Samsung Releases WiMAX MID, Instinct Successor
By Phil Goldstein
Samsung announced the release of the Mondi, its WiMAX-enabled Mobile Internet Device (MID) as well as the successor to the Samsung Instinct at the International CTIA Wireless 2009 conference in Las Vegas.
The company made the announcement at a press conference Tuesday night ahead of the start of the show. With the release of the Mondi, Samsung has thrust itself into the head of the pack of WiMAX device makers in the United States. Details of the Mondi first began leaking late last week.
The Mondi will be compatible with Clearwire's mobile WiMAX service and also has WiFi connectivity; there is no 3G voice component. The device has a 4.3-inch touchscreen and runs on Windows Mobile 6.1. It has a full Qwerty keyboard, optical mouse, built-in GPS, the Opera 9.5 browser, push email support, a 3-megapixel camera and camcorder and supports instant messaging and MMS. Samsung said the device would launch sometime in the second quarter, and that Clearwire would be naming the price for the device.
The handset maker also released the successor to the Instinct, the Instinct s30, which Sprint Nextel will launch. There are a few updated features for the CDMA EV-DO device, including a slimmer design, built-in instant messaging and external memory up to 16GB. Samsung and Sprint are also touting the new Instinct as more "open" than its predecessor, and are providing access to core Java APIs including messaging, multimedia and Bluetooth, which Sprint said will allow developers to make more sophisticated applications for the device. The phone will be available April 19 for $129.99 with a 2-year contract, $70 instant savings and $100 mail-in rebate.
Additionally, Samsung said it was working with Yahoo, Google and AccuWeather.com to launch a new set of what it is calling "rich connected mobile applications." The new widgets will be available on certain Samsung touchscreen devices. [FierceWireless]
Nortel Exits Mobile WiMAX Business
By Lynnette Luna
Bankrupt Nortel announced its intention to end its mobile WiMAX strategic agreement with Alvarion and exit the mobile WiMAX business altogether. The company said it believes that such a move will narrow Nortel's strategic focus in wireless and help it position the company to stabilize its finances.
Nortel will transition its mobile WiMAX customers to Alvarion, while continuing its focus on LTE technology, which it believes is correctly suited to Nortel's existing customer base. The company is currently in trials with Verizon and T-Mobile and have won a contract to provide the LTE core network to KDDI in Japan in conjunction with Hitachi.
For Alvarion, the end of the joint venture doesn't look good. The joint strategic WiMAX agreement covers, among other things, the resale by Nortel of the Alvarion platform of WiMAX access products and Nortel’s contribution of resources and funding to accelerate Alvarion’s development of its portfolio of WiMAX base stations. Under the terms of the agreement, Nortel is obligated to pay Alvarion for certain research and development services beyond the fourth quarter.
However, collection of these payments is uncertain and subject to Nortel’s creditor protection proceedings, Alvarion said.As a result, Alvarion will not be able to recognize approximately $2.4 million of revenues from the sale of products to Nortel during the fourth quarter of 2008.
Accordingly, total revenues for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008, are expected to be approximately $70 million, at the low end of the company’s revenue guidance of $70 to $78 million, as presented in its third-quarter financial results press release on November 3, 2008.
In June 2008, Nortel announced it was throwing most of its resources at LTE and teaming with Alvarion to provide an end-to-end mobile WiMAX system. It had never really garnered the mobile WiMAX contracts it was looking for. Now most of the major operators have chosen LTE as their 4G path. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
Nortel Exits Mobile WiMAX Business
By Monica Alleven
Nortel is saying good-bye to its mobile WiMAX business and jumping head-first on the LTE train.
The company is working with Alvarion to transition its joint mobile WiMAX customers to Alvarion. Nortel is not exiting the fixed WiMAX space.
Nortel employs about 500 people to support mobile WiMAX, according to spokesman Ryan Hill, and it’s not clear how many of them might end up at Alvarion. The two companies combined efforts last year to integrate Alvarion’s radio access technology with Nortel’s core network and backhaul solutions.
Their agreement also covered Nortel’s resale of the Alvarion platform for WiMAX access points, and Alvarion will not be able to recognize about $2.4 million of revenues in the fourth quarter due to Nortel’s exit. That will bring Alvarion’s earnings per share down by about 4 cents for the quarter.
