A Journey to the Levant
Sprint will kill OFF WiMax in 2015 .
Although I am not surprised, I still think it is too early to bury WiMAX. Obviously it has lost the race to LTE, but I can still see usage models for WiMAX in developing countries and places where LTE is not deployed.
Alvarion just released their 2010 report:
Highlights:
Management comment:
“We continue to see attractive, profitable business in the 4G RAN market, albeit on a smaller scale than we previously expected”
2011 Guidance is not provided
I wish all the best to Alvarion, but they keep bleeding money while future is not promising.
WiMAX is not being deployed as it was supposed to; Can’t see Alvarion competing in the LTE market against the Giants.
One can speculate if this means that Intel is cutting WiMAX investments, or just that WiMAX adoption among Taiwanese ODMs is good enough.
Via PCworld which also includes a link to speculations.
My opinion: Cutting down WiMAX investment.
UQ Wimax just announced a new business campaign.
More details are here (PDF, JP), but my guess it will be as “successful” as previous campaigns.
Israeli The Marker, reports another round of layoff in Alvarion .
Magic number this time is 170m about 20% of workforce. If this is not another indication that WiMAX is doomed, I don’t know what is. According to the article, Alvarion is expecting new projects in India as well as rural US.
What I am saying: “Reinvent yourself”.
LTE is almost there, while WiMAX couldn’t grab enough market share. Which basically means that WiMAX will stay in Niches, 3rd world markets which never deployed 3G, vertical markets, private networks, etc.
So, either Alvarion matches her size to the market, or find another market.
Canadian Tranzeo Wireless acquires Aperto Networks .
No further details on the deal, but I can just assume Aperto was sold for close to nothing.
Which company will be next?
Cisco has finally announced their pull out from the WiMAX business . Hardly surprising, as in the past two yeas, since Navini Networks acquisition, Cisco were not very successful with this new Wireless business.
Not sure if it was because the technology didn’t fit Cisco business, or just failure to execute. But, I can’t remember even one meaningful deployment from Navini (Cisco) .
The reason I am writing this post is to remind everyone that Alvarion was supposedly the first runner for Cisco’s WiMAX ambitions, when in the last minute (well, this is what newspapers preferred to portray), Navini was acquired. I am sure many people in Alvarion are happy today that it turned out this way.
On the same day UQ WiMAX announced the installation of the 5000th base station , they also announced the availability of WiMAX Repeaters.
As any other wireless technology the biggest issue is Coverage. Or rather, how to provide the best coverage with lower costs. A repeater is a good solution to extend a cell (when more bandwidth is not needed).
A PDF from UQ [JP] shows 3 different repeaters and usage. Graphics are quite bad , but I’ll ignore it this time.
UQ WiMAX announced today [JP] installing the 5000th WiMAX Base Station.
Very impressive, but it will be more interesting to read about UQ making money than spending.
Last year’s report indicated 27,000 users , which can’t really justify installing 5000 base stations.
Alvarion’s CEO, Eran Gorev, publised a message to Alvarion Shareholders.
I feel compelled to share the message as I find it entertaining:
As you know, I assumed the role of President and CEO on December 7, 2009. After working in high tech for many years, I have come to admire Alvarion for both its technology and the business it has developed.
Message starts with “As you know”. Press release was in Sep. 2009 , while he joined as CEO on Dec. 7th. It would have been nice if he could publish this letter closer to the date he joined Alvarion. The second excerpt of the quote above is more interesting since it tries to do two things:
1) Show that Eran Gorev is Experienced (he is)
2) Alvarion has good technology and Business (mostly correct)
But, I just don’t like the way it was phrased. Does it mean that if one does not have the experience Eran has, it is difficult to appreciate Alvarion?
As we enter a new year, I want to take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to creating long-term value for Alvarion shareholders. We will work with renewed energy to successfully capitalize on the opportunities and meet the challenges, with our dual focus on profitability and growth. We look forward to sharing our progress with you during the year.
No comments on this part. Just I wish he could write more:
Anyway, I think the next Earning Conference Call is going to be interesting.