Wimax

Alca-Lu calls time on Austrian WiMAX operator

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:29:34 -0500

Failure to reach agreement over unpaid bills has seen the Austrian-based WiMAX Telecom file for bankruptcy after Alcatel-Lucent demanded payment the wireless operator could not come up with.

WiMAX Telecom, which started to deploy its network in 2005 using equipment supplied by Alca-Lu, has been struggling to find new investors having only attracted 2,600 subscribers. The company initially offered WiMAX coverage in Burgenland and Steiermark, but more recently expanded this by regional deployments in Lower Austria, Higher Austria and Vorarlberg. The company claims it has sufficient funds to continue operating for between three and four months, during which time it will continue to search for new investors.

Meanwhile, WiMAX's biggest supporter, Intel, has indicated an interest in participating in the auction for India's broadband wireless spectrum. However, it has denied any intention of becoming a WiMAX service provider, but could partner with other companies for a spectrum partnership. Google has also registered an interest in bidding for spectrum.

For more on this story:
Telegeography

3GPP urges caution over IMT-Advanced promises

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:58:18 -0400

No fewer than six technologies have been submitted, seeking approval as official standards for IMT-Advanced, the next wave of wireless systems, which is designed finally to achieve 'true 4G' or gigabit stationary speeds (100Mbps mobile). Whereas a few years ago, few would have seen the need for such performance, now it seems operators can hardly wait to access the platforms that will let them support massive mobile broadband and multimedia usage, and while they may have years to wait for real 4G, they are increasing the momentum behind current technologies, LTE and WiMAX.

The ITU will select its IMT-Advanced technologies in October 2010. It released details of the six proposals, which are based around the third generation of LTE (3GPP Release 10) and IEEE 802.16m (WiMAX 2.0). The ITU's Radiocommunications Working Party 5D will assess all the submissions over the coming year, supported by "independent external evaluation groups that have been established around the world". Article

French WiMAX licensee looks for operator partner

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:18:08 -0400

Having paid nearly €100 million for 20 regional WiMAX licences in France, Bolloré Telecom is now hoping to strike a partnership deal with Orange and SFR. The company, which is significantly behind schedule with its commercial WiMAX deployments, hopes it can generate revenues by partnering with the cell phone service providers looking to boost their data backhaul capabilities.

Local observers believe Bolloré Telecom needs to urgently boost its income and would be willing to form a joint venture with either Orange or SFR. This could see the mobile operator having access to Bolloré Telecom's WiMAX licences in return for access to the operator's customer base. However, an easier alternative would be for Bolloré Telecom to simply hand over its frequencies to either operator. How the French telecoms regulator might view such a transaction is not clear.

While WIMAX is slowly finding a home in Europe, its likelihood of ever being a significant force in mobile is fast diminishing with LTE deployment on the horizon. So, Bolloré Telecom's attempt to partner with a cellular operator to provide it with a high-speed wireless backhaul solution might be its best, and only, option.

For more on this story:
Total Telecom

4G to make up 2.6% of connections in 2014, says Ovum

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:55:47 -0400

There will be around 109 million LTE connections by 2014, and 55 million Mobile WiMAX users, but the two 4G technologies will still be only 2.6 per cent of the total global mobile connections. "The migration to 4G will be neither easy nor overnight," says a new report from market analyst firm Ovum.

Most growth will come from 3G expansion in this period, with the rise of data rich devices and applications in developed countries, and increasing penetration in emerging economies. However, growth in mobile operators' revenues will drop in the short term because of the recession. They will cross the US$1 trillion barrier in 2011--though this is a year later than previously forecast--according to estimates from Ovum. The recession will cause a short term slowdown in services revenues although "the recessionary impact will be relatively muted compared to other industries, and mobile is expected to recover strongly from 2011", according to analyst Steven Hartley. Article

Telecom Italia and Aria plan WiMAX deployment

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:35:28 -0400

Aria, an Italian WiMAX operator, is joining forces with Telecom Italia to deploy a WiMAX network covering the central and southern regions of Italy and the island of Sardinia. Aria will utilise Telecom Italia's 3.5GHz spectrum allocation for the service and the operator's transport network for backhaul. In return Telecom Italia will have access to Aria's nationwide wholesale services. The Italian operator acquired three regional 3.5GHz licences for 13.8 million euros but has to date not made any use of the spectrum. The deal with Aria will enable Telecom Italia to comply with its licence requirements for very little expenditure as Aria will pick up the deployment and maintenance costs of the new WiMAX network.

For more on this story:
go to Ovum

Femto Forum and WiMAX Forum to co-operate on specs

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:07:08 -0400

While the cellular operators do little more than retest femtocells, the WiMAX Forum has moved to cooperate with the Femto Forum to develop the specifications necessary for a WiMAX femtocell access point.

The announcement, which has coincided with the news that one of Norway's largest utility companies, Hafslund, plans to deploy a commercial WiMAX mobile network, has been promoted by WiMAX operators seeing a potential demand for the technology to improve in-building coverage and data throughput within a given area.

