Current examples of everyday web-based services that are now finding themselves in the envelope of the cloud computing description are services such as GMail.

Now with virtualisation overtaking the workplace, the hardware idea from the past becomes software, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) seems like the logical next step: desktop machines, laptops, netbooks and other dedicated remote access clients such as smartphones provide access to the data externally, but everything else is in the server room and data center. Sounds like every network and system administrator’s maintenance dream right? But some are a little critical of the purported promised land of networked computing.

Richard Stallman, Founder of the Free Software Foundation, said recently likened cloud computing to a trap and that users are leaving their data and privacy in the hands of companies they do not control and they cannot be guaranteed data integrity or user privacy. “Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else’s Web server, you’re defenseless. You’re putty in the hands of whoever developed that software,” he said.

Proponents of cloud computing, such as Google, say that cloud computing has many benefits. They believe that netbooks used for cloud computing are secure as third-party programs cannot be installed, which means viruses and spyware will have more difficulty in making life difficult for users.

However the path to future computing runs one thing is for sure, aspects of cloud computing today are here to stay.

Now the wireless industry is planning a future without them, or at least without many more of them. Instead, it’s looking at much smaller antennas, some tiny enough to hold in a hand. These could be placed on lampposts, utility poles and buildings – virtually anywhere with electrical and network connections.

If the technology overcomes some hurdles, it could upend the wireless industry and offer seamless service, with fewer dead spots and faster data speeds.

Some big names in the wireless world are set to demonstrate “small cell” technologies at the Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest cell phone trade show, which starts Monday in Barcelona, Spain.

“We see more and more towers that become bigger and bigger, with more and bigger antennas that come to obstruct our view and clutter our landscape and are simply ugly,” said Wim Sweldens, president of the wireless division of Alcatel-Lucent, the French-US. maker of telecommunications equipment.

“What we have realised is that we, as one of the major mobile equipment vendors, are partially if not mostly to blame for this.”

Alcatel-Lucent will be at the show to demonstrate its “lightRadio cube”, a cellular antenna about the size and shape of a Rubik’s cube, vastly smaller than the ironing-board-sized antennas that now decorate mobile towers. The cube was developed at the famous Bell Labs in New Jersey, birthplace of many other inventions when it was US telco AT&T’s research centre.

In Alcatel-Lucent’s vision, these little cubes could soon begin replacing conventional mobile towers. Single cubes or clusters of them could be placed indoors or out and be easily hidden from view. All they need is electrical power and an optical fibre connecting them to the phone company’s network.

The cube, Sweldens said, can make the notion of a conventional mobile tower “go away.” Alcatel-Lucent will start trials of the cube with carriers in September. The company hopes to make it commercially available next year.

For mobile phone companies, the benefits of dividing their networks into smaller “cells”, each one served by something like the cube antenna, go far beyond esthetics. Smaller cells mean vastly higher capacity for calls and data traffic.

Instead of having all phones within a kilometre or two connect to the same mobile tower, the traffic could be divided between several smaller cells, so there’s less competition for the mobile tower’s attention.

“If it is what they claim, lightRadio could be a highly disruptive force within the wireless industry,” said Dan Hays, who focuses on telecommunications at consulting firm PRTM.

Rasmus Hellberg, director of technical marketing at wireless technology developer Qualcomm, said smaller cells can boost a network’s capacity tenfold, far more than can be achieved by other upgrades to wireless technology that are also in the works.

That’s sure to draw the interest of phone companies. They’ve already been deploying older generations of small-cell technology in areas where a lot of people gather, like airports, train stations and sports stadiums, but these are expensive and complicated to install.

In New York City, AT&T has started creating a network of outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots, starting in Times Square and now spreading through the midtown tourist and shopping districts. Its network has been hammered by an onslaught of data-hungry iPhone users, and this is one way of moving that traffic off the mobile network.

Smaller cells could do the same job, but for all phones, not just Wi-Fi enabled ones like the iPhone. They could also carry calls as well as data.

