LTE Network commercially launched even in Republic of Tatarstan. India still struggling to launch 3G services

Russian WiMAX to LTE network operator, Yota has announced the launch of an LTE network in Kazan, capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan - having installed the citywide network in just two months. Yota has invested $20 million in building the Kazan network, which covers the city's whole population of over one million people with 147 base stations. Kazan is Russia's third city and host to the Universiade (the world university games) in 2013.

Since commercial launch only 14 months ago, Yota already has almost 600,000 customers and recently reported 2010 half-year results of US$66 million. Yota runs successful operations in Russia and Nicaragua and will soon launch its services across Belarus and Peru.

Is WiMAX out of 4G race ?

I found the recent reports on HSPA and WiMAX users data very interesting. Does the reports indicate that the WiMAX is out of 4G race ? Pl go thru -

As per the GSM Association reports - The number of live HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) connections will pass 150 million globally this summer, while according to a report published by Marvedis this week WiMAX has just 3.5 million users. This puts HSPA firmly ahead of other mobile broadband technologies.


As per Wireless Intelligence reports , EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) have 49.5 million HSPA users currently and almost 60 million predicted by the end of the summer. Asia-Pacific is a close second at 47.7 million subscribers and by the end of September will have over 56 million. The U.S. trails significantly, with about 32 million HSPA connections growing to perhaps 37 million by September, while the rest of the Americas will hit just over four million subscribers in the same time frame.

Why HSPA may be a prefered choice to operators -
HSPA is an attractive option for mobile operators as the technology allows operators to upgrade their existing 3G networks, often by simply upgrading the software. This gives HSPA a leg up over WiMAX, which requires new network infrastructure. Further, its performance rates are attractive, as well. HSPA download rates range from 3.6 Mbps to 14.4 Mbps, and a handful of operators are beginning to roll out 21 Mbps using HSPA+.

The GSMA reports that there are more than 300 upgraded networks across 127 countries. More than 1500 HSPA-enabled devices are on the market. Its rapid adoption — faster even than SMS — has led the organization to embrace HSPA as the dominant mobile broadband technology.

The report expects growth to continue at a rapid pace, predicting 200 million connections by the first quarter of 2010.

Clearwire pushing WiMAX in USA

Clearwire Communications is moving forward WiMAX deployment in the United States at a quick pace, announcing the latest launch of its mobile WiMAX service, CLEAR, in Las Vegas, Nev., just one month after its Atlanta, Ga. service rollout. The new service covers approximately 638 square miles, making WiMAX available to an estimated 1.7 million people.

Providing backhaul for the 4G service is Ciena Corporation. Motorola is the end-to-end system provider for this launch. In addition to providing 4G connectivity with wired and wireless modems operating in the 2.5 GHz frequency band, more than 300 cell sites in the Las Vegas area utilize the company's WAP 400 Diversity Access Point product.

Pricing options start at $20 per month for home Internet service or $30 per month for mobile Internet. Customers can purchase day passes for $10

QUALCOMM tests 20 Mb/s speed using HSPA+

As per telecomweb news Qualcomm has completed what is characterized as the "world's first data call" using High-Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) network technology, achieving a data transfer rate of more than 20 Mb/s in a 5 MHz channel.

The Qualcomm results were nearly twice as fast as the highest previously-reported HSPA+ results, in which Nokia-Siemens Networks demonstrated 10.1 Mb/s downlink performance. Both tests are highly significant in the positioning of HSPA+ as the interim generation between the current HSPA wireless broadband, typically delivering between 1 Mb/s and 2 Mb/s, and the eventual adoption of the much faster Long Term Evolution (LTE), with a theoretical 173 Mb/s bandwidth.

HSPA+, seen by many analysts as the technology which will destroy the market chances of IEEE 802.16e-2005 (which is being called by Intel and its camp followers mobile WiMAX), has a theoretical limit of 42 Mb/s in its current version, although most observers think it will top out at around 28.8 Mb/s. An advanced version that may double those specs is in the works. That, many feel, will be more than enough for HSPA/HSPA+ to be the dominant wireless broadband technology for the cellular industry until at least 2015

HSPA+, by the way, is also known s Evolved HSPA, HSPA Evolution, and I-HSPA or Internet HSPA. wireless broadband standard defined in 3GPP release 7.HSPA+, or whatever one calls it, is 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) Release 7. HSPA was Release 6, and LTE is Release 8.

