WiMAX technology is continuing to attract operators interested in bringing broadband internet to customers who recognize the value of 4G services
Studies
At NYU-Poly and Rutgers University, the top researchers in the technological sector have now been granted the funds and proper means for further research in their field. With WiMAX technology, arguably the fastest Internet service in the country, these researchers can continue to push boundaries in the vast field that is broadband wireless technology.
The two schools began to delve into technology research last week in Brooklyn with a parking demonstration that streamed live into Washington, D.C., to a crowd of over 300 researchers as part of an initiative sponsored from the National Science Foundation to promote innovation.
On the day WiMAX was first introduced in NYC, the school sent out eight cars that were equipped with ultrasonic sensors that were able to pick up real-time data on a map. This data showed distinct parking spots that were either filled with red or green dots to differentiate between filled or empty spots, respectively.
“The WiMAX network will allow NYU-Poly to accelerate our contributions to cooperative networking and advance the leading research conducted at NYU-Poly’s Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications, one of the State of New York’s original Centers for Advanced Technology, as well as the Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology, funded by the NSF,” said Shivendra Panwar, director of both centers. “It will prove particularly helpful in helping us design and develop standards for cooperative networking, a technology that promises to greatly increase the reliability and speed of wireless communication.”
This parking demonstration showed officials just what university students would have the potential of researching and then actually experimenting if given the proper materials. The alleviation of traffic congestion would save the country billions of dollars annually. According to the press release that NYU Poly put out, traffic congestion costs the country $78 billion annually, not to mention the negative effects it has on air quality. The FCC granted NYU Poly licenses for two channels for the establishment of a public 4G network.… Read the rest
A recent study showed that in terms of fastest wireless broadband by continent, Europe is the worldwide leader. Top countries on the continent include Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Aland, Andorra, Sweden, Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine. Both public initiative toward infrastructure and national government funding are the major reasons for Europe’s success in the wireless competition. In terms of numbers, Europe obtained wireless broadband speed of 7.73 Mbps, with North America, Australasia, and Asia as close runner-ups with broadband speeds of 6.95, 5.31, and 5.25 Mbps respectively. South America and Africa trailed with speeds of 2.25 and 1.39 Mbps.
After looking at continents with the quickest broadband speeds, it is crucial to look at specific countries, where they rank, and why. What accounts for the success (or failure) of certain countries working toward the fastest wireless broadband speeds worldwide? What role does government initiative and funding play? How does infrastructure affect a country? What is the focus of the economy of countries with the fastest wireless broadband?
Two major trends can be seen in the top four countries to be discussed in terms of highest download and upload speeds. With Korea, Japan, Aland and Latvia ranking highest in download and upload, we see both a shift toward major telecom and technology-oriented countries like Korea and Japan along with a great deal of success for small, autonomous, under-the-radar countries like Aland and Latvia.
Korea has been ranked as the country with the fastest worldwide download speed of 22.90 Mbps. But why Korea? Korea’s success is in large part due to work they have done in the past fifteen years to build high-speed broadband infrastructure and to a massive government initiative effort for WiMAX and broadband services.
Choi Si-joong, South Korea’s top telecom regulator, said during a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that, “We will offer offer our cutting-edge mobile Internet technologies to help developing countries establish mobile Internet networks.”
South Korea’s WiBro technology, a version of WiMAX, is currently available in commercial service in 35 countries internationally and growing. As they gain international popularity and use, WiBro will have to maintain top-quality, fast, and cutting-edge technology in order to remain at the forefront of the industry and this committment to expand is clearly going to be at the forefront of the agenda of Korean telecom regulators.
Japan, who ranked third for fastest download … Read the rest
Maravedis released its studies on the WiMAX chip market in 2009. They found that companies shipped 5 million mobile WiMAX chipsets in 2009.
“However despite the surge of mobile WiMAX device and chipset shipments, notably in Q4 09, the total WiMAX equipment market remained flat last year at US$1.36 billion,” said Maravedis Research Director Adlane Fellah. “The overall picture is mixed. Shipments of base stations decreased in 2009 and were impacted more deeply by the economic downturn, whereas device shipments, especially mobile WIMAX devices, grew at a rate of 147% Year-over-Year compared to 2008, correlating to the addition of 3.5 million WIMAX subscribers during the year,” he continued.
Beceem, Sequans and GCT were responsible for nearly 90 percent of the total chipset market. 48 percent of units shipped in 2009 were WiMAX modems while USB dongles and PC cards made up 43 percent of the chipset market.
The study also found that a lot of the chip makers are preparing for LTE. Many builders have tested chips and Sequans and Beceem will be testing LTE chips some time during 2010.… Read the rest
An Intel executive stated that standards for WiMAX 2.0 will be finalized by the end of 2010. Deployment will be widespread by 2012 with standard, 802.16m providing faster download and upload speeds.
Intel research found that users will have 170 Mbps download speeds and 90 Mbps upload speeds. The research also stated that the technology can be used at traveling speeds of up to 217 miles per hour. Current operators use 802.16e, mobile WiMAX that’s compatible with laptops, USB dongles and other mobile devices.
Internationally, Taiwan, the Philippines, and India are being seen as good testing grounds for WiMAX launch because of the large population bases in each country. India has the highest subscriber rate in mobile phones. Yota leads the revolution in Russia, breaking even only after a few months. Clearwire, backed by Sprint, leads the way with 27 markets in the U.S., and is looking to add the Houston, Boston, New York and Washington D.C. markets in 2010.
Photo Courtesy of Josh Bancroft via Flickr… Read the rest
4GCounts along with Maravedis releases its latest findings on the 4G landscape, including WiMAX and LTE. The report states that BWA/WiMAX subscribers reached 4.72 million being served by over 200 operators throughout the world after 3Q of 2009.
The worldwide subscriber base generated an estimated quarterly revenue of $798 million dollars. Residential subscribers, at 68 percent, continue to dominate the base, with business subscribers make up 32 percent. Product certification from the WiMAX Forum allowed the technology to grow. It certified five more subscriber stations, 19 mobile WiMAX CPEs and four base stations.
The report also highlights steps that providers are taking to ensure there will be enough spectrum space for 4G technology in the near future. Operators have begun taking steps to manage data traffic and preparing for the newest round of users.
Photo Courtesy of Nemo’s great uncle via Flickr… Read the rest
According to Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse, as the healthcare industry transforms, wireless technology may serve as the key enabler of this shift. Major topics Hesse referenced during his keynote were future trends, the increasing use of wireless data transactions, the ever-expanding importance of 4G technology, and a growing need to always keep people, devices, and systems connected.
“With rising healthcare costs and numerous challenges impacting every aspect of care, healthcare providers are using wireless to increase efficiency and better manage costs. Healthcare providers are going even further by using wireless to achieve some truly remarkable, transformative advancements in delivering faster, better patient care,” said Hesse.
Because wireless technology is such an essential part of everyday life for hundreds of millions of Americans, it is truly changing the standard of how healthcare is administered. With the availability of such advanced technology today, Internet savvy consumers expect immediate access to health information and care at any location and at any time.
More Internet users are looking online for health information and similarly, caregivers are using smartphones equipped with medical apps for instant lab results, x-rays, vital signs, drug-to-drug-interactions, and medical records. All of these new trends only further validate just how important wireless will be in shaping and changing the future of healthcare by using cost-effective and efficient approaches in delivering quality healthcare.
Additionally, because many wireless networks will need a lot more bandwidth to handle data-centric exchanges instantly including live streaming video, on-demand applications, and virtual office visits, 4G technology holds a lot of promise and could play a major role in taking mobile medicine to the next level in healthcare.
Photo Courtesy of NanPalmero via Flickr… Read the rest
Infonetics Research released its findings on a WiMAX subscriber study for the year end 2009. The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of WiMAX equipment and device revenue growth, up 3 percent from the third quarter. The number of WiMAX users increased 75 percent during 2009 to 6.8 million worldwide.
