FCC Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn during a speech at the Digital Inclusion Summit (pdf), suggested that the FCC may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service.

The staff has come up with a number of recommendations with these goals in mind. To help with cost, the Plan recommends expanding low income Universal Service support to broadband, and exploring using spectrum for a free or very low cost wireless service.

Altogether, 93 million Americans do not have broadband at home. And adoption rates are much lower among certain populations, including rural Americans [50%], the elderly [65%], persons with disabilities [42%], low-income Americans [40%], African Americans [59%], and Hispanics [49%]. Among the 13 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 who do not have broadband at home, 6 million are either Hispanic or African American. These disparities won’t just disappear over time if we sit back and do nothing.

The FCC provided few details on Tuesday about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later.

Part of the FCC’s Broadband plan will include the suggestion to add broadband service to the FCC’s Lifeline and Link-Up programs, which provides affordable telephone service to low-income residents. The Lifeline plan provides up to $10 monthly discounts on basic monthly phone service, while Link-Up pays up to half (maximum $30) of the installation fee for wireline service or activation fee for wireless service.

The FCC also said there would also be a recommendation in the broadband blueprint to launch a Digital Literacy Corps of volunteers who would provide training to communities with low rates of adoption.

One way of making broadband more affordable is to “consider use of spectrum for a free or a very low cost wireless broadband service,” the FCC said in a statement.

ZDNet lists ISM bands ratified by the ITU (above), such as 2.4 and 5.4 GHz used by WIFI and WIMAX technologies.

M2Z put forward a plan to use the 25 Mhz chunk (2155-2180 Mhz) using TDD Mobile WiMAX. It proposed free service (funded by advertising), as well as pay tiers.

In May, 2006, M2Z asked the FCC to give it a national 25 megahertz block of airwaves. The start-up said in lieu of payment, it would pay the Treasury 5% off the top. The idea of handing out airwaves potentially worth billions didn’t go over very well at the agency. But in May, 2008, then FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin proposed auctioning off the airwaves to a company willing to set aside some of its airwaves for free use. The network would have to reach 50% of the U.S. population in four years and 95% within a decade.

FCC engineers concluded that such a service would not interfere with other carriers (pdf report).

Related DailyWireless stories include; FCC: 2150 MHz, No Problem, CellCos to Martin: Sit Down and Shut Up, FCC: Free Broadband at 2155-2180 MHz, MXtv Makes Its Move, Free 2155-2175 MHz!, The Free Triple Play, How to Fix Muni Wi-Fi, Wavion Beamforms Backhaul, San Jose International: Free Wi-Fi, Bill to Free 2155-2180 Mhz, M2Z Vrs FCC, Freesat: Free Satellite HD in UK, Freeview Goes HD, UK: Free For All, BSkyB: Free Broadband, Murdoch to Offer Free Broadband?, Equal Access Happy Talk, Broadband Wireless — Hello Goodbye, Frontline: Rumble in the Jungle, The OTHER Public Safety Band, Public Service Moves to 800Mhz, FCC Hangs Up Free M2Z Service, 2.1GHz for MuniFi?, and M2Z: Free Internet Now!

Sibeam today announced the closing of $36.5 million in Series D funding with Best Buy and Cisco now investing in Sibeam’s 60 GHz wireless chipsets for lossless HDTV between televisions, DVD players and computers, as well as other applications.

Based on the WirelessHD standard, the second generation of SiBEAM’s WirelessHD chipsets, deliver a 4Gbps data transfer rate and support HDCP and DTCP content protection that can be designed into A/V receivers, home theater-in-a-box systems, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, media center PCs, and consumer laptops.

In other news, Cisco introduced the CRS-3 router that it says can handle Internet traffic 12 times faster than rival products. Cisco says it could deliver every movie ever made in four minutes over the Internet. The CRS-3 will be available in the third quarter and sell for $90,000 and up. It is the successor to the CRS-1.

AT&T, the biggest U.S. telecommunications company, said it had successfully completed a 100-gigabits-per-second field test of the new router and expects it to be ready for commercial deployment in the next few years.

Meanwhile, Verizon Communications and Cisco’s biggest rival Juniper Networks said they completed a field trial at a similar speed with a 100G interface on the Juniper T1600 Core Router. Sprint will deploy Juniper’s SRX5800 Services Gateways, with multiple 1 Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections at their distribution data centers throughout the United States.

The news comes a week ahead of the expected announcement of U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband plan, aimed at boosting high-speed Internet adoption in the country.

