Email Delivery

Receive new posts as email.

Email address

Syndicate this site

RSS 0.91 | RSS 2.0
RDF | Atom
Podcast only feed (RSS 2.0 format)
Get an RSS reader
Get a Podcast receiver

Contact

About This Site
Contact Us
Privacy Policy

Search

Google

Web this site

January 2007
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31      

Stories by Category

Hardware :: Hardware CPEs Chips Smart Antennas
Industry News :: Industry News Trials Vendor News competitive landscape conferences financial deals mergers and acquisitions interoperability launches organizations
Industry Segments :: Industry Segments Voice cellular municipal operators rural applications
Mobile WiMax :: Mobile WiMax
Partnerships :: Partnerships
Regulatory :: Regulatory Auctions
Spectrum :: Spectrum 2.3 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.5 GHz 3.5 GHz 5 GHz ITFS Licensed spectrum
Standards :: Standards 802.16-2004 802.16-2005 (16e) 802.20 WiBro
WiMax Forum :: WiMax Forum Certification
applications :: applications
future technologies :: future technologies
hype :: hype
international :: international
launch plans :: launch plans
mainstream press :: mainstream press
mesh :: mesh
new technologies :: new technologies
personnel :: personnel
proprietary technologies :: proprietary technologies
research :: research
roaming :: roaming
security :: security
temporary networks :: temporary networks
unique :: unique

Archives

January 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | October 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | April 2006 | March 2006 | February 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 |

Recent Entries

Nokia Will Supply Sprint with WiMax Gear
Sprint May Add Nokia to Mobile WiMax Vendor Line-Up
NextWave, Clearwire Both Poised for Stock Offerings
Clearwire Reveals Increased Spectrum Holdings
German Broadband Wireless Auction Sees Clearwire, Inquam, DBD as Winners
India's First Certified WiMax Network
Germany Starts WiMax Auction Next Week
Intel Shows WiMax, Wi-Fi, Cell Chip with MIMO
Alvarion Mixes Wi-Fi, pre-WiMax, WiMax
Nortel in Japan, Taiwan with WiMax

Site Philosophy

This site operates as an independent editorial operation. Advertising, sponsorships, and other non-editorial materials represent the opinions and messages of their respective origins, and not of the site operator or JiWire, Inc.

Copyright

Entire site and all contents except otherwise noted © Copyright 2001-2006 by Glenn Fleishman. Some images ©2006 Jupiterimages Corporation. All rights reserved. Please contact us for reprint rights. Linking is, of course, free and encouraged.

Powered by
Movable Type

« More Blarney from Intel | Main | Nigeria Gets Navini Network »

May 16, 2005

Why Wait for WiMax?

By Nancy Gohring

I wrote a story recently for Wireless Week and heard some very interesting comments from a major European operator: The mobile operator, which asked not to be named, is conducting a trial of IPWireless gear in Europe. The operator is interested in IPWireless as a fixed broadband solution, not for its mobile capabilities. The operator is already working on 3G and doesn’t really see why it would introduce a separate network like IPWireless, especially since the demand for 3G services isn’t even clear. The market for fixed broadband is very clear though so it makes more sense to target that space.

Also, the spokesperson said that having a broadband fixed network could allow the operator to enable customers to completely do away with their landlines. A lot of customers keep their landline phones only because they are required to in order to get a decent DSL rate. Those customers could fully rely on their mobile phones for voice telephony and use the IPWireless network for broadband access.

The operator has also looked closely at WiMax and while it could be an option in the future, he noted that IPWireless is available today. What WiMax promises to deliver in 2007, IPWireless offers today, he said. The operator doesn’t want to wait until then. It could migrate to WiMax down the road if it becomes a much less expensive option, but the spokesperson doesn’t expect that it will. Or, the operator could begin offering access to the IPWireless network on a mobile basis, building a WiMax network to replace the fixed service.

His comments made me think that the vendors like IPWireless and Flarion might pose more of a threat to WiMax than the WiMax camp might perceive. This is a pretty significant European mobile operator I spoke with and if that’s how his company feels about WiMax, others might too. If the vendors like IPWireless and Flarion manage to attract enough customers, the price of their equipment will drop, just like the price of WiMax equipment will drop with volume. The operators may gamble on which equipment will drop faster.

Posted by nancyg at May 16, 2005 5:44 PM

Categories: competitive landscape

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://db.isbn.nu/mt3/mt-tb.pl/3217

Comments