4G WiMAX on the U.S. market is threatened by the overwhelming hegemony of 4G LTE technology. This is starting to become a known fact. However, on a global basis, WiMAX technology is still a strong growing mobile broadband alternative to WiFi and other mobile networks (LTE mostly) to provide high-speed internet to remote areas for a low implementation cost.

Total worldwide sales of WiMAX equipment reached $502.1 million in the first quarter of 2011, announced the WiMAX Forum. This represents an increase of 49 percent from a year earlier (Q1 2010) and a yearly estimate over $2 billion. According to Infonetics Research, the WiMAX equipment market grew by 85 percent compared to last year and is expected to reach $6.9 billion by 2014.
From 2009 to 2010, the number of worldwide WiMAX subscribers rose from 3 million to 7.5 million, it passed the bar of 20 million at the end of Q2 2011 and is on track to meet the 25 million forecast for the end of the year. On a little longer term, exponential growth is expected and the number of subscribers should surpass 100 million by 2015.

Geographically, WiMAX technology growth is the strongest in Asia-Pacific countries and more precisely India. But its markets also extend to Latin-American and African countries with great opportunities to seize. In 2011 alone, over 30 WiMAX networks were either launched or expanded worldwide (Read: Google and Orange Bring WiMAX to African Customers)

Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum explains that “WiMAX technology is continuing to attract operators interested in bringing broadband  internet to customers immediately. Consumers easily recognize the value of 4G services and the entire industry is benefitting through strong subscriber growth and equipment and device sales”.

According to WiMAX Forum, the number of people being covered by WiMAX networks will reach an astounding one billion by the end 2011.

As of today, 823 million people are already covered and the growth of the WiMAX industry follows the estimations. Likewise, exponential growth also concerns the WiMAX subscriber base, carried by the great results of major WiMAX service providers. In the US, Clearwire announced an additional 1.8 million subscribers just for the first quarter of 2011, while UQ Communications (Japan) grew by 600 percent over the past six months. On a world basis, the number of subscribers reached 17.25 million which represents a growth of about 20 percent between Q4 2010 and the end of Q1 2011.

Carried by the increasing number of people to serve, the WiMAX market develops at the same very rapid rate.  More than 150 countries take part in the global market for WiMAX equipement  and it will reach $6.9 billion in 2014. This growth can be explained by the acceptance of WiMAX in other industry sectors to carry out communication needs. Whether it consists in covering cities with wireless broadband access or as an M2M communication device for smart grid projects, WiMAX is becoming a standard technology in multiple areas.

The WiMAX industry’s momentum relies on the fact that WiMAX is an interoperable technology with a wide available spectrum allowing high speed data transfers and giving companies a competitive advantage over traditional 3G or cable-using competitors.

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.

The WiMAX Forum South East Regional Focus held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Kuala Lampur from November 22-25, 2010 was preceded by the Wine, Dine and Demo showcase on November 18, 2010 in New York City. At the WDD event, Intel demonstrated a Slingbox (on the go) using a Toshiba Satellite L635 (Intel Core Processor based) laptop with embedded Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 connected to Clear’s Commercial Mobile WiMAX network in Manhattan. Slingbox over 4G allowed the Toshiba to play all 84 of the Comcast digital cable channels paid at a specific home address in the 97124 (Hillsboro, Oregon) zip code. “We essentially took our living room TV into Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom at 311 West 34th St,” said Sanjiv Gupta of Intel.

Now, onto Malaysia. On Friday, November 19, after being rushed to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Kuala Lampur via a slick S-Class Mercedes-Benz limousine, we stumbled on the tremendous glitter of YTL Communications Sdn Bhd’s official launch of “YES Fastest 4G Mobile Internet –with-Voice” service to Malaysians at the glamorous JW Marriott Hotel next door. The Hall was sold-out to a jubilant crowd who seemed to really understand the power of WiMAX and its efficacy for tremendous monetization now and into the future. The Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin led the launch by performing a video over 4G call with Malaysian students in London. YES is set to cover 80 percent of the entire Malaysian population by the end of 2011 from a current coverage rate of 65 percent.  With the YTL 4G foray happening in the background, the WiMAX Forum Southeast Asia Regional Focus event was itself officially launched on Monday, November 22 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Intel and Samsung served as Senior Sponsors with P1, Beacon, MIMOS and  SIRIM as co-organizers. Agilent Technologies, CEEDTec, CGY, Elite Core, GeoFlex, Huawei, iTopia, MSC, MTSFB, ZTE, MOSTI and SKMM  were participating sponsors. The event was initiated to all the dignitaries, sponsors, and participants with a cordial welcome by Mr. Ron Resnick, Chairman & President of the WiMAX Forum. This was followed by an opening speech from The Honorable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia.  Later, the SIRIM WiMAX lab was officially launched as a major test facility (in Kuala Lampur) for certifying devices to be deployed onto any world-wide WiMAX network. The MIMOS WiWi outdoor access point was also launched.
 
