As commercial applications of the IEEE’s 802.16 series of standards start to be deployed, fixed line, 3G network operators and WiMAX service provider specialists are seeking to understand which combinations of business models and deployment strategies will be viable.
Fixed line operators need to understand whether WiMAX can give them access to wireless broadband business and residential customers and the limitations and niches where mobile WiMAX can deliver broadband data services and perhaps voice and video services which are competitive with HSPA.
Operators of 3G networks who are launching HSPA need to understand the potential threat posed by WiMAX and whether to deploy WiMAX as an alternative to HSPA in regions where the demographics for building 3G networks were not favourable.
As the IEEE standard 802.16 does not define QoS, developers of WiMAX equipment and networks face severe hurdles in optimising a WiMAX network for delivery of non-data, time critical voice and video services and especially in security and equipment interoperability. Hence, there is an imperative to develop and demonstrate a class of service and security that is competitive with HSPA services.
Regulators have attempted to create a licensing environment that encourages competition between suppliers of WiMAX services whilst defining regions whose demographics are viable for commercial applications, thereby weakening the potential revenue for WiMAX license holders.
Further, the range of frequencies, licensed, unlicensed and lightly licensed, available to WiMAX service providers, creates significant barriers for handset manufacturers to produce devices that can utilise the diverse spectra used by different providers and that are competitive in terms of reliability, power requirements and cost-price with 3G/HSPA handsets. This represents another severe challenge to delivering mobile WiMAX services, especially for voice and video, which are competitive with 3G.
WiMAX faces current challenges from 3G/HSPA and UMTS-TDD and future threats from 3GPP’s LTE for MIMO-OFDM based UMTS wireless broadband which is already optimised for voice and video. Can WiMAX service providers sufficiently develop their markets and solve the QoS challenges to delivering voice and video in the face of these existing and evolving threats? It is still under discussion.
Fixed line operators need to understand whether WiMAX can give them access to wireless broadband business and residential customers and the limitations and niches where mobile WiMAX can deliver broadband data services and perhaps voice and video services which are competitive with HSPA.
Operators of 3G networks who are launching HSPA need to understand the potential threat posed by WiMAX and whether to deploy WiMAX as an alternative to HSPA in regions where the demographics for building 3G networks were not favourable.
As the IEEE standard 802.16 does not define QoS, developers of WiMAX equipment and networks face severe hurdles in optimising a WiMAX network for delivery of non-data, time critical voice and video services and especially in security and equipment interoperability. Hence, there is an imperative to develop and demonstrate a class of service and security that is competitive with HSPA services.
Regulators have attempted to create a licensing environment that encourages competition between suppliers of WiMAX services whilst defining regions whose demographics are viable for commercial applications, thereby weakening the potential revenue for WiMAX license holders.
Further, the range of frequencies, licensed, unlicensed and lightly licensed, available to WiMAX service providers, creates significant barriers for handset manufacturers to produce devices that can utilise the diverse spectra used by different providers and that are competitive in terms of reliability, power requirements and cost-price with 3G/HSPA handsets. This represents another severe challenge to delivering mobile WiMAX services, especially for voice and video, which are competitive with 3G.
WiMAX faces current challenges from 3G/HSPA and UMTS-TDD and future threats from 3GPP’s LTE for MIMO-OFDM based UMTS wireless broadband which is already optimised for voice and video. Can WiMAX service providers sufficiently develop their markets and solve the QoS challenges to delivering voice and video in the face of these existing and evolving threats? It is still under discussion.
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