Studio Press

Nera Malaysia has launched the world's smallest and lightest mobile broadband satellite terminal in Malaysia. Nera Malaysia is linked to its Norway-based parent company that specialises in marketing telecommunication products to companies in the energy, technology and banking industries. According to Nera Malaysia's managing director Ahmad Fauzan Hashim, the company is targeting to sell 1,000 units of the broadband equipment which offers both voice communications and data services suitable for remote and disaster-affected areas. "Malaysia is the fourth country in Asia after Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines to have launched the product," he said during the launch of the broadband equipment called Nera WorldPro 1000. Nera Telecommunications Ltd (Asia)'s executive vice president of satellite communications, Dr Tan Hong Pew, said the Nera WorldPro 1000 could be used in almost any part of the world. "By 2007, it will have complete global coverage when the network reaches the Pacific Ocean," he said. The Nera WorldPro 1,000 set-up equipment is retailed at RM12,000 per set. "We are targeting to bundle with a telecommunications provider in a month's time for network integration," Tan said. According to him, the Nera WorldPro 1000 international calls rates are relatively cheaper than most other mobile lines. "It will cost about US$1 per minute for roaming charges as compared to the market rate of about US$2 to US$3 per minute," he said. The Nera WorldPro 1000 uses an antenna unit that homes in on the new Inmarsat 1-4 satellite. This gives the Nera WorldPro 1000 almost worldwide usability, receiving at 384 kilobits per second and transmitting at 240 kilobits per second. These rates are similar to terrestrial broadband and five to six times better than the existing mobile satellite services, the company said.- BERNAMA

Motorola has joined the governing board of the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance with the hope of creating lower-cost, compatible networks for richer mobile multimedia experiences. “The architecture Motorola has already defined for its Seamless Mobility evolution provides us with a blueprint to drive our work in the compatibility standards arena,” said Mike Pellon, vice president of Motorola’s standards unit. “Motorola’s involvement with groups such as the Wi-Fi Alliance will make possible new wireless communication networks that combine cellular and Wi-Fi in exciting ways. Our goal is to reduce the cost of such networks while providing enhanced data and multimedia services to users.” “Wi-Fi is rapidly expanding beyond the PC market segment into phones and consumer electronics,” said Frank Hanzlik, Managing Director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. “Motorola’s industry leadership and global presence will help us continue to drive industry growth through our Wi-Fi CERTIFIED interoperability program.” Wi-Fi is a key component of Motorola’s Seamless Mobility vision that enables an extension of broadband services into the home and business environments. Motorola is currently working to integrate the technology into cellular handsets to enable broader services and access while roaming between wide area and local networks. Motorola has been active in recent metropolitan projects through the creation of public Wi-Fi hot-spots and has increased its focus on the Public Safety market. The company also is working to create ad-hoc Wi-Fi networks using mesh technology and experimenting with projects such as Wi-Fi-only handsets optimized for services to transmit voice communications over the Internet. Industry standardization efforts are led by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which has devised a series of communications standards, known as IEEE 802. Motorola currently is involved with IEEE working groups for wireless local area networks (802.11) and emerging standards to govern uninterrupted movement between different network types (802.21).

Malaysian mobile industry professionals can look forward to the establishment of MobileMonday, a non-profit and open community that promotes the wireless industry, and fosters cooperation and networking among industry players.

The community will launch its Malaysia Chapter on April 24 here at the Regent Hotel. The event will be attended by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Sri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, who will deliver the inaugurating address.

According to the founding member of MobileMonday’s Malaysia Chapter, Wunderwerke Sdn Bhd (www.wunderwerke.com), the initiative is made available through the sponsorships of forward-looking mobile companies that support its activities.

It said the MobileMonday community provides opportunities for personal, face-to-face contacts via monthly Monday meetings and for virtual interaction via its international web-community.

Through this web-community, Malaysian members will be able to reach other MobileMonday affiliate chapters in Finland, Paris, Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Hong Kong and more than 14 other countries, the company said in a statement.

