10 Jan 2011

First Billion Mobile Broadband Devices

Our Editor, Ian Poole talks to Jean-Pierre Bienaimé, Chairman of the UMTS Forum about the latest whitepaper "Two Worlds Connected: Consumer Electronics Meets Mobile Broadband."

With the publication of the UMTS Forum Whitepaper entitled "Two Worlds Connected: Consumer Electronics Meets Mobile Broadband" which headlines the idea of 1 billion connected consumer electronics devices by 2016, Radio-Electronics.com decided to find out more and talk to Jean-Pierre Bienaimé.

As the landscape of cellular connectivity is likely to change in the coming years with the advent of more "always-on" devices it is particularly important for the cellular industry to look at developing sustainable business cases alongside the new technology. Only in this way will new markets be successfully opened and revenues maintained and improved.

Jean-Pierre Bienaimé

Meeting Jean-Pierre Bienaimé to discuss the new report on a recent visit to London, we chatted in a hotel lounge over coffee. First we looked at his career. I asked him how he came to be the Chairman of the UMTS Forum. He replied that he had been Chairman since 2003 when he was first elected. He also mentioned that he is seconded from France Telecom where he has been since 1979.

Since joining he said that he has held a number of roles, and after the purchase of Orange by France Telecom he was appointed VP of Technical Support for Orange and is now SVP Strategy & Communications, Wholesale, Orange.

What is the UMTS Forum?

Turning to the UMTS Forum, I asked him about the role it plays as there are so many industry organisations involved in cellular telecommunications. Bienaimé replied that the UMTS Forum serves three main roles.

The first is to gather interested parties together - these are mainly the operators and manufacturers - providing a common voice and working alongside other organisations including the ITU, CEPT, ETSI, 3GPP and others. By doing this the UMTS Forum is able to provide support for the industry and its members in matters including spectrum allocations, defining overall business goals and liaising with other sections of industry.

Another role is to undertake industry wide studies, such as the current on recognising the promise of mobile broadband. In other areas they have been investigating the possible usage of C-band spectrum for high speed mobile broadband with possible allocations in the band from 3.4 to 3.8 GHz. Finally, Jean-Pierre Bienaimé said that the UMTS Forum acts as a communicator, promoting the industry communicating the work of the industry and its members to the wider community.

UMTS Forum Report

I asked about the report on "Two Worlds Connected: Consumer Electronics Meets Mobile Broadband", and what it contained. Replying, Jean-Pierre said that obviously the headline is the possibility of 1 billion connected consumer electronics devices.

Having just returned from CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, Bienaimé said that the two disconnected worlds of consumer electronics and cellular telecommunications should be able to come together. Only in this way will both be able to benefit. They need to work together to access a common marketplace from which both will benefit. He cited the example a year ago of taking a photo on a "connected" camera. This took the photo, uploaded it to the cloud and then emailed it to his email account. People, he said, could take video on the beach and upload it directly to their cloud accounts to view it or process it later.

He also mentioned the possibilities of e-health and security which will also need connectivity. These areas, he said, will also be very big.

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