UQ communications

Samsung Kicks WiMax Into 2nd Gear

CEATEC

on October 5, 2010   |   2 comments



Before new technology appears on the North American horizon, it always seems to pass through the fertile testing ground that is Japan. It happened with your favorite Nintendo games as a kid and it's happening with mobile broadband technology now. As Clearwire and Sprint are hard at work trying to elicit "oohs" and "aahs" from U.S. customers with their burgeoning nationwide 4G WiMax networks, Samsung already has their sights set on the next generation.

In association with Japan's UQ Communications, the Korean electronics behemoth has taken the occasion of the CEATEC trade show in Tokyo to run public trials of their 330-Mbps WiMax 2 network. While still compatible with presently implemented WiMax networks, the new version provides a significantly faster, more efficient connection  as evidenced by the concurrent display of full-HD 3D videos, and 16 full HD videos on four big screen TVs, carried out with Samsung's commercial mobile base station– a unit identical to many utilized by WiMax providers the world over.

Samsung fully expects standards for WiMax 2 to be ready to roll by next month and to have compatible devices and services on tap at the end of 2011. The goods news for those still making nice with earlier versions of WiMax is that they'll be able to intermingle with the upgrade, and vendors of the current WiMax system can easily move their customers to the new standard with the application of system software and upgraded channel cards. These apparent advancements in WiMax technology (phase 2) prior to the official phase one of the major LTE networks, may ultimately give the 4G standard a fighting chance when it comes to establishing technological superiority. So while many are labeling WiMax a "niche" technology, its champions are determined to show it has some room for growth just yet.… Read the rest

UQ Communications Expanding Service With NEC Base Stations

on March 15, 2010  



NEC Corporation announced today that UQ Communications Co., Ltd. just expanded its WiMAX service with NEC’s base stations.

UQ Communications’ WiMAX base station installation plan from the 2009 fiscal year has been increased from 4,000 to over 6,000 base stations by the end of the month, selecting two vendors to produce these new base stations.

NEC will be using the WiMAX “PasoWings BS202″ base station. The system secures WiMAX Forum Wave2 (2.5GHz) certification, an international standard that shows top quality and superior interoperability between different vendors.

UQ Communication is expanding their coverage rigorously and hopes that the installation of NEC base stations will lead to accelerated service, flexibility, and connectivity.… Read the rest

Report On WiMax, LTE, & The Case For 4G Coexistence

on January 6, 2010   |   1 comment



Research and Markets recently addressed the topic of WiMax and LTE coexistence and announced the addition of a report, “WiMax and LTE – The Case for 4G Coexistence” to discuss possibilities and ideas regarding the future and success of both products. With the current onslaught of LTE technology in the wireless industry, the future potential of WiMax has become a hot topic of debate and discussion among vendors, service providers, businesses and consumers.

Though both systems are similar in design and real-world performance, the decisions of the largest WiMax users and players may be the determining factor in the fate of WiMax. An example of this can be seen with Clearwire, a major global wireless internet service provider. Clearwire has made it very clear that they intend to choose the technology that provides the best business case given timing and end-user demand for service quality and devices, leading to a rather vague idea of what their commitment to WiMax will ultimately be.

This question of competition between WiMax and LTE has been spurred on by the decrease in some of the hype around WiMax in recent weeks and months. Naturally, this brings about a string of questions in the wireless industry – namely, should operators in emerging markets opt for WiMax or wait for LTE? How does WiMax compare with other mobile broadband technologies in terms of commercial deployments? How are WiMax operators differentiating themselves from conventional 3G and fixed broadband services? How is the onslaught of LTE changing the future of WiMax? And is the co-existence of the two a real possibility?

Though none of these questions can be fully answered at present, the report analyzes current WiMax operations worldwide, evaluating operator business models, network economics, and overall market opportunity relative to LTE. The objective of the report is to look at which technology delivers the most profitable and popular mobile voice, broadband, and video services in the context of specific market conditions. The case studies in the report examine Clearwire (US), UQ Communications (Japan), Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Digicel (Caribbean), Tata (India), Umniah (Jordan), and Yota (Russia).

