Sprint

Sprint ends membership in NGMN Alliance after group backs LTE

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:43:52 -0400

FierceBroadbandWireless has learned Sprint has withdrawn from the The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance, a group of global mobile operators that banded together last year to push for a common vision for networks and technologies beyond 3G. The operator was a founding member of the NGMN. News of Sprint's withdrawal was first mentioned in a research report from Signals Research.

Sprint said it ended its relationship with the NGMN Alliance after the group chose to endorse LTE (Long Term Evolution) for 4G. Sprint spokesman John Polivka said the NGMN was supposed to endorse the co-existence of various technologies without favoring one over another. In fact, he said, technology neutrality was a key tenet of the NGMN to make sure it didn't duplicate the work being done in existing standards bodies.

"Sprint was disappointed that NGMN shifted from its original technology-neutral stance. We respectfully withdrew our membership from the organization due to the change in direction," he said. "We are enthusiastically continuing with our plans to work with our burgeoning ecosystem and launch a WiMAX network in select U.S. cities beginning in the third quarter with expansion throughout 2009 and beyond."

Founding members of the NGMN Alliance include China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Orange, KPN and T-Mobile, all of whom back LTE. A quick look at the list of the 18 operator members on the NGMN Alliance web site shows the majority of the operators come from the WCDMA community, whose 4G path is LTE.

Related stories:
Femto Forum, NGMN Alliance unite for femtocells. NGMN story
NGMN announces "unprecedented" IPR plan. IPR story

WiMAX Stats: Still awaiting the tipping points

Mike Dolan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:26:08 -0400

By Adlane Fellah

At the end of March 2008, Maravedis' WiMAXCounts research logged nearly 2 million broadband wireless access/WiMAX subscribers. From fourth-quarter 2007 to first-quarter 2008, subscriber quarter-to-quarter growth was 19 percent and we have noticed the same quarterly growth trend since first quarter 2007. With a residential monthly ARPU of $48.08 and business ARPU of $146.02, this subscriber base generated estimated quarterly revenues of $366.22 millions, an increase of 20 percent with respect to the previous quarter.

There continues to be more residential subscribers than business subscribers, despite operator tendency to focus on business offerings. 65 percent of the subscriber base is residential vs. 35 percent business. However, the typical customer mix among operators is 52 percent business and 48 percent residential. This split did not change from the previous quarter. North America was the region with the higher residential customer base with 78 percent residential and 22 percent business.

Approximately 64 percent of the operators covered by WiMAXCounts have commercially launched BWA/WiMAX; 23 percent are currently deploying the network or testing WiMAX; and the remaining 14 percent either have idle spectrum (10 percent) or have returned/lost the right to use the spectrum (3 percent). There were various operators that planned to launch during the first quarter of 2008 and postponed their commercial launch until later this year, such as Global Mobile (Taiwan), which plans to launch in early 2009 and Sprint Nextel which initially planned for a commercial launch of Xohm in April this year.

One of the most important events that occurred during the first half of 2008 was the definitive agreement signed between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire to combine their respective wireless broadband and WiMAX businesses. Sprint will contribute its 2.5 GHz spectrum assets to the venture. The new venture will have more than 40 billion MHz POPs in key U.S. markets through the combined spectrum assets of Sprint and Clearwire. The new entity hopes to provide coverage to 140 million POPs by the end of 2010. Maravedis believes this coverage will be reached towards 2015 at the earliest. It is expected that the transaction will be completed in fourth-quarter 2008. This will considerably impact the future of WiMAX in the U.S. The new entity hopes its head start and spectrum position will help it become the strongest 4G operator compared to those in the LTE camp.

There continues to be more certified 802.16-2004 deployments than mobile and proprietary deployments. We have seen, however, an increasing interest from operators in the mobile version of WiMAX. During this quarter we accounted for 88 deployments using certified 802.16-2005 equipment as compared to 74 in the previous quarter; 106 deployments in the 801.16-2004 standard as compared to 105 in fourth-quarter 2007, and 54 proprietary deployments as compared to 64 in the previous quarter. We attribute the decrease of proprietary deployments mainly to operators upgrading their networks to offer WiMAX either in its fixed "16d" or mobile "16e" versions.

