Augere, a global broadband company, delivering 4G WiMAX broadband services across many emerging markets, is extending its activities to Central Africa
Africa
The start-up Spiritage is about to enter the data and voice telephony network market in Zimbabwe and plans to take on its competitors.
In looking at the WiMax market at the start of a new year, what better way to gain insight into future trends than by interviewing those who know the topic and technology best? The following piece is a compilation of opinions and foresights from seven experts in the telecom world who are part of the GoingWiMax.com community. According to these experts, a demand for mobile data capacity and more WiMax-embedded devices, increasing WiMax deployment both nationally and abroad, accelerated download speeds, LTE breakthrough, and the broadband stimulus bill will be some of the major factors affecting and influencing the WiMax market in big ways in 2010. You can download the report Wimax 2010 Predictions on Slideshare.
Robb Henshaw, Global Director of Marketing at Proxim Wireless
“2010 is going to be all about dealing with the mobile data deluge – via increased wireless backhaul and offloading existing mobile networks. Analysts and carriers themselves estimate that the demand for mobile data capacity – which is skyrocketing based on massive adoption of smartphones – will increase by at least 10x. As a result, it will become abundantly clear that the current backhaul model (fiber to widely distributed cell towers) no longer works, and cannot cost-effectively scale to meet this ever-increasing demand. With the cost of fiber and time to deploy being much greater than wireless, wireless backhaul will emerge as the technology of choice for cost-effectively increasing backhaul capacity. In addition to increasing wireless backhaul, I predict that carriers and service providers will also pursue the deployment of outdoor Wi-Fi networks for 3G Offload – thus encouraging smartphone users to connect via Wi-Fi when utilizing data-hungry apps. AT&T is already utilizing its acquisition of Wayport to offer Wi-Fi to all AT&T subscribers, and Verizon is doing the same via partnership with Boingo – so look for more carriers to advance this “Wi-Fi for 3G Offload” trend in 2010″
Julien Blin,CEO and principal analyst at JBB Research
“1. Scheduled rollout of first LTE networks in Africa in 2010 set to improve user experience and drive mobile entertainment content/service adoption. As African carriers continue to upgrade their network to 4G technologies (e.g. WiMAX, LTE), users will be able to enjoy a better user experience while using mobile entertainment services as those services will run on faster networks like LTE or WiMAX. African carriers in countries like South Africa and … Read the rest
WiMAX Goes to the Olympics – Nov 17, 2009 (Wi-fi Planet)
Visitors to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada will be able to connect their WiMAX-enabled laptops to the Internet to check results and stream video of events using a new mobile WiMAX service that Craig Wireless Systems Ltd. is launching in January.
Key Industry Players Line up as Sponsors for WiMAX Forum® Congress Americas 2009 – Nov 19, 2009 (Earthtimes)
Today the WiMAX Forum announced ZTE as the latest Gold Sponsors on their forthcoming Congress Americas show which is taking place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 2 – 3rd, 2009. ZTE joins Samsung, Airspan, Ciena, WiTech, Intel and Congress Partner Clearwire to form a stellar line-up of sponsors and exhibitors for what is set to be an incredibly information rich three-day event.
China Wi-Max Communications’ Fiber Ring Lit in Beijing – Nov 18, 2009 (TMCnet)
China Wi-Max Communications, Inc. or “CHWM,” a telecommunications and IP transport company, has announced its fiber ring was “lit” by one of its wholly-owned foreign entity companies. The ring, which has undergone extensive testing, is now ready to provide Internet access to commercial customers.
Notion of Wimax-Based Smart Grids Picks Up Steam – Nov 18, 2009 (Urgent Communications)
Smart-grid and WiMAX technologies quickly are becoming intertwined, as utilities around the world have begun announcing their intentions to test smart-grid networks based on WiMAX. The platform’s ability to support other data functions is a key driver, but costs need to shrink for widespread deployment.
Intel Invests $25 Million in Tech Companies – Nov 18, 2009 (Wimax News)
Today Intel Capital, the world’s largest chip maker, announced their seven new investments, worth around US$25 million in total. This is in addition to a $50 million investment already made in U.S. WiMax operator Clearwire.
Africa and the Middle East : Fastest Growth for WiMax Adoption – Nov 17, 2009 (Wimax News)
The business segment in Africa and the Middle East should be the main focus of WiMax operators as fixed WiMax’s contribution to fixed business broadband subscriptions is expected to more than quadruple by 2014, according to a latest report from Pyramid Research.
Clearwire’s Legal Trouble Delaying West Michigan Wireless Network may be Resolved Soon – Nov 17, 2009 (Mlive.com)
Legal roadblocks to the startup of Clearwire’s high speed wireless network in West Michigan may soon be coming down. Sprint-Nextel is buying iPCS … Read the rest
In the recent years, Africa has truly proved itself as one of the leading suppliers of the WiMAX industry. AccessKenya is one of the largest WiMAX networks in East Africa. They provide wireless broadband for residential use in the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya. MTN Uganda has made it their goal to provide countrywide WiMAX access in Uganda, and has already installed several operating networks.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which regulates telecommunications in South Africa, issued four licenses for commercial WiMAX services to the Internet Service Providers iBurst, Sentech, Neotel, and Telkom. South Africa currently hosts a few scattered operational WiMAX networks, but with the issuance of these licenses, the country is expected see many more networks appear in the upcoming months. Delays in the award of licenses for providing WiMAX services and the limited roll-out of services that have been licensed has resulted in dampening of its potential impact. Only those companies that have already deployed WiMAX have appreciated its impact. These companies are all using Telkom’s scaled down version of wimax. According to studies conducted in 2008, 8% of corporations in South Africa have adopted WiMAX options as part of their connectivity mix in 2007 but they did not use wimax as a preferred form of connectivity and deployed it where no other options were available, such as in rural areas or areas with rough terrain.
In Angola, MSTelcom has deployed a WiMAX network to blanket over half of Luanda with broadband Internet service. In Nigeria, Galaxy Wireless Communications Limited has launched the country’s first Mobile broadband service based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. XS Broadband is also a major contributor to the installment of WiMAX in Nigeria and currently holds licenses for 24 of the 36 Nigerian states. The Middle East and Africa were the fastest growing regions for WiMAX in 2008.… Read the rest
