There will be an unprecedented number of amazing 4G related domain name going up for auction in early 2010 and if you are in this industry, you will NOT want to miss this.

With IEEE 802.16e WiMAX, license-exempt operators have access to the most
advanced wireless broadband technology on the market today and can take
advantage of the same performance, ecosystem, and volume of scale that
incumbent, nationwide wireless operators with licensed-spectrum can. 

While often positioned as a mobile broadband technology that operates in
licensed bands, 802.16e WiMAX can also support fixed and nomadic services, and
vertical applications in a range of frequencies up to 6 GHz, including
license-exempt bands such as the 5.x GHz band and, in the US, the lightly
licensed 3.65 GHz band.

As 802.16e WiMAX products for license-exempt bands are introduced in the market,
operators need to know what the value proposition of using 802.16e WiMAX
compared to alternative solutions is.  How do they stand to gain from a
technology that was developed to support mobility? Do they need the extra
features that 802.16e WiMAX offers?

Why choose 802.16e WiMAX-based equipment?

The appeal of 802.16e WiMAX-based equipment to wireless operators either serving
residential and business subscribers or hosting vertical applications is driven
by the ability of the technology to meet operators’ requirements, both from a
business model perspective and from a performance one. 

The strongest pull towards 802.16e WiMAX is that it is a technology with a well
established evolution roadmap, with strong industry backing and a rapidly
expanding ecosystem.  The 802.16e WiMAX has a path toward the next WiMAX
version, 802.16m, which 802.16d TDD WiMAX lacks.  Operators with 802.16e
WiMAX-based networks will be able to upgrade their infrastructure to 802.16m
WiMAX when the equipment becomes available.  Operators with 802.16d TDD
WiMAX do not have this opportunity, unless they are ready to build an overlay
network or entirely replace the old equipment with the new 802.16e one. 

With the introduction of 802.16e WiMAX-based equipment for use in license-exempt
bands, 802.16d TDD WiMAX is rapidly becoming a legacy technology, as it already
is in licensed bands.  Wireless operators that do not have a clear
migration path to 802.16e WiMAX are concerned that their vendors might cease
their development of new 802.16d TDD WiMAX-based products in favor of the newer
standard. 

The availability, selection, and cost of subscriber devices present even bigger
constraints as they depend on overall market size.  Operators using 802.16e
WiMAX-based equipment in license-exempt bands can take advantage of the
economies of scale achieved in licensed bands because vendors can modify the
existing network equipment and devices to operate in license-exempt bands. 
Furthermore, having launched commercial products in the licensed WiMAX bands
(i.e., 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, and 3.5 GHz), some vendors are expected to extend their
produce line to license-exempt bands rapidly. 

Support for mobility is another major appeal of 802.16e WiMAX, even though most
operators do not yet have specific plans on how to leverage it within the fixed
services they currently offer.  The prevailing attitude among operators is
that mobility is a nice-to-have feature that gives them additional flexibility
in how they market their services.  From a business model perspective,
operators in license-exempt bands have so far been focused on fixed services and
applications.  From a technology perspective, full mobility in
high-frequency license-exempt bands is very challenging. 

The interest from wireless operators and vertical market players is mostly tied
to the potential to offer nomadic access or limited mobility, which can be
easily tied to the service currently available as an add-on service.  The
ability to support mobile devices, for instance, may be valuable to subscribers
who just want to access the network from different locations, but not
necessarily within a fully mobile scenario.  A student with a laptop
needing to access a college WiMAX network will prefer a data card or built-in
module over a desktop modem.  As these types of applications do not require
blanket coverage of an entire region or country, they can be supported within
license-exempt bands within carefully chosen hot zones. 

Mobility will also enable operators to expand the range of services they offer
their vertical customers within their coverage area, and to include applications
that require, for instance, support for the mobile workforce or in-vehicle
connectivity (e.g., for safety and security, government, utilities, and
transportation applications).

Finally, 802.16e WiMAX-based equipment supports advanced functionality that is
conducive to improved performance compared to 802.16d WiMAX and other wireless
broadband technologies.  The spectral efficiency of the air interface in
the two versions of WiMAX in their basic configurations is comparable, but
several features that are available or required in 802.16e WiMAX are not
implemented in 802.16d TDD WiMAX equipment.  For instance, QoS is available
in both versions of WiMAX, but 802.16e WiMAX can provide better support for
voice services though an additional QoS level that makes it possible to
dynamically allocate capacity to voice traffic only when needed. 
Furthermore, 802.16m WiMAX is expected to provide enhanced voice support. 

Similarly, 802.16d WiMAX supports only multiple input multiple output (MIMO
Matrix) A as an option.  In 802.16e WiMAX, support for MIMO A-to provide
more robust coverage-and for MIMO B-to increase capacity-are part of the
standard.  MIMO A is especially attractive to rural operators because it
allows them to deploy fewer base stations to cover the same area.  MIMO A
also uses a diversity transmission scheme that helps operators to manage
interference.  MIMO B is better suited to operators in metropolitan areas,
where multipath environments, including indoor locations, dominate.

