According to a Cisco and the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) study, 72 percent of security leaders and CIOs witnessed an increased demand for flexibility in using endpoint devices. 59 percent believe rigid policies around the endpoints are frustrating business users.

As part of the joint study called Reinventing the Network in the Context of Security, DSCI covered 90 security officers and CIOs from enterprises and interviewed them in December 2012.

63 percent agree the business groups and their access requirements are getting complex, while 64 percent indicate there has been a rapid increase in requests for authorizing access to mobile devices.

58 percent allow controlled access to emails and calendars and 40 percent offer desktop virtualization access from any device.

46 percent said the adoption of cloud is leading to multiple connection of external application or externally provisioned systems.

40 percent said the increasing adoption of cloud storage facilities causes data to be placed away from the organization’s boundaries.

52 percent agreed that they see an increasing adoption of cloud-based applications.

77 percent said attacks are originating from multiple channels and the attack payload is getting increasingly advanced.

69 percent reveal that managing policies and configuration of devices is a complex undertaking.

Threat and malware protection (86 percent), quarantine of non-standard devices (83 percent), enforceability of network policy on mobile devices (83 percent), encryption of communication and data (79 percent), and security scanning of mobile devices (75 percent) were key concerns for the protection of the endpoints.

40 percent consider securing the advanced mobility enabled enterprise applications a key challenge.

The survey also says that 62 percent believes that applications are no longer residing in the corporate data center.

56 percent felt current solutions are ineffective in managing the security of mobile, BYOD, and virtualization. 53 percent don’t have the capability of integrating external and internal intelligence.

43 percent indicate that capabilities for detecting & blocking attacks that detect known vulnerabilities are insufficient to address threats in the present scenario.

53 percent said that their existing solutions are incompetent to withstand sophisticated, targeted & persistent threats.

editor@telecomlead.com

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Lenovo’s main aim is set to increase focus on smartphone business. Phone business is becoming a life line for Lenovo because its PC business is facing challenges due to shift to tablets and high end phones.

In a 25 March 2012 note, IDC said that Chinese vendors, including Huawei and ZTE as well as Coolpad and Lenovo, have made significant strides to capture new users with their respective Android smartphones in the first quarter of 2013.

In the worldwide smartphone market, vendors shipped 216.2 million units in Q1 2013, which marked the first time more than half (51.6 percent) the total phone shipments in a quarter were smartphones. The market grew 41.6 percent compared to the 152.7 million units shipped in Q1 2012, but 5.1 percent lower than the 227.8 million units shipped in Q4 2012.

For Lenovo, Indian smartphone market – dominated by Samsung – offers tough challenges. One Lenovo is a new entrant to the smartphone arena. Second, Lenovo is yet to become aggressive comparing with Samsung, Nokia, Apple, Sony, BlackBerry, etc.

As director – Smartphones at Lenovo India, Sudhin will be responsible for steering the company’s growth strategies for smartphones in India.

Besides Sony Ericsson, Sudhin also worked with LG Mobiles.

At Sony Ericsson (now Sony Mobile), Sudhin significantly contributed for setting up and launching the Sony Ericsson brand in India.

During his tenure at Sony Ericsson, the businesses grew consistently and the brand emerged as a leading player in the high end mobile devices and services space.

At LG Mobile India, as the business head, he spearheaded the company’s overall business operations for mobile phones in India.

One of the core strategies was to reposition the LG mobile brand image and establish it as a leading player in Smart Phone segment. He restructured the distribution by bringing in regional partners who provided flexibility and created value for retail partners.

editor@telecomlead.com

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The 3G tariff reduction by operators in mid 2012 led to the significant growth in 3G data consumption.

Operators such as Reliance Communications, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Airtel, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone, etc. were aggressively pushing ahead with their 3G data plans.

Earlier this month, Reliance Communications said its 3G subscriber base reached 7.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. Reliance Communications’ data customers touched 29.4 million during the fourth quarter.

Its rival Bharti Airtel’s 3G subscribers reached 6.4 million in the fourth quarter. Airtel earlier said data continues to lead the mobile segment growth in India, through deeper penetration and consumption. Idea Cellular’s 3G subscriber base reached 5.1 million, while data ARPU rose to Rs 55.

The study says category A circles were the biggest contributor for 3G data that rose three times.

3G services, launched in 2010, contributed significantly to the growth of mobile data in India that nearly doubled in 2012.

