Barney Robison Blog

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Ruckus Wireless today

announced a new line of purpose-built metro Wi-Fi devices for service

providers, MetroFlex DZ. MetroFlex DZ is a single device that gives

subscribers wireless connectivity to outdoor broadband metro networks while

simultaneously providing indoor Wi-Fi connectivity to home PCs and other

Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Ruckus Wireless is currently the exclusive or preferred supplier of

customer premise metro equipment for a number of municipal Wi-Fi networks

across the country, including: Minneapolis (see related release), Mountain

View, CA; Portland, OR; Toronto, Waterloo, Ontario; Vail, CO and St. Louis

Park, MN.

Until recently, end users were forced to deploy multiple devices in the

home — one to receive Wi-Fi signals from the outdoor nodes and another to

provide Wi-Fi connectivity throughout the home. MetroFlex DZ is designed Read more

CANNES, France — Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT – News) today announces that it has been selected by BT to supply Mesh Wi-Fi network infrastructure and services for six of BT’s Wireless City initiatives across the UK. The contract will see Motorola design, deploy and manage city-wide Wi-Fi networks with BT in, for example, Birmingham and Newcastle.

The Mesh Wi-Fi networks will deliver wireless broadband for use by public services, businesses and citizens in each of the cities. The networks are designed to enable different user experiences including:

Extension of BT Openzone hotspots to enable wireless web access and

email

Contiguous Wi-Fi coverage to enable real time applications using for

example, BT Fusion dual mode devices

Virtual private network (VPN) services for enterprise customers and to

e-enable local authority workforces

Wireless closed circuit television (CCTV) to aid community safety Read more

AMSTERDAM — Trustive, Europe’s leading wireless hotspot access provider today announced that it has signed an in-bound roaming agreement for its retail customers with The Cloud, Europe’s leading wholesale WiFi network operator.

The agreement will allow Trustive’s retail customers to access The Cloud’s 8,500 locations across Europe, including major airports such as London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, as well as city zones and railway stations in the UK, Germany and Sweden. This enables Trustive to further extend its retail services in each country and opens up a wide range of business and leisure locations for its customers.

Trustive offers seamless hotspot access to people on the move, through a unified global network of hotspots. Following The Cloud agreement Trustive retail customers now have access to over 20,000 hotspots including prime locations and coverage at all major EU airports.

Gavin Dresselhuis, co-founder and Read more

MUNICH — Siemens Enterprise Communications expands its wireless LAN portfolio with the launch of its HiPath Wireless Manager and a new HiPath Ready Partner Program for Open Mobility Solutions. This announcement builds on Siemens’

leading VoIP communications portfolio by creating an enterprise-wide foundation for mobility. By providing a secure, scalable and centrally manageable foundation, Siemens now provides the capabilities for enterprises to deploy a wide range of certified mobile solutions for the enterprise.

This open approach to mobility supports an enterprise-wide mobility strategy that centralizes mobility management with “best of breed” WLAN security and promotes the development of mobile solutions that drive business agility and speed decision-making while reducing costs. The new Open Mobility Solutions and open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) make it easy to add third-party solutions that integrate mobility with existing Read more

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Siemens Communications, Inc. [NYSE: SI] today introduced the latest addition to its Enterprise-wide Foundation for Mobility portfolio, the HiPathR Wireless C2400 Controller. Siemens’

next-generation wireless LAN (WLAN) controller seamlessly integrates with virtually any wired infrastructure – reinforcing the company’s Open Communications positioning – making it easy to cost-effectively deploy productivity-enhancing wireless voice and data services across an enterprise. The C2400 is designed to support high-volume, mission-critical business processes on a scalable, high performance platform.

Siemens released the C2400 Controller – its fourth wireless product introduction in the last 18 months – in response to rapidly growing demand from its enterprise WLAN customer base. The company has experienced significant customer wins in the healthcare, education and industrial automation verticals, contributing to its Read more

NEW YORK — Aruba Networks, the Mobile Edge Company, today announced enhancements to its Mobile Edge Architecture designed to address the unique mobility and security requirements of the retail industry. With the new enhancements, Aruba will provide a cost-effective mobility system designed to meet the retail industry’s stringent security requirements and to deliver investment protection by securely supporting both legacy and new mobile devices and applications.

Aruba’s retail mobility solution helps merchants satisfy the recently introduced Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard 1.1, provides reliable and secure access for any standards-compliant 802.11 device, supports advanced mobile applications, and enables unified wireless device, network and application management. The retail mobility solution leverages the Aruba Mobile Edge Architecture to offer cost-effective implementations for both large-sized and small-sized retail store Read more

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Aruba Networks today announced the release of ArubaOS 3.1, a new version of the operating system and application engine for all Aruba mobility controllers, and Mobility Management System (MMS) 2.0, the next-generation suite of applications for planning and managing mobility networks. New features and capabilities of ArubaOS and MMS are designed to provide enterprises with a global mobility domain that is scalable, multi-service, integrated with existing security infrastructure, and intelligently managed. Core to delivering these are new features including:

Virtual Mobile Networks — Combines the benefits of centralized control

with localized management capabilities

Management Contexts — Enables delegation of management rights for

various physical equipment and service to appropriate administrators

Bandwidth Control — Resolves the issue of slow clients and allows

Read more

NEW YORK — Bango has reported a huge shift in mobile content sales with 30% of purchases from its growing community of content providers crossing country borders, compared to just 5% a year ago. The mobile web is helping businesses to reach overseas markets and with more people searching for content, this trend is expected to grow to 55% or more within the next year. To see the mobile web in action go to www.bango.com/live.

“Businesses often start by selling mobile content in their own country,” said Anil Malhotra, Senior VP of Marketing at Bango. “But they soon realize they have visitors from all around the world with minimal promotional effort. Because Bango solutions are global, businesses can leverage the mobile web to quickly and easily capture sales from a world-wide audience.”

This experience is markedly different from the Premium SMS model. With Premium SMS, content providers sold their content country by country, doing Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and BONN, Germany and TAOYUAN, Taiwan and SAN DIEGO and SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today’s mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

With nearly 3 billion users worldwide, the mobile phone has become the most Read more

LONDON — Ofcom today published its annual Communications Market Report 2007 which

reveals new trends in the UK’s ?0bn electronic communications sector.

UK consumers now spend 50 hours per week on the phone, surfing the internet,

watching television or listening to the radio. Average daily internet use in

2006 (36 minutes) was up 158% on 2002 and time spent on the mobile phone

(almost 4 minutes per day) was up 58%. Time spent watching TV was down 4% at

3 hours and 36 minutes, listening to radio was down 2% at 2 hours and 50

minutes and time spent on a fixed line phone was down 8% at 7 minutes.

While consumers are getting more out of their communications services, the

amount they are spending on them continues to fall. In 2006, average

household spend on communications services was ?2.65 per month, down from

?4.03 in 2005.

Ofcom’s 330 page report shows how consumers are using new Read more