Broadband wireless infrastructure developments and contracts seem to be raining down from the internets today. Here are a few items;
- Today, Alvarion announced that TDS Telecommunications has launched WiMAX services using Alvarion’s 4Motion solution at the 2.5 GHz frequency band. The deployment will delivery primary voice and data services beginning in Madison, Wisconsin. TDS has three residential tiers: 2Mbps/1Mbps for $45, 4Mbps/2Mbps for $50, and 6Mbps/3Mbps for $55. Alvarion’s BreezeMAX supports up to eight customizable service profiles per subscriber, providing the ability to tailor bundled service packages and apply varying levels of traffic classification and priority at both the subscriber and network levels.
The carrier’s network utilizes 2.5 GHz spectrum to provide digital phone and broadband service to nearly 65,000 customers in the Madison area reports RCR News. “The transmission signal covers a two-mile distance around each of our seven towers and reaches roughly 55,000 residential and 10,000 business addresses in Madison,” said Lisa Cvengros, executive VP and CTO at TDS.
- NextPhase Wireless, a developer of WiMAX-ready networks, today announced that the Company has received FCC approval for their application for a nationwide license to provide WiMAX wireless services in the newly released 3.65 GHz band (3650-3700 MHz) had been approved. NextPhase will also have the right to use fixed wireless spectrum licensed to Nextlink
- Tango Networks today announced support for Voice Call Continuity (pdf), which enables calls to continue uninterrupted as the caller transitions between disparate networks, including Voice over WiFi and mobile networks. With VCC functionality, users can seamlessly extend their enterprise PBX experience to any mobile phone — including dual-mode WiFi devices — and using any mobile network, including GSM, CDMA, 3G and now WiFi.
- Chile’s Comunicacion y Telefonia Rural has chosen Redline Communications to provide its RedCONNEX AN-50e solution to expand the carrier’s wireless broadband network in five cities in the southern part of the country.
- Nokia Siemens Networks was chosen by China Telecom to provide solutions for its video monitoring service called MegaEyes. Users will have access to the solution (camera) on a computer or handheld device that can log on to the Internet/Intranet. Nokia Siemens will provide its video monitoring platform along with consulting and systems integration.
- WiChorus, a developer of WiMAX core solutions, and Aptilo Networks today announced that they have completed interoperability testing of WiChorus’ Intelligent ASN Gateway with Aptilo’s WiMAX CSN (Connectivity Service Network) System for a standards-compliant Mobile WiMAX AAA and Service Control system based on the WiMAX Forum’s NWG 1.0.0 specification. Successful interoperability is a step toward an open WiMAX ecosystem that promises greater flexibility and growth for the market as a whole.
- Airband Communications announced that it will be expanding its reach and service by 50 percent in the Houston area. The company has been providing WiMAX services for Houston since 2001. Airband’s clients are located in Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, LA, Philadelphia, and Phoneix and plan a nationwide strategy. Airband currently serves more than 3,500 customers nationwide.
- MetroFi has stopped building in Aurora and Naperville, Illinois. MetroFi gave an ultimatium to city officials — pay $3.5 million over five years for an enhanced network with a public safety channel, or the free public network will not be completed.
- Maravedis predicts non-Sprint WiMAX subscribers will grow from a half-million at the end of 2007 to over 10 million by 2013, but LTE will be the dominant mobile broadband technology in 2012, with trials starting in 2010.
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IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) envisions a convergent future that will bring cellular networks together with other networks running WiMAX, Wi-Fi, cable, DSL and landline. Carriers recently have been slowing down their rollout plans because of the costs and complexity, says Wireless Week. France Telecom’s mobile arm, Orange, has said it will pursue a fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) strategy built around Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA).
No U.S. wireless carrier has yet to detail its plans to move to IMS, although AT&T Mobility offers a Video Share application which has IMS qualities. Verizon Wireless said it plans to introduce VoIP and mobile video telephony using an IMS technology and partnered with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Motorola, Nortel and Qualcomm on their A-IMS initiative in 2006, but Verizon hasn’t discussed its plans since then.