The use of subchannelization with orthogonal frequency division multiple access
(OFDMA) in 802.16e WiMAX also enhances coverage as terminal devices can receive
and transmit more efficiently than with other wireless interfaces.  Hybrid
automatic repeat request (ARQ) and convolutional turbo code (CTC) also provide
improved coverage, but they are not supported in 802.16d WiMAX. 

Finally, 802.16d WiMAX equipment today only supports channel widths up to 7 MHz,
while 802.16e WiMAX supports up to 10 MHz, and it is expected to reach 20 MHz
with 802.16m WiMAX.  The increase in channel size effectively lowers the
cost per bit to the operator, because each base station can transport more
traffic. 

Conclusions

802.16e WiMAX is rapidly becoming the technology of choice for wireless
operators, and not only for operating in licensed bands and with a strong focus
on mobility.  As they plan to expand their residential or business service,
or to grow their vertical market applications, wireless operators looking for a
future-proof technology find 802.16e WiMAX equally compelling for license-exempt
bands.  Equipment based on 802.16e WiMAX supports full mobile access, but
it also supports high-performance fixed networks. 

Thanks to the wide industry support for the 802.16e version of the standard,
operators using 802.16e WiMAX-based equipment will be able to rely on a stronger
ecosystem than available to 802.16d TDD WiMAX operators, which in turn will
translate into more robust interoperability and the availability of a wider
range of affordable subscriber devices. 

To download a full copy of the whitepaper including operator case studies

click here.

Monica Paolini is President of Senza Fili Consulting, a consulting and
analyst firm that focuses on wireless data technologies and services.  She
can be contacted at
monica.paolini@senzafiliconsulting.com. 

However several key factors have negatively impacted the growth rate, including
the LTE threat, the immaturity of the WiMAX certification process, the overall
network deployment delays, and the lack of compelling devices. 

The WiMAX subscriber station chipset ecosystem is acutely fragmented, with more
than 14 chipset vendors competing for market share.  This puts pressure on
vendors with insufficient customer traction, lacking funding or scale, or
offering only partial chipset solutions.  Several early movers who entered
the WiMAX market with fixed or Wave1 mobile solutions are now shipping Wave2
compliant chipsets, mainly composed of a base-band chip and a companion RF
transceiver IC.  However, most of the available chipsets are not highly
optimized because they were compelled to cover a broad range of application
segments.

The five key WiMAX chipset vendors have introduced differentiated chipset
solutions, enabling them to gain significant leadership in their target market
segments.  However, few players have the scale to effectively address all
segments and no global leader has emerged in 2009.

Similar to WiFi or 3GPP/3GPP2 platforms, WiMAX chipset vendors have leveraged
their first or second generations to further reduce chipset cost by migrating to
a smaller geometry process node and/or by introducing monolithic dies.  At
the same time, new packaging approaches such as System-in-Package and optimized
Bill Of Material have significantly reduced the footprint of the WiMAX platform,
allowing device manufacturers to launch a new generation of products that are
more appealing, more integrated, and that combine new standards such as 3G and
4G.

The new research report released by Maravedis in partnership with Reveal
Wireless entitled "WiMAX Wave2 Subscriber Station Chipset Vendors Competitive
Analysis" provides a detailed comparison of the key WiMAX chipset vendors,
identifies system architectures, estimates chipset and system BOM, cost of
available devices such as CPEs, USB dongles or Express Cards, and analyzes
vendor product roadmaps and SWOT.  The next challenge for most WiMAX
chipset vendors will be to find the right balance of R&D investments between a
transition to LTE, and a more integrated and cost effective path for their WiMAX
solution.

Maravedis and Reveal Wireless believe that WiMAX mass-market adoption requires
ubiquitous coverage and IOT mature, sub-US$10 chipsets that are power and
performance optimized for each application-specific segment.  Three chipset
vendors are best positioned to achieve the US$10 price target through base-band
and RF monolithic die integration in 65-nm.  Further, the WiMAX market is
not large enough to support 14 chipset vendors.  Consolidations, exits and
transitions toward LTE are expected in the next two years.

The new report also provides an in-depth analysis of key WiMAX chipset vendors. 
Here is a summary of some of the key findings:

Sequans has gained performance leadership mostly in the fixed market. 
Their whole Wave2 subscriber product line supports UL transmit diversity, which
can significantly reduce the cost and power dissipation of the PA subsystem,
while improving the uplink budget.  Their solution also supports UL MIMO
(Matrix A) operation.  They clearly lead the pack in terms of chipset cost
in 2009 thanks to a very aggressive baseband die-size in 90nm.  They were
the first to announce a 65-nm single-die BB+RF solution in Q1 2009, which should
replace their base-band and RF IC SiP gap filler by 2010 and enable them to
maintain their cost leadership.

Beceem has first mover advantage in most markets, with the exception of
the fixed market where Sequans still dominates.  Beceem was first on the
market with a Wave2 BB and RF chipset.  They have one of the most mature
Wave2 Protocol Stacks, which has enabled them to gain sockets with all the
leading mobile operators.  Their product portfolio is very broad, with
specific chipset for each segment, including a single-chip base-band and RF SiP
based on a 65-nm baseband die.  They were the first to introduce a
single-chip WiMAX VoIP Network-Processing-Unit SiP in 2008.

