While many believe 5G networks will start to be deployed around 2020, much work remains to be done, 4G Americas said in a paper released Friday (http://bit.ly/12snKCu). The 5G networks will have to take into account the Internet of Things, the group said: “To support possibly billions of IoT devices, a wireless network infrastructure is needed that’s not only highly scalable in terms of its capacity, but can also optimally handle differing service needs of various IoT verticals.” There's also some consensus that since LTE and LTE-Advanced are still being deployed, “there is considerable life left in 4G,” 4G Americas said.
Thuraya partnered with SOS Children’s Villages to provide satellite connectivity to remote communities in the Central African Republic. The agreement will help the charitable organization connect its programs “as well as coordinate emergency preparedness and response teams within the remote communities they work in,” Thuraya said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/12rQbAr). Thuraya will provide public calling units, broadband terminals, SIM cards and other technology, it said.
The average U.S. broadband home watches more than 17 hours of nonlinear video per week, compared with 11.5 hours of linear video, according to research from Parks Associates (http://bit.ly/1DEx7fE). Nonlinear video accounts for 49 percent of the video consumed on the TV and is 60 percent of TV video viewed by consumers aged 18-24, said Barbara Kraus, research director. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. broadband households that use a smart TV as their primary connected device spend at least one hour per week using Facebook on the connected TV, she said. The number of hours reflects personal viewing by the head-of-household rather than aggregate viewing for the entire household, a spokeswoman told us.
Consumer use of digital media and entertainment products in the U.S. is growing, said a Computer & Communications Industry Association-commissioned report released Thursday (http://bit.ly/1se2sx8). The report’s authors used several sources for the report, including the MPAA, the Pew Research Center and BookStats, it said. Music consumers legally bought 118 billion songs in 2013, it said. The video industry, which is “driven by online services,” is projected to exceed $36 billion revenue by 2017, it said. The e-book market grew from a $64 million industry in 2008 to $3 billion in 2012, it said.
The market for sensors used in smartphones and tablets is forecast to triple for the 2012-2018 period, driven by competition between Apple and Samsung for sensor dominance, said a report from IHS Technology (http://bit.ly/10qLhmA). Worldwide market revenue for sensors used in smartphones and tablets will rise to $6.5 billion in 2018, from $2.3 billion in 2012, with the fastest growth coming from emerging devices whose revenue will reach $2.3 billion in 2018, IHS said. “The mobile market is moving beyond simply integrating established devices like motion sensors and now is including next-generation features like fingerprint and environment/health sensors,” said Marwan Boustany, IHS senior analyst for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors. Established sensors in mobile devices include motion sensors, light sensors and MEMS microphones, while emerging sensors include fingerprint, optical pulse, humidity, gas, ultraviolet (UV) and thermal imaging. Apple initiated the market for fingerprint sensors in mobile devices with the release of the iPhone 5s in 2013, and IHS predicts shipments of fingerprint-enabled devices will reach 1.4 billion units in 2020. The fingerprint sensor market “has all its requirements for success converging at the right time,” Boustany said, citing Apple Pay and the growing number of banks supporting mobile payments and biometric authentication. Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and Huawei’s Ascend Mate 7 also sport fingerprint sensors, IHS said. Meanwhile, Samsung pioneered the use of humidity sensors in the Galaxy S4, a pulse sensor in the S5 and a UV sensor in the Note 4, and IHS expects Chinese smartphone OEMs to be the next driver for the new generation of sensors. Humidity sensors have been used in Chinese handsets since 2011, and air-quality sensors are expected to find growing usage in the China market, IHS said, citing specific demand for sensors that can detect particle pollution in large Chinese cities. Thermal imagers using microbolometer sensors emerged from the technology of forward-looking infrared (FLIR) systems in 2014 as accessories for the iPhone 5s, but it will take several years before they’ll be incorporated into phones due to cost, IHS said. Samsung is expected to adopt gas/chemical sensors in the Note 6 for introduction in 2016 when the technology is more mature and use cases have been clearly defined, IHS said.
Successful data transmissions can be as important as voice communications, said 70 percent of respondents to a Motorola Solutions poll earlier this year, the company said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1xe4y4G). Researchers collected responses from more than 1,300 public safety professionals at various levels, Motorola said. While many of the agencies continue to invest in traditional voice networks, ”they have also begun planning for LTE,” the company said. “More than half of the agencies surveyed either have already migrated from an analog to a digital P25 system or are planning to within the next five years.” Motorola found that 34 percent of respondents are already making use of the cloud “to support data applications, computing and storage, or considering using one in the next three years," Motorola said.
Correction: What the FCC Media Bureau shared with eighth-floor officials (see 1410220044) was information about a draft NPRM on broadening the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor, not the draft itself, which hasn't circulated, a commission spokeswoman said.
“We don’t yet know the terms of the settlement” between Amazon and Simon & Schuster (S&S), but “we’re very pleased to learn that authors will not be targeted in another standoff,” emailed Roxana Robinson, Authors Guild president. Amazon reached a multiyear agreement with S&S to sell its print and digital books in the U.S. (see 1410210031). “We’re pleased to hear that pricing will be based on the agency model, and we hope that this new structure will allow publishers to give more favorable e-book royalties to authors,” Robinson said Tuesday.
Forty percent of adult Internet users in the U.S. have been harassed online and 73 percent have observed such harassment, said a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday (http://pewrsr.ch/1yYu3em). Nearly 2,900 Web users were surveyed via the Internet May 30-June 30, it said. Twenty-seven percent said they had been called “offensive names” online and 22 percent had someone try to “purposefully embarrass” them, it said. Eight percent of respondents said they had been “physically threatened” online and another 8 percent said they had been “stalked,” it said. Six percent said they had been harassed for a “sustained period,” it said.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich will keynote CES, CEA said Wednesday. Krzanich’s keynote, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Jan. 6 in the Venetian's Palazzo Ballroom, will address the future of computing innovation, forces driving the next wave of consumer technology and Intel’s plans for redefining computing, CEA said.