Network

A Letter of Intent (LOI) has been signed by Sprint and Clearwire last July (2007), signing a new era of converging WiMAX with mobile phone operation. Unluckily, the LOI was recently terminated by mutual agreement. Apparently, both parties could not resolve complexities associated with the LOI. But then Sprint mentioned to remain fully committed to develop WiMAX services and deploying its own WiMAX network. It will spend around US$2.5bn up to the end of this year (2008), and US$2.5bn more to expand the market the next two years. That way, Sprint would not see positive cash flow on WiMAX until 2011. So far, Sprint is the only US wireless network operator who has selected WiMAX for its 4G network. Sprint’s competitors Verizon and AT&T have outperformed Sprint, without any commitment to WiMAX. Obviously, this is worrying for the WiMAX supporters. There are debates about whether WiMAX is technically superior, or not.

On the positive side, WiMAX has received support form the ITU, and Cisco. ITU has approved WiMAX as a 3G standard, including it in the IMT-2000 set of standards for international mobile telecommunications. IMT-2000 family of standards will now support four different access technologies: OFDMA (incl WiMAX), FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA.

Network equipment manufacturer Cisco has launched its way into the WiMAX market, by acquiring Navini Networks for US$330m. Navini has series of WiMAX products, which will now form part of the Cisco range. This way, WiMAX is expected to offer worldwide broadband wireless network, and to capture millions of new Internet users.

WiMAX now has both strong opportunities and threats. Discussing these matters, we should not overlook the different nature of Fixed WiMAX (IEEE 802.16d), Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e), and incoming Next Generation Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16m). This year, WiMAX will be one of the sexiest technology to observe.