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42 Wire & Cable ASIA –May/June 2015
Telecomnews
‘China’s Apple’ Xiaomi
will enter Europe with
accessories but without
phones
Chinese smartphone manufacturer
Xiaomi will take its first step into
the European market by opening an
online store this year, the company
has announced.
Five-year-old Xiaomi (known as
‘China’s Apple’ for its spectacular
rise and its enthusiastic customers)
recently became the world’s
third-largest maker of smartphones
despite offering them only in China. In
Europe it will sell headphones, battery
packs and fitness trackers, but no
phones.
The United Kingdom is among the first European nations to provide
spectrum specifically for ‘white space’ wireless technology, which will be a
major element in the Internet of Things: networks of devices communicating
with one another online. Now, following a series of successful industry trials,
the UK communications regulator Ofcom has given the go-ahead for industry
to harness the benefits of the technology.
A white space device uses gaps in radio spectrum which exist in between
frequency bands that have been reserved for TV broadcasting. Use of these
so-called white spaces would allow devices to transmit and receive wireless
signals for applications such as broadband access for rural communities or
innovative ‘machine-to-machine’ networks.
White space spectrum in the TV frequency band holds appeal for industry
because it can travel longer distances and more easily through walls than the
bands mainly utilised by such other wireless technologies as Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi.
Reporting on the Ofcom action on 12th February, London-based Advanced
Television noted that a range of uses for the technology is already being
tested, among them Internet access for ships and boats off the Orkney
Islands, wireless video streaming of animals at ZSL London Zoo, new
machine-to-machine networks for flood defence in Oxfordshire, and
Wi-Fi-like services at the University of Strathclyde.
A key concern for Ofcom, now putting in place the foundations for industrial
use of TV white spaces, has been managing the risk of interference for
current users while allowing these airwaves to be shared.
Databases will communicate to the white space devices the technical
constraints – as to locations, frequencies and time periods – within which
they must operate to avoid interference with existing users. They will also
apply limits, set by Ofcom, on the power levels of the devices.
According to Advanced Television, Ofcom perceives considerable
industry interest in the development of this technology. The regulator says
commercial applications for white space technology could emerge before
long.
Having recognised the potential of ‘white space’
wireless technology, the UK invites industry to share
in the benefits
As noted by technology reporter
Samuel Gibbs in the Guardian
(6th March), if Xiaomi were to begin
selling a smartphone such as
its well-received MiNote4 phablet
(phone/tablet) in Europe and the USA,
the company would likely face legal
challenges over patent infringement.
But restraint in these markets should
probably not be mistaken for relaxed
competitiveness.
Xiaomi chief executive Lei Jun said
recently that the company, valued
at $45 billion, had acquired patents
across its smartphone technology
and raised $1.1 billion in venture
capital. Its launch of a range of
new smartphones and phablets
specifically targets market leaders
Apple and Samsung.
The European store will follow the
pattern of Xiaomi’s opening in the
USA, which marked its first foray into
a western market. While co-founder
Lin Bin said recently that intellectual
property was “not the most important
matrix,” he acknowledged that
it is a consideration for him and
Mr Lei in strategising launches
beyond China. A Xiaomi effort to
penetrate the Indian market was
checked by patent-infringement
issues.
Europe is not in any
headlong rush to follow the
US lead on net neutrality
The recent vote by the US Federal
Communications Commission in
favour of rules to ensure an open
Internet prompts the question: how is
the parallel effort faring in Europe?
According to IT journalist Ian Scales,
of TelecomTV, the project faces an
uphill slog. A week after the FCC
action, he noted that the EU Council
of Ministers and the European
Commission were “working to water
down the net neutrality legislation
still wending its way through the Euro
machine.”
Net neutrality is not the only faltering
initiative. The Council of Ministers has
said that mobile roaming will just be
capped, gradually. Outright abolition
may not be considered before 2018.
Member of the European Parliament
(MEP) Marietje Schaake made it plain
to the Telecoms Council that she is
out of patience with the absence of
progress on both issues.
“Weakened proposals on net neutrality
go against the European Parliament’s
repeated calls for clear definitions,”
the Dutch MEP wrote to the Council
ministers, calling for an end to roaming
charges as soon as possible and for
clearly defined net neutrality rules. “We
must ensure consumers are protected,
innovative start-ups can develop, and
competition on the open Internet is
fair.”
A ‘hard confrontation’
Mr Scales, who saw “nothing too
rousing there,” even so reported that
some 126 other MEPs co-signed
Ms Schaake’s letter. BigStockPhoto.com • Photographer: Krishnacreations