One major finding from the report was the number or worldwide WiMax deployments. Across 145 countries, WiMax deployment is greater than that of any other conventional 3G technology. This being said, WiMax covers only 6% of the world’s population because deployments to date have been small, serving targeted communities, businesses, and … Read the rest

Research Shows WiMax Use Growing

on December 4, 2009   |   1 comment



clearwire-logo

ABI Research recently announced that it expects almost 2 million WiMax users by the end of 2009. There are many providers and many different ways WiMax technology is being deployed.

In the United States,  Clearwire has declared  it has 173,000 subscribers. Another big WiMax market is Russia. Yota has been growing at a decent rate reaching 100,000 subscribers in August and 200,000 in October for WiMax service in Russia. PacketOne, a WiMax provider in  Malaysia, has reached 130,000 subscribers.

UQ Communications once expected to reach 300,000 subscribers by the end of 2009 in South Korea. It is behind schedule in its rollout and will fall short of that initial target. South Korea has seen KT’s and SKT’s subscriber numbers remain stagnant, while these service providers prepare for another big push as a third WiMAX service provider comes to South Korea.t

The WiMax Forum Congress of Americas stated that there are 10 million WiMax subscripers worldwide  in 540 WiMAX network deployments in 146 countries around the world. There are more than 150 deployments in the Americas alone.

Product providers flocked to Ft. Lauderdale to showcase their expansive WiMax products and to show what’s coming next. Beceem Communications said it is on track to sell 3 million WiMAX chips in 2009. The company announced the launch of “4G Turbo,” a number of Uplink performance improvements to the company’s 4G WiMAX chips. The 4G Turbo improvements further extend the performance of Beceem’s chips, and the features can be used in any WiMAX network as they work with every Wave 2-compliant 4G-WiMAX base station.… Read the rest

Joining Forces

on November 12, 2009  



text-partnershipVocalTec and Runcom Join Forces for Integrated WiMAX VoIP Solution – Nov 12, 2009 (TMCnet)
VocalTec Communications Ltd., a provider of carrier-class multimedia and voice-over-IP solutions, and the end-2-end WiMAX system solutions provider Runcom Technologies, have integrated their WiMAX VoIP solution at an upcoming conference. Both the companies would be joining forces for the provisioning of this joint offering, which will help service providers to benefit from enhanced voice services in the emerging telecom markets.

SP AusNet Leases Austar ‘WiMAX’ Spectrum for Smart Metering – Nov 12, 2009 (iTWire)
Austar is to lease a portion of its 2.3GHz spectrum licences in regional Victoria to SP AusNet, which will build a mobile WiMAX network to provide communications with smart electricity meters it plans to rollout to 680,000 consumers in the next three years.

Clearwire: 555,000 Subscribers – Nov 12, 2009 (DSLReports.com)
According to Clearwire’s latest quarterly earnings, the company now serves about 555,000 subscribers. About 173,000 of those are using Clearwire’s new Clear Mobile WiMax service. The remainder are still using the old Clearwire fixed service, for which our user reviews have always been rather lackluster.

Sony India Ready to Launch WiMax-enabled Laptops – Nov 11, 2009 (Business Standard)
Electronics major Sony India is ready with WiMAX-enabled offerings for the domestic market, but will wait for the Union government to complete the wireless broadband spectrum allocation process before launching the products.

Global WiMax Users Expected To Grow 87% Annually Between 2010 and 2012 – Nov 11, 2009 (Wimax News)
According to Companies and Markets’ report “Global WiMax Market Analysis”, WiMax has tremendous potential to offer global standardized broadband wireless platform. Many countries across the globe will adopt WiMax to facilitate rapid economic development.

Motorola Exec Sees Room for WiMax and LTE to Thrive – Nov 11, 2009 (Computerworld)
Motorola is working aggressively to sell equipment to provision both WiMax and LTE wireless technologies when carriers commit to one or the other, said Bruce Brda, general manager of wireless networks for the equipment maker. Despite debate over whether WiMax or LTE technology would win out as the basis for faster 4G wireless networks, Motorola Inc. is now convinced that both protocols will flourish.