Nortel, which is going through Chapter 11 proceedings, sees LTE surfacing as the technology of choice for most operators worldwide, Hill said. Nortel is in trials with Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile International and it won a contract with Hitachi to provide LTE core technology to KDDI in Japan.
As recently as December, a Nortel representative said the company had a lot of vested interest in making the partnership work with Alvarion. At the time, the two companies had close to 50 projects in the works. [WirelessWeek ]
2008 Year in Review: The new Clearwire
The news: The rumors began intensifying in February that Intel would be investing $2 billion in the combination between Sprint's WiMAX business, Xohm, and Clearwire. The move would give WiMAX some much-needed support as a mobile broadband standard, but some looked at the possibility with skepticism.
Ultimately, the deal to create the "new" Clearwire was a lot more complex and substantial than was initially thought. The final deal included $3.2 billion in investments from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners.
On Nov. 4, the FCC gave regulatory approval for the deal. On Nov. 20, Clearwire shareholders gave their assent, and on Dec. 1, Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff said that the Xohm brand name would be set aside in favor of "Clear."
Why it was significant: The deal, with backing from major industry players, was a shot in the arm for the mobile WiMAX industry. With Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology emerging as the 4G standard of choice by Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, and with more aggressive rollouts than had been expected planned for LTE, WiMAX needed all the help it could get to get off the ground. With the launch of Xohm in Baltimore in September, and an official celebration of it in October, WiMAX was off-and-running. The successful completion of the merger, and hopeful prospects about its national deployment over the next few years certainly indicated to the wireless community, especially those backing LTE, that yes, WiMAX is here, and it's here to stay. [FierceWireless]
Sprint to Launch CDMA-WiMAX Products
By Phil Goldstein
Sprint Nextel will begin offering dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX modems as early as the end of this year, and will launch all of its mobile WiMAX services under the brand "Sprint 4G."Sprint will offer the products and services as an MVNO of the new Clearwire Corp., which recently rebranded Sprint's Xohm WiMAX service under the brand "Clear," according to a report in RCR News. The first dual-mode modems will launch in Baltimore by the end of this year, according to Sprint spokeswoman Melinda Tiemeyer, the same city where Sprint launched Xohm in September.
The Xohm launch preceded the close of the deal between Clearwire and Sprint's WiMAX business, which gained regulatory and Clearwire shareholder approval in November. The new company received $3.2 billion in investments from Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners. Tiemeyer said Sprint 4G offerings will eventually include handsets and products that can switch between CDMA and the WiMAX network Clearwire hopes to expand in cities across the United States. [FierceWireless]
WiMAX: The Big Battalions win
By Paul Rasmussen
As the WiMAX world is finding out, market size and momentum tend to win over time, even when there is a perceived technological advantage. A new report forecasts that by 2013 WiMAX will have 103 million subscribers--unfortunately HSPA will have more than one billion users in the same timescale. In an accurate summing up of the situation facing WiMAX, Mike Roberts, author of the Informa report on WiMAX, describes the situation as "the best of times and the worst of times" for the broadband technology.
The last year has seen WiMAX pass a number of key milestones including product certification, the launch of WiMAX services by major operators and the introduction of WiMAX notebooks and other devices. WiMAX is also playing a key role in major emerging markets such as India where it will account for 24 percent of total broadband subscribers by 2013. However, during the same period, HSDPA has become a runaway success with operators in major markets worldwide deploying the broadband technology.
There is some good news for WiMAX in the longer term. Although major operators including China Mobile have fully committed to LTE, the earliest the fourth generation technology can begin deployment is 2010 and that is likely to slip by at least two years. Given that WiMAX will be the leading OFDMA technology by 2013 it should be able to give the nascent LTE a run for its money in some regions. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
Hesse: WiMAX Will Reach 140M Potential Customers by 2010
By Lynnette Luna
Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said he anticipates the company's WiMAX network, which is expected to be combined with Clearwire shortly, to reach 140 million potential customers by 2010. Hesse, speaking at a National Press Club luncheon last week in Washington, D.C., said he expects a combined company to obtain regulatory approval and officially combine by the end of the year. The FCC is expected to vote on the deal on Nov. 4.