Intel demonstrated their BOM integration leadership by introducing a
complete dual-band WiMAX RF subsystem SiP that embeds the RF transceiver, PA,
filters, switch, and power management functions.  Intel dominates in the
embedded compute segment where they have leveraged their WiFi 11n leadership,
and the strength of their Centrino brand and ecosystem.  Intel was the
first to introduce a dual-mode WiMAX/WiFi 11n 1×2 chipset based on a WiMAX/WiFi
baseband SiP and a multi-band RF transceiver IC paired with a Front-End-Module.

GCT has been the most aggressive in terms of monolithic silicon
integration, using mature 130-nm CMOS process.  They were the first to
introduce a single-die base-band and RF solution, initially for the Wibro/Wave1
market.  Their solution is currently the only Wave2 single-die in
production; they have recently added the support of WiFi 11g.  GCT won the
WiMAX World power shootout and demonstrated low-power leadership in USB dongle
and PCIe minicard applications.

Samsung Electronics has not extended its reach outside of its internal
captive chipset market.  SEC provides chipset solutions only to the Samsung
device divisions, which have a strong presence in the portable and mobile
segments with products such as data cards/USB dongles, embedded mini-cards for
Samsung laptops, MIDs and handsets.

While Runcom is focusing on niche end-to-end markets and is no longer
considered as a player in mobile WiMAX, Tier2 players such as Wavesat, Comsys,
Altair, and Mediatek could emerge and potentially challenge the leading vendors
in some specific applications.  Wavesat is bringing its programmable PHY
solution to maturity and is gaining traction in Japan with PHS OFDMA evolutions
launched by Willcom.  Comsys has been targeting multi-mode mobile markets
with an integrated Edge/WiMAX baseband SoC, leveraging the maturity of their
2.5G modem and protocol stack.  Altair has demonstrated ultra low-power
SDIO solutions optimized for the mobile market.  Mediatek is gaining
traction in the fixed market and has the expertise to emerge as a low-cost
leader when the market matures.

Pascal Deriot, Senior Analyst & Partner, WiMAX & LTE Equipment at
Maravedis, has over 20 years of multidisciplinary experience in the mobile
handset business, including semiconductors, cellular phones, and wireless
technologies.  His experience encompasses cellular phone projects and
platform management, advanced purchasing, strategic and product marketing, as
well as business development.  As a co-founder of Reveal Wireless, Pascal
has strengthened his expertise in market intelligence, publishing WiMAX chipset
vendor competitive analyses.  Prior to founding Reveal Wireless, Pascal
held various roles at Nextwave Wireless, Texas Instruments, Spansion, Micron
technology, and Alcatel-Lucent.  Pascal holds a Master in Electronics
Engineering from Ecole d’Ingénieurs des Technologies de l’Information et du
Management, Paris.

About Maravedis

MARAVEDIS is a leading analyst firm focusing on disruptive technologies
including smart networks using WiMAX, IEEE, and 3GPP/LTE.  Maravedis works
with system and service providers, vendors, regulators, and institutional
investors.  Learn more at
www.maravedis-bwa.com

Earlier this year, we interviewed Sequans executives and moderated a panel
session in which they participated (see references 1 & 2 below).  In 2010, we expect to see the Sequans SQN 1200 family of
silicon to be embedded in new types of multi-functional WiMAX
CPE, portable WiFi hot spots with integrated WiMAX radios, netbooks and (at long
last) smart phones with WiMAX based mobile Internet access.  That’s a lot to look
forward to, but there’s also promise and potential for a whole lot more.

In fact, many new and different mobile WiMAX devices are possible, including
eReaders, smart meters, multi-user portable game players, video cameras and
surveillance, and health monitoring instruments.  If the components are low cost,
highly integrated functionality, low power consumption and small size, then the
ingredients for new such new devices are in place. 

However, the key to realizing
a wide variety of devices will be a combination of several factors that are
predominantly controlled by the network operator.  Those include WiMAX coverage,
pricing plans, and business models network operators adopt with content
providers.  For example, the mobile/ portable subscriber would like wide
coverage, excellent availability, good performance, but only one bill from the
network provider-independent of the number of wireless devices owned which use
the WiMAX network.  (See Reference 3.  for more details on possible
devices for mobile broadband networks.)

Sequans Silicon Solution for Mobile WiMAX CPE and Devices

Taking advantage of Moore’s Law (to realize ever higher silicon functional
density), in house RF and mixed signal expertise, and the ever- popular ARM
core, Sequans has pulled off a tri-fecta with its latest generation of WiMAX
silicon. 

The SQN 1220 integrates a baseband (IEEE 802.16e-2005 MAC and PHY)
element, tri-band RF (2.3 – 2.4 GHz, 2.5 – 2.7 GHz, 3.3 – 3.8 GHz)
module, and an (ARM based) applications processor- all on a single
silicon die.  To an old time data communications chip architect and
microprocessor applications engineer (like this author), it’s an amazing feat!
The mixed signal processing (digital and analog) capability is especially
impressive.  Additionally, the SQN1220 implements dual transmit channels, which
enable uplink MIMO (as specified in Release 1.5 of the WiMAX Forum system
profile).  As pointed out in our first Sequans article (see Reference 1.) uplink
MIMO results in significantly increased link budget, improved cell coverage,
lower overall power consumption, and lower system cost.