WIMAX or LTE - Future tensed

WiMAX and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) are set to push the takeup of 4G services worldwide, with the total number of 4G subscribers w expected to exceed 90 million in 2013. As per says ABI Research, at the end of 4Q07, there were nearly 3.4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, with 2.7 billion on GSM/EDGE/GPRS networks. Worldwide WCDMA subscriber numbers hit 180 million in 4Q07. ABI Research expects migration to HSPA+ to begin in early 2010, and migration to LTE will start by the middle of the same year. ABI Research forecast the total number of WCDMA subscribers (including HSPA) to approach 720 million in 2013. Some operators may not be ready to move on to LTE, as the peak data rates of 100 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink are achievable only with a 20- megahertz spectrum band. That is a luxury that most operators may not have, and many may be content with the capabilities of HSPA+ or settle for suboptimal LTE data rates with whatever they have at the time.

While the long-term roadmap for CDMA2000, especially in relation to UMB, looks more uncertain, CDMA operators are taking advantage of current upgrade possibilities. As such, many carriers have upgraded portions of their networks to EV-DO Rev A during 2007 while new CDMA entrants start with Rev A. ABI Research expects the total number of CDMA2000 subscribers (including 1x and various versions of EV-DO) to approach 800 million by the end of 2013


What will drive WiMAX growth?

Sprint's so-far-challenged mobile WiMAX buildout and rumors of a potential investment by Intel in that network are signs suggesting DSL/cable replacement and not mobility will continue to propel WiMAX forward in the short term.
Last fall, Intel took a minority stake in Nexcom Bulgaria, a competitive telecom operator that's in the process of rolling out that country's first 802.16-based nationwide wireless broadband network using WiMAX Forum-certified hardware. A vendor paying substantial sums for deployment of its own technology at this stage of product development is a concern. The lack of substantial mobile WiMAX network deployments without the Intel investment is troubling. Fixed WiMAX markets will remain a key to vendors. Currently WiMAX revenues are experiencing brisk growth due to employment of the technology as a cable/DSL replacement, adding fixed WiMAX subscribers will nearly double annually during these next years and will account for more than 60 percent of WiMAX subscribers by year end 2013 as well as a multibillion-dollar equipment market.

Major carriers are poised next year to deploy HSPA+ which is an update to existing WCDMA platforms and which will also outperform WiMAX Wave 2 networks. In a few more years operators will also be able to deploy UMB and LTE which both offer substantial improvements over 802.16e.

WiMAX vendors are by no means out of the mobile race. The upcoming 802.16m specification will offer the WiMAX community another great shot at mobile wireless in the 2010-2012 timeframe when most operators will be looking ahead.

Is WIMAX wading through troubled waters?

Motorola is positioning itself to offer an out to any carrier that opts for a network based on IEEE 802.16e (WiMAX) as its 4G offering and later decides it made the wrong choice and should have waited for the rival Long Term Evolution (LTE).

It's also been disclosed that Alltel is on the verge of ditching CDMA, eschewing WiMAX and joining the LTE crowd, and it's apparently working hand-in-hand with Motorola's LTE effort, leaving Sprint even further isolated in its choice of WiMAX.

In a little-noticed statement, Motorola said it's readying a wireless broadband platform that supports both WiMAX and LTE evolved Node-B (LTE/eNodeB) - the first such piece of hardware hinted at by anyone in the industry. The move will let carriers that take the WiMAX plunge to move to LTE (LTE advocates would say "upgrade to LTE") at some point in the future at a massively reduced capex.

Motorola didn't mention the name of any carriers it's targeting. However, in the United States, the only cellular carrier committed to what it calls WiMAX is Sprint, with its troubled Xohm program. Motorola is a key Sprint Xohm supplier with its IEEE 802.16e-based hardware (none of which has yet been certified as meeting WiMAX Forum specifications).

Motorola's WiMAX-to-LTE release was both buried in the pile of announcements Motorola has planned for next week's huge CTIA Wireless 2008 show in Las Vegas and vastly overshadowed by the company's announcement of its decision to split itself asunder, creating two separate public owned entities, in a desperate attempt to salvage its cellular handset business. The WiMAX/LTE hardware comes from the half of Motorola that's been making money hand over fist and growing at a healthy clip, and thus appears destined to survive no matter what the fate of the money-losing handset unit.