Worldwide revenue from fixed and mobile WiMAX was down 19 percent from 2008 to $1.08 billion in 2009. Motorola was awarded the number one vendor spot for its combined WiMAX equipment and vendor and Alvarion was listed at number two. Huawei showed the biggest growth during 2009.
Photo Courtesy of Somewhat Frank via Flickr… Read the rest
Competition between the future of WiMax and LTE has been misconstrued as a heated battle where one is destined to succeed while the other will inevitably fail. The reality is that these technologies shouldn’t be pitted against eachother because they have the potential to concurrently play an important part in the future of wireless.
WiMax has already grown to over 7 million subscribers worldwide with upwards of 400 WiMax deployments. Early developers and adopters of WiMax – Yota, Clearwire, and Packet One – have been joined by new industry partnerships and alliances with common interests in both LTE and WiMax. Intel and Nokia have looked to the future of the two technologies as have Ericsson and Sprint. A number of WiMax IC/SOC suppliers have announced that they are working on LTE and WiMax + LTE multiple mode chips. The Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona this week was another place where WiMax and LTE were discussed in terms of collaboration rather than competition.
This being said, timing is a crucial component that must be taken into consideration. Many experts are predicting a wane in the current LTE hype because though the prospect is exciting, rollout is not expected until 2012 and inevitably, the hype will die down.
“Boatloads of bad press and public complaints will likely ensue for LTE, just as it did for WiMax, because the industry and the public will want to get their hands on what they’ve been promised for the last couple of years…once LTE networks become available and people fall in love with the service, the tides will change and LTE will become hot again,” said Robb Henshaw, Director of Marketing and Communications at Proxim Wireless.
In the future, the widespread use of both technologies will be very dependent upon location and availability. Certain areas may only have access to either WiMax or LTE. This being said, even if WiMax does not become the technology of choice, experts have said that it can be expected that it will still play a major role as a backhaul technology for both 4G and Wi-Fi networks.
As seen in the past, different technologies are ultimately pushed together based on what they have in common and not what makes them different because the market simply wants to provide the best products and services in their interests. It is in the interest of both suppliers and providers to develop both … Read the rest
Competition between the future of WiMax and LTE has been misconstrued as a heated battle where one is destined to succeed while the other will inevitably fail. The reality is that these technologies shouldn’t be pitted against eachother because they have the potential to concurrently play an important part in the future of wireless.
WiMax has already grown to over 7 million subscribers worldwide with upwards of 400 WiMax deployments. Early developers and adopters of WiMax – Yota, Clearwire, and Packet One – have been joined by new industry partnerships and alliances with common interests in both LTE and WiMax. Intel and Nokia have looked to the future of the two technologies as have Ericsson and Sprint. A number of WiMax IC/SOC suppliers have announced that they are working on LTE and WiMax + LTE multiple mode chips. The Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona this week was another place where WiMax and LTE were discussed in terms of collaboration rather than competition.
This being said, timing is a crucial component that must be taken into consideration. Many experts are predicting a wane in the current LTE hype because though the prospect is exciting, rollout is not expected until 2012 and inevitably, the hype will die down.
“Boatloads of bad press and public complaints will likely ensue for LTE, just as it did for WiMax, because the industry and the public will want to get their hands on what they’ve been promised for the last couple of years…once LTE networks become available and people fall in love with the service, the tides will change and LTE will become hot again,” said Robb Henshaw, Director of Marketing and Communications at Proxim Wireless.
In the future, the widespread use of both technologies will be very dependent upon location and availability. Certain areas may only have access to either WiMax or LTE. This being said, even if WiMax does not become the technology of choice, experts have said that it can be expected that it will still play a major role as a backhaul technology for both 4G and Wi-Fi networks.
As seen in the past, different technologies are ultimately pushed together based on what they have in common and not what makes them different because the market simply wants to provide the best products and services in their interests. It is in the interest of both suppliers and providers to develop both … Read the rest