The FCC is expected to propose that operators provide minimum Internet data transmission speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to 100 million homes within a decade.

Vivid Wireless has lauched a WiMAX network in Perth, Australia, using Huwei gear, reports Dailywireless reader Grant Bartlett. Currently coverage is limited to Perth, but is likely to expand to other cities, reports Bartlett.

Vivid Wireless has 90 to 98MHz spectrum in the 3.2GHz band at its disposal in metropolitan areas, and the company expects the network to offer average download speeds of 4Mbps, while peaks in excess of 20Mbps will be possible. The new company has set aside AUD50 million (USD41.9 million) for the project.

Here are some early first impressions. Seven Network is the corporate parent of ‘Vivid Wireless‘ which is also using a legacy Navini Network in Sydney and Melbourne run by Unwired (which was bought out by SEV in 2008). Australian IT explains the relation between Unwired and Seven.

Vivid Wireless will use DragonWave’s Horizon Compact for backhaul connectivity of up to 200 Mbps initially. DragonWave’s Horizon Compact backhaul integrates modem and radio in a single unit and will connect about 150 wireless base stations around Perth. Unwired’s network covers most of Sydney and 35% of Melbourne and currently consists of more than 90 base stations. The company says it will continue to upgrade existing sites and add new ones as its customer base grows.

The Australian Government has pledged to deliver 100Mbits/sec broadband to 90% of its population by 2017, despite struggling to convince the industry of the benefits. Australia’s $30 billion broadband stimulus package is actually bigger than the non-technology stimuli ($29.3 billon) that Australia has announced so far.

The Australian Broadband Plan envisions a newly formed company laying 100mbps fiber optic cable to 90 percent of homes and schools, and getting 12 Mbps wireless access to those who live in rural and remote Australia. The build-out will employ at least 25,000 workers a year and up to 37,000 at its peak.

At the recent controversial Broadband Future Forum run by the Federal Government in Sydney, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it was time to ‘stop the rot’ infecting Australia’s history of broadband. The forum was informed about 18 different national broadband plans created to solve the problem, under the previous Liberal government’s administration, that had all failed to come to fruition over the previous 12 years.

You can compare wireless broadband plans at comparebroadband.com.au.

Related Dailywireless stories include; WiMAX SmartGrid Coming to 700K Australians, BigAir in Australia, UK and AU Develop National Broadband Plans and Perth WiMAX: Business or Pleasure?

A recent survey conducted by the BBC (pdf) found that the vast majority of users around the world consider access to the Internet to be a right. The speed at which Internet access has gone from a privilege, to a luxury, and now to a right is a testament to how transformative it has been.

Across all 26 countries, 79 percent of Internet and non-Internet users said that they felt that Internet access should be “the fundamental right of all people.” When isolated for people who already use the Internet, that number went up to 87 percent.

Almost universally (90 percent), respondents said that the Internet was a good place to learn and almost 80 percent said the Internet brought them greater freedom.

One of the top concerns was the ability to express opinions online safely—overall, respondents were split almost evenly over this issue, and users in South Korea, Germany, France, and Japan held the strongest beliefs that they could not safely express opinions while surfing. Other major areas of concern were fraud (leading at 32 percent) as well as violent or explicit content (27 percent) and threats to privacy (20 percent).

Forbes has published its annual list of the most broadband-connected U.S. cities.

Their clickable map and list shows Raleigh, NC the most broadband connected.

1. Raleigh, NC:

Residents say the city’s high concentration of IT companies, research universities and state capital resources have boosted broadband and wi-fi access.


2. Atlanta, Ga:

High marks in both broadband availability and usage.


3. Seattle, Wash:

Last year’s top wired city, Seattle, slipped to No. 3 this year, mostly due to a (relative) drop in number of broadband providers and wi-fi hot spots.


4. San Francisco, Calif:

A stronger showing in access providers and wi-fi hot spots helped the city climb from No. 11 last year.


5. Washington, D.C.:

The city now supports a network of more than 1,000 hot spots.


6. Colorado Springs:

The city benefited from a relatively high percentage of broadband use, as measured by Scarborough Research.


7. Denver:

Also appeared in both 2008 and 2009 lists.


8. Baltimore, Md:

Made the Most Wired Cities list every year since 2006.


9. Orlando, Fla:

Tourism and conference magnet boasts top 10 showings in both broadband availability and usage.


10. Portland, Ore:

The city has scrapped plans to build a municipal wi-fi network, but still abounds in free wi-fi–one factor that pushed it onto their list.