To register for the event go to www.mobilemonday.com.my. -thestar

The Government's plan to allow domestic roaming in the country may help expand mobile phone network coverage but analysts feel that it is still too early to predict if this would translate to better earnings for the local telcos. Analysts generally concur that it was too early to predict the implications of domestic roaming as a lot of issues and factors needed to be ironed out between the parties involved. Avenue Securities telecommunications analyst Izhar Allaudin told StarBiz that any effect on the earnings of the telcos was still not quantifiable at this point. “It would undoubtedly help these companies save on network expansion, especially to the rural areas because they do not need to build their respective communication towers,” he said. Whilst logical thinking would mean that Celcom, with coverage of 95% of the population nationwide, might lose out should domestic roaming go on a big scale, Izhar said Celcom would certainly not be giving other service providers free usage of its network. “Celcom, with the widest coverage, stands to gain most on long-term earnings, although this still depends on how sharing terms work out between them and other parties,” he said, adding that domestic roaming would be a good thing for mobile phone subscribers. Hong Leong Group Research analyst Wong Pei Wan agreed that it was difficult to assess the impact, but differed from the view that Celcom could be the biggest gainer. “No doubt Celcom can always charge a fee for sharing its network, but it is still always better to maintain your existing market share as mobile services provision remains a volume-based business,” she said. As such, Wong expects Maxis and Celcom to be reluctant to enter into domestic roaming although the government is trying to encourage more mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) in the country. “These MVNOs are companies that mostly ‘lease’ networks from existing service providers and then run the business as another entity,” she said. Wong said domestic roaming did not necessarily mean that the existing telcos were going to lose, but that they could see their slice of the profit diminishing. “But then again, a wide coverage is not everything in this industry. How these telcos promote their brands and the efficiency of their marketing strategies and tie-ups also contribute substantially to their success,'' she said, adding that Digi remained the most apparent “aggressor” in terms of marketing efforts. Meanwhile, a telco analyst from OSK Securities said domestic roaming was imminent if the telco industry was serious about improving mobile coverage. “They (the telcos) would have to do it for overall improvement of coverage in the long run. It is not feasible to set up base stations everywhere, especially in the low demand areas as there would not be good return on investments,” the analyst said. The analyst said with domestic roaming already in operation in places like Bukit Tinggi, there would be minimal effect on the telcos’ earnings even if shared networks were allowed to go on a big scale. “Terms can always be worked out to ensure the ‘giving’ parties would not lose out with domestic roaming, either in compensation rates or otherwise. Moreover, this is in line with the government’s policy of achieving 95% nationwide mobile network coverage by the end of this year,'' he said. -thestar

READING the recent reports on SMS usage among young people made me wonder how this technology affects the way we communicate. I read the reports with feelings of sadness. It seems we are losing the art of face-to-face communication. Why do we put our SMS before our fellow human beings who are worth infinitely more? It almost implies that the common courtesy of giving your full attention to the person you are talking to is dying a sure death. Only in our generation are we gifted with the ability to communicate with friends separated by large distances for a mere 1 sen. A nagging feeling tells me that this so-called gift may also wind up being a curse. If this trend keeps up, we may produce future generations who live in their own little bubble of anti-social behaviour interspersed only by frequent beeps as an SMS comes in. What will happen to shared laughter, tears, emotions and feelings that speak volumes when experienced in person? We send thousands of SMS a month yet never speak a word to our neighbours. What sort of society are we becoming? To live in a country described as Malaysia – Truly Asia, let us not forsake our reputation of being a charismatic and friendly people. Let’s not reduce ourselves to cheap SMS that can in no way match the warmth of a smile, the twinkle of an eye or the joy in real laughter in a face-to-face conversation. -Evenmystt

