What is WiMax? What will it do for content delivery? This video should help with the Wimax explanation. Xoom Tablet on Wimax. What will the Wimax Xoom deliver? What about Sprint Xoom?
Posts Tagged ‘WIMAX’
WiMAX Xoom Tablet
SPRINT MOTOROLA XOOM CAUGHT IN WILD
A live image of Motorola’s XOOM bearing Sprint branding has leaked, adding fuel to the speculation that the carrier is next in line to grab the Android 3.0 Honeycomb slate. The picture doesn’t indicate whether Sprint intends to put 3G or 4G into the tablet.
However, rumors earlier this week claimed that Sprint was planning a WiMAX XOOM release (as well as an ATRIX 4G version running on its WiMAX network) which suggests that the carrier’s tablet will indeed use 4G out of the box. In fact, depending on when Verizon and Motorola get their LTE upgrade for the original XOOM organized, Sprint could beat them to market with the first 4G model: the carrier is tipped to be launching the new Motorola devices sometime in April.
Broader availability will hopefully help push down pricing for the XOOM as well, making it more competitive against the iPad 2.
Motorola Xoom WiMAX
Sprint WiMAX Xoom
According to TechnoBuffalo and their “very well-positioned source”, the June 9th Sprint event will be to unveil the Sprint Motorola Photo 4G. The rumored specs of this Android include a 4.3-inch qHD (960×540) display, WiMAX support, NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, 8-megapixel camera, latest version of MOTOBLUR on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread, soft-grip battery cover, metal kickstand, laptop dock accessory just like the Motorola Atrix 4G and a release date in stores of sometime in July.
Of course TechnoBuffalo doesn’t touch on the name “Sunfire”. This moniker comes courtesy of Chriz Zeigler who hints its is likely the same phone as the Photon 4G.
The event will also no doubt be used to unveil the Sprint XOOM WiMAX which has repeatedly leaked but no official announcement for it just yet.
More on this as it develops.
Xoom Cases For Xoom Tablet
Xoom cases enhance your xoom experience and protect the device from the wear and tear of daily use.
Rest easy knowing that your Xoom is wrapped in the finest leather casing from Piel Frama. These handcrafted Xoom covers are made in Spain by local artisans and end up sporting themselves in the local Starbucks. Sorry, no picture of that, yet. Available at The Xoom Shop.
Wimax In Depth
Another look at the inside of WiMax.
3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax, Deployment Concerns
What To Deploy And The Decisions Involved In When To Deploy
Over the past ten years mobile communications have transitioned from a luxury item to a utility as critical as electricity and water. With this rapid expansion of subscribers and services, the operators of the wireless networks are making money today and adding subscribers at rapid rates. India for example has growth between 20% and 30% year over year growth in mobile subscribers. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
However, this very success carries the seeds of potential crisis as these subscribers begin expecting, demanding and consuming ever-increasing amounts of data over these same networks. 3G networks-from the RAN architecture to the synchronous transport-were designed primarily to support increased voice capacity with a modicum of data support. They were never intended to support the multiple terabytes being transported today. HSPA and HSPA+, while definitely providing enhancements, are still bound by the 3G architecture and can be considered mere band-aids as opposed to long term solutions.
3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
As operators eye the incredible growth and hence strain on their networks, they must ponder the question: When and how do I make the move to 4G? It’s no longer a question of ‘if’, but more a question of “when” and “how”.
It’s Not a Technology Decision, It’s a Business Decision
With all the claims being thrown about over how many megabits per second can be achieved with WiMAX and LTE, there is a tendency for operators to get caught up in the technology hype. This can be a dangerous position. While technology is relevant, it should not determine the driving criteria by itself. When it comes down to how many bits/second/Hz WiMAX or LTE can provide, fundamentally they are both limited by physics. Both technology camps use the same techniques to enhance capacity and an objective apples-to-apples comparison delivers similar performance. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
Other parameters that should be considered before making a decision of WiMAX vs. LTE need to be considered. Each of the following questions and considerations has a major impact on the eventual success of the operator’s business case: 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
- What frequency band will be used for the network? Is it a standard band for either technology?
- Will you need to make a cutover to 4G or do you have enough spectrum to do an overlay a la Verizon and ATT with their 700MHz holdings? 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
- What services are being targeted? Do your subscribers look for basic email and internet access or will they be driven by high bandwidth applications like Streaming Video, Video Conferencing, Online Gaming?
- This in turn will determine what types of devices will be used on your network. Just phones? Data dongles? Laptops with connectivity built in? Will Machine to Machine be a part of your device strategy?
- These two factors will in turn drive capacity. One of the key changes for operators is the shift from the network being coverage limited to being capacity limited. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
- An operator must determine if data roaming is something their subscriber base is expecting. This in turn can be broken down to a question whether local roaming on competing local networks is more important than roaming internationally. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
- Probably the most difficult decision to make is the question of when to make the move. The timing of the move must be done carefully, as it has the potential to have severe negative impact to the bottom line if handled poorly at the wrong time.
