A Journey to the Levant
Google Webmaster tools provide great statistics on page Download time.
As it seems from the following graph, download time for a page on my website was quite bad in June but then improved significantly in July.
Possible reasons:
Will monitor this further.
Trying to collect a list of all companies and Start-Ups in Israel developing WiMAX Silicon/Systems as well as in the WiMAX Eco-System.
Tzvika Friedman, Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR) announced his resignation on the same day the company announced 2009 Q2 results. Coincidence?
To me, it is very surprising that a CEO and a president steps aside without the board announcing who will replace him. Market reacted to both results and resignation with a 16% plunge in the share price to $3.96, bringing Alvarion Market Capitalization to about $250M.
Israeli financial website Calcalist published their analysis and history of the company. Main highlights:
I think Alvarion has the right products for their market, but will they ever become profitable?
WiMAX Forum’s certification showcase features a Cisco WiMAX USB device, which made me think that Cisco is still investing into their WiMAX business unit.
However, browsing further reveals that the device looks the same as Seowon Intech’s device and GCT device. All devices were certified in Korea by TTA.
I think Cisco could at least invest some time and money in re-designing the entire look and feel of the device with Cisco colors.
Bic Camera has recently announced participation in UQ WiMAX MVNO program. However, in a recent visit to Bic Camaera in Shin-Yokohama, I couldn’t find any reference to WiMAX, which made me investigate more into Bic Camer’a WiMAX offering on their website:
Bic Camera WiMAX Banner is at the bottom of the page, under Emobile, OCN and other promotions.
The plan details are fairly simple as they follow UQ WiMAX price plan, the UQ Flat at 4480 Yen per month. Additional 2835 Yen are required for registration (it still kills me to pay registration fees everywhere I go in Japan):
Now, this part is getting annoying. Bic Camera offer only one device (?!), the BDSS01, by Shinsei Corp, which I can just guess it is the same device used by UQ (UD01SS) with a different name and package. Device price is 12,800 Yen (!!!).
It doesn’t really feel like Bic Camera are pushing this device, no promotion, no benefits. I don’t see anyone interested in WiMAX getting it from Bic Camera, so why bother with the MVNO program?
Following the recent LTE press releases, I decided to revisit Google Trends and see how WiMAX is doing.
WiMAX search term is still leading over LTE. I don’t find it surprising that Pakistan and Malaysia are the leading regions for WiMAX searches as there are real deployments there, while in South Korea LTE is gaining some ground (but still only about half of “WiMAX”).
Redline Communications, a Canadian manufacturer of Fixed and Mobile WiMAX equipment announced that it received $10 Millions (Canadian) financing loan from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development.
“This government loan will help Redline remain at the forefront of the broadband wireless industry worldwide, and allow it to further grow its design and development capability for ‘Fourth Generation’ (4G) commercial, military and government broadband wireless networks,” said Mihnea Moldoveanu, Redline’s Founder and Chief Strategy Officer.
Forefront?
I think it should be “Keeping our heads above water”.
I am lucky enough to be included in the Google wave “Sandbox” program, which means I have two Google wave account I can play/develop with.
Assuming that there are enough Google Wave related buzz and blogs, I don’t bother reporting my experience.
Nevertheless, if you are interested in my views, show your interest by writing a comment to this post.
Israeli Startup Altair Semiconductors announced today the availability of their LTE baseband processor. Named FourGee-3100, this is the first in a series of LTE portfolio.
This is Altair’s 3rd chip following the FourGee-2150 for Mobile wiMAX and FourGee-4150 for XGP. I don’t believe the FourGee-2150 is widely deployed nor gained siginificant design wins, but as reported earlier, the FourGee-4150 XGP powers Japanese Willcom new XGP network .
Altair announced their plans for:
- FourGee(TM)-6150 – a MIMO RF transceiver that supports LTE-TDD. This product will be available in August 2009
- FourGee(TM)-6200 – a multi-band LTE-FDD MIMO transceiver that supports the most popular LTE bands in North America, Japan and Europe. The chip will be available in Q210
LTE-FDD will arrive in Q2, 2010, long after trials are expected to start in Japan. Will Altair gain enough market share with the LTE-TDD? We shall soon find out.
