The first time I read about "WiBRO," I thought it was a new Starbucks coffee drink aimed at the Silicon Valley digerati. It turns out that WiBRO is the South Korean version of an emerging broadband wireless technology called WiMAX and is one of many standards being promoted as the technology of choice for high-speed mobile access in what is becoming a key battle between chipset makers, equipment vendors, and mobile operators. The MobileBroadband panel, as part of the FutureTech conference being held at Ross on January 26 and 27, will explore this topic in further detail. This year's overarching theme, "Bridging the Gap - The Always Connected World," fits nicely into our discussion on mobile broadband. The panel will provide an interesting forum for speakers and their audiences to engage in a lively discussion on the technology trends and business decisions that will shape the mobile landscape. This article attempts to navigate through acronym clutter and present some key trends.
WiMAX
As Intel tries to move away from the slow growing PC business and enter the lucrative mobile networking market, it has bet heavily on WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). WiMAX is a wireless broadband access solution that can provide speeds up to 30Mbps over distances ranging from three to 30 miles. According to an Intel study, the first phase will be fixed WiMAX, a cost-effective replacement for cable and DSL, aimed at residential and business customers in urban areas and underserved rural markets. Intel has created a WiMAX ecosystem through partnerships and investments to showcase real world demonstrations of this technology. There are a number of WISPs (Wireless Internet Service Providers) such as Towerstream who are currently offering WiMAX services in large cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. One of the speakers on the Mobile Broadband panel, Nina Krietemeyer, is the founder and CEO of AeroWire Communications, Inc., a provider of wireless broadband services to business in the Great Lakes region. A Northern Sky Research Study predicts that by 2010, there will be 12.4 million WiMAX subscribers worldwide. But it is the mobile version of WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e standard), that has gathered recent attention as a simpler, cost-effective alternative to cellular.
EV-DO, HSDPA, and TD-CDMA
In the cellular camp are technologies such as EV-DOrevA (Evolution Data Optimized Revision A), TD-CDMA (Time Division CDMA), and HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access). EV-DO and TD-CDMA (as the name implies), are based on the CDMA standard whereas HSDPA follows the GSM track. Verizon Wireless's broadband data service offering is based on EV-DO technology and offers speeds in the 400-700Kbps range. Currently, EV-DO is targeted for data traffic only but vendors are already working on supporting voice (using VoIP) over EV-DO. Qualcomm, which holds most of the key patents behind CDMA technology and earns licensing revenue for every chipset sold, stands to benefit most from the adoption of EV-DO. Moreover, cellular providers that have invested billions of dollars in upgrading their networks and obtaining 3G licensing have strong reasons to promote cellular based technologies. Still, some operators are placing their bets on both technologies. Sprint, for instance, has rolled out an EV-DO network but is also partnering with Intel and Samsung to test mobile WiMAX gear.
Metro Mesh Wi-Fi
Almost everyone reading this article has used Wi-Fi gear if they have connected wirelessly to the business school network. Municipalities, service providers, and government agencies are taking Wi-Fi beyond the home and local hotspots by deploying it as a metropolitan area wireless network solution. The city of Philadelphia made headlines a couple of years ago when it announced plans to rollout Wi-Fi service across the city. The advantages of Wi-Fi are clear - it is cheap, ubiquitous, and easy to deploy. Almost everyone with a laptop today has a Wi-Fi card and the total cost of maintaining a metro Wi-Fi solution in Philadelphia was estimated at $1.5 million per year. Tropos Networks, a private company based in Sunnyvale, CA one of the largest vendors for metro-scale mesh Wi-Fi equipment was responsible for infrastructure equipment for Philadelphia's rollout.
And The Winner Is...
Using a standard benchmark to compare all technologies is complicated by differences in spectrum usage, deployment cost, and range of services they offer. Each technology has its share of critics, and each competitor is aggressively promoting their technology as the superior one. Qualcomm's Senior VP of Marketing, Jeffery Belk, authored a paper titled, "Why MAX?" in which he severely criticized mobile WiMAX, pointing out several weaknesses in the technology. He stated, "It's not just a matter of circuit board real estate to fit the WiMAX circuitry. There IS NO STANDARD! There is no clear picture of what it will cost to put WiMAX radios into your laptop line." But Qualcomm's purchase of Flash-OFDM vendor Flarion Technologies for $800 million was a hedge since WiMAX standard is based on OFDM technology. Flarion's OFDM IP portfolio allows Qualcomm to possibly extract royalty payments in the future if WiMAX succeeds. Critics of WiMAX also explain that WiMAX and Wi-Fi networks cannot offer the true mobility of nationwide cellular networks.
WiMAX supporters on the other hand are touting mobile WiMAX as the first truly open mobile standard. They also claim that since WiMAX vendors and operators have no history in the mobile space, they can respond faster to customer needs. From a technology perspective, WiMAX also offers all IP (Internet Protocol) as a standard feature set as well as higher upload speeds. Cellular providers are crying foul about government plans to offer fee based metro Wi-Fi access, claiming it directly affects their competitive position and revenue stream. Lawmakers complain that local governments should not put tax dollars at risk by building wireless networks.
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