Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent’s (NYSE:ALU) research and innovation arm, announced the launch of Green Touch, an initiative to improve communications networks’ energy efficiency, today. With the help of founding members AT&T (NYSE:T), chipmaker Freescale, hardware maker Samsung Electronics and more than a dozen others, the group has vowed to create technologies that will make communications networks 1,000 times more energy efficient than they are today. more

LAS VEGAS – Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) goal, through a combination of good business and doing good, is to put mobile phones in the hands of the 2.2 billion people (out of 6.8 billion total) in the planet that still lack a mobile subscription, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told CES attendees in his keynote presentation today. The usually humble handset maker used the keynote to showcase how it is changing lives across the world with basic mobile phones and Nokia’s Life Tools. more

LAS VEGAS – Samsung Mobile has vowed to collect more than one million mobile phones before the end of the year as part of its eco-conscious wireless push. Chief marketing officer Paul Golden outlined Samsung’s green plans at a CES press conference today, building on the handset maker’s news of the week, which included the first DVR-capable mobile phone and demos of devices running on LTE. more

LAS VEGAS – Despite a lack of a carrier marketing, more than 50% of US consumers are interested in having a femtocell in their home, according to ABI Research. The Femto Forum cited these statistics today at CES as the organization switches gears from encouraging carriers to adopt femtocells to inciting consumers to do the same. more

LAS VEGAS – Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is issuing an update to its TV middleware platform Mediaroom that will allow service providers to offer the IPTV service directly on new devices, including Windows computers, compatible smartphones and through the Xbox 360, without the need for additional hardware. With Mediaroom 2.0, everything a subscriber can do on the TV – view premium channels, recorded, video on-demand, interactive applications, etc. – will all be available through a broadband connection. more

The ng Connect foundation, formed by Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) and made up of 30 companies, is using the Consumer Electronics Show to demo – among other services – its LTE Connected Car, pushing the limits of what ultra high-speed mobile networks can do on the road. Since November, the organization has added new features to the car, a 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid-electric, including capacity for video on-demand, games, an audio library, detailed traffic and weather information, remote diagnostics and maintenance. more

Just weeks after mobile application analytics company Flurry Analytics announced its merger with Pinch Media, the newly formed company today forged a partnership with mobile and PC-based Web analysis house comScore. The two companies will combine comScore’s mobile panel data with Flurry’s mobile app usage data, which covers 80% of iPhones, Android and BlackBerry devices. more

For our staff, 2009 was the year of:

Introducing the brand Connected Planet: We came into existence, ending the hundred-year run of Telephony – because of course there’s much more to today’s networks than voice – and charting off to cover the same industry but new territories.

Happy New Year! Thank you for your continued readership. Here’s to a great and prosperous 2010.

Apple was a catalyst for a lot in 2009, but there are some trends the software giant can’t take credit for:

•  New “wholesale” markets like CDN and mobile backhaul emerging as hot growth areas
•  Network equipment vendors overnight turning into outsourced network operators
•  DPI and policy entering the network in a big way – adding intelligence to the network
•  Vertical solution areas – most notably smart grids – emerging as key driver of network growth
•  The acceleration of 4G

The great android v. Apple debate after the break… more

Justified or not, the bad economy was everyone’s favorite scapegoat in 2009:

•  The fact that service providers can’t out-innovate Web and media companies when it comes to content and applications.
•  That you didn’t make your sales quote or Wall Street guidance – and your competitor did (there are still good and bad employees and companies, even in a downturn)
•  Apple can sell smartphones despite the economy, yet no one else can sell them because of it

More after the break, including our readers’ responses… more