Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Clearwire IPO's Cool Reception Hasn't Swayed Sprint's WiMax Commitment
Sprint Nextel is awarding contracts toward its $3 billion build-out of a WiMax network. By Richard Martin InformationWeek March 17, 2007 12:00 AM (From the March 19, 2007 issue)
Since its founding by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw in October 2003, Clearwire has been a darling of the high-tech investment community, attracting more than $1.1 billion in funding from Intel and Motorola. Since much of the interest in Clearwire is tied to its use of WiMax technology, the cold investor response to its public offering this month raises questions not just about Clearwire's prospects, but about the future of WiMax.
By March 16, Clearwire's share price had sunk to $20.02, almost 20% below its opening IPO price of $25. Clearwire raises concerns with its apparently insatiable need for cash and its long-term business prospects. The company has around 206,000 subscribers in about 375 cities and towns for the fixed version of WiMax, which competes with cable and DSL, and it plans to build a nationwide broadband network based on the 802.16e IEEE standard, known as mobile WiMax, as equipment becomes available. A Clearwire spokeswoman declined to comment for this story.
With the potential to offer broadband connections over long distances using licensed spectrum, WiMax has generated much hype. But it's competing with third-generation cellular networks and other technologies that also could blanket regions with wireless connectivity. WiMax also has some limitations, including the lack of consistent spectrum across national borders.
"What is WiMax really going to do that these other broadband mobile technologies in evolution won't be able to do?" asks Jane Zweig, head of the Shosteck Group, a telecom consulting firm. "The cable companies, the telcos, everybody is or will be offering the same type of service. The networks have to be ubiquitous, there have to be devices that run over them, ... you have to have interoperability with other mobile networks. There are just lots of questions about WiMax."
Besides Clearwire, no company is betting more heavily on WiMax than Sprint Nextel, which plans to spend $3 billion on a nationwide WiMax network. Dogged by slowing subscriber growth for its cellular voice service, Sprint essentially staked the company's future on WiMax. "We're more enthused today about the market opportunity than we ever have been," asserts Don Stroberg, VP for global broadband strategy at Sprint Nextel.
Indeed, Sprint, as the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier, enjoys many advantages a startup lacks: an existing customer base of about 53 million at the end of 2006, established relationships with device makers, an installed base of cell towers, and cash flow from its cellular business. What's more, Sprint has lined up major vendors (including Clearwire backers Intel and Motorola) to create the semiconductors, devices, and other infrastructure needed for people to use its network, laying off some of the risk of building a network on new technology.
Working with that ecosystem of partners will let Sprint revamp its business model, Stroberg says. "It comes down to our ability to offer WiMax with the support of Intel and Motorola and Nokia, and go after that embedded-device market that goes way beyond ordinary mobile phones," he says. "That means our customer-acquisition cost could be cut to a fraction of what it is today." That could let Sprint offer more flexible types of service than the typical cellular two-year contract with a "walled-garden" model that keeps users from surfing the wider Web.
Sprint last week said it awarded Nokia a network equipment contract to roll out WiMax services in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio by the first half of 2008. Sprint's Chicago network is being built by Motorola and the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., market by Samsung, both slated for initial service late this year.
Wall Street seems, so far, to have more faith in Sprint's WiMax ambitions than Clearwire's: After a steep decline in 2006 as the company lost ground to Cingular (now AT&T) and Verizon, Sprint shares have increased 12% since mid-January.
Sprint unveils WiMax plans
Story last modified Tue Mar 27 07:08:50 PDT 2007
ORLANDO, Fla.--Sprint Nextel is pushing forward with its plan to build a high-speed mobile WiMax network with the announcement of new device vendors, as well as additional markets where the network will be deployed.
Sprint, which is the third-largest mobile operator in the U.S., said in August that it would spend $3 billion in the next two years to build a network using the IP-based wireless technology known as WiMax. The company expects to build a network that can reach 100 million people by the end of 2008. Sprint is using its existing 2.5GHz spectrum, half of which it acquired from its merger with Nextel, to deliver the new service.
On the eve of the CTIA Wireless trade show, which begins here on Tuesday, Sprint said it had chosen Samsung to develop PC cards for its WiMax network. The cards will come in two different configurations. One will offer WiMax-only connectivity, while the other version will offer WiMax connectivity as well as access to Sprint's third-generation EV-DO network. Sprint also selected ZTE to supply WiMax devices based on the IEEE's 802.16e standard, including PC cards and modem solutions. Zyxel Communications of Anaheim, Calif., will also supply modem products.
To accelerate the pace of WiMax-embedded device development and have a wide variety of WiMax-enabled access devices available for customers, Sprint announced a new WiMax Device and Chipset Ecosystem program that will facilitate the dialog between chipset and device makers. It is designed to guide manufacturers on required specifications, features, functionality and product design.
Sprint also announced several new cities that will be part of the WiMax network when it launches in 2008, and listed which of its infrastructure partners would be developing which markets. Motorola will be developing Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Grand Rapids, Mich. Samsung will develop Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Providence, R.I. And Nokia will develop Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth metro area, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Seattle and Portland, Ore.