November 23-24 were two days filled with further in-depth keynotes and lectures. A highlight was when the Intel 4G team, in collaboration with Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (P1), demonstrated live applications over the indoor WiMAX network (established by P1 engineers using two single sector ZTE picocells operating at 2.3GHz channel frequency) as well as the outdoor commercial P1 4G network (Kuala Lampur City Center). P1 is Malaysia’s premier WiMAX telco. P1 personnel made it clear to us while we were there that they were revolutionizing 4G (in Malaysia) in terms of their ability to provide 4G internet access at an affordable rate, anytime and anywhere; hassle free to the Malaysian populace. According to StarSpecial, 19 August 2010 issue: “By the end of 2009, the 4G WiMAX network had been deployed to provide 4G broadband coverage in over 25 towns; covering areas in Kuala Lampur, Selangor, Penang, Kedah, Perak, Terengganu, Pahang and Johor, representing over 35 percent of Peninsular Malaysian’s population. Today, it has over 40 percent 4G WiMAX coverage in Malaysia with an admirable 196,000 happy subscribers… P1 is on track to provide high capacity, high speed 4G broadband to 45 percent of Peninsular Malaysia’s population by the end of 2010, and 65 percent of the entire Malaysian population by the end of 2012, further contributing to the national broadband agenda of achieving a 50 percent broadband penetration rate by the end of this year.”

In light of the great advances made by P1, Intel’s 4G team together with P1 deployed two livecasters (two ASUS eePC ion Netbooks each equipped with a Microsoft HD Camera, a P1 4G  UH235 Super Wiggy (Broadband on the go) USB adapter for WiMAX connectivity, and a GPS receiver). Two P1 engineers were chosen to walk around the Kuala Lampur City Center each with a backpack containing the aforementioned equipment with a web camera anchored in a sturdy pocket with a front view.  In this way they were able to livecast, over the P1 4G network, the beautiful Kuala Lampur cityscape back into a Lenovo W510 w/Intel 6250 WiMAX at the P1/Intel booth inside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.  The Lenovo laptop was connected via VGA output to a 42” flat panel display showing the livecast streaming from the Kuala Lampur City Center as well as from the P1 headquarters  – all viewed with Livecast Command Center perspective.  
 
This location-based livecasting (video + VoIP + GPS) service was touted as a perfect example of how the P1 4G network can be utilized.  Livecast allows one to instantly communicate/share data in real-time and is being used
1) by companies who can visibly identify work situations/boost employee efficiency,
2) by media and news organizations who can broadcast major news events as they happen,
3) by first responders who can improve results by instantly assessing emergencies/reducing response times,
4) by 4G operators who can provide subscribers with a reason to rely on their high-speed mobile data accounts to share quality video experiences each day, and
5) by families and friends who can check up on each other.

There were three conference rooms at the Ritz-Carlton turned into exhibition halls – one containing booths from Intel/P1 booth, Acer (WiMAX ready laptops for P1 network), MSI (WiMAX ready laptops for P1 network), SIRIM,ZTE, Greenpacket (array of indoor/outdoor 4G modems and USB dongles), Aptilo Networks, another containing booths from Agilent, MIMOS, ATDI, MOSTI, SKMM/MCMC, Huawei and a third dedicated to Samsung and YTL.  In addition to the livecaster demo, Intel/P1 showcased another stunning demo of a Logitech Revue (WiFi) with Google TV (using a 42” Samsung HDTV) connected to the internet using a P1 WiFi/4G hotspot.
 
