Telefónica O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany has turned on the switch to its HSPA+ network in Munich. Actually, not whole city is covered at the moment, but we assume that will happen in no time (and the same will also happen to other German cities, as well). At the moment, it’s the city center and western part of the city as well as around the Marienplatz where you can get the ultra-high-speed mobile Internet. That’s of course if you’re one of lucky few with HSPA+ USB modems, which are capable to deliver download speeds of up to 28 Mbps and upload rates of up to 5.76 Mbps!

China’s Huawei provided the hardware for the infrastructure upgrade, and they are also making compatible USB modems.

Finally, our readers from Munich may want to know how they can jump on board. If you’re already using unlimited data plan, you will get a new HSPA+ enabled stick for free! All you have to do is visit a local O2 store until the end of the year. On the other hand, if you don’t rely on O2’s mobile Internet service, you’ll have to visit/call O2 and follow instructions provided which [instructions] will certainly include some contract signing/money exchange activities…

[Via: the::unwired]

LTE, Long Term Evolution, 4G, whatever you want to call it, was designed to be a complete IP based system. Many of you may be surprised to hear this, but when LTE became a standard, it only supported data. That’s right, 4th generation networks didn’t have an interoperable standard for voice and SMS. Several solutions have been proposed, and I’ve extended my support to VoLGA, but it looks like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has decided IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) will be the way going forward.

Who supports the decision? AT&T, Orange, Telefonica (many of you know them as O2), TeliaSonera, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE). That’s a lot of companies. Their posse is called “One Voice Initiative” and now that the big boys have all decided on a standard, progress towards getting LTE networks up and running will start to pick up. Verizon and TeliaSonera are competing to see who will launch the world’s first commercial LTE network in 2010, but it’s going to quite a ways off until 4G coverage is equal to the current 3G footprint.

If anyone can point me (and IntoMobile readers) to a blog post or a book that explains how IMS works, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ve always avoided the standard since I thought it would never fly. Oh how wrong I am now.

Update: The One Voice spec has been published, check it out [PDF] if you’re a network engineer.

[Via: Press Release]

The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid is all the rage right now. It’s chock full of Android 2.0 goodies like Google Maps Navigation and enough smartphone hardware to satisfy even the hardest core of mobile enthusiasts – all wrapped in a slim, yet masculine, package. But, Motorola is going to have to look beyond Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s CDMA network to go truly global. In fact, Motorola’s already got O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany in its sights. Yup, O2 will soon launch the GSM version of the Motorola Droid/Sholes as the Motorola MILESTONE.

O2 lists the price [PDF link] of the MILESTONE at €404.20 ($595), but that number should get a nice little price-chop after some carrier subsidies. The O2 website shows the Motorola MILESTONE looking every bit the GSM Droid we expected it to be, which is a good sign that German’s won’t have to wait too long before picking up their MILESTONE.

We’ve already seen the GSM Droid pass through the FCC and pop up in Vietnam, so it’s not surprising to see it going official in Europe. The only question is, when will Motorola release a US-spec GSM Droid?

[Via: BGR]

….. or are certain apps on the iPhone just not very good at connecting to the network? Let me tell you my story…

The other day there was a particular track that I fancied listening to, but I was out and about – normally I use iTunes via the Mac, but on this occasion it wasn’t an option – so for once, I fired up the ITunes app on the iPhone.

I enjoyed the user experience (well done AGAIN Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)!) – finding stuff, previewing it, and buying is SIMPLE – the only criticism I could possibly level is that perhaps the fonts and graphical bordering are a bit big – it would be nice to get more results/text on-screen in once go.

However I then purchase the track I wanted (Britney, obviously…!), and waited for a sluggish download – but I was shocked – the rate of download was incredible – seemingly only 20 seconds after I hit download, 7MB had shot down to the phone!

But how could this be? When I use Safari and Mail, the rate at which the network connection is made, and then rendering/email download occurs is slow – in some cases almost intolerably slow – and I know I’m not the only person that thinks this, it’s widely reported.

For some reason though, iTunes download traffic seems to be prioritised on O2s network – and to test this theory, I had a go at downloading a 15-track album – oh my god – it absolutely flew!

So this tells me one of two things:

1)     Either iTunes data traffic is prioritised on the O2 (NYSE: TEF) network – via IP, APN, or even at HTTP request level – something is going on….

Or

2)     Mail and Safari are really really bad at implementing their calls to network access / protocols for download

The disparity is quite amazing – I’d suggest you give it a go if you don’t believe it. Go to a 3G area (let’s at least give the network a chance to shine), and then try out collecting say 20 emails (or whatever is in your inbox to download), and then trying downloading a track. Now bear in mind a single iTunes track will probably be orders of magnitude larger than ALL the emails you download – what gives?!

Answers on a postcard, or better yet, in the comments to this post….!

Avenir Telecom (a business-to-business telecoms distributor in the UK), has announced a partnership with O2 to provide its new Joined Up communications service to the UK channel.

Avenir is O2’s leading distribution partner, and Joined Up is a fixed line service which will enable businesses to have one single converged solution for their telecoms requirements.

