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Tag: wimax

  • Almost Two Million Mobile WiMAX Subscribers Expected by End of 2009

    Larger-scale mobile WiMAX network deployments are finally becoming a reality, according to recent ABI Research report.

    The research shows Clearwire in the United States has already declared 173,000 subscribers, Yota in Russia has been growing at a decent rate reaching 100,000 subscribers in August and 200,000 in October, and PacketOne in Malaysia has reached 130,000 subscribers.

    “UQ Communications once expected to reach 300,000 subscribers by the end of 2009, but is behind schedule in its rollout and will fall short of that initial target. South Korea has seen KT’s and SKT’s subscriber numbers remain fairly stagnant, while these service providers prepare for another big push as a third WiMAX service provider comes to South Korea,” says the report.

    ABI Research predicts this handful of WiMAX service providers alone will account for a significant minority of the nearly two million mobile WiMAX subscribers expected by the end of 2009.

    "Mobile WiMAX service providers around the world find themselves in very different situations," comments ABI Research practice director Philip Solis.

    "Some are mainly focused on fixed services for homes and businesses, while others are jumping feet first into mobile WiMAX, offering a variety of external modems, laptops, netbooks and even handsets tied into HD multimedia services, as with Yota in Russia. Some have little fixed or mobile broadband competition, while others are competing directly against fixed and mobile broadband services.

    "Some, such as Japan’s UQ Communications, are behind their buildout schedules and subscriber expectations, while others such are Clearwire are increasing the pace of their deployments because of more-than-adequate funding. Still others such as Yota in Russia are exceeding all expectations. Some are remaining local, while others, such as Clearwire and Yota, are building networks in more than one country.”

    The research group also says that just as the mobile WiMAX market is starting to bloom, LTE networks from early movers such as Verizon Wireless and NTT DoCoMo are targeting the same potential customers.

    According to the analysts, LTE ecosystem will eventually be vastly larger than the mobile WiMAX ecosystem. “But just as LTE deployments start picking up in 2011 and 2012, some 802.16e service providers will begin upgrading their networks to 802.16m,” they say.

  • Samsung Develops First Commercial LTE Modem for Mobile Phones


    Samsung announced that it has developed, as it claims, the first Long Term Evolution (LTE) modem that complies with the latest standards of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which were released in March 2009.

    The modem, branded the Kalmia, supports download speed up to 100Mbps and upload speed of 50Mbps within the 20MHz frequency bandwidth.

    Samsung assures that the users of a mobile device equipped with the LTE chipset can download a high-definition movie file (800MB) in one minute at speeds of 100Mbps, while simultaneously streaming four high-definition movies with no buffering.

    Utilizing Release 8 of the 3GPP, this LTE modem is an upgrade from the previous standard that was released in December 2008.

    The company also announced it has successfully developed a 3G baseband modem based on the Release 7 standard with an HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) Evolution platform.

    This modem, branded the Broom, allows download speeds of up to 28Mbps and upload speeds of 11.5 Mbps. This makes the Release 7 more than twice as fast as the Release 6 HSPA Service, which had a maximum download speed of 14.4Mbps.

    Because the LTE and all other HSPA evolution models share the same platform, the new LTE modem is fully compatible with earlier standards.

    Through this technology, a mobile communications service provider can upgrade to HSPA service or evolve into a LTE network simultaneously in order to convert their existing networks to broadband.

    In the future, this flexibility will be crucial as wireless mobile service providers will require compatibility with pre-existing systems, in order to offer LTE in urban areas while still supporting 3G in suburban or rural areas, as Samsung claims.

    JongKyun Shin, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics said that the company is partnering with LTE developers preparing for a LTE service launch in 2010 and will unveil a variety of LTE devices of different types and with diverse features and options, including memory cards, handheld devices and MID.

    Separately, Samsung has developed the mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) modem chip, a product that is already resonating in the mobile market. The company has already adopted the modem into commercial WiBro handsets in Korea.

    They have also demonstrated a full lineup of modems from 2G/3G to modems for the next generation of mobile telecommunication systems with its HSDPA Evolution modems.

    Samsung is strengthening its position in mobile telecommunication system standards. The campany currently holds the most chairman seats within the IEEE 802.16 Working Group, a WiMAX standardization association, and also chairs the WiMAX Forum, an affiliate organization.

