Indian telco Tata Communications has announced that it has selected WiMAX vendor

Indian telco Tata Communications has announced that it has selected WiMAX vendor Telsima to provide WiMAX solutions for a planned nationwide network. The Indian telco will be investing around USD500 million in the project by the end of 2010, and expects 200,000 WiMAX subscribers by March 2009. The project aims to roll out the largest WiMAX network in India, with coverage of 110 cities for the enterprise segment, and 15 for retail with Telsima deploying around 3,000 base stations. The initial phase is to extend wireless broadband internet access, already available in Bangalore since July 2007, to a total of nine cities; Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Kolkata, rising to 15 by the end of 2008.

telegeography.com

Mobile WiMAX Base Stations

Macro Base Stations are designed for use in high performing cells that are able to handle several thousands of users supporting a rich set of features. The Integrated BS and Pico-cell BS offer fewer features at lower cost – ideal for less dense deployments or to fill-in under-served spots. StarMAX 6400 Mobile WiMAX Macro Base Station

The Telsima Mobile WiMAX Architecture

The Telsima StarMAX 6000 family is based on the Telsima base station architecture for Mobile WiMAX BS. Its scaleable blade architecture gives room to deliver the performance required for Mobile WiMAX infrastructure with MIMO and beam forming technologies and is capable of supporting triple play services in upcoming mobile 4G environments.

Key Features StarMAX 6400

• Wave 2 compliant (IEEE 802.16e-2005)
• WiMAX Forum NWG ASN Profile C compliant
• TRUFLE ASN support
• High performance architecture utilizing Indoor and Outdoor units
• Low entry cost points
• Advanced Antenna systems: MIMO A/B 2x2, STC
• Subchannelization PUSC and FUSC
• Supporting VoIP, Data and Video triple play services
• IP over E1 backhaul
• Carrier Class ETSI & NEBS building practice
• GPS receiver input for TDD sync
• S/W configurable bandwidth
• Variable Uplink/Downlink ratio
• Mobility management BSOH and MSHO support
• Backwards interoperable via ‘D+E DualMode’ support
• Dual power inlets -48V DC
• All front I/O, redundant data interfaces
• Compatible with StarMAX 8100 Series of ODU
• 2.5GHz, 3.3GHz and 3.5 GHz band support (StarMAX 8100)

Configurations

• 2 to 4 sectors MIMO 2x2
• Option to migrate to 8 sectors MIMO 2x2 or 4 sectors MIMO 2x2/AAS
• Expansion slot for L2/L3 Router
• Expansion slot for integrated Stratum 2 or 3 clock module

StarMAX 5200 Mobile WiMAX Pico Base Station

Pico-cell base stations are deployed to support under- served areas – may they be due to lack of coverage or capacity. The Telsima Pico Base Station is designed to stringent cost levels to fit in operators’ limited budgets for under-served areas.

Features:

• Wave 2 compliant (IEEE 802.16e-2005)
• WiMAX Forum NWG ASN Profile C compliant
• Medium performance, all-integrated base station
• Low entry cost points
• MIMO 2x2 A/B support
• Supporting VoIP, Data and Video triple play services
• Clocking solution for TDD sync
• S/W configurable bandwidth
• Variable Uplink/Downlink ratio
• Mobility management BSOH and MSHO
• 110V/220V AC power input
• 2.5GHz, 3.3GHz and 3.5 GHz band support

Configurations

• 1 sector MIMO 2x2 A/B support
• Omni directional antennas
• Indoor version
• Outdoor version

Mobility Support
Mobility in Mobile WiMAX is enabled by information sharing between Mobile Station, Base Station and ASN infrastructure.

Telsima base stations support the standard mechanisms of base station-initiated hand-off as well as the enhanced mode of Mobile Station initiated hand-offs. In the enhanced mode, it is ensured that the mobile station scans and informs all the involved infrastructure about its preferred base station. The BS and ASN infrastructure then manage the hand off accordingly.

telsima.com

KDDI & Willcom to WiMAX Japan

KDDI, Japan’s number two cellular carrier, will receive one of two WiMax licenses to be awarded soon by the Japanese government, a report said Tuesday.

The KDDI group, called Wireless Broadband Planning, and one led by rival carrier Willcom will be recommended by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Friday to a panel charged with selecting the groups to win the licenses, reports Reuters. The panel is expected to follow the ministry’s recommendations.

Intel owns a 17.65 percent stake in KDDI’s Wireless Broadband Planning group. The stake is matched by East Japan Railway and Kyocera, and all three sit behind leading shareholder KDDI, which has a 32.26 percent stake.

The WiMax services will operate in the 2.5GHz band and will be capable of providing data service at up to 20Mbps to terminals travelling at up to 100 kilometers per hour, according to the Japanese government.

Japan’s cell phone carriers have been testing WiMax for some time. It will likely mean that cellphone leader NTT DoCoMo and third-ranked Softbank probably will have to lease networks from KDDI or Willcom if they are to offer competing services.

KDDI, Japan’s number two cellular carrier, had 29 million subscriptions to its CDMA2000 cell phone service at the end of November this year. Willcom, which uses the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology to offer a data-centric service, had 4.6 million subscriptions.

KDDI Mobile is a mobile phone service operated in the United States to meet the needs of Japanese people living in the United States. The company operates on the Sprint network as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. KDDI is preparing to launch an ambitious U.S. wireless service. The venture, X/S PCS Mobile, hopes to draw customers with free calling to 25 countries at a flat monthly rate.

