Stephen Lawson

With Wi-Fi poised to become a much bigger part of mobile networks, the leaders in wireless LAN and cellular technology are converging on the same space from opposite directions.

Wi-Fi specialist Ruckus Wireless will debut as a cellular infrastructure vendor at next week's Mobile World Congress, unveiling carrier-class Wi-Fi access points that can accommodate 3G/4G radios, as well as a gateway to manage networks of both types. The ambitious Silicon Valley company will be taking on this role even as the giants of the cellular world launch forays into Wi-Fi. Alcatel-Lucent last week announced a system for users to roam easily between Wi-Fi hotspots and its cellular infrastructure, while Ericsson said Tuesday it would acquire Wi-Fi vendor BelAir Networks.

The Wi-Fi Alliance will launch a program to simplify the use of Wi-Fi hotspots in July, making it easier for both users and mobile operators to get off strained cellular networks.

Users of smartphones, tablets, cameras and other Wi-Fi-equipped devices will be able to get onto hotspots without entering usernames or passwords, the group said in a white paper released on Tuesday. The paper outlined the program, called Wi-Fi Certified Passpoint, and said the first phase of certification tests will begin in July. A second phase beginning next year will add more features.

iPhone 4 owners in the U.S. can get a US$15 check or a "bumper" phone case from Apple in a class-action settlement that won preliminary approval from a judge on Friday.

The settlement will go up for final approval in July, but the period for consumers to make claims is scheduled to start April 30, said Ira Rothken of the Rothken Law Firm, the co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the case. The period will last 120 days. Anyone who bought an iPhone 4 in the U.S. before Friday can file a claim. A website for filing claims should be up soon at iphone4settlement.com, Rothken said.

LightSquared's primary investor, Philip Falcone, is exploring possible lawsuits against the FCC and the GPS industry in the wake of the FCC's rejection of the carrier's plan for a 4G cellular network, sources familiar with the company's planning confirmed on Friday.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which has the final say on LightSquared's plan to build an LTE (Long Term Evolution) network using spectrum next to the band used by GPS, acted to kill that plan on Tuesday. LightSquared is owned by Harbinger Capital Partners, the hedge fund run by Falcone.

The age of monolithic cell-tower networks with a few Wi-Fi hotspots and home femtocells sprinkled in may come to an end at this year's Mobile World Congress, where a diverse range of small cells and integrated Wi-Fi systems will be on display.

One of the infrastructure vendors stepping up its game will be ip.access, the maker of AT&T's MicroCell consumer femtocell. On Thursday, the U.K.-based company announced plans for the E-100, its first combination 3G and 4G small cell, with a Wi-Fi upgrade slot, for enterprises and indoor public spaces such as malls and stadiums. It will demonstrate the E-100 at Mobile World Congress and expects to have it in field trials in the first quarter of next year.

Though would-be mobile carrier LightSquared says it still wants to find a solution to interference with GPS, its options are limited, industry observers said on Wednesday.

Following a recommendation from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed indefinitely suspending LightSquared's authorization to operate a land-based network. It also called for cancelling a conditional waiver that would have let the carrier sell access to its satellite and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks separately. That waiver is conditioned on interference issues being resolved first.

LightSquared said Wednesday it still wants to find a solution to the GPS interference issue that has probably already doomed the fledgling carrier's plans for a nationwide mobile broadband network.

In response to a public notice from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, LightSquared slammed the agency's decision to move toward banning its planned LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network but vowed to keep up the fight.

Cisco will appeal the European Commission's approval of Microsoft's US$8.5 billion Skype acquisition, saying the agency should demand that the companies support standards for interoperability with other collaboration platforms.

Microsoft announced its plan to buy Skype in May 2011 and received approval from the European Commission last October. Microsoft executives recently have suggested the company may integrate Skype's voice, text and video collaboration software more tightly with the Microsoft Lync collaboration system.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission wants to drop the conditional waiver that could have allowed LightSquared to operate an LTE network in frequencies near the GPS band, potentially killing the carrier's plan to offer a hybrid satellite and cellular mobile data network.

LightSquared wants to offer a mobile data service over both satellite and LTE (Long-Term Evolution), selling access to each network at wholesale to other carriers. The FCC issued a conditional waiver last year that would have let LightSquared operate the LTE network in its licensed frequencies, on the condition that it didn't cause interference with GPS. Subsequent tests showed interference between the two networks.

Motorola's former WiMax business unit set up shop under new owner NewNet Communications Technologies on Tuesday, diving into the next chapter of a technology that has been largely crowded out by LTE.

NewNet agreed to acquire the division for an undisclosed sum last year from Nokia Siemens, which had bought it from Motorola in July 2010 as part of a wider, US$1.2 billion deal. On Tuesday, NewNet announced the WiMax business would form the basis of a new Telecom Infrastructure Business Unit to be led by Scott Morrison, who previously ran the WiMax organization at Motorola and at Nokia Siemens. Owned by investment company Skyview Capital, NewNet has acquired assets from several other networking companies.

Nokia Siemens Networks is offering carriers new ways to view information about their own performance and translate it into action that may improve subscribers' experiences -- or change their rates.

On Tuesday, NSN is introducing Customer Experience Management on Demand, a software offering designed to make information easily accessible across all parts of a carrier organization. CEM on Demand can be deployed in several different ways, including on a public or private cloud, and includes a single portal for all the sets of data it provides, the company said.

Mobile operators will be able to plug in an appliance to easily roll Wi-Fi hotspots into their networks if infrastructure vendor Stoke delivers the product it is promising in the third quarter.

The Wi-Fi Exchange gateway will let subscribers get onto Wi-Fi networks built or offered by their carriers without any login or special software or hardware, according to Stoke. And unlike most smooth transitions to Wi-Fi that service providers offer today, this won't require a proprietary system on the back end, the company said.