Nokia to Roll Out Sprint 4G WiMAX Network
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Nokia said Wednesday it has been selected by Sprint to begin building out its fourth-generation wireless network based on WiMAX. Four Texas markets will be first to receive service in early 2008.
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics this week will demonstrate a version of WiMax that can transport data at double the speed of current systems at theÂ 3GSM trade showÂ in Barcelona, Spain, it said Monday. The "Mobile WiMax Wave 2" system uses MIMO (multiple input multiple output) technology and smart antennas to realize speeds of around 34MbpsÂ downstream from the network to the user and about 8Mbps in the opposite direction, the company said in a statement. MIMO involves sending data using multiple antennas to increase the total data throughput. At those speeds it's possible to download an MP3 music file in about one second and a full CD of data in less than three minutes, said Samsung. A commercial service based on the technology on show in Barcelona isÂ planned by Sprint NextelÂ in the U.S. later this year. The carrier will use Mobile WiMax to supplement its 3G (third-generation) cellular service and plans to reach 100 million U.S. residents with the new network by the end of 2008. Before that service can be utilized terminals compatible with the network are needed. At 3GSM Samsung will also be showing a chip set compatible with the technology that can be integrated into devices. Competitors have also been showing similar chips recently. On Monday NXP Semiconductors and Israel's Runcom Technologies said they also plan to offer a chip set compatible with the Wave 2 system.
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Motorola is going after the emerging WiMax market in a big way. This week the company has been showing off its new hardware and software at WiMax World USA in Chicago -- one of six U.S. metropolitan areas in which Motorola will build the network infrastructure for Sprint Nextel&#39;s high-speed &quot;Xohm&quot; network.
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Now that mobile WiMax has officially been certified as a 3G technology, Sprint backing off calling its new WiMax service 4G.
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HONG KONG -- Nokia Corp. has developed a prototype handset that supports Mobile IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), a version of the protocol that will help to improve the quality of VOIP (voice over IP), streaming video and other applications delivered to wireless devices, the company said Tuesday.
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Sprint Nextel and its hardware partners sought to convince a small audience at the Consumer Electronics Show that their WiMax plans are on track, despite the recent departure of Sprint&#39;s CEO and the dissolution of its partnership with Clearwire.&quot;We are exactly where we said we&#39;d be,&quot; said Barry West, Sprint Nextel&#39;s CTO and president of the company&#39;s Xohm WiMax business unit. Sprint is in the process of soft-launching in Chicago and Baltimore, he said.Executives from Nokia and Samsung said they both expect to have user devices ready for the second-quarter launch. In addition, Motorola said it is working on a device that will operate over Sprint&#39;s EvDO (evolution, data optimized) cellular network, Wi-Fi, and WiMax.Since the&#160;ouster of Gary Forsee, the former CEO and chairman of Sprint Nextel, who was thought to be a champion of the company&#39;s WiMax plans, onlookers have speculated that the network might not roll out as planned. In addition,&#160;Sprint Nextel ended a partnership with Clearwire&#160;to jointly deploy WiMax, a further cause for uncertainty. Sprint has been hemorrhaging mobile subscribers and recording declining revenues since its purchase of Nextel.Beyond the unrest internally at Sprint, the company faces critics of WiMax who say that the technology won&#39;t work as well as cellular technologies in a mobile environment and that it won&#39;t support international roaming as easily as the cellular standards.But in describing the reasons why Sprint chose WiMax and why it intends to aggressively pursue the network, West further sought to soothe market qualms about the future.&quot;Being first to market is a huge advantage,&quot; he said. &quot;And WiMax technology is here, now, and mature.