The Energy, Water and Communications Minister says local telcos are holding back the Government’s efforts to improve telecommunication services in the country. Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said the telcos have become monopolistic, which is also hindering the development of the nation’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry. “They see the pennies instead of the pounds, losing sight of the ‘pot of gold’ in the distance. They are interested only in making profits and protecting their investments, putting the future of the whole industry in jeopardy,” he said. He said government moves to enable domestic roaming for cellphone users, mobile-number portability, faster broadband speeds, and even the registration of prepaid cellular service users, have bogged down. Lim was speaking to reporters after launching the Pikom PC Fair 2006 here on Friday. According to him, Malaysia’s ICT industry, which is worth RM25bil, is obviously lagging far behind that of South Korea’s which is pegged at RM570bil. What many here fail to realise, he said, is that if the country’s ICT industry can be properly developed, it would contribute significantly to the Gross National Product. The Minister also touched on the recent government decision to award a second round of 3G (third-generation) mobile services licences – this time to MiTV Corp Sdn Bhd and TTDotcom Sdn Bhd (a unit of TIME dotCom). Some industry pundits argue that DiGi Telecommunications – the nation’s third cellular service provider after Maxis Communications and Celcom Malaysia – should have been given a 3G licence. Lim said it would not make sense to award the licence to another cellular service provider because this would not add value to the current 3G situation. “The main barrier to 3G adoption here is lack of content,” he said. “When we awarded the licences (the first time), we wanted to spur the growth of content creation for 3G and also that of the MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) industry.” That hasn’t happened in a big way. He said Maxis and Celcom, which benefited from the first round of 3G licences, seem unwilling to engage others to create the content or to open themselves to MVNOs. “They choose to hold everything for themselves,” he added. Local content developers meanwhile, he said, are getting a raw deal because the cellular service providers usually take 60% of the profit for content services, leaving the content creators with only 40%. “In China (for example), content developers get 90% of the profits,” Lim said, adding that the situation in this country must change if the content creation industry is to flourish.

Nokia announced that it will further strengthen its R&D operations in China and expand its Chengdu R&D Center to carry part of Nokia mobile network infrastructure products development for global and local markets. Nokia Chengdu R&D Center, established in August 2005, started as a focused R&D unit for IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based communications applications. In order to have more direct responsiveness to emerging customer needs in this market, Nokia has decided to further expand the Chengdu R&D Center scope, engaging in development of systems such as carrier grade platform middleware, WAP gateways for mobile browsing, intelligent packet core subsystems and increasing multimedia applications development effort. The expansion of Nokia Chengdu R&D Center will capitalize on the favourable competence base in China, and develop a better alignment with the Chinese mobile communications market, a key global growth driver. "The Chinese mobile market is seeing tremendous growth and digital convergence is coming to the mobile mass market in China. The expansion of our Chengdu R&D Center will significantly strengthen our product creation responsiveness to evolving customer requirements in China," says Jouni Pirhonen, Head of Nokia Chengdu R&D Center, "We aim to develop Nokia Chengdu R&D Center into one of the major R&D centers for Nokia core networks, developing products for mobile and convergence communications for the global markets." As the global leader of mobility, Nokia has a unique end-to-end capability with a Unified Core Network, multi-access solutions, handset leadership, and services offering, making Nokia an ideal partner for true convergence based on mobile softswitching and IMS for fixed and mobile. Nokia is the market leader of WCDMA 3G network systems in APAC and China Area and is best positioned with true end-to-end localization capability in China.

