sequans

Wireless startups garner $515.5M in February

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

It looks like we're seeing a shift in the tide in terms of where the VC money is going in the wireless industry. For so long, the bulk of investments were going to start-up mobile application-type companies. Rutberg & Co., however, indicates that some 30 companies, primarily device, semiconductor and carrier infrastructure sectors, in February received a combined $515.5 million in VC money.

Leading the way was TerreStar Networks, the satellite firm that is developing an integrated satellite and terrestrial broadband network that will incorporate what it calls "4G technology." The company pulled in $300 million. WiMAX chipmaker Sequans received $28 million while wireless USB chip vendor took home $24 million.

To read more about VC money in the wireless industry:
- take a look at this article from Unstrung

Related articles:
- TerreStar mulls 700 MHz bid Report
- TerreStar picks Accenture for 4G network Report
- Telsima, Sequans capitalizing on Indian WiMAX market Editorial

Sprint reveals WiMAX partners

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:59:57 -0500

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, Sprint announced that it was still pushing ahead with its Xohm-branded WiMAX network and that it was working with Amdocs, OQO, ASUS, McAfee and other new partners to launch the service this year. Here's a quick run down of Sprint's latest partners and their role in the Xohm launch:

Amdocs inked a multi-year agreement with the carrier that includes building and maintaining the Xohm Internet portal, customer relationship management, service activation and provisioning and billing.
SwapDrive is providing Sprint with a hosted storage solution where Xohm subscribers can secure, organize, manage and access all their user-generated digital content.
eTelecare Global Solutions is working with Sprint to provide voice and e-support customer care services.
McAfee is set to implement online security products for PCs used on the Xohm WiMAX network.
OQO has pledged to embed WiMAX wireless capability in an ultra mobile PC (UMPC) so it can run on Sprint's network this year.
ASUSTek also plans to create a line of WiMAX-embedded devices, which should hit the market this year.
Zyxel and chip supplier Sequans have announced a collaboration to produce a WiMAX modem subscriber device.
Finally, Soho Square, a WPP company, has been named the advertising agency of record to help launch the Xohm brand in North America.

For more on Sprint's Xohm launch:
- read this press release

Related articles:
Sprint's WiMAX service to be branded "Xohm" Article
Sprint outlines Xohm WiMAX plans Article
Taking a new look at WiMAX Article

Telsima, Sequans capitalizing on Indian WiMAX market

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

WiMAX infrastructure/solutions provider Telsima and chip vendor Sequans are two companies to watch during this week's WiMAX World conference in Chicago. The two have been relatively quiet but are now breaking out with some big announcements that are sure to lift their profile in the WiMAX industry.

Telsima, a relative unknown in the WiMAX industry, announced contracts with Tier-1 operators and said it will ship a total of 10,000 WiMAX base stations and 100,000 subscriber stations in 2007. Telsima revealed its equipment already is installed in commercial WiMAX networks for Tier-1 operators in emerging markets, including Tata-VSNL and Reliance Communications.

The company, with more than $100 million in equity and credit, is solely focusing on emerging markets, primarily India, with the goal of enabling operators in these markets to offer broadband wireless service for $10 per month. Burcak Beser, Telsima's chief technology officer, told me the company is winning these contracts for three primary reasons: Telsima is only focused on emerging markets, its StarMAX product line is cheaper than competitors when capex and opex are added together and Telsima's infrastructure is forward compatible and allows operators to add functionality incrementally.

Telsima's Trufle access service network (ASN) architecture is the main reason operators can offer WiMAX service at $10 per month, Beser said. The architecture is built around off-the-shelf switches and routers with no need for a mobile IP stack. The ASN architecture also supports both fixed WiMAX and mobile WiMAX subscribers. Not every subscriber needs mobility, said Beser, so an operator can save on opex costs by only providing mobile services to those customers who need it.

"Mobile IP is much harder to manage than a flat non-mobile IP network," Beser said. "If you are using the radio most optimally, then you don't pay the overhead of the core infrastructure."

Sequans is reaping the benefits of Telsima's momentum as the vendor is using Sequans' chips in its StarMAX product line, in both subscriber products and base stations. Sequans is also announcing today a deal with Alvarion to supply the vendor with mobile WiMAX base station chips. As I noted in August, Alvarion, historically strong in the fixed WiMAX market, is now gaining momentum in the mobile WiMAX market.

