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Clearwire-Sprint Deal: Why the Who’s of Who’s are Investing in WiMAX
While the business world has been buzzing about the Microsoft-Yahoo talks, the big news for WiMAX fans is the Sprint and Clearwire deal. More details on the financial and commercial agreements are provided in this article.
Sprint and Intel both already had much invested in the success of WiMAX technology but the reasoning behind the cable companies and Google’s involvement is being questioned by some.
So why are these companies investing in WiMAX technology?
Comcast and Time Warner have been feeling the pressure from Verizon and AT&T who have been forcing their way into the television industry by providing video through your phone line. Verizon is attempting to lay fiber all the way to the home, or close to it. AT&T is laying fiber to the ‘node’ and relying on current wires to carry video signals to consumers’ homes. By helping the growth of WiMAX, Comcast and Time Warner would be funding an alternative wireless offering. Having a hand in mobile broadband technology could also help the cable companies compete in the ongoing battle for our living rooms. The triple play (phone, internet, and television) offering is no longer enough. CE, PC, console game, networking equipment, phone, and cable companies are trying to take over home media not only because of the huge potential to sell a complete ecosystem of products, services, and content but also for fear of being shut out.
Google is rumored to have been reluctant to enter the deal particularly because the WiMAX offered by Clearwire is currently just fixed wireless broadband. The company had to promise a future in building a mobile wireless solution for Time Warner, Comcast, and Google to put up the money. Obviously bringing broadband internet to mobile devices would mean more time spent on the internet and possibly more time spent on Google, Gmail, or YouTube. But mobile broadband also means more mobile devices which would, hopefully for Google, operate on the Android operating system that was launched by Google back in November 2007.
It will be interesting to see where this deal takes us.
Ari Zoldan
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Airspan Bounces Back
Airspan received some negative publicity back in March from Buzz Broadband but continues to be a respected provider of WiMAX solutions.
Vodacom Lesotho, a subsidiary of the Pan-African cellular communications company, has officially selected Airspan to be its WiMAX provider.
Vodacom offers world class GSM service, a standard collection of applications and features available to mobile phone subscribers, to more than 23 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Partnering with Airspan will allow Vodacom to provide subscribers with IP data services as a substitute to fixed line broadband access. “Airspan will supply its MicroMAX base stations in the 3.3 - 3.5 GHz frequency band in addition to CPEs (customer premise equipment).” Vodacom believes that Airspan’s solution is perfect, particularly in rural areas, for rapid deployment.
"Airspan’s MicroMAX system provides a low-cost, high-performance point-to-multipoint IEEE 802.16 compliant solution. This OFDM based architecture is suited to deliver high-speed data, Voice Over IP (VoIP), and multimedia services to residential, SOHO (small office/home office), and SME (small medium enterprise). MicroMAX offers service providers an integrated access solution, providing quick-to-market deployment and low-market entry cost for broadband services in an expandable “pay as you grow” model."
Given the failure of Airspan’s partnership with Buzz Broadband (mentioned in past posts), Airspan hopes winning this contract with Vodacom will highlight the flexibility and scalability of Airspan’s base stations and CPEs.
Ari Zoldan
Quantum Networks, LLC
70 West 40th Street
7th Floor
New York, New York 10018
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Airspan Defends WiMAX
The negative comments shared by Garth Freeman, CEO at Buzz Broadband, in regards to WiMAX technology have spurred Airspan, the WiMAX equipment supplier to retaliate and defend its technology.
According to Airspan, Buzz Broadband lacked the technical and financial resources required to operate a performing network. In regards to Freeman’s specific qualm concerning the short distance that the WiMAX network was able to operate successfully in, Airspan blamed Buzz Broadband’s decision to purchase less-expensive micro-cell base stations. Cheaper base stations resulted in a trade off of range performance.
The future of WiMAX is still to be discovered and will continue to stir debate but I find the most insightful observations concerning the Buzz Broadband/Airspan situation was made by Nordic Nowire CEO Michael Blomqvist. Blomqvist acknowledges the mistakes made by Buzz Broadband. However, he also notes that such mistakes are typical and therefore Airspan and other WiMAX vendors need to take greater responsibility when it comes to educating carriers.
As far as Blomqvist’s opinion of WiMAX, he feels that “vendors have over-hyped WiMAX, promising features and then not delivering. At the same time, WiMAX does offer a better price/performance ratio compared to competing mobile broadband technologies—when done right.”
Ari Zoldan
Quantum Networks, LLC
70 West 40th Street
7th Floor
New York, New York 10018
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WiMAX Providing Universal Internet
City officials face obstacles while trying to provide municipal internet and are looking to WiMAX as the solution.
In order to serve poor neighborhoods and the community at large,
hundreds of cities including Hartford, Philadelphia, Houston, and San
Francisco have attempted to build a free or inexpensive Wi-Fi system.
"The motivation to provide universal Internet access lies in a simple
fact — poorer urban residents often cannot afford the average $50 a
month fee charged by cable companies and other providers. In Hartford,
only 25 percent of the city’s households have an Internet connection,
compared to 75 percent in surrounding suburbs."
While Wi-Fi has been working great in most downtown areas where
antennas and computers are in close proximity but the Wi-Fi signal is
not strong enough to cover a wide area or penetrate through brick
apartment buildings. Wi-Fi systems have not been delivering on its
promised performance. Hartford officials have been forced to put its
municipal internet project on hold and hope WiMAX will serve as an
alternative.
According to Jack McCoy, chief information officer for Manchester and a
member of the newly created Connecticut Broadband Coordinating Council,
“WiMAX could run a citywide network. The concern is it could run into
opposition from cable companies and other providers.”
Ari Zoldan
Launch 3 Communications
WiMAX Certification Leaves Vendors Wanting More
The WiMAX Forum has recently granted eight mobile WiMAX products with their certified seal of approval.
According to Dr. Mohammad Shakouri, WiMAX Forum Board Member and Vice President of Marketing:
This is a major milestone for WiMAX Forum. The industry has moved from standardization, to the products, and now commercialization…The biggest challenge for the industry was the ecosystem of vendors building products that can work with each other in a real open environment. This was the biggest hurdle that the industry was able to overcome, to be able to get multivendor products, and building real products. Overall we are seeing good industry traction. We are excited that after all of these years, we are now starting to see real products. This is the proof, the industry is maturing, and we’re not talking about paper works anymore.
Obtaining interoperability is definitely a step towards success for WiMAX but many are less optimistic and excited than Shakouri. The development of WiMAX has been slow despite the need for first mover advantage over LTE, and the certification for WiMAX products has been impatiently awaited by vendors. Unfortunately, the eight products announced as certified by the WiMax Forum only support 2.3GHz and Wave 1. The 2.3GHz frequency is used in Korea, but the rest of the world will probably use either 2.5GHz or 3.5GHz. With Wave 1, the eight certified products will only support basic features so vendors are pushing for the WiMAX Forum to certify products that support Wave 2 especially since network installation has begun for some. While it is very exciting that certification is happening, when it comes to WiMAX, everything needs to be faster.
Ari Zoldan
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Sprint Could Possibly Harm Sirius and XM
In spite of the failed partnership with Clearwire and their current financial strain, Sprint expects to launch Xohm as planned. We could be experiencing a wireless broadband network from Sprint in several major cities, such as Chicago and Washington DC, as early as spring of this year.
According to the LA Times, Sprint’s Chief Executive Dan Hesse is convinced that WiMAX is the way to go even though Sprint’s bigger competitors Verizon and AT&T have disregarded WIMAX in favor of another 4G network known as LTE (Long Term Evolution). LTE is a project in the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) and is an easier progression from our current wireless networks. While some are concerned that the industry’s two largest carriers are not backing WiMAX, Google, Comcast, and Time Warner are rumored to be jumping on the WiMAX bandwagon. Not to mention, WiMAX was the big buzz word at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. On Tuesday, Nokia presented its most updated version of N180 Internet Tablet, a WiMAX device projected to run on Sprint’s Xohm network. Motorola displayed a WiMAX enabled car with music, video, and data mapping streaming wirelessly from temporary WiMAX towers placed in the city. All of the hype and optimism surrounding WiMAX is great news for Sprint but may be bad news for Sirius and XM satellite radio.
Sirius and XM have just received the long awaited approval from the Department of Justice for the Sirius XM merger that was first announced back in February of 2007. The merger would double their customer base making it much easier to cover fixed costs. Sirius and XM are also hoping that the merger will help ease the highly competitive environment so acquisition and marketing spending can be lowered. However, with the development of WiMAX, Sirius and XM will face competition from Internet radio which could be streamed wirelessly into cars or mobile phones. Sirius and XM have more than just the pending approval from the FCC to worry about.
Ari Zoldan
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Airspan Defends WiMAX
The negative comments shared by Garth Freeman, CEO at Buzz Broadband, in regards to WiMAX technology have spurred Airspan, the WiMAX equipment supplier to retaliate and defend its technology.
The negative comments shared by Garth Freeman, CEO at Buzz Broadband, in regards to WiMAX technology have spurred Airspan, the WiMAX equipment supplier to retaliate and defend its technology. According to Airspan, Buzz Broadband lacked the technical and financial resources required to operate a performing network. In regards to Freeman’s specific qualm concerning the short distance that the WiMAX network was able to operate successfully in, Airspan blamed Buzz Broadband’s decision to purchase less-expensive micro-cell base stations. Cheaper base stations resulted in a trade off of range performance.
The future of WiMAX is still to be discovered and will continue to stir debate but I find the most insightful observations concerning the Buzz Broadband/Airspan situation was made by Nordic Nowire CEO Michael Blomqvist. Blomqvist acknowledges the mistakes made by Buzz Broadband. However, he also notes that such mistakes are typical and therefore Airspan and other WiMAX vendors need to take greater responsibility when it comes to educating carriers.
