Telephony on the Sextel WiMAX Move
>> Sprint Embraces WiMAX
Kevin Fitchard
Telephony
Aug 8, 2006
telephonyonline.com
Sprint today revealed it has selected Mobile WiMAX as the technology to power its next-generation “4G” mobile broadband networks, announcing both Motorola and Samsung as its major infrastructure vendors.
Sprint CEO Gary Forsee said it would invest between $2.5 billion and $3 billion in 2007 and 2008 to building out a nationwide Mobile WiMAX network. The network will use both Motorola and Samsung network infrastructure, along with Motorola multi-mode handsets and access devices, and will be powered by technology partner Intel’s next-generation 802.16e Centrino chip. The network footprint will cover 100 million people in 2008, Forsee added.
The announcement puts to rest years of speculation over what Sprint would do with its accumulated 2.5 GHz spectrum.Sprint settled on three candidates: Qualcomm’s Flarion-developed orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (OFDMA) technology, IPWireless’s UMTS-based time division-CDMA technology, and WiMAX.
Sprint Chief Technology Officer and newly appointed president of 4G broadband Barry West said Sprint picked Mobile WiMAX because it meets all four basic criteria: its major vendor ecosystem, its conformation to the characteristics of Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum, its high coverage and performance, and most significantly its time to market. West said WiMAX fits perfectly with Sprint’s aggressive rollout plans, giving it a market advantage over carriers deploying other mobile broadband solutions.
“If there is one thing I like to do, it’s beat our competitors to market,” West said.
West said he was impressed with both Qualcomm and IPWireless’ technologies but neither of them met all of Sprint’s full criteria. The Flarion OFDMA infrastructure had extremely high performance, but it was only adapted for 1.25 MHz channels in a frequency division duplexing (FDD) deployment scenario, West said. Meanwhile Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum is more suited toward larger channels and a time division duplexing (TDD) deployment, which would allow Sprint to allocate more capacity to the downlink.
Sprint considered IPWireless because of its position on the migration path to long-term evolution (LTE), the 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s own 4G standard. West said he felt that IPWireless’ TD-CDMA technology was between standards, ahead of the current UMTS technologies today, but fully realizing the LTE standard of the future. Furthermore as a small company with only a few OEM partners, IPWireless didn’t have the technology ecosystem it needed to support a massive deployment, West said. Sprint also looked into UMTS high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technologies, but rejected it because it wanted to deploy the next-generation of mobile broadband, not the current. It conversely rejected LTE technologies because they are too far from realization, West said, noting they would not be commercially available until 2010 to 2012.
Mobile WiMAX, on the other hand, fit Sprint’s spectrum requirements perfectly, West said, supporting large channels and adapted for TDD deployments. It has a huge global ecosystem, a fully backed standard from the IEEE and a certification body in the WiMAX Forum. Its performance is ideal, West said, supporting initially 2 bits per hertz and later 5 bits per hertz, and its development path fits perfectly with Sprint’s deployment timeline.
The announcement is of huge significance to its primary vendors Motorola, though for different reasons. For Samsung, the deal is its first major wireless infrastructure deal in the U.S. after years of trying to break the deadlock Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks hold on the domestic CDMA infrastructure market. For Motorola, the deal virtually seals Motorola’s position as one of the world’s leading WiMAX vendors and certainly the dominant WiMAX power in the U.S.
“We truly believe that in a couple of years we’ll look back at this day and know where this truly started,” said Motorola CEO Ed Zander. “This is the culmination of everything we’ve been trying to achieve in the last couple of years.”
With its recently announced deal with Clearwire and Intel Motorola has a lock on the two most significant Mobile WiMAX contracts in the U.S. In fact, collectively Clearwire and Sprint own the majority of the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz licenses in the U.S., which are the only U.S. spectrum bands so far identified for commercial WiMAX use.
Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum has laid dormant for years, ever since it retried its Integrated On-Demand (ION) and multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS) plans in 2001. Since then Nextel’s acquisition of the former WorldCom’s license portfolio and Sprint’s acquisition of Nextel made it the largest holder of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the country. <<
>> WiMAX Move Adds New Wrinkle
Kevin Fitchard
Telephony
August 14, 2006
telephonyonline.com
Sprint's decision to launch a nationwide Mobile WiMAX network is unquestionably a boon for WiMAX. A commitment from one of the largest carriers in the world's largest telecom market gives the technology not only a stamp of approval but also the momentum to carry it forward into other worldwide deployments.