Oxygen Software has announced the release of Oxygen Phone Manager II 2.9, the newest version of the popular communication software tool for Nokia mobile phones, offering support for more than 20 new mobile phone models. You can manage the content and settings of your mobile phone from a personal computer in the most pleasant, if not to say joyful, way. You can organize your phonebook, events, tasks and notes, gallery, profiles, FM radio, GPRS and WAP options, call lists and voice records. “For Oxygen Software the needs of our clients have always been in the first place,” says Nike Golubev, a public relations officer at Oxygen Software. “The content of your mobile phone often becomes an essential part of your every day life. And it doesn’t really matter whether you use your phone as a means for work or entertainment. Everything is important, so we, too, don’t make any difference between work information and multimedia. Every part of the content of your phone gets equal attention. Besides, any operation is available, so to say, “on the run”. You can upload new wallpapers and ringing tones, send and receive SMS, create and view MMS messages, backup and restore all information, synch your phone with Microsoft Outlook - and all that literally in seconds. It is our job to make sure your data is safe and available any moment you need it.” Oxygen Phone Manager II allows you to edit your phone data easily from PC and see what you’ve got in the phone immediately on your PC display. Easy ad-hoc editing of your data is provided in case you need to add or modify a couple of contacts without total synchronization. It takes only a few minutes to transfer your personal information and settings from your old phone to a new one. All your contacts, events, tasks, SMS and MMS messages, images and melodies, profiles, FM stations, WAP and GPRS settings will migrate to your new phone with several mouse clicks. Even if your new phone model differs from the old one, Oxygen Phone Manager knows how to transfer all the data correctly. A copy of mobile phone information and settings on your local hard disk guarantees that, even if your phone was stolen or damaged, its data is still available and can be easily transferred to a new phone. Today Oxygen Phone Manager II offers support for almost 200 Nokia models and the list is rapidly growing as the developers of the company make sure that every new model appears on it.

In the first quarter, Philips recorded net income of EUR 160 million compared with net income of EUR 117 million in the corresponding period of 2005. The increase was primarily attributable to improved performance of the main divisions, particularly Semiconductors and Lighting. Sales increased strongly to EUR 7,374 million, 14% above Q1 2005. Adjusted for the effects of currency movements and consolidation changes, comparable sales increased by 10%, driven by strong growth in all main divisions. EBIT amounted to EUR 335 million, compared to EUR 207 million in the same period of last year. The increase was largely driven by higher sales and improved business performance, particularly in the Semiconductors and Lighting divisions, and a EUR 30 million gain on the sale of the CryptoTec encryption business reported under Other Activities. Financial income and expenses resulted in an expense of EUR 23 million, an improvement of EUR 25 million compared to Q1 2005. This improvement mainly resulted from a EUR 20 million revaluation of the option on the convertible bond issued by TPV. Unconsolidated companies recorded a loss of EUR 36 million, compared to a profit of EUR 22 million in Q1 2005. In Q1 2005, income from TSMC of EUR 71 million was reported under results relating to unconsolidated companies. From 2006, a change in accounting treatment means that Philips no longer recognizes income from TSMC but rather will recognize a dividend, which will be reported in Q2 2006 under financial income and expense. Cash outflow from operating activities increased to EUR 867 million, compared to EUR 332 million in Q1 2005. The increase was entirely due to EUR 582 million additional funding for the UK pension fund. Inventories as a percentage of sales amounted to 12.3%, marginally higher than in Q1 2005. Gerard Kleisterlee, Philips’ President and CEO was quoted as saying, “We’re pleased that we are keeping our momentum, with strong growth and solid performance across all our main divisions. A strong customer focus, together with innovative products, helped expand our already strong position within healthcare, lifestyle and technology. We also see that our recent acquisitions are starting to make a contribution to our top and bottom line. Demand for our medical IT solutions was strong in the first quarter, and Lumileds contributed to a continued good performance in Lighting. With the first acquisition in our Consumer Health & Wellness business announced in the first quarter, followed by an additional acquisition in our Medical Systems business, we are consistently building our portfolio to become increasingly geared to profitable growth.”

