[IP] WiMAX: the emperor's clothes get another wash...
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 22, 2005 3:47:17 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] WiMAX: the emperor's clothes get another wash...
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Original URL: <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/22/
wimax_delay_again/>
WiMAX: the emperor's clothes get another wash...
By Guy Kewney, Newswireless.net (guy at cix.compulink.co.uk)
Published Monday 22nd August 2005 13:24 GMT
This week has seen more scepticism than ever about Wimax as a viable
wireless carrier technology, following the news from the Forum that
testing and certification "could be delayed till October."
The new Malaga test lab has been opened in Spain at Cetecom SA's
laboratory - and testing has started, with encouraging pronouncements
(last month) by Wimax Forum officials. But the claims that "vendors
have started shipping equipment to the lab" from Mo Shakouri, VP of
marketing for WiMAX forum have failed to impress observers.
Unstrung says that what is actually happening is that they are
"validating the tests" rather than doing any testing of equipment.
According to Unstrung, only Airspan Networks, Aperto Networks,
Proxim, and Redline Communications have so far sent kit to the lab,
using silicon from Sequans Communications and Wavesat Wireless Inc.
This pretty much fits with the FAQ on the WiMAX Forum web site, which
shows that the current preoccupation of Forum members is to achieve
compatibility with the IEEE specification of 802.16, and the ETSI
spec for HiperMAN. But it exposes the failure to extend this
convergence into mobility. Mobile WiMAX is 802.16e - and this is
still "expected in July 2005" according to the Forum site.
The delay isn't the first, but it is starting to get to some
observers. Stephen Wellman, executive editor of Fierce Wireless is
not the only one to lose patience: "While there are plenty of pre-
certification Wimax deployments around the world," warned Wellman,
"the fact is that this technology is still not ready and delays keep
popping up at every corner." Wellman reckons Wimax is entering
dangerous territory. "It has been hyped past the point of belief and
now it's time for the technology to deliver," he opined. "If the
vendors making Wimax equipment, and the Wimax Forum as a whole,
cannot get Wimax gear certified and into the market soon - and make
sure it lives up to the hype - Wimax could be in for a rude awakening
from the likes of the media and financial analysts." The delay is
official. August 8 saw the announcement by Wavesat, in a press
release, that it was involved in "the final interoperability testing
phase before the WiMAX certification takes place in October in Malaga
Spain, at the Cetecom Labs."
The release continued: "Wavesat is helping the WiMAX Forum with
interoperability testing at Cetecom where a handful of companies,
including Wavesat, have shown extremely positive results in testing
their WiMAX equipment."
Behind the scenes, however, mobile wireless attention is now going to
be focused on Flash-OFDM - Flarion technology, now owned by Qualcomm.
"Last week's announced purchase of Flarion by Qualcomm should be
seriously noted by WiMAX players of all stripes," commented Timothy
Sanders of WiMAX.com recently.
Sanders said: "Flarion is, relatively speaking, an early stage
company. It has not garnered big wins in terms of customer base yet
and casual perusal of this transaction would indicate that doesn't
make sense. However, clearly Qualcomm feels serious competitive
pressure from the WiMAX world. And Flarion has product in the field.
Mobile WiMAX is not quite there yet."
Comment
The delay isn't astonishing. What it shows, however, is not that
WiMAX is not going to happen. Rather, it reveals the erosion of the
Intel-generated hype about mobile WiMAX, which is supposed to be
installed in every end-user device from 2006, using the mobile WiMAX
802.16e standard. As a metro broadband technology, WiMAX remains a
sensible infrastructure solution. Using line-of-sight nodes on top of
tall buildings, at 11GHz and up, very high-rate broadband
distribution can be sent into old commercial areas where gigabit
ethernet has yet to reach, and where FiWi (fibre/wireless) will one
day be established.
As a portable wireless technology for laptop computers and mobile
phones, it is probable that WiMAX is now going to be nearly two years
behind schedule. It is, really, time to ask if it will ever happen.
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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