Linkedin to surpass Facebook's value as professional networks are more useful

A few days ago Facebook Inc announced that the professional version of its social network aimed at businesses will launch in the next few months. I wouldn’t disagree that Facebook is No.1 Internet social network with 1.35 billion monthly users. But we also shouldn’t forget Branchout back in 2010, a Facebook application for professional networking that raised $49 million over three rounds. Today that is the failed startup that attempted to create a “LinkedIn within Facebook” network, but the company’s assets have been acquired by 1-Page, an HR software company based out of San Francisco, listed on the Australian stock exchange. That deal was closed pretty much the same time with Facebook’s official announcement about the new professional network that could be considered as a switch into something new.

However the professional community today, is totally different to Facebook’s approach and envision. For most professionals and executives, Facebook is meaningless or even dangerous and they wont ever connect their Facebook profile with the upcoming professional one. When you meet other professionals all over the world, the first thing you do to keep in touch is to connect via Linkedin and network rather than a Facebook connection that will come later or even never. Linkedin today is where professionals meet globally, joining forums online, finding jobs, acquiring knowledge and create partnerships.

All this value is translated into a 40% share growth in the past 6 months, what investors care about, 20% more than Facebook Inc’s. Linkedin has created its own path, partly based on a typical social network’s principles, gaining full approval from its members that join at a rate of more than two new members per second. Perhaps that was the reason that made Facebook realize that it has to be there and gain market share, even if Linkedin is more robust and sustainable and will be hard to beat.

Based on Linkedin stats, more than 4 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages and in Q32014 total revenues advanced 45% on a Y-o-Y basis.

Concluding, if Facebook Inc plans to offer the professional network, closely attached to Facebook’s platform, it will most likely have limited success as most professionals are already settled with profiles and contacts in Linkedin. I don’t really see how Facebook will motivate this community to give up Linkedin or even add the new platform and a personal profile as we all have limited time to network, to build profiles/reputation and are interested into serious discussions and opinions. Finally Linkedin continuously offers new leading social features, as “Like Post”, “Write Post” that increase engagement and the high value content.

Why LTE-M should play a major role in M2M evolution

Most M2M applications today do not need the higher bandwidth of LTE and 3G as data rate of a few hundreds kbps could meet their needs. The LTE-M extension aims to fulfill the specific energy, spectrum, cost, efficiency constraints of M2M communications, whilst not hindering current LTE devices to operate normally on the LTE network.

LTE-M is expected to be released by 2017 achieving the following

• low power consumption and autonomy (i.e. up to five years for a device running on AA batteries), 
• easy deployment 
• interoperability, 
• low overall cost, 
• excellent coverage. 

LTE-M is likely to evolve further with discussion on including local mesh networking, very low cost modules (under $5), very long battery life ( even up to 10 years due to  long sleep cycles) and low data rates with two-way (including full-duplex) communication.

LTE-M should co-exist with other proprietary networks supporting backwards compatibility to the previous LTE standards in the same spectrum. Today, for example the LTE EPC will require scaling and densification to support a huge number of additional LTE-M devices similar to the requirement of an increased subscriber number as LTE rollout 
progresses. 

Thus, two different worlds need to coexist and share the same resources: first, the LTE core network with LTE users directly connected to the base station (eNodeB) through a LTE interface; second, the capillary (and heterogeneous) network with 
LTE-M or non LTE-M devices connected to a M2M Gateway via any air interface (LTE-M or 
not), while the M2M Gateway is interconnected to the LTE base station via a LTE-M 
interface. It might be also possible for LTE-M standalone devices (i.e., LTE-M devices which do not belong to any capillary network) to directly access the base station via a LTE-M connection. Some main features and research has been conducted in the EXALTED (EXpAnding LTE for Devices), an Integrating Project (IP) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by 2013.

However detailed security features and protocols need further research if need to be implemented. The security protocols should be applied at the application and data layer without compromising the energy efficiency of the device, inducing the minimal extra electrical consumption. Security should also be implemented at the SIM (embedded in the device) level, based on the SIM's hardware and operating system, components that are progressing, enabling high security for a minimal economical cost and a minimal energy consumption.

