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Sprint, Clearwire Spread WiMax “Magic” to Orlando

Evan Kessler on September 20, 2010

There are a lot of magical things about the Orlando area; the capital of American amusements boasts the “Magic Kingdom” of Disney, a “Magic-al” basketball team, and the wondrous spot where the members of ‘N Sync first started rehearsing their teen girl-enthralling dance moves way back in ’95.

If that weren’t enough to get the The International Brotherhood of Magicians to move their annual convention to the city that’s constantly saying, “Abra Cadabra,” then perhaps the latest announcement from Sprint and Clearwire will change their mind.

As of this week, the two wireless broadband service providers are pulling the WiMax rabbit out of a hat in “the Magic City”. The land of theme parks seems ripe for access to high-speed 4G action, since tourists have a need to stay connected to the outside world at the click of a button, even when on vacation. After all, the wait for Space Mountain is at least 45 minutes long at any given time, why not take the occasion to browse the lightning-quick Internet while standing around?

Though offering quality mobile access to the world wide web is not exactly sorcery, Sprint and Clearwire are confident the combination of WiMax technology and affordable prices will be a trick Orlando users will want to see again and again. … Read the rest

Samsung Works WiMax On Europe’s Eastern Front

Evan Kessler on September 16, 2010 | 1 comment

Using conventional wisdom and keen powers of observation, your average enlightened follower of wireless trends may have long ago declared LTE the “royal highness” of 4G network technology standards on the European continent; But even with the region’s more developed nations opting for Long Term Evolution as their chief 4G format, Samsung isn’t quite ready to take part in that coronation ceremony.

The Korean mega-conglomerate is still holding strong to the belief that there’s plenty more fruit to be harvested from the WiMax technology tree. That fruit may not be plucked in wealthier countries like Sweden, Great Britain, and Germany; Samsung sees their fortunes rising where the sun does–in the east. Having struck two deals to provide 802.16e infrastructure for the rollouts of two national WiMax networks in Bulgaria and the Ukraine, they may be laying the foundation for even further success spreading and improving WiMax in the region for countries looking for a more cost-effective solution to improving their speed of their net access.

The devices at the center of these respective rollouts are Samsung’s U-RAS Smart CP base stations, which Ukraine’s Intellicom LLC will deploy to their top 4 markets by June 2011, hopefully making WiMax readily available to 20 million households by 2013. They’re not alone in trying to tackle that market though, as rival Ukraine High Technologies will be boxing them out for position for customers on a national level.

Bulgarian service provider, Max Telecom, will utilize the Smart base stations in an effort to upgrade its existing WiMax networks to best competing operators TransTelecom and Nexcom Bulgaria LLC. As a chief selling point of the new network Max will be boasting of their “high-quality VoIP” services that they hope will be available to the nation’s population of 7.6 million by 2012. Bulgaria’s WiMax users are expected to more than triple by 2015.

Though an investment for the further development of WiMax technology in a region where the 4G standard isn’t exactly “killing it” may seem risky for Ukrainian and Bulgarian providers alike; the U-RAS Smart CP Base Stations takes into account the potential shift of preference by supporting “a migration to WiMax 2 (802.16m) and TD-LTE, the alternative technology that can operate on the same spectrum as WiMax.” It’s better to be safe than sorry.… Read the rest

Sprint 4G WiMax Adds Some Country Twang

Evan Kessler on September 15, 2010 | 1 comment

Not a lot of people know this, but the main reason so many Nashville residents have a tear in their beer has nothing to do with the Hank Williams song playing on the jukebox; rather, it’s the less-than-stellar wireless service that’s been driving those in the Music City to drink and cry.

Sprint is hoping to change that somber tune echoing from the Bluebird Cafe to the Grand Ole Opry, now that their 4G WiMax network is officially available in “the Country Music Capital of the World.”

With the announcement, Nashville becomes the 52nd city (in 22 states) to have access to the 4G service. Sprint has two phones currently capable of effectively utilizing the high-speed offering, including the new Samsung Epic; and for those that want to take advantage of the network on the go, they’re offering the Overdrive mobile hotspot.