The on-chip applications processor could be used for a variety of tasks,
including: SIP for VoIP, IMS and FMC functions, IP routing over the WiMAX access
network, residential gateway, diagnostics and test functions, smart meter or
instrument reading and control, user interface for a LCD screen and/or keyboard,
device commands and status indicators.  Ultimately, it will be left to the
ingenuity of the device maker to specify the software functions to be
implemented on the on-chip processor.

The SQN1210 is a single die, baseband – RF combo chip without the applications
processor.  It is designed for the smallest of mobile devices, such as mobile
handsets, smart phones, MIDs, and netbooks.  It may be used with notebook PCs
through USB dongles or ExpressCards, or directly embedded in PCI Express
MiniCards or Half MiniCards.  Zyxel has announced their use of the SQN1210 in a
USB dongle- the ZyXEL MAX-507 USB.

Care has been taken to reduce power consumption, which is a critical factor for
all mobile devices.  The SQN1200 family employs the state-of-the-art power
reduction techniques to extend battery life.  Smart software algorithms optimize
resource management for additional power reduction improvements.  The SQN1220 and
SQN1210 consume less than 350 mW of power with fully loaded MIMO traffic and
less than 0.5 mW in standby.

Sequans’ S3MAX software package includes the complete IEEE 802.16e-2005
software stack and all drivers and host applications required for a WiMAX end
system.  Host software includes drivers for all major operating systems (Windows
XP, Vista, Windows CE, MAC OS, and Linux), Sequans’ own connection manager, a
supplicant engine for EAP authentication, a fully-fledged OMA-DM client, and a
field diagnostic tool.  S3MAX also provides a full simulation and verification
environment, which can be easily customized to address specific device maker
needs.

Sequans has sampled the SQN1210 and SQN1220 chips to more than a dozen device
manufacturers who are currently developing next-generation products using that
silicon.  A wide variety of WiMAX products are now in design: USB dongles,
embedded modules for notebooks/netbooks/CE devices, multimode cellular handsets,
portable hotspots, and WiMAX CPE.  Let’s now examine the functionality of a few
of those new products.

In addition to the customers who are actively developing new products, there is
another group of manufacturers evaluating the SQN1200 family chips.  This
number is more than a dozen and is increasing over time.  Sequans expects that many of
these will convert to the ‘active development’ category above once they
recognize the value of the integration we’ve done, the performance, the small
footprint, the low power consumption, the IOT maturity, other features and
benefits. 

In 2010, Sequans expects its silicon to be inside new WiMAX CPE and mobile
devices, to be sold by many different WiMAX network operators.  Those operators
include: UQ Communications (Japan), Packet 1 (Malaysia), Yota and Scartel
(Russia), Axtel (Mexico), Unwire (Australia), Korea Telecom (South Korea), Globe
(Phillipines), Clearwire and its MVNO partner companies (e.g.  Sprint, Comcast,
and TWC).

Let’s look at a few of the new WiMAX end point products expected next year.

Multi-function WiMAX CPE

Consider that most WiMAX deployments today are for fixed broadband access-
effectively a DSL or cable modem replacement.  The SQN 1220 can be exploited in
WiMAX CPE for that application, which includes VoIP as well as a WiMAX modem
with a USB or Ethernet interface to a desktop or notebook PC.  Up until now, VoIP
over WiMAX required multiple boxes and cables.  With VoIP integrated into WiMAX
CPE there is only one box you plug your phone and PC into. 

Craig Miller, Sequans Business Development and Marketing Manager, says that
there are "about a half dozen" customers working on this type of WiMAX CPE for
2010 commercial availability.  Some of those products are currently being tested
in certification labs at the WiMAX Forum and network operators, according to Mr. 
Miller.  Sequans says their SQN1220 solution enables the WiMAX industry’s lowest
cost WiMAX CPE.

Sequans has partnered with Hellosoft to provide a very compact and cost
effective VOIP/ WiMAX capability for CPE.  They have integrated the Hellosoft’s
VOIP media engine into the SQN1220.  According to Craig Miller, " It’s a proven
set of high quality voice codecs available to customers developing VoIP CPE, and
it is available as part of our development license – customers do not need to
negotiate a separate license with Hellosoft.  Our integration effort means that
customers have less software integration and test effort to perform on their
own.  This should reduce their time to market and their development costs.  And,
since these codecs execute on the embedded application processor in the SQN1220,
the VoIP solution is extremely low cost."

Sequans CEO Georges Karam: "With Hellosoft’s VOIP media engine solution, we are
reducing complexity for our customers by offering a pre-integrated,
pre-validated VoIP and Mobile WiMAX total solution.  Adding Hellosoft’s widely
accepted and high quality voice capability to our already highly integrated chip
underscores our commitment to providing the highest performance at the lowest
cost, and to moving WiMAX toward mass market acceptance."

