New opportunities for wireless broadband

Huawei Communicate
Expert’s View
“Batelco’s NGN
will deliver our promise
Dr. Ye Weichen, joined Intel in July 2007 and then became the CTO of the China WiMAX Division, leading
the Intel (China)
WiMAX standardization
to bring affordable
broadband
accessresearch
to allteam
of to promote WiMAX technology in China.
Bahrain’s households, making them among the
best connected in the world.
NGBWA and WiMAX in 2009
New opportunities for wireless broadband
By Ye Weichen
T
he financial crisis is a major
WiMAX deployment is
concern for the IT and
communications industries.
on the rise along with
G l o b a l l y, t h e e c o n o m y i s
increasingly
and governments
the demand for wireless are proactivelyintegrated
stimulating the economic
recovery with sizeable investments.
broadband. The current
Investing in the communications
industr y is an effective way to spur
worldwide economic
economic growth and developing wireless
downturn brings not only broadband network applications fuels
further growth.
pressure but also great
opportunity for WiMAX
New-generation
broadband wireless
technology.
access
To deliver broadband wireless network
applications to consumers, especially
low-cost broadband services, we need to
leverage the new generation broadband
wireless access (NGBWA) technology.
NGBWA technology is endowed with
four basic attributes: advanced, efficient,
innovative, and economical.
Advanced refers to high radio spectrum
utilization. Based on OFDMA-MIMO
air interface technology, the NGBWA
technology enables high spectrum
utilization.
Efficient refers to the capability
of supporting high-speed and highthroughput data services which requires an
All-IP and flat network structure.
Innovative refers to keeping the network
platform open. An open network platform is
helpful to enabling various applications. Then,
develop a safe, manageable, and sustainable
business mode through market testing.
Economical refers to cost-effective
network construction and low operational
expenditures. This requires a mature
ecosystem that is equipped with diversified
devices.
Among the technologies which have
been commercialized on a large scale,
WiMAX based on IEEE802.16e is a
typical NGBWA technology.
Wi-Fi is widely deployed and can
supplement WiMAX well in multi-mode
networks. WiMAX is suitable for wide
area coverage and Wi-Fi for hot spot
coverage. This combination will certainly
play a critical role in wireless construction
in urban areas.
Home & Enterprise Broadband
proposed by Huawei is an important
NGBWA application scenario. Fixed
broadband (such as ADSL) is the current
major access mode of the home market.
In the near future, the home market
will become an important segment of
broadband wireless access.
T h e i d e a o f Ho m e & E n t e r p r i s e
Broadband unifies home and commercial
applications and proposes the combination
of individuals (home) and collectives
(businesses) to ensure that subscribers
experience the same quality of wireless
broadband service.
APR 2009 . ISSUE 48
12
Expert’s View
New opportunities for wireless broadband
“1-2-3-4-5” indicates
WiMAX 2009
WiMAX achieved a lot in 2008 as the
typical NGBWA technology. Six leading
enterprises initiated the establishment of
the Open Patent Alliance (OPA). Sprint/
Clear wire began to deliver WiMAX
commercial services in the USA.
The products certification of 802.16e
Wave2 has been carried out. Laptops with
embedded Intel WiMAX/Wi-Fi dual-mode
13 APR 2009 . ISSUE 48
chips have been delivered. Clearwire raised
3.2 billion USD from five enterprises and
invested in WiMAX network deployment
across America. Expect even more
achievements in 2009 which are described
in “1-2-3-4-5” below.
1
1 stands for 1.00 USD.
On June 9th, 2008, Intel, Cisco,
Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent, Sprint, and
Clearwire jointly established the OPA,
aiming to lower the patent royalties of
relevant technologies by establishing an
open WiMAX patent pool. It was agreed
that less than one USD would be paid
as the patent royalty for each WiMAX
terminal, which is the common mission of
OPA and many enterprises in the industry.
In fact, the idea of a patent pool has
been the wish of Chinese enterprises and
regulatory authorities for years. It is worth
mentioning that Huawei is a member of
the board of directors of OPA. This not
only helps to increase the influence of
Huawei Communicate
Huawei on the global WiMAX industry,
but also further boosts the overall WiMAX
industry chain.
2
2 is for “on both sides of the Taiwan
Strait”. 2009 is a critical year for enterprises
on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to
rise to leading positions in the global
WiMAX industry. This also marks the first
year that Chinese enterprises will take a
leading position in the global mainstream
information communications technology
industry.
On the mainland, vendors, such as
Huawei have many advantages over others
in terms of WiMAX networks and systems.