In related news, Motorola says it's demonstrated the first successful packet-switched network handoff between CDMA EV-DO Rev-A and LTE. The demo encompassed both VoIP calls and streaming video. Motorola, which is going to hold live demonstrations of the handoff next week, says laptops and mobile devices are equipped with dual radio transceivers that support both CDMA/EV-DO Rev-A and LTE and are active during the packet handoffs. As a device loses LTE connectivity, it automatically switches to EV-DO to help ensure consistent streaming without dropping IP packets. The process is then reversed, and devices switch back to LTE when LTE connectivity is restored.

Motorola's target market is obvious: every CDMA carrier in the world, starting with Verizon, which already has disclosed plans to migrate from CDMA to LTE Motorola is taking part in LTE trials set for later this year by Verizon and Vodafone, which owns 40 percent of Verizon Wireless. It now also appears Alltel is close to making the same decision.

At this point, Motorola's CDMA-to-LTE (and back again) technology is just at the demonstration stage, and it didn't give any timetable for having product ready for market, hardly a surprise because initial LTE deployments aren't expected until sometime late next year.

In other Motorola LTE action, the company joined the LTE/System Architecture Evolution (SAE) Trial Initiative (LSTI). Motorola's success in getting a foot in the door at Verizon/Vodafone was said to be a major factor in that decision. The LSTI is a global, collaborative technology trial initiative focused on accelerating the availability of commercial and interoperable next generation LTE mobile broadband systems. It was formally launched in May 2007 by Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Orange, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Since its inception, LSTI has expanded to include China Mobile, Huawei, LG Electronics, NTT DoCoMo, NXP, Samsung, Signalion, Telecom Italia, Qualcomm, ZTE, Rohde and Schwarz, and now Motorola.


WIMAX struggling to get foothold!!

Buzz Broadband, which a year ago became one of the first carriers in the world to offer service using WiMAX Forum-certified hardware, says WiMAX has "failed miserably." Consequently, the Australian carrier has pulled the plug on its network.
Buzz CEO Garth Freeman shocked the audience at a WiMAX conference during a presentation in which he blasted the technology as being incapable of delivering the service promised and "mired in opportunistic hype." Despite those promises, he reportedly said, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) performance was "non-existent" beyond just two kilometers from the base station, indoor performance decayed at just 400 meters and latency rates reached as high as 1,000 milliseconds - making WiMAX unusable for VoIP. Because Buzz's business plan depends heavily on VoIP sales, that's a critical issue.

Freeman, saying his company has ditched its WiMAX gear and is replacing it with other wireless technologies -- TD-CDMA and wireless DOCSIS -- added that most WiMAX deployments were still in trials, that the technology is mainly being looked at by start-up carriers and that it's supported by what he termed "second-tier vendors."
Needless to say, the remarks have gotten Airspan, which supplied Buzz with its gear, more than slightly upset. Airspan too has something to say - Among the charges is that Buzz opted for Airspan's "Micro" base station, which has a known shorter range, rather than shelling out for the more expensive "Macro" base stations. Also being brought into question is the adequacy of Buzz's own backhaul network, both in terms of quality of service (QoS) and capacity to carry such traffic as VoIP. That would put the blame for poor VoIP on the backhaul system, rather than on WiMAX.

Other WiMAX supporters also are chiming in with a range of theories, starting with one everyone knows: that "fixed WiMAX" using 3.5 GHz spectrum (which is what Buzz was using) doesn't have good NLOS performance. Rather, the argument goes, 2.5 GHz "mobile WiMAX" solves that problem. Mobile WiMAX is the trade name for the technology most people expect Sprint will use for its Xohm wireless broadband project.

In another development that gave a blow to WIMAX reputation, bankrupt Canadian WiMAX pioneer SR Telecom is being sold at a blue light special bargain price of just $6 million, in a deal that will leave current shareholders in the publicly traded company with zero value for their equity - not that its worth much now at less than a penny a share.

SR Telecom is one of only 13 companies in the world that actually has certified WiMAX products - despite the marketing claims of dozens of other companies. But that hasn't helped the Canadian wireless broadband pioneer, which bet its future on WiMAX and now has lost.

But presently NSN has an EDGE

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has taken the wraps off a planned upgrade it says will double the data download bandwidth of EDGE technology handsets this year, leading to quadruple speed in the near-distant future. The size of wireless broadband bandwidth is a sore point, with users looking for ever-bigger pipes to handle emerging applications. Nokia Siemens' move keeps the EDGE technology viable for what could be years into the future, perhaps in some places forestalling 3G and filling in until the GSM market evolves into the massively faster Long Term Evolution (LTE).