As far as Blomqvist’s opinion of WiMAX, he feels that “vendors have over-hyped WiMAX, promising features and then not delivering. At the same time, WiMAX does offer a better price/performance ratio compared to competing mobile broadband technologies—when done right.”
Ari Zoldan
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India Vs Australia: Is WiMAX Booming? Or Just Blowing Up?
While WiMAX tends to have a futuristic image, the Convergence India exhibition in Delhi proved that WiMAX and 3G mobile phone services may be affordable to the lay user sooner than predicted.
While WiMAX tends to have a futuristic image, the Convergence India exhibition in Delhi proved that WiMAX and 3G mobile phone services may be affordable to the lay user sooner than predicted.
Crowds gathered at the Alcatel-Lucent stand to experience the zippy speeds of WiMAX — allowing them to stream smooth video footage, browse the Internet, carry on a video phone conversation with someone on another continent — all at the same time, around five million bits per second.
Making it happen was a matchbox-sized plug-in card that fitted into what is called the PCMCIA slot of a laptop computer.
It was visible proof that superior WiMAX speeds could be experienced today on any laptop with hardware not much different from the wireless data cards now offered by all leading Indian mobile providers.
The speed of WiMAX that allows for such multitasking is a huge attraction especially in our fast paced environment. Yet, despite the optimistic news in Delhi for WiMAX believers, doubts have been made clear by Garth Freeman, CEO of Hervey Bay’s Buzz Broadband and Australia’s first WiMAX operator. In fact, Freeman has concluded that WiMAX technology is a “miserable failure.” According to Freeman, while the main selling point of WiMAX technology to entice people to switch has been the Internet applications, the non line of sight performance was so poor that such applications including VoIP would not work.
As WiMAX technology continues to be experimented with and tested in real world applications, we will see whether or not it pays to be a believer.
Ari Zoldan
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The Launch of MXtv & The decline of the land-line
Since the introduction of the mobile phone, the land-line telephone has slowing become an endangered species.
The addicting Blackberry is quickly settling itself as “man’s best friend.” As life moves faster, we are predisposed to demand services and products that satisfy our on-the-go attitude.
In line with such a demand, NextWave Wireless, Inc has just recently launched MXtv. Wireless Design and Development Asia describes MXtv as:
“a breakthrough mobile multicast and broadcast technology that enables WiMAX operators to deliver a broad range of rich and personalized multimedia services including mobile TV, interactive media services, and digital audio without having to invest in new spectrum or additional radio access network equipment… With the unique ability to interleave broadcast content with voice and data content in each user transmission, MXtv enables WiMAX network operators to maximize service revenues by allowing them to dynamically optimize the mix of voice, data, and broadcast services on each RF carrier based on user demand, service pricing and advertising revenue. Furthermore, over 300 high fidelity radio broadcast channels or any combination of mobile TV, personalized radio, voice and data services can be offered in the same 10 MHz of spectrum”.
Having already affected the entertainment and media industry, it will be interesting to see how advertising will adapt to the speedy growth of mobile technology. With the introduction of MXtv, WiMAX has the potential to enable video delivery and thus commercials/video advertisements. Consumer’s ability to receive mobile TV and personalized radio on their mobile devices can improve the personalization or customization of entertainment and media directed toward individual users. While the ability to tailor advertisements and the reach of those advertisements may at first thought seem like a dream come true. The actual implementation of such a dream will be a challenge for advertisers and marketers to do successfully. As the customer population becomes more and more segmented by the personalization of media, advertising becomes more complicated. Still, it is interesting to explore the potential impact of WiMAX will have outside of the technology industry.
Ari Zoldan
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Developments with WiMAX Chips
The development of WiMAX-enabled chips provides a foundation on which WiMAX can take hold in the wireless world
The development of WiMAX-enabled chips provides a foundation on which WiMAX can take hold in the wireless world. Being that many have cited this year as the “year for WiMAX,” an increase in the development and release of WiMAX-enabled chips has been an intuitive projection for the near future. Intel and Motorola intuitively come up on top in such discussions. Intel in particular has received some buzz for its Centrino 2 Montevina chip. Intel is quoted with this description:
It will feature unprecedented processor performance for faster multitasking, high-bandwidth Wi-Fi (802.11agn), and for the first time, an optional integrated WiMax-Wi-Fi module. Centrino 2 also has a power-saving design to provide the longest possible battery life
Apparently this development is only the beginning. As more compact and efficient WiMAX-enabled chips are developed and popularized, the more cost may ease for end-users–ultimately good news for general growth and developments in the field. Along the same vein, Investor’s Business Daily provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of WiMAX chip development, citing roughly 40 companies that are involved in developing WiMAX chips.
Ari Zoldan
Launch 3 Communications
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