The 3G Age of Communication

NOTE: Information and images credited to Ken Radio

The term 3G refers to a range of wireless network technolgies, including WCDMA, CDMA2000, UMTS and EDGE. 3G combines high-speed mobile access with Internet Protocol (IP) based services. IP based services refers to most broadband Internet services including DSL, CABLE, and Wi-Fi. So what does change? By combining mobile access and IP services a device is no longer tied to static access points or bulky equipment. Users with 3G enable devices can connect from virtually anywhere using existing mobile or wireless broadband signals. See the image below for a comparison of devices from 1G to 3G (think of 3G as shorthand for ‘third generation’ ).

How is this different or better than your existing cell phone?

3G builds on the capabilities of existing devices. With 3G consumers will get faster service, more features, and improved connectivity. Here are some of the features 3G capable devices offer:

Video: Download and save video footage for repeated viewings.

Pictures: Capture and send pictures faster than existing cell phones allow.

Games: More colors, more games, better control. More powerful devices means better mobile games.

Location Services: GPS, mapping, and geo-tagging. 3G devices provide access to location based services. Use a 3G enabled device to recommend a service, restaurant, or movie theater based on your current location.

Watch TV: Consumers with 3G enabled devices in Korea are already using them to watch their favorite television programs.

By far the largest market for this technology is the US. When compared with other countries US consumers are more likely to consider features like mobile Internet, still camera, email, and mobile gaming when making their next purchase. 40% to 50% of US consumers who use mobile TV, electronic banking, on-line gaming, location services, and subscription services use them daily. This is a huge difference when compared to a global market average of 20% to 25% daily users worldwide.

New Cooperation Between Windows and Novell

Long time rivals in the server software market Windows and Novell announced an unprecedented level of cooperation on Thursday, November 2nd. The competing companies, often bitter rivals, announced they would be making their flagship operating systems compatible. This means both companies will develop and market software that will allow Windows and Linux to co-exist on the same machine. This move comes after Linux captured more than 11 percent of server sales last year. In the last year sales growth of the Linux server platform has out-paced Microsoft’s Windows products. The accord between the two companies took six months to hammer out, and was initiated by an April phone call to Microsoft from Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian.

In addition to the making their software compatible the two companies agreed not sue the other company’s customers in the event their software encroached upon patents. From this point forward Microsoft will be recommending Linux for Windows customers who also want to run Linux. Microsoft is also offering coupons for maintenance and support. As an outgrowth of this agreement, Microsoft programs might, at some point, run on the Linux platform.

SADA Speaks at Office Depot Web Cafe

President and CEO of SADA Systems Inc., Tony Safoian was recently invited to take part in the Office Depot Web Cafe. The Web Cafe is a series of free web-based seminars focusing on the development of successful small business strategies. Seminar topics are pulled from a broad-base of experience and expertise, and presentations range from sales and closing techniques to developing financial concepts. Safoian’s presentation will be broadcast live via the Web Cafe website on November 21st. To view this presentation, or those currently hosted by Office Depot, visit their website to register.

Safoian is honored to be invited back to the Web Cafe to present a second seminar, following one he completed in February of 2004. In his previous seminar Safoian addressed the importance of websites, technology products, and using software packages to gain efficiencies. This year Safoian expands on the theme of leveraging technology to gain efficiencies in the workplace with three new topic areas. The topic areas for this year are technology solutions in communication, infrastructure, and customer information management.

Safoian is an active member of the community participating in the Minority Business Opportunity Committee through the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, an organization that focuses on helping small businesses owned by women and minorities to grow and prosper. He also serves as an advocate of technology in entrepreneurship on the Technology Industry Council at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Recently, Safoian was made the president-elect of the UCNH Chamber of Commerce where he currently serves as Vice President of Technology.

Protect Your Assets, Maximize Your Bandwidth: Filter for Content

Content filtering is a major consideration when applying best practices to any network infrastructure. For major businesses that are publicly traded and may have several dozen, or even several hundred employees content filtering is mandatory to be in compliance with certain regulations. While there may not be as many regulatory considerations, content filtering can still be of terrific benefit to smaller organizations.

There are two main benefits of content filtering.

• Preventing employees from accessing inappropriate material from their desks, using company equipment. Perhaps to a lesser extent an employer may also wish to prevent employees from accessing chat programs, games, and other distracting web-based pass times.

• Somewhat related to the above, is conservation of bandwidth and network resources.

Every little widget run by an employee uses up a certain amount of the available network resources. So every open instance of a streaming radio player, every video stream being viewed, and every Internet game being played will cause Internet and network responsiveness to be slowed incrementally. This does not even begin to cover potential exposure to malicious software, viruses, and Internet scams that could make your company information vulnerable to intrusion.

Below is a breakdown of hits on a firewall provided by sonic wall and managed by Sada through our N-Sight managed services solution. Each hit represents activity from inside the firewall.

Note: The results below reflect typical results prior to implementing content filtering

Rank Site Hits

1 x.myspace.com 7494

2 n-sight.sadasystems.com 6813

3 www.necelam.com 6594

4 www.zappos.com 5184

5 i.myspace.com 4321

6 www.sadasendit.com 3034

7 www.neimanmarcus.com 2956

8 www.champcarworldseries.com 2901

9 www.evite.com 2871

10 www.questionpro.com 2838

11 www.kodakgallery.com 2627

12 www.epicurious.com 2446

13 a1216.g.akamai.net 2427

14 www.msnbc.msn.com 2421

15 207.46.3.11 2392

16 hasbro.com 2315

17 www.urbanoutfitters.com 2180

18 02.myspace.presence.userplane.com 2178

19 rad.msn.com 2142

20 www.staples.com 2113

21 www.thepaintedturtle.org 2063

22 re.thepaintedturtle.org 2030

23 cdn.mapquest.com 2024

24 msnbcmedia.msn.com 2020

25 images.amazon.com 2009

It is apparent from these results that blocking access to certain sites would open up a significant amount of bandwidth. Blocking sites such as MySpace, Neiman Marcus, and Evite could potentially produce a higher level of productivity in company employees. Productivity that would otherwise be lost to ‘killing time’ on the Internet.