how-to block ads
|
DarnellP
join:2004-10-12
Las Vegas, NV
| reply to DaveNJ
Re: Another Minority tech
said by DaveNJ  : When manufactures have a choice between LTE which serves all the USA thru Verizon ATT, Tmobile Or WiMax which serves Sprint users. Just curious, why mention T-Mobile in a discussion about 4G technologies when they don't even have a 3G network in place and have made no announcements (that I'm aware of) regarding 4G? | |
tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI
| said by DarnellP :said by DaveNJ : When manufactures have a choice between LTE which serves all the USA thru Verizon ATT, Tmobile Or WiMax which serves Sprint users. Just curious, why mention T-Mobile in a discussion about 4G technologies when they don't even have a 3G network in place and have made no announcements (that I'm aware of) regarding 4G? Some people are "wishful thinking"..  | |
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| reply to xenophon
said by xenophon :The challenge will be to get WiMAX chipsets that support all possible spectrums. If Intel's first Wimax laptops don't have support for unlicensed spectrum, you can kiss this being a free standard good bye. There will be no installed base of unlicensed spectrum client adapters. Something tells me Intel won't add unlicensed support until a couple revisions, and by then, the existing base of adapters out there will kill any chance unlicensed has. I am very very very worried about what frequencies Intel's chips will support. Since the determines what happens with Wimax market wise. If it only does 2.5ghz, you can be sure Wimax will become a synonym for Sprint like EVDO is for Sprint and Verizon (I don't trust Clearwire in going semi-national). Strategic business decisions already have laptops coming with EVDO and HSDPA cards locked to carriers inside them. Each card that goes out with a laptop, will be highly likely to be activated by Joe Six Pack out of convenience if he decides to get a mobile broadband service.
Sure one day Wimax maybe used by small indie WISPs on unlicensed spectrum, but that will be non-Intel chipsets, and might as well be declared proprietary equipment (and it basically is), since a consumer will have to purchase it, and it might be difficult/impossible to find another provider for 10s/100s of miles that uses the same frequency band. And due to low volumes of unlicensed spectrum Wimax equipment, vendors are going to come out with proprietary "high speed modes" like wifi does today. Indie WISPs will require you buy a card that supports the mode so they can get more data over the same channels/their tower, and nobody will complain either, since its a special purchase anyways like any non-wifi fixed wireless product today.
Obviously Best Buy won't carry these special frequency/non-Intel wimax cards, and thats the market deathknell. Remember, businessmen control all technology rollouts, not geeks. So regardless of what the geeks that made the standard, say, want, try to force, it will be the CEOs who sign off on exactly what to do. Lots of/many features in standards that would be really nice, never get implemented, like SIM cards (called R-UIM) for CDMA (Verizon/Sprint/Alltel) phones. Its no technical reason, all CDMA providers outside North America use those cards, its a business reason why no North America provider uses them.
Time will tell what happens, I've tried to Google up what frequencies Intel will support, but since "use anywhere" Wimax is still vapor ware, I wasn't able to find anything. Pretty pathetic for a standard is supposed to come out 2 years ago, last, this, next year? Googling just now says »download.intel.com/network/conne···2250.pdf
quote:
When combined with the Intel® WiMAX Multi-Band Radio or thirdparty
RFICs, the Intel WiMAX Connection 2250 enables manufacturers
to create a broad range of WiMAX modems and residential
gateways.
Yep, we are going to run into a frequency war, and laptops are going to come with the frequency of the carrier who subsidized/co-branded the Wimax chip. Google doesn't say anything about this radio.
quote:
21. What frequencies will WiMAX technology operate on?
The WiMAX Forum operates in 2.3 – 2.7, 3.4- 6 and 5.8 GHz bands. The WiMAX Forum is working with operators and equipment manufacturers to expand the frequency allocation to cover all the key spectrum bands that our member companies identify as interesting to potential WiMAX service providers such as 700 MHz. For mobile applications, initial profiles have been developed for 2.3, 2.5, and 3.5 GHz. These are to address the current market demands. The WiMAX Forum has the ability to respond rapidly to development of additional profiles as additional spectrum is auctioned or markets change.
»www.wimaxforum.org/technology/faq/
Ok, thats it. My guesses are fact. 5.8 ghz is crap. Try wifi on it. Barly goes through anything, and I don't see why Wimax would be allowed higher transmit power than wifi. And since Intel isn't saying was frequencies, I can guess the Wimax Forum will be the defining body, since IEEE doesn't comment on frequency I belive. Unlicensed Wimax won't exist except as a intra-home WLAN standard competitor to wifi. | |
xenophon
join:2007-09-17
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | Those are good points and it's possible that Intel could pull a power play and only support 2.5Ghz, which would favor Sprint/Clearwire and cut out many other players in same markets. But if someone wants to do WiMAX in 700mhz or other spectrum, Intel would be foolish to limit themselves to just 2.5Ghz. I don't see them limiting themselves.
Intel also needs global support and 2.5Ghz isn't the only spectrum in play globally.
So there's a chance some power playing will go on. That's common in all areas of the telcom industry. But there will still be opportunities for more WiMAX players in same markets and competition beyond Sprint/Clearwire in the US. Those two are just simply first in US.
Unlicensed spectrum could turn out to be niche like you said. It has interference issues with other devices, which they are still working on, so may have to be limited to smaller range.
So while you could say that licensed spectrum isn't as open as unlicensed, the WiMAX ecosystem targeting consumer products is clearly more open than the traditional telcom product controls. | |
Quemann
@comcast.net
| reply to xenophon
Personally, I am with WiMAX in terms of its openness, interoperability and other potentials. LTE is yet to be born and will be commercially available around 2015. On the other hand, WiMAX has got a big success in South Korea and was incorporatted into ITU standard last year. The future of LTE is uncertain now becasue it is yet to be born. What a silly idea that ATT&T and Verizon boast of unborn babies.
WiMAX or LTE, mobile carriers are to gradually lose their market muscle since convergence of telecom, media, entertainment and advertising industries into mobile multimedia is dynamically under way. Besides, Nokia's upstream initiative, based on GPS, mobile gaming and multimedia networking advantages, will choke mobie carriers'
product portfolio strategy. Google's OHA alliance and other mobile platforms will significantly weaken carriers' gatekeeper status. Technology affilication may set the future of corporate giants. AT&T and Verizon have got plenty of time until they may start deploying 4G networks and may switch from LTE to a newer 4G or whatsoever later on. And even SK Telecom, one of the two commercially successful WiMAX carriers, has already advanced into US territory in the name of Helio, waiting until a tipping point pops up. Rumors are Intel will pump $2 billion into the Sprint/Clearwire deal, but late last year SK Telecom offered a $5 billion investment to Sprint. It remains to be seen whether telecom oligarchy will last nd until when. | |
|