In category A circles, half the number of smartphone users still use 2G for data in the Indian telecom market.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ MBit Index study reveals a 92 percent increase in mobile data traffic generated by both 2G and 3G services in India between December 2011 and December 2012.

Mobile data traffic generated by 3G services increased by 196 percent while mobile data traffic generated by 2G services increased by 66 percent during the period.

Each 3G user currently consumes close to 300 percent more data on an average than a 2G user. Currently, 3G user consumes 434 MB per month on an average while a 2G user consumes 115 MB per month.

In the first half of the research period, December 2011- June 2012, data traffic generated by 3G services increased by 78 percent while that of 2G services increased by 47 percent.

In the second half, July 2012 – December 2012, data traffic generated by 3G services increased by 54 percent while that of 2G services increased by 18 percent on a larger base.

The growth rate of 3G data in the second half of 2012 was almost triple that of the growth rate of 2G. In the second half, 2G data growth stabilized due to high-end 2G users migrating to 3G services.

“The fact that data consumption by 3G users has tripled in one year clearly shows the rapid and steady increase in mobile data consumption in India. This translates into the need for high-quality mobile broadband services with improved speed and service quality to satisfy mobile broadband users,” said Sandeep Girotra, head of India region at Nokia Siemens Networks.

editor@telecomlead.com

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On Tuesday, Apple CEO tried to defend Apple from charges the company avoids tens of billions of dollars in U.S. taxes by shifting income to foreign affiliates.

The mobile devices industry is liking Apple’s spectacular tax-dodging techniques. They will not complain because several competitors may be following the formula.

There are two valid points. First, no one is suggesting that any of these techniques are illegal. Second, no one is suggesting that Apple is doing anything that any number of other massive multi-national companies aren’t doing.

Third, no one is suggesting that companies should voluntarily pay more taxes than they absolutely have to pay.

According to U.S.-based tax expert David Cay Johnston, the Supreme Court says a company or an individual has an absolute right to pay the minimum in tax the law requires.

Apple has released its own testimony on the tax issue, in which it points out that it is one of the largest U.S. taxpayers and explains that it does not resort to some of the gimmicks that other companies use to avoid U.S. taxes.

These positions, importantly, are not mutually exclusive. And the respective arguments will give you a sense of how complex this issue is.

Here’s what Congress says Apple has been doing to dodge taxes:

Using a so-called cost sharing agreement to transfer valuable intellectual property assets offshore and shift the resulting profits to a tax haven jurisdiction.

Taking advantage of weaknesses and loopholes in tax law and regulations to disregard offshore subsidiaries for tax purposes, shielding billions of dollars in income that could otherwise be taxable in the U.S.

Negotiating a tax rate of less than 2 percent with the government of Ireland – significantly lower than that nation’s 12 percent statutory rate – and using Ireland as the base for its extensive network of offshore subsidiaries.

According to a report in Forbes, the report alleges Apple reduced its U.S. corporate income tax by an average of $10 billion-a-year for the past four years. Since the corporate levy generated only about $240 billion in 2012, $10 billion foregone from one company is a very big number indeed.

But while it added a few interesting twists, Apple cut its taxes with the same tools multinationals have been using for years to minimize their worldwide tax liability. Apple’s tax avoidance shop, it seems, is a lot less innovative than its phone designers.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Ireland said it was not to blame for Apple Inc’s low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.

The Irish government, which has seen the luring of U.S. multinationals with low taxes as a key part of its economic policy since the 1960s, said its system was transparent and other countries were responsible if the tax rate paid by Apple was too low.

According to a report in guardian.co.uk, congressional investigators released findings on Monday showing that Apple uses a highly questionable tax minimization strategy of impressive complexity. Several subsidiaries set up by the company, according to investigators, have few or no employees. Located in Ireland, these subsidiaries allowed the company to exist effectively nowhere in certain cases.

editor@telecomlead.com

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Small cell will enhance the capacity in Verizon’s 4G LTE network, enabling it to continue providing high quality and reliable mobile broadband service to its customers.

“Small cells will play a role in the Verizon Wireless strategy to add capacity in high-traffic locations and provide the best customer experience possible on the nation’s largest 4G LTE network,” said Mike Haberman, vice president – Network Support, Verizon Wireless.

Infonetics forecasts the global small cell market to grow rapidly, with about 3 million small cells shipping and the market worth about $2.1 billion in 2016.

For the next 3 years, most operators are planning small cells only in the urban core. Infonetics expects public space femtocells to make up more than 50 percent of all small cells shipped in 2012.