Opinion:  While Vonage offers a VoIP service over any broadband
connection, it would be more attractive if the WiMAX network operator offered
VoIP over (fixed) WiMAX service.  We understand that Clearwire offers such a VoIP
over (fixed) WiMAX service in all of the nation-wide markets that they are
deploying.  We believe that VoIP will have huge growth outside the U.S.  and that VoIP over WiMAX will be a very viable service if the CPE and the tariff are
reasonably priced.

4G Personal WiFi Hot Spots

Best exemplified by Clearwire’s Clearspot (made by Cradle Point), a 4G personal
hot spot is a battery powered WiFi AP/Router that fits in a briefcase.  You can
connect your notebook PC, iPOD touch, iPhone (or other WiFi equipped smart
phone), and other WiFi enabled gadgets to this portable hot spot, as long as
they are within 15 to 20 meters away.

Cisco has announced its intention to make such a unit this year.  Sprint sells a MiFi hot spot that connects to its 3G- EVDO based network.

Currently, 4G personal hotspots use a USB connection to connect to an external
WiMAX modem (AKA as a USB dongle or WiMAX dongle).  But in 2010 we expect to see
the WiMAX modem functionality integrated into the hotspot.  Mr.  Miller states, "Sequans
has several customers developing integrated WiFi/WiMAX portable hot spots." We
think this is a great idea – for both portable and in-home use.

Smart Phones with embedded WiMAX

To date, the only commercially available WiMAX mobile phone we are aware of is
an HTC device sold by Yota in Russia.  That device uses an earlier generation of Sequans silicon (the SQN 1130).  While no other WiMAX equipped smart phones have
been announced, we believe that HTC and Samsung will introduce such devices in
2010.  Sequans says that they have a couple of customers developing smart phones
with their new generation of WiMAX chips.  Obviously, they can’t disclose names
or timeframes.

Opinion: T his author independently concludes that the HTC phone will use
the SQN 1210.  We have tried to confirm this with HTC but were told that they
don’t comment on unannounced products.  We think the Sprint tri-mode phone
scheduled for next year will be from Samsung, as that company already has
produced the Mondi MID that works on CLEAR.  Furthermore, we think that the
mobile WiMAX enabled phones will use either GSM or CDMA for voice, rather than
VoIP over WiMAX.  This is because there are several problems with mobile VoIP,
including QOS guarantees, session continuity and handover/ inter-working with
cellular voice and the PSTN (or other TDM based voice networks). 

Columbia University Professor Henning Schulzrinne says,"Session continuity
between WiFi and 3G doesn’t work, in general.  I think the WiMAX problem is made
worse by the fact that initial deployments are going to be pretty spotty, so
vertical hand-off becomes more important than for traditional cellular voice."

Summary

Sequans believes they’re leading the WiMAX industry in the direction of ‘mass
market’ status, in the same way as WiFi ramped up when highly integrated
components made low cost devices and embedded interfaces ubiquitous.  The SQN1200
family is so highly integrated that it has the potential to remove cost as a
barrier to growth and adoption by device manufacturers.  This capability is
perfectly timed now that WiMAX network operators are finally showing signs of
the kind of broad coverage that could represent a very significant market
opportunity for the device manufacturers.  Sequans’ Craig Miller, "We believe
that mass market WiMAX can be a real phenomenon now – all the pieces are in
place." And we can’t disagree. 

In our opinion, Sequans is providing very valuable silicon and software
technology to the rest of the WiMAX ecosystem.  It is now up to the network
operators and device makers to exploit that technology to build a healthy
business model and move mobile WiMAX forward toward mass-market status.

__________

References

If you want to find out how things should really work, try a new FREE tool from
AlphiMAX at www.alphimax.com/ptp. 
I only had to provide the coordinates for the two locations I wanted to connect
(there are several formats for doing that) and the planned heights of my towers. 
Then I hit "estimate" – and voila:

Within no more than 30 seconds I knew (without being an engineer or leaving my
seat) that my link would not work: there was something in my path.  I used
my mouse and changed the planned height of my tower by 20 feet by grabbing the
antenna on the drawn pole, hit "estimate" again and had the answer: my link
would now work.  Now I could choose from a long list of possible products
that had suitable capabilities for my planned link. 

I was also able to filter the results by manufacturer, antenna type, bandwidth,
or product family; compare vendor-capabilities; and select my specific domain in
the world (they actually use the product-parameters per region, taking relevant
regulations into account).  How cool is that?! Even though this tool may
not be fully accurate, I got a good idea of what my options were.  I could
even see how to point the antennas in azimuth and elevation, "hey Mike, did you
make sure to point the antenna on site A to 288.7 deg? And don’t get confused
with Magnetic, use True numbers, and don’t forget to up tilt it 0.9 degrees". 
I feel like a pro!

Now, what else would you need? Oh, let’s see if there are any details about the
link itself.  I click on one of the products and in the selected tab I see
all the information: link budget, part number, fade-margin, and more and more.

So far it seems that AlphiMAX has covered products in the unlicensed bands: 2.4,
4.5, 4.8, 4.9, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.8GHz, depending on the domain. 
Alphimax were able to do so since they chose to jump-start their tool with two
of the main wireless vendors: Motorola and Alvarion, both of which have a
variety of products in these bands.