San Diego-based Qualcomm will be at the Barcelona show with a live demonstration of how “heterogeneous networks” – ones that mix big and small cells, can work. A key issue is minimising radio interference between the two types of cells. Another hurdle is connecting the smaller cells to the bigger network through optical fibre or other high-capacity connections.

“That’s an impediment that we’re seeing many operators struggling with right now as data volumes have increased,” Hays said.

LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish company that’s the largest maker of wireless network equipment in the world, is also introducing a more compact antenna at the show, one it calls “the first stepping stone towards a heterogeneous network”.

Small cellular base stations have already penetrated hundreds of thousands of US homes. Phone companies like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint have for several years been selling “femtocells”, which are about the size of a Wi-Fi router and connect to the phone company’s network through a home broadband connection.

The cells project radio signals that cover a room or two, providing five bars of coverage where there might otherwise be none.

British femtocell maker Ubiquisys will be in Barcelona to demonstrate the smallest cell yet. It’s the size of a thumb and plugs into a computer’s USB drive. According to Ubiquisys, the idea is that overseas travellers will plug it into their internet-connected laptops to make calls as if they were on their home network, but there are potential problems with interference if used that way.

According to Rupert Baines, marketing head of Picochip, a more realistic application for a tiny plug-in cell is to make it work with cable boxes or internet routers, to convert them into femtocells.

A key part of the “small cell” idea is to take femtocells outside the home, into larger buildings and even outdoors.

Picochip, a British company that’s the dominant maker of chips for femtocells, will be in Barcelona to talk about its chips for “public-access” femtocells, designed to serve up to 64 phone calls at a time, with a range of more than a kilometre. They could be used not just to ease wireless congestion in urban areas, but to fill in dead spots on the map, Baines said.

For instance, a single femtocell could provide wireless service to a remote village, as long as there’s some way to connect it to the wider network, perhaps via satellite.

Analyst Francis Sideco of research firm iSuppli pointed out a surprising consumer benefit of smaller cells: better battery life in phones.

When a lot of phones talk to the same tower, they all have to “shout” to make themselves heard, using more energy. With a smaller cell, phones can lower their “voices”, much like group of people moving from a noisy ballroom to a smaller, quieter room.

“Ultimately, what you end up with is a cleaner signal, with less power,” Sideco said.

Telstra will significantly upgrade its mobile network to take advantage of fast 4G technology that will allow users to obtain speeds similar to home ADSL broadband connections while on the go.

The move has sparked fresh debate over the viability of the NBN.

The telco will use new 4G technology to boost mobile internet speeds in capital cities and some regional areas by the end of the year.

Telstra chief executive David Thodey said the “leading-edge” technology would help the company meet growing demands for mobile data, “which is doubling every year as customers move to adopt data-hungry smartphones, mobile modems and tablets”.

The announcement comes on the back of a government-commissioned report warning uptake to its $36 billion network could be stifled by wireless technologies.

The federal government aims to connect 93 per cent of Australian households with high-speed optical fibres by 2020. The NBN Co, the company charged with building the network, has said it will eventually deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

The federal opposition says wireless services make the project less viable.

“This [wireless technology] is going to be a real competitive force,” opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio.

The NBN business case assumes the increase in demand for wireless broadband will not continue, he said.

“The problem, of course, is that wireless broadband is improving as well.”

In a statement released at about 2pm Tuesday, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Telstra’s new offering was ‘‘far from being a threat’’ to the national broadband network.

‘‘Wireless is an important complementary technology to fibre,’’ he said.

He added that whilst mobile networks offered consumers ‘‘flexibility and mobility’’, only fibre could deliver ‘‘many of the new services that will increasingly be made available as the NBN rolls out, like in-home specialist healthcare and rehabilitation services’’.

He also made the point that a fibre connection delivered ‘‘the speed it says it does’’ as opposed to wireless or copper technology, which delivers a theoretical speed that varies on a number of factors, including distance from an exchange in the case of copper and distance from a tower in the case of wireless broadband, amongst other factors.

