Samsung's 4G outpaces WiMAX
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For the man on the Korean omnibus... On a bus fitted out specially for the occasion in Jeju this week, Samsung demonstrated a new version of 4G technology transferring data at speeds of 100Mbit/s.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - WiMax World 2007 opens in Chicago Tuesday with major service providers and network equipment vendors expected to offer demonstrations and a few details on plans for mobile WiMax deployments that will hit their stride next year. Sprint Nextel CTO Barry West will provide an update of Sprint's Xohm wireless network in a keynote Wednesday. In August, he said the service will be launched in Chicago and the Washington/Baltimore area by year's end and will reach 100 million users by the end of 2008. Motorola, meanwhile, is planning to demonstrate its coming mobile WiMax technology from a boat in the waters of Lake Michigan. Many of the WiMax plans are focused on major hardware devices being sold to carriers for backhauling wireless signals from outdoor mesh networks that have Wi-Fi connectivity. Sprint's Xohm will be open access, giving WiMax-certified devices like laptops and handhelds the ability to operate at speeds up to 4Mbps, perhaps five times faster than what carriers call third-generation wireless speeds, West said in August. However, one vendor, MobileAccess Networks in Vienna, Va., announced new WiMax hardware today that will work in remote wiring closets of businesses to deliver WiMax capabilities alongside Wi-Fi, cellular, and public safety networks. The MobileAccess WiMax module, to be shown at the trade show, will undergo WiMax certification from Sprint, said MobileAccess CEO Cathy Zatloukal in an interview. "We expect several existing customers will be interested in it," she said. The module will fit inside an existing MobileAccess MA-2000 Universal Wireless Network box now deployed in many businesses to aggregate multiple wireless signals for Wi-Fi, cellular, and public safety, she explained. The value of having a WiMax module to add-in is that it will work alongside existing infrastructure and provides a single cabling infrastructure to support it. One MobileAccess customer, Tommy Russo of Akridge Real Estate Services in Washington, said he plans to add the WiMax module to his MobileAccess hardware when it is available. "WiMax will give us bigger play and more robust service," said Russo, CTO at Akridge, which provides Wi-Fi and cellular services in a downtown building for hundreds of employees and customers. "As more devices use WiMax, which will happen, it enables more things to connect, everything from telephones to laptops with WiMax." Russo said he expects building management and lighting controls could run over WiMax. Someday, WiMax could even be used to merge Wi-Fi and ZigBee, a wireless standard for embedded control devices, he said. Russo said he has seen the MobileAccess module, but he has not tested it and is eager to start testing as soon as possible. His building has been using voice-over-Wi-Fi for about 18 months. The price for the module has not been announced, Zatloukal said. MobileAccess' module is so far unique, although placing WiMax alongside other wireless modes inside a building will be important to other vendors, said Craig Mathias, an analyst at The Farpoint Group in Ashland, Mass., and a Computerworld columnist. MobileAccess competes with LGC Wireless in San Jose and Interwireless in Universal City, Calif., he said. At WiMax World, there will be plenty of demonstrations, including the module by MobileAccess, Mathias said. "The WiMax market is here now, and we'll see a rollout of commercial services this year, so the show is a chance to get your hands on it, to see what it does and what it costs. The reality is coming quickly, and we'll see how successful it will be." Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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SAN FRANCISCO -- At virtually every turn, Intel Corp. executives are heaping praise on an emerging long-range wireless technology known as WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet access.
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(InfoWorld) - As the mobile phone industry scrambles to put cellphones in the hands of billions of unconnected people in emerging markets, less-expensive, higher-speed WiMax is likely to be the technology of choice to connect them to the Internet. "We will see some operators in emerging markets upgrade their cellular networks to support lower-speed data services such as e-mail, but there is a very strong case for deploying WiMax to provide high-speed Internet services in these regions," David Taylor, director of strategic operations high-growth markets in the mobile devices division of Motorola, said Wednesday in an interview at theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona. WiMax networks require fewer base stations than 3G (third-generation) higher-speed mobile phone networks, according to Taylor. And not only are WiMax base stations cheaper, they also consume less energy because their systems don't need cooling. That's a huge benefit as powering networks cost efficiently can be a big challenge in emerging markets. Add to that the speed of WiMax -- up to 10GbpsÂ -- and the result is "a very strong case for WiMax in emerging markets," Taylor said. "Particularly small and medium-size businesses in rural areas can be served very cost-efficiently with this technology." Pakistan has already announced plans to deploy WiMax. So what happens to the many cellular networks already built or being built in these markets? They won't disappear, according to Taylor. On the contrary, operators will continue to use them to deliver basic voice and text services. Some may also decide to upgrade them to GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) technologies to support low-speed data services. "This is not a costly upgrade," he said, unlike an upgrade to 3G or LTE (Long-Term Evolution), the cellular rival to wireless WiMax. Motorola has learned "valuable lessons" about designing products for users in emerging markets, Taylor said. "Simplicity is crucial," he said. "Handsets should have few features -- they should be touch and go." Reliability is another issue. Phones must be robust and not easily breakable. "Many people spend two months of income or more to purchase a phone," he said. "They've made a huge investment in a piece of technology they expect to work -- always." Low power consumption and long battery life are also crucial as many people in emerging markets still live without electricity and need to pay to have their batteries recharged.
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Samsung Electronics will provide 3G-capable phones that work over Verizon Wireless&#39; and Sprint&#39;s emerging 1xEV-DO cellular data networks starting in the first quarter
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Ushering in New York City's fourth-generation high-speed wireless internet, Sprint Nextel taps Samsung to provide WiMax infrastructure for the city. The same duo will create infrastructure and equipment for similar networks in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Boston.