He said Sprint chose WiMAX as a 4G standard because it is "available now and our customers want 4G now." He was confidentWiMAX would minimize the market penetration of LTE simply because WiMAX is coming to market first. The company has deployed WiMAX in Baltimore and plans to deploy it in Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., pending the close of the deal.
After another tough week in the financial markets, Hesse also addressed concerns about how the downturn in the economy would affect the wireless industry. He noted that the industry will likely see a decrease in enterprise subscribers as businesses lay off workers, but said that Sprint was in a good position because it was cash-flow positive.
Mobile WiMAX Versus LTE: Can They Co-Exist?
By Jim Barthold
Mobile WiMAX is the first out of the gate, but LTE is often considered the more evolutionary technology. The question probably isn't whether they can co-exist--they have enough common elements that it's feasible--it's whether there are enough reasons for them too. "They're not going to merge," Peter Jarich, research director of Current Analysis said flatly.
"Just from a political standpoint of getting all the parties together...it's just not going to happen. You're going to have these guys fight it out." That might be bad for the carriers but it's good for the vendors who supply weapons to both sides and it's always good for consumers who get more choice.
"When was it ever a good thing for innovation when there is less competition?" asked Jim Orr, principal network architect at Fujitsu. "The presence of a rapidly maturing WiMAX ecosystem certainly has had the effect of accelerating LTE well before all the revenue potential was drawn out of HSPA and EVDO."
LTE will tap into a base of more than 3.3 billion worldwide subscribers for the "GSM family of technologies," said Chris Pearson, president/senior operating officer of 3G Americas. "LTE has momentum in standards development, carrier decisions and an LTE wireless ecosystem being created. There is no reason to slow it down by merging it with WiMAX."
There is, however, a reason for speeding it up to compete with WiMAX. "I can make a pretty strong argument that LTE would be at least four years later if WiMAX were not pulling it forward," Orr said. WiMAX also comes with its own strengths that could add some intrigue to the battle. It's an IP standard from its base up and "performs better in TDD and less mobile environments," Orr said.
"LTE performs better in FDD and a high-user count model." That means the two could be complementary-albeit competing. "You're going to have these guys fight it out," concluded Jarich. "Would it be better if we had one technology and not two? Sure, but we have two and we're stuck with them." [FierceBroadbandWireless]
Laptops Ready For WiMAX Era
By Jim Barthold
Sprint Nextel hopes to turn Baltimore into the Starbucks of WiMAX by making the port city between Washington and Philadelphia one big hotspot. While Starbucks drew hordes of laptop users to its coffee shops with the promise of WiFi connectivity, Sprint aims to lure a new breed of laptop users to Baltimore with WiMAX connectivity accessible through eight new laptops built by four manufacturers--Lenovo, Asus, Acer and Toshiba.
Of course, as David Critchley, worldwide segment manager-ThinkPads at Lenovo conceded, "It's one city on one carrier (and) we're not trying to make it more than it is, but it is the launch of a new technology and we think it is a pretty good technology."
It better be. While prices are dropping, laptops still aren't cheap and it's unlikely that customers will be happy about getting a feature that's like a wireless bridge to nowhere. Critchley is confident that will change. "We know that there are college campuses experimenting with it and we know that there are individuals or businesses that may be concentrated in one city that would like that over using their cable or phone company. If those customers come calling, we will be ready for them," he said. [FierceWireless]
Live From WiMAX World: 133M WiMAX Users by 2012
By Sue Marek
The U.S. economy may be in shambles but that didn't deter swarms of WiMAX proponents from converging in Chicago for the 5th Annual WiMAX World conference. During the opening session, WiMAX Forum President Ron Resnick touted the progress WiMAX has made in various markets, saying that more than 100 networks worldwide are in commercial deployment. He also said that the industry group predicts there will be 133 million WiMAX users by 2012.
But he noted that there are some challenges ahead--particularly roaming. The WiMAX Forum has been working on this issue and Resnick said the group will introduce a roaming readiness program in December where it will work in conjunction with roaming clearinghouses (such as iPass) to develop roaming specifications for all WiMAX operators.
WiMAX may have had great growth overseas but all eyes at the conference are on the U.S. WiMAX players. In particular Clearwire, which earlier this year announced a joint venture with Sprint's WiMAX business to create the "new" Clearwire.
