Mobile agent

–Next generation wireless solution

WiMAX, the solution of choice for next generation broadband, is designed from its core to deliver large throughput with a variety of applications - IP connectivity, voice and video. As both a reliable wireline replacement solution and next step to legacy mobile, it has the ability to support providers in offering first line (or first device) replacement, through product bundles or standalone services. In today’s competitive telecommunications landscape, it has become imperative to deliver a total product portfolio on a broadband basis, even in markets where liberalization processes moved slower than in the leading economies.

The WiMAX technology, and more importantly the functionalities it provides, constitute the opportunity for service providers to cover all types of usage behavior, ranging from typical fix usage in captive locations to access while being on the move. This unique attribute allows service providers to design product bundles including voice and compete not only with legacy incumbents and other wireline operators, but also have competitive offerings for users requiring different types of wireless freedom. WiMAX as a data-centric technology is also going to meet expectations of the next generation of voice customers, who have positive mind set towards voice over IP and communicate using such devices like USB phones, laptops and other portable multimedia devices. In fact starting from the year 2008, notebooks and gradually other consumer electronic devices will have WiMAX chips embedded in them and will become a perfect fit for all operators planning to roll-out networks of the 802.16 standard.

–Support for new wave mobility.

As an always-on technology, WiMAX is not only the solution of choice for instant internet access, but also well suited for permanent voice availability. From the end-user device perspective, the voice connectivity is being assured based on a softphone-client solution residing as an application, like in a typical PC-based environment. Current trends oriented towards unification of mobile telephony and computer devices result in new converged solutions for the mass market, called ultra-mobile PC. These multimedia devices will have the ability not only to access various data networks, but also serve voice in a data-based environment. This represents another fit with a wireless broadband network that can not only carry volume but is also capable to support seamless mobility.

The benefits for the customers seems therefore to be assured in the short as well as in the long term. Not only are solutions being developed that bring services and advantages to existing alternatives, but the next-wave functionalities supporting more technology-oriented societies are rapidly coming to market.

–Practical implementation
Voice over WiMAX has become already a real life experience and a viable business. In Central and Eastern Europe, WiMAX Telecom, a leading WiMAX service provider, delivers voice services along with its broadband offering over its 802.16 network. The service, branded WiMAX FON, is offered currently as a first line replacement solution, allowing customers to switch completely from the incumbent operator. The service also offers number portability as an additional feature of the package. On the technical level, the service is based on SIP protocol, with an end-to-end quality assurance. This is secured due to the following environmental factors:

• full IP supervision within own network - there is no transmission through public Internet),

• no packet compression, allowing for superior sound quality outperforming on comparative level the abilities of mobile networks,

• voice traffic prioritization.

Both data and voice traffic are transmitted within the fully owned and managed IP network, that has MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) implemented. Furthermore in order to provide the necessary resources for the voice transmission quality, a vendor specific dynamic resource allocation protocol and IP ToS (Type of Service) within the MPLS network are also implemented. The standard for audio companding applied in the network is G.711, which provides an 8 kHz sampling frequency and 64 kb/s bitrate.

For voice termination, the infrastructure is interconnected with a typical “anchor network”, which is usually the network of the incumbent, and also with wholesale operators which provide interconnectivity and termination services on an international level. It is important to emphasize the portability feature, which is one of the key functionalities for customers switching from other networks, but insisting on having still the same telephone number. The technical feasibility for this can be assured only when interconnected with the incumbent or an interconnect partner, that also provides portability outsourcing.

The competitiveness of the voice services is also enhanced thanks to additional on-top options. One of the is the so called customer self-care, which enables customers to manage their broadband and voice services conveniently on-line and 24 hours a day, thus being not dependent from any call center or legacy type helpdesk. From the voice service perspective the self-care system allows to obtain electronic invoices, analyze real-time billing, manage customer data, reroute incoming connections, etc.

The implementation of voice services in WiMAX networks has delivered numerous benefits for customers. These include:

• possibility for a complete switch-off from incumbent operator,

• one voice and data package,

• no need for wireline infrastructure for all services,

• flexibility thanks to number portability (no need to change existing number),

• savings due to product bundle and lack of legacy copper wire subscription.

Many have questioned if the WiMAX technology and business case is ready for the future. When looking at all the recent developments, both on the side of infrastructure, applications and services, it seems that the answer is clear.

Motorola has announced an agreement with long-standing customer Mobilink (an Orascom Telecom Company) to deploy a WiMAX 802.16e-2005 access network for the operator in Pakistan.
Under the terms of the agreement, Motorola will design, plan, deploy and optimise a WiMAX network for Mobilink, and deliver integration and support services, as well as indoor and outdoor customer premises equipment (CPE) units to enable faster adoption of the operator’s WiMAX offering.
Covering major metropolitan areas such as Lahore and Islamabad, the network is intended to enable Mobilink to extend its current service offering beyond cellular and data offerings to high speed broadband and VoIP services for fixed-line residential and business subscribers

Nokia Tests 172Mbps mobile BB, Nokia has announced results from a real-world test of a new fourth-generation mobile broadband technology, dubbed Long-Term Evolution or LTE. The tests saw the service reaching speeds of 173Mb/s in realistic scenarios.
The prototype base station for the LTE radio system was installed at the top of the Heinrich Hertz Institute building in Berlin, a location known to cause mobile users problems due to interference. Testing the technology with multiple simultaneous users Nokia was still able to reach 173Mb/s, and the mobile phone giant is touting that as a realistic approximation for actual user-end throughput when the service eventually goes live.

