2008: A Critical
Year for WiMAX
“So far, Huawei has signed six WiMAX 802.16e commercial
contracts around the world, and all these networks will
be put into operation within the year. In addition, we have
established over 30 customer pilot projects with operators
in different regions,“ says Cai Liqun, president of Huawei’s
WiMAX product line division.
By these achievements in the 3G field, Huawei is acquiring
an influential position in the wireless communications
equipment industry, and Huawei’s attitude towards WiMAX
and its understanding of WiMAX became a hot topic during
the WiMAX summit.
Benefiting from experience in wireless
broadband technologies
Today, all the world’s top 100 operators are paying close
attention to the development of WiMAX. Among the top
50 operators, including wireless operator Sprint, fixed line
operator British Telecommunications and integrated services
operator Etisalat, many are also planning their WiMAX
network deployment.
According to Cai Liqun, WiMAX is hot because mobile
operators want to gain higher broadband data access capabilities,
fixed line and integrated operators want to enter the
“mobile and broadband” blue ocean market, and new operators
certainly want to find means for differentiated competition.
WiMAX, with its strong mobile broadband access
capability, low deployment cost, and maturity compared
with LTE/UMB, is the right solution.
WiMAX is bidding to join the 3G camp. Once it succeeds,
the worldwide united spectrum will further push forward
the development of WiMAX. Compared with other 3G
wireless broadband technologies, such as UMTS and HSPA,
according to Cai Liqun, the deployment cost of WiMAX
is perhaps not a strong advantage, but WiMAX provides a
higher throughput and therefore a lower per-bit cost, and this
makes WiMAX attractive enough to operators.
“So far there is much experience in data service operation
with UMTS, HSPA, DORA and other wireless broadband
technologies, and WiMAX can draw lessons from this to
avoid detours,“ said Yu Xiangping, president of Global Sales
and Marketing Dept. of Huawei’s WiMAX product line.
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