Sprint isn’t the only big name making improvements to Nashville’s wireless scene. They are accompanied by their WiMax partner, CLEAR, who is pushing their distinct brand of affordable, fast, “take-it-with-you Internet” to the musical masses. And with an online only limited time offer to take 50% off their service plan over the first two months, Nashvillians may start noticing the watery taste of tears of joy in that bottle of beer just yet.… Read the rest

Clearwire Targets Generation Y in New Service Plan

Ahuva Zucker on August 31, 2010 | 3 comments

Generation Y, the youth of the nation, have always been targeted as main consumers and for good reason. We are young, ignorant, and don’t keep our wallets pinched shut. We are more likely than our parents to spend money on the latest technological fads, even with arbitrary phone companies creating TV commercials for the benefit of those under the ancient age of “parenting.” Like, seriously, who uses Cingular anymore? Idk, not my BFF Jill. LOL.

All kidding aside, there is a method to the madness of quirky marketing executives. There is significant money to be made from those that fall within the criteria for Generation Y- born between the mid-1970s to early 2000s. A recent report from the Financial Brand came out discussing the market research statistics of Generation Y, and it paints an entirely different picture than the one the media depicts of our recession. A majority of Generation Yers wouldn’t consider their situation to be “bad”, more than 60% of them don’t think that their financial situation has worsened and 89% of them don’t think that they will be worse off than their parents. That makes them the ideal customer in this unsteady economy.

Clearwire, a WiMAX company, has finally come to terms with their customer base. Most middle-aged people wouldn’t know the first thing about 4G, not that there is anything wrong with that, of course. They are content with the Internet connection that they pay a little bit extra for with their cable service. And it works quite well for most purposes, believe it or not. So, why should they switch now and disturb the relationship they have with their current provider? A few seconds extra spent surfing the web isn’t worth it. These people understand the value of life, not the substitute used these days in terms of social connections found online.

The current generation, however, is much different. We find friends in other countries with just a few clicks. We need to watch that video NOW. G-d forbid we don’t see overnight Internet celebrity Antoine Dodson’s infamous rant within the next minute. We live in the 21st century and we are entitled, aren’t we? The word buffering will soon be just as foreign as music sharing program Napster.

Clearwire has found a way to put money into this sorry phenomenon. They have done research and marketed this group of obnoxious young adults. … Read the rest

Clearwire’s Mysterious Webcast Scheduled for Monday

Ahuva Zucker on August 26, 2010 | 1 comment

Clearwire has scheduled a webcast for Monday, August 30, to “unveil its plans to serve a new customer segment.” People are excited to find out what the criteria for the new customer will be. Judging from the way Clearwire is going about marketing their service, right now their customer base is in the 18-24 age bracket. The speculation as to what they are planning to do is rampant online involvement on various blogs and websites. It’s up to anyone to hypothesize, but some guesses are more intelligent than others.

Clearwire has been getting plenty of criticism for coming out last month with intentions to test out LTE technology, most likely because WiMAX isn’t a technology the mobile industry has any interest in furthering its advancement in the mobile field. With a combination of WiMAX and LTE, Clearwire might have the security to move forward in the mobile sector. Maybe Clearwire will finally come forward as a leader in mobile technology, taking the initiative and monetizing on their precedence in the 4G market.

Other possibilities floating around include partnerships and advancements in the emerging M2M/smart grid space. The company has said in the past that it intends to pursue other wholesale customers aside from its core investors like Sprint, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable. They already signed contracts last month with Best Buy, giving Best Buy the opportunity to market Clear service under their own branding, Best Buy Connect.

Another possibility is that Clear might be introducing a prepaid mobile WiMAX approach like the kinds Sprint/Nextel CEO Dan Hesse has mentioned numerous times in the last couple of months. Sprint is the majority shareholder of Clearwire and they are selling Clear’s WiMAX technology under their own branding. Maybe Clear will begin marketing their services just like Sprint does.

One thing remains certain though, is that no matter what they do, Clear can capitalize on their early placement in the 4G market just by lowering their prices to rates that newcomers Verizon and MetroPCS can’t compete with. If they start off the cut-throat competition with low rates, then their adversaries wouldn’t be viable options until they have launched in enough markets and/or raised enough capital to sell their services and sustain low margins.

Whatever the case, Monday is bound to be a big deal. When Clear announced their wholesale arrangement with Best Buy, they didn’t hold anything close to … Read the rest

WiMAX Is Still Alive and Kicking in Taiwan

Ahuva Zucker on August 17, 2010

Just last month, Intel disbanded its offices in Taiwan, scaring investors in Taiwan that the future of WiMAX might not be so stable. Intel told investors that it was just a “normal process that takes place as new technologies mature”, but not everyone was convinced. Taiwanese companies make approximately 80% of WiMAX devices; their investment in the technology is estimated to be upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars. The potential damage to Taiwan’s economy could be devastating.

