Immelt said half of GE’s sales force of about 45,000 will drive electric vehicles

Most new farmland comes from cutting tropical forest, says Stanford researcher

Ofcom proposes to allow GSM refarming

As expected, Ofcom the super regulator is proposing to allow GSM refarming such that mobile network operators can utilise their GSM/PCN frequencies for 3G (UMTS) use.

This is in-line with European legislation and Ofcom have already written a statement to the Government showing the consumer benefit and thus it is expected that Government will change the Wireless Telegraphy Act to allow the frequencies to be reused.

Ofcom's proposal is available here.

This is still a potential minefield as now Everything Everywhere (the combined entity of T-Mobile and Orange) have excess spectrum according to their licenses and there's still debate as to how much spectrum Vodafone and O2 should have in 900MHz which has much better in-building characteristics than the PCN networks at 1.8GHz (or 1800MHz) and 2.1GHz (2100MHz) of 3G. Once everything settles, it will be better for the consumer as allowing 3G use in both 900MHz and 1800MHz will allow the networks to phase out GSM and replace with 3G services allowing for greater data capacity etc.

Nov 12, 2010 - WNSF's West Coast Sustainability Leadership Summit

The 2nd Annual West Coast Businesswomen's Sustainability Leadership Summit with the theme: 'Sustainability We get it… now what? The Cleantech Scenario' is November 12, 2010 from 10:00am to 4:00pm at IBM Research-Almaden 650 Harry Road San Jose, CA.

Speakers include:
Nancy Sutley: Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality
Mary Duan: (Moderator) Editor, Monterey County Weekly
Judy Estrin: CEO, JLABS, LLC
Kimberly Hosken: Program Director, Green Building, Johnson Controls
Sally Madsen: Designer and Project Leader, IDEO
Sharon Nunes Ph.D.: VP, Smart Cities Strategy; Solutions, IBM
Melissa O'Mara: VP, Green Building Solutions, Schneider Electric
Pat Selinger Ph.D.: IBM Fellow Emeritus and Former VP, IBM Research - Almaden
Alison Taylor: VP, Sustainability-Americas, Siemens Corporation

More information on the event and registration is here.

DBVu in line-up for Best Startup 2010

It's the time of year again when TechCrunch Europe host the Europas and DBVu have been nominated for a Best New Startup 2010 so please get voting.

It would be a great honour to get shortlisted.

Ofcom liberalises the WTA

Ofcom the super regulator will changes to the Wireless Telegraphy Act to come into force on 1st November 2010 that will allow the following to be used in a license exempt manner: -

* Railway level-crossing radars at 24 GHz.

* Fixed Wireless Services (FWS) at 59.1 to 63.9 GHz.

* 900 and 1800 MHz Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terminals.

The changes also liberalise the technical specifications for the following: -

* Short Range Devices (SRDs) below 30 MHz when operating underwater.

* High Density Fixed Satellite Services (HDFSS).

* SRDs covered by the Commission Decision of 30 June 2010 amending Decision 2006/771/EC on harmonisation of the radio spectrum for use by short-range devices (the SRD Decision).

Though railway enthusiasts may be happy that railway crossing radars no longer need a license, the interesting ones for the general public are that FWS at 59.1 to 63.9 GHz (60GHz) are now license exempt as are 900 and 1800 MHz UMTS (i.e. 3G) terminals.

FWS at 60GHz will allow for very high-speed short range wireless links which will be suitable for in-room transmissions e.g. video links from a set-top-box to a TV mounted on a wall without using wires. Equipment is also expected for connecting USB equipment over wireless.

The 3G terminals at 900/1800 MHz opens the way for refarming the 2G networks so that they can be used for 3G services. When Ofcom sort this out, it should increase 3G coverage and make life easier for everyone.

The full statement is available from Ofcom.

Ofcom reviews Alternative Dispute Resolution Schemes

Anyone offering a communication service is obliged to register with an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Service so that if consumers are not able to resolve a dispute with their provider, they have the option to take it further through an ADR.

Currently there are two approved ADRs who are CISAS and Otelo.

Ofcom is obliged to review how the ADRs on a regular basis, so is consulting on how they doing.

