won several victories. Last year, it won a major victory when the U.S. International Trade Commission ordered a ban on the import of all new models of 3G wireless handsets with Qualcomm chipsets that infringe Broadcom patents.