“There is no decline in speed or performance if more people are online, or if you are further away from an exchange,’’ Conroy said in relation to fibre technology.

In a statement, Telstra said its new technology was “not related to the NBN” and that it was “business as usual”.

“This announcement relates to the ongoing upgrade of Telstra’s flagship Next G wireless broadband network,” it said. “Wireless and fixed networks are complementary – our customers use both depending on need and circumstances and Telstra continues to invest in both.”

Telecommunications consultant Paul Budde did not think the growth of wireless services would affect the long-term viability of the NBN.

‘‘Yes, there will be an overlap … but there are applications that are impossible to run over a wireless network,’’ Mr Budde told ABC Radio.

Foad Fadaghi, telecommunications analyst at the Australian firm Telsyte, said that Telstra’s upgrade was more about “reliability or consistency of speeds” than than a speed boost.

“Today you might be tempted to watch a video clip online and it might work and it might have a bit of buffer … or it might drop out here or there or you can’t be sure that it’s going to be consistently of high quality and so forth,” he said.

“The LTE network should address that sort of challenge and make it easier for consumers to consume, particularly video content and streaming content, in a more reliable way than they may do today.”

Theoretical speeds on LTE networks were about 100 megabits per second and higher, Mr Fadaghi said. But typical speeds, or real-world speeds, would be in the range of 20 to 30 megabits per second.

“Now that puts it, strictly speaking, higher than most fixed-line networks – so [the same speeds as] ADSL connections you can get today.”

The speed of a connection would also depend on how far away you were from a tower and how many users were connected at the one time.

The cost of a plan on the 4G network would also likely be higher than current 3G plans, Mr Fadaghi said, and it would most likely be first aimed at business customers.

The first customers able to use the network would be those connecting with Telstra’s 4G mobile broadband dongle, which plugs into computers to allow them to connect to mobile towers.

“[But] it may take a little bit of time before we see it being used on handsets,” Mr Fadaghi said.

“That’s the big question,” he said when asked when Australia would see 4G handsets.

“There have been some announcements of certain 4G handset models in the US on the Verizon network, however, it’s still very early. We haven’t seen a lot of handsets come to the market currently [and there are] none in Australia as it stands.

“So that leaves a lot of iPhone users – or Apple users – that will not be able to use that service until [a 4G] handset is made available,” he said. “And that might take a little bit of timing; Apple might be focused on other things rather than supporting the LTE networks, whether that be applications or better design or something like that.”

A Telstra spokesman said the company was “currently in discussions” with handset makers to bring 4G smartphones to Australia.

Information Source smh.com.au

Mobile networks in capital cities and some regional areas will be upgraded before 2012 and Telstra will start selling devices capable of crossing between the two networks.

“The technology can provide many Australians with faster data speeds, high-quality video conferencing and faster response times when using mobile applications or accessing the internet,” chief executive David Thodey said this morning in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress.

“It can also help Telstra meet demand for mobile data, which is doubling every year as customers move to adopt data-hungry smartphones, mobile modems and tablets.”

The new network will be built from the existing capital expenditure budget.

Swedish network manager Ericsson has been chosen to build the network along with Qualcomm and Sierra Wireless, beating competitors Huawei and Nokia Siemens.

”We found the Ericsson proposal to be the most innovative and immediate, compatible with our network,” a Telstra spokesman said.

Telstra will use existing spectrum assets at the 1800MHz frequency for the new network and integrate it with its existing high-speed service on the 850MHz spectrum range.

More spectrum will become available for mobile broadband in coming years as television signals are moved to a more efficient digital format, which will free up spectrum at present allocated to analog television signals.

Known as long-term-evolution (LTE) technology, the next generation of mobile networks will carry more data faster than existing 3G technology.

LTE technology is more efficient, meaning more people can use the network at a greater speed, and will enable more video features on smart phones.