Whether the operator is considering moving from 3G to WiMAX, 3G to LTE, or even WiMAX to LTE, they need to develop “transitional business cases” and be able to see the financial impact of such a transition. Ultimately all of the factors cited above have to be considered and factored into a business model where clear financial results can be predicted. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
Business Case for a Transitional Network
3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
Taking into consideration the factors listed above, integrating such technical parameters as terrain and equipment performance, and deriving the relevant financial results are not easy tasks. The right business model will allow the operator to adjust Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and see the immediate impact on the finances. The WiROI tool from Wireless 2020 is just such a tool and has been used to assist operators with decisions such as this in over fifty networks worldwide. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
The tool incorporates technical performance of a given vendor’s system, factors in market and subscriber data, applications, devices, and more-up to 300 input parameters-to deliver full and complete financial projections. With the WiROI tool, an operator can compare all three transitions mentioned previously:
- 3G to WiMAX
- 3G to LTE
- WiMAX to LTE
The result is a user-driven GUI with detailed financial numbers that can be used to help in this critical decision of what, and maybe more importantly, when to move forward. Figure 1 shows the results for a TD-LTE deployment in Malaysia. This depicts the results of a WiMAX license holder deploying TD-LTE in partnership with mobile carriers.
Figure 1
Making the Call
The rise of mobile data is undeniable. One can argue how much data a 3G network can support and when it will run out of capacity, but eventually the 3G network will run out of steam and the operator will be required to transition to 4G. With the “battle” between WiMAX and LTE increasing with each day, the rhetoric from both camps is in full swing. For an operator today running a successful 3G network, sifting through the competing claims can be daunting. It is easy to get lost in how many dB here or there this or that system can deliver. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
But in the end the decision by an operator must be made from an integrated business and financial perspective. As this decision will have a far-reaching impact on the viability of the operator, it is imperative that they have all the data at hand. Being able to model varying approaches and including the factors described above are essential for an operator in order to have confidence in the anticipated results. While this is probably the biggest decision an operator has to make, it does not have to be done blindly. Using tools such as WiROI can help make this decision with eyes wide open and full knowledge of the totality of potential impacts-from the minor issues to the most important ones. 3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
3G, 4G, LTE, WiMax
Sprint Branded Motorola Xoom Tablet
This Is It. The Sprint Xoom
We already informed you that Sprint would be proposing two Motorola devices currently being sold by other carriers, the decision was based on Android and Me reader’s comments. The first is the Motorola ATRIX 4G, currently on AT&T’s line-up, another one is the Honeycomb flavored Motorola XOOM tablet.
Both devices are available at Verizon. There was posted a picture of what appears to be a Sprint branded XOOM. Although the Verizon and Sprint specs might be the same, the interesting question is will the device be launched with WiMAX or will it be shipped with 3G and need a factory upgrade to 4G. This is the same situation with Motorola’s initial units of the XOOM. Devices that have been shipped with 3G a will require a Motorola update to connect to 4G.
Next Generation Mobile WiMAX
On Thursday, the IEEE formally approved IEEE 802.16m, also known as the next generation of mobile WiMAX technology, or Mobile WiMAX Release 2.
The technology, also known as WirelessMAN, offers a significant jump from the current WiMAX technology, based on the 802.16e standard. While the latest technology should be backwards-compatible with the existing infrastructure, it’s also unclear how owners of existing WiMAX-capable devices will be affected.
Mobile WiMAX R2 can support speeds of both 120-Mbit/s downlink and 60 Mbit/s uplink per site simultaneously, according to the WiMAX Forum, within what the organization calls an “urban microcell scenario” with a 4×2 antenna array. In contrast, a 2006 study by the University of Nebraska developed an 802.16e test bed that produced a maximum throughput of about 67 Mbits/s over a maximum distance of about 3.3 kilometers.
Within the U.S., WiMAX, used by Sprint and its partner, ClearWire, is competing against LTE and other cellular-based technologies. Representatives from Clearwire, the leading WiMAX vendor in the United States, were not immediately available to answer questions, however. The company offers plans with “no preset speed cap” for download speeds and 1-Mbit uploads for $45 per month, or $35/mo with a 1.5-Mbit/s download cap.
However, the WiMAX Forum, which oversees the implementation of the technology, has said that it will work to finalize its Release 2 profile, or set of interoperability requirements, to enable backwards compatibility. The new standard will allow multi-user MIMO, multicarrier operation, and cooperative communications. It supports femto-cells, self-organizing networks, and relays.
Major worldwide governmental and industrial organizations, including ARIB, TTA, and the WiMAX Forum, are adopting the standard, the IEEE said. The 802.16m technology has already been approved by the ITU.