&quot;While an investment in a totally new technology requires a strong reason for change, this won&#39;t be the first time Sprint&#39;s doing it, he noted. WiMax doesn&#39;t follow on the upgrade path for CDMA, the basis for Sprint&#39;s cellular network, so it requires a totally new network.Sprint did that first when it moved from an analog cellular network to digital, West said. The same went for the move to third-generation technology, although in that case Sprint stuck with the CDMA path.Sprint also considered LTE (Long Term Evolution), a fourth-generation mobile technology, but one big disadvantage is that it&#39;s not yet available, he said.Moving to WiMax represents a shift to a new air interface technology: OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) instead of CDMA, which is the basis of the current 3G technologies. According to West, when CDMA is deployed in a wider section of spectrum, which helps boost throughput, the computational complexity required goes up exponentially. That requires higher-performance chips, which come with a steep price tag, he said.With WiMax, Sprint plans to use a wide section of spectrum that can dynamically switch from carrying data up or down, depending on user requirements, he said.Beyond the radically different network technology, Sprint envisions a very different business model than cellular, one that will support any kind of standard device.&quot;Look at the cellular model. It was very successful but also very frustrating,&quot; West said. He was referring to the business model in the United States where operators subsidize phones and then require long-term subscriptions from users.With Xohm, Sprint will allow any WiMax-compliant device to run on the network, he said. End-users will buy the devices themselves, probably at a variety of retail stores and hopefully for a low price because vendors expect the cost of WiMax chips to drop dramatically, like Wi-Fi. &quot;Since I&#39;ve got no money in you, I don&#39;t need a contract,&quot; West said. That opens the door to a wide array of new pricing scenarios. End-users could pay for the day, week, month, or on a regular subscription, he said.While West declined to cite specific prices, he said a monthly subscription to Xohm will be comparable to existing DSL rates.Initially, Sprint will sell PC cards and modems, but by the end of this year as many as&#160;10 different kinds of devices could be available, he said. Navigation and gaming devices are possibilities, he said.If the market has any doubts about Sprint&#39;s plans for the network, it should rest assured that, regardless, the future of WiMax is more certain, panelists said. &quot;WiMax is bigger than Sprint,&quot; said Sriram Viswanathan, vice president and general manager for Intel Capital and for Intel&#39;s WiMax business.Motorola alone has 17 contracts for networks and is involved in 60 trials, said Fred Wright, senior vice president and general manager at Motorola. &quot;This technology is real, it&#39;s not a fairy tale,&quot; he said.
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As Wi-Fi solidifies its hold on the tech world, Sprint shores up its long-term plans for longer-range WiMax.
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While many are just adjusting to the fast wireless technology behind WiMax, the head of Sprint Nextel's Xohm is planning new ways to charge for the service and how to meet the needs of huge numbers of Internet users.
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Mobile technology firm Nokia  (NOK1V.HE) said on Tuesday it was introducing what it hoped  would be a new industry standard for short-range wireless  connections between small devices.
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Intel Corp  said on Wednesday  it had won a mobile WiMax chip order from the world's top  cellphone maker Nokia , which will use its  semiconductors in Internet-focused devices from 2008.
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Nokia will roll out the first WiMax-enabled Internet tablets using Intel chips in the first half of 2008.
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Sprint Nextel Corp  on Tuesday  said it will spend up to $3 billion over two years to build a  high-speed wireless data network using WiMax technology in a  bid to capture new growth from emerging mobile services.
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Nokia's new mobile ad network will be run in partnership with Sprint and some 70 major Web-based content providers worldwide. Meanwhile, Nokia is reportedly talking about a Windows Mobile deal with Microsoft.
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Sprint is considering options such as spinning off its WiMAX business and taking on partners in an effort fimd its nationwide wireless broadband network.
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Sprint Nextel Corp., the nation's third-largest cellular provider, said Tuesday it will use an emerging technology called WiMax to build a new high-speed wireless network.
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Three companies are set to use the backdrop of the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to debut a device that can use WiMAX technology to make calls.
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Sprint and Samsung have extended their WiMax partnership with the Korean vendor being named the lead provider of infrastructure equipment for the New York market.