India calling

Watch out for the next move from India's ambitious telco leaders. Not only are they playing hard to get on the domestic front, but they are continuing to test international markets of their own. VSNL is presenting its new VNO operation in Paris tomorrow, headed by Paul Donnelly, ex-Equant EMEA.

Cisco sues Apple

So the issue wasn't settled before Apple launched the iPhone. Hmm - well clearly Steve Jobs was so excited about the whole thing that he just couldn't wait and decided to use Macworld to make the announcement anyway.

Cisco said it was expecting an agreement to be reached before the end of the day on Tuesday, but this did not happen, and the company, which owns the iPhone brand in the U.S., is clearly not happy about it.

"It is not a suit about money or royalties. This is a suit about trademark infringement," remarked Cisco SVP and General Counsel Mark Chandler.

Maybe this was the sticking point for Apple:

"Fundamentally we wanted an open approach," said Chandler. "We hoped our products could interoperate in the future. In our view, the network provides the basis to make this happen - it provides the foundation of innovation that allows converged devices to deliver the services that consumers want ... And we wanted to make sure to differentiate the brands in a way that could work for both companies and not confuse people, since our products combine both web access and voice telephony."

Orange v easyMobile

So Stelios never got the chance to wear his orange boiler suit in court. Orange and easyMobile apparently quietly settled their dispute over the use of the colour orange out of court. of course the matter will have been eased by the fact that the easyMobile MVNO ceased operations last year.

This is the statement issued by the easyGroup:

"The case brought by Orange Personal Communications against easyMobile has been settled out of court. The businesses have agreed a mutually acceptable position regarding use of the colour orange. Specific terms of the settlement are confidential."

easy continues to insist that its mobile party is not yet over, and has still got the urls www.easyMobile.com and www.easyTelecom.com.

easymobile.com currently is just a phone number for customers looking for help to move their services. easyTelecom.com is a price comparison Web site.

A spokesman for easyGroup said as there is no longer any litigation between easy and Orange, "I can see no legal or other reason why there should not in principle be a business relationship between us."

Apple Computer is dead...

... long live Apple Inc.!

Yes, now it's moved beyond computers and into music downloading, TV and as from today mobile phones, the company has rebranded itself.

Amazing how many stories the launch of a phone has generated - just search on Google and you get hundreds of them. There's a lot of excitement about this announcement, although some reports still seem unsure whether or not the Cisco/iPhone branding issue has been resolved, plus others think the prices of $499 for the 4-gig and $599 for the 8-gig seem a little steep.

Others are amazed at the fact that the phone is based on the OS X.

Well, Cingular users will be able to get their sticky fingers on these gadgets first. Europe follows later this year, apparently. Christmas stocking fillers?

iPhone specs...

Screen size: 3.5 inches
Screen resolution: 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method: Multi-touch
Operating system: OS X
Storage: 4GB or 8GB
GSM: Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data: WiFi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera: 2.0 megapixels
Battery: Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
-Up to 16 hours Audio playback

Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

See iPhone on apple.com...

Well, here is it... the iPhone for the iFans amongst you.

It's a phone, an iPod and an email/web browsing device, all in one.

iPhone is launched...

Speculation reached fever pitch on Tuesday as the industry waited with bated breath for Steve Jobs' annual address at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.

And yes, the man who invented the iMac, iTunes and the now iconic iPod told us all what we had been waiting to hear: That Apple would be launching an iPod-based mobile handset.

One potential sticking point seems to have been overcome: Cisco, which has the rights to the iPhone brand name in the U.S., said it expects to reach an agreement with Apple Computer Inc. later on Tuesday on its "iPhone" trademark, according to Reuters.

Dow Jones Newswires later reported that Cisco confirmed that Apple has acquired the brand after "repeated requests".

Dow Jones also said Jobs confirmed earlier reports that Cingular Wireless, now owned by AT&T, will be the first mobile operator to carry the iPhone.

Jobs is apparently targeting sales of 10m iPhones in 2008.

VoIP on the air

You know its coming up for 3GSM Congress and time to pack bags for Barcelona when the "VoiP/wireless revolution begins here" stories start appearing. This is the third year in a row, guys. It's a dualmode handset! We even hit the hype button ourselves last time around. Like the guy in the video, we're still wrestling with dodgy signals. But as far as we can tell we haven't been billed once yet in 12 months. Ah, IP billing... Still, the money men must think there's something to it—whoever they are. Let's hope they are not left disappointed.

Altimo strikes - at what?

