Thursday, May 24, 2007

True fixed/mobile phone convergence seen years off | Breaking City News | Reuters.co.uk

It will be years before the much-hyped blending of services that run seamlessly over both fixed and mobile phone networks will allow consumers to communicate freely on any device, industry executives say.

Operators have trouble finding customers for combined deals offering fixed and mobile services, which are complicated to set up and lack choice in handsets, industry executives said at a convergence conference in Amsterdam that runs until Thursday.

LTE Could Steal WiMAX's Thunder

5/24/07 - Nearly 300,000 LTE Base Transceiver Stations will be installed by 2014, according to a new study from ABI Research. While LTE will encounter competition from other mobile broadband technologies, its supporters extol its potential to unify the mobile infrastructure market.


LTE brings to the market 25 years of operating experience using TDM and CDMA technology. It aims to use that, combined with OFDM, and other techniques, to provide the best of both worlds, perhaps stealing WiMAX's thunder. This also takes the industry from the current two-network approach of circuit switching for voice, and packet switching for data to a single IP network for both services.

"LTE faces competition from other broadband wireless technologies and it will need to demonstrate clear technical and economic advantages to convince network operators," says ABI Research analyst Ian Cox. "The mobile variant of WiMAX will start to appear in 2007 as the WiMAX Forum Certification program ramps up. The industry is also working on HSPA+, which could offer the same performance in a 5 MHz bandwidth. Without additional spectrum, operators could face a difficult choice."

Cox further comments that, "LTE is the NGN for the mobile industry and is being standardized by 3GPP with the full support of operators via the NGMN Group."

Long Term Evolution (LTE) of 3G technologies is about to benefit from Release-8 of the 3GPP standard, planned for the third quarter of 2007. The potential rewards of LTE are simplicity of operation, a "flat" architecture offering low latency, and spectrum flexibility. Backwards compatibility and roaming with 2G and 3G networks are added bonuses, along with lower power consumption and improved performance, . LTE could also unite the W-CDMA and CDMA communities because of its spectral flexibility.

For vendors, LTE will allow development of a new market to replace declining 3G revenues.

For users, says Cox, LTE will enable broadband services, including VoIP, to be offered over SIP-enabled networks. Each service will be IP-based, offering high data rates and low latency, with on-line gaming becoming a reality along with mobile network data speeds comparable to those of fixed networks.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Airspan WiMAX Plugfest

"With 33 companies participating in this latest WiMAX Forum PlugFest, we are seeing strong growth in the number of interoperable products and increased success during testing," said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. "Thanks to our member companies and PlugFest attendees, including Airspan, we are on track to begin certifying Mobile WiMAX products later this year. WiMAX Forum Certified mobile products will be interoperable, which is key in order to enhance the user experience while decreasing operator investment and consumer costs for broadband anywhere, anytime."Airspan has attended all of the WiMAX Forum public fixed and mobile PlugFests to date. Airspan has previously announced its intention to seek certification for its Mobile WiMAX versions of HiperMAX, MicroMAX and unique Quad-Band 16eUSB Mobile Station.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

ONEMAX IMS Deployment from Veraz

ONEMAX is the first commercial mediacom operator to offer Internet, multimedia and Voice over IP (VoIP) services over mobile WiMAX (802.16e) in the Dominican Republic, and one of the first to offer IMS over WiMAX services in the Americas.This is based on 3GPP IMS release 7. It includes core IMS functionalities, for routing (Call Session & Call Control Function) and customer identification (Home Subscriber Server), plus key IMS service delivery components such as Application Server Function and SCIM (Service Capability Interaction Manager); as well as interconnect functions (PSTN) such as Signaling Gateway Function, and Media Gateway Control Function. Additionally, Veraz integrated this solution with third-party network and management components selected by ONEMAX.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Netherlands Completes First Universal 802.16e2005 WiMAX Trial

5/14/07 - Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Casema, one of the largest cable operators in the Netherlands with more than 1.4 million subscribers, announced that it has successfully tested Universal WiMAX in the Netherlands. Casema is the first operator in the Netherlands to conduct verification testing for WiMAX, and it used the most advanced version, Universal WiMAX 802. 16e-2005.Alcatel-Lucent provided a complete WiMAX solution that operates in the 2.5 GHz frequency band, including base station equipment, wireless access controller, operation and maintenance center, customer premises equipment (CPE) including WiMAX fixed CPE and PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) cards for laptop computers -- to deliver Internet broadband access when on the move. Alcatel-Lucent also provided its advanced WiMAX engineering expertise and integration services.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

OTE Begins Nationwide WiMAX Network Buildout for Greece

OTE Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A., Greece's leading telecommunications provider, is testing a wide range of value-added, high bandwidth data communications services over WiMAX to be offered to consumers and enterprises nationwide.

OTE has already begun deployment on a nationwide network with initial projects that target pilot markets in Attica and Mount Athos. These pilot markets, used to evaluate the technology for the nationwide rollout, include approximately 20 access sectors and 200 subscriber units. Designs that include the consideration of 3D vector building databases will be part of the detailed studies used for the evaluation. EDX SignalPro with the Network Design Module was used for these initial network designs and will continue to be used throughout the rest of the deployment and optimization phases.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Unstrung - WiMax/Broadband Wireless - BT Wants WiMax - Wireless News Analysis

U.K. regulator Office of Communications (Ofcom) will auction 215 MHz of spectrum in the 2.6GHz range, which is commonly referred to in Europe as the 3G expansion band, at the end of this year or early next year. Ofcom has not finalized the auction and spectrum specifics, but it proposes that of the 215 MHz of spectrum, between 50 MHz and 190 MHz will be suitable for WiMax. When asked at a recent press briefing about BT's potential involvement in bidding for upcoming 3G expansion spectrum, BT Wholesale chief technology officer Matt Beal said the U.K. carrier "can't afford to think like an incumbent any more. Spectrum is risky... I don't feel I need to have the spectrum to play in WiMax.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

European WiMax RFPs heat up

European WiMax RFPs heat up

Swisscom Testing WiMAX for Rural Internet Access

Switzerland's Swisscom says that it is testing the WiMAX wireless standard in the municipality of Boltigen in the canton of Berne. Installations in the first test households are in place and pilot trials are successfully under way. High-speed data transmission via the telephone line cannot be guaranteed in all parts of the country due to topological and technical constraints, hence the trials of the wireless option.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

DBD Deutsche Breitband Dienste Expands Network With WiMAX

DBD Deutsche Breitband Dienste GmbH of Germany has placed orders for over 500 additional Airspan WiMAX base stations and a significant number of subscriber terminals.

DBD, Germany's first and largest WiMAX operator, provides broadband access services in the 3.5GHz band for both residential and enterprise customers. DBD has now rolled out services in more than forty networks, the largest deployment being in Berlin.

In addition, DBD is one of the first operators to deploy Airspan's VoiceMAX technology on a WiMAX network. VoiceMAX gives operators the ability to deliver carrier-grade VoIP services through a software suite that provides VoIP admission control, which monitors the user experience of voice calls over WiMAX networks. VoiceMAX enables wireless operators to prevent network congestion and prevents data traffic from degrading voice quality as the network is loaded with IP traffic.

"Airspan's WiMAX products have allowed DBD to strengthen its leadership in rolling out WiMAX broadband infrastructure in Germany," said Eric Stonestrom, Airspan's president and chief executive officer.