A Journey to the Levant
Visited 3GPP webpage today and was surprised to see different design.
Don’t know exactly when it happend (I am sure in the last two months), but this new design is a big improvement from the old design. New colors (Green), informative and clear. I guess someone in the 3GPP understood LTE-WiMAX battle is not only about Technology, but also (or maybe mostly) Marketing.
3GPP has approved the functional freeze of LTE as part of Release 8.
It is an essential step for formal ratification and actual deployment.
LTE is aimed at providing the true global mobile broadband experience for users but also places high priority on improving spectral efficiency and reducing cos
Just received a white paper from Ericsson titled HSPA, the undisputed choice for Mobile Broadband. It is dated May, 2007, which in today’s standards is like reading History books. Therefore, the contens of this white paper is not that interesting to me. What is more interesting is the TIMING of re-issuing it.
Ericsson is the leader in HSPA technology and deployment, and will probably lead the LTE field as well. When Mobile Wimax Tier 1 deplyoment falter, it is time to convince the other to wait for LTE.
From infonetics Research: Alvarion overtakes ALU, MOTO.
The report is pessimistic on the prospects of Mobile WiMAX for next 12 month:
With less cash available for network rollout — and possibly less spectrum being auctioned until the current financial crisis passes — WiMAX deployment will be inhibited for the next 12 months. Infonetics expects revenue growth to return to the overall WiMAX market in 2010, with growth being driven by mobile WiMAX, as a growing number of WiMAX networks are being rolled out based on 802.16e, even if initial services will be fixed CPE-based broadband. Market leader Alvarion’s migration of its customer base from fixed to mobile WiMAX is a prime example of the preference service providers are showing for mobile WiMAX,” said Richard Webb, wireless analyst for Infonetics Research.
I still believe ALU will announce today they are going out of the Mobile WiMAX Business, as I also believe many Tier 1 will wait for LTE.
These are also good news for Alvarion, as in the long run they will benefit from this slow down, as the Big players will go out of the market, leaving the Emerging Markets to Alvarion, Airspan, Redline,…
This trend is catching up. Mobile Phone manufacturers do not want to rely on Chip vendors and develop their own chipsets.
Another good example is Samsung with their WiMAX chipsets. They have worked with more than one vendor (maybe as an interim solution), but finally launched their own chipset.
Link to Ars Technica, which is much better than this one, since I’d rather see beautiful women holding chips than some guys (which look very smart and talented).
It was announced that Purewave networks has completed a $12 million Series B Funding round .
The driving force behind Purewave networks is obviously the CEO, which previously founded “Go Networks”.
Purewave networks website does not have a lot of information, nor datasheets of the Base Station and CPE.
Let’s follow this company and see how they plan to differentiate themselves from the already crowded market
A report in RCR Wireless, speculates on the plans of Alcatel Lucent. According to the report Alcatel-Lucent will announce a new plan next week that will “turn around the fortunes” of Alcatel-Lucent.
ALU CEO claims they plan to stay in the mobile telecom business, and will continue to invest in R&D.
I fully support the following excerpt:
“Not doing innovation is like shooting yourself in the head,” he said. “We are not going to cut our lifeline to the future.” Verwaayen refused to be drawn on the outlook for the fourth quarter or 2009 saying “that is for Dec. 12.””
My speculation is “Bye Bye to Mobile WiMAX”, although ALU has many deployments around the world, the Mobile WiMAX market has shrunk significantly and I am not sure there is a room for so many “Vendors”: Samsung, Motorola, ALU and the smaller ones.
Fujitsu LTE website shows two LTE webstation, called the BBU and RRU, but does not describe the difference between them. I did not attend CEATEC Japan, but the page shows two photos taken at the event.
If seems like the key differentiator for Fujitsu is the 4×4 MIMO!
It will be interesting to see how Fujitsu will compete with Ericsson, the lead LTE vendor, for the Docomo deployment.
See press releases from both vendors:
A press release from this morning details KDDI plan to use Nortel and Hitachi’s joint collaboration for their LTE deployment.
Very interesting news as:
1) KDDI plans to roll-out LTE
2) Nortel and Hitachi join hands in this effort
As you may well know UQ Communications, a KDDI company, will deploy Mobile WiMAX in 2009 using a 2.5GHz spectrum. This report from Unstrung addresses the biggest problem, lack of Spectrum:
“Spectrum holds back Japan’s LTE
But Japanese operators do not yet have the spectrum they need to deploy LTE.
The KDDI spokesman explains that the operator cannot use its existing 3G spectrum in the 2 GHz frequency band for LTE because there is not enough of it. There is spectrum available for LTE at 1.5 GHz, but KDDI, along with DoCoMo and Softbank, is waiting for the Japanese regulator to decide who can use how much of this spectrum, according to the spokesman.
Another LTE spectrum option in the country will be in the 800 MHz band, which will be made available by 2010 as cable operators switch from analog to digital TV transmission.”