In 2013, Infonetics expects 3G small cells to make up 63 percent of global small cell shipments, with 4G small cells kicking off and ramping up rapidly to make up 37 percent. 4G small cells will overtake 3G small cells by 2015.

Infonetics says early femtocell adopters such as AT&T, Softbank and Vodafone and macro network density dictate which regions represent the largest small cell opportunities, with Asia Pacific expected to lead with 44 percent of all units shipped in 2012, followed by EMEA with 32 percent.

For Ericsson, small cell is a key part of Ericsson’s heterogeneous network strategy. It provides full-service transparency in the network, ensuring that VoLTE, eMBMS and similar functionality work seamlessly in the network.

Ericsson will be providing its micro RRUS (Remote Radio Unit) small cells for Verizon’s 4G LTE network. The micro RRUS is easily integrated into the overall network since it works with any baseband unit part of the RBS 6000 product line.

Later this year, Ericsson will also provide micro RBS 6501 (Radio Base Station) for the Verizon network. Another industry first, the Ericsson micro RBS 6501 is a multi-standard base station supporting 3GPP 37.104 and provides local-area and medium-range coverage in a heterogeneous network environment. The micro RBS delivers high-capacity coverage in a small form factor.

Ericsson faces tough competition in the small cell market. Strategy Analytics says Cisco’s recently announced acquisition of small cell provider Ubiquisys positions the IP vendor to compete head-to-head with Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NSN and other mobile infrastructure vendors.

Cisco has been steadily building and acquiring elements of mobile infrastructure for over a decade, and the Ubiquisys solutions along with acquisition of Intucell for Self Optimizing Network (SON) software and Radio Access Network (RAN) multi-vendor HetNet management, nearly completes the portfolio.

Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com

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On the other hand, FD-LTE, the technology used by several global mobile operators including Verizon, AT&T, etc. will cover 57 percent population during the same period.

ABI Research says FDD networks will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33 percent between 2012 and 2018 TDD networks will gain ground at a more rapid rate of 43 percent during this period but will only reach 52 percent population coverage due to fewer licensed markets currently.

Slightly more than half of the contracts concluded are related to LTE-FDD.

“However, LTE-TDD will start to close the gap,” said Ying Kang Tan, research associate at ABI Research.

Dual-mode device chipsets supporting both variants as well as converged FDD/TDD network solutions are already available. It’s only a matter of time before the need for more spectrum pushes an increasing number of operators to embrace both simultaneously.

Concerning spectrum, about three-quarters of recent and upcoming auctions grant the rights to deploy 4G networks. Of these, 29 percent involve 2,600 MHz, 25 percent 800 MHz, and 22 percent 1,800 MHz, making these three bands the most popular.

Currently, 1,800 MHz is the most widely used frequency band for LTE. The rising popularity of 800 MHz, especially in Europe, will help operators save cost when fulfilling the aggressive roll-out obligation set by regulators worldwide, which is a key reason for the rapid increase in population coverage.

In an April 10, 2013 note, Infonetic said that LTE in China to grow at a 38 percent CAGR from 2012 to 2017. In fact, The mobile infrastructure (2G, 3G, 4G) market in China fell 4 percent year-over-year in 2012, dragged down by GSM, W-CDMA, and CDMA2000.

Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research, said: “2012 was the LTE year in Japan following a year marked by 3G reconstruction efforts after the earthquake and tsunami.”

LTE revenue in Japan soared 188 percent and will keep its momentum this year, driven by accelerated rollouts and the increasing willingness of service providers to shut down 3G.

Infonetics also said the LTE market will almost double in 2013, easily passing the $10-billion mark for the first time. Operators are in the midst of a second wave of LTE deployments, and LTE-Advanced is gearing for true 4G prime time, with NTT DOCOMO, SK telecom, and likely Russia’s Yota all planning launches this year.

editor@telecomlead.com

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Pakistan’s mobile service provider says the offer is valid for Warid’s Prepaid and Postpaid customers.

Warid is offering attractive features with the Double SIM offer.

Subscribers can specify the schedule to shut down their double number for a specific time period, for example from 2am to 8am every day.

Mobile numbers can be blocked for incoming calls or SMS on the double number. Subscribers of this offer also have the liberty to turn their double number off or on at anytime.

For the double number prepaid customers calls will be charged Rs 1.60 + tax/minute and SMS rates will be Rs. 0.50 + tax, subscription charges will be Rs 7 + tax/week.

