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]

Newsy newsy news – gotta love it – and this piece of news relates to the diversification of carriers on which the iPhone 3G(S) will officially sit in the UK! Orange are taking the lead (in following O2 (NYSE: TEF)), and getting the device ready for sale on the 10th November – also known as next Tuesday (relative to today).

The iPhone will be available in all 402 of Oranges stores, online, and also in the HMV outlets that Orange has a concession in. But not only that, Apple stores will have the Orange variant, along with Carphone Warehouse (and now Phones4U too!).

So what are the price points then? I mean, right now, that’s all anyone really wants to know:

Well, on Contract, you’ll need to pay £45/month to get the 3GS for free, and £30/month if you want the 3G model for free – those are 24-month kickers, so quite a commitment there. All the plans including unlimited Internet access (with fair use policy!), and also access to BT Openzone for WiFi (hmm, that model sounds very familiar!), with varying minutes/text dependent on the tariff. However, from a cursory glance I gave them, the tariffs look almost exactly the same, give or take a couple of pounds each way. Check it out in detail here.

On PAYG, again, the pricing seems frighteningly similar – forgetting the minutiae of the tariffs for a moment, the upfront costs of the devices (topping out at £539 for the iPhone 3GS), is pretty much exactly the same as O2 again. Check it out in detail here.

There are also some SME tariffs (here), just in case you might be interested – but I think the summary is that you are going to be paying pretty similar rates wherever you go. Nice.

[Original story via: Macworld.co.uk]

Orange announced a deal with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to bring the Goole Mobile App to its customers in Europe. The multi-year agreement is made to make mobile search and geo-location services easier to use by the carrier’s customers, while at the same time helping Google become ever more powerful player in the mobile industry. This, of course, is not to say Orange won’t benefit from the deal, as well.

Orange plans to bundle Google’s mobile app in its Signature phones, starting with those running Android. And in the UK and France, Google mobile search results will also include content from Orange’s own mobile portal.

In addition, Orange’s Android devices — including LG Eve, HTC Tatto and HTC Hero — will feature specially designed services like the Orange Email Wizard in one easy-to-manage place.

Once the “Android phase” is over, the two companies will bring Google Mobile App as well as other Google services to Symbian S60, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and Windows Mobile devices…

In a nutshell, Google is one step closer to ruling the world. Next in line are Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) and Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), after which we can say the search giant dominates the western hemisphere.

Orange France is the latest carrier to jump on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Messaging scheme. The France Telecom-owned operator will offer the service with its Origami Plus and Origami Jet monthly plans, as well as with the Orange email option. Following devices will be offered in the time of launch: Nokia 5230, Nokia E71, Nokia N97 and the Nokia N97 mini.

And as you know, using Nokia Messaging you can access thousands of webmail services from your mobile phone — including the most popular ones such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail.

[Via: Nokia PR]

Unwiredview.com has a story about the fact that Orange are working on a VoIP option for its customers, which should launch sometime in Q1-2010. The info actually comes from a French site called “Mac4Ever” (link at the bottom), which checked with a number of the French Operators.

Now of course that doesn’t automatically mean that other France Telecom (the parent company of Orange) OpCos will offer a VoIP solution, but with the likes of 3 in the UK already offering branded VoIP (Skype, as it happens), it would make sense to port across the solution over here too!

Interestingly, Mac4Ever also found out that SFR and Bouygues Telecom are less bothered about VoIP, with Bouygues saying the voice quality isn’t there. Maybe it’s just my experience, but I don’t even think VoIP delivers using a headset and Laptop – but then again I am picking about my audio artefacts!

Anyhow, it will be interesting to see what develops here, especially with the plethora of smartphones that are now capable of running VoIP apps!

[Via: Unwiredview.com via: Mac4Ever.com (via Google Translate)]

Following on recently available pre-orders, the fabled Sony Ericsson Idou has just landed on British shores as the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) Satio! The touchscreen Sony Ericsson Satio is the Swedish-Japanese phone maker’s first Symbian S60 5th Edition smartphone and it oozes high-end sex appeal. We had a chance to put hands-on the Satio back when it was known as the Sony Ericsson Idou, and it’s one helluva device – especially since it runs the so-old-it-hurts Sybmain platform.

Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) UK is the only carrier to offer the Sony Ericsson Satio at the moment, but Orange has the Satio tagged as “coming soon.” Underneath that high-resolution 3.5-inch touchscreen lies all the high-end smartphone bits that we’d expect to see from a 12.1-megapixel cameraphone monster – DNLA-compatible WiFi, GPS, and 3G data. The glossy-black finish highlights the 12.1-megapixel camera (with Xenon flash) while the 3.5-inch touchscreen plays video with aplomb. Did we mention it sports a 12.1-megapixel camera? Yeah, it’s awesome.

Vodafone is offering the Satio for free when purchased with qualifying 2-year contract. Have at it!

If you’re not lucky enough to live on the British side of the pond, keep yourself busy with our Satio hands-on gallery.

[Via: TechRadar]

Yep – only yesterday I was posting up on the PR of the launch of the Motorola DEXT with Orange and today Moto have gone straight for the jugular by emailing me direct!

Personally I am not sure if there is an air of desperation here – I mean, they do need the DEXT to do well, and I think it’s got every chance – so long as the O/S isn’t laggy, and is reasonably intuitive. Finally Motorola (NYSE: MOT) have broken the shackles of years of RAZR-based design, and gone for something a bit different – lets hope they haven’t left it too late in their potential customers’ eyes.

If you want to know more about the DEXT go here.

If you want to see about buying one on the Orange network, go here.

Look out also for the soon-to-be review of the Motorola DEXT on IntoMobile – we’ll be getting one of the first production units to review, since virtually all of the review units until now have been unfinished product – let’s hope ours is a goodie!

Motorola DEXT, the first Android powered device from Motorola and the first to feature the innovative MOTOBLUR solution, will be on sale in the UK from this week.

Ranged exclusively on the Orange network in the UK, Motorola DEXT will be on sale in Orange retail outlets from October 7th and in Phones 4u stores from October 8th. For those eager to experience the DEXT before anyone else, it will be on sale from 3pm at the opening of the Orange Multimedia Store in Milton Keynes on October 6th – Orange’s first Multimedia Store in the UK.

Launched globally in September, Motorola DEXT with MOTOBLUR manages and integrates communications — from work e-mail to social messaging activity — all to your home screen. Updates to contacts, posts, messages, photos and more are streamed together and synced from sources including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, LastFM and Yahoo and work and personal e-mail. MOTOBLUR automatically delivers these updates to the home screen in easy-to-view streams so there is no need to open and close different mobile applications to keep up with the latest content.

Orange is offering the DEXT free to customers who take out a £34.26 per month, 24 month contract. The package includes 900 any network call minutes, unlimited  texts, Orange Maps as well as inclusive anytime internet browsing so users can make the most of their mobile experience.

For more information, visit Orange stores, www.orange.co.uk/shop or Phones 4u stores, www.phones4u.co.uk. To check out more on the DEXT, visit www.motorola.com/motoblur.

O2 recently said it was the “home of smartphones” (see quote in here), but with the recent iPhone announcements (see here for example), it looks like other Operators are lining up some mobile powerhouses also – let’s compare O2 and Orange for example:

Orange

• BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold & Curve & Pearl
• HTC Hero
• Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01
• Samsung i8910 Omnia HD
• Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Dext (soon)
• iPhone 3GS (soon)
• Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N86

That’s a pretty reasonable spread isn’t it? Taking in BlackBerry O/S, Android, WinMo, Series60, and Apples O/S. Nice.
So What about O2?

O2

• O2 XDA Zest & Guide
• BlackBerry Bold & Curve & Emerald
• Nokia &3 & N86
• iPhone 3G & 3GS
• Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre (soon)
• HTC HD2 (Leo) – (rumoured soon)

So pretty much the same selection of Operating Systems there too, apart from adding Palms WebOS.
T-Mobile, Vodafone , and 3UK haven’t (to my mind) made any big seasonal announcements yet (OK, so VFUK did ‘announce’ iPhone 3GS today!), but when they do, you can assume it will be driven by, or include, smartphone device(s). In simple terms, the Operators are going to become very similar very quickly, in terms of the smartphone device portfolio offered – and whilst it might be good for tariff and device pricing, networks won’t be differentiating on hardware so much – shame, because there’s nothing better than a restrictive exclusivity deal to stir up news and opinion

Today the 24th suicide to occur over the past 18 months of a France Telecom employee has just happened. The unidentified man was a 51 year old father of two. He jumped from an over pass and left a note blaming “the atmosphere at work” for his decision to commit suicide. Video here. Our condolences go out to his family.

France Telecom is better known as Orange around the world.