A Nokia Siemens announcement now, even though it won't be ready to deliver the EDGE upgrade until the third quarter, also is thought to be a pre-emptive move to blunt Ericsson's recently disclosed plans to introduce similar capabilities by 2009. Ericsson would dearly love to steal away as much of market-leading Nokia Siemens' customer base as it can; NSN claims a GSM/EDGE installed base of 260 operator networks in 117 countries, with a total of more than 1.5 billion subscribers.

NSN says its speed upgrade is a "Dual Carrier EDGE" solution that offers double data speeds of as much as 592 Kb/s to existing EDGE-capable GSM networks. The upgrade is to software and firmware, with no hardware trade-outs needed. It's believed most current EDGE-capable handsets, including notably the iPhone, can be upgraded to the new speed, although it's not clear whether older model phones will be capable.

The jump to 592 Kb/s will be followed by what NSN called "the next substantial step, the so-called EGPRS 2," which will offer downlink speeds of as much as 1.2 Mb/s and will double uplink speed to up to 473 Kb/s, thus quadrupling the capabilities of those currently offered by EDGE networks.

By 2015, NSN expect to live in a broadband IP world with five billion people 'always on' and, therefore, NSN is committed to protecting customer investments and continue to implement leading EDGE technology. Dual-carrier software upgrade is an easy and extremely cost-efficient step to bring broadband user experience to GSM/EDGE networks.

Battle won for Wimax - ITU Accepts IEEE 802.16 as a 3G Standard

The IEEE 802.16 has been accepted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as the sixth technology that it has accepted as a 3G wireless standard. The move has caused celebration in both the WiMAX and WiBro communities - both of which are based on 802.16 variations.
WiMAX/WiBro/802.16 join rival technologies W-CDMA, CDMA-2000 and TD -SCDMA in the ITU's IMT-2000 3G spectrum standard.
Technically the ITU has accepted what it has termed "IMT-2000 OFDMA TDD WMAN," a specification "based on a normative reference to IEEE Std 802.16. In other words, IEEE Std 802.16 is now part of the IMT-2000 family. WMAN, is short for "wireless metropolitan area network," which is the real name for 802.16, as set by the IEEE. Put another way, the ITU didn't accept WiMAX. It accepted WMAN. WiMAX, as defined by the WiMAX Forum, is "based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard.
South Korea's WiBRO is a mobile form wireless broadband also based on 802.16 and that may even some day be compatible with what's emerging as mobile WiMAX.
Indeed, even Ambassador Richard M. Russell, the U.S. Representative to the World
Qualcomm has fought hard to keep 802.16 away from ITU acceptance whereas Intel has spent a large fortune promoting the technology so that it could break what it sees as Qualcomm's stranglehold on 3G.
One little caveat in the ITU action that at least some observers noted is that what the ITU approved was 802.16 as a Time Division Duplex (TDD) technology. That's fine for the attempt to craft a mobile WiMAX, which is based on TDD. However, the ITU didn't accept 802.16 for use in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) bands, which account for an estimated 80 percent or more of all the licensed frequencies in the world.
On the other hand, the ITU approval specified OFDMA - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access - the first time the ITU's done that. Many in the industry believe OFDMA will be a key technology included in the standardization of 4G wireless technology.

New standard for WiMAX unveiled

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) and the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) has recently released their proposed Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) standard, the technology they hope will trump the mobile iterations of IEEE 802.16e-2005 (so-called mobile WiMAX) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as the world's eventual 4G standard.
The proposal now needs to undergo final standardization, which backers predict will be a rapid process. In the United States, UMB is scheduled to emerge as Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) standard TIA-1121.
The UMB proposal is an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) solution that uses
- "sophisticated" control and signaling mechanisms;
- radio resource management (RRM);
- adaptive reverse link (RL) interference management; and
- such advanced antenna techniques as Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) and beamforming.