Sprint had previously announced that Chicago and the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., metro area would be the first two markets to get the service, by the end of 2007. And Nokia had also named four markets, in Texas, for deployment in early 2008: Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio.
Top wimax stories from CTIA 2007 (VoWImax, Microsoft , E// no Wimax,
Voice is probably the only real 'killer application' that has ever been seen in wireless, and this has created one of the fundamental challenges for the industry - as networks evolve to support new data and media oriented functionality, how do operators simultaneously retain a profitable voice operation, even while introducing packet-based networks that have not been designed for voice? For operators with GSM networks, the answer, at least for the medium term, is likely to be hand-off between data-focused IP systems and super-efficient GSM-based voice networks. But maintaining ageing legacy networks and dual-mode devices will not be a strong option for the longer term, hence the huge investment being made in running VoIP effectively on all kinds of wireless systems, including CDMA and LTE.
\u003c/span\> \u003c/p\> \u003cp\>\u003cspan\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://r.vresp.com/?Trendsmedia/29399ace2f/901356/404f44ff39/c97cd5e\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>Microsoft leads internet industry bid to dominate vacated TV spectrum\u003c/a\>\u003c/span\>\u003cbr\> \n \u003cspan\>It is clear that the mobile internet, once it becomes truly workable, will become a cornerstone of business and communications. What is less clear is which companies will control its evolution and so derive the maximum benefit, and this question has already resulted in an ongoing war for the driving seat, waged between the cellular community on one hand and the internet players, with their open IP, PC-oriented heritage, on the other - with the broadcast and media industries trying to carve out their own position. One of the most dramatic battles in this war could arise in the US from current lobbying over future use of the 'white space' spectrum (idle channels in the TV bands between 54MHz and 862MHz, set up to avoid interference, but now possibly to be used for internet access). A coalition led by Microsoft, and backed by most of the heavyweights of the internet industry, has submitted a device for use in this white space to the FCC for approval, signalling the determination of these players to make use of new spectrum availability to promote their own business model.\u003c/span\> \u003c/p\> \u003cp\>\u003cspan\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://r.vresp.com/?Trendsmedia/6a6b81605a/901356/404f44ff39/c97cd5e\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>Ericsson deals blow to unified 4G dream by pulling out of WiMAX\u003c/a\>\u003c/span\>\u003cbr\> \n \u003cspan\>\u003cspan\>The pre-4G networks are evolving on such similar paths that they will be distinguished by brand and politics, rather than core technologies. But those differences may still be just as divisive and deeply ingrained as though the various factions - WiMAX, LTE and Qualcomm's Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) - had chosen entirely different physical designs. Against this backdrop, the WiMAX community is necessarily on the defensive because its technology lacks the advantage of a heritage in an installed base like UMTS or GSM. So Motorola and Nortel, the companies that failed to get rich on UMTS, are keen to stress the convergence potential between WiMAX and LTE - they say the R&D overlap could be over 85%; while those with most to lose by having a viable alternative to the HSPA/LTE route - Nokia and Ericsson - have been more inclined to stress the differences, and the lack of backwards integration. ",1]
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Microsoft leads internet industry bid to dominate vacated TV spectrum
It is clear that the mobile internet, once it becomes truly workable, will become a cornerstone of business and communications. What is less clear is which companies will control its evolution and so derive the maximum benefit, and this question has already resulted in an ongoing war for the driving seat, waged between the cellular community on one hand and the internet players, with their open IP, PC-oriented heritage, on the other - with the broadcast and media industries trying to carve out their own position. One of the most dramatic battles in this war could arise in the US from current lobbying over future use of the 'white space' spectrum (idle channels in the TV bands between 54MHz and 862MHz, set up to avoid interference, but now possibly to be used for internet access). A coalition led by Microsoft, and backed by most of the heavyweights of the internet industry, has submitted a device for use in this white space to the FCC for approval, signalling the determination of these players to make use of new spectrum availability to promote their own business model.
Ericsson deals blow to unified 4G dream by pulling out of WiMAX
The pre-4G networks are evolving on such similar paths that they will be distinguished by brand and politics, rather than core technologies. But those differences may still be just as divisive and deeply ingrained as though the various factions - WiMAX, LTE and Qualcomm's Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) - had chosen entirely different physical designs. Against this backdrop, the WiMAX community is necessarily on the defensive because its technology lacks the advantage of a heritage in an installed base like UMTS or GSM. So Motorola and Nortel, the companies that failed to get rich on UMTS, are keen to stress the convergence potential between WiMAX and LTE - they say the R&D overlap could be over 85%; while those with most to lose by having a viable alternative to the HSPA/LTE route - Nokia and Ericsson - have been more inclined to stress the differences, and the lack of backwards integration.
