Mobile WiMax vs. 3G: Will faster and cheaper win?
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Mobile WiMax supposedly will be faster and cheaper than 3G cellular data service.  So why are there so many skeptics?
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An analyst rants Opinion Let me begin with a warning that am about to get on one of my hobby horses. This one has to do with the notion that modern wireless and mobile technology is largely about enabling people to become more mobile in the way they live and work, as if they were previously chained to one location and magically liberated by the latest gadgetry and connectivity. The notion seems to be that having access to email and other applications while mobile means that people are getting out and about more.â¦
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WIRELESS Internet service is not only the wave of the future, but the wave of the present. Wi-Fi hot spots are everywhere, and mobile Internet devices are so numerous, it's impossible to keep track of them.
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Sprint Nextel is looking for new ways to fund its WiMax network, according to the Wall Street Journal. Apparently, Sprint investors are concerned about the network's $3bn expense.
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Barcelona will host the wireless industry this week at the 3GSM World Congress. Look for flashy cell phones, faster networks and small-screen entertainment. By the Associated Press.
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Cingular Wireless have announced plans to begin deploying a fast high-speed mobile wireless data network. The company expects to offer wireless data speeds between 400-700 Kbps (kilobits per second) and bursts
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Sprint Nextel Corp.  and Clearwire Corp.  plan to build a U.S. nationwide mobile broadband network using WiMAX technology that will be five times faster than current wireless networks and cost less.
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Will Wi-Fi, mobile messaging and other enhancements improve the game, or wreck it?
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Europe appears to be fertile ground for new WiMax networks. Spain is the latest country to embrace the emerging high-end broadband wireless technology, following recent deployments in France, Ireland, and the U.K.
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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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The broadband technology WiMax has been added to a global standard for mobile devices, boosting its chances of becoming the preferred system for the next generation of high-speed wireless Internet access.
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Banners hanging at&#160;Macworld Expo&#160;on Monday read, &quot;2008: There&#39;s something in the air,&quot; suggesting wireless news to come in CEO Steve Jobs&#39; keynote Tuesday morning.Faster cellular service for the iPhone is already on its way later this year, AT&amp;T&#39;s top executive reportedly said in November, but Apple could go beyond that plan and extend high-speed wireless WAN (wide-area network) capability to its MacBook notebooks and even a rumored &quot;ultramobile&quot; computer.Many consumers have been clamoring for more speed on the iPhone since it was announced a year ago with support only for Wi-Fi and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), a version of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) that generally runs below 200Mbps. U.S. iPhone carrier AT&amp;T Wireless and other operators around the world already have a set of faster systems called HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) that can deliver more than 1Mbps.At the same time, wide-area wireless has been moving into PC notebooks and smaller PC-like devices. The big notebook vendors, including Dell, Lenovo, and Hewlett-Packard, have rolled out products with built-in 3G. And the Asustek Computer Eee PC and some other small UMPC (ultramobile PC) devices are slated to ship with WiMax.Apple hasn&#39;t made the leap. Mobile Mac owners can hook up to Wi-Fi hotspots but have to buy dongles or other add-on devices from third parties to get fast wireless elsewhere. Offering a built-in 3G card would give MacBook users access to broadband in far more locations.However, that leap would take Apple into a market that hasn&#39;t attracted a large percentage of notebook buyers, analysts said.At least in the U.S., 3G radios are associated with a particular carrier and usually sold along with two-year data contracts. Users keep notebooks longer than they do phones and don&#39;t want to lock them down to a particular carrier, said Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin. In addition, many notebooks are purchased by enterprise IT departments, which demand more flexibility, Golvin said. He doesn&#39;t expect to see another iPhone phenomenon.&quot;I don&#39;t think that laptop users would be as interested in aligning themselves formally with one particular carrier,&quot; Golvin said. One alternative would be to build in a chip that could handle more than one carrier and 3G technology, he added.Avi Greengart of Current Analysis believes Apple&#39;s proven ability to streamline could change the picture.&quot;They have not been in the forefront of 3G on notebooks. However, it wouldn&#39;t surprise me at all if they came out with a simplified offering that just made a lot of sense and became the catalyst, as the iPhone is,&quot; Greengart said. Apple simplified the iPhone experience for customers by sticking with one carrier and letting subscribers sign up with AT&amp;T through iTunes.Apple could also jump-start the market by offering an alternative to the expensive monthly service model that carriers typically use, said Gartner&#39;s Ken Dulaney. Most consumers don&#39;t travel frequently enough to justify spending US$30 or more per month for cellular service on their notebooks, but they might be willing to buy a system with built-in 3G and pay for service as they need it, he said. Verizon has a little-known offering like this, in which users can pay $15 for 24 hours of service, according to spokesman Jeffrey Nelson.Because of its greater mobility, a rumored Mac that&#39;s smaller than a notebook but bigger than the iPhone would be an ideal candidate for 3G. If the company unveils it on Tuesday, that product could lead Apple&#39;s new wireless charge.But that &quot;something in the air&quot; could be a number of other things, too, analysts said. Apple is expected to make its SDK (software development kit) for third-party applications on the iPhone available next month, Greengart said. And the iPhone could gain GPS (Global Positioning System) capability, or some iPods could get Wi-Fi, he said. As always, it&#39;s all speculation until Jobs speaks.&#160;
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Wi-Fi enabled phones, like the iPhone, will drive demand  for fast wireless broadband networks like the ones cities want to build using Wi-Fi, say experts.
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Sprint Nextel Corp.  and  Clearwire Corp.  plan to build a U.S. nationwide mobile  broadband network using WiMAX technology that will be five  times faster than current wireless networks and cost less.
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WiMax, open access and prospects for a rival to the iPhone will be among the top stories to follow in Mobile and Wireless in 2008, experts say, plus a couple of much-talked-about stories that won't amount to much.
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Qualcomm and Texas Instruments have unveiled two competing schemes for delivering video to cell phones that bypass 3G. Is the market big enough to get them off the ground?
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Cities and towns are jumping on the Wi-Fi bandwagon. But a municipal model of connectivity may be tricky to pull off.