Growth opportunity for WLAN chips substantial, In-Stat
In-Stat/MDR says that consumer electronics (CE) and Wi-Fi telephony will fuel wireless local area network (WLAN) integrated circuit growth over the next number of years. The research company also notes that WLAN chip growth will also benefit from the integration of WLAN and cellular networks. "In-Stat finds several key drivers for Wi-Fi/cellular integration: customers benefit from cheaper and higher-quality calls while on the WLAN infrastructure while still being able to place regular calls when away from Wi-Fi access, customers benefit from being able to consolidate multiple devices down to one handset, and cellular providers hope to use Wi-Fi cellular handsets to cement customer relationships and reduce churn in their subscriber bases," writes the company. Roughly half of the US$2.1 billion in revenue expected to be earned in 2008 from WLAN chips sold will come into the consumer electronics and IP telephony applications.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.

Bell Mobility makes new data services available to subs
Bell Mobility is making the most of new and emerging wireless data services introducing video messaging service and ringtones services. With the introduction of Samsung’s SPH-a680 handset, Bell Mobility subscribers can now capture and send a 15-second video clip to each other and to Sprint PCS subscribers. The Samsung handset retails for $299 with a three-year contract, $324 with a two-year contract and $399 with one-year service. Suggested retail price is $449.The SPH-a680 comes equipped with a camcorder and movie light, flash camera and 10x zoom. Digital talk time is up to 180 minutes and digital standby time is up to 168 hours (seven days).

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.

Mark Wolinsky recently commented to Report on Wireless that at the time the inter-carrier Wi-Fi roaming agreement was signed in August 2003 he felt it to be anticompetitive towards independent Wi-Fi operators (see lead article). RoW editor Perry Hoffman expressed similar concerns to CRTC chair Charles Dalfen in the fall of 2003.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.