But by bolstering one technology, Sprint has raised some complicated questions about another. By embracing WiMAX, Sprint is diverging from the well-trodden network evolution paths down which the global mobile industry has ambled comfortably for more than a decade. While Sprint isn't abandoning CDMA, it's introducing an alternative technology option into the long-standing mobility debate, a debate that is already fractured between the CDMA and GSM camps.
No other mobile carrier is rushing out to deploy their own WiMAX network yet, but according to industry experts, they're all watching Sprint closely. If Sprint can meet its own timeline, spur the WiMAX community to create an ecosystem and develop a viable business model for WiMAX that doesn't negate its investments in 3G, Sprint's gamble may turn it into a force with which other carriers must reckon, prompting them to re-evaluate their own future network plans.
Sprint has committed to deploying a Mobile WiMAX network covering 100 million people by the end of 2008 using its 2.5 GHz spectrum, terming the new network “4G.” Mobile WiMAX, however, is anything but the fourth generation of mobile technology. In fact, it's a complete departure from the migration paths laid out by the industry's two major standards bodies, the 3GPP and the 3GPP2. What those organizations would label 4G is years away, and much of the underlying technologies of those standards haven't yet been determined.
Sprint has stuck resolutely to the CDMA migration path since it first launched in 1996, and barely a week before its WiMAX revelation announced plans to upgrade its CDMA EV-DO networks to their next higher-speed iteration, EV-DO Revision A. The 4G equivalent of CDMA, EV-DO Revision C, is still in the discussion stages as its 3GPP counterpart, UMTS Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Sprint can't wait for those new 4G technologies to emerge though. It's facing a tight deadline from the FCC to deploy mobile broadband over that spectrum or risk losing the licenses it's been hoarding for more than half a decade. But even if Sprint was given the option of a reprieve, it might not take it.
“If there's one thing I like to do, it's beat our competitors,” said Barry West, Sprint's chief technology officer and president of 4G mobile broadband. “It's my ambition as president of this new business unit to do exactly that. The access to this spectrum and the access to this technology on our timeline allows us to do it.”
Sprint has always, not inaccurately, regarded itself as a trailblazer, a first-mover that hasn't been afraid of taking risks on an untried technology but no WiMAX product has yet been certified, said Iain Gillott, president of iGillottResearch.
“This kind of reeks of the Sprint of old,” Gillott said. “They love being first to market, the first with a new technology. The problem is while Sprint is good at deploying a new technology when it's ready to be deployed, Verizon [Wireless] deploys new technology when people are ready to buy it.”
When Sprint first set out, it launched an all-CDMA, all-PCS network in a country dominated by TDMA operators. The gambit paid off as CDMA became the dominant technology in the U.S while TDMA fell to the wayside. But its competitors followed Sprint's technology lead and created the largest CDMA carrier in the world, Verizon Wireless. Sprint's competitors are watching the carrier's latest network moxie closely, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're ready to follow the maverick operator into the abyss. Not all of Sprint's projects have been as successful as CDMA. Its attempts to use the same 2.5 GHz spectrum for Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service last decade foundered and its Wi-Fi project has languished.
A Cingular spokesman said that the operator is committed to its own UMTS migration path, building out a nationwide high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) network today and following it up with their high-capacity uplink equivalent HSUPA and eventually LTE. Verizon Wireless, true to form, isn't publicly entertaining any plans beyond its current commitment to upgrading its EV-DO networks to Rev. A.
“This doesn't mean we're not thinking about what we're doing down the road,” a Verizon Wireless spokesman said. “Clearly we think about it. We just don't hold lunches to talk about it.”
Sprint has gotten commitments from its partners Samsung, Motorola and Intel to build an ecosystem of WiMAX products and technology, giving Sprint the devices to populate the network when it first launches in 2007 as well as eventual multi-mode capabilities so it can fall back on its EV-DO network. There is still a big question, however, as to whether those devices will be more than laptop cards. The WiMAX-enabled digital music players, cameras and other multimedia devices are still a ways from arriving.
If WiMAX is just a higher-speed extension of its own business-focused laptop service, Verizon Wireless and Cingular can easily continue to compete with their own 3G networks, said Peter Jarich, wireless networks analyst for Current Analysis. Even if Sprint gets more advanced terminals and offers the services it promised at its press conference last week — video conferencing, media sharing and gaming — those services aren't fundamentally different than what 3G networks are capable of supporting, Jarich said.
