Year: 2009

Airspan has just released an update on Fourth Quarter and Nortel Exposure:

A preliminary review of fourth quarter 2008 results shows that total shipments in the fourth quarter
2008 amounted to approximately $19 million, of which WiMAX shipments during the quarter amounted to
$17 million. The Company expects to defer some revenue from these shipments during the normal
financial review process, which will impact the final fourth quarter and full year 2008 revenue
numbers.

And $2.7 Million exposure to Nortel:

In connection with Nortel’sJanuary 14th, 2009 bankruptcy announcement, Airspan has outstanding receivables with Nortel in the amount of approximately $2.7 million for products and services delivered and billed through the date of Nortel’s bankruptcy filing. Collection of these receivables is uncertain and will be subject to Nortel’s bankruptcy proceedings. Nortel has informed Airspan that it wishes to continue purchasing goods and services from the Company

I wish Alvarion (NASDAQ:ALVR) would be as transparent.

About a week ago, I reported that Airspan stock gained about 100% in 1 hour of trading reaching 0.25. It is now back to the “Normal” price of 0.15, supporting my idea that the stock was subject to speculation. Hope the guy who did it lost money.

GigaOM reports additional $100 Million for Rural WiMAX Operator “Open Range Communications”. The previous $267 Millions came the U.S. Deparment, trying to bring Broadband to Rural America.

Everyone follow Clear, but I feel this story is more interesting, as for every “Clear” we will see 3 or 4 smaller operators, doing business from Fixed/Nomadic WiMAX. It is also encouraging to hear the amount of money invested to this company, both from the U.S. government and private investments.

Not sure which vendor will supply the Base-Stations and CPEs, but I believe they will use Fixed WiMAX for enhanced rural coverage, thus Motorola and Samsung are out of the picture.

An interesting article on Wibro from the Korea Times: Wibro turns into White Elephant

Now, just two-and-a-half years into deployment, WiBro, which is short for “wireless broadband,” is looking more and more like a monumental letdown everyday

Wibro is a Mobile WiMAX predecessor, initiated by the Korean Government to boost Mobile WiMAX investment in Korea, and give a “headstart” to Korean vendors.

If the home-made WiBro goes international, it will bring new opportunities for Korean high-tech firms in royalty payments and equipment sales, and for this to happen, the local market for the service needs to get bigger.

According to the article, KT had only 180,000 customers, while SK Telecom only 11,000. And some more number:

Considering that KT and SK Telecom used 790 and 600 billion won, respectively, to build their WiBro networks and each needs to spend between 200 and 400 billion won more to expand coverage, a 300 billion won-plus market after seven years hardly qualifies as a consolation prize.

In a recent move, the Korean policymakers enabled operators to provide VoIP over WiBro, which is not likely to change the reality: WiBro has Failed

Fujitsu News from CES: Fujitsu launches a WiMAX enabled Lifebook P8020.

It was not announced on any of the American WiMAX networks (“Clear”), so my guess this product will target the UQ Communications Japanese market.

I don’t understand why Notebook manufacturers rush to produce WiMAX flavored products. As with WiFi it will take a while until the market is ready for it.

Some more bad news for Mobile WiMAX: Nokia will stop production of the WiMAX version of the N810. Sprint always used this device to demonstrate the future of Mobile WiMAX and that Nokia is comitted to more WiMAX products. I guess it is over now.

About a year ago I heard some statistics on KT WiBRO network in Korea, and the numbers were very clear: Most devices in the network were USB dongles! not Samsung and LG smart phones.

Airspan Network (NASDAQ: AIRN) stock has soared 100% from 0.12 to 0.25. Not associated with a press release or any other public news, this is a bit strange.It happened in the last hour of Yesterday’s trading day with about 1Million stocks exchanging hands.

Two options:

1. Something good happened, and an Insider (or a friend of an Insider) purchased stocks.
2. Stock Manipulation by a day trader.

Let’s see what happens today.

Disclaimer:I am no longer an Airspan employee, my views expressed in this Blog are mine and are not based on any Information I acquired while working at Airspan.