11. San Jose, Calif.:

This “capital of Silicon Valley” is home to a number of high-tech firms and close to large research universities. It scores particularly high in wi-fi availability and broadband usage, but lower marks in broadband access place it at No. 11.


12. Boston:

A similar story to San Jose: a research powerhouse with high broadband usage and wi-fi availability, but (relatively) few broadband service providers.


13. New Orleans, La.:

Tourists, business travelers and college students have made New Orleans a wi-fi hot spot center.


14. San Diego:

Home to wireless technology giant Qualcomm and hundreds of biotechnology companies has consistently shown up on their list.


15. Salt Lake City:

A newcomer to the list.


16. Charlotte, N.C.:

Supports enough broadband service providers to rank in the top five U.S. cities in terms of broadband access.


17. Miami:

Boasts more broadband service providers, on average, than any city on our list.


18. Columbus OH:

The Ohio capital is home to the Ohio Supercomputer Center and has made their list all four years.


19. Chicago:

Isn’t known as a tech hub, but the Windy City is flush in finance, tourism and manufacturing.


20. Austin:

Huge student population and the annual South by Southwest “interactive festival” have made the city a wi-fi paradise. It also ranks No. 9 in broadband usage.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week. The IEEE 802 LMSC was created in March of 1980 to develop interoperable network standards for computers and office equipment.

The IEEE 802 committee has continued to develop leading innovations for local and metropolitan area networks for copper, fiber optic media, and wireless technologies for local, regional, and personal network applications.

“From the local coffee shop to the International Space Station, the standards produced by the IEEE 802 committee dramatically influence our everyday lives and will continue to do so,” said Paul Nikolich, Chairman of IEEE 802.”

IEEE 802 began with the novel idea of creating a Local Area Network standard for shared local communications among multiple vendor devices. Inspired by the creation of the High-level Data Link Control Standard and the Xerox Ethernet product, the IEEE 802 committee went on to create a family of network standards.

The 802 portfolio has expanded to more than 100 innovative standards encompassing a wide variety of existing and emerging technologies and applications, including:

• Local Area Networks (e.g. Ethernet, Token Ring, etc.)
• Wireless Local Area Networks (e.g., Wi-Fi)
• Wireless Personal Area Networks (e.g., Bluetooth, Zigbee)
• Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (e.g., WiMAX)
• Mobile Broadband Access Networks
• Wideband Wireless Small Area Networks
• Wireless Regional Area Networks
• Mesh Networks
• SmartGrid Networks

“It is estimated that greater than 98% of all Internet traffic crosses one or more IEEE 802 networks during its transmission. IEEE 802 standards are undeniably an essential foundation of today’s networked world,” said Patricia Thaler, Vice-Chair, IEEE 802.

A series of events is planned, including the unveiling of a retrospective of 802 standards from inception to present day, and the publication of an anthology of insights from distinguished business and industry leaders.

Cisco Systems will no longer make WiMax base stations, reported Fierce Wireless last week. Cisco bought Navini Networks for $330 million in 2007.

A Cisco’s spokesman emailed Light Reading Mobile the following statement:

After careful review of our mobility strategy and investments, we have decided to discontinue designing and building new WiMAX base stations. As part of this decision, we are committed to continue with our current service provider mobility strategy to provide a radio-agnostic approach to focus on the packet core and to also focus investment in radio technologies such as Femtocell and Wi-Fi. We believe the best way for Cisco to serve our customers is by delivering value at the edge and core of our customers’ networks.

The Cisco BWX 8300 Series used an 8-element antenna array and advanced RF techniques such as adaptive beamforming combined with MIMO to claim a CapEx reduction of 30 to 50 percent.

It’s not clear what will happen to Navini’s beamforming technology. Beamforming might be applied to TDD in the 2.6 GHz band, but 700 MHz would likely require an impractically large physical size.

Meanwhile, China’s Huawei and ZTE, South Korea’s Samsung, and the USA’s Alvarion and Motorola will likely pick up the WiMAX basestation slack.

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless announced today that its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network field trials in the United States have demonstrated 5-12 Mbps on the downlink and 2-5 Mbps on the uplink in real-world environments and is “on track to deliver an outstanding wireless data experience to customers in 25 to 30 markets covering roughly 100 million people by year’s end.”

Of course Verizon Wireless will be constrained by their 11MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band and the physical limitations of 700 MHz MIMO in a mobile device.

