Research firm iSuppli released a report today showing that the introduction of the Kindle Fire and the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone 4S took a bite out of Apple’s tablet share. According to the report — despite Apple’s record sales of 15.4 million iPads during the fourth quarter — the company’s worldwide market share in tablets slipped from 64 percent to 57 percent.

iSuppli estimated that Amazon sold 3.9 million Kindle Fires during the fourth quarter, giving it a 14 percent share, compared with Apple’s 57%. Samsung came in third with a market share of eight percent, followed by Barnes & Noble and its Nook device at seven percent. Remember, however, Amazon’s Kindle was only available in the last 45 days of 2011.

According to iSuppli, Windows Phone will account for 16.7 percent of the smartphones shipped in 2015, up from less than 2 percent in 2011. Windows Phone 7 will beat out the iPhone and become the No. 2 smartphone platform by 2015, in large part because of the Nokia deal.

Android is on track to become a planetary force. It will redefine global economic and political boundaries. There seems to be no stopping it.

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Android 5.0 “Jelly Bean” is rumored to be announced in the second quarter of 2012, reports ReadWriteWeb, and provides a better operating system for Android tablets.

According to Digitimes, “Android 5.0 will be further optimized for tablet PCs, while Google will also integrate its Chrome system functions to push dual-operating system designs. Brand vendors can either choose to adopt only Android 5.0 or add Android 5.0 to Windows 8 devices with the ability to switch between the two OSes without the need to shut down the computer.”

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was officially announced in Q2 2011 at Google’s I/O developer conference. Google I/O is scheduled this year for June 27-29 in San Francisco, right at the end of Q2. ReadWrite thinks it might be Q4 before the first flagship devices are announced. Right in time for Windows 8.

According to Dan Rowinski of ReadWrite, Google might like this idea as a way to undermine Windows 8 on its own devices, but Microsoft would never allow this to happen. Either way, the thought of a dual-OS tablet sounds like a nightmare for users as at least one of them would have to run as a virtual machine on top of the other. For the limited processing power inherent with mobile devices, that is not likely to happen.

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The Navy’s first Mobile User Objective System satellite, dubbed MUOS 1, is scheduled for blastoff today at Cape Canaveral, Florida, around about 6 p.m. EST. The 7.5 ton satellite requires that the most powerful version of the Atlas V, previously flown just 3 times by United Launch Alliance in 28 missions over the 10 year flight history.

The Pentagon’s new $6 billion satcom system is similar to commercial geosynchronous satphone platforms such as Lightsquared, TerreStar and ICO. Built by Lockheed Martin, it has a large antenna with spotbeams to link to individuals on the ground. Unlike commercial satphone platforms, MUOS 1 uplinks at UHF frequencies anywhere in 290-320 MHz and downlink frequencies in 240-270 MHz.

“The UHF spectrum is the military’s communications workhorse because it is the only radio frequency that can penetrate jungle foliage, inclement weather and urban terrain,” says the Navy.

A single MUOS satellite is said to provide more communication access than the current UHF constellation. MUOS should provide communications at up to 40.21 Mbps compared with 3 Mbps for the old UHF system, according to Navy Capt. Paul Ghyzel, MUOS program manager.

A pair of gold mesh antenna reflectors, built by Harris, is at the heart of the satellite’s communications payload. Coverage to legacy users will transmit through a 17.7-foot-diameter reflector on the bottom of the craft. The advanced, multi-beam features of MUOS will use a large 46-foot reflector atop the satellite. After launch it will take about 3 months for the satellite to be positioned in geosynchronous orbit.

Lockheed Martin is producing five MUOS satellites — four primes and one in-orbit spare — to replace the Navy’s current generation of Ultra High Frequency Follow-On spacecraft that were launched by Atlas rockets from 1993 through 2003. Eight of the 11 satellites remain in operation today.

“MUOS is designed to allow backward compatibility with legacy UHF terminals while providing a next generation waveform to support ‘communications on the move’ capabilities,” said Mark Pasquale, Lockheed Martin vice president and MUOS program manager.

MUOS may be years late, but at least cost overruns didn’t balloon into multiple billions, as can sometimes be the case with military space programs. AEHF was expected to cost $5.6 billion in 2001 when the program was getting under way, but the price tag more than doubled. The first one was launched into the wrong orbit. The Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), a group of four infrared satellites designed to warn of missile launches and perform other reconnaissance operations ballooned from about $2 billion to more than $18 billion today with a delay of 9 years.

The scheduled launch comes just a month after the Air Force deployed the latest in its growing fleet of Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft offering X- and Ka-band frequencies to provide very high data rates up to 3.6 Gigabits per second for routing voluminous amounts of communications — like the military’s remotely-controlled drones.