  • 4G: Network For Real Mass Market Activity

    Erik Hallberg, Senior Vice President and Head of TeliaSonera Mobility Services in Sweden, tells smartphone.biz-news how this telecom is changing the face of mobile technology with its innovative 4G network.

    Recently Eric Hallberg’s family settled in to a typical night at home. The family of four sat down for a comfortable evening by not turning on their television, but flipping open their laptops. This behavior is not atypical of many families these days, no matter what part of the world you live in.

    The use of technology as a medium for work and play is quickly changing our world. It is no surprise that eventually technology will have to catch up with our ever-growing need for more capacity, more speed and more power.

    “I think the demand is moving faster that we as a telecommunications industry can supply the demand,” said Hallberg.

    “The way that people are utilizing services like Twitter and Facebook is changing everything. They are connected from early morning to late in the evening.”

    In 2010 TeliaSonera and Ericsson will unveil the first commercial Long-term Evolution (LTE) network in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the 20 countries where the company has a communications presence. This 4G mobile broadband network will revolutionize the way we share information via our mobile networks by focusing solely on the exchange of data. Drastically expanding the speed and efficiency of the exchange of information will lead to a higher speed bandwidth for the corporate and everyday user.

    “4G is not just a step forward, it is totally new,” Hallberg said. “It is not designed for voice, it is designed for pure data. It is an all IP network – there is no transformation or translation between different types of technologies. All IP from the device to the radio station to the core network to the services – the first time a mobile network is designed that way for real mass market activity.”

    Whereas the everyday user will experience a faster speed and efficiency via their mobile network, for the corporate user, this expansion will mean a new kind of service opportunity for their businesses.

    “The integration of unified communication (i.e. voice adules, adule pictures and video conferencing) in the corporate market is really taking off,” Hallberg said.

    “There is the sophisticated level with the syscal equipment or similar to the small basic camera and things that you do through low speed activities of different kinds. This is just the beginning its going to boom in the coming years and its going to need a lot of high bandwidth accesses as well as core networks to support it.”

    According to Hallberg, TeliaSonera is not only looking to the future of telecommunications, they are also exploring environmentally friendly methods in which to embrace that future.

    As part of their development strategy, TeliaSonera will be participating in the 4G World 2009 Conference from September 15-18, 2009.

    “The reason for me to participate in Chicago is to listen to what others are thinking, what they are planning to do, or may be doing,” Hallberg said. “We want to get new input from other parts of the world that we will probably not get from the venders or from the local markets. So for it is a very important point for gathering information and inspiration as to what others are doing in the 4G market, LP market in the next coming years.”

    After their trip to the conference, the company’s priority will be to finalize the first installation of the new network and make it available first to users in Germany and China.

    “Based on experience that we gain from these 2 sides, we will go to the next decision at the end of this year, beginning of next year.” Hallberg said.

    The 4G World 2009 Conference will be held at the McCormick Center in Chicago, Illinois. It will feature mobile WiMAX, WiFi, HSPA and LTE technologies and how they will influence the business and technical aspects of the new 4G network.

    Listen to the whole interview

  • Harris Stratex to Supply India’s First Urban Mobile WiMAX Network

    Harris Stratex Networks, a provider of wireless solutions, has signed a contract with ICOMM, one of India’s leading groups in the field of telecom, to supply, install, commission and maintain an IEEE 802.16e mobile WiMAX network for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

    Under the multi-year contract, Harris Stratex will supply its StarMAX WiMAX solution to extend BSNL’s public wireless access network to provide high-speed wireless mobility in urban areas across the southern Indian state of Kerala.

    Harris Stratex will supply StarMAX IEEE 802.16e-2005 base stations, along with solutions for access services network (ASN) gateway; home agent; authentication, authorization and accounting; and network management system.

    “We greatly appreciate BSNL’s strategic leadership in India and its efforts to help the government reach its target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, and are extremely proud to be a part of this very important undertaking,” said Harald Braun, president and CEO of Harris Stratex.

    BSNL is the world’s seventh-largest telecommunications company and provides a telecom services to 7,330 cities and towns, and 550,000 villages across India.

    The contract award to ICOMM and Harris Stratex will enable broadband services to be deployed throughout the state of Kerala, India’s fourth largest telecom market by revenue with a population of more than 35 million people in an area of 38,000 square kilometers.

    “This mobile WiMAX rollout by BSNL will represent one of the largest deployments of this technology in the world,” the companies announced.