The consultation is available on Ofcom's site.

Honda Retains 'Greenest Automaker' Title in Latest UCS Automaker Rankings

MIT Video: Energy Innovation at Scale by Steven E. Koonin

"Technology is but one element of judging the viability of a project. Often it’s the least strong lever in moving a project along. Operations and market conditions are often much bigger factors in deciding to do something or not. " Steven E. Koonin
The video is here.

Stanford's Law Conference Panel: Thinking Globally - International Climate Change Action

Michael Wara, Dan Clune, Kath Rowley Photo: Mary Vincent

By Mary Vincent - Twitter @MaryVincent

I firmly believe that it's important to be aware of the law and how it affects business, society, and ultimately you.

The October 15-16 2010 Stanford Shaking the Foundations West Coast Conference on Progressive Lawyering included a Panel called Thinking Globally - International Climate Change Action. 

For history, I attended last year's 2009 Conference Keynote by Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and met her. My Article on her Keynote is here for reference.

This year's 2010 Panel Thinking Globally - International Climate Change Action had the following Description:

"We need a global solution to climate change now. Last year's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen was inconclusive, and the United States Congress failed to produce comprehensive climate change legislation. Scientists and the general public acknowledge that human-induced climate change will transform ecosystems and human populations worldwide. This panel will explore current and future efforts to address climate change at the national and international levels. Panelists will bring their expertise from international negotiations and the U.S. Department of State, energy efficiency programs and emissions trading programs in Australia, and California's climate change agreement with the Jiangsu Province of China. The panel will also address future possibilities for effective international agreements and predictions for the upcoming 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun."
The Speakers were:
Michael Wara (Panel Moderator), Assistant Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Dan Clune, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental, and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Kath Rowley, Director, U.S. Programs and Global Research, Climate Policy Initiative

Dan Clune discussed the following 3 areas in his Presentation:
1. What the Obama Administration is doing
2. The US is the 2nd largest emitter of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), and China is the 1st largest emitter
3. Copenhagen and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Particularly:

• US renewable energy production will double by 2012. The Department of Defense will reduce emissions by 34 percent by 2020.
• The EPA is continuing to regulate GHG from power plants.
• Copenhagen was negotiated by heads of state and put forth specific national targets to reduce GHG. 80% agreed on targets to reduce emissions. Copenhagen provided financing to 3rd world countries, a tech transfer program, and a program to reduce deforestation (REDD). The Copenhagen Agreement is a basis for moving forward. Todd Stern is the US special envoy for climate change negotiations.
• Negotiations contain these main areas: 
• 1. Mitigation and Reporting - China and India need to reduce GHG and need to be part of this negotiation. They signed onto the Copenhagen accord. However, they believe they now have the right to increase emissions because the US had done so in the past. That is the WRONG perspective.
• 2. Financing - The US is providing 30 billion dollars for the efforts, and Dan's department is working on that. 1 billion dollars is being donated to address deforestation, particularly for Indonesia
• 3. Technology Development and Transfer
• Dan states that the Cancun Mexico conference in November doesn't seem to have high expectations.
• The US doesn't have a Ministry of Environment, however, the EPA and DOE are big players.
• We're at a point where countries need to stop ommitting and stop blaming; we need to take action and move forward.
• Dan told this 'Story'....
• Two people are tied on a railroad track and are blaming eachother for being on the track with a train coming straight at them..The Two people figured out that instead of arguing, they said, "Shouldn't we work together to see how we can both get off the track?"

Kath Rowley discussed the following:

• Australia has recently been a party to the Kyoto Protocol. 
• Australia is a major energy exporter.
• There are countries (islands) that will not exist anylonger because of rising sea levels, and all the people will need to relocated.
• Like the current US administration, Australia agrees on climate science, and agrees on the need for a carbon price.
• Australia established an Office on Climate Change. She states, "If you already have great coordination then coordination will be better. It needs to be a priority and high officials need to be involved."