Samsung plans to provide the first trial solutions of Mobile WiMAX Release 2 for Clearwire in the United States, Yota in Russia and UQ Communications in Japan by late 2010. Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 is expected to deliver about 24 Mbps using 20 Mhz channels and 4×2 MIMO. Today’s Mobile WiMAX delivers a typical 6 Mbps.

Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 adds multi-hop relay architecture, multi-carrier operation, self-configuration, multi-antenna schemes (Single – User and Multi-User MIMO) and interference mitigation.

Robert Syputa, Senior Analyst for Maravedis, explains the hidden jewel in WiMAX Release 2.0: Mobile Multi-Hop Relay:

There is much more to MMR than just extending network coverage similar to Wi-Fi MESH or 3G’s use of femto cells. The basic construct of 802.16e/m OFDMA combined with adaptive modulation, adaptive power control, adaptive HARQ methods, adaptive sub-channelization methods, and an adaptive architectural approach for how functions are scaled and mapped to hardware and applications results in a more “adaptive framework” approach to wireless. The diversity of spectrum and scale-of-use demands as exemplified in requirements for IMT-Advanced are adding to the push to adopt WiMAX’s framework approach to standards development.

Regarding “self backhaul” and providing scalable backhaul, 802.16e—when combined with higher-level MIMO-AAS and communications processor harnessing of 802.16j functionality—has the foundation capability to deliver a distributed network with highly-adaptive self back haul.

Meanwhile, Cisco says it will make a major announcement on Tuesday. Analyst Brian White said the announcement likely “will focus on Cisco’s core technology platforms.” Analysts cite Cisco’s recent $2.9B acquisition of Starent Networks, which makes gear that helps mobile carriers connect wireless phone users to the Internet.

E-Week speculates that Cisco is “getting ready to unveil a plan to work with service providers to build ultrafast broadband networks that could run at 1G bps.”

The Starent ST40, now the Cisco ASR 5000 is access independent and can be seamlessly deployed in various mobile networks, including 3GPP, CDMA, LTE, UMTS/HSPA, femtocell, WiFi, and WiMAX networks.

Using deep-packet inspection Starent can provide an understanding of each session or subscriber transaction. Through DPI, operators can implement detailed billing schemes based on each mobile subscriber session or transaction.

Amtrak has posted an RFQ for WiFi on all its trains. As the nation’s intercity passenger rail operator, Amtrak operates more than 300 trains each day to more than 500 destinations.

In March, Amtrak launched its Wi-Fi Internet service, known as AmtrakConnect (pdf), aboard all 20 high-speed Acela Express trains, in six major stations along the Northeast Corridor, and in all four ClubAcela lounges. Initially offered as a complimentary service, AmtrakConnect is available to every passenger on board Acela Express both in Business and First class seating.

Amtrak reports it has carried 27.2 million passengers over its 21,000 route miles in 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian provinces. Amtrak also is the partner of choice for state-supported corridor services in 15 states and for several commuter rail agencies.

Amtrak currently aggregates mobile-broadband from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile to provide service on the NE corridor through its vendor, Virginia Beach-based GBS Group and its partner Nomad Digital. Amtrak Acela is the only high speed train service in the United States, attaining speeds up to 150 mph (240 km/h), and this deployment represents a major milestone for Nomad in North America, says the company.

In California, the initial Wi-Fi unit was installed last September. Last December, all 10 of the Pacific Surfliner Business class cars were outfitted with Wi-Fi, enabling passengers to access the Internet for work or entertainment.

Amtrak estimates that internet access will drive ridership and increase revenue by $4.3 million over the next five years. The company plans to spend an additional $26.2 million to add WiFi to other markets.

Related Dailywireless stories include How to Create Transit Applications, Realtime Ferry Tracking, Dubai WiMAXes Metro Train, Microsoft’s Streetside: Indoors via Stills & Video, Global Ship Tracking via Microsat, Shipboard AIS Gets a Satellite Swarm, LORAN-C To Be Shut Down, and BBC Tracks a Container.

The Daily Show covers Chat Roulette.

AT&T is expanding its 3G Femtocell trials to Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, San Diego and Las Vegas. The AT&T 3G MicroCell (FAQ) acts like a mini cellular tower in the home. It connects to AT&T’s network using existing broadband Internet service. AT&T and Cisco developed the 3G femtocell for the home and home office.

AT&T claims the benefits include:

• Enhanced indoor coverage: Supports both voice and data up to 5000 square feet
• Compatible with 3G handsets: Works with any AT&T 3G device
• Supports up to four voice or data users simultaneously
• Device is secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorized users
• Offers simplified management with easy and secure online management of device settings

A femtocell increases signal strength of your cell phone inside the house. Another advantage of using a femtocell is seamless roaming inside and out. AT&T says a connection will automatically switch between a cell tower and the indoor femtocell.