    The StarMAX platform is the result of the March 2, 2009 acquisition of Telsima Corporation by Harris Stratex Networks and includes a portfolio of IEEE 802.16d-2004 and 16e-2005 compatible base stations, fixed and mobile subscriber devices, ASN gateway solutions, home agent and network management tools.

  • Clearwire to Launch 4G Service in 10 New Markets in the U.S.

    Clearwire Communications announced the official launch day of CLEAR 4G service in 10 new markets across the U.S. on September 1, 2009.

    The company’s CLEAR WiMax wireless broadband services will occur in Boise, Idaho; Bellingham, Wash; and eight markets throughout Texas, including: Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Killeen/Temple, Waco and Wichita Falls.

    Clearwire’s 4G network is now available in four markets, with the expected September 1st launches adding an additional 10 markets, and the company plans to bring CLEAR to 80 markets covering up to 120 million people by the end of 2010. In addition to the markets recently announced, consumers and businesses can purchase the company’s 4G services online and at various retail locations in Atlanta; Baltimore; Las Vegas and Portland, Oregon.

    Some of the additional markets planned to launch in 2009 include Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle. In 2010, Clearwire plans to launch 4G service in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston and the San Francisco Bay Area among others.

    Clearwire’s 4G service, called CLEAR offers fast mobile Internet, similar, butt different, to that provided by Wi-Fi. CLEAR uses a 4G technology called WiMAX, that provides up to 3 Mbit/s broadband speed (although Clearwire claims that it can provide up to 4 MB/sec for downloads and 500 kilobits/sec for uploading).

    Clearwire currently provides 4G service, utilizing WiMAX technology, in four markets and provides pre-WiMAX communications services in 50 markets across the U.S. and Europe.

  • Intel partner applies for WiMAX allocation in South Africa

    Broadband provider, iBurst, has applied to ICASA to extend its WiMAX allocation to 30MHz of frequency spectrum in the 2.6MHz and 3.5MHz ranges. This allocation will be used to support its plans to increase download speeds and to roll out nomadic WiMAX services.

    iBurst was one of the first providers in South Africa to launch a commercial WiMAX service. The iBurst WiMAX network went live in 2008 and has since grown to over 200 base stations in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, making it the largest commercial WiMAX network in South Africa. iBurst plans to roll out additional WiMAX base stations over the next year.

    WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability Microwave Access) is a new generation technology that is a wireless alternative to leased line and ADSL services, and offers connectivity to small, medium and large businesses. iBurst’s current WiMAX solutions are perfect for businesses that want a wireless alternative to ADSL or Diginet at their premises.

    Although it is not a portable or mobile solution as it requires the installation of a fixed antenna, businesses are able to choose between a broadband (best effort) and a dedicated (assured) solution to accommodate for a range of applications and requirements. Nomadic WiMAX, by contrast, gives business’ and individuals more freedom to roam within WiMAX network coverage and still enjoy the same level of high-speed Internet access as they do at their office or home. Since it is faster to install at the customer’s premises and uses cheaper embedded equipment (for example, a chip in a notebook), nomadic WiMAX will help iBurst to roll these connectivity services out to more people countrywide. However, the additional 15MHz of spectrum is key in deploying nomadic services.

    "The fixed WiMAX offering from iBurst has seen widespread adoption in the parts of South Africa where it is available, giving users a high-speed alternative to fixed-line technologies," said iBurst CEO Jannie Van Zyl. "But provided we are able to secure additional frequency spectrum from ICASA, we will be able to make this technology even more accessible by activating the nomadic version of the WiMAX standard across our network. The network is ready, we are ready. Now we just need the spectrum."

    iBurst’s parent company, Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), recently signed a commercial agreement to jointly roll out WiMAX products with international technology giant, Intel. Intel has been a major driver of both Wi-Fi and WiMAX adoption. In terms of the agreement, Intel will embed WiMAX capability within a range of devices while iBurst will provide the connectivity between the devices and iBurst’s WiMAX network. Although the agreement has been signed, the network and WiMAX enabled laptops will only be available later in 2009. Recent compatibility tests conducted with Intel showed that these devices are now ready to be deployed if the spectrum allocation is increased to 30MHz.

