ICC 2009: 3G to 4G: towards full mobility IP services

Paging Permission with Access Control (PPAC) Study in Release 8

A new feature that was studied part of 3GPP Release 8 was PPAC (Paging Permission with Access Control). The aim of this feature was that in an emergency situation, the network can get congested and as a result all access is barred except for emergency services. This can cause problem when the user requires to be contacted but is unreachable.

Lets take Case 1: Disaster risk management office in government calls to emergency responder within disaster areas in order to supply temporary service to the disaster areas.

This should not be a problem because the emergency responder is an authorised user with higher priority of access class and will be able to make and receive calls in the disaster area.

Case2: Ambulance attendant reaches a rescue site in the disaster area but cannot find the person who asked for help originally because of unexpected destruction. The attendant should be able to call him/her in order to make sure where he/she is.

Case3: Firefighter is at a scene of fire of high-rise apartment in the disaster area and calls to a person who asked for help in order to give out directives on the evacuation.

These scenarios as such are no problem except when there is congestion on the receiving side. In that case either the emergency attendant or the risk management office should be able to get in touch and establish the call.

In technical terms, the people like emergency attendants and disaster risk management office attendants are called authorised users and the ordinary people who need help are known as unauthorised users.

It should also be possible to make a small duration call between unauthorised users so people can check each others safety. This can be controlled by changing the permission of different access class for small durations so that people can trigger calls for small duration.

The study found that eMLPP (Enhanced Multi-Level Precedence and Pre-emption) that is already available since GSM days can resolve the problem of prioritisation in resource allocation. A new capability will be required to allow UEs with indications from the network to perform location registration and respond to a paging request even though it is under access class barring conditions to complete certain classes of calls or messages (e.g. calls from emergency personnel, …).

This new capability will be available probably when Release 9 is finalised in December this year.

As far as understanding this eMLPP is concerned, the following book has quite a lot of details on this topic. If you can get hold of it then do go through it.

Preferential Emergency Communications: From Telecommunications to the Internet (The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science)

Here is the google books link for that.

CBS Sports Lives Up to Mobile Promises

CBS Sports has unveiled a new iPhone and iPod touch app that will reach a surprisingly large sports audience that is frequently overlooked in the mobile realm – college football fans.

Although there is no shortage of apps for professional baseball, football, basketball, and even hockey, college sports apps have now been given a great push from an entity with the clout and coverage potential of CBS Sports.

CBS Sports announced today that it will provide a live stream for the full 2009 Southeastern Conference college football slate, beginning this weekend with Arkansas going head-to-head with Alabama.

Naturally, the CBS Sports: College app, which was developed with MobiTV and is priced at $9.99, offers all the vital game stats and facts you could want as an overlay during the video simulcast.

Also included:

• FBS college football scoreboard
• Gamecenters for Top 25 showdowns
• Polls
• Latest news
• Current team standings

This news is a welcome announcement to advertisers who have been looking for a bigger mobile venue to reach college sports fans.

In the next few weeks alone, CBS Sports: College will stream more than a dozen live SEC contests.

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AOL To Shut Down Its Mobile Ad Networks Soon?

In a somewhat surprising move, rumors are circulating that AOL will slowly start shutting down its mobile advertising networks and begin letting its current contractual agreements expire.  Are they truly wanting to get out of the mobile ad business?  Sources close to the matter indicate that all signs point to yes.

AOL acquired Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising company, in 2007 for $80 million, and according to sources in the know, the new CEO Tim Armstrong, and the head of the advertising department Jeff Levick are planning to either shut down the mobile advertising network all together, or just let all their contracts lapse over a period of time.

In addition, AOL has been quietly not renewing the deals they have with their existing publishers for their mobile ad network and instead letting them go to competitors- another indication AOL has no intent on keeping their mobile ad business afloat.

AOL has always been more successful in creating content networks, and it looks as though they’ll try and start gaining mobile content as well, but with the recent shakeups going on, the future is hazy to say the least.

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Centrl Teams With NAVTEQ For (Another) LBS

Location-based services (LBS) have become extremely popular in today’s mobile landscape.  Adding the quick rise of mobile social networking with GPS and other location-enabling technologies mean the concept of “location-based mobile social networking” is turning out to be as popular as everyone predicted.  Or is it?

Centrl, who coins themselves as “a location-based social network that lets you share your location with friends, discover the world around you, and learn about money-saving offers,” has teamed with NAVTEQ to utilize its “LocationPoint” advertising solution to help monetize the map-based social network.

Centrl offers a unique user experience by providing a simple Google Map-based user interface that includes simple layers one can use to add things like hyper-local coupon offers, friend’s locations and more.  This simple, map-based structure proved perfect for NAVTEQ’s map-based advertising network.

With LocationPoint, for example, Centrl users on-the-go looking for nearby friends and a place to meet can view offers from nearby merchants such as coffee shops and restaurants.  In addition, merchant locations can be displayed on NAVTEQ maps, and merchant services and special offers can be advertised with rich graphical promotions and mobile coupons, as well as engaging calls to action including click-to-call, route and text.

