[opendtv] Report sees WiMax slowdown, LTE concerns

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:21:16 -0400
Honestly, I don't understand why companies obsess over what I consider
to be minutiae.

WiMAX and LTE, for example. Why the big fuss? If you have already
deployed 3G, using W-CDMA, why not do what seems easiest, and just
upgrade your W-CDMA? It's not like the other options offer anything
drastically different. Is this just a case of viewgraph engineering for
the added hype factor?

Technically speaking, spread spectrum techniques (i.e. CDMA) are more
fun anyway, they're every bit as efficient as the alternatives, and CDMA
variants are downward compatible. So I don't understand why the
obsession at Layer 1, when it's the services that people buy, not the
modulation technique?

(Slight correction. I do buy modulation technique, which is why I looked
for the CDMA cellcos when I went from AMPS to 2G, years ago. And yes,
HSPA and HSPA+ are more intriguing technically than LTE, no contest.)

Bert

---------------------------------
Report sees WiMax slowdown, LTE concerns

(07/13/2009 10:57 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218500103

SAN JOSE, Calif. - WiMax networks are facing a slowdown in revenue and
subscriber growth this year. Meanwhile, many carriers still harbor
concerns about whether the rival fourth generation wireless technology,
Long Term Evolution (LTE), is ready for deployment.

Those were two conclusions from the latest quarterly report on
next-generation wireless by Maravedis Research. The market watcher's
4GCounts service said in the first three months of 2009 carriers added
400,000 new subscribers to WiMax services compared to 50 million for 3G
services.

"Global service revenue growth is tapering off as WiMax operators
experience ARPU [average revenue per user] stagnation and subscriber
growth slowdown," said Adlane Fellah, chief executive of Maravedis,
speaking in a press statement.

Maravedis estimated carriers recorded ARPU in the first three months of
2009 for residential and business WiMax users of US$42.43 and US$116.82,
respectively. That's flat to down from US$42.33 and US$122.64 per user
for the last three months of 2009.

Clearwire USA continues to be the top WiMax operator with 500,000
subscribers at the end of March, an increase of five percent over
December. As much as 54 percent of all WiMax customer equipment is
vendor proprietary, Maravedis estimated, with the rest split between
equipment compliant with 802.16 and .16e standards.

By contrast the top 30 carriers committed to migrating to LTE accounted
had 1.1 billion cellular subscribers in March, almost half of them
belonging to China Mobile, according to the report. Those carriers are
using a mix of GSM, 3G and HSPA today.

Some 37 percent of carriers currently see LTE as their preferred option
for fourth-generation wireless technology. However, a substantial
minority of operators said they foresee delays deploying LTE, pointing
to concerns about a lack of interoperability in LTE vendor products and
a lack of spectrum.

All materials on this site Copyright (c) 2009 TechInsights, a Division
of United Business Media LLC. All rights reserved.
 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:

- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at 
FreeLists.org 

- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.
[opendtv] Report sees WiMax slowdown, LTE concerns

Other related posts:
