Recently in WiMAX Category

With over 10% growth in attendance and a 15% increase in the number of sponsors and exhibitors over last year, WiMAX World 2008 Conference & Expo -  wimaxworld.com - was the largest event ever held in the WiMAX market. 

This week more than 9,000 professionals converged at McCormick Place in Chicago to hear from the world's leading WiMAX ecosystem companies, including Clearwire, Motorola, Huawei, INTEL, Nokia Siemens Networks, Samsung and XOHM.

Sprint's XOHM WiMAX service goes live in

Baltimore today. With average downlink speeds of 2-4 Mbps, the data-centric XOHM broadband service differs from present wireless offerings in that:

• No long-term commitments or contracts are required, freeing customers from restrictive long-term subsidized plans;
• Monthly home, on-the-go and day-pass Internet plans provide service choices;
• A single monthly charge covers service for multiple WiMAX access devices;
• WiMAX devices are purchased like other computing/consumer electronic devices,
• XOHM broadband service is self-activated and includes future updates capability;
• Customers can enjoy an Internet portal offering enhanced mobile services;
• The Open Internet business model transcends other carriers' wireless walled gardens that restrict services, choice and innovation.

Starting today, customers can purchase XOHM-branded Samsung Express air cards for $59.99 and ZyXEL modems for $79.99 via XOHM web, telesales or select Baltimore-area independent retailers. Additional WiMAX devices such as a ZTE USB modem, Intel Centrino 2 WiMAX notebook PCs and the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition are expected in market later this year.

Introductory offers allow customers to choose from both daily and month-to-month service options. At launch, mobile WiMAX service plans include a $10 Day pass, $25 monthly Home Internet service and $30 monthly On-the-go service. Special launch pricing includes a $50 "Pick 2 for Life" monthly service option covering two different WiMAX devices. Visit www.xohm.com to view the current XOHM WiMAX coverage area, details of the introductory broadband service offerings and device sales information.

Several sources state the Sprint will be launching WiMAX in Boston, Philadelphia and Dallas/Fort Worth after other announced markets.

Baltimore D.C. is on schedule to launch and may be early with average download speeds of 3 to 5 Mbps in the network coverage areas

2Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei") won 17 new commercial WiMAX 16e commercial contracts in the first half of 2008, more than the total number of contracts signed for the whole of 2007. To date Huawei has secured 29 WiMAX 16e commercial contracts and accumulated over 35 trials which according to IDC, means the company is the joint market-leader in WiMAX 16e market share.

 "Huawei is the only solution provider to rank in the 'Top 3' across mobile, fixed network and IP segments according to industry analyst firms, Dittberner, Ovum-RHK and Gartner" said Mr. Zhao Ming, President of Huawei's WiMAX product line. "Huawei has been developing these technologies for over 10 years and is committed to integrating optimal resources to provide our customers with the most competitive and diversified WiMAX solutions."

The WiMAX chipset market is advancing quickly. There are solid 2-chip designs consisting of a single-chip baseband IC and a single-chip RF IC that are bringing power consumption down. Beceem, GCT Semiconductor, and Sequans have single-chip designs that include both the baseband and RF. Most importantly, WiMAX chipset ASPs are dropping rapidly.

“Even as the mobile WiMAX chipset market has barely gotten its feet wet, chipset ASPs are declining rapidly due to heavy competition and greater integration in designs,” says ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis. “Prices for the baseband and RF components of the chipset have come down from the $35 range a few years ago to below $25, and will drop below $10 in 2011. These falling WiMAX chipset prices are critical for inclusion of the technology in smaller mobile devices.”

Mformation Technologies Inc.,  announced that SPRINT has selected its MFORMATION SERVICE MANAGER to provide seamless device management capabilities for new WiMAX-capable mobile devices as part of the XOHM WiMAX.

Device management ensures that WiMAX devices can be remotely activated and provisioned irrespective of their source, ensuring they work seamlessly and deliver a true mobile Internet experience. "Advanced device management is critical to delivering the best possible user experience over WiMAX and enabling the broadest and most compelling suite of WiMAX devices," said Barry West, President of Sprint's XOHM business unit. "The ability to remotely manage and support any WiMAX device -- irrespective of where it has been bought -- will create the first truly open wireless marketplace, allowing customers to purchase their own devices and activate them when they choose with or without a contract in place."

