A Journey to the Levant
Yet another awful commercial from UQ WiMAX has arrived. This time, they outdid themselves, by using a cat which has a very successful Youtube channel.
See below UQ WiMAX Commercial, asking if the cat will manage to go into the box, then asking if your Laptop has WiMAX. (Did I mention this commercial is BAD?)
And a sample cat video from mugumogu channel:
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.
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).
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
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
It always amazes me how a webpage can look so wrong, but still deployed for everyone to see.
Something wrong with WiMAX Forum website:
Airspan (formerly AIRN) has previously announced a voluntarily de-list from NASDAQ.
Therefore, I was a bit surprised to read about the 1-15 reverse stock split and the new ticker : AIRO.
Change of ticker, change of luck.
With this new funding, we believe that Airspan will be well positioned to weather the current economic downturn and to benefit from some of the current initiatives in our industry. After a long process wherein we looked at many strategic alternatives, we believe the new funding from Oak Partners represents the best path forward for Airspan and our stakeholders.
Good luck!
WiNetworks was founded in 2004, received investments of about $28 Millions according to Globes, or $40 Millions according to TheMarker. RuggedCom is expected to pay $14 Millions, of which $5 Millions will go to cover WiNetworks debts.
Thinking very hard what I can write about WiNetwork:
No need to speculate anymore.
In another twist in our plot, Airspan announces yet another preferred stock sale to Oak Investment Partners.
Neither Axxcelera nor Gilat managed to reach an agreement.
The press release explained the process:
Before entering into the Purchase Agreement with Oak, the Company conducted an extensive and lengthy strategic review process overseen by a special committee of independent directors, which retained Stephens Inc. as its financial advisor in February 2009 to assist with the process. While extensive negotiations were undertaken with several parties, no agreements could be reached on terms acceptable to the Special Committee. Following the termination of discussions with one such party on August 10, 2009, Oak made the offer which, following approximately three weeks of negotiations between the parties, resulted in the execution and delivery of the Purchase Agreement on September 1, 2009.
And Airspan’s dire financial situation:
Without the new investment, the Company would deplete its cash resources in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Either Oak Investment partners believe in Airspan’s turnaround or think future negotiations will help them return their investment. It is also obvious that Airspan cannot maintain their current burn rate and in need of extreme measures to save the failing company.
Alvarion IR informed today that the board of directors named Eran Gorev (LinkedIn Profile) as the new CEO and president. Eran is currently the Chief Business Officer at NICE systems (another Israeli Company) and will assume day to day responsibility only in December.
I am sure Eran will face many challenges in his new role; I obviously wish him all the best, especially because we both graduated from the same high school (Eran is 6 years my senior).
Tzvika Friedman, the departing CEO, was probably not very effective in Q3, 09 while I doubt Eran Gorev will manage to change anything by end of Q4, 09. I wonder if this lack of leadership will affect the earning reports.