It’s a perfect partnership, but I have to wonder how many ad-ridden social networks we truly need.  To be fair, Centrl offers one of the most simple interfaces, and its layer-based architecture is very straightforward when compared to others, but when are we going to see something unique and different from this category.

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Centrl Teams With NAVTEQ For (Another) LBS

Location-based services (LBS) have become extremely popular in today’s mobile landscape.  Adding the quick rise of mobile social networking with GPS and other location-enabling technologies mean the concept of “location-based mobile social networking” is turning out to be as popular as everyone predicted.  Or is it?

Centrl, who coins themselves as “a location-based social network that lets you share your location with friends, discover the world around you, and learn about money-saving offers,” has teamed with NAVTEQ to utilize its “LocationPoint” advertising solution to help monetize the map-based social network.

Centrl offers a unique user experience by providing a simple Google Map-based user interface that includes simple layers one can use to add things like hyper-local coupon offers, friend’s locations and more.  This simple, map-based structure proved perfect for NAVTEQ’s map-based advertising network.

With LocationPoint, for example, Centrl users on-the-go looking for nearby friends and a place to meet can view offers from nearby merchants such as coffee shops and restaurants.  In addition, merchant locations can be displayed on NAVTEQ maps, and merchant services and special offers can be advertised with rich graphical promotions and mobile coupons, as well as engaging calls to action including click-to-call, route and text.

It’s a perfect partnership, but I have to wonder how many ad-ridden social networks we truly need.  To be fair, Centrl offers one of the most simple interfaces, and its layer-based architecture is very straightforward when compared to others, but when are we going to see something unique and different from this category.

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Vodafone 360 Takes on Apple, Google, Nokia, Microsoft…

Vodafone is making a lot of press in mobile this week. Today’s news is all abuzz with Vodafone’s new social internet service dubbed “Vodafone 360″ that looks a little like Nokia’s recently-launched Ovi. Vodafone’s offering includes cloud address books, full-track music downloads, an app store, and social networking integration, hoping the buzz will push its brand to the forefront of the mobile race.

Vodafone also just announced the launch two Linux-based phones from Samsung — one featuring a “multitouch” screen, which lets users either press a physical button or tap the screen (not so much a multitouch phone, but we’ll let that one slide for now.) These phones, and others, will feature the 360 technology.

Vodafone, like competitor Nokia, is sponsoring a competition to find the best mobile widgets, offering developers the chance to win €100,000 in prize money. Because what’s a well-designed app store worth with no apps to sell?

What’s equally exciting about Vodafone’s latest push for publicity is its work in the music world, announcing that it will offer DRM-free downloads from the four major record labels. Yes, legally.

Vodafone customers also have access to a special “top 40″ list that updates in real time, plus freebies and exclusive deals. For example, today only, customers can download 10 free music tracks. On Tuesday, Vodafone added over 1 million tracks courtesy of a fourth record label, Warner Music, to the existing tracks offered DRM-free from Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music and EMI.

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Men’s Health Editor Discusses iPhone App Successes

I recently saw this great interview over at Advertising Age with brand editor Matt Bean of Men’s Health, who is in charge of the publisher’s three paid iPhone apps that have, as a group, so far been downloaded over 50,000 times.

Ad Age reporter Abbey Klaaseen and Bean discuss what publishers should be thinking about when trying to launch apps. There are many challenges at hand for publishers looking to move into the iPhone apps space, says Bean, but if you play your cards right, you can have a very successful app… or three.

“One of our challenges is finding ways for our content to appeal to a wider audience. Apps users are not a one-to-one map of Men’s Health subscribers,” Bean says in the interview.

Not all content is created equal, he explains. Some content just doesn’t work for mobile, so you have to be careful. It’s difficult to balance an editorial staff around creating content for print, online and mobile, but Men’s Health proves it can be done.

When publishers get it right, that app can become a valuable marketing tool. Bean says that he currently doesn’t have plans to release a paid app that includes advertising beyond the $5 ESPN fantasy app that has a Bud Light ad built into it. But he’s interested in ways to present sponsor information in “an entertaining fashion that would not make anyone feel cheated.”

With such limited screen real estate for mobile marketing and advertising, it’s important to use the space wisely. This statement is even more true when it comes to paid apps, which in the case of the publishing industry, is the direction the apps are headed in order for the once print-only publications to stay afloat. For instance, The Wall Street Journal recently announced its free app is free no more.

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AT&T Prepares for Impact of MMS

The people AT&T are believed to be quite nervous at this hour.

Although the company is trying desperately to downplay their anxiety, some believe that today’s introduction of multimedia messaging services for Apple’s iPhone could slow or possibly even crash the AT&T network.

A multitude of published reports have indicated that many companies (both large and small) are suspending or delaying the start of their mobile marketing campaigns until after today to avoid giving a push in the midst of a potential blackout.

Preliminary tests at AT&T have indicated a substantial strain on the company’s MMS servers. Starting at 10AM Eastern today, the real thing will roll out. As a result, some industry analysts estimate that traffic on AT&T’s already well-stretched wireless network could see a 40% increase in traffic as iPhone excitedly break in the service.

More than likely, any such concerns about a network crash will prove unecessary. But we’ll keep you updated throughout the day shoudld any confirmed problems arise.

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