LTE was also tested for range, with equipment installed on cars travelling up to 1KM away from the base station able to use the broadband service without a problem.

The past year may have been a wireless dream come true if you’re a fan of the iPhone and more open handsets and networks, but it was a nightmare for some major new alternatives to traditional mobile services.

Municipal wireless networks, WiMax and MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) began the year buoyed by high hopes before each faced a reality check. In each case, business woes at one company were just part of the reason.

The recent growth of wireless in many forms helped to generate excitement and investment for new technologies in 2006 and early 2007. Municipal wireless networks seemed like a new channel to deliver ubiquitous high-speed Internet access without waiting for traditional carriers to step up. WiMax, possibly an alternative to 3G and Wi-Fi, finally had a marquee customer. And MVNOs promised to deliver complete cellular services, including phones, targeted to specific kinds of consumers. But as it turns out, it’s not so easy to flip the wireless world upside down.

San Francisco’s Wi-Fi Woes

As the year began, San Francisco reached a deal with EarthLink for one of the most hotly anticipated municipal wireless networks in the world, one in which Google would provide a free citywide service in addition to EarthLink’s paid offering. As in EarthLink’s deal for a Philadelphia network, the city would pay nothing. Meanwhile, leaders in Silicon Valley were planning an even bigger network, spanning 1,500 square miles and multiple technologies.

Politics kept the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from approving the EarthLink plan for months, until the service provider delivered some bad news of its own. In April, EarthLink said it would focus on both the municipal networks it was already committed to and to driving up usage in large cities rather than seeking out new deals. The San Francisco project’s future got blurry. Then, in August, the company said it wouldn’t invest any more money in its free-to-cities business model. A shrinking dial-up business and other problems were forcing big cuts at EarthLink.

“We will not devote any new capital to the old muni Wi-Fi model that has us taking all of the risk by fronting all of the capital, then paying to buy our customers one by one,” President and CEO Rolla Huff said. By November, EarthLink was considering “strategic alternatives” for the Wi-Fi business, an indication that it may be sold off. The Philadelphia network is going forward but has drawn fewer than expected subscribers. Meanwhile, backers of the Silicon Valley network were left searching for a new builder and operator after their first choice couldn’t attract enough financing, even in the heart of the IT industry.

WiMax to the Rescue?

Municipal wireless turned out to have one big technology problem — it required more access points than expected — which worsened its business problem: Where would the money come from? Analysts say the key now is to find areas that lack other broadband alternatives or get cities to sign up for services themselves. Telscape Communications, a mobile operator focused on the U.S. Hispanic market, is negotiating to buy a municipal Wi-Fi network in Tempe, Arizona, that has 1,000 access points and only 500 subscribers. The company hopes to use better marketing and some combination of cellular and Wi-Fi voice services to make it a success.

WiMax has been promoted as Wi-Fi with a wider reach for several years, and its big opportunity came in August 2006, when Sprint Nextel chose the technology as what it called its “fourth-generation” network. Vendors including Intel, Motorola, Samsung and Nokia piled on, and it looked like the high manufacturing volume that would drive down WiMax prices was finally on its way. The network would reach 100 million U.S. residents by the end of 2008, Sprint said.

In July this year, the carrier announced it would team up with wireless data provider Clearwire to jointly fund and market the WiMax service, called Xohm, and allow roaming between the two networks. Sprint would build 65 percent of the network, Clearwire the other 35 percent, each covering some cities the other couldn’t reach. However, the companies gave the same target: 100 million people by the end of 2008.

Then Sprint CEO Gary Forsee, a backer of the estimated US$5 billion WiMax plan, was forced out of the struggling carrier. A few weeks later, the Clearwire deal was off, with the companies saying they couldn’t reach final agreement on its details. And Sprint said it was reviewing its WiMax plans and would say more in early 2008. As the year’s end approached and new Sprint CEO Dan Hesse took over, it wasn’t clear what his take on the project might be.

Sprint’s soft launch of WiMax in Chicago and the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area went ahead before the end of the year as planned, and the carrier said it still plans commercial service in the first half of 2008. But WiMax is starting to generate more interest for emerging markets than for advanced economies, including from Cisco Systems, which acquired Navini Networks in January. The company said its main focus with WiMax is to get broadband widely deployed in countries that don’t have enough wired infrastructure.

The uncertainty surrounding Sprint and its plan is affecting the image more than the reality of WiMax, said IDC analyst Godfrey Chua.

“It’s not problems with the technology, it’s problems with the company,” Chua said. “The momentum we’re seeing behind WiMax in the rest of the world continues.”
Exploring Mobile Options

Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which resell mobile capacity from established carriers, pulled in a lot of investment money in 2006 but suffered some high-profile failures in 2007.

At the end of July, youth-focused Amp’d Mobile shut down after it attracted nearly 200,000 customers in less than two years but failed to collect enough of the revenue it was due. In September, Disney said it would shut down its specialized service for families by the end of the year and look to offer its features through an established carrier. Helio, a money-losing joint venture of SK Telecom and EarthLink, stayed afloat thanks to $270 million of added investment from SK after EarthLink decided the MVNO game was too rich for its blood.

MVNOs and their supporters often didn’t realize what an uphill battle they faced, according to analysts. They needed to build up in months the kinds of billing systems and distribution networks that traditional carriers had taken years to refine, and frequently they fell short. Meanwhile, trying to make a profit by buying minutes and bytes from another carrier and reselling them is hard even for a well-run company, analysts said. The foggy future at Sprint, which provides the underlying network for most MVNOs in the U.S., cast yet another cloud over the business.