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InfoWorld - WiMax earned an important seal of approval on Thursday when the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)Â certified it as a 3G mobile data technology.
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(InfoWorld) - South Korea's LG Electronics plans to next year introduce a range of products that support mobile WiMax technology, a company executive said at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom World 2006 conference and exhibition in Hong Kong. The first products from LG to support mobile WiMax will be a version of the company's XNote C1 Tablet PC and a PDA (personal digital assistant) based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 software, said Nam Keehyun, manager at LG Electronics' Digital Media Strategic Planning Department. Mobile WiMax offers downlink speeds up to 10.2Mbps, which is expected to increase to 40Mbps or so next year. The technology is currently commercially available in South Korea and Japan. The technology is also being tested by operators in other countries and plans are underway to roll out the technology in the U.S. and China. The XNote C1 with mobile WiMax will also include support for 3G (third generation) networks that have been upgraded with HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology, which allows faster downloads. The new notebook will be available worldwide during the first half of the year, Nam said. The KC1 PDA will also hit the market early next year, offering support for mobile WiMax and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) 2000-1X EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized), Nam said. EV-DO is the 3G technology most widely used in South Korea and is also used by U.S. operators. Prices for the mobile WiMax-equipped XNote C1 and the KC1 have not yet been decided, Nam said. Looking ahead, LG plans to expand the number of products that support mobile WiMax. For example, the company is considering the introduction of an Ultramobile PC with mobile WiMax support, but such a device would not likely be available before 2008, Nam said. Telecom World runs through Friday.
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Wi-Fi to be sidelined Capex investment on pre-4G wireless systems will reach a cumulative total of $13bn by 2012 if new spectrum allocations, and technology roll-outs, stay on schedule. The main systems attracting this global spend will be 802.16e and its successor 802.16m, and LTE. However, while the latter will see a strong uptick in growth from the turn of the decade, it will not overtake WiMAX in capex terms until 2014.â¦
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In a meeting with BetaNews, Ericsson said that HSPA is a more compelling wireless broadband solution than WiMax.
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At virtually every turn, Intel Corp. executives are heaping praise on an emerging long-range wireless technology known as WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet access.
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InfoWorld - Verizon Wireless on Thursday unveiled its first deployments of a faster mobile broadband service that multiplies speeds upstream to the Internet.
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InfoWorld - It&#39;s been a year since a Mobile WiMax service was launched in Seoul and one of the world&#39;s most wired cities became one of the most wireless.
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Now that mobile WiMax has officially been certified as a 3G technology, Sprint backing off calling its new WiMax service 4G.
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(InfoWorld) - The GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) family of technologies will continue to dominate the mobile infrastructure business over the next five years, a research company said Wednesday. Sales of network gear for WiMax, the hot new mobile broadband system, will grow by an average of 50 percent per year until 2011 but still only make up about 5 percent of the market worldwide, according to Dell'Oro Group. Meanwhile, versions of WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) will grab share away from rival EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) technologies as mobile operators build their networks, said Dell'Oro analyst Greg Collins. The Redwood City, California, company on Wednesday announced a report on the mobile infrastructure market from 2006 to 2011. Backers of mobile WiMax have painted a bright future for the emerging technology, which is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard and designed to deliver multiple megabits per second over a range of miles (1 mile = 1.6 km). Collins didn't label WiMax a loser but said it will get off the ground slowly because it's an underdog when it comes to carrying voice calls. Emerging WCDMA and EVDO technologies have closer ties to the cellular world and will be better equipped to handle calls over the next few years, Collins believes, so most users will hang onto them. Dell'Oro forecast 2011 revenue of about $2 billion for WiMax network infrastructure that serves end users. Gear for other purposes, such as mobile operators' wireless "backhaul" links to cell towers, wasn't included. Broad adoption of WiMax will drive down its cost, further accelerating the rollout, according to Intel and other WiMax supporters. Dell'Oro's forecast growth rate could impede the technology's progress toward attractive consumer prices, Collins said, although it does share some features with other emerging wireless systems. The emergence of WiMax will be a sideshow to growing dominance of WCDMA technologies in the cellular world, according to Dell'Oro's forecast. Most of the world's mobile operators have grown up on GSM and are upgrading to WCDMA technologies, including the upcoming HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access) and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) systems. The competing CDMA technology, with its own upcoming versions, has had strongholds in the U.S. and South Korea and been adopted in some other countries. Some CDMA carriers in developing countries, such as India and Brazil, are now migrating toward the WCDMA path, Collins said. Among other things, they want to serve travelers from other countries, most of which use WCDMA, to earn lucrative roaming charges, he said. Even in South Korea, some operators are looking away from CDMA because they are worried about support for future development of a minority technology, Collins said. CDMA's 3G technologies made up 20 percent of spending on mobile infrastructure in 2006 but will represent only about 13 percent in 2011, according to Dell'Oro. One reason WCDMA takes up such a large share of infrastructure revenue is that it's more expensive to upgrade to those technologies, said James Person, chief operating officer of the CDMA Development Group, which represents vendors and operators using CDMA. This is true, but CDMA's global footprint among mobile operators still is shrinking, Collins said.
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Sprint and Samsung have extended their WiMax partnership with the Korean vendor being named the lead provider of infrastructure equipment for the New York market.
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Responding to last weekend's challenge from Qualcomm, which is seeking to up the ante in high-speed wireless networking with its acquisition of True MIMO producer Airgo Networks, Intel today announced that for its Centrino Duo platform, it's preparing a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that will incorporate the WiMAX technology it champions (802.16e) along with 802.11n WiFi and HSDPA.