NTT DoCoMo is the largest mobile carrier in Japan with 53 million subscriptions, while Softbank, the third largest, had 17.4 million subscriptions. Both carriers operate WCDMA (GSM-based 3G) networks.

The Mobile WiMAX service in Japan is expected to start in 2009.

Meanwhile, Apple has been in talks with several Japanese mobile service companies, including NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank Mobile, as it searches for a partner before introducing the iPhone, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters today.

In other WiMAX news:

• Motorola and Wateen Telecom have teamed up to bring the “first 802.16e commercial WiMAX network” to 22 Pakistani cities, with more cities presumably slated to get the WiMAX goods sometime in the near future.
• Intel and Russia’s Comstar announced plans for a nationwide mobile WiMax network in Russia, starting with a citywide network in Moscow planned for launch in late 2008. Dmitry Konash, Regional Manager of Intel in the CIS, commented: “The strategic collaboration with one of Russia’s telecom leaders, Comstar UTS, ensures that WiMAX will be successfully developed in Russia. According to our agreement, our companies will work together to implement the joint marketing programmes to develop mobile WiMAX-based solutions not only in Moscow, but also in other cities and regions of Russia.”
• Ofcom released further details on its planned release of UK radio spectrum between 2010-2025 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz. Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said would be, “The UK’s largest single release of spectrum suitable for a range of new wireless services including WiMax.” Ofcom expects to auction the frequencies in the summer of 2008.
• The UK’s Milton Keynes will get the first commercial Wimax network in the UK. ConnectMK joined forces with Freedom4, a joint venture between Pipex and Intel Capital, to offer the service. More than 1,000 people in Milton Keynes have registered interest in joining the Wimax network, said the partners.

dailywireless.org

WiMAX is going to be a technology that plays out in the 700MHz band

January’s 700MHz Auction Should Give WiMAX Steam

When the FCC auctions off the 700MHz airwaves Jan. 16, 2008, there will be a lot of would-be service provider powerhouses hoping to snag a piece of the action. Industry watchers are expecting many of the winners to use WiMAX to take full advantage of the spectrum’s advantageous propagation characteristics.

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein has called the event a “gamechanger,” an auction that finally will allow the entry of new, nationwide alternatives to the RBOC-cableco hegemony. The airwaves, cleared by the transition from analog to digital television, are low frequency with large waves that penetrate through walls and other obstacles, with a range two-to-three-times farther than the 2GHz band. That reduces the number of base stations needed, eliminating the need for repeaters and femtocells, and significantly decreasing the capex outlay needed to build a network. When paired with WiMAX, that results in a wide-ranging, all-IP, QoS-ready standardized broadband network.

Nortel’s Danny Locklear

“OFDM/MIMO access, regardless of band, is the future,” says Danny Locklear, director of wireless product marketing at Nortel Networks Ltd. “The cost profile, the efficiency of being able to have a flat, all-IP architecture, all of that provides a significant advantage for new entrants to compete. But the 700MHz paired with that has huge business case benefits because of the lower buildout costs.”

As for what the networks will be used for, it’s anyone’s guess. WiMAX is a perfect candidate to bring an alternative to DSL, cable modems or even T1s and to offer broadband to rural areas, says Jim Orr, principal network architect at Fujitsu Network Communications, which has not yet announced whether it will spend resources to build a 700MHz WiMAX product. Some players may be looking for the quad play. And there also are some dark horses in the race for 700MHz. Google, for instance, says it’s prepared to spend $4.6 billion on the licenses, presumably to create the mobile open-access Internet it has been championing. Google already is active in the WiMAX arena thanks to a deal it cut with Sprint and Clearwire Corp. to provide portal development for the companies’ mobile WiMAX initiative in the 2.5GHz band. “It will be very interesting to see who comes to the table,” Orr says. “Take the automotive industry, for instance. There is a potential for a nationwide OnStar replacement, so cars will be much more communicative than they are now.”

Fujitsu’s Jim Orr

Some of the FCC’s auction rules will guide how the networks are used. One of the chunks available carries mandates with it to provide open device and software access — that means no more devices being “locked” to a certain provider, and no more walled gardens. Another nationwide chunk, meant to be bought by a single company, requires that the winner build out a national public safety network in addition to one for commercial use. WiMAX could act as a standardized national public safety network to support interoperable applications across departments and municipalities, avoiding the communications breakdowns that plagued first responders during Katrina and 9/11. “There is a significant opportunity for WiMAX here,” says Orr. Unlike other technologies, “it’s standardized, and repeatable, and plays nicely nationwide, rural or urban.”

The 700MHz band is encompassed in the under-1GHz program within the WiMAX Forum, and there are not yet implementation profiles for it against which to test for interoperability and start a certification process for equipment. “WiMAX is going to be a technology that plays out in the 700MHz band,” says Locklear. “There are already ongoing discussions within the forum as to whether to encourage a certification process. It’s definitely on people’s minds.” Nonetheless, Orr says it’s unlikely an implementation profile will be forthcoming until 700MHz becomes more global. That’s something that could happen as other countries clear their analog TV bands.

Orr says it won’t constrict the market. “Certification is beneficial when you’re dealing with multiple service providers around the globe,” he notes. “For a single self-contained network, it’s not that critical. Sprint, for example, is on [its] way out the door with mobile WiMAX before the profile is even gelled.”

The bottom line, Orr adds, is that “this is the last, best hope for building a wide-coverage, high-performance data network cost effectively.”

09/27/2007

Tara Seals

WiMAX’s Moment