A remotely located Lenovo T510 with Intel 6250 WiMAX and Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 were also used for a live video conference with the Google TV over WiMAX.  P1/Intel also demonstrated some M2M devices:
1) a MSI U130 Netbook with a Feeney Wireless (http://feeneywireless.com/products/panasonic_toughbooks/) Skyus 4G WiMAX USB Adapter (Intel 6250 WiMAX inside) connected to the indoor P1 4G network,
2) a Yealink VP-2009P IP Media Phone, a Yealink SIP-T28P IP Media Phone, and a Yealink SIP-T20P IP Media Phone all connected to the indoor P1 4G network via a P1 4G DX230 (Broadband For Home) CPE device, and
3) a Yeastar MyPBX IP-PBX for small businesses.  

Some further consumer demos included:
1) a Samsung N210 Netbook w/Intel 6250  WiMAX connected to the indoor P1 4G network,  
2) a Pegatron Lucid EXOPC Slate tablet w/Intel 6250 WiMAX connected to the indoor P1 4G network,  a thin and light Lenovo T410S Thinkpad w/Intel 6250 WiMAX connected to the indoor P1 4G network, a Dell laptop and P1 tablet connected to the P1 WiFi/4G hotspot, another Dell laptop connected with ethernet cable to a P1 4G DX230 CPE device, a  Lenovo laptop and a Dell Studio laptop connected to P1 4G network using a P1 Wiggy, a Dell laptop connected using a P1 4G UM230 (Casual Wiggy), and a Dell laptop connected using a P1 4G UH235 (Super Wiggy).
 
November 24th concluded with a tour of the MIMOS BHD & SIRIM WiMAX Testing Lab – for all WiMAX Forum SEA Regional Focus delegates. The legacy of Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad (fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia) can be felt in all aspects of 21st century Malaysian civilization – from its gleaming skylines, to its impeccable highways, to its fantastic metropolises, to its hard-working people, to its quality of life and to its power and communications infrastructure.  4G Broadband Technology with WiMAX at center stage is indeed an accomplishment for the world to envy! Some of the video coverage of the event can be viewed here and photos of at the exhibition can be viewed here.

The WiMAX Forum announced a few key note speakers at WiMAX Forum Congress 2010 from 16-17th of June in Amsterdam. Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL will address the audience on June 16. He will highlight the future of wireless broadband in India.

BSNL owns some spectrum space in India and launched commercial services last month. His address is entitled “India Empowered: BSNL’s Broadband Ambitions and Strategies for Addressing the Digital Divide with WiMAX“. Many in the wireless world will look to the current spectrum auction in India as the potential volume of opportunity being significant enough to make a difference for all WiMAX industry players.

Yota Director of Business Development Anton Koplakov will speak at the event. It will be the first time the general public will hear from Yota after their recent announcement of changing to LTE from WiMAX on the 2.5Ghz frequencies. Koplakov will speak on June 17.

Intel, Samsung, Alvarion, Huawei, ZTE, Tellabs, Motorola, Ciena, MACH and Bridgewater Systems sponsor the event. Goyal and Koplakov will join Barry West from Clearwire and Dr. Fumio Watanbe from UQ Communications and 35 plus operators speaking during the event. It’s a great opportunity to mingle and meet WiMAX industry insiders.

Yota’s decision to change over to LTE has industrialists asking why they’ve decided to do it so soon? Clearwire has also hinted at changing over to the technology. Insiders will debate whether to change over, along with exploring other applications for the technology.

GoingWiMAX.com had the pleasure of interviewing Kelvin Lee, Senior General Manager of Green Packet Berhad. He highlighted Greenpacket’s latest home WiMAX modems along with his take on the future of the WiMAX industry.

1. How do the latest modems differ from the ones Greenpacket released at the WiMAX Forum Congress Americas in December 09?
The EX series is a part of our cost-effective range of WiMAX modems that specifically caters to the residential market segment which according to 4GCounts, accounts for 68% of WiMAX subscribers.

This is why the EX series is engineered to fulfill the fundamental broadband need of home users by offering one LAN and one VoIP port. Single users do not need to pay for what they do not use. However, they are still empowered with a choice of connecting a router to the modem if they need more ports.

There is also cosmetic difference between the EX series and the DX and UH series that we launched last December.
The benefits of our new cost-effective range also extend to Operators as they now have an option to lower their subscriber acquisition cost and the flexibility to expand their service offerings for diverse market segments.