\u003c/span\> \u003c/p\> \u003cp\>\u003cspan\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://r.vresp.com/?Trendsmedia/b0f1a8cc77/901356/404f44ff39/c97cd5e\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>China Unicom starts work on WiMAX\u003c/a\>\u003c/span\>\u003cbr\> \n \u003cspan\>China Unicom, which has been testing WiMAX for about a year, has now formally begun the construction of its network\u003c/span\> \u003c/p\> \u003cp\>\u003cspan\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://r.vresp.com/?Trendsmedia/d88b9bbddc/901356/404f44ff39/c97cd5e\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>Ofcom report takes dim view of wireless' 'Broadband 2.0' ambitions \u003c/a\>\u003c/span\>\u003cbr\> \n \u003cspan\>Broadband wireless has traditionally been regarded as a last resort in the last mile, to be used where DSL and cable are impractical, but delivering less reliable performance. Advances in technology, particularly in the OFDM-based systems like WiMAX, has narrowed the performance gap and added the non-line of sight element that supports nomadic usage, the one area where wireline options, of course, cannot compete. This has placed huge expectations on broadband wireless networks, WiMAX in particular, to deliver a full fixed/mobile convergence platform that will combine, at least in the next generation of the technologies, DSL or fiber grade fixed delivery plus full mobility.\u003c/span\> \u003c/p\> \u003cp\>\u003cspan\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://r.vresp.com/?Trendsmedia/c427fd827f/901356/404f44ff39/c97cd5e\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>Sprint and Clearwire jitters show danger of short term thinking in wireless\u003c/a\>\u003c/span\>\u003cbr\> \n \u003cspan\>Outside Korea , Sprint Nextel and Clearwire have been the biggest early flag wavers for WiMAX in the operator community, and almost inevitably, the over-excitement surrounding such early stage projects was bound to wear off somewhat as the realities of commercial deployment and return on investment pressures take over from the initial euphoria. So Sprint is rumored to be facing delays already to its aggressive roll-out schedule, and possibly seeking additional vendor support (for which read, flexible financing too) amid its current financial setbacks. And Clearwire, while launching its Nasdaq IPO last week, failed to make the spectacular impact some had predicted.",1]
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IBM's promotion of metrozone WiMAX leads to Texas deal
IBM has shown an increasingly keen interest, over the past few years, in the potential for its integration business in the metrozone market, and now it is set to take advantage of this sector's evolution from focusing on best effort, socially oriented networks, to providing carrier class services.ption
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Voice over WImax - Alvarion Breeze products
today announced the availability of primary voice services over WiMAX enabled by the latest edition of BreezeMAX, Alvarion’s award-winning and market leading WiMAX Certified™ system.
This ability to deliver primary voice services using existing TDM infrastructure, in addition to its broadband service capabilities, means incumbent (ILECs) and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) can adopt WiMAX as their basic network strategy. As the first commercial WiMAX system to support V5.2 interfaces, coupled with its existing VoIP capabilities, BreezeMAX can now interface directly with both legacy and next generation voice networks according to carrier needs.
Over the past few months, the primary voice services of BreezeMAX have been tested with carriers in Africa and South America, and approved as interoperable with various vendors’ Class 5 switches.
As a result of these trials, two operators in Africa are today leveraging their TDM switches by deploying this BreezeMAX voice and data solution. In addition, operators in Latin America are evaluating the solution for deployment in urban areas to cover unserved areas. “Alternative and incumbent carriers can now use WiMAX to open their networks to major technology evolution in terms of applications,” said Rudy Leser, Alvarion's corporate vice president of strategy and marketing.
“By adopting WiMAX as their network strategy, carriers will enjoy 4G applications as well as significant capital and operating costs savings. We are seeing strong demand for this type of open infrastructure solution where new services can be made available while moving to services such as voice over IP.” Primary voice over WiMAX capability is of particular interest to innovative challengers looking to provide voice services, along with broadband, to areas with little or no existing telecom infrastructure. Alvarion voice and broadband data WiMAX networks can be built quickly and without heavy investments in a full scale VoIP network as it can be deployed using the existing TDM infrastructure capacity of V5.2 legacy switches.In addition, the BreezeMAX integrated voice CPE includes one or two voice lines and battery backup which works to benefit VoIP network operators with its fast and seamless integration for residential and SOHO market segment. Commercially available in an outdoor version today, the new CPE will be available as an indoor, self-install version in Q2 2007.
some issues in Voice over wimax
issues like jitter and delay, \ "The human ear is very sensitive. [Even in voice transmitted] over satellite, if you have a quarter-second delay, you would notice it."
QoS handles congestions [issues] only, not changing of channels or latency or jitter," he said.
Wireless broadband equipment use frequency channels to transmit signals, and channels can be changed to prevent interference.
besides capacity and quality problems, voice over wireless also faces interoperability challenges.
To overcome this, voice over wireless will need a set of standards similar to those that have been set for VoIP over wireline networks, such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and those ratified by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
Service providers, which are leading the adoption of WiMax and thinking of offering voice over wireless, should therefore focus on the business case, and not just the technology. "Offer services on a limited coverage [first]… Go through a progression