It allows up to four simultaneous voice or HSPA data connections (you tell it which phone numbers are allowed to connect). The signal range is approximately 40 feet from the base station (in all directions), or about 5000 sq ft. Using your own broadband connection saves cellular minutes.

Unstrung says AT&T hasn’t confirmed an official launch date yet, but a second-quarter launch is looking possible. The carrier’s trials are also likely to extend to Los Angeles and San Francisco soon. AT&T is the first major US operator to launch a 3G femtocell, other carriers use slower 2G technology. Neither Sprint nor Verizon Wireless have announced customer trials for 3G femtocells yet.

Research2guidance, a market researcher, says the worldwide smartphone application market will grow from $1.94 billion in 2009 to $15.65 billion by 2013.

It’s driven by smartphone growth. They estimate smartphone users will increase globally from about 100 million last year to 970 million by the end of 2013.

James Kendrick in JK On The Run says you’ve probably heard that Apple is sueing HTC claiming patent infringement. But, says James, it may not be about HTC. Or even Google’s Android.

The impending launch of Chrome OS probably has Apple a bit concerned, but I suspect Google’s desire to see a Chrome OS Tablet hit the market ratchets that concern up to a decent level.

Google has already stated that Android and Chrome OS would likely merge in the future to form one platform, one that can run full computers and smartphones. That’s got to tie Apple’s undies in a knot.

Google Chrome OS is separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.

The Federal Communications Commission will seek to bring Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second by 2020 to community institutions such as schools and government buildings, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said on Thursday.

Genachowski said the blueprint will set “dramatic, bold” goals to bring faster Internet speeds to American homes, including 100 megabits per second (Mbps) for 100 million U.S. households by 2020.

But Karl Bode of Broadband Reports is skeptical, while analyst Dave Burnstein says the plan accomplishes very little for affordability, quality, speed, or availability of broadband in the U.S.

Blair Levin, chief author of the National Broadband Plan yesterday defended it against recent attacks that it is overly broad, ambitious and unfeasible, reports Computer World. The final version is set for release March 17.

While the plan is not finalized, various specific pieces of it have been released by FCC officials in recent days, including one that asks TV broadcasters to voluntarily provide airwaves for wireless broadband. Broadcasters (who never paid the government a dime for their frequencies), would share any profits gained from broadband use.

The plan also calls on Congress to spend up to $16 billion to create radio interoperability among emergency responders and suggests that another $9 billion be spent to extend fast Internet connections to rural areas.

Levin suggested the plan would make broadband Internet service eligible for the Universal Service Fund program. It now focuses on voice telecommunications. He also said the plan will require that Internet service providers offer specific minimum Internet speeds to be eligible for USF monies.

Net neutrality provisions will not be a part of the Broadband Plan, according to Levin, because of a separate FCC Open Internet Initiative. In turn, any legislative recommendations on net neutrality from the Open Internet Initiative will probably be considered by Congress in the Internet Freedom Preservation legislation and related bills.

“A 100 meg is just a dream,” Qwest Chief Executive Edward Mueller told Reuters. “We don’t think the customer wants that.”

Of course 100 Mbps (mobile) and 1 Gbps (fixed) is the very definition of “4G” by the ITU.

WiMAX 2.0 (due for commercial implementation next year) and LTE Advanced (arriving sometime later), are defined as delivering 100 Mbps (mobile) and 1 Gbps (fixed).

It sounds like a bold initiative on the part of the FCC. But Clearwire already expects to cover 120 million homes in the United States by the end of this year. They’ll move towards WiMAX 2.0 beginning in 2011. The upgrade can deliver up to 120 Mbps out of the box. Beceem’s new BCS500 4G chip supports WiMAX 16e and 16m as well as LTE, while Samsung has operational 802.16m basestations.

The tricky bit is bringing slow moving (but politically powerful) cellular operators up to speed. It’s all about spectrum. If you need three, 20 MHz sectors, that might require some 60 MHz per tower. That’s a total of 180 MHz for three wireless carriers.

Satellite providers plan on covering rural users with much faster broadband.

Both Hughes and ViaSat have ordered large new Ka-band satellites. ViaSat-1 is scheduled for launch in February 2011, while Hughes’ Jupiter-1 satellite is scheduled for launch in 2012.