That joint venture is expected to close by year-end. Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff told the WiMAX World audience this morning that his company currently covers 16 million POPs and has about 500,000 subscribers using its "pre-WiMAX" service. He added that nearly one-third of those customers have access to cable and DSL and that about 20 percent still keep their wireline broadband service even though they are subscribing to Clearwire.
He described the company's future relationship with cable companies such as Comcast and Time Warner (both of which are investors in the "new" Clearwire) as being both competitors and collaborators. "They will resell services to their customers and so will we," Wolff said.
Like Time Warner and Comcast, Google is also an investor in the new Clearwire. Wolff said that he envisions Clearwire taking advantage of that relationship by using the Android platform in its devices. "We will embrace this platform," he said. In addition, he said that Clearwire will likely take advantage of Google's search platform and advertising model. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
The latest on Xohm: Usage Limits and a New Vendor
By Peggy Albright
Sprint Nextel's launch of the Xohm WiMAX service this week has come under unanticipated controversy for an "acceptable use" policy, written into its Xohm subscriber agreements, which gives the company the right to limit data usage.
According to the policy, Xohm may use "various tools and techniques designed to limit the bandwidth available for certain bandwidth intensive applications or protocols, such as file sharing," in order to ensure a high-quality experience for the overall subscriber base.
The policy quickly gained the attention of Free Press, an advocacy group that supports net neutrality rules for broadband providers, which asserted Xohm is contradicting its open-access promise. Sprint, in turn, has asserted it will not police its users or target specific applications or services. However, it said it reserves the right to make sure no one uses a disproportionate share of the network to disadvantage other customers.
How this matter plays out remains to be seen. However, just last week, T-Mobile USA had to reverse a policy written into its data plans that would have put a 1GB limit on its UMTS/HSDPA users. Earlier this year, Verizon Wireless came under fire from the New York Attorney General for terminating customers of its EV-DO unlimited plan for using more than 5GB per month.
But surely, the Xohm controversy has created a distraction from the buzz surrounding a long-awaited Xohm debut. Sprint launched the service on Monday in Baltimore, just in time for the WiMAX World show in Chicago this week where Xohm became big news, and the operator will kick off a media blitz next week to show off Xohm devices and sustain media attention.
While the service is receiving scrutiny of its geographic coverage, which is to be expected in this nascent business and with a gradual roll-out, its pricing is affordable, coming with an introductory price of $10 per day, $25 per month for home Internet services, and $30 per month for mobile use, and a special $50 price that will cover use by any two devices.
Separately, Sprint has made a vendor change in one of its forthcoming Xohm markets. Nokia Siemens Networks lost its initial contract to build the Xohm network in Dallas. Xohm has opted to use Samsung equipment, which it has on hand, rather than wait for the NSN product, which is not yet ready for commercialization.
Sprint is expected to launch Xohm next, in Chicago and Washington, D.C., by the end of the year. Its networks in Boston, Philadelphia and Dallas/Forth Worth are also under construction. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
GSMA-backed Group Initiates Mobile Broadband Campaign
By Sue Marek
On the eve of the WiMAX World conference in Chicago, the GSMA, along with 17 mobile carriers and vendors including Qualcomm, Vodafone, Microsoft and Orange, today announced an initiative to promote the use of notebook PCs pre-installed with HSPA mobile broadband technology.
Specifically, the group said they will spend about $1 billion to get a graphic service mark that says "mobile broadband" attached to HSPA-enabled notebook computers with the goal of making customers aware of which laptops have the technology.
During an interview with FierceWireless, Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSMA, said that although no U.S. GSM operators are named in the press release, the group does believe it will have a big impact on the U.S. market. "We have a working group the represents major operators from across the world that are working on this initiative," O'Hara said.
However, Ovum Research analyst Steven Hartley questioned the need for such an initiative. In a research note, Hartley said, "Mobile broadband uptake is already growing rapidly without it. It could be argued that any promotion is better than nothing, but it looks a lot like the initiative is designed as a defense move against WiMAX branding." [FierceWireless]
Non-Handset Revenues Exceeds $90 Billion in 2013
While the mobile phone is by far the most common device used to connect to mobile networks, the number of non-handset mobile devices is set to grow dramatically - reports ARCchart.