And now for the fun part..I clicked the "Map View" button and my computer
downloaded and opened Google Earth.  The globe turned towards the location
I chose, my planned link was neatly placed on the map, and the two antennas were
showing on each of the planned sides.  By clicking on the various parts of
the map I could see my path (and in particular trees, buildings or lakes on the
way using the satellite view from Google), the link from each of the two sites,
and the antenna heights that I plugged into the tool earlier. 

The tool is provided at no charge when you register at the
AlphiMAX site.  For now, the tool
only includes Motorola and Alvarion products, but the company plans to add other
products in the near future.  With its easy to use interface and cool
graphics, I could see this being the go-to place for quick estimates on wireless
point-to-point links.

The potential is there?

As indicated in the table below, the BRIC countries represent almost half of the
world’s population and this will only increase in time.  However their
respective shares in t mobile and broadband penetration are lower than their
population weight should warrant, which indicates that there is still room for
growth.  The case of India is rather striking, as the country failed to
achieve its modest broadband policy objectives because of repeated delays in
modernizing a spectrum policy from a by gone era. 

Even if mobile penetration has made huge progress in the past 5 years, this
country, which is positioned as a world exporter of IT knowledge, has a shameful
1.5% of the world total broadband penetration share compared to its 17.6% of the
world population.  The actual country broadband penetration relative to its
own population is even lower, at less than 1%! China, Russia and Brazil have
done relatively better both in terms of mobile and broadband share of the world
total penetration relative to their population size, but these countries still
have a long way to go in terms of actual country broadband penetration.

Behind spectrum is a political battle

While it is clear that these countries represent a huge market opportunity, they
are also characterized by a rather messy regulatory environment that does not
foster confidence and discourages foreign investments.  In particular, I am
referring to the spectrum policy for broadband wireless access in these
countries.  With the exception of China, which has had a clear political
agenda to promote its homegrown TD-SCDMA technology, the other three countries
have followed a messy spectrum road for BWA in the recent years.

China has decided to allocate spectrum for 3G while essentially ignoring WiMAX
as a potential mobile technology, limiting it to the fixed arena in the 3.5GHz. 
There are no signs that the MIIT, the country’s Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology, is going to reverse that position.  On the
contrary, China, unlike many other countries, did not auction off its 3G
spectrum, nor did it allow its elected 3G operators to select the technology of
their choice, with the aim of building a strong home-installed base for TD-SCDMA. 
China continues to dictate its own agenda at its own pace for both 3G and the
expected LTE-TDD.

China’s refusal to release 2.3GH, 2.5GHz or more 3.5GHz spectrum for BWA and
WiMAX differs from the situation in the other BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia and
India, where regulators have been lacking a clear vision and a stance regarding
which technology can best help materialize that vision.  Instead, these
countries have been the battleground for lobbyists from the 2 opposing camps of
3G and WiMAX.  As a result of this political battle and influence on
regulators, spectrum availability has been repeatedly delayed and the rules for
services remained blurred, thus creating a climate of uncertainty for service
providers, equipment vendors and financiers about investing in broadband
networks and reviving sluggish broadband penetration.

The 3GPP camp champions 3G mobile standards (W-CDMA and CDMA 2000) as well as
LTE, while the WIMAX camp represented by the WIMAX Forum is essentially
championing 802.16e.  All countries have allocated 3G licenses, except for
India, which is scheduled to license both WiMAX and 3G spectrum in Q1 2010. 
The auction was originally scheduled to commence almost a year ago, but has been
subject to numerous delays including the Indian general elections last May. 
India aims to sell around four 3G licenses and three mobile broadband licenses
in 20 of the 22 telecom zones in the country. 

In the case of the 3G auction, the government has decided to auction up to 20
MHz of paired spectrum in the 2.1GHz band in the telecom service areas where 25
MHz or more paired spectrum is available.  In such cases, four blocks of
2×5 MHz will be auctioned, in addition to one block being reserved for BSNL and
MTNL (the two state-owned operators that have already been allocated spectrum). 
Not more than 1 block of 3G spectrum, 1 block of 800MHz spectrum or 1 block of
BWA spectrum is to be allocated to any single bidder within a service area.

In the case of Brazil and Russia, it is still not clear whether mobile services
can be provided with WiMAX.  Brazil still restricts the usage of 3.5GHz to
fixed only services, while in Russia mobile WIMAX operators are working in a
grey area as the country’s spectrum committee has yet to make clear rules
regarding what services will be allowed in the 2.5GHz frequency band.

The 3GPP camp’s PR and lobbying muscle is partly responsible for the delay and
messy spectrum situation in Brazil, Russia and India.  WiMAX supporters
feel they are denied access to huge markets for which WIMAX is well-suited
technology for fixed, portable and mobile applications.  In the meantime,
consumers and businesses in these countries can only wait and watch until a
winner emerges who will make broadband affordable and more widely available.

