Where We're Holding on WiMAX

The WiMAX World 2007 Expo invited many participants to issue press releases. Here is a short overview of what is happening at the moment.

1. Equipment and technology
Several vendors have started interoperability testing. Also, competion for erstwhile first-movers Alvarion, Redline, Navini and Aperto is still on the rise, as Nortel, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola expand their offering. Alvarion is teaming with Hitachi for the Japanese market.

2. Auctions and licenses
Many auctions will be carried out in the short or medium term. Watch out for Japan, where two groups have formed, one around DoCoMo and one that includes SoftBand and eAccess.

3. Trials and deployments
There is no single trend here. Many emerging markets use the technology to leapfrog fixed network investments, AT&T is aiming for rural markets and Sprint is moving ahead on its 4G plan.

Of course, there is also the ongoing debate of WiMAX vs. LTE (not to mention Terahertz). It seems to me that LTE has a considerable advantage:

• It is an evolutionary technology to entrenched networks.
• It could be the tentative end point of both GSM and CDMA evolutions, as Verizon Wireless and Vodafone have attested.
• And the performance is continually enhanced, whereas WiMAX doesn't seem to have that much upside (but I am not quite sure of the latter point - readers please fill me in on that).

Comments

[xenophonite:]

You are thinking too much like a stodgy cellphone company.

WiMAX is a data service like WiFi. It's advantage over LTE is that WiMAX can be used in any consumer device and has no royalties for device makers. LTE will be stuck in the stodgy world of the cellphone industry and work in only a few types of devices. LTE will have cell-like contracts. And the US LTE carriers don't have much spectrum to rollout LTE. Sprint has over 100Mhz for WiMAX.

WiMAX is open with lots of spectrum in its target. LTE is closed with slim spectrum available to deploy it, especially for Verizon.

WiMAX is coming next year. LTE is years away.

2007 Sep 27 05:42 PM

[xenophonite:]

You are thinking too much like a stodgy cellphone company.

WiMAX will be available on any kind of consumer electronic device. LTE is limited to phones, laptops.

WiMAX is a data service like Wifi where voice is just one of many services on top of data. LTE is primarily built around legendary voice architecture. With VoIP coming over data, voice-specific networks will be so last century.

WiMAX is coming broadly next year. LTE is years away.

Sprint has over 100mhz spectrum to deploy WiMAX. The other carriers are scrambling to find spectrum to deploy LTE, that isn't even finalized yet. And even then, they probably won't find more than 20mhz.

2007 Sep 27 05:47 PM

[vitaminc:]

Xeno,

You are dead wrong on a lot of stuff.

1. WiMax is COMPLETELY different than WiFi, as a) WiFi travels on public spectrum b) cost of deployment is very cheap and can be done by consumers. WiMax travels on specific auctioned spectrum and the cost of deployment several magnitudes higher than WiFi thus ruling out any possibilities of the consumer deployment.

2. As the cost of deployment is totally bared by the carriers, you will have to pay for contracts to use WiMax, similar to your GSM/UMTS/CDMA/HSPA networks.

3. The cost of deploying WiMax network is much higher than deploying HSPA/EVDO network, as HSPA/EVDO are evolutionary network upgrades. WiMax is a complete overhaul at the equipment side (OFDM vs. TDM/CDM). Cell towers can be reused if proper licenses are granted.

Tim,

1. Both LTE and WiMax are not backward compatible with the current cellular networks.
2. Emerging economies could use *FIXED* WiMax to save cost on the backhauul infrastructure, but a) fixed WiMax are not compatible with mobile WiMax and b) *FIXED* WiMax won't provide as much bandwidth capacity compare to fiber.

2007 Sep 28 12:28 PM

[User 71794:]

WiMax is it

2007 Oct 22 09:00 AM