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UN posts

700MHz band: future home to worldwide mobile broadband standard

by Darren Murph posted Nov 16th 2007 @ 8:02AM

If you've been losing sleep over not knowing precisely what was going to happen to all that spectrum space that will be freed up when the imminent analog-to-digital cutover takes place, your insomnia is about to be (at least partially) cured. The US of A apparently pushed hard for a worldwide consensus on spectrum use -- suggesting that a common approach was more reasonable than each nation choosing separate frequencies for next-generation services -- and sure enough, it ended up getting exactly what it wanted. Apparently, the 700MHz band will now be reserved for a mobile broadband standard accessible throughout much of the globe, including most of North America, Central America, South America, Europe, China, India, South Korea and Japan. Of note, Europe was able to land a concession that enables it to offer up "about half of the bandwidth available for mobile services in their region" compared to what is offered elsewhere, but the agreement definitely makes the forthcoming auction that much more interesting.

[Via RCRNews, image courtesy of toddemslie]

UN plans to fight poverty with wireless

by Michael Caputo posted Sep 15th 2007 @ 11:57PM

The United Nations is taking on the enormous project of supplying wireless service to almost 80 African tribes covering 10 countries. The project is expected to encompass nearly a half-million people from the area and is expected to boost the local economy by providing health care and education. Consumers would also have access to 2G data, giving customers the ability to surf the internet. Even though this doesn't fall under the GSMA 3G for all plan -- something is better than nothing, right?

[Via Textually]