Sorry, not much more info that at the moment (more when it comes) – what you should take away though is that O2 is active in all market segments, including businesses, and they are willing to partner to go after market share. That’s probably why they are leading the pack in the UK at the moment!

The GSM Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre has been available in the UK and Germany, bringing with it Palm’s intuitive multi-tasking webOS and multi-touch display. Here in the US, though, the only Palm Pre available comes in CDMA guise and works only on Sprint (NYSE: S)’s network. Fortunately, Americans can now get their hands on an unlocked GSM Palm Pre from Expansys – as long as they’re willing to make some sacrifices.

The GSM Palm Pre will ship with some O2 (NYSE: TEF) branding and lacks the frequency support to pull down 3G wireless data from AT&T (NYSE: T)’s network (nor T-Mobile (NYSE: DT)’s network). You still get the same 3.1-inch multi-touch display, 3-megapixel camera, WiFi, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack and 8GB of onboard storage that every Sprint Palm Pre user has been enjoying for months now. But, you’ll have to deal with a “QWERTZ” keyboard that swaps the “Y” and “Z” keys like those crazy Europeans like to do.

If you can deal with non-US branding, European 3G “banding,” and a quirky keyboard setup, Expansys will be happy to sell you an unlocked GSM Palm Pre for $714.99. The website shows the unit out of stock, but should be back within a week or so.

GSM Palm Pre

[Via: Gagdetell]

The Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre is a great smartphone. It features some of the highest-end technology you can expect from any smartphone today – capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch, gesture controls, wireless (inductive) charging, true multi-tasking support and more. The Pre is also seen as the best alternative to the iPhone 3GS. So, it’s no wonder Popular Mechanics has named the Palm Pre one of “The 10 Most Brilliant Products of 2009.”

Unfortunately, no amount of praise is going to boost Palm’s ailing bottom line. The Palm Pre was touted as Palm’s answer to the struggling smartphone maker’s dwindling market share, but has yet to see the Pre capture consumer minds in the same way the iPhone has done for the past few years. But, with encouraging interest from the UK market, Palm might see the Pre out-performing the iPhone on O2 (NYSE: TEF)’s network.

[Via: PopularMechanics]

Yep, today was/is the day when the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) pre goes live in the UK, and you can get your grubby/clean (I don’t know what your personal hygiene is like, do I?) mitts on one.

I figured it might be interesting to go take a wander to the local O2 (NYSE: TEF) shop in Staines at lunchtime, to see how much the Promo effort was in full swing – and what I actually was confronted with was Samsung Genio posters in the shop window – harrumph!

On looking around a bit more, I managed to find two videos promotions running on PDPs at the back of the store – not exactly ‘front of house’! A nice comparison is what happened when the iPhone 3GS launched – they had posters everywhere, in all O2 shops… so this tells me that either O2 aren’t expecting as much interest, or who knows – maybe they spent all of their print media budget and can’t make any more posters

On a marginally more serious note, it’s good to finally see Europe getting the Palm Pre – now if only Palm’s PR company in the UK would respond to our emails and give us a device or two to trial… (hint hint Palm PR!).

At any rate, if you want to check out more about the device and the tariffs, head on over to the O2 landing page here.

[Image via: O2]

Congratulations to all of my German friends and colleagues, the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre has arrived! Folks in the country can grab the GSM Palm Pre for €481 (just over $700 USD) sans contract, or finance it with 24 monthly payments of €20 via something called ‘My Handy’. For all the details brush up on your German and head over to O2 Germany.

To coincide with the launch, O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany has added a couple of apps to the Catalog for ‘Preebies’… a move that will certainly please the early Pre adopters in Germany. The apps include wetter.com, VZ-Netzwerke, ran and billiger.de. I’m sure the German audience loves the local flavor, along with the fact that each of the aforementioned apps are free.

[Via: TheUnwired]

While the iPhone might be the most satisfying smartphone in the US, more and more Brits are looking toward the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre to quench their smartphone cravings. A new survey from TNS indicates that a healthy 26% of the UK is interested in picking up an O2 (NYSE: TEF) Palm Pre of their own – they are either definitely or probably going to buy an O2 Palm Pre in the near future. Compared with just 16% of Brits that were showed initial interest in the iPhone in TNS’s 2007 survey, it’s clear that the Palm Pre is in higher demand than the iPhone.

The survey also showed the 27% of current O2 customers were interested in picking up a Palm Pre. That compares with 17% of O2 customers that were looking to pick up an iPhone from their carrier in 2007. The numbers point to a UK Palm Pre launch that might just give the US launch some insecurity issues.

To be fair, the higher interest in the Palm Pre is likely attributable to the Pre’s free-on-contract pricing. The iPhone was offered for £269, and many of those initial iPhone customers are coming up on contract renewals that would allow them to put a Palm Pre in their pockets for free. There’s also the possibility that the iPhone itself may have boosted Palm Pre awareness by way of bringing the smartphone to forefront of the consumer mind.

The Palm Pre hasn’t been the fantastic success that Palm had hoped for the US market, but all is not lost. If TNS survey results pan out, Palm could see the Pre carving out significant market share in the UK.

[Via: CN]