Apple iPad Announced Originally uploaded by Culvi As the iPad is unveiled, are the world’s mobile networks ready to cope? [N.B. a slight clarification, prompted by a comment, has been made to this article. - 30/01/2010] According to the ITU, mobile broadband subscriptions topped 600 million in 2009. As mobile broadband connections overtake fixed, few networks are prepared to cope with this new wave of mobile data. A combination of always on apps, mobility and the growth of smartphones and mobile computing devices like the iPad, will increasingly test operators around the world. With mobile broadband it’s always bandwidth, or download speeds, that grab headlines. Of course, capacity is vital for mobile broadband. When a single YouTube video is equivalent to half a million text messages sent across your network, you need the capacity..

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Given the scale of the disaster in Haiti, we thought it appropriate just to put here a brief update on our response. We have been shocked by the earthquake disaster on Haiti. In the last two days we have explored how we could best contribute to aid efforts in the aftermath of this natural disaster. Haiti has in total about 3.3 million mobile subscribers, 85% of whom use GSM. We have no employees in the country and are doing business with one of the operators, Comcel (Voilà brand), elsewhere in Latin America. On Thursday 14 Jan, we were in touch with Comcel's technical director, who was on his way to Haiti to investigate the damage to its network and to assess the need for technical help. We have offered our support. We are also in contact with the US government and synchronizing our actions with US operators, that are planning aid schemes...

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Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks Originally uploaded by benroome On Sunday 29 November, an in-depth article on the company appeared in Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, following an interview with Rajeev. We’re working to see if we can post a complete English translation up for employees to read. Something that has received a lot of attention is the reference to the company targeting market share. It is always tricky to convey the complexity of an hour long interview in a few hundred word article in the mainstream press. Actually, Petri, the business correspondent of Helsingin Sanomat, does a good job condensing the discussion. However, in the interview Rajeev was very clear that we had three overall challenges: shaping ourselves to be customer..

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Charles Kao working on 'communication by guided light' in 1966 Originally uploaded by benroome A little bit of a digression for this blog, but it was a delight to see Charles Kao awarded with the Nobel prize for physics. His breakthrough was to demonstrate that optical fibres could be used to transmit information over large distances if they could be made 'clear' enough. If you're interested in the history of the development of optical fibre transmission, and the context of Kao's work, you can't do much better than read Jeff Hecht's excellent City of Light. (In fact, Jeff Hecht is the guy to turn to for information on much of optics; he's one of the world's great science communicator's. At the time, Kao's paper -..

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Simon Beresford-Wylie Yesterday it was announced that Simon Beresford-Wylie would step down as our CEO from the end of September 2009. Rajeev Suri, currently our head of services, will be taking over.a the new CEO. A lot will be written about our new CEO. I'm just going to briefly reflect on Simon's departure. There is both a lot of sadness and also understanding at the company around Simon's decision. Sadness that a well-liked and respected colleague and leader is moving on, but also understanding that, after 27 years in the industry, most recently leading Nokia Networks and then as CEO of the new Nokia Siemens Networks, Simon had more than earned the right to choose when to leave the telecoms industry and focus on the next stage in..

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