These category of products, termed 'Mobile Internet Peripherals and Devices' encompass products such as data cards, laptops, ultra-mobile PCs, game consoles, eBooks, digital signs, ATMs and host of other M2M applications. Sitting within all these devices is a wireless data module providing a connection to a wide-area network.
ARCchart forecasts that unit shipment of these mobile data modules will grow from a base of 10 million in 2007 to 370 million units by 2013, representing a market value of $11 billion.
There are several factors driving the proliferation of these devices. "In their pursuit of higher ARPU, network operators have become a key driving force." says Kaustubha Parkhi, ARCchart Senior Analyst, "Their willingness to subsidise the cost of devices such as data cards, laptops and UMPC is making them affordable to a wider base of consumers."
ARCchart estimates that the service revenue generated by operators from these products will hit US$93 billion worldwide by 2013.
In terms of technology, HSPA is set to lead the market. However, over the coming years, mobile WiMAX is set to bring coverage to metropolitan areas and developing markets. ARCchart predicts that WiMAX-enabled peripherals and devices will be the fastest growing technology category, reaching 81 million units by 2013. [Cellular_News]
Azulstar Launches WiMAX at 3.65 GHz, With Alvarion Equipment
By Peggy Albright
While the U.S. wireless broadband industry is preoccupied following the big names in WiMAX, Sprint and Clearwire, smaller players are pushing ahead with their own WiMAX service and product offerings.
Today, a little known municipal WiFi provider based in Grand Haven, Mich., announced it has launched several WiMAX networks in Western Michigan and New Mexico. The new services are of added interest because they operate in the relatively new 3.65 GHz band. Azulstar is using Alvarion's 802.16e BreezeMAX 3650 base stations and CPEs for use at 3.65 GHz.
Azulstar said it has been testing the WiMAX service since February in the West Michigan area, and it is now formally launching the service in the communities of Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, Ferrysburg and Spring Lake, among some other locations. In New Mexico, it is launching services in Rio Rancho and Albuquerque, and it has additional markets under construction.
The company offers WiMAX Internet and voice services targeted to businesses, homes, and governmental customers. It prices its service for businesses starting at under $275 per month, and phone and Internet home bundles beginning at $40 per month. It promises symmetric data speeds of 100 Mbps for business connections and speeds of up to 6 Mbps for home users.
Azulstar was one of the first companies to launch municipal WiFi, which it introduced in Grand Haven in 2003, and as such is no stranger to the challenges early entrants can encounter in new markets. Yet it has said that it believes WiMAX represents a better business proposition in municipal settings because it can be more economical to deploy while offering better performance and reliability. The company has high hopes for WiMAX in the 3.65 GHz band, claiming to have registered the largest number of base station sites for this use.
Earlier this month, NextPhase Wireless announced it had deployed mobile WiMAX in 3.65 GHz spectrum in Orange County, Calif. Towerstream and Pipeline Wireless are two other companies developing 3.65 GHz WiMAX services.[FierceBroadbandWireless]
Vertical Services to Reach 24% of WiMAX Subscriptions and 14% of LTE Subscriptions by 2014
Vertical Applications in 3G, WiMAX, and LTE Networks Are Ready to Take Off, and They Represent a Huge Growth Opportunity for Operators Facing Flat ARPUs From Retail Individual Subscribers
Enterprises are finally ready to adopt vertical applications (M2M, in-vehicle telematics, mobile workforce support) that require wireless data connectivity. 3G, WiMAX, and LTE operators may benefit greatly from addressing this rapidly growing market, according to a new report from Senza Fili Consulting,
"Bringing Wireless Broadband to Vertical Markets: a high-margin revenue stream from operators and compelling services for enterprises." By 2014, there will be over 154 million connections supporting vertical applications within 3G, WiMAX, and LTE networks, generating more than US$ 43 billion in service revenues. Vertical applications give wireless broadband operators the opportunity to address what is today an underserved market that will not compete with their existing services to individual retail subscribers. "Vertical services can be very profitable for operators. They bring in a steady revenue stream generated by a small number of contracts, each with a high number of connections. And churn is low -- contracts typically last 10 years," says Monica Paolini, the report's author.
