News

Today's "ubiquitous data" events summary: in brief

Approval against all hope of 802.11a for the UK; and several CeBIT pre-announcements in today's roundup of the rest of the "ubiquitous computing" news

The Government's plans for wireless data: the EU Communication Directives and Spectrum Decision texts have been added to Spectrum Strategy page of the Radiocommunications Agency.

The UK's approval of the first 50 megabit WLAN technology came when the Radiocommunications Agency decided to allow Intel to sell its 802.11a WiFi 5 "before the end of July." ZDNet reported the deal, but failed to mention the presence of a Radiocommunications Agency executive on the 11a working group ...

Second WLAN technology to run at 50 megabits ships, as Atheros Communications produced its first 802.11g silicon chip. This is a standard which isn't finalised yet, but it works in the same way 802.11a does - at the lower frequency of 2.4 GHz (compared with 5GHz for 11a).

Mobile phone sales declined for the first time ever last year, according to a report from Gartner Inc.'s Dataquest unit that said the 399.6 million units shipped in 2001 was 3.2 percent less than the year before (reports Newsbytes). "The removal of prepaid subsidies supporting mobile terminal sales in historically high-growth markets like Western Europe and Latin America was a significant factor in the decline in handset sales during 2001," Bryan Prohm, a Dataquest senior analyst, said.

The commercial version of Sharp's Linux hand-held the SL-5000D PDA will be revealed in mid April. Guests to the launch will be told: "Guy Kewney said he wanted one." Guy Kewney still wants one, as it happens ...

Toshiba's CeBIT launch of a GPRS phone: the new design was produced by UK design consultancy, Alloy Total Product Design, and will appear at CeBIT, Hanover, on 13th March. "It incorporates the latest GPRS technology and represents the best combination of European design and Japanese technology," said the announcement.

Wireless the only hope - with no end in sight for European voice telephony revenue decline, according to the latest research from IDC . Traditional fixed-line voice revenues in most European markets will continue to decline over the next five years. Tariffs will continue to fall faster than traffic increases, producing negative growth in many markets. "The liberalisation of fixed-line voice telephony markets across Europe has developed rapidly over the last year," said Hamish Mackenzie, senior research analyst of IDC's European Telecoms Services programme.

It isn't spam! 12snap, a European mobile marketing company today announced a specialist division dealing primarily with media sales, with the launch of 12snap Media. The medium is the mobile phone: with one of the largest aggregated mobile databases in Europe, 12snap Media will provide clients with access to over 13 million permission based phone numbers in Europe, 8.5 million of which are within the UK. The database can be interrogated and profiled to meet each client's requirements and to ensure effective targeting and minimum waste.

Hands free, cable free in the office: At Cebit 2002, Norwood Systems and Plantronics will be demonstrating how the Plantronics Bluetooth headset can be integrated with Norwood Systems' EnterpriseMobility. Norwood Systems will demonstrate how the headset can be used to create a wirefree and handsfree user experience by using voice recognition capabilities. It will also be shown how it can be integrated with a PDA with dialing functionality. The demonstration will be in Hall 27, Stand B50.

IBM notebooks: there will be an IBM Systems Sales press conference announcing new products in its lightweight xSeries on March 13th, CeBIT. Also, new Bluetooth-enabled desktops and laptops, a new version of Lotus Notes, plus new security addons for mobile personal computing.

Another mobile authentication system The Digipass Go 1 is a stand-alone authentication device, from Vasco Data Security International VDSI , provider of enterprise-wide security products that support e-business and e-commerce. The new Go 1 is a small form token-based authentication device which can dynamically generate passwords for a whole host of applications. On view at the Vasco stand in Hall 17 - booth G17.

ARM gets yet another convert: Macronix International Co. one of Taiwan's leading semiconductor manufacturers, announced that with has licensed the ARM7TDMI microprocessor core. It will deploy the ARM core "alongside its own extensive portfolio of logic Intellectual Property" to offer portable device manufacturers a complete, integrated solution.

Anticipating 3G at CeBIT: Deutsche Telekom AG aims to exploit the multimedia potential of 3G wireless service, and is demonstrating a new portal offering access to content including news, financial data, travel, sports, and entertainment. The objective seems to be to talk down those who are dubious about the future of UMTS.