Handhelds Technologies and Nokia, RIM Concerns

This week, Nokia Corp. and others agreed they would support the emerging Long Term Evolution (LTE) carrier technology. Elsewhere, the company also announced a new mobile phone designed to allow users to more easily exchange information with others nearby, including payments. Lastly, Research in Motion, Ltd. (RIM) agreed to meet with the Indian government to help that country achieve its security concerns.

Focal Points:

• Several major networking and handheld device manufacturers have agreed to support the Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless carrier technology by building devices that support the fourth generation mobile specification. Device manufacturers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC Corp., and Nokia, while Verizon Wireless and China Mobile Communications Corp. have said they intend to build out and test LTE, respectively. Licensing fees are said to remain affordable at 10 percent of a device's sale price, with the maximum for a notebook equipped with LTE to stay below $10 per unit.
• Nokia's new 6212 handset supports near field communication (NFC) technology to aid in the exchange of multiple information types over short distances of approximately 4 inches or less. Data types including business cards, data, photos, music, videos, and Web links can be exchange using this method. Additionally, users could exchange payment information using a service subscription and additional encryption and password interaction to enable secure payments. The 6212 will be available in the third quarter in Europe and Asia priced at approximately $315.
• RIM has been called to speak with the Indian government this week to address security concerns that they have for e-mails sent from BlackBerries that pass through the company's centrally-controlled servers. India's Ministry of Telecommunications is concerned that e-mails sent through BlackBerry devices could not be traced or monitored, thus inhibiting its abilities to ensure its national security. An estimated 500,000 BlackBerry users are thought to be located in India and the government may reportedly ask RIM to locate servers in the country to address its security concerns.

Experton Group believes Long Term Evolution stands to be the a very meaningful wireless advancement in this country and others, offering speeds that can reasonably be expected to be many times faster than current 3G and 2.5G offerings. With the completion of the Federal Communication Commission's auction 700 megahertz (MHz) spectrum recently, U.S. carriers should be able to start building out all Internet Protocol (IP) technologies for both data and video that reach the majority of U.S. cities within the next 30 months. Multiple different means have been used for exchanging short-range data, and the biggest advantage of NFC is the extremely short-range capabilities it has. This provides an added layer of security, but encryption and third-party monitoring and management are what will truly provide the added layers of security needed for these technologies to take off in the U.S. Elsewhere in the world, these technologies are readily accepted. India is certainly not the only country to be concerned about RIM's stranglehold on all transmissions sent from and received by BlackBerry devices. IT executives can expect scrutiny from countries and major corporations worldwide to continue until RIM is finally forced to open up its network such that better redundancy and shared or fully non-RIM management is allowed. In a world where everything is moving towards all IP and open networks, service providers and device manufacturers cannot reasonably expect to remain the only option available.