There are operators that have hybrid networks that are deploying a combination of proprietary and certified equipment. New operators that signed agreements this quarter to deploy mobile WiMAX networks include Axtel (Mexico) with Motorola, Embratel (Brazil) with Motorola, BSNL (India) with Soma Networks, VTR (Chile) with Motorola, and VTEL (Georgia) with Alcatel Lucent, among others.

As shown in Exhibit 1, the largest mobile WiMAX deployments reported during first-quarter 2008 were from Korea Telecom with nearly 150,000 subscribers and Wateen Telecom (Pakistan) with more than 10,000 subscribers at the end of that quarter. Wateen is today the largest mobile WiMAX Motorola deployment. In June 2006, Wateen placed an order for 198,000 CPEs from Motorola. Motorola has shipped 60,000 CPEs so far. In our latest conversation with Wateen, the operator said they had 25,000 subscribers by the end of June 2008. The operator expects to complete the order of 198,000 CPEs within the next year. We expect the gap between mobile "16e" deployments and "16d" will narrow once trials of 16e equipment are complete and certified equipment becomes widely available.

Approximately 63 percent of worldwide deployments have occurred in the 3.5 GHz spectrum, while only 17 percent in the 2.5 GHz spectrum. There has, however, been a lot of activity in the allocation of WiMAX frequency bands in the 2.3 Ghz and 2.5 GHz range, especially in Europe. Since the lower the frequency band, the better the propagation characteristics, most operators are interested in obtaining spectrum on these bands to deploy mobile WiMAX networks. That is the case in Russia, for example, where the frequency range of 2300 - 2400 MHz can be transferred from its current military use to WiMAX allocations. It is expected that up to three new licenses may be issued in this frequency range. In Germany an auction is expected for 2.5 GHz -2.69 GHz spectrum, and in Sweden 5 operators were awarded 2.6 GHz licenses. Many other countries are getting ready for upcoming auctions in these bands such as the U.K., Austria and the Netherlands. This might accelerate the number of mobile WiMAX deployments in the world and at the same time narrow the gap between the number of deployments in the 3.5 GHz and 2.5 GHz band--that is, if the spectrum is acquired by non-cellular operators open to deploying WiMAX! This is not a guarantee at this point and Intel cannot invest in every greenfield operator!

Adlane Fellah is the CEO and founder of Maravedis, a research and analysis firm focusing on broadband wireless technologies including WiMAX, 802.20, TD-CDMA and wireless local loop systems.

Court: Sprint affiliate can proceed with legal action against Sprint/Clearwire deal

Lynnette Luna — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:40:29 -0400

A Delaware court is allowing Sprint affiliate iPCS, the operator's larger affiliate, to move ahead with its legal action against Sprint and its planned WiMAX joint venture with Clearwire. However, the court won't allow two other iPCS subsidiaries, Horizon PCS and Bright PCS, to joint the legal action.

iPCS has the exclusive rights to sell Sprint Nextel branded services in 80 markets, and in March iPCS and its subsidiaries filed a complaint against Sprint, claiming its WiMAX deal with Clearwire would breach the exclusivity provisions of IPCS' affiliate agreements with Sprint. iPCS wants a declaratory judgment against Sprint that a merger with Clearwire would in fact breach its affiliate agreements with Sprint. Moreover, the affiliate wants a permanent injunction against the merger until its affiliate agreements have been modified with Sprint.

It looks like it's deja vu all over again for Sprint, which had similar battles with affiliates over its merger with Nextel. It ended up coughing up millions to purchase these companies in 2005 so it could consummate its merger with Nextel. Fortunately for Sprint this time around, there aren't many of them left.

For more:
- read Cellular-news

Related stories:
iPCS sues Sprint Nextel over Clearwire deal. iPCS story
Sprint Nextel buys two affiliates. Sprint story

Sprint's Xohm taps Mformation for remote device management

Lynnette Luna — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:28:13 -0400

Sprint's WiMAX division announced a deal with device management software company Mformation Technologies to deliver device management capabilities for new Xohm-branded WiMAX-enabled mobile devices. Sprint plans to use Mformation's software to remotely manage the WiMAX devices on its network. The operator is commercially launching WiMAX in Baltimore in September.

