Dean Bubley: Day 1 at 3GSM

Dean Bubley offers his first day impressions of 3GSM in Barcelona at his Disruptive Wireless blog. Here are a few of his highlights so far:

• Loads of cellular picocells around. I´ve been talking about these for years, but it´s only now they´re appearing on radar screens. Different use cases are emerging - HSDPA inbuilding coverage & capacity, potential future residential cellular base stations, low-power indoor GSM private or operator networks, maritime/airline/military uses, network fill-in.... the list goes on. Some 2G, some 3G. Watch this space... some companies to keep an eye on: ip.access, Motorola, Nortel, 3Way Networks, Huawei, Radioframe.... and despite protestations that "outside-in always wins", maybe Nokia will step up at some point.....
• Unsurprisingly, Mobile TV in 101 incarnations is a major showstopper. DVB-H, DMB, DAB, TDD.... however, one interesting differentiator to think about - what is the latency time when switching channels? I´ve heard that 10secs+ might be typical of a certain technology. Go home now & force yourself to wait 10 secs between each push of the channel +/- button on your remote. Annoying, isn´t it.....
• I´m ever more convinced that UMA deployment only works in cases where the service provider gives the user a dedicated home gateway, and not where there are legacy WiFi access points. Ask me personally for details on this if you´re interested.
• Moto´s "Seamless Mobility" slogan looks even more tired than when it was first announced. A shame, because they´ve got some cool stuff there, even if the press conference was a bit of a triumph of presentation over substance. Some of the new thin-phones on the way look cool - the mockup of a mini-RAZR called the RDIO looks rather cute. UK-based readers will be laughing hysterically at the idea of a phone called the "MING" however.... (to my international readers, "Ming" means "to be really ugly". And it´s also the name of a LibDem politician)