He rose from comparative obscurity to become general in chief of the Union Army. Born Hiram Ulysses Grant, he became known as U.S. (“Unconditional Surrender”) Grant under Lincoln.
– The Civil War
Some 107 commercial networks in 55 countries are now offering HSDPA (High Speed Download Packet Access), and another 82 HSDPA networks are planned or in deployment says 3G Americas. Among those countries deploying HSDPA is Brazil, the largest mobile market in Latin America with an estimated 66.5 million GSM customers.
But the future looks like a war zone for W-CDMA, because the “4G” standard is moving away from W-CDMA and towards OFDMA — a completely different platform.
W-CDMA carriers, representing 145 operators in 66 countries around the world, have committed to adding the high-speed downlink HSDPA element, and most will upgrade to the high-speed uplink HSUPA technology starting as early as this year, says 3G Americas.
Those two upgrades, which together are being called high-speed packet access (HSPA), will provide data rates as high as 14.4 Mbps on the downlink and 5.72 Mbps on the uplink, using 5 MHz of spectrum. Qualcomm has announced plans for HSPA+ chipsets capable of data rates up to 28 Mbps on the downlink and 11 Mpbs up, but they won’t be available commercially until the end of 2008.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the new thing for cellular carriers. LTE can support 100 Mbps data rates. But it requires new spectrum, new equipment and new devices. While HSPA uses MIMO antennas with W-CDMA, LTE combines MIMO with OFDM.
That means a forklift upgrade for anything above HSPA. New everything.
The problem, says Michael Thelander, chief analyst for Signals Research, is that HSPA+ with MIMO will only provide the advertised data and capacity benefits in a small part of a cell. Not at the edge. You’ve got be located under the cell tower to get the advertised speed of HSPA — or add a lot more towers.
LTE infrastructure could be ready for carriers in 2009.
But Sprint isn’t waiting. Chicago, Washington and Baltimore will get Sprint’s Mobile WiMAX network by the end of this year. Sprint expects the $3 billion project to reach more than 100 million Americans in 16 other cities by the end of 2008.
“We’re not building another cellular voice network,” Barry West, Sprint’s chief technology officer, told the Chicago Tribune. “Our killer application for this new network is mobile access to the Internet.”
WiMAX may disrupt the cellular industry by offsetting declines in average revenue per user (ARPU) says researcher Diamond Management. They say WiMAX has a large addressable market in the USA: 73 percent of American households and 52 percent of mobile subscribers. “By 2009, we’ll see a real battle for the projected 87 million U.S. households using broadband and the 161 million users of mobile data.”
“The success of WiMAX hinges on how quickly its ecosystem organizes and develops affordable applications and devices,” said the Diamond Management report. “Potential WiMAX players need to accelerate the adoption to attract a critical mass of users before competing technologies can catch up.
Mobile WiMAX (with OFDMA), delivers fast speeds to the cell edge — and may be more compatible with “4G” than HSPA. Sprint, Nokia, Intel, Nortel and others are not betting on HSPA. They’ve jumped ship. They expect Mobile WiMAX will be the foundation of “4G” — and more upwardly compatible with it.
There are currently some 2 billion cellular subscribers in the world. The UMTS Forum said in a white paper last year that it expects there will be 1 billion subscribers using HSPA and HSPA+ by 2012. ABI Research expects annual shipments of 3G and Mobile WiMAX devices will approach 100 million by 2012.
The “4G” war has begun.
Western Michigan is an early battleground for broadband wireless service, notes Broadband Reports. Sprint and Clearwire are going head-to-head, according to Michigan Live. Clearwire’s business rates for broadband wireless will range from $40 to $50 per month, with $30 to $40 for households.
“This is going to be the epic battle right here in west Michigan,” predicts Dan Carter, managing partner of West Michigan Wireless. “It’s going to be Gettysburg.”
[...] dailywireless.org » Civil War in 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the new thing for cellular carriers. … advertised data and capacity benefits in a small part of a cell. … But Sprint isn’t waiting. Chicago, Washington and Baltimore will … http://www.dailywireless.org/2007/04/12/cell-carriers-face-4g-decision/ [...]
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