Device management will be critical for Sprint, and likewise Clearwire, which is merging with Sprint later this year, to enable a number of devices to come onto the WiMAX network, regardless of whether they were purchased via Sprint or an external retailer that has no affiliation with the operator. Sprint's goal is to allow a plethora of devices--ranging from Internet tablets to telematics consoles--to operate on the network in an open access manner.

Matt Bancroft, chief marketing officer with Mformation, noted that while the device management software is optimized for WiMAX devices such as data cards and dongles, it also must support the many dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX devices that will run on the network because WiMAX won't be ubiquitious for some time. Given the sparse coverage, it's likely that much of the device management processes will occur via CDMA initially.

Bancroft added that the wave of devices that come to market next year will require additional device management capabilities that aren't available today, but that device management capabilities will catch up.

In June, Mformation and Bridgewater Systems announced their intention to integrate Bridgewater's service control and subscriber data management solution with Mformation's service manager to enable WiMAX operators to automatically detect, provision and manage WiMAX devices over the air using industry-standard IP and OMA DM protocols.

For more:
- check out this release

Related stories:
Sprint: 'We're creating a platform for innovation.' Open access story
WiMAX forum predicts 133 million users by 2012. WiMAX story

Maravedis: Clearwire world's largest wireless broadband operator

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:34:36 -0400

According to Maravedis, Clearwire is the world's largest broadband wireless access (BWA) provider in the world. The firm recently counted all of the global WiMAX and proprietary BWA subscribers and found that Clearwire's 443,000 subscribers account for nearly one quarter of all individual broadband wireless connections in the first quarter. According to the report, some 1.988 million broadband wireless subscribers are in the world, with more than half using proprietary wireless broadband technology. Of the 602,000 customers on WiMAX gear, 509,000 have fixed 802.16d WiMAX service, while only 193,000 are using a real mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) network, and of those, the vast majority, 145,000, are on Korea Telecom's WiBro network, which obtained certification under the WiMAX Forum this year.

Clearwire is working to upgrade its proprietary gear to mobile WiMAX and plans to merge with Sprint's WiMAX assets later this year.

For more:
- take a look at Telephony

Related stories:
Maravedis tackles the idea of a combined WiMAX/LTE standard. Maravedis story
Analysts say Russian market big for WiMAX. Russian WiMAX story

Airvana upgrades EV-DO software

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:46:06 -0400

Airvana announced an upgrade to the company's radio network control technology to give CDMA 1xEV-DO operators more capacity and higher data speeds. Some 70 operators worldwide use Airvana's technology, including Verizon and Sprint. Airvana's upgrade enables CDMA operators to increase the number of sites it can fit in a cluster.

"With Airvana's RNC clustering, operators can deploy multiple RNCs without introducing any RNC borders that can cause service interruptions as subscribers cross them," the company said. "This benefit is especially important for delay-sensitive applications such as push-to-talk and push-to-video."

For more:
- read InformationWeek

Related stories:
Interest in CDMA EV-DO Rev. B heating up. EV-DO story
Novatel, AutoNet pushing EV-DO Rev. A in vehicles. EV-DO story

Jackson Hole, Wyo. gets first certified mobile WiMAX network

Lynnette Luna — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:40:31 -0400

Jackson Hole, Wyo., is the first city in the U.S. to get a certified mobile WiMAX 2.5 GHz network. DigitalBridge Communications (DBC) officially launched service today in the popular resort area using Alvarion's equipment.

DBC's goal is to bring WiMAX to underserved rural communities. It has fixed broadband wireless up and running in a number of markets in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and will work to upgrade those markets to standardized mobile WiMAX in the 2.5 GHz band within the next year.

Greg Daily, president of Alvarion's North American business, said DBC and other operators looking to target rural markets will benefit from the economies of scale of Sprint, which has ushered in the mobile WiMAX device ecosystem, and the new Clearwire, which is folding in Sprint later this year. "Think about the ecosystem launching and upwards of almost 100 devices that will come out at the end of the year. We're starting to see customers in small places like Montana and anywhere else in the world being able to access to architecture like this," Daily told FierceBroadbandWireless.

