The GSMA, comprised of 800+ mobile operators, called for Taiwan to quit developing WiMAX technology and focus on the development of LTE instead.
Executives
Clearwire, the financially troubled WiMAX conglomerate shared grim news in a conference today, announcing that CEO Bill Morrow would be stepping down “for personal reasons.” He is also leaving the company’s board of directors. Morrow will be replaced in the interim by board chairman John Stanton. Other senior positions at Clearwire will be vacated as well, requiring a shake-up of executive talent at the company.
According to the press release, this changing of the guard should not impact the company’s talks with its partner Sprint. Sprint, Clearwire’s majority owner, has engaged the WiMAX company in a pricing dispute, the resolution of which as yet to be determined. Clearwire assured investors that “an agreement with Sprint is imminent.”
Clearwire has been hit recently with all sorts of issues. If the muddle with Sprint and exec shuffle aren’t enough, Clearwire is still in dire need of funding to complete its rollout of a national 4G WiMAX network. And they’re being sued. In a claim filed just a week ago, several Clearwire subscribers claim that the company has deliberately slowed their internet connections in order to ease congestion on its network. Such practices are not uncommon in the telecom world. Verizon also began ‘throttling’ its network this year, though they’ve been extremely transparent about how and when they manipulate the network and who’ll be affected. Comcast did settle a throttling case for $16 million in 2009, when they were sued for throttling the connections of a specific company.
The plaintiffs claim that Clearwire falsely advertises for high-speed internet that they won’t end up providing and penalizes those who wish to cancel their service by tagging them with an early termination fee. Furthermore, they claim that the WiMAX company is running a Ponzi-esque scheme wherein they attract subscriptions under the pretense of providing high-speed internet. In fact, say the plaintiffs, the company lacks the infrastructure necessary to power its network. By signing up customers, Clearwire hopes to drum up enough money to someday complete their network rollout and make good on these promises and advertisements.
Whether or not these claims will be vindicated, it seems pointless to say that the future looks bleak for the 4G company. … Read the rest
CEO Humm on the iPhone, their very own LTE network, and the new Vibrant 4G
At an investors meeting in New York, T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm and Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann discussed the company’s future. Trailing in 4th place behind Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile’s sales growth has slowed in recent years and the competition is only getting tougher, with the ever-expanding iPhone and burgeoning of rival 4G networks.
To combat these new challenges and get the company back on its feet, Humm announced a series of bold strategies aiming to bolster sales growth by $3 billion in 2014. In the short term, T-Mobile hopes to attract Americans about to join the smartphone craze, an estimated 150 million people. With $10 data plans and $100 phones, the company will offer some of the nation’s most competitive smartphone packages.
T-Mobile missed the iPhone boat and it’s costing them. Humm explained the company’s seen a 10% churn rate, or loss of business to rival providers, purely because of Apple’s tantalizing device. Because of technological inequalities, offering the iPhone is just not in the cards for T-Mobile, at least not for a while. Humm said the company will focus on Android devices, attempting to curb the flow of business to iPhone-friendly providers.
Speaking of Android, T-Mobile also announced that the long-awaited Samsung Vibrant update to Android 2.2 begins rollout January 21st. Humm explained the holdup was purely technical and T-Mobile has to adjust to a clientele of smartphone owners who expect regular upgrades. They also officially unveiled the Vibrant 4G, T-Mobile’s third HSPA+ smartphone and expected to reach speeds of up to 21Mbps, unmatched by the company’s current devices. T-Mobile released no details or specs, but those will surely surface at the Mobile World Congress in mid-February.
To compete with the new 4G networks on the block, T-Mobile plans to soup up their capacity to 42Mbps on HSPA+ by the second half of this year, although it’s uncertain whether devices able to harness those speeds will be as readily available. But in the long run, T-Mobile will need to switch to true 4G technology. Although they brand their existing HSPA+ network as 4G, it’s not universally accepted as such. Humm explained that they’re favoring LTE because the transition will be easier.
T-Mobile plans on selling non-essential assets, like cell towers, to raise capital for an LTE network. … Read the rest
Earlier this week, several WiMAX operators met in Taipei to discuss the development of global, or international, roaming on WiMAX networks. The first-ever WiMAX Forum Global Operators Summit served as an opportunity for operators to draft cooperative agreements and move forward in achieving global roaming on 4G networks.
Just like for traditional cell phones, WiMAX roaming involves using another provider’s network when outside reach of your own. Global roaming refers to borrowing such services when outside your home country. Roaming is made possible through agreements between the various providers to share their services with each other’s subscribers. For WiMAX service, this feature is still in its nascent stages. Analysts project revenues from WiMAX global roaming to grow up to 86% within the next five years.
According to some reports, new IEEE 802.16m standards for WiMAX technology and equipment were hoped to have been set in Taipei. Final approval, though, is not expected until March.
