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Telecommunications provider Ericsson is putting some wind power into its network with a new radio communications tower unveiled today. The Swedish telecom partnered with turbine maker Vertical Wind AB and Uppsala University to incorporate a vertical-axis wind turbine into the tower that houses radio base stations and antennas. The tower is now undergoing trials to see if the design will enable low-cost mobile communications to spread throughout remote regions with minimal environmental impact.

The rig is a conceptual riff on Ericsson’s energy-lean Tower Tube design. Ericsson claims it has greatly reduced the station’s power demand, eliminating the need for feeders and cooling systems and slashing energy consumption up to 40 percent. It’s not clear how much of the tower’s energy needs will be fulfilled by the turbine, but due to wind’s intermittent nature, it will likely need to be grid-connected to ensure a stable signal, although it could use an energy storage system in far-flung locals.

This project is part of Ericsson’s ongoing Communications Expander campaign, under which the company is boosting efficiency and using solar and wind energy to power its network whenever possible. Aside from the environmental benefits, Ericsson says this will cut operation costs and make telecommunications available to more people in more parts of the world. For the full story, head over to Earth2Tech.

Today marks the formal launch of Sprint’s Xohm network, and celebrants are gathered in Baltimore to show off their new WiMAX-enabled gadgets. But after chatting with an executive from Lenovo, I wonder just how open Sprint’s network will be, and how that lack of true openness might slow the adoption of WiMAX.

Lenovo is on hand showing of its five laptops designed for Sprint’s WiMAX network, including the super-sleek x300 that competes with the MacBook Air. David Critchley, worldwide segment manager with Lenovo, said the x300 was supposed to launch last spring with WiMAX inside, but Sprint’s delays nixed that plan. Critchley expected that Lenovo would have the most WiMAX enabled products ready to launch today, in part because it had been preparing for WiMAX for so long, enabling it to get hardware ready in time for testing. He called Sprint’s testing pipeline “narrow,” and expected others to only have one or two devices ready for launch. Continue »

Verizon Wireless and its partner Vodafone Group will soon start selling the BlackBerry Storm, a touch screen smartphone, to customers in the U.S., Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand, the companies announced today. While they didn’t announce a specific date and talked about making it available in “fall,” it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the device hits the market really soon. Verizon is getting clobbered by the iPhone, according to some estimates. Vodafone felt so envious that it straight up copied iPhone screenshots and pasted them onto the Storm’s body, indicating that they still don’t have a clue on what iPhone is all about. (Photos below the fold.)

The Verizon Wireless version of the device will work on the Verizon’s EVDO Rev A 3G Network and (2100Mhz) UMTS/HSPA 3G along with older technologies such as GSM, GPRS and EDGE, making it capable of receiving emails and phone calls around the planet. The Vodafone version will have the same features minus the support for CDMA and EVDO networks.

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