Samsung: WiMax Could Be as Big as CDMA – Nov 11, 2009 (TelephonyOnline)
Just as the smaller CDMA ecosystems rewarded the vendors that stuck with the technology, Samsung is counting on its early lead in WiMax to pay dividends.… Read the rest

Packet One Networks and UQ Communications on WiMax Forum Board of Directors!

on November 10, 2009  



UQ-P1-logo

Yesterday we reported that P1 was awaiting confirmation of their appointment to the WiMax Forum Board of Directors. In a press release the WiMax Forum announced today the addition of two new members to its Board of Directors: Michael Lai, Chief Executive Officer of Packet One Networks (“P1”), and Dr. Fumio Watanabe, CTO of UQ Communications Inc. Both Packet One and UQ Communications are worldwide leaders in the development and deployment of next generation wireless technology.

“We are proud to welcome industry veterans Mr. Lai and Dr. Watanabe to our Board of Directors,” said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMax Forum. “With over 50 years of combined experience in the wireless industry, both bring a wealth of knowledge and invaluable insight to the Board as we continue to create strategic programs and initiatives that help fulfill the WiMax Forum mission of providing WiMax services to anyone, anywhere in the world.”

Lai has brought P1 to the global forefront of commercial WiMax deployment. P1 W1Max is Malaysia’s leading WiMax telco and is currently the world’s second largest deployment of an 802.16e 2.3GHz WiMAX network, with more than 100,000 subscribers and growing. While Dr. Watanabe has helped UQ Communications Inc. maintain its position as the only telecommunications company in Japan that provides nationwide mobile services based on the WiMax global technology standard.

Other members of the WiMax Forum Board include: Airspan Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Aperto Networks, Cisco Systems, Clearwire, Comcast Corporation, Fujitsu, Huawei, Information and Communications Research Laboratories at Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Intel Corporation, KDDI, KT, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Sprint Nextel, Tata Communications, Yota and ZTE Corporation.… Read the rest

4G Experts Convene at the Wimax Analyst Event

on September 22, 2009  



bill-morrow-wimax-analyst-event
Bill Morrow, CEO of Clearwire, was among the keynote speakers.

CEOs, CTOs and other important figures of major corporations convened at the Wimax Analyst Event Show at Crowne Plaza in New York City on Sept. 15 2009 to present the latest developments in the wimax industry. Bill Morrow, CEO of Clearwire, explained that 4G technology will take wifi to the next level by substantially increasing downlink connection speed and allowing much larger data packets to be transmitted. Wimax will provide faster mobile access to multimedia and video with a lower bit error rate. Additionally, wimax works with wifi antenna which makes the technology easy and inexpensive to integrate into the current network. A 4G Phone is expected to hit the market in 2011. The phone will have dual mode capability, supporting both wimax and wifi. In addition, it will have a 1+ GHz Processor, rich visual 3D imaging, and a dual video camera. Morrow also introduced a “killer 4G application” that allows cloud computing while on the go. The technology is enabled via HTML 5 browser technology. While the application enriches the end users’ web experience, it demands true broadband connectivity which wimax provides.

Yegor Ivanov, Director of International Development at YOTA, said that the Russian company reached 100,000 subscribers in August 2009 and expects to reach 200,000 by the end of the year. Currently, YOTA gets an average of 2000 new subscribers daily. Since April 2009, 65 SKU’s from six vendors (Acer, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Asus, Toshiba) with data embedded chip sets were introduced to the Russian market. YOTA plans to provide service in 180 Russian cities by the end of 2009.

“Consumers will come to expect the four “any’s” – any device, any where, any time, and any content,” Mike Roudi, Group VP at Time Warner Cable, says. TWC sees 4G as an extra feature to broadband, a feature that will bring end users one step closer to meeting their many “any’s”.

Another keynote speaker representing the wimax industry was CEO of DigitalBridge Communications, Kelley Dunne. He announced that their network will be upgraded to IEEE 802.16e mobile within the next 60 days. They also support 40 MHz of spectrum even in their smallest markets. Multi-taskers will be happy. They soon will be able to skype, listen to Pandora radio and surf the web simultaneously on their mobile device.

