mobile WiMAX

UK WiMAX operator granted mobile extension to licence

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:44:42 -0400

UK-based Freedom4 has been granted a licence variation by the telecoms regulator, Ofcom, to enable it to offer mobile WiMAX services across the UK. The company, which is part-owned by Intel Capital, said that the move would allow it to launch a 4G-style mobile broadband product of its own and in direct competition with the country's five main mobile network operators.

The company, which will use WiMAX equipment supplied by Starent, owns the largest WiMAX broadband wireless spectrum licence consisting of two blocks of 84MHz in the frequency band 3.6-4.2GHz. However, the company has not detailed any deployment timescales and its existing fixed WiMAX coverage would appear to be very limited. Part of the new conditions granted by Ofcom will permit Freedom4 to increase the maximum permitted base station power.

While Intel provides the financial muscle for Freedom4, Motorola has agreed to provide a portion of the US$100 million that the Irish network operator, Imagine, needs to replace its existing wireless nationwide infrastructure with WiMAX. Motorola said it would also provide deployment, integration and support services to Imagine in addition to WiMAX equipment.

Imagine said that its fixed WiMAX service was already in operation, and phase one of the rollout covering 250,000 homes in Dublin, Wexford, Sligo, Tralee and Athlone would be completed by mid-November 2009.

These two WiMAX announcements follow on from Clearwire International's statement that it would offer mobile WiMAX in two Spanish cities starting next year.

But despite these announcements, industry analysts are maintaining their long-held view that WiMAX will, at best, remain a niche technology. Ovum recently forecast that WiMAX will account for less than 5 per cent of the world's 1.5 billion fixed and mobile broadband connections by 2014.

For more on this story:
Cellular News and ISP Review

Clearwire comes to Spain with mobile WiMAX

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:39:15 -0400

Following through with its ambitions to expand outside of its US home market, Clearwire has announced plans to offer mobile WiMAX services in the Spanish cities of Malaga and Seville starting next year. The company said it would be using WiMAX 802.16e infrastructure equipment from Alvarion and ZTE in the 3.5GHz band to offer high-speed mobile broadband services under the Clear brand.

This move will see Clearwire compete with Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone each of which have invested heavily building HSPA networks capable of downlink speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. However, the Spanish fixed broadband penetration stood at over 21 per cent at the end of 2008, according to Pyramid, which is five percentage points below the Western European average.

Speaking to Unstrung, Stela Bokun, analyst at Pyramid Research, said Clearwire "will have to have a very low-cost strategy and fill in the gaps where the big guys don't want to compete. If WiMAX operators target rural or high-density areas where Telefónica and other big players do not want to invest or are not providing high quality of service, those may be places where they'll have more success."

Speaking at the ITU Telecoms Show in Geneva, Barry West, president of Clearwire International, said: "We intend to prove that WiMAX can work not only at 2.5GHz, but also at 3.5GHz." He added: "We believe WiMAX affords Clearwire an unprecedented time to market advantage in meeting the pent-up demand for wireless broadband services in Europe."

Orange, Vodafone, Telefonica and TeliaSonera all have mobile operations in Spain, but none is likely to have 4G services in place until 2012 or later, even though Madrid has been a hotbed of LTE testing by Vodafone and China Mobile, and Telefonica recently announced its own trials, to start next year in its home country.

For more on this story:
Unstrung and Rethink Wireless

WiMAX: A niche market only, says supporter

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:11:50 -0400

Having conducted Mobile WiMAX trials in the UK, a member of the Mobile WiMax Acceleration Group (M-WAG) admitted that the technology seemed to be successful for niche applications, but the lack of any major operator backing the technology would probably prevent a UK-wide deployment.

According to M-WAG member Harry Aldridge, who is also CEO of wholesale wireless network operator Bluenowhere, Mobile WiMAX could serve a substantial niche market in the UK, although most operators in the western world appear to have settled on LTE as their future 4G service. "We don't rule out that Mobile WiMAX could be deployed as a 4G-type service in the UK, but it's our view that it would require either an existing mobile operator to commit to deploying it as their 4G solution, or it would require an equally established company with big pockets to deploy on that basis to have any chance of making it a success," Aldridge said, admitting that M-WAG had not identified any such major backers and does not expect to see WiMAX deployed as a ubiquitous, national 4G mobile-broadband network.

Recognising the level of operator commitment to LTE, Aldridge maintained that Mobile WiMAX should be viewed as less about mobile broadband and far more about an untethered, ubiquitous DSL alternative. "This would deliver an open IP broadband connection across town centres and things of that nature, rather than to a handset or consumer or enterprise user."

Meanwhile, another indication that WiMAX has become less important to the major infrastructure players was Nokia Siemens Networks' decision to scrap the WiMAX version of its Flexi base station, although the company would continue to support WiMAX operators as a managed services provider. Instead, NSN will partner with Alvarion to resell its WiMAX BreezeMax portfolio when needed.

Alcatel-Lucent announced last year it would scale back its WiMAX R&D and support the technology primarily as a fixed wireless solution.

For more on this story:
3G and Telephony Online

WiMAX: The big battalions win

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:48:29 -0500

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 per cent 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.

For more on this story go to Telecomredux

Related articles:
Mobile WiMAX: The Long Term Revolution
Mobile WiMAX to Encounter Significant Hurdles on its way to Mediocrity

Moscow to have mobile WiMAX this year

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:35:23 -0400

Over 160 WiMAX base stations are expected to be installed in Moscow by the end of this year to support the city's first mobile WiMAX service. Comstar UTS, one of Russia's more prominent operators, has signed a contract with Nortel to supply the base stations in a deal valued at US$20 million. According to Sergey Pridantsev, president and CEO of Comstar UTS, the new network will provide a wide variety of services, and should improve subscriber loyalty and strengthen the company's position in the Moscow broadband Internet access market. "The mobile WiMAX network, which will be added to other broadband Internet access technologies, will allow us to provide a very broad range of telecommunications services to our subscribers in Moscow, whether at home, in the office or on the street."

The construction of the 802.16e network is already underway, with Sitronics acting as the reseller of the Nortel WiMAX equipment and Intellect-Telecom as the project designer. Comstar UTS has 3.6 million residential subscribers and 750 thousand residential broadband Internet subscribers in Moscow. Earlier this week, the company completed a WiMAX network rollout in Armenia--this time using Airspan Networks kit.

For more on this story:
- go to Cellular News

Related storiesAnalysts say Russian market big for WiMAX. WiMAX study
Virgin Group enters WiMAX business in Russia. Virgin in Russia story
Clearwire eyes European WiMAX partnerships. Clearwire in Europe story