The ViaSat/WildBlue venture expects launch high capacity Ka-band services in early 2011 with their ViaSat-1 satellite and SurfBeam 2 satellite terminal.

ViaSat-1 is expected to have more capacity than the combination of all other satellites in operation over the United States, providing 2-10 Mbps download speeds at retail prices competitive with terrestrial services, says the company.

ComputerWorld has more coverage on the Broadband Plan. Related Dailywireless articles include; FCC “Finds” 500MHz?, Satellite Broadband Getting $100M Stimulus, FCC Floats “100 Squared” Initiative, Round Two Stimulus: $4.8 Billion for Broadband, NTIA: Another $63M in Grants, $300M for 14 Broadband Projects.

Apple has banned Wi-Fi hotspot detecting applications for the iPhone and no one seems to know why, reports The Register.

Only applications that actively scan have been pulled: those that use a database of hotspots combined with GPS data garnered from the handset are still available. Users can manually search for nearby hotspots in the usual way, but applications that do the same thing are no longer allowed.

TechCrunch says that PlaceEngine provider Koozyt says Apple changed their policy regarding “the way apps access Wi-Fi devices”. Their augmented reality app, and a number of other PlaceEngine-powered apps such as WiFi Where were apparently kicked out (including Yahoo! Maps for the iPhone).

Apple hasn’t given the developers of the removed applications much clue as to what they’ve done wrong, saying only that they were “using private frameworks”. Details are still unclear at this point.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, delivered 20 satellite phones and a technician to officials in Chili earlier this week.

The United Nations is also sending 45 satellite phones to Chile for officials coordinating earthquake relief efforts. The ITU is providing Iridium satellite phones which can use both satellite and GSM networks, as well as delivering accurate GPS positioning coordinates to aid relief and rescue.

Chile, which boasts a sophisticated response system because it is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, suffered from a lack of communications.

“For 48 hours, the government did not know what was happening in the most affected zone,” says Oscar Godoy, a political science professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. “This country is not Haiti, and yet we do not have a system of satellite phones to be able to connect with the centers of [disaster zones.]”

The same could be said for the West Coast of the United States.

In other news, Iridium Communications is again teaming with its service partners, Satcom Global and IonEarth, to provide satellite voice and data services for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, which begins March 5 in Anchorage, Alaska.

IonEarth is equipping each of the participating sleds with a lightweight battery-powered GPS tracking device, which will transmit the sled’s location, speed, heading, altitude and air temperature every 15 minutes.

Race officials and fans can view the latest position and status of each competitor on a 3-D map on the Iditarod Website. It’s handy for race monitoring, and allows for a regular stream of data on the racers and sled dogs.

The racers themselves will not be able to view the data from the trackers in the field, preserving the tradition of self-sufficiency and independence in competing against each other and fighting the elements.

“Iridium is the only satellite system providing reliable coverage in all of Alaska,” said Stan Hooley, executive director of the Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC).

The Insider 2010 GPS Tracker lets you follow the entire field 24 hours a day until the last team reaches Nome. You’ll know how fast teams are traveling, distance between teams and checkpoints along with current temperatures on the trail. But it will cost you between $20 – $33.95 if you want all the real-time information with video clips.

Meanwhile, Harris Corporation last July deployed their 18-meter antenna reflector onboard the geosynchronous TerreStar communications satellite. On orbit tests have confirmed that the reflector is fully deployed in its intended position. Commercial operation has been expected to begin for some time. Their on-orbit testing of Ground Based Beam Forming is complete.

With an antenna almost 60 feet across, and supporting 500 dynamically-configurable spot beams, TerreStar-1 will surpass the signal sensitivity and spot beam generation capability of all commercial satellites currently in orbit. The Harris antenna reflector makes it possible for the TerreStar-1 satellite to focus the 2 GHz S-band signals on the United States and Canada in order to provide these Mobile Satellite Services (MSS).

AT&T Mobility plans service that utilizes both Terrestar’s satellite and AT&T’s terrestrial cellular service. The first handset, which will use separate cellular and satellite chips, will cost about US$700 without a carrier subsidy. It will provide voice service as well as data at approximately 64K bits per second.

But Terrestar stock is under $1 per share and some wonder about its future viability. Same deal with ICO which has had an operational satellite for more than a year – but has yet to offer commercial service.

Motorola and other investors spent more than $5 billion to develop the Iridium satellite system. But only a handful of employees remained in 2000, when Iridium Satellites LLC paid $25 million for the company.

It’s been in the black ever since.

