Connected cars are fast becoming the topic that has the telecoms industry’s tongues wagging excitedly. This year, Ford’s chairman gave a keynote presentation at Mobile World Congress, RIM showcased a connected Porsche at its BlackBerry World 2012 event, and Google secured the first ever self-driving car licence in the US. And as the connected car market continues to evolve, mobile operators are finding that they have a key part to play in the ecosystem, and are having to invest time and resources to ensure they are not overlooked as the connected car market matures.
Legislation being passed through European Court could radically change the EU roaming market and see operators competing for the business of travellers and the creation of an EU-wide “roaming marketplace”.
The GSMA has announced a collaboration with the Wireless Broadband Alliance aimed at simplifying the process by which mobile devices connect to wifi networks. The joint initiative will see the SIM adopted as the principal means by which managed wifi networks identify mobile devices, paving the way for cross-network roaming agreements.
The European Commission is considering an investigation into major European operators over charges of possible collusion.
According to reports, the alleged collusion began in 2010 between executives from Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Vodafone. It is understood that one of the main topics was the threat of competition from Google and Apple.
The GSMA, which organises Mobile World Congress, has announced that Russian OSS/BSS firm CBOSS will not be allowed to exhibit at the 2013 event, having this year been found in breach of show regulations. CBOSS has long been renowned for its use of attractive, often scantily clad young women as a means of driving traffic to its stand.
The number of mobile connected devices in the world is set to grow 100 per cent from more than six billion today to 12 billion in 2020, according to research unveiled by industry association the GSMA.
The GSM Association (GSMA) has suggested to the government of Taiwan that the country should move away from WiMAX and focus instead on LTE, in order to take advantage of the economies of scale provided by the now mainstream next generation mobile standard.
There’s usually no shortage of opinion in this industry, so I’ve been surprised by the reticence I’ve encountered trying to find out what the big operators think about Neul, the UK startup that reckons a new wireless data standard it’s developed for operation in the TV broadcast white space spectrum should—and will—be adopted for M2M services worldwide.
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It was with watery eyed reminiscence that the Informer read through the announcement this week that Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA, is to step down September 1st. “After 12 years I feel very good that I am leaving the GSMA,” he said. Which is frank, at least.
With shares rising on the back of speculation of a T-Mobile/Sprint merger in the US, Deutsche Telekom CFO Tim Hoettges declined to comment on “rumour and speculation” saying only that the company is “open to all options” and that it is “flexibly positioned.”