June 24, 2008

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A lack of WiMAX deployments in France has led that country's regulator, ARCEP to launch an investigation to determine how close national WiMAX licensees are to meeting their rollout obligations. At first blush the situation is not so good: Not a single national WiMAX network has launched in the country yet.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. WiMAX ancestor WiFi is still struggling to make it as a municipal wireless access technology as MetroFi announced its plans to pull the plug on its Portland, Oregon muni-WiFi project as well as a number of muni-WiFi projects across the state of California. The news follows higher profile muni-WiFi debacles from Earthlink, which shut down the much ballyhooed Philadelphia muni-WiFi project earlier this year. Against all odds, the city of Philadelphia secured a new financial backer this week to keep its dream of muni-WiFi alive.

Finally, the big news in the APAC WiMAX market this week is YTLe's deal with Sprint Xohm to roll out a WiMAX network in Malaysia. Sprint is onboard to advise the operator on how to get their WiMAX network up and running as soon as possible. Sprint will also advise the operator on ecosystem strategy and infrastructure design.

Latest Weekly Features
The key advantage that WiMAX has always had over LTE, in the race to be mobile broadband top dog, has been its headstart of around two years, but even as the community gathered for a WiMAX Forum conference in Amsterdam last week, there were warning signs that this advantage was being gradually whittled away. Indeed, one market report warned that, unless spectrum auctions and commercial roll-outs of certified Mobile WiMAX networks gathered momentum before the end of this year, the market potential in mobile broadband would be "insignificant," and 802.16 will be confined to fixed services. The analysts at Frost & Sullivan highlight issues that even the WiMAX community itself is raising. These include increasing uptake of 3G/Wi-Fi handsets and laptops, making WiMAX less attractive, especially once MIMO-enabled 802.11n is mainstream; uncertainties over IPR licensing; the accelerating pace of LTE development; and delays in wave two certification. The report also questions whether WiMAX can handle voice/data as effectively as HSPA, or whether it can hand off to 3G efficiently, if it cannot, whether users will be prepared to carry two devices, one for cellular voice and one for WiMAX personal broadband. Read »

Israeli semiconductor start-up DesignArt Networks has revived a concept that was voguish a couple of years back in Wi-Fi mesh, and applied it to licensed band WiMAX and, in future LTE. This is the integration of backhaul and access into a single compact unit that can be used to build dense underlay networks with many of the elements self-backhauling, to reduce the pressure on leased lines or other options.

The fabless chip company, which boasts strategic investment from Motorola, has come out of stealth mode and unveiled its first product, a WiMAX system on chip (SoC) targeted at systems for smaller or metrozone carriers, or for the rising trend for even major operators to build out new networks initially in dense hotzones for areas of high demand, handing off outside the zone to 3G for wide area coverage.

Read »
Recent Weekly Features

Latest Industry News
June 23, 2008
 Sprint plays WiMAX consultant in Malaysia
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/sprint-plays-wimax-consultant-malaysia/2008-06-22?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&cmp-id=EMC-NL-FBW&dest=FBW
June 23, 2008
 Israel will lag behind without a WiMAX network
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000354368&fid=1724
June 23, 2008
 Mobile WiMax may not fly
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6572436
June 23, 2008
 Will WiMAX have an impact on your business this year?
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/062308-wireless-questions-5.html?hpg1=bn
June 23, 2008
 wi-tribe launches WiMAX network
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=23720&email=html
June 23, 2008
 Nth Air takes 3.65 GHz WiMAX to the Nth degree
http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2008/nth-air-takes-3-65-ghz-wimax-to-the-nth-degree
June 23, 2008
 LTE-WiMAX wars ignite
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/wireless/2008/062308wireless1.html
June 17, 2008
 Amsterdam claims first European mobile WiMAX network
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNewsMolt/idUKL1738237920080617
More Industry News

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