Russian global mobile wannabe Altimo is being slow about exercising its ambitions. While Voda and rivals slug it out for India, Altimo is still building up its international baord of directors. Its getting good people- joining Julian Horn-Smith this time is Kurt Hellstrom ex-Ericsson, although as usual there's no mention on the website. Just what will be left for them to make a move on once Hutch's global assets have been divvied up? Vietnam apparently.

new year lack of resolutions

thanks to austria's finest for a great christmas present
other seasonal messages are not so upbeat, but this one from japan gets our vote for straight talking. Imagine; an incumbent being honest about the impact of competition and regulation. And no complaints, just straight talking: "Regulate us and we are galvanised..."
Why did the FCC just step back from ruling on Internet access regulation? There's trouble ahead, mark our words....

More patent disputes...

Reports are out that the Washington Research Foundation is bringing patent infringement claims on behalf of the University of Washington against three handset manufacturers. According to Reuters, "The Foundation claims the three firms have sold handsets and devices in the United States using CSR's Bluetooth chips which use technology that infringe the University's radio frequency receiver patents."

Broadcom chips are OK, apparently, as the company has already licensed the radio frequency receiver patents. CSR hasn't. Shares in the U.K. Bluetooth chip specialist fell on Wednesday following the news, but it's unclear yet what the outcome might be, and how adversely the company might be affected.

Bluetooth technology is largely seen as an invention by Ericsson engineers. The technology is generally available royalty-free on the market...

HD, anyone?

I suddenly noticed the arrival of a "BBC HD" channel on my Telewest cable TV service, but of course I can't watch it as I don't have "HD-ready" equipment. To be able to watch the "sharper" images promised by high-definition TV you need to have the right equipment, while programmes also have to be made in the right format.

But of course there is also the not insignificant issue of spectrum. The BBC is currently trialing an HD service via cable or satellite set-box boxes, but makes it clear that HD services will not be available on Freeview for some time yet:

"Unfortunately it is unlikely that broadcasters will be able to deliver high-definition programming on Freeview for some years to come. The airwaves are too crowded with existing analogue and digital services to fit in HD programming from the BBC or from anyone else. We will keep this under review as technology changes," the broadcaster says on its Web site.

In the U.K. the regulator Ofcom is not assigning spectrum to any particular technology, either. Even though a great deal of spectrum will become available once the country has switched over from analogue to digital TV, the "technology neutral" approach to spectrum means the airwaves will be up for grabs for anyone that can afford it.

Ofcom has been lauded for its neutral approach, but it certainly means that investing in new technology that needs new spectrum (eg WiMAX, mobile TV and HDTV) becomes a lot more scary...!

Net Neutralat&t

The next big one is confirmed - AT&T has bagged Bellsouth in the end.

The telco's negotiators apparently persuaded the FCC commissioners they should give it the benefit of the doubt, by offering some commitments to help preserve so-called "Net neutrality". But the terms of the deal have caused some consternation, not just because it was smuggled through at a suspiciously late hour. The estimable Dave Burstein points out there are some footnotes to AT&T's commitments which could leave them qualified, as the auditors might say.

According to Burstein, at&t... sorry, AT&T, has agreed “not to provide … any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet transmitted over AT&T/BellSouth's wireline broadband Internet access service based on its source, ownership or destination.”

But later on in its submission to the FCC, the company says “This commitment also does not apply to AT&T/BellSouth's Internet Protocol television (IPTV) service.” Since the whole point of the net neutrality argument is to be inclusive to the letter, this sort of knocks a big hole in the 'commitment'. AT&T is betting the farm on IPTV and bundled products (as is Verizon.)

Follow the investment money; in effect AT&T will be its IPTV portfolio, when you count in high speed Internet -and that's where the new subs are signing up. Over at rival Verizon, the new FiOS IPTV portfolio is registering 15% Internet access penetration after 12 months, with 99% of FiOS subs taking a second service and 79% on triple play.

This could either blow the net neutrality dispute so far open it remains in contention for ever, or it could, in Burstein's words, be the first sign of political pressure that will "get AT&T to behave after all". For the moment, the US press is keeping its powder dry.

To be fair to AT&T, the initial commitment not to provide any service that 'prioritize' packets seems a strange one that would only handicap everyone. Its new services will be based on class of service, and so presumably will be its competitors'. And actually, big carriers exist partly to differentiate on CoS, on behalf of their operator customers. That has to extend to Internet service providers . AT&T would have to give other ISPs equal access to all its network and OSS to guarantee no other service provider was disdvantaged in the bitstream, but is unlikely to be committing to full wholesale access to all its own retail services after all these years.


Consolidated AT&T Inc rolls up four already huge operators previously called AT&T Corp, BellSouth Corp., Cingular Wireless and SBC Communications. Pro forma the new group had revenues equal to 73 billion euros in financial 2005, which puts it up to 2nd place in our Global 100, just behind NTT Corp on 75 billion euros but ahead of Verizon on 63.6 billion euros. (There's a degree - maybe a lot - of double counting of the Cingular revenues which were split between AWE and BLS previously; AT&T's recent quarterly statements are unclear about where these revenues are nowadays.)

We''ll have to wait for clarification in the latest full year revenue figures out 25th January.