Wimax | Penang Wimax

Posts Tagged ‘Wimax’:

Taiwan government continues support of WiMAX

Published by Penang Wimax Admin in Wimax General, Wimax Worldwide on February 1st, 2012 | No Comments »

Bryan Chuang, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Monday 30 January 2012]

The Taiwan government will step up the development of wimax applications and help local operators expand coverage of their networks, according to Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

There are 584 WiMAX networks in 150 countries around the world and global WiMAX demand is still growing, IDB indicated.

Taiwan’s WiMAX production value in 2011 is estimated at NT$48.7 billion (US$1.52 billion), with terminal devices reaching a global market share of 79%, IDB noted. In 2012, MOEA aims at WiMAX production value of NT$60 billion, IDB said.

Tags: 2012, local, network, Taiwan, taiwan government, Wimax, world

The ITU approves the successors to LTE and WiMAX, how long until we hear about 5G networks?

Published by Penang Wimax Admin in Wimax General, Wimax Worldwide on January 25th, 2012 | No Comments »

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has just agreed on the technologies that are deemed worthy enough to earn the “IMT-Advanced” designation: LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced, the latter being more widely known as wimax 2. They don’t want to call it 5G, but you can expect AT&T’s marketing department to already be in the process of drafting up some ads. Nearly two years ago we wrote an article titled “4G in America: Lies, Lies, and More Damn Lies” explaining why HSPA+, WiMAX, and LTE didn’t deserve to be called 4G technologies, but the ITU caved in during mid December 2010 and let operators use the term 4G, despite the fact that it was previously meant to designate networks using LTE-Advanced. Semantics aside, what’s “IMT-Advanced” all about? François Rancy, Director of the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau, says:

“IMT-Advanced would be like putting a fibre optic broadband connection on your mobile phone, making your phone at least 500 times faster than today’s 3G smart phones. But it’s not only about speed; it’s about efficiency. IMT-Advanced will use radio-frequency spectrum much more efficiently making higher data transfers possible on lesser bandwidth. This will enable mobile networks to face the dramatic increase in data traffic that is expected in the coming years.”

To give you a better idea of what’s possible, just look at what Ericsson demoed in Sweden during June 2011. They were able to hit download speeds of around 954 megabits per second in a moving van using around 60 MHz worth of spectrum. Despite that being a real world test, i.e. not in a lab environment, we doubt we’ll ever see anyone offer speeds that high because no one actually owns that much spectrum in any particular market. At least we don’t think.

So now the question is when are we going to see such high speed networks crop up? Luckily for the U.S. it may be as early as 2013. Dish Network, the satellite TV company, owns 40 MHz worth of spectrum that they want to use for an LTE-Advanced network. They’re just waiting for the FCC to give them the thumbs up to use it. As soon as that happens, you bet we’ll cover the announcement!

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

Tags: 3G, 4G, Broadband, Fibre, High Speed, How, Job, LTE, Mobile, offer, spectrum, technology, What, Wimax, world

Clearwire’s growing financial problems threaten Sprint’s 4G plans

Published by Penang Wimax Admin in Wimax General, Wimax Worldwide on November 23rd, 2011 | No Comments »

Partial article from : http://gigaom.com/broadband/clearwires-growing-financial-problems-threaten-sprints-4g-plans/

Clearwire is thinking about skipping out on a $237 million loan payment due in two weeks, which could make things very uncomfortable for its primary shareholder and wimax bandwidth customer Sprint. A Clearwire default or bankruptcy could do irreparable harm to Sprint’s future 4G strategy –- whether the operator admits it or not.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Clearwire’s new CEO Erik Prusch said the mobile broadband wholesaler is weighing whether or not to conserve cash by putting off loan payments due Dec. 1. Clearwire has a 30-day grace period after the payment comes due so if Clearwire delayed sending a check, Pursch said the company could make good use of that time to seek more funding and to sign up new partners to resell its WiMAX service. Prusch declined to tell the Journal if Clearwire is considering the option of restructuring its debt load either in or out of bankruptcy, though he did say the company is consulting with multiple advisors on its “strategic options.”

Clearwire is walking a tightrope, and if it falls, its weight will land squarely on Sprint. Not only would Sprint lose much of investment during a Clearwire bankruptcy, but it also risks parting with perhaps its most valuable asset: spectrum. When Clearwire’s current incarnation was created in 2008, Sprint turned over 70 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum to the new venture, relying on Clearwire to be a good steward of Sprint’s future mobile broadband strategy. WiMAX turned out to be a flop, but as the network technology slowly dies, the spectrum it runs over remains just as valuable, if not more so.

Clearwire holds over 100 MHz in every major U.S. market. To put that in perspective, that’s more than five times what AT&T and Verizon are using to launch their current ultra-fast LTE networks. With that kind of capacity, Sprint conceivably could continue to offer unlimited smartphone data plans well into the future, while its competitors struggle to limit their customer’s usage.

Sprint wants to leave WiMAX in the dust eventually, which is why it has committed to its own LTE buildout using its own PCS spectrum. But you can bet Sprint is counting on keeping that 2.5 GHz in reserve, using the current WiMAX network to power its 4G smartphones and modems and Clearwire’s proposed future time-division LTE (TD-LTE) (subscription required) deployment to supplement future 4G capacity. Sprint, however, isn’t exactly advertising its dependency on that spectrum. ….more from