Romania Grants WiMAX License

Romania's new telecoms regulator, ANC (which recently replaced ANRCTI) says that it has awarded a WiMAX 3.6Mhz license to Radiocommunications National Society (SNR) for a payment of €2 million.

SNR was granted the right to use the 3657-3685 MHz and 3757-3785 MHz frequency bands under the terms of the Government Emergency Ordinance no.18/2008. By observing the provisions of this Ordinance, SNR released the 3600–3657 MHz and 3700–3757 MHz radio frequency bands it held, thus receiving the right to implement BWA systems in the two remaining sub-bands. As regards the released bands, ANC is currently conducting a comparative selection procedure in view of granting two licences.

The minimum license conditions require the coverage of at least 50 cities and at least 20 towns. The coverage is defined in relation to the number of base stations installed and in operation in a certain locality, within a certain deadline.

The amount of the licence fee to be paid by SNR was calculated proportionally to the validity period of the right to use the radio spectrum. SNR is entitled to use these radio frequencies until 24 July, 2011.

Resource - cellular-news

HTC Launches WiMAX-GSM Smartphone

Scartel (brand Yota), a Russian provider of Mobile WiMAX, and HTC have launched the world’s first integrated GSM/WiMAX hands

“Yota was established to provide a unique set of mobile communication services to millions of people in Russia and today we have launched the first device and services to realise its full potential,” said Denis Sverdlov, General Director of Yota’s parent company, Scartel LLC (brand Yota). “We really believe that these innovative services, high-speed Internet and stylish HTC MAX 4G will completely change the communications industry, just as the introduction of cellular communications did many years ago.”

The Yota Mobile WiMAX network offers high-speed wireless Internet access, and the Mobile WiMAX network with traffic prioritisation algorithms, allows online films, video and TV programmes to be viewed on the large WVGA screenet.

Broadcasting 14 free channels at launch and 23 channels by the end of 2008, Yota TV introduces a powerful mobile television experience. The vibrant, 3.8 inch 800x480 screen of the HTC MAX 4G can display up to nine TV channels simultaneously, allowing quick and easy channel surfing and programme selection. Thanks to the device’s TV-out capability, users can also watch content on the big screen, putting the HTC MAX 4G at the very heart of the mobile entertainment experience.

”The introduction of the HTC MAX 4G represents the culmination of a close partnership between HTC and Yota to develop the world’s first integrated mobile GSM/WIMAX handset,” said Peter Chou, CEO and President, HTC Corporation. “Russia is a key strategic market for HTC and Yota’s Mobile WiMAX network sets a new global benchmark for next-generation mobile services.”

The HTC MAX 4G supports GSM calls using a SIM card from any Russian network operator and when both callers are Yota subscribers, the call will automatically be routed as a VoIP call over the Yota Mobile WiMAX network.

Resource - cellular-news

Globalstar can do WiMAX, says FCC

The FCC has allowed satellite service provider Globalstar to use its spectrum for WiMAX in the US.

By modifying the terms if its licence, FCC has given Globalstar the green light to deploy WiMAX services to over 500 rural American communities that currently do not have adequate access to terrestrial-based broadband voice and data services.

In its release, the FCC stated: "We modify Globalstar's license to permit use of the WiMAX air interface protocol... permitting Globalstar and its spectrum lessee, Open Range Communications (Open Range) to commence deployment of a broadband service consistent with a $267m loan commitment from the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Utilities Program."

Jay Monroe, CEO and Chairman of Globalstar, said: "We are very pleased that the FCC has authorised Globalstar and our WiMAX partner to proceed with adding WiMAX service to our mobile satellite service in rural communities throughout America beginning next year. Those living in unserved and underserved small towns and rural communities will, for the first time, have access to services that urban and suburban residents and small businesses now take for granted."

Resource - Wimax vision

WiMAX goalposts move in Taiwan

Taiwan's WiMAX landscape is in flux. Chunghwa Telecom, the island's incumbent (which failed to get its hands on of the six WIMAX licences up for grabs in 2007) appears to have been given the green light to invest in Global Mobile, a WiMAX licensee.

The NCC (National Communications Commission) had previously barred Chunghwa from investing in Global Mobile on the grounds that the island's incumbent had not been mentioned when Global Mobile had first applied for its WiMAX licence. The NCC's appeals committee has now overturned that ruling.

Moreover, HwaCom, a systems integrator that also failed in its bid for a WIMAX licence last year, could now be in line for a WiMAX licence after all. The Petitions and Appeals Committee of Taiwan's Executive Yuan has revoked a previous NCC decision that disqualified HwaCom Systems from applying for a WiMAX licence in Taiwan. The appeals committee has now asked the NCC "to review and properly deal with the case" within a period of two months.

HwaCom was one of five applicants out of ten that received a score below the 75-point bottom limit for proposals, which meant it couldn't take part in the bidding process for one of the three WiMAX licenses available in the southern region of the island.

