Verizon’s LTE network has had a hell of a month. After a year of smooth performance, interrupted only by one major glitch in April, the new ultra-fast 4G network has experienced a string of three outages in a single month, shutting down access to smartphone and wireless hotspot customers across the country. In an interview with GigaOM, Verizon Wireless VP of network engineering Mike Haberman tried to shed some light on the LTE network’s recent problems and explain how Verizon was taking the necessary steps to ensure that they don’t happen again.

Haberman said that LTE is still a brand new wireless technology and Verizon was the first global operator to launch it on a large scale. That means Verizon will be the first operator to encounter the bugs and glitches hiding within any new technology. “Being the pioneers, we’re going to experience some growing pains,” Haberman said. “These issues we’ve been experiencing are certainly regrettable but they were unforeseeable.”

All three outages were caused by problems in Verizon’s service delivery core — in telecom-speak called the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) — which replaces the old signaling architectures used in 2G and 3G networks, Haberman said. While IMS has been around for some time, Verizon’s is the first implementation in an LTE network and it has continued to be a problem spot ever since April, when a software bug originating deep within the IMS core led to a complete failure, kicking LTE customers off both Verizon’s 3G and 4G networks nationwide.

Verizon fixed that software bug, but new IMS glitches have reared their heads – none as big as the April’s outage, but all taken seriously by Verizon nonetheless, Haberman said. The first outage on Dec. 7 was caused by the failure of a back-up communications database. The second, last week, was the result of an IMS element not responding properly, while Wednesday’s outage was caused by two IMS elements not communicating properly, Haberman said.

So while the LTE radio network was working just fine, customers weren’t able to connect to it since the IMS network simply wasn’t able to recognize to them. Verizon was able to force phones to stop trying to access 4G and fall back on its 3G CDMA network after it identified an IMS failure. But before the switch-over took effect some customers were left without 3G, as their phones kept trying to log into the 4G network.

Haberman said once each problem was fixed, it never recurred. Every subsequent outage is a result of a new bug, and it just so happens that December was the month many of these bugs chose to reveal themselves, Haberman said. Veizon’s IMS systems are a complex network of databases, servers, routers, gateways and policy managers supplied by multiple vendors. Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, Acme Packet and Tekelec all provide different parts, but Haberman declined to identify which particular elements or which particular vendors were responsible for the problems. In fact, Haberman defended Verizon’s vendors saying that they were experiencing the same LTE growing pains as Verizon.

While Verizon won’t promise that no more outages will occur, Haberman said it has taken measures to ensure that they’re minimized when they do happen in the future. He said he’s begun geographically segmenting the LTE network, so if a software bug does break out it can be isolated to a particular region or market instead of spreading nationwide. Verizon is also upgrading all of its software and cutting down on the signaling clutter running over its IMS grid.

“Our goal is to ensure that our 4G networks meets the same high standard that our 3G network does,” Haberman said. “We’re not there yet, but we’ll get there.”

As I’ve said before Verizon needs to be cut a little slack. LTE isn’t some upgrade like HSPA. It’s a fundamental rethinking of every aspect of the wireless network: moving from hardware to software driven base stations, evolving network service delivery systems from old hierarchical voice-centric chains of gateways to new flat IP architectures, and replacing old copper backhaul links with fiber Ethernet to the tower. And as the first to launch LTE, Verizon will be the first operator to encounter its faults. I’m surprised we hadn’t seen a string of outages before December.

But Verizon does have to uphold its claims as having the country’s “most reliable network.” Many customers pay a big premium to use Verizon’s service versus its competitors’ precisely because of its network performance and coverage. Three outages – even if they were intermittent – during the biggest month of the year for phone sales and activations will hardly help that reputation. Verizon must have had hundreds of thousands of activations in the last week due to Christmas gift giving. Many of those customers probably turned on their phones to discover they had no 4G service.