Postpaid customers will be charged as per the customer’s tariff plan for the calls they make from their double number and an SMS will be charged Rs 0.50 + tax, subscription charges will be Rs 28 + tax/month.

editor@telecomlead.com

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The investment is primarily for changing equipment and training personnel while adopting the new Internet Protocol IPv6.  This new protocol is based on 128 bits architecture as against the current IPv4 that is based on 32 bits.

The main benefit is that the switch over from existing IPv4 to IPv6 will bring more secure e-mail address against hacking, limitless address space, e-mail address like AADHAR number for multiple uses including phone number on a global scale.

“A major goal of new generation networks is to facilitate convergence of networks and services,” said NK Gupta, director (CFA), BSNL.

Speaking at an event in Delhi, Gupta said that the address space of 4 billion addresses in existing IPv4 had been exhausted. Increasing demand for IP addresses acted as the driving force behind the development of the large address space offered by IPv6.

“IPv6 is a dynamic host configured protocol that provides flexibility that it enables plug and play action in a whole range of services,” said SN Gupta, who serves as member of the Government committee for IPv6 address allocation policy in India.

Opportunities in the switch over are reduced operational expenditure due to simplicity and rationalization of network, network expansion easier due to future proof technology, triple play services to rural areas bridging the digital divide.

Several issues such as standards and interoperability, higher capital expenditure without corresponding increase in unit revenue and costs in migration are affecting the migration.

Rajesh Rampal, head – IT, Aircel, said: “North America had already moved to this new technology while in Europe many were yet to move fast and in Asia it was just gaining ground.”

A roadmap for shift to IPv6 had to be implemented by telecom operators both in GSM and CDMA platforms. This roadmap needs to be completed by 2016 and the training of personnel as well as equipment change needs to be accelerated.

editor@telecomlead.com

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T-Mobile International Flat-Rate Plan and the T-Mobile North America Flat-Rate Plan provide access to up to 150MB, 400MB, 1GB or 2GB of international data at predictable rates with no international roaming tolls or overage charges on T-Mobile’s partner networks in 119 global destinations.

The new packages, according to T-Mobile, are designed to address the increasing demand for data and the costs associated with international data roaming.

“The biggest pain point around international business travel, besides the travel itself, is the unpredictability of the wireless bill following the trip – from international data roaming fees to costly overage charges,” said Drew Kelton, T-Mobile’s Executive Vice President, B2B.

Customers can select passes with up to 150MB for $25 per month or $120 per month (plus taxes and fees) for up to 1GB of data.

T-Mobile North American Flat-Rate Plan, offers overage-free, high-speed data across North America, including Canada and Mexico, on its partner networks. Pricing begins at $15 per month for up to 150MB or $70 (plus taxes and fees) for up to 1GB of high-speed data. To avoid costly overages charges, both new data offerings slow data transmissions when users have used their high-speed data allotments.

editor@telecomlead.com

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The closure of the telecom cable unit will primarily affect operations in Hudiksvall and Stockholm in Sweden.

Ericsson says 380 jobs will be immediately affected in Hudiksvall. Ericsson has 36 positions in Stockholm. But the company is yet to announce its plans on the 36 jobs.

Its telecom cables operation is within business unit Networks.

Ericsson has already started negotiations with trade unions.

The company says the market for copper cable has declined and the market for fiber cable has grown over the last years. The production has shifted towards Asia, where the majority of the business volumes for fiber cable are found. In Europe there is more production than demand for both copper and fiber cables.

The decision is based on the fact that Ericsson’s production of telecom cables is small from a global perspective, and that we also have a small market share. There is overproduction on the cable market in Europe. Ericsson’s production has not been operating at full capacity for a long time and has struggled with profitability.

Net sales for telecom cables operations in 2012 amounted to approximately SEK 1 billion.

The closure of the cable unit will generate restructuring charges of about SEK 0.5 billion.

With the current time plan, approximately half will impact of business unit Networks’ operating income in the second quarter 2013. The rest will impact Networks’ operating income in the third quarter 2013.

Last month, Ericsson sold its power cable business to Danish company NKT Cables for $38 million (SEK 250 million). Ericsson has generated revenues of SEK 1.5 billion from the power cable operation in 2012. Ericsson will transfer 320 employees and consultants, primarily based in Sweden, to NKT Cables. NKT Cables will take over a factory in Falun, Sweden.

editor@telecomlead.com

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