The joint work will involve topics such as end-to-end QoS, provisioning, network entry and authentication, power optimisation and mobility management. The specifications work will also include support for emergency services, lawful intercept and LBS services. Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum, said, "This partnership will not only enable vendor interoperability and increased economies of scale thereby driving competition, it will also help to support far-reaching new femtocell applications."

For more on this story:
NewsBlaze and Telegeography

Forget WiMAX, says Nokia

Paul Rasmussen — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:47:42 -0400

Having been a founder and high-profile member of the WiMAX Forum, Nokia has now compared the technology to Betamax, the video format that lost out to VHS over 30 years ago. The company, which developed and launched its N810 WiMAX device a year ago (since dropped), believes that LTE is the only way forward and will be the dominant standard for mobile by 2015.

Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's head of sales and manufacturing, said WiMAX was not establishing a significant presence anywhere in the world, "and I don't think the future is very promising for WiMAX. This is a classic example of industry standards clashing, and somebody comes out as the winner and somebody has to lose. Betamax was there for a long time, but VHS dominated the market. I see exactly the same thing happening here."

This viewpoint, the strongest on WiMAX that the company has made, echoes a study conducted by IMS Research late last year that claimed the technology would be quite successful as a fixed broadband solution, especially in underserved markets. "However, although mobile WiMAX networks are already going live thanks to Sprint/Clearwire and Korea Telecom, the prospects of additional mobile WiMAX networks from Tier 1 operators are looking pretty grim," said IMS analyst Bob Perez.

However, Samsung seems not to support Nokia's gloomy outlook and has unveiled a WiMAX device that would appear to fall somewhere between a smartphone and netbook in capability. The unit, labelled Mondi, supports Windows Mobile 6.1 and seems destined for use on Clearwire's US network--albeit that the WiMAX service is only available in Baltimore and Portland, Oregon today.

For more on this story:
Financial Times and Cellular News

HSPA and LTE to dominate by 2012, says Ericsson CTO

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:36:52 -0500

Around 80 per cent of mobile broadband services will be enabled by HSPA and LTE technologies by 2012, with WiMAX only managing to gain a lowly 4 per cent of the market over the same period, said Ericsson's senior VP and CTO, Hakan Eriksson.

While mobile operators using W-CDMA, CDMA 2000 and TD-SCDMA are all expected by Eriksson to migrate to LTE-enabled services in the future, the Ericsson executive also claims WiMAX service operators, such as Clearwire, have also decided to adopt LTE. With WiMAX and LTE technologies compatible in some areas, Taiwan-based WiMAX equipment makers should accelerate their development of LTE-enabled products, leveraging their WiMAX expertise, Eriksson urged.

The latest figures from the GSA show more than 20 mobile operators around the world have already committed to LTE deployment, while 171 commercial HSPA networks are already in operation.

One of the key players affecting the speed of LTE adoption, Verizon Wireless, is set to announce the network vendors it will be working with at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company has been trialling the technology in conjunction with Vodafone, and is said to have told vendors the network needs to be running this year.

For more on this story:
itwire, Digitimes and engadget

Related stories:
AT&T reiterates: LTE a long way off
24 million subscribers to use 3G LTE technology for mobile broadband services by 2012,
Vodafone head sees LTE as an umbrella standard
Samsung developing own baseband for LTE and WiMAX

Nokia pulls out of WiMAX

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:32:55 -0500

In yet another blow to the ambitions of the WiMAX camp, Nokia has announced its intention to end production of the only WiMAX device in its portfolio, the N810 tablet PC. According to a Nokia spokesman, the device had reached the end of its lifecycle, remarkably quickly it seems as the N810 was only launched nine months ago. Nokia did not rule out re-entering the WiMAX device market but this does not seem a realistic possibility. The Finnish vendor was an early and keen supporter of WiMAX but seems to have cooled on the technology.

This has not been a good week for WiMAX, which until recently was being touted as a key player in the fourth generation wireless space. Its most significant supporter, Intel, announced it was writing off the US$950 million it invested in WiMAX, leaving the highest profile WiMAX operator, Clearwire of the US, dangling in the breeze. Support for Long Term Evolution (LTE) is another key factor in depressing the hopes of WiMAX. With all the US and Chinese CDMA operators now on board, more than 80 per cent of mobile operators are committed to evolving through the LTE path leaving little room for WiMAX.

For more:
- go to ITPro.co.uk and Tech Tree

Related articles:
Nokia hoists the WiMAX flag 180 feet
Nokia ends production of N810 WiMAX tablet

Kazakh operator plans WiMAX network

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:46:59 -0500

Kazakhstani operator ARNA is deploying a mobile WiMAX service in 36 major centres throughout the country. ARNA, which is Kazakhstan's largest private provider of fixed-line telephone and Internet services, was awarded spectrum for a national WiMAX network earlier this year. The operator has awarded its network supply contract to South Korean WiMAX vendor Posdata. The contract is for 100 radio access stations, access control routers, a network management system and mobile terminals. Earlier this year Posdata won a mobile WiMAX contract in Uzbekistan.

For more on this story go to Cellular News

Related articles:
Kazakh mobile market shows strong growth