Information Source smh.com.au

For taxpayers to recoup their $27 billion investment in the national broadband network, the government is betting at least 70 per cent of households will have signed up by 2025.

It is also assuming the share of homes who use only mobile phone and internet services – typically renters and share households – will increase slightly from 13 per cent today to 16.3 per cent in 2025.

But an independent review by the advisory firm Greenhill Caliburn has told Canberra to keep a close eye on those mobile-only households that are shunning fixed-line connections.

The review was commissioned by the government to assess the corporate plan for the NBN Co. An executive summary was published yesterday.

While the review said NBN Co’s corporate plan and its assumptions were ”reasonable”, it also said competition from wireless technology was a ”key risk” to the revenue raised by the NBN Co.

Amid predictions of ballooning use of mobile devices such as iPads, it said trends towards ”mobile-centric” broadband networks could affect the number of people who connected to the network.

In comments pounced on by critics of the network, the review said ”some consumers may be willing to sacrifice higher-speed fibre transmissions for the convenience of mobile platforms”.

The opposition communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, said this exposed serious risks to NBN’s economic viability.

He also said the review did not address whether taxpayers were getting their money’s worth through the project. ”This report, like the other multimillion-dollar consultants’ reports the government has commissioned, fails to address the single most important issue – what is the most cost-effective way to ensure that all Australians have access to high speed and affordable broadband?” Mr Turnbull said.

But the Minister for Broadband, Stephen Conroy, said the government would make sure NBN Co was hitting a range of performance targets as it was rolled out.

”The government will work closely with NBN Co to put in place agreed performance indicators to track its performance and adjust strategies or operations as needed.”

Information Source smh.com.au

Nokia, the world’s largest maker of phones, and Microsoft announced their alliance late last week. Both investors and employees reacted with dismay: Nokia’s stock dived 14 per cent and Finnish employees used flex time to go home early.

Today, a day ahead of the start of the Mobile World Congress mobile phone trade show in Barcelona, Elop told press, analysts and industry players that apart from the benefits of the alliance that were laid out late last week, Microsoft is paying Nokia billions of dollars to switch to Windows Phone 7.

“This is something I don’t think was completely explained,” Elop said.

Elop, a former Microsoft executive, said Finland-based Nokia had been courted by Google as well, which sought to convince it to use its popular Android software for smart phones. Microsoft’s payments are recognition that Nokia had “substantial value to contribute”, said Elop.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 7 last year, on phones made by LG Electronics and HTC, but has only captured a few percentage points of the smartphone market, according to analysts.

Nokia’s worldwide market share in smartphones was just over 30 per cent in last year’s fourth quarter, down from 40 per cent a year earlier. Those phones use Symbian, a relatively old software package that wasn’t designed to be used with touchscreens.

Money and in-kind contributions will flow both ways in the deal, Elop reiterated. Nokia will be contributing its Ovi mapping service and will be paying Microsoft royalties for the use of its software, as other manufacturers do. It will save money by not continuing development of its own software. The net benefit is still in the billions, he said.

Analysts believe Google pays manufacturers to use Android, but no figures have come to light.

Elop was hired in September to shake things up at Nokia, but he may face an uphill battle in getting employees on board. At the Barcelona event, Elop was asked whether he’s a “Trojan horse” – a Microsoft insider who’s penetrated Nokia and steered it in a direction favorable to Microsoft.

“The obvious answer is ‘No’,” Elop said. “Thanks for asking.”

He said the decision to go with Windows Phone was unanimous in Nokia’s senior management team. Nokia’s board approved the deal a day ahead of the announcement in London.

Adding Nokia’s market share to that of existing Android phones would have left the world with only two real players in smartphone software, Elop said. He didn’t mention the iPhone, but it’s the other dominant force in smartphones. A duopoly would have big ramifications for everyone, he said.

“A decision to go with Windows Phone creates a very different dynamic,” Elop said. “It’s an environment where now, Windows Phone is a challenger.”