Today LTE Category 4-6 supports broadband M2M services at speeds of 300 kbps, expecting LTE Category 0, by 2017 to reach data speeds at up to 1Mbps.  LTE Category 0, Cat-0, has been already incorporated into the 3GPP standards, thus the possibility of using LTE as a main bearer for M2M communications has come a step nearer. Most 4G LTE mobile phones being used today are either category 3 or 4, and new developments are taking place for categories 6 or even 7.

Category 0 can perform really well under certain configuration and conditions. It is expected to reduce the complexity of an LTE modem relative to a single band Category 1 LTE module due to a modem's simplicity. Today, Cat-0 operates with only one transmit / receive antenna; has a single RF chain; the peak data rate is 1Mbps in downlink and uplink. That can be achieved by using reduced transport block sizes; among the limitations is the fact that it supports only half duplex capability.

In addition, an M2M unit does not usually require a display or UI, thus the processing power is now compared to a typical smartphone.  Low cost modems could be used that could be really cheap in a large scale,  where each could cost like a GSM modem (~$10). 

Today some interesting M2M applications among others include Energy Smart Metering and E-Health considered basic parts of tomorrow's networked society. Many startup companies heavily involved into IoT and M2M, should be able to provide efficiency and innovation into a variety of low cost solutions.

WiFi Calling is here & soon during flight!

Everybody loves WiFi today, but what is actually WiFi Call and why is that so important now for mobile subscribers and operators?

It actually bridges the gap and long lasting complaint of the lack of coverage in very dense areas and mainly at home where poor signal ends to voice interruptions. But what is new and how does it work?

Ericsson and other vendors have been pushing this service to mobile device manufactures during the past years, Apple (iPhone6), Samsung (Galaxy S4 and S5) and others to include that function in the phone. So, today the subscriber can use his “WiFi Call” ready smartphone to call over his residential WiFi (no matter the ISP) and via a seamless handover to cellular network (i.e LTE) can complete his phone call. This new service provides a seamless handoff for calls between cellular network and Wi-Fi. Same charges will apply as a regular cellular phone call but in that way the operator offers another alternative to successful phone calls in real dense areas. At his point mobile operators offer this new service as a value added service in existing programs with no additional charges and most likely that will remain the same.

During the demo at Ericsson, we used two phones, an iPhone6 roaming over the US T-Mobile’s network, using the local WiFi connection and a regular cell phone that accepted the call in Sweden. I must say that the audio quality was really good, and although some delay was obviously there, it was really the minimum, below a sec, ending up to an easy, normal phone call. Regarding bandwidth, I estimate you need about 80kbps both ways to hold a call, where T-Mobile’s fine print lists standard speeds at approx. 128 Kbps. However this service will not be ideal for coffee shops where noise and the low shared bit rate could make it difficult where HD voice (VoLTE) should sound more ideal.

This is a new service for mobile operators to compete in the Over the Top (OTT market), against Skype, Google Talk etc, where more devices need to be WiFi Call ready and cooperation with the carrier is always needed; the cellular networks should support this service. The most important though today is to spread the word and convince the subscribers to use the service and gain connectivity to the common residential dark spots.

Verizon Wireless announced recently its VoLTE voice and video calling service, but the company “said it had no plans for Wi-Fi calling,”. AT&T announced that it will roll out VoLTE soon and Wi-Fi calling in 2015. Sprint does not yet offer Wi-Fi calling for the iPhone but does for some Android devices.

As broadband speeds continue to improve and Wi-Fi becomes available on more high-end smartphones, Wi-Fi calling has the potential to become the new de facto voice option in the workplace, in roaming, even to travelers at hotels and why not to take off to a video service, as a future step.  Also we shouldn’t also forget that as WiFi will be also available during flights that would be an excellent service to accept calls. T-Mobile is partnering with Gogo® Air, making it the only wireless company whose customers can text, picture message, even check Visual Voicemail at 30,000 feet.

Ericsson announced in September 2014 that is building new LTE systems in the 700 MHz and 1900 MHz PCS bands for T-Mobile and supporting the same time VoLTE and WiFi call services. Ericsson was the vendor that built a good deal of T-Mobile’s first LTE network.

Source: http://exelixisnet.com/wifi-call-fosters-us-cellular-calls/