Palm and VisionTree Software, Inc. announced they are collaborating for the first implementation of the Palm Treo 700w smartphone running the VisionTree Conference Platform. More than 200 VIP attendees will use Treo 700w smartphones as tools to wirelessly collect, analyze and report data while at the conference, which runs April 17-19. The smartphones, which run on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, will provide the healthcare leaders with the technology to obtain collective input on strategic initiatives presented at the conference. Panelists will gain feedback from the audience through custom surveys and free-text input, and collaborate in real time while gathering relevant data. The data collected will then be available to present to the audience in graphs and charts for analysis and discussion. “VisionTree is excited to offer dynamic solutions that showcase the power of the Palm Treo 700w smartphone. VisionTree Conference Platform allows an organization to engage large groups and remote participants, and run mobile meetings through real-time participation and data collection,” said Adam Hawkins, director of Technology, VisionTree Software, Inc. “The software supports smartphones, PDAs and laptops through an easy, web-based interface and delivers improved ROI and market transparency.” “Mobile technologies increasingly enable real-time collaboration and access to information across the healthcare system, allowing for more informed decisions in clinical and administrative scenarios,” said Steve Shihadeh, general manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Microsoft. “Whether used for checking case-management records, consulting with a colleague, or any number of other important daily activities, mobile solutions empower people to generate efficiencies and reduce costs in the healthcare setting, but most importantly contribute to higher-quality patient care.” Introduced to customers in early January, the Treo 700w smartphone is the newest member of the Palm Treo family and builds on the award-winning design of the Treo 600 and Treo 650 smartphones. It is the first Treo smartphone to take advantage of Verizon Wireless’ high-speed wireless broadband service on its EvDO (Evolution Data Optimized) network and Windows Mobile 5.0. The new smartphone delivers a unique suite of software enhancements on top of Windows Mobile, bringing the hallmark Palm ease of use to Windows Mobile for the first time. “By combining the powerful Treo 700w smartphone and VisionTree’s conference software, the World Health Care Congress sessions will be transformed into truly two-way, interactive discussions, spurring audience participation and collaboration, and making the conference more valuable for all those involved,” said Tara Griffin, vice president of enterprise markets, Palm, Inc. “Palm Treo smartphones allow on-the-go professionals across industries to gather, capture and share information with their colleagues quickly, easily and efficiently.”

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has developed a small-footprint, wafer-level processed stack package (WSP) of high density memory chips using ‘through silicon via’ (TSV) interconnection technology. WSP actually reduces the physical size of a stacked set of semiconductor chips, while greatly improving overall performance. Widely seen as the next generation in package technologies, WSP can be applied to all types of hybrid packages, including memory and processors, to deliver higher speed and higher density with minimum use of chip space. Using this technology, mobile device and consumer electronics manufacturers will gain better electrical performance, well suited for slimmer, high-performance handset designs that provide longer battery time. Samsung’ industry-first WSP is a 16Gbit memory solution that stacks eight 2Gb NAND chips. The WSP generates a much smaller multi-chip package (MCP), which is the current mainstream solution for designing miniaturized, high-capacity memory devices. Samsung’s eight-chip WSP prototype sample, which vertically stacks eight 50㎛ (micrometers), 2Gb NAND flash die, is 0.56 millimeters in height. The chips in today’s MCPs are connected by wire bonding, which requires vertical gaps between dies that are tens of microns wide and horizontal spaces on the package board that are hundreds of microns wide to accommodate the wire connections. By contrast, WSP forms micron-sized holes that penetrate through the silicon vertically to connect circuits directly, eliminating the need for gaps of extra space and wires protruding beyond the sides of the die. Due to these advantages, WSP has a 15-percent smaller footprint and is 30 percent thinner than an equivalent wire-bonded MCP solution.

Another distinct advantage of Samsung’s WSP technology is that it introduces a much simplified process for the TSV. Instead of using a conventional dry etching method, a tiny laser drills the TSV holes. This reduces production cost significantly as it eliminates the typical photolithography-related processes required for mask-layer patterning and also shortens the dry-etching process needed to penetrate through a multi-layer structure.

Also, WSP reduces the length of the interconnections, resulting in an approximately 30-percent increase in performance from reduced electrical resistance. This makes it a more attractive solution for applications requiring lower power consumption, higher performance and higher density, such as today’s slimmer handset designs.

Initially, Samsung will apply its WSP technology to the production of NAND-based memory cards for mobile applications and other consumer electronics in early 2007. Later, the company will extend the packaging technique to high-performance system-in-package (SiP) solutions, and high-capacity DRAM stack packages including DRAM modules used in server designs that require fast data processing.