“We are delighted that IEEE has recognized the completion of this comprehensive technical effort that has involved hundreds of creative and diligent professionals from over twenty countries during the last four years,” said Roger Marks, chair of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group, in a statement. “Our organization was able to efficiently harmonize these innovative technologies into a clear set of specifications guiding the future development of the mobile broadband marketplace.”
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WiMax vs LTE
Since we now know that Sprint plans to build and operate its own LTE network, it’s pretty fair to say that WiMAX is dead as a technology for consumer handsets in the United States. Once Sprint gets its LTE network up and running, it will mean that all three major wireless carriers in the United States support LTE, as both Verizon and AT&T have already commercially deployed LTE in various markets. WiMax vs LTE
The chief reason for WiMAX’s downfall in the consumer handset space is a simple one: The tech industry likes uniformity and WiMAX wasn’t adopted by enough carriers to make it the de facto standard for 4G mobile data in the U.S. Think of it in terms of economies of scale: It’s much more profitable for device manufacturers to sell devices to multiple carriers by just slapping LTE radios and chipsets into devices instead of having to make separate devices for different carriers or having to insert dual radios into their devices. WiMax vs LTE
WiMAX has suffered significantly in the past two years as LTE has been adopted by more and more commercial operators around the world,” writes wireless analyst Andy Seybold. “It should be clear to everyone by now that LTE will be the 4G technology of choice for worldwide deployment and that for the first time in many years we are on the verge of moving toward a worldwide standard for data (first) and later voice services. Support for WiMAX has faltered since Intel pulled the plug on its program to make WiMAX a world standard 4G technology and it stopped investing millions of dollars in supporting WiMAX around the world.” WiMax vs LTE
The other reason that WiMAX never caught on in the United States is that the only carrier to adopt it early on happened to be Sprint. Sprint bet big on WiMAX in 2006, as it earmarked $5 billion to build a nationwide network with the assumption that having 4G services up and running before Verizon and AT&T got around to launching their own LTE networks would give Sprint a major competitive advantage in the wireless data marketplace. WiMax vs LTE But with Verizon getting its LTE network fired up in 38 markets last year, Sprint’s time-to-market advantage expired before the company had made significant progress in upping its customer base relative to Verizon and AT&T. WiMax vs LTE
It also hasn’t helped that Sprint has been financially in tumult ever since its merger with Nextelin 2005 and the subsequent adoption of the Nextel iDEN network that has cost the carrier millions of wireless subscribers over the past several years. Couple this with the fact that Sprint’s partner in building its WiMAX network, Clearwire, has been flirting with financial doom over the past year and you can see how WiMAX just wasn’t well-positioned to become the dominant wireless technology for consumer handsets in the United States.
Tech argument: WiMax vs LTE
What’s more, Verizon’s LTE network bested Sprint’s WiMAX network in a speed test run by PC World earlier this year that showed Verizon’s LTE laptop air cards provided average download speeds of 6.5Mbps while Sprint’s WiMAX services delivered download speeds of between 3M and 6Mbps. While this difference doesn’t seem all that drastic, PC World found that Sprint’s WiMAX network was not available on a consistent basis, meaning that users who subscribed for 4G services weren’t guaranteed to have access to those services wherever they went. WiMax vs LTE
So does this mean WiMAX is toast all together? Well, no. WiMax vs LTE
While WiMAX isn’t likely to be used for your smartphone, it does have several other uses besides downloading Angry Birds. WiMAX Forum Vice President Mohammad Shakouri says that although major U.S. wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon have chosen to deploy LTE over 700MHz spectrum, WiMAX will still find a home delivering data for a wide variety of U.S. industries including airports, oil and gas companies and the burgeoning smart grid industry.
In the United States, for instance, fuel transportation company Explorer Pipeline was one of the early adopters of Sprint’s WiMAX-based 4G Enterprise WAN and it has deployed the network at its storage facility in Houston primarily to handle supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) traffic that is used to operate the pipeline and control pressure valves to ensure safety, among other things. Shakouri says we should expect to see WiMax pop up in a wide range of different devices in the near future that go beyond flashy consumer handsets. WiMax vs LTE
“The difference between the WiMAX industry and LTE is that WiMAX is also going more after complementary solutions,” he explains. “You will see WiMAX providing communications needs in terms of building things such as the smart grid.”
WiMax vs LTE
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Sprint Evo View 4G With Honeycomb
HTC’s Evo View 4G, which is coming on Sprint in US, has suddenly become more interesting. According to the mention on Sprint’s coming soon page, this Wi-Max supporting HTC tablet will have Android 3.0 on-board.
Evo View 4G is a variant of HTC Flyer which was announced at Mobile World Congress, but is coming with Gingerbread on-board. This news gives hope for those waiting for Flyer, as Flyer might also get Honeycomb before shipping.
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