Any operator considering Mobile WiMAX should take into consideration the following challenges:
- There are currently more than 32 million HSPA connections worldwide, with nearly 467 HSPA mobile handsets offering 4Mbps in the downlink, which is comparable to Mobile WiMAX.
- 3G LTE is expected to be a fully ratified standard by the end of this year, with trials occurring in 2009 and deployments in late 2009 or 2010 offering mobile data rates of up to 170Mbps (2×2 MIMO; 2.6GHz; 20MHz).
- QUALCOMM’s Gobi technology which supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA, EV-DO Rev A will be integrated into laptops this year, which either have been certified, or will be certified with operators such as T-Mobile, Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. Tier 1 laptop vendors such as HP and Dell are supporting this.
- Nearly 97 percent of laptops are shipped with integrated Wi-Fi technology today.
- The number of dual-mode Wi-Fi/Cellular mobile phones is on the rise with newer models emerging at lower costs with better battery life.
- Recently Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson invited all interested parties to join an initiative to keep royalty levels for essential LTE patents in mobile devices below 10 percent of the retail price, with the maximum royalty in LTE-enabled notebooks restricted to under $10. It is still unclear if members of the WiMAX Forum have reached an agreement pertaining to the intellectual property rights they possess for Mobile WiMAX.
Abu,
As far as a user is concerned the technology hardly matters. But, yes – it is a concern for equipment manufacturers and operators. Only those who take the right decision now will survive.
What about Mobile-WiMax in East Asia? (Japan, China and Korea) – specially Korea where it is already established well. Think they cann it WiBro there.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiBro
Chanuka,
I fully agree with you.
The users’ don’t give a damn to the technology that runs the networks. All the consumers care for is affordable terminals. Because it is their property. But the terminals are to be standardized in the first place to write the success story of any technology that runs the networks.
Dominance of GSM (with over 3 billion users) is attributed to its standardized terminals. Consumers walk in to any shop and pick up the GSM handsets according to their budget. Then they insert the SIM and switch on the device. And it works in any GSM network anywhere in the world.
But that is not the case with CDMA (500 million users) despite coming up with SIM equivalent (they call it RUIM) handsets.
The exploding success of Wi-Fi is also attributed to the GSM-like standardization of terminals.
On the contrary, WiMAX has failed to create such universally standardized terminal community. It is, undoubtedly, a great technology like CDMA. But the proliferation of affordable broadband in our part of the world (which is barely wired) is depending on delivering internet over mobile wireless technology that supports widely standardized terminals.
That’s what W-CDMA guarantees and that’s where WiMAX has pathetically failed. One should stick to the fundamentals of technology rather than behaving like a fundamentalist. Therefore, don’t be fooled by the promises.
Answering to your question – China is doing numerous trials but there is no clear roadmap. Japan is a very bad example as we have seen the demise of PHS followed by home-grown cellular. You want to know about Korea? Please visit http://www.telecomskorea.com and download the “Mobile WiMAX Handbook” from the bottom right of the site.
Asia Pacific saw record 3G net additions in Q1 2008 as 13.3m new connections were made, taking the total to 136.3m – a 53.7% increase with respect to Q1 2007. The study only includes CDMA EV-DO, and not standard 1x connections, as 3G; including 1x connections the total rose 37.7% to 264.3m. However, the source of growth in the base was undoubtedly W- CDMA, the 3G technology of the GSM family which accounted for almost 86% of all the mobile connections in Asia Pacific at the end of March. The number of W-CDMA customers grew 74% in the year to reach 98.4m, with a record 12.3m new customers joining in Q1 2008. Full report: http://www.cellular-news.com/story/32307.php?source=newsletter