Alcatel today announced that it is shipping Universal WIMAX IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard equipment, as announced earlier this year (CeBit Video). Alcatel’s Evolium WiMAX solution is said to enable fixed and mobile operators to benefit from a solution that fits multiple services together in an optimized way.
Alcatel is supporting several WiMAX IEEE 802.16e-2005 trials worldwide, with commercial deployment announcements expected before the end of 2006. Alcatel is supporting trials with 10 customers on all continents– including those announced previously with BellSouth and Acca of Japan.
Alcatel is integrating its Evolium WiMAX solution with leading Mobile WiMAX chipset manufacturers such as Intel, Runcom, Sequans, Beceem, and various device manufacturers including Zyxel.
Alcatel’s Universal WiMAX infrastructure is based on the 802.16e-2005 standard, which natively supports fixed, nomadic and mobile usage. It is said to offer clear cost, coverage, flexibility and performance advantages.
Alcatel explains the 3G/WiMAX economics this way (pdf):
A pure Greenfield operator would get more for its CAPEX by deploying WiMAX instead of building an HSDPA network from scratch. Due to its high spectral efficiency, WiMAX would offer higher megabits per second for the same cost and could serve more users. However, an existing 3G network owner could upgrade to HSDPA at half the CAPEX it would take to switch to WiMAX.
“By mastering the whole range of wireless technology — CDMA EVDO, UMTS, GSM/EDGE and WiMAX– Alcatel will have a unique ability to assist its customers in their evolution to 4G. Together with Alcatel’s unrivalled leadership in DSL, Alcatel is set to lead the development and roll-out of seamless broadband,” said Marc Rouanne, President of Alcatel’s mobile activities.
Thus far, Alcatel’s WiMAX strategy has centered on a partnership to resell Alvarion’s Fixed WiMAX equipment, but Bruno Potdevin, vice president of business development and marketing for broadband wireless access activities at Alcatel, said the vendor giant is marshalling its resources toward 802.16e.
More than a dozen WiMAX trials are being conducted around the world using a variety of fixed WiMAX gear which is only now receiving compatibilty certification from the WiMAX Forum. Mobile WiMAX gear, according to industry observers, is expected to be certified next year and may typically deliver 1-2 Mbps with a range of 1-3 miles.
KT’s WiBro clouds in Seoul (above) may be a good indicator of Mobile WiMAX performance, although the WiBro implementation does not include MIMO or beamforming.
Mobile WiMAX basestations, using 10 MHZ-wide channels, may typically deliver a total throughput of some 25 Mbps. The IEEE 802.16e-2005 voice and data networking standard also includes MIMO and beamforming antennas which can increase speed and range.
Key Findings of market researcher Maravedis (pdf) indicate:
- With large volumes, WiMAX chipsets could sell for as little as US$10 by 2012, and other WiMAX components could benefit from these mass volumes as well.
- Outdoor WiMAX CPE will be phased out in 2008 with indoor CPEs representing the bulk of shipments. The cost of indoor CPE will fall to US$75 by that year, which will in turn boost the proliferation of WiMAX.
- Base station costs are more complex due to the variety of types and scale, but the average cost will fall under US$10,000 by 2012. However, base stations are less of a factor in the economic equation for operator deployments.
- 5.8 GHz certified equipment will become available in 2007.
[...] dailywireless.org » Alcatel Mobilizes WiMAXBy mastering the whole range of wireless technology — CDMA EVDO, UMTS, GSM/EDGE and WiMAX– Alcatel will have a unique ability to assist its customers in their evolution to 4G. [...]
Left by new cell phones Blog on December 24th, 2007