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Friday, 13 July 2007 |
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More mobile WiMAX moves, but is it all for the good?
Two WiMAX IEEE 802.16e-2005 initiatives are going forward in
Europe as analysts warns that the technology could help commoditise mobile data.
In one development SHD, a corporate joint venture between SFR and Neuf Cegetel in
France, has announced it has signed a two-year contract with Alcatel-Lucent for the supply and installation of the country’s first next-generation WiMAX network using standard 802.16e-2005 technology. Alcatel-Lucent says it will equip the planned sites of SHD’s WiMAX network in the Ile-de-France (IDF) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) regions by mid-2009. The first sites are already operational in the
Paris region thanks to a pilot network deployed at the end of 2006, and will be operational in the PACA region this summer, thanks to a second pilot network deployed by SHD and Alcatel-Lucent.
“This first deployment of a WiMAX 802.16e-2005network in
France follows several similar contracts won by Alcatel-Lucent in other European countries since the beginning of the year,” notes Olivier Picard, president of Alcatel-Lucent's
Europe and South activities.
In a second contract award - this time in the
UK - Pipex Wireless has tapped Airspan Networks to supply equipment to cover the
Manchester region in the first phase of its nationwide WiMAX deployment. Although not specifically mobile at this point, an Airspan statement said that the equipment ‘…can be upgraded to 802.16e-2005 WiMAX from the same platform without any hardware change’. Pipex Wireless owns a national spectrum licence in the 3.6 to 4.2GHz frequency range, and earlier this year also bought IEEE 802.16e-2005 kit from Nokia Siemens Networks to develop its services.
But might these and other mobile WiMAX initiatives worldwide (click here for a couple of recent ones) end up in tears before bedtime for some wireless service providers? That’s certainly a possibility raised by the Analysys consultancy in its recent report ‘The Future of the Global Wireless Industry: scenarios for 2007–12’. In one of the scenarios mooted - ‘Lowcost Data Pipes’ - wireless data becomes a commodity as a result of the deployment of WiMAX networks and the widespread introduction of low-cost, unlimited-usage mobile data packages. Mobile networks become transparent data pipes, in much the same way as fixed networks, and mobile operators lose control of (and the revenue from) the services that are carried across their networks.
“We are already seeing early signs of this scenario,” says Dr Alastair Brydon, co-author of the report. “The number of relatively inexpensive, uncapped-usage data tariffs from mobile operators is increasing. For example,
T-Mobile
UK’s web‘n’walk Plus service offers 3Gbytes of Internet access for only £29 (US$55) per month, which equates to US$0.02 revenue per Megabyte. Furthermore, some operators are allowing unlimited Skype voice calling, which enables mobile users to bypass conventional mobile operator voice services.”
John Williamson |