It supports inter-technology handoffs and seamless operation with existing CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO systems. It claims to be able to deliver both high-capacity voice and broadband data in all environments, including fixed, pedestrian and fully mobile in excess of 300 km/hr. It supports, proponents say, as many as 1,000 simultaneous VoIP users within a single sector, using 20 megahertz of bandwidth. Average latency is 14.3 mSec over-the-air to support VoIP, push-to-talk and other delay-sensitive applications with minimal jitter.
The unveiling of the UMB proposal, an IP-based mobile broadband standard alleged to enable peak download data rates of 288 Mb/s in a 20-megahertz bandwidth, is clearly evidence that a 4G technology potentially four times as fast as mobile WiMAX is almost market-ready. The CDG and 3GPP2 estimate initial commercial availability at the first half of 2009, and they clearly hope to convince carriers looking at 802.16 to instead wait just a little longer what the CDG fancies is a technology that will "leapfrog other wireless broadband technologies to become the leading standard adopted for next generation mobile telecommunications."
And, of course, all the players - including UMB, LTE and the mobile WiMAX camp - are in a death match for designation as the official definition of wireless 4G technology. That definition won't be released until the 2008/09 timeframe, in the form of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) IMT-Advanced requirements. However, some folks, like those at research house In-Stat, also think initial implementations of LTE, UMB and 802.16 WiMAX may fall short of throughput and other expectations, with later enhancements or even some type of technology combination actually bringing real 4G to the table But that's not what the corporate backers of each of the technologies really wants (Qualcomm is behind UMB, which it considers a member of the CDMA 2000 family; Ericsson is touting LTE; and Intel has spent uncounted millions singing the glories of WiMAX). Each wants its technology to be "the one" - thus the faster the push to get UMB at least certified as a TIA standard before the ITU acts, the better to compete with the fact there is an IEEE designation for the foundation technology behind what is being called WiMAX (without, interestingly, the official permission of the IEEE).
"It is expected that the UMB specification will be quickly converted into an official global standard by the 3GPP2 organizational partners," the 3GPP2 said in its statement unveiling the final UMB proposal. It also noted that those "organization partners" include the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) in Japan, China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), TIA in North America, the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) in South Korea and the Telecommunications Technology Committee (TTC) in Japan.

Mobile WiMax will connect 8 percent of world's 1.1 billion mobile broadband subscribers by 2012 !!!

According to new research from Parks Associates - Mobile WiMax will connect 8 percent of the world's 1.1 billion mobile broadband subscribers by 2012, accounting for nearly 88 million users worldwide, The firm also forecasts 52 percent of these subscribers will be from Asian countries, while North and South America will account for another 28 percent.
Today, most existing WiMAX deployments are the province of aspiring start-up service providers or incumbent telecom carriers looking to fill coverage gaps. The imminent availability of commercial products and increasing availability of spectrum around the world will change the market for Mobile WiMAX and make it viable among major service providers. Taiwan alone will have 8 million Mobile WiMAX subscribers by 2012.
Approximately 160 million cellular subscribers (6 percent of all cellular subscribers) were using a mobile broadband service at the end of 2006, Parks adds. Two-thirds of these mobile broadband subscribers used UMTS technology, and the remainder used CDMA EV-DO.
"Both Mobile WiMAX and UMTS/HSDPA technologies will gain market share in the next several years, at the expense of CDMA EVDO," Cai says. "TD-SCDMA will also have a meaningful market share due to its strong foothold in China, the largest mobile market in the world."

VSNL rolls out WiMax services in Bangalore

The Tata-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) has rolled out WiMax services in India. To begin with, the global communications company will offer the services to enterprise customers in Bangalore. VSNL will extend its WiMax network to about 120 cities across India for enterprise customers and in five cities for retail customers by the end of this financial year. A number of companies from sectors like retail, financial services and automobiles are using VSNL’s Wimax services. VSNL has launched WiMax after conducting pilots in Bangalore and other locations VSNL is also the leader in the Wi-Fi space, with nearly 300 public hotspots in India. Among operators, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is also planning to launch WiMax services very soon, having undertaken pilots at 14 locations. While Motorola as well as Nortel are offering equipment for WiMax, Alcatel-Lucent has completed the country’s first live WiMax field trial using Aircel’s licensed spectrum. WiMax also allows applications in moving conditions such as video streaming, high-speed file downloads, voice over IP and web browsing.

Wimax subscriber base grew by 85% in 2007

According to research firm Maravedis, increased global deployments of WiMAX technology has lead to an 85% spike in subscribers and a corresponding growth in service revenue . The main findings of research are -

* 52% of the deployments still used proprietary equipment, 36% applied the 802.16-2004 standard, and 12% applied wave 1 802.16-2005 standard.
* United States, Spain and Australia were the top 3 countries in number of subscribers. In Q1 2007, they accounted for 0.5 million BWA/WiMAX subscribers.
* APAC accounted for 38% of deployments, Europe 33%, North America 17%, and CALA 13%.
WiMAX service revenues in 2006 totaled US$322 million, with recorded ARPUs of US$40.76 and US$145.54 for residential and business subscribers, respectively.
* The split by subscriber type operators was 58% residential and 42% business.
APAC operators offer higher speeds compared to other regions, yet APAC has the lowest ARPU at US$30.45 for residential.
*The price difference between WiMAX and DSL tends to be narrow, which tends to negate price as a factor for potential customers.

