As LTE approaches the peak of the traditional new technology hype curve, WiMAX is fighting to maintain profile, but last week at the WiMAX Forum’s Asia conference in Singapore, the opportunity in the open mobile business model was highlighted. WiMAX is clearly differentiated from 3G, and more naturally suited to supporting full open internet models, was a key message. LTE will be more similar, but still has significant challenges ahead of commercialization.
WiMAX was conceived from day one as an open IP platform ‘ so, though IMS can be deployed with WiMAX, most of the R&D dollars from the 802.16e ecosystem have gone towards methods of handling the public internet (still a challenge on wireless, but the main driver of the wireless data explosion) effectively, and towards ways that service providers can keep their customers happy even without the safety blanket of a lock-in and a two-year contract.
New carriers will use open access and flexible usage patterns (day-rate access, contracts that apply to multiple devices, and so on) to disrupt the existing operators, but those established cellcos will have to adopt such mechanisms too, as consumers increasingly demand them and/or regulators enforce them. A few, like Sprint, KDDI and KT, already foresaw this and realized that they would move less painfully towards the new open model and the new pricing and application structures this entails, by investing in a new network that was optimized for such models ‘ leaving their 3G systems to handle what they are best at, such as voice, text, dedicated clients, personalization and fully mobile internet access.
The Singapore event highlighted how several established cellcos believe investing in this brand new network will enable them to keep pace with disruptive new entrants, which may include TV broadcasters, WiMAX pure plays or even internet players like Google itself ‘ as well as getting a headstart on rivals that choose to base their open transition on LTE, with the challenges of a longer wait for equipment, and of facing up to the major IMS dilemma.
In the open mobile broadband category, Clearwire and Korea Telecom have been lonely trailblazers, but are now being joined by new mobile internet players like UQ in Japan, seeking to disrupt the traditional telecoms landscapes of their countries. UQ – a consortium led by cellco KDDI – pointed to the main reasons why a CDMA operator would also invest in WiMAX. President Takashi Tanaka told the Singapore conference: “Mobile internet in Japan is fake. Most mobile users in Japan use mobile internet [HSPA and EV-DO], but complain regularly about speed, the limited browser, limited content, small screen and small keyboard. WiMAX can meet those needs, so why not deploy it?”
UQ will launch commercial services on July 1 with flat rate monthly charges and no long term contracts, and with free Wi-Fi included by year end, as a first step towards the multi-device, multi-network dream. According to Tanaka, UQ has been achieving up to 16Mbps downlink and up to 3.9Mbps uplink since free trials of its service began in February in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki, using Samsung kit. This complies with Mobile WiMAX wave 2, phase 2 specs, which illustrate the way that carrier class all-IP capabilities are being added to the base platform without the need for an extra investment like IMS. These include QoS for real time and near-real time video, multicast broadcast services, and IPv6. Another enhancement adopted by UQ is FFR (fractional frequency reuse), which can improve overall spectral efficiency by 85%.
By the end of June, UQ aims to extend WiMAX coverage to Nagoya and Osaka, taking the number of deployed base stations up to 1,600. Antennas will also be located in 44 railway stations in metropolitan areas, on lines operated by East Japan Railway (a UQ investor).
As of 31 March 2010 UQ says it will have deployed 4,000 base stations and have around 300,000 subscribers, and will push on to 90% population coverage by the end of 2012. This would involve 38,000 base stations, about half of them femtocells, in 1,161 cities.
Clearwire remains the main flagwaver for disruptive WiMAX models, and as such it carries a burden far greater than just achieving revenue and profit as a service provider. In particular, backers Google and Intel see it as far more than an investment, but rather as a testbed for the open access mobile web models they favor. Google has regularly invested in various wireless networks in order to test out new applications and business approaches, most famously by creating a Wi-Fi metrozone in its home base of Mountain View in Silicon Valley, and ‘threatening’ to buy up 700MHz spectrum if the FCC did not impose an open access mandate. Now it will also use spare capacity in Clearwire’s vast store of 2.5GHz spectrum for “experimental tests” – one of the attractions of investing in the operator, according to reports in MarketWatch. Its efforts could range from launching services directly as an MVNO; testing new ways of using Android devices; or offering spectrum to innovative services providers on a wholesale basis, a model Google has often discussed.