“Sprint's competitors can continue on as 3G-only players for a while,” Jarich said. “But if Sprint comes up with something more compelling or if they are able to offer those services at a big price difference, then its competitors will have to respond.”
That doesn't necessarily mean they'll respond with WiMAX, Jarich said. If other carriers face WiMAX pressure from Sprint, they may just accelerate their plans for EV-DO Rev. C and LTE, applying the appropriate pressure on their vendors to bring the technology to market sooner. But if Sprint were nimble enough and WiMAX vendors create their promised ecosystem before the development of Rev. C and LTE, then Sprint may force the issue. If WiMAX was the only available technology to meet those market demands, the carriers may have to deploy it, Jarich said.
There are a lot of “ifs” in that equation though. Sprint may have cracked open the door for mobile WiMAX to the mobile operator community, but it will take a lot more to swing that door open. Qualcomm, whose Flarion technology lost out in the bids for Sprint's new network, said the carrier is in a unique position, holding spectrum that it had to fill with the first available viable technology. Other carriers simply won't face those pressures, said Ronny Heraldsvik, vice president of mobile broadband for Qualcomm.
“Sprint needed to deploy something fast and furiously,” Heraldsvik said. “The WiMAX crowd simply had the earliest TDD solution. We believe that this is a timing issue, not a technology issue.” <<
>> Sprint WiMAX Choice a Mixed Bag for Vendors
Kevin Fitchard
August 14, 2006
Telephony
telephonyonline.com
Sprint’s decision to launch a nationwide Mobile WiMAX network may not have shaken up wireless vendors yet, but it certainly gave them a rattle. Sprint has validated WiMAX as mobile carrier technology (see story in this week’s Telephony), which could have broader implications for wireless vendors if other operators follow in Sprint’s footsteps. A bolstered WiMAX could create infrastructure giants out of also-rans and send other vendors scrambling to expand their infrastructure portfolios.
The two immediate winners emerging from the deal are Samsung and Motorola, though for different reasons. Samsung gains its first major U.S. network foothold after years of unsuccessfully trying to break into the market with its CDMA technology. As WiMAX is a completely disruptive technology, Samsung isn’t pinned down by already existing network agreements held by CDMA incumbents like Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies. Furthermore, the Sprint deal added to live WiMAX deployments in Korea set up it up as one of the first movers in the industry—one of the few vendors with commercial base stations and handsets on the market.
Samsung Telecom Americas vice president of wireless and broadband networks Tom Jasny said Samsung isn’t abandoning its CDMA equipment efforts in the U.S., but it will re-center it’s focus on WiMAX, where the bigger growth opportunities lie.
“CDMA is a mature market,” Jasny said. “WiMAX is not only opportunity for us to be a leader in the U.S. market, but a leader globally.”
For Motorola, the WiMAX deal shifts the focus of its ailing networks division from 3G to a brand new infrastructure sector—one from which dominant players have yet to emerge. The Sprint contract is by far the largest one announced to date, but Motorola has other wins to lord over its competitors: a nationwide deployment in Pakistan, a trial with Softbank in Japan and most notably a locked in global broadband wireless customer in Clearwire. Motorola has established itself early as a WiMAX mover and shaker, and it plans to keep that momentum going, said Paul Sargeant, director of marketing for the vendor’s MotoWi4 product line.
“This puts WiMAX on firm footing,” Sargeant said. “Sprint played the same role in 1996 with CDMA, providing the scope for the technology to grow. They’ll provide us with the same scale. There will be some teething issues, but this will give other carriers confidence to move forward with WiMAX.
Perhaps the biggest benefactor of the Sprint deal is Intel. Though Intel is not officially supplying any specific infrastructure to the project, Sprint named the chip vendor as a technology partner though it isn’t supplying any key elements to the new network. Ultimately though, Intel will supply the chipsets that will power many of the devices and a nationwide network of this scale will only help Intel its worldwide efforts to push WiMAX forward. In fact, Sprint said it wasn’t necessarily sticking only to Motorola and Samsung for its equipment, meaning all of the vendors Intel has partnered with for WiMAX technology could benefit from the deal. “We are planning a nationwide network, so we'll be inviting other suppliers to be part of that process,” said Bin Shen, vice president of broadband at Sprint.