During Q&A, I mentioned my background in Green IT and Low Carbon Food, and mentioned the importance of including Food and Agriculture in the equation. Specifically, 

• The UN Report stating that Animal Agriculture causes 18% of GHG, more than transportation, 
• Copenhagen did have Agriculture discussions on the Agenda, however, I didn't hear about concrete outcomes
• Ghent, Belgium has gone vegetarian once a week to reduce emissions
• Bon Appetit Management Company reduced meat and cheese in it's operations to reduce emissions, and
• UK hospitals are cutting meat to cut carbon

I asked the panelists if they could share the current status of Sustainable Agriculture in the Climate Negotiations:

Michael Wara mentioned the problem of substituting fish for cows (highest GHG emitter). He mentions Fish populations worldwide are already in a state of collapse, therefore, it's important to keep in mind not to substitute one problem for another.

Dan mentioned my point was a very important question, and needs to be further addressed. Also, it's important to keep in mind there is strong representation of cattle interests worldwide.

Here is my Summary:

I'm very thankful that Stanford continues to include Climate Change in this Shaking the Foundations Law Conference and brought in respected Climate individuals for their 2010 event. 

There are many people trying to work hard to reduce GHG.
Dan's story of 2 people tied to a railroad track: arguing and blaming eachother for being on the track with the speeding train heading towards them and then deciding they should figure out how to untie themselves was very telling. This is really the story of what's happening here. 

Countries, Businesses, Communities, and Individuals all need to agree to move forward and reduce emissions for the benefit of the Earth and it's population right now. Also, Michael's point of not substituting collapsing fish populations for cattle was a very good one.

Remember how MTBE (the oil oxygenator) was originally approved and used with the goal to improve air quality but ended up polluting groundwater?

We need to make sure we continue implementing the RIGHT solutions quickly, and from an Agriculture perspective, introduce more sustainable and nutritional plant-based options for all people involved. This is exactly why I started Gratitude Gourmet, to start talking about sustainable plant-based solutions to the climate problem.

Competition try to tear Canvas

Project Canvas, the joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva which will deliver TV channels through a set top box (which is connected to an aerial for receiving DTV and the Internet for IPTV) and is now known as Youview has been given the go-ahead by Ofcom.

Actually Ofcom has decided not to accept complaints from Virgin Media, IP Vision and 11 other parties including BSkyB.

Ofcom's reasons are that the IP TV market is still fledgeling and it's too soon to see if Youview will make a difference in the market, Youview should benefit consumers and if they do harm the competition will the harm outweigh the benefit and the alleged harm may not occur depending on the technical specifications of the system.

Youview has gone through many iterations and current traditional pap-per-view systems like Virgin and Sky have the most to lose if a generic IP TV system can be brought into play that utilises people's broadband to deliver high quality IP TV services. Both BT and TalkTalk are part of the project and will be delivering fibre-to-the-street cabinet/premises (FTTC/FTTP) services which will deliver 40Mb/s - 100Mb/s to the home, which is enough for HDTV, thus negating the need for people to buy satellite TV or cable TV.

The fill press release is available from Ofcom

Ofcom consulting on advertising an "additional services license"

Anyone want a national license to use for carrying data? Well Ofcom are advertising one. It's part of the spectrum allocated to Classic FM and it's currently used by ITIS Holdings PLC to transmit traffic information for use by in-car navigation systems. The license will expire on 31st December 2011.

There are various complexities such as the license can be no longer than 6 years 1 month as it's inextricably linked to the Classic FM license for voice which will expire in Jan 2018.

Ofcom wants to hold an auction with cash bids.

More info can be found on the consultation site.

Ofcom updates Olympic Spectrum Plan

Ofcom the super regulator has updated it's plans for spectrum use for the London Olympic Games in 2012.

The main spectrum use will be for wireless cameras and due to recent negotiations with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) arrangements have been made for access to spectrum in the range 2700-3100 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz.

Private Mobile Radio (PMR), Talkback and Telemetry spectrum will be avilable through the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd (LOCOG) or the Emergency and Public Safety Services (E&PSS) network operated by Airwave Solutions Ltd with 430-478 MHz being conserved for national use (the Torch procession requires spectrum across the UK).

Wireless microphones and in-ear monitors will use UHF Bands IV and V (470-862 MHz, channels 21 to 69) which includes the 800MHz band freed up by the the digital television switchover which should have completed by then.