Adlane Fellah, Eng.  MBA is CEO and founder of
Maravedis Inc.  a world-leader
and pioneer in Broadband Wireless and WiMAX market research and analysis. 
He is a leading industry analyst and authored various landmark reports on WiMAX,
Broadband Wireless and Voice over IP (VoIP).  Mr.  Fellah is regularly
asked to speak at leading wireless events and to contribute to various
influential portals and magazines such as Telephony Magazine, WiMAX Trends,
WiMAX.com, to name a few.

Fellah is a member of the Program Advisory Board for the WiMAX World conference
since 2004 and an active member of the World Communications Association
International and the European Broadband Wireless Association.  Prior to
founding Maravedis, Fellah held various positions at Harris Corporation in
charge of market intelligence and business development for several product
lines.

What is Smart Grid?

The term "Smart Grid" means different things to different people, most using it
to their own advantage. But according to the United States Department of Energy
Modern Grid Initiative report, a modern smart grid must:

• Be able to heal itself
• Motivate consumers to actively participate in operations of the grid.
• Resist attack
• Provide higher quality power that will save money wasted from outages
• Accommodate all generation and storage options
• Enable electricity markets to flourish
• Run more efficiently

What is significant to the telecommunications industry is that most of these
require sophisticated communications networks in order to implement. In
particular, self-healing, consumer participation (including buying and selling
of electricity), and resisting attack are all integrally dependent on a
communications network overlay to the electrical grid.

In terms of what is going on in the utility business, Smart Grid sometimes
receive more marketing lip service than anything else. One utility
representative told me, "The same salesperson is coming in to sell me the same
thing as always, but now he says it’s part of Smart Grid."

This is one reason why Tuesday’s announcement was important. It is a significant
step toward reducing the hype and inaction, and toward implementing the vision.

What was Allocated


Last spring, the US Department of Energy began accepting requests for stimulus
dollars toward grid revitalization. Originally, there were to be three rounds of
funding, but the 400 requests were so overwhelming, the DOE decided to only
perform one award cycle. About 25% of the requests, covering 45 states and
territories, were granted, to the tune of $3.4B. Combining this with matching
spending by utilities and other private funds, the total commitment will exceed
$8B.

In announcing the awards, the Obama Administration outlined the following policy
goals and the related funding:

- Empowering Consumers to Save Energy and Cut Utility Bills – $1 billion.

- Making Electricity Distribution and Transmission More Efficient – $400
million.

- Integrating and Crosscutting Across Different "Smart" Components of a Smart
Grid – $2 billion.

- Building a Smart Grid Manufacturing Industry – $25 million.

The sexy part of this award is the first item, which pays for 18 million smart
meters (raising the U.S. total to 40 million, or 31% of all housing units). It
also covers one million in-home displays to help consumers monitor their energy
usage.

But to the telecommunications industry, the third item is more important, the
integration of components across the grid itself.

Going Beyond the Basics

The stimulus awards allow the electric industry to finally plant the pillars
upon which Smart Grid will be based. Certainly this is only a first step, but an
important one to an industry that is much more highly regulated than telecom –
and one funded in a vastly different way.

To the telecommunications industry, the excitement about Smart Grid isn’t about
smart meters, which are only a first step in two-way communication. (The
electric utility industry is years, even decades, behind what’s possible and
offered in the telecom industry). Where we’re really going with Smart Grid also
goes beyond in-home displays. When Smart Grid really starts to flower, it will
be capable of:

- Real-time rate (time-of-use) information delivered to the home, so that a home
energy decision-making computer can determine how to save money by turning off
appliances or even negotiating transactions to purchase from competing electric
providers.

- Two-way transactions to buy and sell energy. For example, consumers could sell
solar power or electric reserves from plug-in electric hybrid vehicles to energy
companies. In essence, the home becomes a power plant.

- More sophisticated fault management techniques.

All of these concepts hinge on communications networking. To achieve these more
advanced capabilities, though, utilities and consumers must start with a basic
Smart Grid that first gets the conversation going between the two entities.

An Avenue for WiMAX

There is a lot of discussion around the standards for Smart Grid, which goes
beyond the scope of this article. In short, standards will likely center on the
application data that flows between Smart Grid components – and its security.

This leaves plenty of room for transport options on the network, and for each
utility to decide the right networking for its needs. We can expect a mix of
private and public networks, and a mix of technologies. These decisions will be
driven by factors such as:

- Necessary security of the data – There is a lot of information that needs to
be secure, but there is also information that requires less security.

- Volume of data – The utility industry is bracing for the volume. Today,
metering typically consists of one-way monthly transactions of small amounts of
data. In the future, there will be a flood of data traveling both directions
over Smart Grid communications networks.

- Speed / latency – Quality of service and prioritization of data will be
important. These may drive different networking solutions, depending on data
types.

- Terrain and geography – An urban-based utility will have a different profile
than a rural cooperative.

These are just some of the many factors. As you can imagine, cost will be an
overriding factor in the discussion.

WiMAX is positioned to be well-suited to many of these needs. With its speed,
quality of service capabilities and security measures, WiMAX should be in the
mix as a telecom choice. Because the utilities in many cases will build their
own networks, there are green field opportunities that go beyond what the local
public cellular carriers might provide.

WiMAX vendors would do well to invest time and effort in studying Smart Grid
opportunities and learning how to take advantage, now that the pillars of Smart
Grid will be laid over the next few years.

