Posted by Avi Telyas on Mar 6, 2010 in
Alvarion,
Business,
WiMAX 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.
Tags: Cisco
Posted by Avi Telyas on Jan 24, 2010 in
Business,
WiMAX 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.
Tags: UQ WiMAX
Posted by Avi Telyas on Jan 24, 2010 in
Business,
WiMAX 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.
Tags: UQ WiMAX
Posted by Avi Telyas on Jan 7, 2010 in
Alvarion,
WiMAX 
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:
- What is the focus for Alvarion for next year?
- What is he going to change?
Anyway, I think the next Earning Conference Call is going to be interesting.
Tags: PR
Posted by Avi Telyas on Nov 4, 2009 in
WiMAX 
Finally, some figures on WiMAX adoption in Japan are available.
Number of subscribers: 21,700. That’s an average of about 7000 users per month since the official launch date. Quite sad, isn’t it?
The article continues to review the technology, laptops supporting the technology and the competition (Emobile), which came out with the 100 Yen Notebook campaign a few months before the official WiMAX launch.
UQ WiMAX did create a lot of hype around the WiMAX technology and the speed it supports, signed multiple MVNOs, but that was not enough to attract customers.
Yours truly decided not to use UQ WiMAX services, as my house was not covered , coverage around Tokyo is growing, but still cannot beat Emobile service.
UQ still plans to continue to deploy WiMAX around Japan, which means more investment in infrastructure and Base Stations. These are obviously bad news for KDDI and Intel (biggest investors in UQ) as well as for Mobile wiMAX technology.
Via Yahoo Japan Facta (JP)
Tags: Intel, KDDI, Subscribers, UQ WiMAX
Posted by Avi Telyas on Nov 2, 2009 in
Alvarion
My initial intention was to praise Alvarion for their BreezeMAX Extreme line, how “D” like basestations and CPE with Mobile WiMAX (”E”) technology makes sense.
But, as I was going through Alvarion website and datasheets, I got irritated by some mis-information and inaccuracies. So, I still think Alvarion are doing a great job with the Exterme line and their License exempt offering, but the following post will focus on the “fails” rather than successes.
Sequans Press Release clearly states:
Sequans provides a comprehensive Mobile WiMAX product line that includes the award-winning SQN2130 base station ASIC and the SQN1130 mobile station system-on-chip, both of which are WiMAX Forum Certified™. Sequans’ solutions feature superior receiver sensitivity along with Sequans’ patent-pending technology, mimoMAX™, which combines a maximum likelihood decoder on the downlink with two transmitters on the uplink. The latter enables uplink MIMO for greatly improved link budget and cell coverage
Key Points: CPE as well as Base Station, WiMAX Forum Certified, mimoMAX for uplink MiMO
Now, let’s try to find the information on Alvarion website.
CPE – Alvarion’s BreezeMAX Extreme page does not mention a CPE. End User Devices Page does not mention a license exempt CPE.
WiMAX Forum Certified – it is not. A simple search in WiMAX Forum Certified products page shows only BreezeMAX Macro base station. Where is the Extreme?
Uplink MiMo – BreezeMAX Extreme datasheet clearly states that MiMo matrix B is not available yet, not to mention uplink MiMo.
I am sure Alvarion’s (under NDA) customers receive all the information, but why does the website launch/publish only partial information which confuses rather than educate?
(And again, I would like to say that I think the Extreme line will be quite successful as it addresses real customer needs).
Posted by Avi Telyas on Oct 19, 2009 in
WiMAX More than 1 year after Alvarion first certified Mobile WiMAX Base Station , here comes Airspan’s MacroMAXe.
I guess it is better late than never.
Disclaimer: I am a former employee of Airspan, but not involved since Dec. 2008
Posted by Avi Telyas on Oct 19, 2009 in
Alvarion,
WiMAX
Israeli Media reports another Lay Off raound in Alvarion.
Globes reports this is the 3rd round, following Dec. 08 and April 09.
The Marker (Hebrew) – doesn’t seem to provide more information except a summary of recent Financial report and CEO transition.
Alvarion will report Q3 on Nov.11
Posted by Avi Telyas on Oct 6, 2009 in
Technology,
WiMAX It always amazes me how a webpage can look so wrong, but still deployed for everyone to see.
Something wrong with WiMAX Forum website:
