WiMAX: criticized but constantly sought for commercial use (1)

Hidden sorrow in joy

Recently, WiMAX supporters have experienced ups and downs. Poor aspects include the announcement last year that the US operator Sprint Nextel and Clearwire had terminated cooperation, and their intention to work together to build a mobile WiMAX network covering the entire United States was also abandoned halfway, this has aroused serious questions about the potential of this wireless technology.

In addition, Verizon Wireless announced in last November that it would choose LTE as its "4G" mobile technology. The company did not mention WiMAX. In addition, Ericsson, the equipment giant, said earlier last year that it would not invest any more R & D resources for WiMAX devices, but all of its 4g r & D capabilities in LTE.

At the same time, the number of HSDPA commercial networks worldwide continues to grow rapidly. According to GSA, as of last November, a total of 154 HSDPA commercial networks were established and put into operation (distributed in 71 countries ). GSA indicates that this number is almost twice that of the previous year.

After the evolution, the peak data rate can reach Mbps of HSDPA, which may prove to be a powerful challenger for WiMAX in providing broadband services to customers at a low cost and high efficiency. As its supporter said in unison, HSDPA has a comprehensive ecosystem that provides competitive services and devices to the market, including USB modems and wireless routers supporting HSDPA. However, they believe that WiMAX still takes a long way to go if it wants to have a significant impact on the mobile or fixed broadband market.

Of course, there were also many things worth the cheers of WiMAX supporters last year. Perhaps the most exciting news is that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announced in last October that IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) became a formal 3G standard and part of the IMT-2000 series. This opens the door for more carriers to deploy mobile WiMAX within their IMT-2000 spectrum range (2.5 GHz to 2.69GHz), the WiMAX Forum said.

"This is a very special milestone for WiMAX technology ." Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum, said in the announcement by ITU that "WiMAX technology currently has the potential to cover 2.7 billion users. After becoming a 3G standard, this number is greatly expanded to cover about 4 billion of global users ."

Following the ITU announcement, Cisco spent $0.33 billion to acquire Navini networks that provide 802.16e devices, adding an important weight to the future of WiMAX. However, for Cisco, WiMAX focuses on enterprises and consumer customers in emerging markets (although WiMAX supporters believe that the technology can also have a place in cities in developed regions ).

In last August, Vodafone joined the WiMAX Forum to inject doping into the 802.16e camp. Previously, the company's chief executive officer Arun Sarin said at last year's Barcelona 3GSM exhibition that he may use mobile WiMAX to replace LTE in some markets.

To what extent can Sarin be interpreted as providing WiMAX support, or simply urging 3G vendors for the moment. However, Vodafone's apparent rise in WiMAX, coupled with the ITU's recognition, undoubtedly injecting more confidence into WiMAX.

Changes in the attitude of regulatory authorities also promote the development of WiMAX. In, British Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Ofcom approved a GHz spectrum (standard mobile WiMAX frequency range) owner to use it for mobile communications. British Broadband companies (Hong Kong PCCW) and Freedom4 (uk isp Pipex) with a GHz spectrum in the UK have been limited to use their 802.16e technology only for fixed and mobile applications.

This loose of regulators is a clear positive because it broadens new sources of revenue. However, not all regulators agree with Ofcom. Although Pakistan may be a pioneer in WiMAX deployment (so far its 802.16e deployment is the largest in the world and operated by Wateen Telecom, covering 17 of the largest cities in the country ), however, it still prohibits GHz spectrum holders from providing mobile services.