Dual-mode WiMAX/LTE chipsets by 2009, says analyst

Analyst firm ABI Research reckons next year will see the arrival of dual-mode WiMAX/LTE chipsets. The demand, says ABI, will come from wireless device makers looking for greater economies of scale and to reduce the number of SKUs (stock-keeping units) that comes from creating devices that support both 4G standards.

"Some mobile operators are showing interest in dual-mode chipsets," says ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis, "and they are backing it with cash. Vodafone, for example, has a foot in both WiMAX and LTE camps. They will use LTE in industrialised regions, and WiMAX in developing nations. In Japan, KDDI may deploy LTE on its own, but as an investor (along with Intel and others) in WiMAX operator UQ Communications, KDDI has an interest in both standards."

Given that most of the early usage of both LTE and WiMAX will be for data transmission, ABI says that USB modems, laptops, netbooks, and MIDs are likely to be the first products to include the dual-mode chips.

"Because WiMAX networks will be deployed sooner than LTE, for competitive reasons these dual-mode chips are generally being created by WiMAX chip vendors, particularly the smaller, more agile ones," Solis adds.

Resource - WiMAX Vision

Motorola demos Long-Term Evolution technology over 700MHz spectrum

Motorola has completed its first over-the-air data transmission using Long-Term Evolutiontechnology over 700MHz spectrum.
Darren McQueen, Motorola's vice president for wireless broadband access technologies, says that the company's LTE field test is laying the groundwork for an eventual commercial LTE deployment next year. Motorola conducted the field test by using its LTE Radio Access Test Network and its LTE eNode-B platform to send data to an LTE prototype device.

Motorola's LTE field test comes just days after the company announced that it will beconsolidating its mobile phone platforms to Windows Mobile and Google Android in an effort both to save money and to focus on what the company believes will be the two most successful platforms for high-speed data services such as LTE.

LTE, considered by many analysts to be the next big wave in 4G wireless technology, is due to be launched commercially in 2010 by Verizon andAT&T, roughly two years after the Clearwire coalition's big commercial WiMAX launch kicked off in September.

LTE is a modulation technique that is the latest variation of Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology. Its developers at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project dubbed it "Long Term Evolution" because they view it as the natural progression of High-Speed Packet Access, the GSM technology that is used by carriers such as AT&T to deliver 3G mobile broadband.

Resource -Network World

LTE 4G to gain 32 million subscribers by 2013

Even before its launch in 2010 or later, the fourth-generation (4G) technology Long Term Evolution (LTE) is forecast to become the choice of many network operators. LTE may have more than 32 million subscribers by 2013, according to a study from ABI Research.

ABI senior analyst Nadine Manjaro attributes about 37.5 percent or 12 million of the subscribers to Asia-Pacific countries, while the remaining percentage will be split between Western Europe and North America. Telecom companies that have announced their plans of adopting 4G LTE include China Mobile, Japan’s NTT Docomo and KDDI, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless.

In China, operators are predicted to adopt LTE directly. Manjaro said that although China’s TD-SCDMA 3G technology will be deployed on a small scale during the Beijing Olympics, operators are unlikely to spend billions to implement that or any other 3G technology if they will have to upgrade within a year or two. Moreover, the China government is reluctant to grant 3G spectrum licenses.

The study says that the adoption of LTE will benefit various sectors, among which are test equipment vendors and vendors of the required network infrastructure itself.

Resource - c114.net