Sequans has been working in the shadow of competitor Beceem, which has scored some high-profile wins with Samsung and Motorola--two major suppliers for Sprint's mobile WiMAX rollout. According to Bernard Aboussouan, Sequans' vice president of marketing and business development, the chip maker's main advantage is its ability to deliver high data throughput with about 1/3 of the power of competitors, a key requirement for those operators wanting to save opex costs. To date, Sequans has 25 customers, with only about half announced.

Given the fact that the Indian market is set to become the largest WiMAX market in the world, we could very well see Telsima and Sequans gain some significant momentum.--Lynnette

802.16e sales to surpass fixed WiMAX's by 2008

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:01:38 -0400

It won't be long now: ABI Research says that, by 2008, mobile WiMAX sales will surpass the sales of fixed WiMAX. This may surprise some, as 802.16-2004-based solutions have been adopted more and more during the past year. Still, the research group says that the mobile version, 802.16-2005, will arrive sooner than expected, and will likely be adopted at a faster clip than anticipated. ABI's Alan Varghese says, though, that in order to be technically and economically viable, mobile WiMAX ICs should hit "sweet spots" on a number of parameters, and that vendors who find these sweet spots will quickly benefit.

"ABI Research sees fixed WiMAX sales hitting a peak in 2007 and then leveling off," Varghese says. "Mobile WiMAX will start to see deployments in 2007, and the crossover point between the two will be late in 2008. Considering that it takes a year to design ASICs and then more time to design them into end-equipment, vendors up and down the value chain need to be discussing the required tradeoffs in their strategy meetings now."

Everything about a mobile platform--performance, power consumption, cost requirements--is more challenging. For example: MIMO will be required, but the technology requires more demanding circuitry, so IC vendors will have to trade off MIMO performance for die area, power usage, and price. Price is an issue as well: The ASP for the WiMAX RF is about $15 and for the baseband about $23; the total is more than the BOM for a low-tier device, so considerable cost reduction is needed.

WiMAX IC companies to watch: Beceem Communications and Runcom, two companies which bypassed 802.16d and headed directly toward 802.16e. Varghese says, however, that these two upstarts may well be eclipsed by companies such as Redpine Signals, RF Magic, Sequans, Sierra Monolithics, Telecis, and Wavesat, precisely because the latter companies have gained experience by deploying fixed WiMAX. He also says that we should not lose sight of giants such as Fujitsu and Intel.

For more on mobile WiMAX projections:
- see the summary of ABI Research's report

Altera, Sequans show first 802.16e-2005 base station

Mon, 15 May 2006 20:01:34 -0400

One sparrow does not a spring make, but sparrows do have a habit of showing up just as spring is around the corner. So it is with Altera and Sequans Communications. The two companies are showing the first mobile WiMAX base station modem chip set supporting the recently ratified 802.16e-2005 broadband wireless access standard. Consisting of three Stratix II FPGAs, the Sequans SQN2110 modem chip set provides wireless OEMs with a ready-made solution for developing mobile WiMAX systems.

Altera's Stratix II FPGAs are used for the MAC and PHY layers of the 802.16e-2005 channel card. The chip set supports the first-wave certification profile stage as well as diverse hardware requirements and processing speeds. The FPGAs also have the flexibility and integration important for a new standard, especially as each new wave will likely include new certification profiles and new functions.

"Compared to fixed logic implementations, FPGA-based products offer superior design flexibility," Arun Iyengar, senior director of Altera's wireless business unit, correctly points out. "This is particularly valuable for reducing risk when designing to evolving standards. By partnering with leading intellectual property providers such as Sequans, our customers now have immediate access to a rapid-response solution for new wireless protocols and services."

For more on Stratix II FPGAs:
- read this news release

ALSO NOTED: IEEE launches 802.11T task group; Nintendo DS WiFi hits 1M user mark; and much more...