The significance of the Sprint deal is more ambiguous for other equipment vendors outside of Motorola and Samsung. Sprint raises the possibility of WiMAX competing with 3G technologies for future mobile network deployments, greatly expanding the potential scope of the technology while possibly threatening the market for traditional mobile infrastructure. While Ericsson, the world’s leading mobile networks vendor, has been adamantly anti-WiMAX, other vendors that have been on the fence about the technology are now speaking up. Nokia was one of the WiMAX forum’s founders, but it dropped out of the forum before the initial certification rounds only to rejoin last year Though ostensibly now a proponent of Mobile WiMAX, the vendor has not yet released any commercial products targeted for Forum certification, putting it behind it’s competitors. But that’s about to change now that there is clear evidence WiMAX will has legs, said Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s chief technology officer.
“The selection of WiMAX by Sprint is making it a viable alternative,” Ojanpera said. “We’re following where the markets are going, and we’re watching where WiMAX is going. Now that we see there is a stronger demand for WiMAX, we are ready to deliver.”
Meanwhile vendors of competing ‘4G’ technologies may have to readdress their strategies. IPWireless acknowledges investing a lot into winning Sprint’s 2.5G trials, which could have given the small vendor its most significant contract yet for its Time Division-CDMA technology. With the Sprint contract going to WiMAX, IPWireless is now refocusing its efforts on Europe where most of its commercial deployments are centered, said Jon Hambidge, vice president of marketing.
“Obviously it was disappointing—it would have been a huge value-creation event for the company,” Hambidge said after Sprint’s announcement. “Until last week we had a very good shot at winning, but it’s hard to compete for a contract this big when you’re a private company and you’re going up against the Intels of the world.”
However, Hambidge added that the Sprint trials were definitely not a wasted effort. The media and industry attention focused on the trials brought TD-CDMA into the spotlight in the U.S. where it was practically unknown before. And much of the research and development IPWireless invested into the technology to meet Sprint’s exacting requirements will be channeled into its development of IPWireless’s next-generation long-term evolution product line, Hambidge said.
There are few other commercial builds IPWireless can compete for in the U.S. until the victors of the AWS auction are revealed. But on the public safety side, IPWireless has developed private data networks it hopes to use to break into the U.S. government market, Hambidge said. <<
>> What's Next for Sprint?
Kevin Fitchard
Telephony
August 23, 2006
telephonyonline.com
The shake-up at Sprint is beginning. Chief Operating Officer Len Lauer said last night he's leaving the ailing operator after working with the company for eight years.
Sprint has reported some punishing results since it acquired Nextel last year, and even though its executive team has some ambitious plans for the wireless operator's future, it's questionable whether they'll be around to execute those plans. Sprint earlier this month became the largest operator in the world to commit to WiMAX, announcing a plan to invest billions of dollars into a nationwide rollout of the new mobile technology. A few weeks earlier it committed to upgrading its already fast 3G networks to an even faster technology, CDMA 1X EV-DO. It's made plenty of interesting strategic moves also: a tie-up with the major cable operators to provide joint quadruple-play services, heavy investment in alternate brands like Virgin Mobile and Nextel's Boost to broaden its customer base, and embracing the MVNO and resale model to boost wholesale subscribership.
But none of these plans seem to be working, or at least their benefits are lost in the massive drag that the Nextel acquisition is causing. Its Q2 earnings were one of its worst yet, with falling profits and revenues and measly subscriber growth. Worst of all, its touted big-picture products seemed to add to the decline, rather than offsetting it. Its wholesale subscribers, which were increasing rapidly in previous quarters, actually declined in the last quarter. Nothing has come yet of the cable alliance, except for a partnership to bid in the current AWS auction. And even its massive investment in 3G infrastructure isn't producing the data revenue gains Sprint would like as its Nextel subsidiary continues to drag down Sprint's once industry-leading data ARPU. The only business units that seem to be doing well are its long-distance division and Boost.
Sprint seems to have positioned WiMAX as the good news that will pull the company up from the mire, but the first WiMAX commercial service won't be available for well over a year. It's doubtful Wall Street will give the company that much of a grace period. In fact, if CEO Gary Forsee and other top brass follow Lauer's departure, there's a chance that the WiMAX project might be scuttled entirely. It's a low risk. After all, Sprint does need to put something in that spectrum or lose its 2.5 GHz licenses. But it's hard to imagine a new management team getting excited about a capital-draining untried technology that was brainchild of their predecessors. <<
- Eric - |