Humaninet provides communications support for Chile earthquake and tsunami response. They have several Sabre BGAN terminals available as loaners to NGO teams, thanks to a generous donation of equipment by Vizada.

There are six models of BGAN terminals, with equipment prices beginning at $1200 and service at under $7 per megabyte.

Related DailyWireless Space and Satellite News includes; Haiti Communications, Mobile Operators React to Chili Earthquake, D-Block: It’s Done; Congress Pays, Globalstar: Wait for It, Motorola + SkyTerra Team for 700 MHz/Sat Radios, WildBlue: $30M, Shovel-ready, TerreStar Phones Home, TerreStar’s 60 Ft Antenna Deployed in Space, TerreStar Successfully Launched , Alvarion, Open Range To Build 17 State Net, WiChorus Ropes Open Range, Satellites Collide,

The Washington Post Company won’t charge for online news, but the company told paidContent it was launching its first paid iPhone app today.

The app will include articles, columns, blogs and photo galleries which can be saved for offline reading in a “MyPost” folder.

According to Paid Content, the Washington Post joins a small but growing number of publishers who refuse to build pay walls or run meters but are willing to charge for mobile apps. The Wall Street Journal, in contrast, has a free WSJ.com WAP site, despite its emphasis on online subscriptions.

Washington Post is charging $1.99 for 12 months of customized access and offline reading, although the application hasn’t been posted yet. In contrast, the free New York Times iPhone app has been downloaded 3.2 million times but will be tied to the metered model set to kick in early next year, as will their WAP site.

Paid Content says The Guardian sold 101,457 downloads of its iPhone app in the first 10 weeks at $3.99 (£2.39). CNN tried and dropped various premium online options, and now features a $1.99 one-time fee for its iPhone app.

AT&T customers will finally be able to purchase their first Android phone, the Motorola Backflip, on March 7 for $100 after rebates. AT&T’s Backflip has a five megapixel camera with editing software, 3.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth, and can connect to the web and the Android Market.

The Motorola Backflip has a unique clamshell design that leaves the keyboard exposed when closed. It has similar specs to the MOTO CLIQ on T-Mobile, and will compete with the Motorola Devour when that mid-range Android device launches for Verizon Wireless.

AT&T’s own Navigator service features voice guided turn-by-turn GPS driving directions, real-time traffic alerts, automatic reroute, and full-color 3D moving maps. But it costs $9.95/month. Google’s navigation software is free .

AT&T went out of their way to replace Google search with Yahoo, explains ZDNet:

AT&T manages to remove Google’s search from an Android device. Verizon Wireless on the Devour drops in its Verizon Navigator to compete with Google’s GPS capability. Meanwhile, apps like Bing are being force fed to users and browser choice is a pipe dream on most mobile phones.

How exactly did we arrive at such advanced mobile devices being hamstrung by primitive business models? Welcome to the wonderful world of wireless where vertical integration, business deals and other hangups remove the choice that you expect everyday on your PC.

Larry Dignan explains why buying a more expensive unlocked phone could save you money:

Let’s assume Verizon will plaster its Verizon Navigator with audible turn-by-turn directions that costs $9.99/month, onto the Nexus One and screw up Google’s GPS.

The math works like this: Nexus One cost ($529) minus cost of GPS device ($200) separately minus what you’d have to pay a year of Verizon Navigator service ($120). Suddenly that unlocked Nexus One looks more palatable.

Still, the fact remains that you can buy a Verizon Droid with free Navigation from Google. Verizon’s DROID was the first device with Google Maps Navigation, providing turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps. It’s powered by Google and connected to the Internet.

Perhaps competitors will sort this out in the marketplace.

Ovi has navigable maps for over 70 countries. And it’s all free.

• Free Drive navigation
• Free Walk navigation
• Free maps and map updates
• Free Events guides
• Free Lonely Planet guides
• Free Michelin guides

Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation is free across the globe. Drivers receive turn-by-turn voice guidance including lane assistance, traffic information (in 10 countries including the US), and safety camera and speed warnings while pedestrians will be guided on shortcuts through parks and pedestrian-only zones. It all works offline too! You’ll need a Nokia phone, however.

Google Maps Navigation is an internet-connected GPS navigation system with voice guidance. It needs an internet connection. Google iPhone apps are free and include turn-by-turn directions

Skype and Nokia today jointly announced the release of Skype for Symbian, a Skype client for Nokia smartphones based on the Symbian platform, the world’s most popular smartphone platform.