After … Read the rest

Clearwire Partners with Yota and UQ Communications

on September 15, 2009  



roamingClearwire Communications, LLC, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan’s UQ Communications and Russia’s Yota. This MOU allows the WiMax companies to ensure their systems and devices are able to withstand global roaming capabilities.

“We are committed to making telecom services easy to use for our clients, and this MOU was signed with their interests in mind,” said Dennis Sverdlov, Yota CEO.

These WiMax service providers will work with Clearwire’s Global Alliance Partner Program to ensure provision of seamless international roaming.

“With over 500 WiMAX deployments underway in about 145 countries, the existence of a roaming framework – helping to connect operators as well as WiMAX customers – is vital to advanced cross-market cooperation,” said Barry West, president of Clearwire International.

The service providers will utilize WiMax Forum guidelines to meet their business objectives. According to Takeshi Tanaka, president of UQ Communications, “As a global standard, international roaming is a natural service evolution, and we, as WiMAX operators, have to work closely together to make roaming services available as quickly as possible.”

… Read the rest

SkyCross’ iMAT Allows WiMax Performance to Soar

on August 18, 2009  



skycross-imat-antennaSkyCross has created a WiMax-capable antenna called the iMAT Antenna. It has a 2.5 times more powerful data transfer rate than the average two-antenna method.

The iMAT allows the functionality of 4G infrastructure to greatly improve. It is also cost-efficient for network operators.

This antenna is used by Japan’s UQ Communications network and the United States’ Clearwire network.… Read the rest

Hot Off the Press: Criteria for Obama Broadband Funding

on July 10, 2009  



Hot Off the Press: Criteria for Obama Broadband Funding – July 2, 2009 (Wimax News) : The Obama administration published the criteria for its technology initiative funds yesterday, a Wall Street Journal article reports.  The published document deals with the method of distributing billions of dollars toward the development of broadband  in the US.
Clearwire officially launches WiMax in Las Vegas – July 8, 2009 (Wimax News) : Clearwire’s Las Vegas market went unofficially live in late May, and users had been telling us that they could sign up for service in June. Clearwire now says they’ll be launching the market officially on July 21, making it the fourth Clearwire market to launch behind Baltimore, Atlanta, and Portland.
Wimax Equipment Market Expected to Decline During Q2 2009 – July 8, 2009 (Wimax News) : Infonetics Research, a market research and consulting firm, recently released the first-quarter edition of its ‘WiMAX Equipment, Devices, and Subscribers’ report, which indicated that the worldwide WiMAX equipment revenue will decrease by 16 percent from the previous quarter and further decline is expected in second quarter of 2009.
Rumor : Clearwire Ramping Up for Dallas & Seattle Launch – July 7, 2009 (Wimax News) : Clearwire is now preparing for a forthcoming launch in the Dallas and Seattle area according to some ads on Craigslist soliciting new sales representatives and executives. The firm has posted ads on Dallas and Seattle Craigslist promoting an “invitational open house” to find prospective candidates for sales jobs in the area.

Introducing the 2009 WiMAX Distinction Awards – July 7, 2009 (Wimax News) : For the second year in a row, Internet Telephony Magazine is presenting the WiMAX Distinction Award, designed to honor those companies who are developing and designing the next generation of products and solutions that will define the WiMAX space for years to come.

Growth in Mobile Video Shifts Massive Advantage to WiMax Providers Until 2012 – July 7, 2009 (Wimax News): A new report by Digdia titled ‘The Emerging 4G Wireless Landscape in the U.S.’ published on July 6, 2009 finds that congestion in 3G networks, caused by a massive increase in demand for mobile digital media, will accelerate adoption of higher capacity 4G technology.

Blueslice Adds WiMAX to CSP 3000 – July 1, 2009 (Wimax News) : Blueslice Networks, a multi-profile subscriber management solutions provider, announced today that it will introduce the world’s first fully-integrated … Read the rest