XOHM intends to significantly enhance the Mobile Internet, allowing users to access advanced data applications and personal content from anywhere in the XOHM WiMAX coverage area, on any WiMAX-certified device at broadband speed. Studies show that consumer uptake of new mobile applications and services is directly related to early, positive user experiences and services that work seamlessly right out of the box. Sprint will use Mformation's advanced MDM technology to remotely activate, configure, diagnose, update, secure and manage a diverse fleet of WiMAX-capable devices throughout all phases of their lifecycle. This will ensure that services and applications are delivered smoothly across Sprint

Backhaul is very important for 4G expansion, and IP backhaul is the chosen option for Sprint, who selected DragonWave's IP-based backhaul solutions for its XOHM-branded WiMAX mobile-broadband services in North America.

DragonWave's Horizon Compact and Horizon Duo products will be deployed initially in the Baltimore/Washington and Chicago markets. DragonWave's native Ethernet radios will provide Sprint's XOHM network with carrier-grade reliability, capacity, throughput and Quality of Service (QoS) for backhauling 4G traffic. The Horizon products provide software controlled scalability, ultra-low latency, wire-speed connectivity up to 1.6 Gbps full duplex, 99.999% service availability and a full suite of network management options. Ring/mesh network architecture coupled with adaptive modulation and integrated antenna solutions enables a 50% reduction in the total life cycle cost compared to conventional designs enabling Sprint XOHM to rapidly and affordably expand their market coverage and meet increased bandwidth requirements.

"Big-name carriers such as Sprint are confronting the backhaul challenges of the mobile Internet, and, consequently, they are increasingly transitioning to lower-cost IP backhaul to support 3G and 4G expansion and booming data rates," said Caroline Gabriel, Research Director and Lead Wireless Analyst with Rethink Research Associates. "Carriers no longer can allow backhaul bottlenecks to slow their mobile-broadband growth plans, so we are seeing heightened uptake for powerful IP backhaul solutions that allow for simple, cost-efficient network rollout."

Today marks the first commercially available rollout of Mobile WiMAX Internet service by DBC (DigitalBridge Communications) offered over Alvarion's BreezeMAX  2.5 GHz solution. The network is already up and running with broadband Internet to businesses and homes across Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 

Sprint Nextel plans to  launch its first commercial WiMAX service in the Baltimore/DC area in September according to a speech made by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse  at the NxtComm trade show in Las Vegas which will be before the Sprint/Clearwire merger.

Sprint will also launch WiMax service in two other cities, Chicago and Washington, before the end of the year, Hesse said, but he did not specify by what date.

The WiMAX Forum announced the first ten Mobile WiMAX products received the WiMAX Forum Certified Seal of Approval for the 2.5 GHz profile (titled MP05) at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam. The WiMAX Forum also revealed its roadmap for 3.5 and 2.3 GHz equipment certification during the show, with plans for equipment in the 3.5 GHz band to achieve certification by the end of 2008.

Following months of rigorous testing to ensure that each product met the strict WiMAX Forum interoperability and conformance standards, the announcement included four base stations and six mobile station modules (also known as terminals) operating in the 2.5 GHz frequency band from eight WiMAX Forum member companies, including Airspan Networks, Alvarion Ltd., Beceem Communications Inc., Intel Corporation, Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd., Sequans Communications and ZyXEL. All of the newly certified 2.5 GHz mobile station modules passed the mandatory MIMO testing protocols.

Nortel and Alvarion, two companies aggressively pursuing early market opportunities with WiMAX, announced that they will collaborate to create a new end-to-end WiMAX solution.

The Nortel and Alvarion mobile WiMAX solution is expected to combine industry-leading technologies from both companies to allow operators around the globe - including well-established service providers and new entrants to the wireless market - to simply and efficiently deliver high-speed wireless broadband for a variety of applications, mobile or nomadic, including VoIP, streaming music, and HD video.