DBC's primary business model will be selling subscriptions to businesses and consumers in the Jackson Hole area. It will also look to institute a visitor-based model whereby visitors to the tourist area can buy a daily or weekly subscription.

For more:
- check out this release

Related stories:
Nortel teams with Alvarion on WiMAX; focus moves to LTE. Alvarion story
Research firm blasts mobile WiMAX. Mobile WiMAX story

Clearwire looking for partnership deals in Europe

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:31:42 -0400

Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff said the company is in discussions with European companies to create partnerships similar to Clearwire's deal in the U.S. to help it build out mobile WiMAX across Europe, according to an Unstrung article. The operator owns licenses in seven European countries, covering about 200 million people. Clearwire is pooling its assets with Sprint's Xohm business with cash infusions from Intel, Google and three cable operators.

Clearwire has acquired 3.5 GHz licenses in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Romania, and Spain, and through its affiliate in Denmark, Danske Telecom A/S. At the end of March, Clearwire had just 51,000 customers in Brussels and Ghent, Belgium; Dublin; and Seville, Spain.

For more:
- read Unstrung

Related stories:
Clearwire expects 30 million subs by 2017. Clearwire story
New Sprint-Clearwire deal a shot in the arm for mobile WiMAX. Clearwire editorial

Cisco to unveil WiMAX patent alliance

Sue Marek — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:49:21 -0400

Cisco is expected to announce today it has formed an alliance with Sprint, Clearwire and a handful of WiMAX manufacturers to share WiMax patents and therefore stimulate the WiMAX ecosystem. Other vendors involved in the deal include Alcatel-Lucent, Intel and Samsung. However, several notable names are missing from the group, including Motorola and Nokia, which are both providing equipment for Sprint's Mobile WiMAX initiative, Xohm.

However, just because Motorola and Nokia aren't involved in the initial announcement, that doesn't preclude them from joining the alliance. The main goal of the group is to open up WiMax patents held by various vendors and to make licensing a faster process.

For more:
- See this ComputerWorld story

Related stories:
Cisco buys WiMAX vendor Navini for $330M. Read this Cisco story
WiMAX Forum certifies first mobile WiMAX products. Read this WiMAX story

As 3G laptops become must-haves for enterprise, how will operators respond?

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Gartner is predicting that laptops embedded with 3G are likely to become a must-have for the business world beginning next year because new technologies--namely those that incorporate various frequencies for better coverage--and better pricing plans are making them more attractive. Today, the high cost hardware and expensive monthly charges have so far kept the enterprise from investing in laptops embedded with 3G. But that is expected to change.

Does that mean operators will be pushed to lift the 5 GB per month cap they currently have in place on their "unlimited" laptop data packages? Both Verizon and AT&T have a 5 GB cap on unlimited usage while Sprint has no cap but is rumored to be instituting one shortly.

As attractive as the wireless data enterprise market is, 3G operators are in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to mobile Internet access as voice capacity--still the bread and butter of this business--is being sacrificed for high-speed data services. As such, it's difficult to offer a truly unlimited high-speed data plan. That's why Verizon and others have never positioned 3G as a replacement for DSL.

As the enterprise becomes more attracted to 3G-enabled laptops because of the reasons Gartner outlines, usage will surely skyrocket. You have to think that enterprise customers will use the service even when they aren't traveling.

In March, iPass released a new survey that measured 3G enterprise usage in 2007, giving insight into how the enterprise market is shaping up. It found monthly usage increased steadily throughout the year, growing from an average of 152 MB per user in the first quarter of 2007 to 190 MB in the fourth quarter. Of those more established users who had been on the service since January 2007, monthly usage averaged 188 MB in Q1 and 225 MB in Q4, indicating that usage seems to rise with experience.

At the extreme, a small number of users exceeded 2 GB of usage in a given month. These heavy users accounted for less than one half of one percent of all users in the sample and were offset by the 32 percent of business people who used an average less than 50 MB in a month.

Of course, those statistics come from the encumbered environment Gartner mentioned. Clearly, operators have to be careful about the traffic mix in their networks, but they certainly don't want to alienate the valuable enterprise user either. It will be interesting to see how they tackle the issue going forward. Will femtocells in the enterprise and where business people travel to be the answer? Or will it be 4G?--Lynnette