The systems integrator subsequently submitted an appeal, as its initial bid was higher than some of the applicants who qualified to take part in the WiMAX bidding process.

With regard the potential participation of Chunghwa in Taiwan's WiMAX market, some industry observers believe it could have both advantages and disadvantages. Jason Lin, a professor at National Chiao Tung University, quoted in a local newspaper report, says: "If the ruling actually motivates Chunghwa to speed up the development of WiMAX services, then it will help the industry. The bad news is that the move will likely put tremendous pressure on other telecom operators and could limit their growth."

Chunghwa's investment in Global Mobile is not allowed to exceed 15 percent of the firm's capital. Global Mobile has yet to launch commercial WiMAX services.

Resource - WiMAX Vision

Malaysian regulator fires WiMAX warning shot

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is threatening the country's WiMAX licence holders with penalties if they fail to meet their 25 percent population coverage targets by the end of this year,

It is not yet clear what those penalties might be - fines or even revoking the licences - but the regulator is clearly keen to make sure there are no further delays in WiMAX rollout.

It was in March 2007 when MCMC awarded four WiMAX licences in the 2.3GHz frequency band: Packet one (P1), Y-Max and Asiaspace to serve peninsular Malaysia, and Redtone for East Malaysia.

The original deadline for commercial service launch was end 2007, but it wasn't until August 2008 that P1 and Redtone started commercial WiMAX service; Asiaspace followed shortly afterwards. Y-MAX has yet to offer a commercial WiMAX service.

P1 has already announced it will meet its 25 percent population coverage target for peninsular Malaysia by the end of 2008, and, to meet MCMC requirements, will extend population coverage to 35 percent and 46 percent of its licence area by 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Redtone CEO, Zainal Amanshah, told WiMAX Vision that he was on course to meet the 25 percent coverage deadline, although WiMAX Vision could not ascertain what the latest WiMAX rollout plans were for Asiaspace and Y-Max.

Zainal does, however, have a gripe of his own. "Redtone was given only a 25MHz spectrum block whereas the other players were given 30MHz," he says. "We have appealed to the MCMC to give us 30MHz for East Malaysia, which is critical for an efficient rollout."

Resource - WiMAX Vision

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

ZTE Gains WiMAX Forum's Wave2 System Certification

ZTE Corporation, China's leading telecom equipment manufacturer, has announced that its WiMAX 16e system gained the Wave2 qualification certification issued by the WiMAX Forum.

Prior to this, the company gained the WiMAX 16e terminal Wave2 certification issued by the same organization in August 2008. So far, ZTE has become the first Chinese manufacturers that acquired both system and terminal WiMAX Forum's Wave2 certifications.

Zhao Songpu, general manager in charge of ZTE's WiMAX products, says that the company is proud to receive the WiMAX Forum's Wave2 certifications for their WiMAX system and terminal products. It not only represents ZTE's mature business application power, but also a strong impetus to the development of the WiMAX industry chain. At the same time, ZTE is committed to the promotion of standardization of WiMAX 16m and puts forward a number of effective proposals to drive the development of the industry through collaborative efforts with systems integrators, terminal producers, chip makers and service providers.

Established in June 2001, the WiMAX Forum is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard. Wave2 certification is an authorized certification issued by WiMAX Forum to products or solutions that can meet the professional and strict tests held under thorough standards.

As one of the world's first telecom manufacturers that entered the research of WiMAX technologies, ZTE is also one of the 15 members of WiMAX Forum's board of directors. It has launched a complete set of WiMAX indoor coverage solution, which resolved the unsatisfactory indoor coverage performance caused by high bandwidth. By August 2008, ZTE has deployed over 30 WiMAX 16e networks across the world, covering countries and regions in Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Resource -China Tech News

India delays 3G, WiMAX licensing until next year

India's much anticipated auctions for 3G and WiMAX licences look to have been delayed further and may now not take place until next year.

The hold up appears to be a result of the government failing to clear the relevant radio spectrum in nine circles, or operating regions, out of India's total of 22.

In the circles in question - Delhi, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, East Uttar Pradesh and West Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, North East and West Bengal - it appears that it is the defence forces which are yet to vacate the spectrum.

People familiar with the matter told telecoms.com that there are issues of getting the spectrum cleared from defence services using the 1920-1980MHz band, and since the government has committed to holding the 3G and BWA (Broadband Wireless Access, to be used for WiMAX) auctions simultaneously, the BWA auctions would also be similarly delayed.

The best case scenario for the auctions to take place now appears to be early in 2009, possibly even January.

Both the 3G and BWA licenses are expected to win major interest from India's wireless players given the explosive subscriber growth potential of the country.

By the end of September 2010, there will be 500 million mobile subscriptions in India, according to figures released this week by analyst house and telecoms.com parent Informa Telecoms & Media.