This collaboration is allowing both companies to bring solutions to the WiMAX market - which experts say could be worth somewhere in the one to two billion dollar range by the end of 2009 and up to five billion by 2012 - faster and at a lower cost than either company could on it’s own.

For Nortel, this collaboration allows the company to bring WiMAX to market faster at a lower cost and focus R&D resources on bringing LTE to market. Nortel is accelerating its 4G strategy to bring both WiMAX and LTE to market faster.

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire filed a petition with the FCC saying it would would provide high-speed Internet access that rivaled wired-line broadband when it merged  It also said:

• The new merged company, Clearwire Corp. would reach 140 million people within 30 months.
• Clearwire Corp. would  provide high-speed access capable of 2-way video conferencing to police, firefighters and schools.
• Their service would be an alternative broadband platform, or 'third pipe."
• The service would be open and customers would have a choice and plans and they wouldn't have to buy equipment from the merged company.
• They could only provide the whole nation with combined forces.
• They said companies like Verizon and AT&T are ""likely loathe to deploy wireless broadband in a manner that would cannibalize their landline business."
  

To accelerate the widespread adoption and deployment of WiMAX technology and products, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Clearwire, Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics and Sprint announced the formation of the Open Patent Alliance (OPA). The OPA will advance a competitive and open intellectual property rights model, thus stimulating a larger WiMAX industry that supports innovation through broader choice and lower equipment and service costs for WiMAX technology, devices and applications globally.

WiMAX is a 4G, IP-based broadband wireless technology that provides low-cost, multi-megabit speed and greater throughput for the mobile Internet era of video-rich content and bandwidth-intensive applications. It is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard.

To accomplish its goals, the OPA will form a WiMAX patent pool to help participating companies obtain access to patent licenses from patent owners at a predictable cost.

dmedia System Co. aTaiwanese manufacturer of navigation and wireless devices, and NextWave Wireless Inc. a global provider of mobile multimedia and wireless broadband technologies, have teamed up to begin development on an advanced mobile WiMAX device that will debut in 1H 2009.

Leveraging NextWave’s Wave 2-ready “No Compromise” NW2000 WiMAX chipset, dmedia will integrate WiMAX into its WiMAX Mobile Internet Device, G400. By embedding WiMAX into the device, end-users gain greater service opportunities, including mobilization of the Internet to enhance connection, navigation and mobile multimedia services. Additionally, as NextWave’s NW2000 chipset is optimized to deliver outstanding performance, very low power and enhanced integration, dmedia’s device will offer robust feature-sets to enable bandwidth-intensive mobile multimedia applications, including NextWave’s MXtvTM mobile broadcast service, streaming video, video conferencing, and Voice-over-IP (VoIP).

Starent Networks, Corp.  a leading provider of infrastructure solutions that enable mobile operators to deliver multimedia services, today announced its successful participation in interoperability testing to further validate the company's involvement in the development and promotion of the WiMAX industry.

Starent Networks has successfully performed interoperability of its WiMAX solutions with ZyXEL Communications, a leading provider of secure broadband networking, and TECOM, a leading Taiwanese manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The products tested were Starent Networks' Access Service Network (ASN) Gateway and Home Agent for WiMAX, the ZyXEL WiMAX Base Station MAX-2021 and TECOM Macro Base Station WM5070.

Intel’s next-generation Centrino 2 will not be introduced until July 14, reports several sources.

It will be Intel’s first Centrino processor Relevant Products/Services technology to offer integration both Wi-Fi and WiMAX possible in notebook designs.

The ultimate success of WiMAX is essential to Intel, which announced a $1 billion investment in a revitalized Clearwire last month. Intel has made a total cash commitment in excess of $1.6 billion toward the rollout of WiMAX nationally in the U.S.

The Intel WIMAX website states:

Intel WiMAX will deliver extended broadband Internet beyond Wi-Fi. With wireless high-speed broadband connectivity for your PC, WiMAX-enabled laptops and mobile devices will provide you the freedom to connect to the Internet just as you do with your cell phone service. With speeds similar to DSL or cable and faster than using your cell phone service to connect, WiMAX will allow you to access all the data-intensive applications you love, including streaming media on the Internet, live video conferencing, mobile TV and more while on the move.