Microsoft has made smartphone software for more than a decade. Windows Phone 7 is an attempt to make a clean break with the past, and create an operating system designed for big iPhone-style touch screens.

Information Source smh.com.au

One version would be cheaper and smaller than the most recent iPhone, said a person who has seen a prototype and asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. Apple also is developing technology that makes it easier to use the iPhone on multiple wireless networks, two people said.

Chief executive officer Steve Jobs, who remains involved in strategic decisions while on medical leave, aims to narrow the price gap that has made phones running Android more popular than iPhones. Google’s share of the global smartphone market more than tripled to 32.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, eclipsing Apple’s 16 per cent, according to Canalys.

Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for about $US200 in the US, without obligating users to sign a two-year service contract, said the person who has seen it. Android phones sell for a range of prices at AT&T, Verizon Wireless and other US carriers, and typically come with agreements that include a fee for broken contracts. The iPhone 4, sold in the U.S. by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, costs $US200 to $US300 with a contract.

Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment.

While Apple has aimed to unveil the device near mid-year, the introduction may be delayed or scrapped, the person said. Few Apple employees know the details of the project, the person said. Apple often works on products that don’t get released.

The prototype was about one-third smaller than the iPhone 4, said the person, who saw it last year.

Apple can sell it at a low price mainly because the smartphone will use a processor, display and other components similar to those used in the current model, rather than pricier, more advanced parts that will be in the next iPhone, the person said. Component prices typically drop over time.

Apple is also working on a so-called dual-mode phone, two people said. This device would be able to work with the world’s two main wireless standards – the global system for mobile communications, used by AT&T and carriers such as Vodafone, and code division multiple access, used by Verizon Wireless. It isn’t known whether Apple intended to include this capability in the cheaper iPhone.

Universal SIM

Apple is working on a technology called a Universal SIM, which would let iPhone users toggle between GSM networks without having to switch the so-called SIM cards that associate a phone with a network, according to one person. This would help cut the cost of distributing and managing millions of SIM cards.

The new features could also give Apple an advantage over mobile carriers in influencing customers. The device would be affordable without a carrier subsidy, so buyers wouldn’t need to agree to terms, such as termination fees, that carriers demand in exchange for subsidising the cost of the phone.

Apple has also worked on redesigned iPhone software that would let customers choose a network and configure their device on their own, without relying on a store clerk or representative of a carrier, according to the person.

Information Source smh.com.au

The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model and sport a more powerful graphics processor, the Journal said.

It will have at least one camera on its front for features such as video conferencing, and will also have more memory, according to the paper, adding Apple plans to unveil the new iPad through telcos Verizon Wireless and AT&T in the US.

Early in February, a Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York.

Apple was not available for comment.

Information Source smh.com.au

About 14 per cent of mobile-phone users no longer have a fixed-line telephone at home, says a survey of 18,000 people by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

This is bad news for Telstra, which owns and operates the copper wire telephone network and has experienced declining revenue from this high margin product line. Its revenue from fixed-line rental and call tariffs has declined from about $7 billion in 2006 to $5.8 billion last financial year.

Of those choosing to keep their fixed telephone line, a third said it was convenient or cheaper than mobile, and just 13 per cent said it was because fixed lines offer better quality or more reliable service.

About 7 per cent of respondents said they kept a fixed line for an internet connection.

The number of fixed telephone lines has remained at 10.7 million since June 2000, but the number of mobile telephone connections has increased from 8 million to 24.2 million in the same period.

Information Source smh.com.au

Manufacturers clearly value the open-source nature of Android, which they can customise to their hearts’ content. But Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is definitely a contender and it will be interesting to see what devices the phone makers can come up with by the end of the year.

Here are my top 10 mobile announcements and phones from the show:

Windows Phone 7 – There’s a lot riding on Microsoft’s next mobile operating system. For the last 18 months Windows Mobile has lagged newer rivals like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android. Its market share has dropped.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was dry and lacked major new announcements, so I was skeptical about whether Microsoft could pull it off in Barcelona.

