Unstrung reports that Intel has been talking up “WiMax” to carriers worldwide.
Top of Intel’s list of interested parties is European incumbent British Telecommunications, Hong Kong’s PCCW Ltd., Reliance Infocomm Ltd. (in India), Iberbanda (Spain), MVS Net (Mexico), Neotec (Brazil), and UK Broadband.
“We have been in discussions with all the major carriers about WiMax, and they are all very interested in the work that is going on in this space,” Intel spokesman Dan Francisco tells Unstrung.
“We expect to be first to market with the 802.16 certified silicon by the second half of this year,” says Intel (see Intel’s WiMax Drive).
Well, maybe.
Some five chip makers are currently planning first-generation WiMax chips. They including Fujitsu (with Wi-Lan) Intel (with Alvarion and Aperto), Wavesat Wireless (with Atmel’s foundry) and a Taiwanese company or two.
Intel expects to launch 802.16a chips in the second half of 2004. Realistically, WiMax members say it will be the first half of 2005 before systems start shipping in volume for outdoor deployments.
The new revision “D” of the standard brings two key additions to .16a. (1) a sub-channelization scheme that allows chipmakers to use smaller, cheaper power amplifiers, and (2) hooks for using antenna diversity techniques such as multiple input, multiple output antennas. “Rev D is what WiMax compatibility will be all about,” says Futjisu’s Agarwal.
What carriers in the United States might be interested in WiMax? Perhaps phone companies, using outside satellite dishes, would be well positioned to pick up the wireless last mile.
Satellite television providers have captured 25% of the multi-channel market.
- Both Qwest and SBC have stuck deals with satellite providers while Verizon will offer DirecTV satellite bundled with wireless, landline, and DSL service.
- Qwest Communications will partner with EchoStar’s DISH Network and DIRECTV, to make satellite TV services available to its customers. The company expects to rollout these services through 2004.
- MCI will provide 2-way satellite service using Tachyon’s satellite service for 128k bit/sec to 384k bit/sec for mid-range service and up to 1M bit/sec. The service will be priced between MCI’s business-class DSL, about $200 a month, and its T1 service, about $550 a month.
- Perhaps the most interesting is Cablevision’s Rainbow DBS system. The new satellite is targeting HDTV owners, by offering as many as 39 HD channels, including an exclusive VOOM package of 21 HD channels.
Rival U.S. satellite and cable services have offered no more than seven syndicated HDTV channels. In addition, as many as 88 of today’s most popular cable channels will be provided in standard-definition format, along with local digital over-the-air programming. NDS’s Digital Video Recorder, and MPEG-4 could also be deployed to double or triple the channel capacity.
VOOM is spun off from Cablevision, who is also the top bidder for licenses to build a U.S. wireless video and data network, called MVDDS, or Multichannel Video Distribution and Data Service, according to Federal Communications Commission. It operates within the same 12/14 GHz band used by DirecTV and DISH Network. But MVDDS is transmitted from local microwave towers, allowing enough bandwidth for hundreds of channels and high-speed Internet service.
When Northpoint Technologies fought to open the DBS spectrum at 12.2 GHz for terrestrial TV delivery, it was offered as a way to provide competition to cable and DBS. Now, as bidding in FCC Auction 53 for the Multichannel Video Distribution and Data Service (MVDDS) progresses, the two bidders that have emerged on top are backed in part by EchoStar and Cablevision Systems.
Satellite broadcasters initially opposed MVDDS and some are suing in federal court to stop it, claiming the spectrum is already too crowded and that local microwave antennas would interfere with their signals from space.
Small satellite dishes could now deliver it all.
DBS satellites deliver hundreds of national channels, MVDDS provides a dozen local high-definition channels, and 802.16a/d/e can deliver high-speed 2-way data, Video On Demand and even mobile voice.
No wires.
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