Today, however, Azimuth Systems, a company that provides testing for wireless solutions such as WiMAX and LTE, announced that Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry has chosen to use the ACE™ MX MIMO channel emulator for the purposes of WiMAX testing. Azimuth publicized their press release earlier today with numerous statements about the quality of their products and services, but investors should see this for the good news that it is. Taiwan is continuing to work with WiMAX, even without the Intel local office. WiMAX technology is still flourishing in Taiwan.… Read the rest

LTE and WiMAX: You CAN Get The Best Of Both Worlds

Ahuva Zucker on August 17, 2010 | 7 comments

The Financial Times rolled out with an article yesterday telling Intel that investing so much money in WiMAX was a mistake. It goes on to support LTE technology over WiMAX and reported older news on the numerous companies that are either ending their agreements with WiMAX or running test trials with LTE. It’s old news with the same, wrong approach to the situation. Towards the end of the article, there is intelligence displayed in mentioning that WiMAX is unlikely to disappear completely. There is no reference to the fact that there are different versions of LTE and some of them shouldn’t even be comparable to WiMAX.

TD-LTE, the latest standard of LTE, operates on TDD, or time division duplexing, the same way that WiMAX does. This would mean that they would share a bandwidth and spectrum. TDD is superior to LTE’s previous usage of FDD, or frequency division duplexing, because TDD uses unpaired spectrum channels and is able to split up work from uplink to downlink. This is much better for data because uplink/downlink rates [of action] are not fixed. FDD is better for mobile operators because uplink/downlink occurs on a paired spectrum channel and voice is symmetric in both directions.

Many companies, like Alvarion, use both TD-LTE and WiMAX because they run on the same spectrum and are therefore interchangeable in a way that both can be used by the same device. It would mean better 4G access for all companies that are smart enough to be using both technologies. Infrax just announced today th first upgradeable WiMAX/LTE base station. They seem to be getting at what most markets are looking for; people want the best everything and now they can get the best of both worlds.

The Financial Times failed to even point out the significance of 4G for non-mobile services. Clearwire, a popular WiMAX provider, isn’t even focusing their advertising campaign on wireless phones, rather they are trying to take control of offering coverage for all internet services, home and mobile. Clear doesn’t plan on disassociating themselves from the technology they were founded on. Rather, if they can improve their services they will, unlike the LTE snobs like the ones at the Financial Times who refuse to see the benefits of the “competition”.… Read the rest

More Competition in the 4G Arena

Ahuva Zucker on August 12, 2010 | 5 comments

There is another player in the game of 4G networking that is going to be providing long-term evolution (LTE) technology, and they’re promising to bring more to the table. LightSquared, a new 4G wireless broadband network from Nokia Siemens, is undertaking a project that they claim will provide 4G service to 92% of the U.S. by the end of 2015.

LightSquared is a new company with a not-so-new concept. They are creating a new network to provide LTE across the nation. This should sound familiar, because Clearwire already did it with WiMax. They differ, however, in their service projections. Clear, whose majority shareholder is Sprint, is selling Clear’s 4G service through dealers, but they’re patenting their name on all of their products. LightSquared, on the other hand, doesn’t plan on doing that. They are going to sell their bandwidth for other companies to market; any company can market and sell LightSquared service.

LightSquared has already signed on some of the best companies in their respective fields. Siterra, a web-based software provider, will provide Siterra+ to manage the operation and maintenance of the new wireless network system. Marketwire, a top quality equipment manufacturer, has made a deal with LightSquared that will make them the sole marketers of smart grid applications and various utility markets on LightSquared’s spectrum.

The Federal Communications Center, aka the FCC, is really the only authority that could stop them, and they haven’t. In fact, they are welcoming them into the 4G playing field with open arms, readily giving them the 1.4 Ghz frequency. FCC Chair Julius Genachowski has given them his blessing, saying, “Today’s announcement shows that FCC policies are helping grow the U.S. economy by catalyzing investment and job creation.” Oh, don’t worry, he’s telling the truth. Investing $7 billion into a wireless network and providing as many as 100,000 jobs is something a government agency has the right to be proud of in this awful economy. Unfortunately, not many government agencies have this right. Telecommunications is one of the few growing fields in our current, unstable economy.

So, what exactly does LightSquared have planned? Well, by the end of the year they plan on launching their satellite into orbit. And there are an estimated 40,000 cell towers being put up in the next 5 years. Their 4G wireless network is going to be set up by next summer to be … Read the rest

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