Satellite News Gathering will have additional spectrum made available for use by Transportable Earth Station (TES) satellite uplinks in the frequency bands 5.925-7.075 GHz (referred to as "C band") and 27.5-27.8185 GHz, 28.4545-28.8265 GHz and 29.4625-30 GHz (collectively referred to as "Ka band").

The 2.6GHz band (2500-2690 MHz) which Ofcom wanted to make available for wireless cameras etc. has still not been decided as there has been arguments against this use that the commercials may not stack up and the spectrum could be used for other services (nationally for wireless broadband etc). That's a big chunk of spectrum that 3G operators would like to get their hands on (it was originally reserved for 3G use).

The Ofcom statement.

World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Index Falls 30% and Food Is Key

Total Hotspots hits Android

Total Hotspots the WiFi locating application that's been available on iPhone for a while has now been officially released for Android.

The Total Hotspots service is powered by the Rummble API and acquired by Rummble in 2009 now contains over 250,000 WiFi locations.

Total Hotspots gets the WiFi location data from multiple sources including user input, but it's all user rated, so users get a personalised rating that's relevant to them.

More information can be found on Rummble's site.

US DOT: EPA and DOT to Prepare Fuel Economy Standards for Model Years 2017-2025

FLO TV is dead, Long Live FLO Data?

As predicted Qualcomm have killed off their FLO TV service in the US which uses Qualcomm's Media FLO technology (you could buy an adapter for Android and other devices that was a radio receiver and some decode bits that allowed you to watch Media FLO channels on your phone).

What this means for the UK is still uncertain, as Qualcomm paid a considerable fee for a national license to run their Media FLO services.

Now Qualcomm are pushing to utilise the spectrum for data offload from existing mobile networks and this may be a winning strategy, though in Europe there's already spectrum coming available in 2.6GHz (a BUG chunk) as well as the old TV channels etc.

Qualcomm invested heavily in Media FLO technology and buying spectrum, which many believed was a white elephant and has been proved to be so. There's probably going to be a fire-sale of spectrum now.

Stardoll Party

Last night (07/10/10) in the depths of central London (well Jalouse in Hanover Square), Stardoll held a party for with various bands and singers throughout the evening including Kym Mazelle, Robbie McDade and The Kixx.

A jolly good time was had by all and Mr Paul Clarke took some great photos.

Thanks to Joan Lockwood for the invite.

Democrats/Independents likely to back candidates who propose action on global warming

Samsung drops Symbian

Following on from the announcement by SonyEricsson that it would not be producing anymore handsets based on Symbian to concentrate on Android, Samsung has also announced it's dropping Symbian and will be developing new handsets based on Android and Windows Phone 7.

This must be a blow for Nokia who are still pushing Symbian and hoping that Symbian^3, now open sourced, would be a competitor to Google's Android and Apple's iOS and to some degree Microsoft's WP7 though earlier version of Windows Mobile haven't been too successful.

Nokia have a confused approach and are utilising MeeGo (their joint Linux venture with Intel combining the best features of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin) as their smartphone operating system, though Symbian^3 also offers smartphone features (though can also be cut down as a dumb OS for cheaper phones).

Though Nokia are still dominant in the phone arena, selling 1.4m phones per day, it's a costly exercise to keep development teams for MeeGo and Symbian when no-one apart from Nokia is using them and Android is becoming the default OS for smartphones (apart from Apple's iOS which they are unlikely to license to other phone vendors).

Maybe Nokia should drop MeeGo, move to Android and admit Google have won and just develop Symbian as a 'dumb' OS for the non smartphone market.

Whitman to vote against Proposition 23

Ofcom makes a silent statement on calls

Ofcom the regulator for Communications (and other things) has published a statement on"tackling and handling silent calls".

Now companies are only allowed to make automated calls once per day, unless they are handled by real people. Ofcom has the power to fine any company that abuses this, though it can be difficult to regulate as often silent calls will not have an exposed CLI (caller line identifier) or the call may come from outside the UK.

At least they're making an effort to stop these annoying calls though.