The jury is still out as we wait until Christmas to see some final handsets but from the early Windows Phone 7 prototypes at MWC, it’s clear Microsoft has wiped the slate clean and started fresh with a new platform and a revamped, innovative user interface.

The demo version I saw was an early version and slightly buggy but i’m impressed with the tight integration with social networking sites and online email and calendar sites. The inclusion of Xbox Live for multiplayer gaming and a Zune music player puts it squarely in iPhone territory.

But Microsoft’s insistence on manufacturers keeping its tile-based UI may limit phone makers like HTC, which has done wonders to dolly up Windows Mobile 6.5 with its Sense interface. And the inability to upgrade existing Windows Mobile phones to Windows Phone 7 may frustrate those who recently shelled out for a 6.5 device.

Samsung Wave – Samsung is going out on a limb by introducing a completely new phone platform, banking on developers supporting it with enough interesting and useful apps to compete with iPhone and the open-source Android platform from Google.

It’s risky. But the 3.3-inch Super AMOLED touch-screen display is gorgeous and Samsung will have complete control of both the hardware and software, which has definitely been beneficial for Apple with the iPhone.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro – Looking at this handset in a picture is deceiving. While other smartphone makers are moving to bigger screens, like the HTC HD2′s giant 4.3-inch display, this one is tiny at 2.6-inch.The device measures just 90x52x17mm.

But big phones aren’t for everyone and Sony Ericsson makes it work with a good touchscreen user interface and the Timescape app, which puts friends’ Facebook posts, Tweets, messages and calls into a single stream. Other apps can be downloaded from the Android market.

HTC Legend – Most phones have a front and back that clip together but the Legend’s casing is machined out of a single block of aluminium. As soon as I saw it I wanted one. The Legend is an Android phone running HTC’s highly customised, intuitive Sense user interface.

HTC Desire – It’s not as pretty as the Legend but while the Legend has just a 600MHz processor, the Desire offers a much gruntier 1GHz chip. It runs the latest version of Android, 2.1, and features a 3.7-inch screen – the closest you’ll get to the Google Nexus One, which hasn’t yet been launched in Australia. The Desire will be available in Australia from Telstra in April.

HTC HD mini – Think of this one as a smaller version of the giant HD2. Like its sibling, the HD mini runs Windows Mobile 6.5 and includes the unique ability to launch a personal WiFi hotspot, which users can connect to on a laptop to browse the web over their mobile’s 3G network from anywhere.A very cool feature that I would love to see replicated by other manufacturers.

Samsung Beam – It doesn’t look like this phone will come to Australia any time soon but it’s worth a mention because it’s one of the first handsets to include a built-in projector for viewing content stored on the phone on any wall.

Samsung definitely gets points for innovation but the market for this one may be somewhat limited and the projector is only really effective in darker rooms. The battery is drained in about three hours with the projector on.

Asus-Garmin Nuvifone A50 – This is the fruit of a partnership between electronics maker Asus and GPS navigation specialist Garmin, so it’s designed to replace the GPS device in your car and double as your primary mobile. It runs the Android operating system but the interface has been completely redesigned to the point that it barely resembles other Android phones.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz – The Vivaz has a QWERTY keyboard and 3.2-inch touchscreen but, unlike most phones, is also capable of shooting high-definition 720p video and includes an 8-megapixel camera.

Motorola Milestone – Motorola has been extremely quiet in Australia over the last few years but i’m hoping it comes to market with the Milestone, which is similar to the Droid that Motorola launched in the US.

It runs Android 2.0 and has iPhone-like multitouch support, with users able to pinch the 3.7-inch screen to zoom on web pages, maps and photos. The phones comes with Motorola’s turn-by-turn GPS navigation software, MOTONAV, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 5-megapixel camera.

Information Source smh.com.au