With many of the world’s manufacturers of WiMAX-related products based in Taiwan, the conference was also seen as an opportunity for local producers to meet with international service providers. With the influx of so many representatives from around the world, officials in Taiwan’s Ministry for Economic Affairs hoped the summit would generate deals, agreements, and ultimately revenue for the Southeast Asian country.… Read the rest
Sanjiv S. Gupta is a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer at Intel Corp with focus on WiMAX enablement world wide – primarily in U.S., Latin America, India and the EU. He has been with Intel Corporation for twelve years and has been directly responsible for the marketing/integration of Intel’s graphics and wireless components into OEM PCs worldwide. Sanjiv S. Gupta received a BSEE from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a MSEE from the University of Texas, Arlington in 1988 and 1995, respectively. His experience in high technology spans more than twenty years with past roles as Senior Microwave Design engineer at Texas Instruments, Senior Product Engineer at Cirrus Logic, and Senior Technical Marketing Engineer at Brooktree Corp.… Read the rest
Julien Blin is the CEO and principal analyst at JBB Research, a research and consulting company specialized in the Wireless space. From a geographical standpoint, I focus on developed markets like North America and Western Europe as well as emerging markets like Africa, the Middle East, South America and China. I am also specialized in mobile OS, mobile devices, mobile browsers, 3G/4G mobile services and apps (e.g. M2M apps, mobile UGC, mobile web, LBS, advertising, etc.), and 4G network technologies (e.g. LTE, WiMAX). Mr Blin is an experienced former IDC Wireless Analyst covering the U.S. Mobile Entertainment space. During his time at IDC, Mr Blin was in charge of building key market forecasts such as the U.S. Wireless Messaging (SMS, MMS, IM) and Ringtone Forecasts. He was also responsible for IDC’s U.S. Mobile Data Services Qview, a service providing comprehensive analysis of the top 10 domestic wireless carriers from a data content and services point of view.
In 2008, Mr Blin held an Equity Research position at Wedbush Morgan Securities, a leading sell-side investment bank in Los Angeles, where he was covering public companies like Amdocs, Garmin, Openwave, Syniverse, TCS, and Nuance. Prior to IDC, he held research/consulting positions at Maravedis and Northern Sky Research. Mr Blin also held a position at Ovum Inc, and has experience in journalism. Perfectly bilingual French-English, Mr Blin has been quoted in leading industry publications and Web sites such as WSJ.com, Dow Jones, The New York Times, FORTUNE magazine, Business Week, Wireless Week, RCR Wireless Week, Telephony Online, FierceWireless, Telecomasia.net, Associated Press, InformationWeek, Red Herring, and Boston Globe. Mr Blin is currently licensed for series 7 and 87.… Read the rest
Randall Schwartz has been a key participant in the broadband wireless market for the last 12 years. He is the founder of Wireless 20/20, a leading broadband wireless consulting group and the developer of the WiROI Business Case tool. He brings 20 years of experience in wireless industries, as well as semiconductor. The Wireless group has extensive experience in deploying broadband wireless systems in a wide variety of markets. Schwartz has led development projects with over 30 operators around the world, helping clients by developing business cases, supporting technology selection, and build network deployment plans. He has been a key contributor to the 802.16 standard from its inception, and has been a leading advocate and contributor of the WiMAX Forum. Schwartz has led the development of strategy, market development and product development for both leading chipset vendors as well as equipment manufacturers in the broadband wireless market. He has extensive experience in working with wireless service providers to develop service strategies and business plans. Schwartz has held engineering, marketing, business development and consulting positions with Arraycomm, Intel, BeamReach, Texas Instruments, AT&T Microelectronics, PA Consulting, and Trimble Navigation. He holds both undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees from Dartmouth College.… Read the rest
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 has 15 years of experience in the wireless telecom industry in a broad range of technical and business roles. Cecil can be reached at networkedgrid@gmail.com… Read the rest
Monica Paolini is the founder and president of Senza Fili Consulting. Senza Fili Consulting provides advisory support on wireless data technologies and services. We assist vendors in gaining a better understanding of the service provider and end user markets. We work alongside service providers in developing a wireless data strategy and in assessing the demand for wireless services. Independent advice, a strong quantitative approach, and an international perspective are the hallmarks of our work. At Senza Fili we have in-depth expertise in financial modeling, market research, business plan support, business development, RFPs and vendor selection support, due diligence, white paper preparation, and training. Our clients are international and span the entire value chain: they include fixed and mobile operators, ISPs, greenfield operators, vendors, solution providers, system integrators, investors, and industry associations.
Monica has a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego, an MBA from the University of Oxford, and a BA/MA in Philosophy from the University of Bologna (Italy).… Read the rest