To profit, however, operators need to be well equipped to face the challenges of this highly fragmented market, in which customers expect deep application-specific expertise. Enterprises increasingly see that vertical applications improve their operations and the productivity of their employees. Through improved performance, QoS support, and wider coverage, wireless broadband technologies have given enterprises confidence that public networks can support their applications, so they do not need to own and maintain proprietary, expensive telecommunication infrastructure.
Among applications, vehicle telematics and support for the mobile workforce will be the most widely deployed, because they require the bandwidth and wide-area coverage that 3G, WiMAX, and LTE support. Additional wireless broadband market growth will come from emerging consumer applications available in vehicles and in mobile and CE devices that will extend wireless broadband beyond individuals to connect the entire environment.
This report includes an assessment of the global market for vertical services, and an in-depth forecast for vertical applications, market segments, technologies (3G, WiMAX, LTE), and device types. Detailed data is presented for 16 countries, 7 regions, and the worldwide market. The report is available at http://www.senzafiliconsulting.com/. [FierceWireless]
Sprint Announces Host of Location Technology Partners for WiMAX Network
By Lynnette Luna
Sprint's Xohm service has signed on a slew of partners that Sprint says will enable the operator to offer location-centric WiMAX service.
"The Xohm mobile broadband experience will be largely location-centric," said Rick Robinson, vice president of Xohm Services. "We're creating a new dimension to online presence, making points of interest near your current location easy to identify and access. This ‘geobrowsing' effect provides location context and will give Xohm members a richer personal broadband experience when they're mobile."
Sprint, which is launching commercially in Baltimore next month, said customers with WiMAX-enabled devices such as laptops and other portable devices will have location-based services easily available. For instance, users will have the ability to search for businesses, weather, traffic and have the results plotted on a map. The location-enabled mobile experience will span a range of devices such as laptops, mobile Internet devices, media players, cameras and car navigation.
Sprint's location partners include:
uLocate: The primary partner in building Xohm's location enabled mobile experience that is providing its Where platform and friend-finding application Buddy Beacon to connect Xohm customers with their favorite people, places and things. Through Where, Xohm users will have access to local information including restaurant reviews, news, events and weather.
Yelp: A Web site for local business reviews, provides relevant user reviews and ratings for anything local, from restaurants to doctors and more. The reviews can be searched and sorted by category or shown in a map view, with access to Yelp.com for details on any of the three million local reviews.
Eventful: Will provide users with listings of local events displayed in a map view. Customers can select sub-categories of interest, search for events and click through to Eventful.com to get more event information and purchase tickets.
Topix: Will provide local news based on current location as a summary, with an option to read full stories and others at its site.
Navteq: Will offer Xohm customers Navteq traffic real-time local traffic and commuter updates with links to the Traffic.com Web site for additional detailed construction, incident and drive time information.
AccuWeather: Will provide three-day forecasts based on users' current locations. An easy link to AccuWeather.com mobile Web site gives more forecast details, radar/satellite images, and more.
Google: Will contribute local search capability along with additional features and functionality from Google Maps.
Openwave Systems: Will provide the location platform that enables Xohm partners to use location to offer applications.
Autodesk: Will provide a standards-based interface and geospatial services, such as addresses, ZIP code and city/state information, to enhance location within the Xohm network. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
Sprint's Xohm Taps Mformation for Remote Device Management
By Lynnette Luna
Sprint's WiMAX division announced a deal with device management software company Mformation Technologies to deliver device management capabilities for new Xohm-branded WiMAX-enabled mobile devices. Sprint plans to use Mformation's software to remotely manage the WiMAX devices on its network. The operator is commercially launching WiMAX in Baltimore in September.
Device management will be critical for Sprint, and likewise Clearwire, which is merging with Sprint later this year, to enable a number of devices to come onto the WiMAX network, regardless of whether they were purchased via Sprint or an external retailer that has no affiliation with the operator. Sprint's goal is to allow a plethora of devices--ranging from Internet tablets to telematics consoles--to operate on the network in an open access manner.
Still, device management software is not fully optimized for WiMAX-only devices, noted Matt Bancroft, chief marketing officer with Mformation. Since most of the devices running on Sprint's network will be dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX devices, Mformation is conducting the remote device management capabilities via the CDMA connection, which has been fully established.
