Mobile Broadband Finally Gets a Logo.

 The GSM Association has coordinated 3 Group, Asus, Dell, ECS, Ericsson, Gemalto, Lenovo, Microsoft, Orange, Qualcomm, Telefónica Europe, Telecom Italia, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile, Toshiba and Vodafone among others to create the “Mobile Broadband service mark.” It’s a logo designed to let consumers know the item they’re using/seeing on the shelf in a store is a ready-to-run mobile internet device. 

The GSMA said the Mobile Broadband service mark (right), incorporates HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSPA Evolved and LTE (Long Term Evolution). Laptops with the new mark will support speeds of at least 3.6Mbps. The technical specification states that 3.6Mbps is required, and that 7.2Mbps is recommended, but the mark will always look the same.

The GSM Association plans to spend more than $1 billion promoting a Mobile Broadband service mark to signify that their gear is GSM compatibile, delivering “a compelling alternative to Wi-Fi.”

Apple and Intel are not joining this party. Apple’s iPhone includes Wi-Fi while Intel is a leading proponent of both WiMax and Wi-Fi, often considered competitors to cellular wireless services.

Pocket-lint: Mobile Broadband get a logo.

Broadband debate is over. House & Senate agree on better broadband data.

 Congress approved a bill on Monday that will improve the collection of U.S. broadband deployment data and hand out $40 million to groups working to spur broadband adoption.

The bill, S. 1492, passed the Senate unanimously on Friday and the House of Representatives approved it on Monday with minor revisions; the House wants broadband summary reports to be sent to the Senate and House Commerce Committees, rather than just to the Senate.

Under the bill, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must come up with a better definition of broadband than its current paltry 200 Kbps benchmark, report broadband access by nine-digit ZIP codes, rather than five, and create a $40 million, five-year matching grant program for organizations that work to stimulate broadband adoption.

The FCC has already moved to improve data collection on broadband access, ruling that ISPs have to start providing data on the percentage of subscribers who are residential clients based upon census tract areas. But House and Senate members and other advocacy groups have requested better reporting out of the Commission.

PC Mag: Update: Broadband Data Bill OK’d by Senate, House.

New Trans-Pacific undersea cable completed.

Six of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies have completed the construction of the Trans-Pacific Express, a fiber optic cable system across the Pacific. It will directly link the U.S., China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Initial carriers investing in TPE were China NetCom, China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Korea Telecom and Verizon Business; AT&T and NTT Communications signed on earlier this year. The addition of NTT also added a cable landing site to Japan, making for a total of six sites – one in Japan, two in mainland China, and one each in Taiwan, South Korea, and the U.S.

Initially the cable will be configured to handle traffic at 1.28 terabits per second (Tbps), but the system has design capacity of up to 5.12Tbps. Customers can also book individual connections running at 10Gbps. Korea Telecom, South Korea’s largest fixed-line and broadband service provider, led the $500 million project which was signed in December 2006 by Verizon Communications; KT Corp., China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom. Under terms of the arrangement, the project’s $500 million cost was divided roughly evenly among the six partners.

The 18,000 kilometer undersea cable will offer an alternative to the single low-capacity cable that now provides the only direct link between mainland China and the U.S. Currently, most Web traffic between the two countries has to go through Hong Kong or Japan, at times causing transmission delays.

Verizon said in 2006 that the new cable system is designed to handle the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone conversations, more than 60 times the overall capacity of the China-U.S. cable at the time, which can handle the equivalent of 1 million simultaneous phone conversations.

Press Release: Next-Generation Trans-Pacific Express Submarine Cable System Is Ready for Service.