    Van Zyl said "We believe that nomadic wireless products that bundle hardware and access technologies will help more South Africans to get online. In addition, it will help us to make internet connectivity available wherever and whenever our customers need it. Accessing the spectrum we need to roll out nomadic WiMAX is essential if we are to maximise the potential of this technology."

    iBurst was originally issued with 15MHz of WiMAX spectrum by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in July 2006. WiMax implementations across the globe have demonstrated that at least 30MHz of spectrum is required in order to provide end users with the speeds and quality of service which can be achieved on the WiMax technology. Accordingly, WBS is applying for additional spectrum to take it to the 30MHz level. WiMAX is a family of technologies based on the IEEE 802.16 wireless standards with the iBurst network implementing the later 802.16e standard. Most other WiMax networks in South Africa still deploy the older 802.16d standard.

  • Clearing Houses at Centre of WiMAX Hub Model

    INTERVIEW: Smartphone.biz-news spoke to John Dubois, global roaming director for the WiMAX Forum, to hear the latest on the deployment of the 4G technology’s networks – and plans for operators to use a hub model for roaming agreements.

    While many people have reservations about the future success of WiMAX it’s clear the 4G technology is gaining traction in markets around the world.

    In his presentation at the recent Insights’09 conference in Lisbon, Portugal, John Dubois, global roaming director for the WiMAX Forum, highlighted the growing number of WiMAX deployments – and the advantages it has in being first to market compared to LTE.

    The most recent figures from the organisation show there have been 484 WiMAX deployments in 141 countries so far.

    Aside from networks, the Forum has recently certified its first full Netbook (Onkyo C204) and its first Notebook computer (Toshiba Dynabook SS RX2).

    The specification for billing and settlement for roaming has just been completed and two operators – Clearwire and DigitalBridge – will be testing it over the summer.

    Roaming Trials

    Also getting underway are the first commercial global roaming trials, which will involve 14 "ecosystem leaders" carrying out end-to-end testing of roaming over live WiMAX networks.

    These operators, device manufacturers, equipment vendors, and clearing houses include Aicent, Alvarion, Bridgewater Systems, Cisco, Clearwire, Comfone, DigitalBridge, Intel, iPass, Juniper Networks, MACH, Motorola, Syniverse and Transaction Network Services.

    From the results of the trial Dubois told smartphone.biz-news that it will be possible to provide a baseline for establishing roaming services and agreements for WiMAX worldwide.

    "WiMAX operators do not have a lot of experience with roaming," he said.

    "After that other operators are very interested in participating. Six clearing houses are also involved in the trials.

    "They will provide back offices and after the trials are completed we will be in a position where we can start connecting operators on a commercial bases."

    Dubois said that while operators will be able to connect directly, he believed the vast majority will do so through clearing houses.

    This is because this simplifies the administration of the roaming process by only requiring operators to have one or two agreements with clearing houses – rather than individual agreements with every operator.

    He said that prior to joining the WiMAx Forum he worked as director of roaming for a mobile operator and had to manage more than 300 roaming agreements.

    "The hub model will prevail," he said. "That’s what the 3G world would like to move to. We will do that straight away with WiMAX.

    "It’s not something we are enforcing, we are letting the market take care of it."

    Interoperability Key

    A key element of the trial will be testing the interoperability of equipment – essentially devices’ ability to acquire a visited network’s base stations and backend while roaming.

    Dubois said interoperability is a particularly important aspect for WiMAX since there are a lot of different base stations vendors, each manufacturing its own equipment.

    He said it is clearly vital that devices work on the different base stations while roaming.

    For this reason, the WiMAX Forum has designed a certification process.

    "They will undergo interoperability testing to make sure that they will be interoperable with different base stations," he said.

    "That is key for roaming – but it’s nothing we didn’t face with 2G and 3G."

    Again, from his experience working for a mobile operator, Dubois said it took a while before handsets from the operator were able to function in different parts of the US.

    "With WiMAX, we want it to work now with all devices. It’s a matter of months," he said.

    A non-technical issue with base stations is also their cost and how this could be affecting the uptake of WiMAX.

    However, Dubois said prices were very competitive when compared with 3G.

    Deployment Growing

    Scenna Tabesh, director of marketing communications for the WiMAX Forum, said that despite the economic downturn WiMAX deployments and developments are continuing to grow "quite reasonably".

    While the Forum has no specific projections for future deployment rates it expects the numbers to grow significantly based on the history of the last few years.

    "We are growing very steadily and we are still cautiously optimistic that we will see steady growth over the next 18 months," she said.

    Scenna Tabesh, director of marketing communications, WiMAX Forum

    Tabesh said WiMAX activity has been particularly strong in the Middle East, Africa and South-east Asia, and auctions to allocate wireless spectrum are expected shortly in India and Brazil.