"WiMAX is more challenging because of the way the technology is architected," said Bancroft. "It's an all-IP technology, which means that the architecture doesn't support SMS technology that is commonly used today to initiate a device-management session. There are well-defined standards in cellular that makes it straightforward to understand what device a users is using. With WiMAX, users will be connecting in a multiple mac address environment. So there are a bunch of new challenges that have to be overcome."
Bancroft added that the wave of devices that come to market next year will require additional device management capabilities that aren't available today, but that device management capabilities will catch up.
In June, Mformation and Bridgewater Systems announced their intention to integrate Bridgewater's service control and subscriber data management solution with Mformation's service manager to enable WiMAX operators to automatically detect, provision and manage WiMAX devices over the air using industry-standard IP and OMA DM protocols. [FierceWireless]
Korea: Mobile WiMAX Needs VoIP
By Doug Mohney
For all the hype around the WiBro standard in Korea, it hasn't seen the adoption numbers carriers were hoping for. VoIP is needed to get to the next level, says VNUnet.com.
Korea is portrayed as the world's first and largest test market for mobile WiMAX when the WiBro service rolled out in 2006. The service is expected to have 250,000 users by the end of this year, up from 100,000 at the end of 2007. Analyst Ku Kang of the ROA Group attributes the lack of rapid market penetration to provide a killer app.
Kang says VoIP could be that killer app--if it can get through legal and other issues. Voice support is a must if WiBro is to compete with HSDPA and LTE. ROA group predicts the WiBro market can reach up to 2.5 million uses by 2011.
Korean researchers also are looking at upgrading WiBro to support up to 3.6Gbps to "slow moving" users and delivering up to 100Mbps to users in vehicles moving at speeds of up to 74 mph. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
Tata Communications Close to Granting $500M WiMAX Contract
By Lynnette Luna
Tata Communications is close to choosing its mobile WiMAX equipment suppliers for its $500-million 802.16e-based network in India, according to Unstrung. Tata has already deployed fixed WiMAX (802.16d) from Telsima and has signed up some 10,000 customers since launching service in March. It claims that deployment is the largest WiMAX deployment in the world.
Now the operator is looking to deploy mobile WiMAX in the 3.3 GHz band, spending $500 million during the next two years. Tata did not name the vendors vying for the contract nor the size of the award, but said it would be significant.
Unstrung's sources, however, say seven vendors are competing for Tata's contract and willing to customize their products for Indian market. Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Cisco (through its Navini acquisition), Huawei Technologies, Motorola, Samsung and Telsima. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
Prospects Fade for Mobile WiMAX
By Paul Rasmussen
The launch of commercial LTE services by late 2009 is seen as one of the bigger of many nails in the coffin of mobile WiMAX, claims a new study by Frost & Sullivan (F&S), a market research firm.
According to Luke Thomas of F&S, the prospects for the technology are coming under increasing threat unless spectrum auctions and commercial Mobile WiMAX rollouts (compliant to Wave 2 Phase 2 certification) do not take place by 2008. "Recent events have been unfavourable toward the technology. Any operator looking at Mobile WiMAX has to consider the current environment in which 97 per cent of laptops are shipped with Wi-Fi. 3G LTE is expected to be a fully ratified standard by the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009 with deployments slated to occur in late 2009 or early 2010 offering peak data rates of up to 170Mbps."
Thomas believes that 2009 will be the year when operators begin to realize that Mobile WiMAX can no more be considered as a feasible mobile broadband "access" technology. He comments: "In terms of indoor wireless broadband, WiFi fits well in this space and with the emergence of 802.11n, which includes MIMO, throughputs would be far better than what Mobile WiMAX can deliver. With respect to outdoor mobile broadband environments, users would expect Mobile WiMAX to seamlessly hand off to cellular networks in the absence of WiMAX reception. In reality this is not possible as Mobile WiMAX is not backward compatible with existing cellular technologies."
Regardless of this pessimistic viewpoint, Intel has continued to invest and lobby for the greater adoption of Mobile WiMAX, as seen by its recent acquisition of a WiMAX licence in Scandinavia. [FierceBroadbandWireless]
Flickr Photostream-
- Copyright © 2008-2011 Mobile & Wireless. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Blogger
- Back To Top
- Log in
- Blogger
- Home
Recommended Links-