Skype for Symbian will allow Nokia smartphone users worldwide to use Skype on the move, over either a WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G). It is now downloadable for free from the Ovi Store, Nokia’s one-stop shop for mobile content.

Skype for Symbian enables Nokia smartphone users to:

• Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world*
• Save money on calls and texts (SMS) to phones abroad
• Send and receive instant messages to and from individuals or groups
• Share pictures, videos and other files
• Receive calls to their existing online number
• See when Skype contacts are online and available to call or IM
• Easily import names and numbers from the phone’s address book

The world’s largest device manufacturer said it will run on any Nokia smartphone using Symbian ^1, the latest version of the Symbian platform.

“We’re seeing around 1.5 million downloads a day on Ovi Store now and believe that the Skype client for Nokia smartphones will have wide appeal to Symbian users,” said Jo Harlow, senior VP for smartphones at Nokia. Skype plans to soon introduce the client to Symbian mobile devices from other manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson.

Last week Skype announced it is pulling Skype for Windows Mobile phones and Skype Lite for Java handsets, including Android. The download pages for Windows Mobile and Java have been removed from Skype’s site, although existing users will not lose functionality for either Skype for Windows Mobile or Skype Lite. On the iPhone, calling is still limited to Wi-Fi and on Google Android it’s even more complicated, routing phone calls through traditional phone networks.

According to Google’s Andy Rubin, “While the first generation of our Android software did not support full-featured VoIP applications due to technology limitations, we have worked through those limitations in subsequent versions of Android, and developers are now able to build and upload VoIP services”. “Neither of these apps originally offered a great Skype experience,” Skype said in a blog post.

At last month’s GSMA Mobile World Congress Skype announced a partnership with Verizon Wireless, the largest US operator. Verizon customers with data service plans will be able to use the Internet telephony service on Skype Mobile runs on nine different Verizon smart phones.

Skype’s VoIP client has also been embedded on smartphones from Nokia as well as UK operator 3’s Skypephone. In the U.S., Nokia has a small market share, but today’s announcement is a big deal for carriers internationally, where Nokia handsets dominate. Placing it on the Ovi Store also makes it an easy (free) download.

Since the client uses a mobile data connection, Skype recommends the use of an unlimited data plan. Phone calls, on average, use between 8K bps (bits per second) and 20K bps. Cell phone operators have apparently determined that encouraging users to sign up for $30/month data plans is worth the loss in revenue from traditional mobile voice services.

Symbian has been shipped in more than 330 million devices worldwide. In 2008, Nokia, one of Symbian’s largest customers, acquired a major share in the company. Nokia then created the Symbian Foundation to distribute the platform as an open source project, and began the process of opening up the source code that year.

Linux World lists Five Benefits of an Open Source Symbian.

IDC says in 2009, vendors shipped a total of 174.2 million smartphones. That’s up 15.1% from the 151.4 million units in 2008, and accounts for 15.4% of all mobile phones.

Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and Zotac are among the first companies to announce products using next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics. Nvidia claims netbooks will gain 10 times the graphics performance of standard netbooks with up to 10 hours of battery life.

NVIDIA’s new ION pairs a low power Intel Atom-powered notebook with NVIDIA graphics to deliver higher performance HD video playback, 3D graphics acceleration for games, and CUDA technology for GPU-accelerated video encoding, recording, and some other tasks.

Nvidia’s Tegra solution runs on handhelds but won’t run Windows programs. In contrast, nVidia’s ION-2 solution works with Intel’s Atom for Windows compatibility.

Intel combined the CPU and GPU on a single chip, so NVIDIA couldn’t just drop in their graphics chip. The ION-2 GPU, however, works with the integrated Atom N450 processor and fits into netbooks and mini-laptops with 10 or 12 inch screens. It will also come on a PCI Express card.

Nvidia’s Optimus technology optimizes battery life. Nvidia’s Optimus will let users manually switch graphics, but for day to day use, it automatically determines which graphics solution meets your needs.

The Acer Aspire One 532G (10-inch) and ASUS 1201PN (12-inch) are expected to be the first new ION netbooks to be introduced.

Developer Edward Kim says he makes $13,000/month from his Car Locator Android app, reports Gizmodo.

The app saves your location wherever you park, and when you return to the parking lot it will help you navigate back to the location.

He’s seen 70,000 downloads of the free app, but only 6,950 of the paid version. Kim originally priced it at $1.99 per download, but increased it to $3.99 — with the number of downloads unaffected by the price hike.

Kim credited the launch of the Droid as being a reason he’d seen such a spike in downloads.