Whilst it took 13 years for India to gain its first 250 million mobile subscriptions, the analyst predicts that the country's second 250 million subscribers will be added over the next 30 months.

India is the world's second largest mobile market, as well as the second fastest growing market after China. During the first six months of 2008, Indian mobile operators added over 50 million net additions, with China just keeping ahead with 53.6 million. By comparison, saturated markets such as the UK and France, chalked up net additions of 410,000 and 535,000 respectively.

Principal analyst with Informa, Nick Jotischky, said that the engine for this rapid growth has been increased competition, driven by tremendous consumer demand, with the result of heavy investment from the country's largest operators.

"The bottom line is with a penetration rate of 26 per cent, India is a hugely attractive investment destination, and will continue to be so for many years. Indeed, our forecasts suggest that the active subscription rate will remain well below 50 per cent until 2010," said Jotischky.

A second phase of growth is also anticipated to be sparked by the allocation of 3G licences, with Informa forecasting a rapid take up on the back of growing demand for data services. The analyst predicts there will be 7.5 million WCDMA connections by the end of 2010, a figure that will leap to over 120 million by the end of 2013.

The award of 3G licences will also be important to India's leading operators as they will allow them to differentiate their offerings from those of their competitors as well as provide them with much needed additional spectrum.

Resource - Wimax Vision

Skype likes WiMAX

Skype COO, Scott Durchslag, on a business trip to Taiwan, has been talking up the VoIP over WiMAX opportunity.

While 'traditional' mobile operators clearly have strategic issues at stake with VoIP, since there is potential it might cannibalise circuit-switched voice revenue, new WIMAX entrants - using an all-IP network - clearly have no legacy voice revenues to protect.

And Durchslag, according to local Taiwanese reports, certainly feels that VoIP service providers face conflict with mobile operators, although there are signs that this may be changing with the recent announcement by mobilkom, an Austrian mobile operator, to let its customers access the mobile VoIP client from Fring.

Durchslag went on to explain there is more scope for cooperation with WiMAX players than mobile operators as there will be new applications to work with. What new applications Durchslag was actually referring to, however, was not made clear.

In addition to visiting PChome Online, Skype's local service operator in Taiwan, Durchslag was also - according to local reports - exploring opportunities to cooperate with Taiwan-based makers of handsets and mobile devices.

Resource - Wimax Vision

WiMAX Forum predicts 19 million India subscribers by 2012

The WiMAX Forum has issued several predictions for the Indian WiMAX market. The combined equipment and service revenues are projected to be worth $13 billion in 2012 and capture 19 million WiMAX subscribers, or 20% of the world's WiMAX user base. The industry trade group cited the commercial availability of WiMAX technologies, affordable device price-points and government support for additional spectrum auctions as proof-points for the forecasts.

Broad availability of affordable mobile technology in India will have a tremendous positive effect on the nation's economy. "India currently has only 4.5 million broadband users out of a population of 1.2 billion people," said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of WiMAX Forum. According to Indian government figures provided by the trade group, the Indian economy is currently growing at 9% year-over-year. The country is witnessing 8~10 million additional mobile phone subscribers every month. The WiMAX group predicts that widespread access to broadband will greatly increase economic productivity by laying the groundwork for important initiatives, such as distance learning, telemedicine and e-government.

In support of India's potential, WiMAX Forum is in the early stages of planning a WiMAX Applications Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The lab follows existing partnerships in Taiwan and the United States. Application labs provide content developers a sandbox to trial service and distribution concepts on a WiMAX network before adoption on operational carrier networks.

Serious work remains to see WiMAX or any mobile broadband technology succeed at connecting the citizens of India. What is the monthly ARPU (average revenue per user) that establishes a sustainable service provider? How cheap must devices be to make them accessible and functional? Are there applications and services that compel the mainstream population to adopt? More time is needed to answer these questions and understand how subscribers shift consumption of information from neighborhood Internet cafes to personal mobile solutions.
Resource - WiMAX Forum

Exclusive: HTC’s First WiMax Device!

So early yesterday evening I got a rather cryptic contact submission here on nedge2k.com regarding a new WiMax enabled HTC device. Needless to say, this had me pretty excited. This morning, I got the pictures and some info…so here it is!

What we have here is the "HTC T8290" and it is due out on the Russian WiMax network, Yota, very soon - so I’m told. Some specs as follows:

* 3.8" 800×480 WVGA LCD
* GSM+WiMax
* 802.11g WiFi
* Bluetooth 2.0

…yes, specs are a bit thin on the ground but I’m told to expect more info soon!

So what’s so good about WiMax? Well, think of it as having ADSL2+ on your phone! From the pictures, you can clearly see this thing is connecting at speeds around 14meg, impressive!

More info as I get it. Many thanks to my anonymous tipster for this great scoop!

Resource - nedge2k