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 19:00:50 -0500

> Research In Motion (RIM), fresh from its patent infringement settlement deal, has announced support for Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0 with the BlackBerry WLAN solution to provide on-campus mobile users with IP telephony capabilities. Report

> Toronto's public health department said it was following up on complaints that a plan by Toronto Hydro to install wireless WiFi transmitters on streetlight posts throughout the city could cause health problems. Article

> Buyers of WiFi equipment and systems must be assured that all products have the performance and stability to carry mission-critical applications and data. The IEEE set up the 802.11T Task Group to see what can be done. Article

> Nintendo DS WiFi services reaches 1 million users. Article

> The latest industry that sees rapid WiFi deployment? The world's iron, coal and copper mines. Article

> Airgo has signed its first WiFi pact with a major Asia-based ODM, Taiwan's Asustek Computer. Asustek is known primarily for manufacturing motherboards and will integrate the Airgo 802.11n MIMO-based chip sets into both routers and notebook PCMCIA cards. Article

> The Wi-Fi Alliance announced today that its WPA2 security certification is now mandatory in order for products to receive WiFi certification. Report

> Last Friday, the IEEE 802.11 Working Group voted to establish the e1.0 draft of the 802.11n specification and submit it to letter balloting. The vote took place during the IEEE's bi-monthly meeting in Denver. Site

> Airspan plans to start shipping MicroMAX-SOC to its first customers in April 2006. MicroMAX-SOC is based on the SQN2010 WiMAX Certified base station system design of Sequans. Release

> Airspan announced its 16eUSB mobile WiMAX adapter today, apparently the first device of its kind. Report

> The Universal Powerline Association has completed the first version of its "Digital Home Standard" high-speed powerline networking specification. Site

> More about China's WAPI move. Report

And Finally... In India's eastern Orissa state, a WiFi-equipped bus drive through remote villages to pick up and drop off email. The bus idea, started as an MIT Asia Labs project, may well be a model for networking remote areas. Report

Trend: Questions about viability of fixed WiMax persist

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 19:01:38 -0500

Where is WiMax heading? This was the question at the recent WiMax World conference in Boston. There were two points of tension which were articulated in different ways by many of the speakers. The first market in which WiMax has made inroads is the fixed wireless market, but most of the large carriers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of mobile WiMax. The choice between fixed and mobile is important, since transition between the two will be difficult because of the incompatibility of platforms each uses.

The second point of tension has to do with the capabilities of the first generation of 802.16e. The first generation will not support high-speed mobility and hand-offs and may be better positioned as a WiFi-plus system supporting laptop or smartphone-based portability alongside fixed access. The key questions explicitly or implicitly addressed at the conference were what the size of the fixed WiMax market would be in light of the promise held by mobile WiMax, and whether mobile WiMax would have to achieve cellular levels of mobility in order to keep the interest of large operators and investors.

For more on the state of WiMax:
- see this Wireless Watch analysis

ALSO: Aperto, Axxcelera, Redline, Sequans and Wavesat offered a live interoperability demonstration between the companies' TDD-based WiMax base stations and customer premise equipment. Release

Sequans, Wavesat show WiMax plans

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:01:38 -0500

Cupertino, CA-based Sequans Communications and Quebec-based Wavesat each unveiled a chip set and a mini-PCI card reference kit designed to accelerate WiMax development and deployment, and both are doing so a week after initiating WiMax certification testing. Wavesat said its design is the first mini-PCI card design and that the company is targeting Asian ODMs. They, in turn, would accelerate the volume of WiMax CPE and push costs down. The reference kit joins Wavesat's DM256 baseband chip with an RF Magic front end for 3.5 GHz operation, with the company supporting the MAC layer in software. Wavesat is also working with SiGe Semiconductor for an RF front end. The kit will support both time-division duplex and half-frequency-division duplex operation. Wavesat has VCom, Edom and WaveIP as customers.

Sequans made an entrance with the SQN2010 and SQN1010 baseband-plus-MAC chips for basestations and CPE. The chips are made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in its 0.13 micron CMOS process and are an ARM926 processor and the baseband processing. The SQN2010 basestation chip adds another ARM926 for customer applications. RF front-end partners include Sierra Monolithics and RF Magic. The 2010 is a 31x31mm BGA package and consumes between 1.5 and 2.5 watts. The 1010 is a 23x23mm BGA and consumes 1 to 2 watts. Sequans says Airspan and Cambridge Broadband are among its customers. The chips from both Wavesat and Sequans sell for $35 each in quantities of 10,000. The two companies have plans for 802.16e.

For more on Sequans and Wavesat WiMax plans:
- see Patrick Mannion's commsdesigns report