The GSM technology used by the majority of the world’s mobile phones will get some scrutiny at this week’s Black Hat security conference, and what the security researchers there have to say isn’t pretty. On Friday, an open source group released software that cracks the A5/1 encryption algorithm used by some GSM networks. Called Kraken, [...]

The US National telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has released two reports from its recent on-site prison cellular jamming trials at the Cumberland, Md. federal correctional facility in February. TR-10-466 Emission Measurments of a Cellular and PCS jammer at a Prison Facility – http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/contrabandcellphones/NTIAPrisoncelljammerreport_TR_10_466.pdf 10-468 Inital Assessment of the potential impact from a jamming transmitter [...]

Cell phone companies have started to barrage consumers with advertising for the next advance in wireless network technology: “4G” access. The companies are promising faster speeds and the thrill of being the first on the block to use a new acronym. Much of this is just marketing spin to promote systems that in some cases [...]

Release 10 of 3GPP specifications will include LTE Advanced. Although some wireless/cellular operators and vendors have already been using the term “4G” for their LTE and WiMAX services, the “true” specifications for 4G services developed by standards organization 3GPP  will be published in March 2011 under Release 10, according to current targets. Read more of [...]

Following a recent crack of the simpler A5/1 standard, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science say they have cracked the A5/3 security cipher (nicknamed Kasumi) by using what’s known as a “sandwich” attack. The group accomplished its goal by creating a distinguishing trait for the key and using just four related keys to determine [...]

Huawei allies technology with price in battle with vendors By Gustav Sandstrom, Dow Jones Newswires Monday 30 November 2009 Chinese vendor’s improving portfolio to pose fresh challenge to European heavyweights. Chinese network equipment vendor Huawei’s challenge to European rivals has largely focused on its pricing advantage, but industry experts say it now has another key [...]

­Indian operators will be blocking several million mobile phones from December 1 as a government ban on handsets without a valid IMEI comes into effect. Estimates have suggested that as many as 25 million handsets were being used without an IMEI number. This has decreased over the past few months with the operators offering a [...]

Earlier this week I noticed an article “Govt Calls for shared Network Towers” in the news. Cambodia’s Minister of Posts and Telecommunications called on the country’s nine mobile phone networks to share their network infrastructure to reduce the number of towers being deployed in the country. Requests to reduce tower numbers are becoming more common, [...]

To supplement our existing range of courses for registered learners, we have added a new Online Wireless Courses page, linking to a selection publicly available and free online courses. The two initial courses added are: XC001 – Intro to Radio Waves – An introduction to  radio waves and their characteristics. XC002 – Intro to Cellular [...]

The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) today published its latest GSM/3G Market Update. Amongst the issues reported this month, GSA has confirmed that 300 WCDMA networks have been commercially launched in 126 countries. WCDMA has achieved approaching 75% market share of commercial 3G networks with an estimated 410+ million subscriptions. GSA says that 95% of [...]