It has to be highlighted that being cost-effective does not mean that the performance of the new modems is compromised in any way. The cost-effective range is still fully geared towards the delivery of high quality wireless broadband through the little attention to detail we put in that makes a huge difference. For example, WiMAX Forum specifies a level of receiver sensitivity and Greenpacket’s EX modems surpasses that mark by 7.5dBm.

2. What market segment are you targeting with the release of these new modems?

The EX range is targeted at Operators requiring basic modems as the cost for it is effective in reducing their OPEX for mass WiMAX rollout. This includes the pre-paid market segment for residential use. The EX range would also allow Operators to create packages that are price sensitive or create a wider range of packages to suit different connectivity needs of their customers.

3. Can you highlight the new features and capabilities of your latest modem?

Featuring data and voice ports, the EX series deliver superior indoor performance. This is possible via a high gain antenna which improves the reception of WiMAX signals, multi-directional omni antenna which allows flexibility of device placement and, Switched Transmit Diversity Technology which selects the best antenna to use to boost the uplink signal strength performance during transmission.
There is also an option for an external antenna.

4. In January, you set the objective of increasing shipments by at least three times the amount than in 2009. Where are you on that?

As a business unit of a public listed company, we are not allowed to disclose our shipment numbers before the Group’s quarterly financial announcement. Green Packet Group will be announcing the first quarter financial results in mid May and we shall keep you informed on the results and numbers.

5. Which region of the world (United States, Central America, APAC, Africa, Europe…) is your business growing the fastest? Can you give us a background on this international presence?

Greenpacket has been successfully growing our business and customer base in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East region. This year however, we are gaining strong traction in the US and European markets.

Currently, we have eight offices worldwide including R&D centres, device development centers and regional sales offices. Our regional sales offices are located in Bahrain, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand to service our customers in the respective regions. However, we have doubled our sales force in the USA, Central and Latin America (CALA), and Europe.

6. What’s Greenpacket’s vision for the future of WiMAX?

WiMAX is a sunrise industry with a rapidly growing global traction. The WiMAX industry now is huge with increased population coverage and more devices developing to support the technology. The WiMAX Forum is now tracking 599 WiMAX deployments in 147 countries; there are new deployments every month. Population covered by WiMAX technology has also increased to 621 million by end 2009 and is further anticipated to grow to 800 million by end 2010.

We see WiMAX as an excellent ‘saviour technology’ in view of increasing network congestion due to increasing data traffic.  WiMAX can be a latter (receiving) network for legacy telcos to support data offloading.

Many industry analysts have compared WiMAX and LTE which they see as a direct competition to WiMAX. However, WiMAX however is about four years ahead of LTE, giving it a window during which consumer and market expectations are changing. We do believe that some Telcos will choose to wait until LTE is available and only then invest in costly network upgrades, which will in time bring them to parity with WIMAX enabled networks. Others will choose a hybrid model, leveraging the superior functionality and the immediate availability of WIMAX to supplement their current network to offer a broader range of products and services to its customers and alleviate current network congestion.

Those that choose a hybrid model will have first-mover advantage over the other legacy players, giving them the necessary edge in a highly competitive environment.

Greenpacket also sees WIMAX as a driver of converged technologies leading to a different communications business model encompassing an entirely new range of end-user devices and services. WiMAX allows a limitless range of devices to be permanently connected.

While the application of this to mobile phones, PDAs and PCs is perhaps more familiar, the opportunity goes way beyond that. Image a world where your camera or even your car is permanently online, or where cargo, products and equipment are permanently connected to a network. That’s beauty and future of WiMAX!

The WiMAX Forum appointed Frank Farjood as their new Chief Operating Officer. Oksana Davis became the Corporate Secretary and was appointed to General Counsel. These two individuals will be located in the new San Diego office.

Farjood will  be the day-to-day manager for the WiMAX Forum, overseeing the operational, tactical and strategic objectives for the WiMAX Forum. Farjood served as the vice president of global professional services at Nortel Networks. He spent 13 years with Lucent Technologies managing wireless system deployments.

“We are fortunate to have Frank as our COO,” said Ronald Resnick, President and Chairman of the WiMAX Forum. “Frank’s background in the telecom and wireless industry, coupled with his disciplined approach to execution makes him a perfect fit for the Forum.”