In other satellite news, Space Systems/Loral today announced, that their SES-4 satellite has deployed its solar arrays. It was launched Tuesday, aboard a Proton Breeze M launch vehicle, provided by International Launch Services (ILS), from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. Later today, it will fire its main thruster in order to begin maneuvering into geosynchronous orbit.

SES-4 is a C- and Ku-band satellite designed to provide Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) to the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. With approximately 20-kW end-of-life power, it is based on the decades-proven SS/L 1300 platform

“As the most powerful satellite in the SES fleet, SES-4 will provide new, state-of-the-art satellite capacity across three continents,” said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer of SES. “This is our second SS/L-built satellite to launch in the last six months, and we continue to work closely with SS/L on another important addition to our fleet, which is scheduled to launch later this year.”

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The FCC can auction off some television airwaves and compensate broadcasters from a portion of the proceeds under a provision tucked into a payroll tax compromise reached by lawmakers on Wednesday.

The compromise agreement would preserve unlicensed use in the current TV band. However, the agreement would limit the FCC’s flexibility to design spectrum auctions in ways that promote competition.

Until now the agency lacked the congressional authority to divert funds away from the Treasury to give broadcasters a financial incentive to return unused spectrum licenses, explains Reuters. The auction proceeds would help pay for extending unemployment benefits, says The Hill.

The spectrum legislation would authorize the FCC to auction airwaves that currently belong to television broadcasters, splitting some of the revenue with the stations that choose to participate. Wireless carriers like AT&T Inc, Sprint Nextel Corp and Verizon Wireless, hope to expand their spectrum holdings in the sub-700 Mhz band.

Greg Walden’s JOBS bill, which passed the House last year, would prohibit the FCC from setting eligibility requirements and restrict the agency’s ability to impose conditions on the companies that buy the spectrum. The measure would also have prohibited the FCC from designating additional unlicensed spectrum, which any company can use for free.

The US government wants to fund a dedicated a $10B, LTE-enabled, first responder broadband network, nationwide with the proceeds of the television auction. Incentive auctions would raise funds by selling television spectrum.

There are basically two pieces to incentive auctions:

Carriers are now attempting to co-opt Wi-Fi making it an extension of their own network. Their goal is eliminating free access by non-subscribers.

Yochai Benkler, Professor of law at Harvard University, says “incentive auctions” threaten the future of wireless innovation by eliminating unlicensed spectrum.

The first auction of television spectrum is still likely years away, industry sources said, because of the time it will take for the FCC to develop rules for the new auctions and to seek public comment.

The FCC wanted to retain its authority to set auction rules. The top executives at Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and other smaller carriers had pushed for this flexibility. AT&T accused them of wanting the FCC to stack the deck in their favor.

Under the compromise reached, industry sources said, the FCC would not be barred from adopting auction rules that promote competition.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Seybold: Democracy Now!, White Space War, SF Approves Dedicated LTE Network for First Responders, FCC Plans Improved Rural Wireless Broadband, FCC Autonomy Under Fire, AT&T Competitors: No 700MHz Roaming, SF Approves Dedicated LTE Network for First Responders, Universal Service Reform Passed , FCC Reforms $4.3B USF Fund, FCC Reforms Universal Service, Will USF Funds Subsidize AT&T Buildout? White Space Legislation Goes Dark, White House: D-Block to Police/Fire, State of the Spectrum

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In cities and towns across the U.S., a familiar story is replaying itself: Powerful companies are preventing local governments from providing an essential service to their citizens.

More than 100 years ago, it was electricity. Today, it is the public provision of communications services, says Susan Crawford in a Bloomberg opinion column.

I (mostly) agree with Susan Crawford. But broadband wireless might deliver up to 20 Mbps for one tenth the cost of fiber.

Telecommunications has been getting cheaper and faster over the last 100 years. Why shouldn’t municipalities be able to have their own dedicated spectrum? They already do for police and fire. Dedicated municipal spectrum in the AWS band and in the sub-700 MHz band might provide broadband for regional government, save money, and even generate revenue through municipal wireless services.

Municipal WiFi networks never made sense at $100K per square mile. They were just too damned expensive. Providing reliable, big-city coverage required thousands of antennas and routers. Most municipal wireless proposals failed or were never built.

But the sub 700 MHz band, the AWS band, and “white spaces” are fundamentally different. Those frequencies cover miles – not several hundred feet, and don’t require unreliable mesh networks. New chips can use a variety of backhaul technologies for mobile WiFi. Municipal Wireless might actually pencil out. Cheaper, faster, and better.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are already being spent by state, local and regional agencies on dedicated first responder networks. The jury is still out on those operations. The cost/effectiveness of building vrs leasing LTE-enabled broadband for first responders will probably take time to determine. They won’t be cheap.