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There’s a 13,000-square-mile section of West Virginia known as the Quiet Zone where there’s no WiFi, no cell service, and strict regulations placed on any device that could pollute the airwaves. Those unique conditions are enforced (and aided by the surrounding mountains) to protect the radio telescopes in the area from interference, and it’s hardly anything new — as The Huffington Post notes, Wired did an extensive profile of the zone back in 2004 (the area itself was established in 1958). But as the BBC recently reported, the Quiet Zone is also now serving as something of a refuge for people who believe that wireless technology makes them sick — a condition sometimes called Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (or EHS). Those claims are, of course, in dispute by most medical professionals, but that apparently hasn’t stopped folks from calling the local real estate agent “every other week or so” to inquire about a place in the zone.

West Virginia’s ‘Quiet Zone’ becomes refuge for those on the run from wireless technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NTT DoCoMo’s never been one to back down from the future, and some might say this carrier is actually already living in 2012. You know — Land of the Rising Sun and all. At any rate, its latest foray into what’s next came at the Wireless Technology Park in Yokohama, where it demonstrated a fully-functional 802.11ac prototype wireless system. For those unaware, that’s what is scheduled to make 802.11n look like the 101 at lunchtime, with an effective throughput of 1Gbps per system. If all goes well, NTT will be commercializing the system “within a few years,” and based on a demonstrated throughout of 120Mbps (as in, real-world results), we’re hoping “few” becomes “one.”

NTT showcases next-gen 802.11ac wireless LAN solution, hopes for near-term commercialization originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford is working on a technology that will enable cars to talk to each other, helping to reduce crashes as well as potentially fuel consumption. The technology, which Ford’s Director of Electrical and Electronics Systems, Jim Buczkowski, told us won’t be available for at least another 5 years or so, is based on a souped up form of Wi-Fi and GPS.

I participated in a demo of the talking car tech at an event organized by Ford at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Wednesday. Using three Ford cars that have the WiFi/GPS system installed, the Ford drivers showed different scenarios where drivers can be alerted to potential safety hazards using loud noises and red flashing lights. For example, a car driving in a driver’s blindspot when the driver wants to turn into the impacted lane set off the alert system, as did a car suddenly pulling out in front of a driver at an intersection. (Note: It was a pretty fun demo as the three cars had to drive at fast enough speeds to simulate near accidents.)

The idea is that the wireless network and GPS chip in the cars can “see” the other cars connected to the network, even if the driver can’t actually see the other cars for one reason or another (they’re blocked at an intersection or in a blindspot). Ford is using a form of Wi-Fi called 802.11 p, which is Wi-Fi for driving environments, for the vehicle-to-vehicle talking tech and Ford is working with the Department of Transportation on the wireless standard.

The vehicle-to-vehicle technology is another step beyond what Ford is already doing with wireless technology within the car using bluetooth, as well as using wireless connections and mobile apps to provide Ford cars with connected infotainment and navigation systems. In particular for Ford’s upcoming electric vehicle the company is building a mobile app to help EV drivers find the nearest electric vehicle charging station.

Reducing accidents on the roads can lead to less congestion and more fuel efficient driving. The same vehicle to vehicle wireless technology can also be used to reduce overall congestion via other applications and congestion management tools that can use the knowledge of vehicle location and traffic conditions to suggest alternative routes or tweak driving habits. Singapore has a famous high-tech congestion management system.

Ford’s car talking tech is still in a prototype stage, but I think teaching people to respond in a productive manner to the flashing lights and loud noise, might prove a challenge. Another question up for debate, is who will pay for the added cost of the service and network connection to the car? Will the car owner be willing to buy the extra service, or will Ford have to add in the service for free and offset it with other methods of monetization. During a panel of speakers at the Ford event, AT&T’s Vice President for Emerging Devices, Win Williams, said the question of “who will pay for the connectivity,” is the biggest question they think about.

By 2016 consumers will expect all cars to be connected, said Thilo Koslowski, Gartner’s Automotive Practice Leader on the panel: “That’s just around the corner, and will be a new era for the auto industry.” The major factor pushing this trend are sustainability, digital convergence, changing demographics (the next generation expects connectivity) and increased mobility said Koslowski. By 2016, if automakers don’t offer in-car wireless connectivity, it will be a competitive differentiator. Now, when it comes to vehicle to vehicle wireless connectivity — that’s another story.

