Taiwanese launches raise hopes for low cost WiMAX CPE
Published: Monday 23 October, 2006
First Thoughts: Intel's wireless chief Sean Maloney, speaking at the recent WiMAX World conference, echoed what the broadband wireless world is painfully aware of - that the three greatest potential obstacles to the progress of 802.16e are spectrum issues, roaming problems and any failure to deliver a low cost, attractive CPE unit. Operators, from Sprint Nextel down, are relying heavily on using WiMAX to reduce or eliminate the hated subsidies of subscriber equipment, while any provider wanting to move into fully mobile markets remembers the problems that 3G faced when it fell short in offering user-appealing handsets. WiMAX has long promised CPE units at sufficiently low cost to do away with subsidies, but to date there have been few signs of the commoditization that aim will require - until now, with the entry of the all-important Taiwanese manufacturers. They promise to roll out devices with the cost levels and variety of formats that operators will need for their multiplay services, and majors like Sprint Nextel are already negotiating with Taiwanese suppliers, aiming to gain an early adopter's good deals and influence on design features.
When these companies entered the Wi-Fi sector, prices of access points and end devices plummeted, sparking mass market uptake and boom sales for chipmakers, even while traditional equipment makers saw their margins shrivel. The same process is underway for WiMAX, although there will remain a far greater dependence on high end, relatively complex CPE to support advanced multimedia operator models, a variety of licensed spectrum options and emerging technologies like beamforming.
D-Link, in the top three in the home Wi-Fi market, has unveiled 802.16e CPE, and may well spur a response from market leader Linksys. The Cisco unit is already working on some individual projects with WiMAX incorporated - such as a VoIP system for UK service provider Telabria - but, like its parent, has not yet announced full commitment to 802.16.
Final Thoughts: While these deals will be important for the operators' ROI, there will also be question marks over how far these devices will support complex WiMAX services. In particular, Taiwan's giants will need to move rapidly to support the wave 2 802.16e features such as MIMO smart antennas and beamforming, which will be crucial to mobile performance and to small embedded devices.
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