Davis will advise the Board of Directors on legal and corporate matters. Davis practiced law with Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, specializing in business, technology and corporate matters.

It’s an infusion of new blood into the WiMAX Forum. Both appointed officers have plenty of experience in the wireless sector. The WiMAX Forum will continue to expand and oversea the deployment of WiMAX networks worldwide, along with certifying the latest WiMAX-enabled devices.

The WiMAX Forum Congress Asia is upon the WiMAX world. Top industry insiders, along with media members, will gather in Taipei, Taiwan from April 12-14 to discuss a variety of WiMAX topics that matter to the Asia Pacific region.

Taiwan became an important WiMAX market in the last few months. Far EastTone, Tatung Infocomm and VMAX all have networks, mostly focused in Taipei and Hsinchu City. It’s the technology corridor in the country. Representatives from BSNL and other operators, including Tata Communications will discuss how WiMAX will be adopted in that country.

54 speakers will talk on a variety of topics, representing 24 operators from 15 countries. Attendees will be able to chat and connect with over 1,400 WiMAX professionals. Speakers will discuss the money-making WiMAX business model, how WiMAX can expand in the Asia Pacific region and spectrum and licensing can stimulate broadband, extending to stimulate the economy of an entire country. This is a concern for most operators world wide. The increase in smart phones means operators have to use more spectrum space for data usage.

Announcements will be coming from some of the top companies. Beceem Communications, the chip set maker already made two announcements about partnering for a new USB modem platform and market-ready USB device. There’s going to be announcements from other top WiMAX players, including GreenPacket and maybe a few other surprises. You’ll have to look for daily updates from GoingWiMAX.com to see what’s the news coming from WiMAX Forum Congress Asia 2010.

Events like this and other events held by the WiMAX Forum give industrialists and regular enthusiasts to meet the people that make the decisions that affect high speed wireless broadband. This one is for those in the Asia Pacific region. The APAC region is probably the fastest growing market for WiMAX. There’s several markets in Australia, New Zealand, India and Taiwan. The WiMAX Forum hosts events all over the world over the course of a year. The WiMAX Forum Global Congress is happening in June in Amsterdam.

The WiMAX Forum began an initiative to speed up WiMAX features based on it’s initial release. Certified products expected to use these enhancements should be in market towards the end of 2010.

WiMAX providers give users and owners a large amount of data, with some networks delivering over 10 GBs per month to the normal user. The WiMAX Forum understands the operator’s need for more advanced technologies as network use expands and the need for more data space grows.

“With the global demand for 4G wireless broadband services experiencing explosive growth, WiMAX service providers need faster networks with greater capacity and efficiency, and the WiMAX community has responded,” said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. “There is no country where this demand is as pronounced as it is in India, where there is less than three percent broadband penetration. WiMAX can address this demand as well as the growing needs around the globe, plus we’re committed to taking performance to the next level in an unmatched timeframe.”

The improvements include additional MIMO antennae on base stations, higher order of modulation on uplink, downlink beamforming and improved fractional frequency reuse. This will increase the reuse 1 deployments while ensuring multi-vendor interoperability. The features should double peak data rates and increase average and cell edge end user performance by up to 50 percent.

WiMAX Forum is also working on the IEEE Standard 802.16m later this year. It’s WiMAX 2.0, which means that the next version of WiMAX could be seen by the end of 2010. They are also preparing certification standards for WiMAX 2.0 products, with release by late 2011.

It’s good to stay ahead of the data crunch that some operators may face with the increase in subscribers. The WiMAX Forum does a great job of leading the industry by standardizing requirements for the technology. They continue to help foster and grow both the network market, along with certifying products and devices.

Tatung InfoComm, Ministry of Economic Affairs, will apply to establish an operator interoperability testing laboratory in Taiwan. It must submit the request to the WiMAX Forum.

Two laboratories are set up in Taiwan to certify products where the devices still must be sent to an OIOT lab for end-to-end interoperability testing before selling to WiMAX operators.

The only OIOT lab set up and approved by the WiMAX Forum was for Clearwire. Taiwan device makers account for 90 percent of the global CPE market, making $282.47 million worth of WiMAX CPE products in 2009. Shipping is expected to grow 86.8 percent in 2010. The OIOT will decrease expenses for device makers by decreasing shipping costs.

Photo Courtesy of Arthur Chapman via Flickr