WiMAX market in India is warming up!

Reliance Communications (RCOM) is all set to launch its wireless broadband technology commonly known as WiMax in Pune and Bangalore in June. After assessing the market response, the company will extend the WiMax service to other cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Delhi. The move that targets the three million wireless internet users in the country, is expected to give first-mover advantage to the company. It is said that Bharti Airtel, VSNL and BSNL have also tested the new technology and planning to roll out in the near future. In India, WiMax has been launched by Aircel Cellular in Chennai for business customers.

The news comes when the global WiMax Forum has sought the Indian government’s support in its endeavour towards getting the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to include WiMax as part of International Mobile Communications – 2000 (IMT-2000) standards. The Indian cellular operators have, however, opposed the move and said that the DoT must not support the forum’s proposal until further details such as compatibility and interference issues with regard to WiMax are available. IMT-2000 is the global standard for third generation (3G) wireless communications as defined by the International Telecommunication Union. It has defined five standards which are followed globally for 3G services. In January 2007, a proposed sixth standard (WiMax) was submitted into ITU by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and supported by the WiMax Forum.

Ericsson all set to dominate the wireless broadband market

Ericsson has launched close to a hundred HSPA networks across the world. HSPA has been established as the preferred technology for mobility and wireless broadband.
With some 125 HSPA enabled devices, including some 50 HSPA mobile phone models, Ericsson is today managing networks with more than 100 million subscribers.

5 Gbps transmission rate tested in 4G by DoCoMo

NTT DoCoMo announced Friday (9th Feb 07) that it achieved a maximum packet transmission rate of approximately 5Gbps in the downlink using 100MHz frequency bandwidth to a mobile station. .The field experiment of fourth-generation (4G) radio access took place in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on December 25, 2006.
DoCoMo has already tested a maximum speed of 2.5Gbps on December 14, 2005.
The 5 Gbps speed was achieved by increasing the number of MIMO transmitting and receiving antennas from six to 12 each, and by using proprietary received signal processing technology.As compared with the December 14, 2005 test, the frequency spectrum efficiency, or the ratio of data transmission rate to channel bandwidth, was also doubled from 25bps/Hz to 50bps/Hz (5Gbps/100MHz).
The caveate as of now is that the test was done for mobile station moving only at speed fo 10km/h

Does WiMAX has a big future?

I have been writing on this blog about the growth of WiMax and have given lot of latest figures on no. of WiMAX users. But a recent major analytical study has concluded that, despite all the hype, the technology being marketed as WiMAX is going to be just a niche player in the mobile wireless market over the next half decade. I would like to hear your comments on this -
The latest study, by Arthur D. Little, compares High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and WiMAX, and concludes WiMax will capture "at most 15 percent of this network equipment market and perhaps 10 percent of mobile broadband wireless subscribers by 2011-2012."
Other research houses including Strategy Analytics, which recently estimated that WiMAX would win at best 6 percent of the world market by 2010, also have similiar opinions. The findings of study are based on interviews with 31 HSPA and WiMax equipment vendors, operators running the networks, government regulators and financial investors around the globe.
"The momentum in HSDPA deployments has been stimulated by competition from other broadband wireless technologies and by the prospect of competition from mobile WiMax," says Michael Natusch, head of Arthur D. Little's UK TIME (Telecoms, IT, Media and Electronics) practice. "However, there is as yet no convincing real-world evidence of the actual relative performances of these technologies in large scale deployments. Nevertheless, it is likely that these two technologies will achieve comparable levels of performance in typical real-world situations, contrary to the notion that mobile WiMax should be regarded as a 'killer' technology."
In mobile WiMAX's favor, Little in its study does note that "WiMax systems are expected to achieve significantly greater theoretical peak data transfer rates when deployed than today's commercial HSPA networks deliver now." It cites thoretical speeds of 16.8 Mb/s in urban areas compared to 2-3 Mb/s for HSPA. A bigger issue, though, it says is that "the coverage a WiMax base station can achieve, is substantially lower than HSPA, hence HSPA operators will be able to deploy a smaller number of base stations and sites to cover the same geography." The result is that "radio access network Capex for current WiMax technology can significantly exceed HSDPA capex."
That issue may be a WiMAX-killer, because "an HSPA operator will be able to match its growing investment more clearly to the development of demand than mobile WiMax operators who will have to install more cell sites at the beginning to ensure coverage."
Looking further out into the future, and the battle between Mobile WiMAX advocates the HSPA community and its 3G LTE, Little isn't making any solid predictions. "The long term future relative roles of 3G LTE and mobile WiMax, both of which face major development hurdles before they achieve the full promise of new, so-called 4G systems, is uncertain and will be influenced by continuing expected shifts in the priorities and competitive alignments of major players in the wireless industry which has undergone a number of consolidations in recent months," Little concludes.