They are playing an increasingly important
role in the WiMAX forum and the IEEE,
having obtained considerable WiMAX
network construction contracts.
Under the M-Taiwan plan formulated
by the Taiwan administrative authority,
a complete industr y chain has been
formed and six WiMAX licenses have
been issued. Today, Taiwan has developed
into the largest WiMAX base in the
world, integrating manufacturing, testing,
application, and operations.
Both mainland China and Taiwan
are known as the factories of the world
producing electronic information devices
and enterprises like Lenovo, ASUS, Acer,
and HTC have taken the lead in launching
diversified WiMAX terminals. Both sides
of the Taiwan Strait have complementary
advantages and will become the new
engines of the next WiMAX development
stage.
3
3 means WiMAX would be commercialized
three years ahead of LTE.
WiMAX is no longer the solo
performer, but the competition is enabling
innovation and progress. As LTE is
driven to quicken its pace of growth, the
final beneficiaries will be the market and
subscribers.
Early time to market helps WiMAX
attract numerous operators in emerging
markets, while operators in mature
markets are also glad to take WiMAX as
an effective broadband access technology
that is helpful to creating new competitive
advantages.
WiMAX was first commercialized
d u r i n g 2 0 0 7 . To d a y, t h e W i M A X
ecosystem is increasingly mature and chips
and terminals have gradually generated
economies of scale. According to ABI
research, the average price of a WiMAX
chip decreased to 23 USD in 2008 from
32 USD in 2006 and is predicted to
drop to 6 USD in 2013. Since Wi-Fi and
WiMAX will be further integrated, the
cost of a multi-mode chip of WiMAX will
be reduced to less than 5 USD.
4
4 is for the four attributes of NGBWA,
as mentioned above.
As a typical NGBWA technology,
WiMAX is well endowed with four
important basic attributes: advanced,
efficient, innovative and economical.
WiMAX is mainly a data service access
technology. The Senior Vice President
of Huawei, Mr. Xu Zhijun said, “We
do not identify WiMAX as a mobile
communications system, but as a fixed
wireless broadband access solution to
supplement the overall broadband access
solution.”
This idea is being accepted by
worldwide telecom operators. Operators
with 3G licenses take WiMAX as a
necessary supplement to voice networks
and those without 3G licenses place
WiMAX in an even more important
position. It is clear that as an efficient and
economical broadband wireless access
solution for data services, WiMAX will
occupy a wide market space.
5
5 represents the five new focuses in the
global WiMAX market.
In the past two years, WiMAX
penetrated both developed and emerging
markets through its superior technical
features and unique position as a wireless
broadband access solution. There are five
focuses in the global WiMAX market:
developed markets like America and Japan,
typical emerging markets like India and
Russia and the important engine of the
WiMAX ecosystem, Taiwan.
First, the United States is representative
of WiMAX application. The operator,
C l e a r w i re , w i l l c o n t i n u e t o d e p l oy
WiMAX networks in America.
Second, UQ started pilot commercial
applications in three Japanese cities in
February and will begin formal commercial
application on July 1st.
Third, the Indian government
has selected WiMAX as the primar y
broadband access technology for the whole
country. Its 2.5GHz frequency band will
be auctioned very soon. Then, BSNL will
begin to deploy WiMAX networks and
deliver commercial services in 2009.
Fourth, in Russia, Yota has deployed
W i M A X n e t w o r k s i n Mo s c o w a n d
St.Petersburg, covering about 20 million
people, and Comstar is actively preparing
t o l a u n c h t h e c o m m e rc i a l Wi M A X
application.
Fifth, Taiwan VMAX will activate
WiMAX commercial service in the first
half of 2009.
By measuring the above five focuses
from the perspective of WiMAX industry
development, the American and Japanese
markets indicate that mainstream markets
have moved into the popularity stage. The
Indian and Russian markets indicate the
beginnings of the introduction stage in
emerging markets and the fourth year of
implementing “M-Taiwan” shows how the
WiMAX ecosystem is going to be further
optimized and upgraded, changing the
local industry’s economy in the process.
WiMAX will drive the wireless
b ro a d b a n d m a rk e t i n A f r i c a , L a t i n
America, Eastern Europe and the Middle
East while achieving several milestones in
markets that influence the global market.
In 2009, the WiMAX industry chain will
show its developmental rule in diversified
markets.
The prosperity of NGBWA and WiMAX
is built upon sufficient market requirements
and the suitable positioning of technologies.
The development of wireless broadband
networks will no doubt become a highlight
in this special period. As a champion of
WiMAX, we take a bullish stance about
development this year.
Editor: Xu Peng [email protected]
APR 2009 . ISSUE 48
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