    "The big picture is looking pretty good. Operators continue to invest despite the global situation," she said. "There are also a lot of folks straddling the fence because they do not have to act right now."

    That’s not the case in Russia, where two operators – Yota and Comstar – have rolled out WiMAX networks.

    Tabesh said Yota, which launched its paid commercial Mobile WiMAX service on June 1st and is adding 1300 subcribers a day, has launched the first dual-mode GSM/WiMAX mobile.

    The Russian operator is also looking to extend its WiMAX investments outside its home market.

    However, Dubois said that while more operators such as Yota are successfully deploying WiMAX, this did not appear to be widely known.

    "WiMAX is gaining significant traction. A lot of operators are deploying but they are not making a lot of noise about it," he said.

    "There’s significant growth in the area. Operators are very excited because it provides them with what they need right now.

    "They are putting in broadband services quickly and once the network is up, customers flock to them."

  • Wireless Broadband World Africa 2009: South Africa to Allocate WiMax This Month

    Paris Mashile, chairman of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), has said that WiMax spectrum in the country will be allocated within 30 days with operators getting 30 MHz each.

    ICASA published its final decision on the awarding of radio frequency spectrum. The document included the selection process of suitable companies, how much spectrum should be allocated to each operator and whether licences will be awarded to national or regional players.

    On the question of how the remaining WiMax spectrum will be dished out, ICASA decided to allocate 30MHz per operator on a technology-neutral basis, and stipulated that six additional national licences will be issued in the 2.5GHz band.

    This decision drew sharp criticism from various industry players, including Neotel. It was argued that limited spectrum not only increases the cost of providing WiMax services, but also limits the speeds which can be offered to end users.

    Neotel’s CTO, Angus Hay, said: “Neotel is of the opinion that it would not be possible to operate a WiMax wireless access network at maximum efficiency, and pass on benefits if operators are each awarded only 20MHz of spectrum in the 2.5GHz band.”

    “In particular, this spectrum limit places a limit on the transmission speed possible, which is one of the key benefits of a technology like WiMax to the end customer. Neotel therefore shares the view of many WiMax experts that 30MHz per operator (a re-use factor of 3, with 10MHz per sector, three sectors per base station) is the least required for an operator to build a network to deliver true broadband services to the customer.”

    ICASA Chairman Paris Mashile recently indicated that the process for licensing the sought after 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum – typically referred to as WiMax spectrum – will be announced towards the end of July. Speaking to Biz-News Mashile, was non-committal as to the exact date, “ We have 30 days to announce, remember we are not only dealing with WiMax but all the scarce resources,” he said.

    Mashile provided insight into what is contained in this document, which includes that the spectrum will be technology neutral, that there will be a 30% HDI requirement and that spectrum will initially be handed out on a beauty contest model followed by a spectrum auction.

    The first document regarding the awarding of radio frequency spectrum states that a company to which spectrum will be allocated must be minimum 51% black owned with an emphasis on woman in line with broad based BEE. This was widely criticized by industry, and the 30% HDI requirement is likely to be welcomed by industry as a more sensible criteria.

  • WiMAX MENA: Gulf Offers "Real Opportunity" For WiMAX


    Richard Jones has just overseen the largest WiMAX deployment in Europe, Africa and the Middle East for a telecom startup in Saudi Arabia.

    Yet the managing partner of Ventura Team said his biggest concern is whether WiMAX will make it as a technology.

    "LTE is coming. The difficulty is can WiMAX be in service before LTE arrives?"

    Jones told smartphone.biz-news that WiMAX is suffering from not having a "poster boy" to accelerate its adoption, perhaps a contributing factor to why it has failed to take off so far in India and the US.

    Another is cost.

    He said that despite there being plenty of WiMAX development around the world, prices for base stations are still high.

    "Volumes are needed to get down the production price because WiMAX is still expensive," he said.

    "The economies of scale that could normally bring equipment costs down will not occur. It’s a real challenge."

    Richard Jones, managing partner of Ventura Team

    Jones said WiMAX has to succeed and the key to increasing the number of subscribers is a successful deployment.

    "If that happens, other people will get confidence in it."

    He is part of an expert panel at the this week’s WiMAX MENA Forum in Dubai discussing how WiMAX can create profitable opportunities for new entrants in the Middle East and North Africa.

    His 16-month stint as Chief Commercial Officer for the Saudi Arabia company making the WiMAX deployment makes him well qualified to comment.

    Jones said the Gulf does offer a real opportunity since it is a market with relatively low broadband penetration.

    The area’s mix of villas and apartments often means it is not possible to put fibre in economically.

    In addition, there is the presence of an incumbent and the fact the industry has been slow to de-regulate means prices remain relatively high.

    "DSL is very poor in the region as a whole," he said. "There’s a long distance between people’s houses and exchanges, so no-one is getting a reasonably fast DSL service from the incumbent."

    Earlier this month, ZTE announced that it has partnered with Etihad Atheeb Telecom (Atheeb), the largest WiMAX operator in Saudi Arabia.

    They have agreed to build the Kingdom’s first nationwide WiMAX network.

    What WiMAX offers, according to Jones, is coverage which is so far lacking.

    "WiMAX provides an interesting opportunity for companies to provide broadband in areas that are uneconomical for fibre and places where people would not get a DSL service," he said.

    The existing gap in the market has led to a rise in 3G services but Jones said the opportunities for WiMAX are considerable.

    "WiMAX is still there. There is still the potential for services based on WiMAX to cover lots of subscribers not covered by fixed and around the 1-2 meg broadband service," he said.

    Jones said that WiMAX has become the fast roll-out technology of choice.

    But he said it is also being exploited by fixed licence operators in the Gulf who currently have a very good 3G service.

    In this situation the operators may have a WiMAX license – obtained at a fraction of the cost of a mobile licence – that doesn’t allow them to do anything mobile with the technology.

    But when licences are unified to pave the way for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) these carriers will be able to become good quality mobile providers.

    "What’s happening is that people are using WiMAX as part of a very innovative strategy," said Jones. "There are huge cost saving to be made."

  • WiMAX MENA: Roll-Out Strategy Key To WiMAX v LTE Debate


    Arguing that WiMAX is a better wireless 4G system than Long Term Evolution (LTE) – or vice versa – is a waste of time.

    That’s the view of Dr Hans-Peter Petry, head of radio access and transport at Detecon International, who is adamant that it’s pointless claiming either side in the 4G debate is superior to the other.

    "I would violently fight against those that say LTE is better than WiMAX," he said. "This is absolutely wrong.

    Even so, Petry, who is a speaker at this week’s WiMAX Forum Mena in Dubai, said that a key question in the WiMAX community is how it compares to other wireless technologies.

    He is addressing this in his presentation to the conference, which is entitled: Exploring The Capabilities Of Potential 4G Candidates And Understanding The Best Parameters For Benchmarking And A Successful Rollout.

    As part of this, Petry will "clarify the landscape" – essentially spelling out what makes a technology 2G, 3G or 4G.

    He told smartphone.biz-news this is necessary because many people are confused by what a technology has to offer before it can be classed as 4G.

    "There is a lot of confusion in the market," he said. "A lot of protagonists are confusing people with conflicting messages."

    "For 4G there are very clear pre-requisites and without them being implemented in the technology, you can not claim it is 4G."

    Dr Hans-Peter Petry, head of radio access and transport at Detecon International

    So WiMAX partly belongs to 3G – along with LTE and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) – and only in certain circumstances can they claim to be 4G, according to Petry.

    He said Detecon had defined a metric that enabled each of the technologies to be evaluated in a fair way.

    This included: marketing, geography, services, tariffs, and technology inputs.

    "All these parameters are important for an evaluation," he said. "We have mapped these into a single Service Production Cost (SPC)."

    So it is possible to show the SPC for individual technologies under similar conditions.

    Petry said this has produced some "astonishing results", the outcome of which shows that the decision on which 4G technology to implement is not a question of the technology.

    "Under the same boundary conditions, the difference in the technology is minor."

    Where there are differences, according to Petry, they lie in the roll-out strategies.

    He said this came down to whether an operator is looking for coverage first, then capacity or vice versa.

    "The recommendation is that before you talk about the technology, talk about other things such as roll-out strategy," he said.

    So factors such as the kind of customer, whether the area is green field, brown field, rural or densely populated, all have to be considered.

    Petry said boundary questions then had to be dealt with before, finally, talking about the appropriate technology.

    "Then you can choose the right technology," he said. "Do not choose WiMAX because you think it is better than LTE."

    As a footnote, Petry said he believed LTE would ultimately capture a larger market share than WiMAX.

    That may prove correct, but as the performance and capabilities of WiMAX and LTE get better over time, the competition between them will become less important than that between wireless and wired broadband.