Source - Telecomweb

265 million wireless users in India by 2010

India's adoption of wireless communications is moving faster than anticipated, with predictions spiking to more than 265 million users by 2010 from more than 100 million today.
According to research firm In-Stat, the subcontinent's wireless carriers will continue to rake in profits, even though Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) levels have declined significantly and that downward trend is expected to continue, due to intense competition. The list of rivals includes Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Reliance, Hutchison and Idea Cellular (which is shopping its IPO around . Combined, these players accounted for about 84 percent of the subscriber base in 2005. The company says ARPU in India is one of the lowest in the world and could fall to $5.60 by 2010.

Source - Telecomweb

Future of Wi-Fi in India

The Wi-Fi Alliance, in partnership with Tonse Telecom, released a 60-page report "The Future for Wi-Fi in India: Opportunities and Challenges," outlining the emerging Wi-Fi ecosystem in India. The group predicts that as laptop adoption and broadband penetration increase, Wi-Fi will experience the wide adoption already seen in other markets.
Key findings in the paper include:
>>As broadband wireless access grows, the WLAN network gear sector will exceed $275 million by 2012 (not including embedded chips), up from the current $23.1 million.
>>The combined Wi-Fi market (described as consisting of WLAN networking gear, systems integration and professional services but not including embedded devices and laptops) is expected to exceed $744 million by 2012 (CAGR of more than 61 percent).
>>Hybrid Wi-Fi and WiMAX deployments are bringing broadband connectivity to previously unconnected rural and urban areas alike.
>>Dual-mode Wi-Fi /cellular handsets show promise for bringing higher-throughput Internet connectivity to numerous Indian citizens who don't own computers.

New frontiers - Broadband over Power-lines

Broadband over Power Lines, also known as the "third wire" for delivering broadband communications to users, has been gaining traction on a global basis. Since, more than 100 trials in 40 different countries worldwide have confirmed the viability of BPL technology, and visiongain sees the technology building momentum. Find out what market impact BPL will have by buying this latest visiongain report, "Broadband over Power line: Challenging existing broadband dynamics".
One of the advantages offered by BPL is that the technology will help stimulate new competitive market dynamics by introducing a new means of broadband access that does not require the building of an entirely new infrastructure.

BPL has been hampered by concerns over interference and the lack of standards necessary to drive it forward. But recent developments point to these problems being resolved. Visiongain believes the questions of BPL-caused RF interference have recently begun to be answered satisfactorily. Further, movements by various global standards bodies promises to boost the market.

The ubiquity of electric power lines as the means of providing access to the Internet is of particular benefit in rural areas, where the biggest promise lies for BPL. But visiongain warns that unless governments are willing to subsidise the substantial infrastructure costs required to enable a BPL system, the technology of providing broadband access over power lines may not be economically viable in these areas.
In urban areas, BPL's timing is critical, because it must compete in a very competitive marketplace, one in which legacy players have not only established a firm foothold, but are beginning to offer triple-play services, giving them differentiation and a competitive advantage. For BPL to succeed, it needs either a significant difference in service or price between BPL and existing broadband methods.