A NUMBER of hotels and restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, when contacted, said the number of people who unwittingly leave behind their mobile phones on the premises each year is negligible. Puncak Holdings, which operates the open counter in busy KL Sentral, says it gets an average five reports of lost mobile phones a month. The total of 15 cases a month of misplaced items include such things as luggage, paintings, architectural plans and, most of all, wallets. In London, thousands of mobile phones are left in the back of taxis every year, not to mention pocket PCs, laptops and PDAs. Even celebrities such as fashion designer Jemima Khan have left behind mobile phones and other personal items in a taxi. Talk to any taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur and they would have at least one story of a mobile phone left in the backseat.

TAXIS AND THIEVES: Two ways by which you can lose your handphone. (Below) Pickpockets. – Pictures by JOEL CHAN

Satar Mat Saat, 37, during his nine years as a full-time taxi driver with Comfort in the Klang Valley has found 11 mobile phones in his vehicle, apart from other items such as cameras and umbrellas.

“People leave behind things mostly during long journeys or after being stuck in traffic jams,” said Satar. “They become too relaxed during the journey, and thus forgetful. From my personal experience, most of the people who left behind their mobile phones were women, strangely enough.”

Mobile phones are small and can easily slip out of pockets, purses or bags. Items are left mostly in the backseat; if they were in the front, the driver would be able to notice them right away as the passenger is getting out. Worst of all is when the driver has no idea that something has been left in the backseat and a subsequent passenger takes the item. The taxi driver would probably get the blame.

“People must be made aware of this,” said Satar. “They shouldn’t just label taxi drivers as dishonest when they lose something and don’t get it back.”

Satar said he has always tried his best to return the mobile phones he found. Most times, the owners would call their own numbers right away and arrange to meet him.

But what irks him is that sometimes people do not appreciate taxi drivers’ honesty.

“There have been times when the owners just say ‘thank you’,” he lamented. He feels taxi drivers should, in the very least, be compensated for the petrol used up, especially if they had travelled some distance to return the item. “I don’t think in this day and age, a simple ‘thank you’ would suffice.”

That was why recently when he returned a mobile phone to a woman in KL, he had to demand a small sum.

“I just couldn’t be shy anymore!” he said. -thestar

Singapore's third-largest mobile phone operator MobileOne Ltd (M1) posted a 12% rise in quarterly profit on April 18, as cost cuts helped to offset 3G network depreciation charges.

M1, in which Telekom Malaysia Bhd holds a 29.84% stake, reiterated its forecast for single-digit growth in earnings for calendar year 2006.

The operator earned S$45 million (RM102.9 million) net profit for the three months ended March 31, compared with S$40.1 milion announced in the year-ago quarter.

"While revenue remained stable, we have managed to achieve reasonable profit growth for the quarter by continuing to focus on margins and the bottom line," chief executive Neil Montefiore said in a statement.

M1 posted an operating revenue of S$189.5 million for the quarter, unchanged from the same period last year.

It began commercial third-generation (3G) mobile services last February.

M1 competes with market leader Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) and StarHub Ltd in the city-state's saturated mobile market, where more than nine out of 10 people own a handset.

The operator had a total of 1.28 million customers as at March 31, up 29,000 from the end of 2005.

M1 is seen as a low-growth, high-yield stock because it is primarily focussed on the domestic market.

In contrast, market leader SingTel has spent about S$17 billion in the last four years buying operators in high-growth Asian nations with fewer cellphone users, and in the bigger Australian market, to counter the saturated domestic operations.

Second-ranked StarHub has also said it holds no regional expansion ambitions, but has bundled its broadband offerings and cable TV services together with its mobile operations to drive subscriber and earnings growth.

M1 is seen posting a consensus mean net profit of S$168.9 million for the year to December 2006, according to 19 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.

M1 shares rose about 11% in the January-March quarter. - Reuters