Motorola Solutions will build, own, operate and maintain a dedicated LTE system — known as BayWEB in the San Franciso bay area. They will build and run it for 12 years, then turn over the network to the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) Authority. The $72 million project is jointly funded through a federal BTOP grant of $50.5 million and $22 million in private funding from Motorola Solutions.

Will San Francisco first responders be better off with this private LTE cellular network? Supporters say first responders would face capacity constraints during emergencies. But first responders CAN use Wireless Priority Service, which gives them priority access to all cellular networks.

Motorola will charge public-safety subscribers $38 per month, although the vendor can boost that in future years. The BayWeb Joint Powers Authority (PDF) is expected to collect another $5 to $8 per subscriber each month to cover its administrative costs, or around $45-$50/month. From February 10, 2012 to February 9, 2022 it will cost approximately $300,000 in one-time costs, $108,000 in annual recurring user subscription fees, and $80,000 in annual recurring site support costs (pdf).

But other operational costs will boost the overall cost from $157/mo per user to $200/mo per user, according to Chris Flatmoe, San Mateo County’s representative on the JPA board.

That is a steep cost for a private network, particularly as California government entities are struggling, reports Urgent.com.

Perhaps the Georgia legislature shouldn’t be spending tens of millions of local taxpayer money on first responder networks. AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon might all provide wideband push-to-talk LTE networks for less cost (under $60/month) and deliver better coverage, too.

Using the “D-Block”, commercial providers could have enabled public/private sharing — and rural broadband access. For everyone.

Public/private partnerships could still happen – in the 600 MHz band. How about 30 MHz for both cities and citizens on TV channels 31-36. Another 20 MHz is waiting on the AWS-3 band (2155-2175 MHz).

Make it free for municipalities. Now that’s economic stimulus!

Related stories on DailyWireless include; Alca-Lu’s LTE Public Safety Network, D-Block Legislation Stalled, Seybold: Furgetabout Video on LTE Public Safety Band, Broadband Disability Act, Public Service Radio Convention, Public Safety Net Removed from Debt Ceiling Bill, The D-Block Gamble, D-Block Gets a Hearing, National Wireless Initiative, White House: D-Block to Police/Fire, State of the Spectrum, SF Announces LTE First Responder Net, Riot in D Block, Why Cops Don’t Just Use Cell Phones, SF Announces LTE First Responder Net, The 700MHz Network: Who Pays?, Public Safety Spectrum Grab, Oregon’s $600M Public Safety Network Likely Killed, Bay Area 700 MHz Net in Altercation , SF Announces LTE First Responder Net, New York Cancels Statewide Wireless Network, M/A-COM to NY: We’re Good, The D-Block Gamble, National Wireless Initiative, White House: D-Block to Police/Fire, White Space War, White Space To Go, White Spaces Get IEEE Standard, Broadcasters: Portable Devices Kill DTV, Mud Fight in White Space, LTE Vrs WiMAX: It’s a Wrap!, The 700 Mhz Club

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PureWave says its PureWave Quantum base stations can achieve 900MHz-like coverage in the semi-licensed 3.65GHz band in commercial deployments.

Cal-Ore, one of their customers, say they are seeing real world coverage figures in the 3.65GHz band that are competitive with 900MHz and 2.4GHz networks, but with network speeds that are higher by a factor of 5x to 7x or more. This allows them to offer broadband services in sparsely populated rural markets, while offering service packages of up to 12Mbps – far exceeding the FCC’s own requirements for broadband rural services.

“We were excited to discover that using PureWave’s gear we were able to achieve similar coverage in the 3.65GHz band as we were seeing with our legacy 900MHz equipment but deliver up to 5 times the capacity we were seeing with our legacy system,†said Charles Boening, Cal-Ore’s Network Manager.

PureWave says this makes the 3.65GHz band a very attractive and affordable solution for rural broadband, and this semi-licensed band is likely to play an important role in the FCC’s reformation of the Universal Service Fund with a new focus on rural broadband access.

Since the FCC has opened up the 3.65GHz band for semi-licensed operations, operators have found that the power limitations imposed by the FCC have greatly limited the effective range of networks in the band. PureWave says it has overcome these limitations, through advanced antenna technology, allowing commercially viable wireless broadband service in the band even in sparsely populated rural areas.

The PureMax system of multiple, self-calibrating antennas, enables an unmatched link budget through the use of smart antenna technology, says Purewave. Their fully open, 802.16e compliant, basestations support up to 200 or more active, simultaneous subscribers per sector.

Established in 2003, PureWave Networks develops high-performance, carrier-class LTE and mobile WiMAX base station equipment. Their Quantum 6000 base station received the Product of the Year Award for 2011, awarded by the Wireless Internet Service Providers’ Association (WISPA).

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