Cecil Taylor is an independent consultant to companies in the telecom
industry, including the utilities and health care vertical markets. His
specialties include opportunity identification, strategic network architecture,
requirements planning and definition, and project management. Cecil can be
reached at networkedgrid@gmail.com

Despite the bleak economic conditions at the first of the year, operators are
starting to show signs of recovery with increases in subscribers and service
revenue growth.  This was based on analysis from
Maravedis and its 4G Counts service
that tracks 4G operator deployments and provides details on the 4G ecosystem
from over 200 operators in 92 countries.

The Maravedis webinar presented earlier in the week provided breakdowns of
network deployments, leading 4G operators, applications, usage and pricing.

According to the firm, approximately 560,000 BWA/WiMAX subscribers were added in
Q2 2009 – a 74% year-over-year growth rate since Q2 2008.  The total number
of BWA (broadband wireless access) and WiMAX subscribers was around 4 million at
the end of June 2009.

Based on their survey, 332, BWA/WiMAX networks had been deployed as of June 2009
of which 42% were for fixed WiMAX (802.16d) networks, 37% for mobile WiMAX
(802.16e) networks, and the remaining 21% for proprietary networks.  Also,
an additional 39 operators had committed to deploying LTE networks sometime in
the future.

The number of fixed WiMAX networks were hightest in Europe, while the most
mobile WiMAX networks were reported in the Asia/Pacific region.

Maravedis also presented the top 22 WiMAX operators Globaly in terms of the
number of subscribers.  Toping the list was Clearwire in the US with over
500K subscribers, followed by Inukshuk in Canada, Korea Telecom, and Telmex
International and Axtel in Mexico. 

Also interesting was the large amount of data usage reported by some operators
from their customers.  Both Tatung in Taiwan and Scartel in Russia reported
close to 10GB per month of usage by their subscribers, driving by unlimited data
plans and fixed rate pricing.

The webinar also highlighted some of the limitation and challenges faced by LTE
operators including lack of harmonized spectrum, delays in the availability of
LTE devices, interoperability/standardization and possible lack of funding
caused by the economic recession.

Also emphasized were the time-to-market and wide ecosystem advantages of WiMAX,
the strength of LTE with the support of the largest mobile players, and the need
for 3G operators to continue to address traffic growth on their networks.

The recent growth numbers are encouraging news for the industry and show the
demand for broadband, especially in emerging markets.  We expect that the
number of WiMAX subscribers in the next update of 4G Counts to increase
substantially with the inclusion of Russian WiMAX operator Yota which reportedly
reached 200,000 subscribers in early October, as well as Clearwire in the US
with its major market launches planned in Q4.
 

Sorry I don’t have the exec’s name — I came in late to the keynote panel — but
someone clearly from Sprint was asked about MIDs, and the reply wasn’t
encouraging. Though the Mondi is available from Clearwire in its current
markets, its high price — $449.99, not including any rate plan — was noted by
the Sprint exec as something that keeps wallets in pockets.

"With MIDs, when you take the price and then add rate plans, customers start to
get a little uncomfortable," said the Sprint exec on stage. "It’s just not a
scalable model to get a lot of traction." A few remarks later, the same exec
basically said that if device manufacturers want to get MIDs on WiMAX networks,
they may have to eat part of the costs to seed interest. "We [service providers]
aren’t going to accept all the risk," the Sprint exec said.

Zang! Tough words, but we pretty much agree with Sprint on the whole MID thing
– in our most recent CLEARWIRE NTK report for October 2009, we called the Mondi "an overly expensive,
somewhat confusing form-factor machine that wasn’t big enough to do ‘real’
laptop work, and didn’t contain a cellular link to make voice calls an easy
proposition." We also said the $450 list price was way too high for such an
esoteric device, especially compared to the $199 list price for the Apple iPhone
3GS. But that also means that Sprint isn’t going to stick its neck out on
unproven devices; remember, CEO Dan Hesse
dissed
Android just one short year ago. Unfortunately for WiMAX users, that means
more dongles and laptops.

There was more disappointment for developers hoping to hear more about the cool
things WiMAX might enable them to do — network APIs for attributes like
location-based services and QoS hooks are apparently still on the drawing board,
answers that prompted one twitterer in the
audience to note that Top Q&A response at dev conference is "its on the
roadmap." While we are bullish on things like the mobile
broadband routers (which we call
Pocketspots)
that Sprint has already launched, cool toys that exploit WiMAX’s attributes are
things we apparently won’t see until much later in 2010.

Or, as we said in our report: "Without a doubt, the coolest thing about WiMAX
is its ability to provide a true broadband connection with cellular mobility.
One of Clearwire’s biggest problems, however, is a lack of a compelling reason
to take advantage of that mobile connection — and the dearth of devices that
would allow you to even try."

Unfortunately, nothing we heard Tuesday changed our mind. The wait continues.
 

PAUL KAPUSTKA is the editor and founder of SIDECUT REPORTS, which recently
released its "Clearwire NTK" research report (which stands for Clearwire — Need
To Know), priced at just $4.95. You can order the report directly by following
this
link.