Source electronics.ca publications

WiMAX market picking-up

WiMAX has captured significant attention in the marketplace. Investors, service providers and regulators show interest in the opportunities that the technology creates for offering fixed, nomadic, and ultimately mobile broadband services. WiMAX is emerging from a legacy broadband wireless market that consisted of proprietary and, more recently, standardized fixed services (IEEE 802.16.2004) into one that offers a standardized mobile-capable technology based on the IEEE 802.16e or equivalently the 802.16.2005 standard. Companies such as Intel promote WiMAX, aiming to couple it with Wi-Fi and embed the technology in consumer electronics devices.Globally, there is significant WiMAX licensing activity, with the lion’s share of spectrum being allocated in the 3.5-GHz bands. Much of the activity is occurring in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and part of Asia-Pacific. Debate continues regarding WiMAX licensing in markets such as China and India, but mature markets such as Korea are focused on the early adoption of mobile WiMAX technology under Wireless Broadband (WiBro), which is touted as a early market profile of 802.16e technology. In North America, Sprint’s announcement to aggressively roll out mobile WiMAX (802.16e) has bolstered overall industry confidence in the future of WiMAX in mature markets. As with Korea Telecom, Sprint plans to capitalize on mobile WiMAX technology with the goal of proliferating broadband services on consumer electronic devices.WiMAX subscribers will increase worldwide from 3.40 million to 27 million between 2006 and 2011. This forecast includes both 802.16e, and pre-802.16e subscribers, which use proprietary broadband and wireless access and 802.16.2004 technologies. By 2011, of the total number of WiMAX subscribers, 25.10 million will be using 802.16e.International network infrastructure investments for WiMAX will increase from $550 million in 2006 to $3.90 billion in 2010 as service provider deployments accelerate. The network implementations of WiMAX will differ from those of traditional telecom networks, with the differences being low-cost, IP-centric transport architectures and a design emphasis on the delivery of media and applications as opposed to traditional communications

Source - Marketresearch.com

Multi-billion-dollar investment plans in Indian booming telecom market

Indian phone giant Bharti and Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson announced investments totalling 2.5 billion dollars in India's "phenomenally" fast-growing telephone market.
Bharti Airtel, India's largest private phone company, invested two billion dollars in the financial year 2006-07 and "plans a similar investment in 2007-2008," mostly targeting rural areas, a Bharti spokesman said.
Ericsson, meanwhile, said it would invest 500 million dollars over the next five years in India -- and possibly more -- to exploit growth in the sector.
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"We will be investing 100 million dollars annually for the next five years," Mats Granryd, managing director of Ericsson India, said on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi.
"The figure could go up depending upon the growth in the sector," he said. "This (market) is growing phenomenally and I do not see an end to it."
The investment announcements came days after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said the total number of telephone subscribers in India had hit 189.9 million, of which 149.5 million were mobile customers.
Teledensity -- the number of telephones per 100 people -- rose to 17.16 in December 2006, from 11.43 in the same month in 2005, the agency said.
"There was a steep growth of 50 percent in teledensity in 2006" and "an almost 100 percent increase in teledensity since 2004,"
India added 6.48 million new mobile subscribers in December, making it one of the world's fastest-growing mobile markets.
"India's mobile subscriber base is increasing phenomenally every year -- one customer is added every second"By 2010, India will have more than 500 million mobile subscribers from the current base,"

Indian Telecom Market - Status as on Dec 2006

The Indian telecom market growth is accelarating. please look at the following figures
- 6.48 million Wirless Subscribers added in December 2006.
- Yearly subscribers growth reaches new milestone.
- More than 65 million telephony subscribers added in 2006
The wireless segment added 6.48 million subscribers during
December 2006 as compared to 6.80 million in Nov. 2006. At the end of
December 2006 total wireless (GSM, CDMA and WLL-F) subscribers were
149.50 million.
The wireline subscriber registered a negative growth of 0.08 million
in December 2006 resulting in net addition of 6.40 million subscribers as
compared to 6.75 million during December 2006. The wireline subscriber
base reached 40.43 million at the end of December 2006.
The gross telephony subscribers in country reached 189.93 million
at December 2006 as compared to 183.53 million in November 2006. The
overall tele-density reached 17.16% in December 2006 as compared to
16.60 at the end of November 2006. The tele-density in December 2005
was 11.43 and thus there is steep growth of 50% in tele-density during the
year 2006.
The net addition of wireless and fixed line subscribers in the first
nine months of FY 2006-07 is 49.61 million, which is almost twice as
compared to addition of 26.37 million in the corresponding period of FY
2005-06.


Subscriber Growth in 2006
A comparison of annual additions of subscribers for the previous
two years shows that total additions of subscribers during 2006 is almost
twice the additions in the year 2005 and about thrice that of 2004. There
is an increase of almost 100% in teledensity in two years from 8.62 at the
end of December 2004 to 17.16 at the end of December 2006.



Broadband (> 256 Kbps download) Growth:
Broadband connections have continued growth since beginning of 2006. At
the end of December 2006 total Broadband connections in the country have
reached 2.10 million having addition of 0.1 million during December 2006.
The additions during first nine months of current financial year is 0.75
million as compared to 0.72 millions during the corresponding period in the
previous financial year. The total increase in Broadband subscribers from
January to December 2006 is 1.20 million as compared to addition of 0.85
million during 2005.