Mobile phone for isolated billions
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2008-12-15
Sweden-based global telecommunications company Ericsson says that by the year 2013 there will be 6.5 billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world, compared to today's 3.7 billion.
About 90 percent of the rapid increase in mobile phone access will come from the undeveloped world, says an Ericsson press release. This means that services will need to be delivered to rural areas with no or unreliable power grids.
Ericsson will meet this challenge by combining energy-efficient products with network energy optimization. Wind power, for example, can power mobile networks located beyond the electricity grid. Biofuel is another alternative energy resource, and in 2000, Ericsson was the first telecom player to deploy a solar solution to power a Moroccan operator's mobile network.
"Being at the forefront of innovation is crucial for Ericsson to stay in its leading market position," says Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson. "I am, of course, proud to be part of a company that is behind technologies like Bluetooth, setting the standard for mobile technology GSM that half of the world's population are using to make phone calls, as well as leading the development of the fourth generation of mobile communication. But one must also have in mind how to run mobile networks so that all of us can have access to communication services, no matter whether you live in a big developed city or in a remote village in a country with poor infrastructure."
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