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Visa is making a strategic investment in mobile payment provider Square, providing the start-up with an undisclosed sum of money as well as a new advisory board member. It’s a nice boost for Square, which is on a roll as it tries to ramp up payments via a smartphone. But it also highlights the growing role of credit card companies as they try to prepare for the growing mobile payments boom.

As more and more transactions flow through a mobile phone, Visa, Mastercard and American Express have been making moves to position themselves in different ways to take advantage of this trend. It’s not just a passing interest for these companies. In many ways, they need to be actively involved in the rise of mobile payments, which can threaten to cut them and their cards out of the process. Here’s a look at what some of the biggest players are doing in the field:

Mastercard — Mastercard has been an early believer in near field communication and has been working on contactless payments all the way back to 2002 with its PayPass system. It now has 88 million PayPass cards and devices in use at 276,000 merchant locations. And it’s rolling out worldwide deployments of near field communication, a short-range wireless technology that is being used for contactless payments. Mastercard is also working with Gemalto, which will include Mastercard’s PayPass authentication and credentials in Gemalto’s SIM cards. When paired with an NFC-enabled phone, it will mean easier use of PayPass NFC transactions.

Mastercard is also reportedly teaming with Google on an application that will allow payments through NFC-enabled Android devices. This would allow Android devices to become mobile wallets that could also provide consumers with offers and discounts from retailers when they made a transaction. Mastercard is also looking at embedding NFC credentials on microSD cards, which banks such as Bank of America and others are trialing.

Visa — Visa is also working on the NFC front and is working as well on microSD solutions with banks. Visa also announced it was teaming with Samsung to bring NFC payments to the Olympics in London next year. The company is also looking to take on Paypal with its own personal payments system that builds off its VisaNet global payments network. The move takes Visa beyond its traditional strength of point of sales and into the world of electronic payments.

With the investment in Square, Visa is also showing that it’s looking to tap mobile card readers to help grow the number of merchants who can tap into its global payment network. This is more than just a symbolic move. It validates the work of Square and rivals Intuit and VeriFone and it also puts Visa in a position to acquire Square or at the very least, learn a lot about this business. Visa is also getting into virtual goods monetization with its acquisition of Playspan in February, which offers a payment platform for developers looking to sell virtual goods. Visa is showing a lot of diversity, trying to be in a number of places as new payment opportunities arise.

American Express — AmEx recently threw its hat into the personal payments ring with Serve, a new payment network that allows people to pay each other online, through mobile phones and through American Express’ merchant locations. Funds can be added to Serve accounts from a variety of sources including debit cards, bank accounts and credits cards including American Express rivals. Users can manage their accounts and make payments through a smartphone app or using a prepaid card linked to Serve, which is good at all American Express locations. Serve also plans on delivering marketing offers to users, which could be a lucrative business for payment processors.

Serve pits AmEx against PayPal but it also positions the company better in the broader mobile payments market. The platform is meant to evolve over time and will eventually incorporate NFC payments. In the meantime, American Express also announced it is partnering with mobile payment start-up Payfone, which is poised to unveil a payment processing system that allows customers to pay using their mobile phone number. The alliance helps Serve provide more payment options like carrier billing, which is another major piece of the mobile payments realm. American Express has been more quiet on the mobile payments front but it’s showing that its eager to catch up.

As I said earlier, the credit card companies know they need to get active in mobile payments or risk being bypassed. But as we’ve noted before, mobile payments is a broad category that means a lot of things from NFC and carrier billing to more personal payment networks and solutions like Starbucks’ mobile card app.  The card companies already have an enviable relationship with consumers that they are now leveraging as they move in this direction. But the key for these companies is to ensure they’re represented in all of these new and sometimes competing payment options as they emerge. It’s still early but the increased movement by the big credit card companies show they don’t want to be caught flatfooted when these things take off.

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