The operator said it reached a mutual decision with RIM not to offer a WiMax version of the PlayBook tablet IDG News Service Sprint has decided not to offer a WiMax version of the BlackBerry PlayBook, the company said Friday. Slideshow: “We apologize for any inconvenience but the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook Tablet that was announced in January for summer availability will no longer be coming to the Sprint network,” Sprint said in a statement.

The operator currently offers a Wi-Fi-only version of the tablet. A customer could connect that device to a Wi-Fi hotspot that uses WiMax on the back end, such as the Mifi, and connect to Sprint’s WiMax network that way.

Sprint said it was a mutual decision between the operator and Sprint not to offer the WiMax PlayBook.

RIM said it will focus on LTE, the 4G technology more widely adopted, instead of WiMax. “RIM has decided to prioritize and focus its 4G development resources on LTE,” it said in a statement.

“Testing of BlackBerry 4G PlayBook models is already underway and we plan to enter labs for network certifications in the U.S. and other international markets this fall,” it said.

RIM said in February that it would make PlayBooks that run on LTE and HSPA+, technology used by both T-Mobile and AT&T. RIM said it planned to launch the tablets in the second half of this year. It did not mention its HSPA+ plans on Friday.

The PlayBook has some unique features but has struggled to overcome some weaknesses, namely that it doesn’t include key native apps including e-mail. Users must connect their BlackBerry phone to the tablet to use e-mail. It faces stiff competition from the likes of the iPad and Android tablets, both of which had head starts on the PlayBook.

Clearwire’s shift to LTE is not just a move away from WiMAX, but it cements Clearwire’s shift in strategy from being a retail operator to a wholesale provider — a shift that has been coming for a while. In this week’s announcement Clearwire said that it would sell its LTE network not just to partners such as Sprint, but also to anyone that wants such service.

This isn’t a new field for Clearwire, which has sold wholesale WiMAX access to the cable providers that funded it and to retailers such as Best Buy, but as it moves to LTE and closes down retail locations this wholesale strategy is becoming more clear. And it’s also setting Clearwire up as an odd operator out in the industry as many other cellular companies try to sell services as opposed to pure capacity. However, in Clearwire CTO John Saw’s view “LTE is all about capacity.”

Building the LTE wholesale network.
During the call to discuss the transition to LTE, Clearwire emphasized that it would employ a version of LTE known as LTE-Advanced. This refers to releases 10 and 11 of the LTE technology, but Release 10 was just frozen in March and the gear isn’t out yet for it. What Clearwire hopes to deploy if it gets $600 million or so from investors, is LTE Release version 8, and will be upgradable to later releases that are actually LTE-Advanced. The key elements for Clearwire, and the reason it’s using the LTE-Advanced lingo is because it’s using some features built into the version of the standard that are associated with LTE-Advanced. Plus, since LTE-Advanced was the “real 4G” according to the ITU, I’m sure there will be some marketing spin on this later.

Saw says that Clearwire plans to take advantage of features that allow an operator to group different spectrum bands together to create a virtual pipe as well as features known as MIMO that allow multiple antennas on the device and base stations to boost upload speeds. Those two things are the most important reasons Clearwire has switched to LTE.

For the deeply nerdy, it’s using TDD-LTE (GigaOM Pro sub req’d), a different variation from Verizon and AT&T, which are deploying FDD-LTE. The difference is that Verizon and AT&T must deploy their spectrum in equal clumps going upstream and downstream, but Clearwire (and anyone using TDD-LTE) can allocate their spectrum unevenly, with a greater proportion going to downstream and less for upstream use.

Upgrading the existing infrastructure will be easier in cities where Clearwire has recently deployed WiMAX said Saw: “Adding LTE to those markets is as simple as plugging in another line card on the cell site.” In some areas Clearwire may have to install new radios and in general it will upgrade the core network and backhaul networks, all for that estimated $600 million mentioned.

What happens to WiMAX?
But amid the Clearwire move to LTE, what happens to the existing WiMAX network? Saw says it will remain intact. The company will use 20 MHz of spectrum for LTE and reserve 10 MHz for WiMAx and operate both networks side-by-side. In most cases the equipment is designed to do just that.

It all depends on devices.
By managing multiple networks, even if it can reuse some of the same equipment, Clearwire avoids the challenge of clearing spectrum and getting people to transition to new devices. But devices will still be a key element in Clearwire’s success with LTE. Because it plans to offer wholesale access, Clearwire will have to rely on device makers to put radios into their products that are TDD-LTE compliant and that work in the 2.3 to 2.7 GHz spectrum band that Clearwire is using. Wireless radios, with their associated IP aren’t cheap, so the key is getting them both inexpensive, but also small enough and power efficient enough that a tablet using Clearwire’s LTE won’t cost a lot more and will still have decent battery life.

Clearwire has teamed up with China Mobile and Vodafone to promote a world band in its spectrum for TDD-LTE as part of the Global TD-LTE Initiative. Saw claims that the members of the GTI represent hundreds of millions of potential subscribers and members are deploying networks this year. He didn’t provide details but said Qualcomm, Broadcom and others are planning chips for the band. When I asked if the chips were sample and if we could expect a 12-18 month time frame before such devices hit the market, he said pre-commercial devices are already available. That’s not a clear answer so figuring out when devices that could use the network will arrive is still an open question. Qualcomm recently made its own spectrum play in India in the 2.3 GHz band suggesting it does have plans to support it with radios.

Clearwire’s gamble may all depend on cheap chips
Clearing up Clearwire’s business model.
With its plans to deploy LTE only in areas with high demand, Saw explains that Clearwire’s business model will be built around providing capacity offload. This is something other carriers are doing with Wi-Fi today, but having a more mobile option clearly has benefits in areas where one can’t find a hot spot. By offering LTE it would compete against the planned wholesale LTE network from LightSquared, which wants to use a mix of satellite and terrestrial capacity from Sprint to offer service.

Clearwire is up against LightSquared’s planned satellite network.
Saw bristled when compared with LightSquared pointing out that the company is not only in a fight with the GPS industry over interference, but it also doesn’t have a network. “It’s hard to speculate about LightSquared. It has zero spectrum and no network, and even if they, by some miracle, get their lower 10 MHz approved, that’s a very thin network compared to having 160 MHz in the top 100 markets,” Saw said.

And once again we’re back to capacity, which is what Clearwire has to hope matters. Even with its WiMAX network, Clearwire was hitting the capacity angle hard, because it had those vast spectrum reserves. And while technologists will argue about the poorer spectrum propogation characteristics of the 2.3 and 2.7 bands (they don’t go through buildings easily), that’s the cards Clearwire was dealt (or bought, cheap at auction actually). So the question for Clearwire investors and partners becomes whether or not Clearwire can build out an LTE network designed to offer mobile broadband in areas where carriers and other providers need service and whether that business is big enough to support the costs of building and running such a network.

IDG News Service – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has approved IEEE 802.16m, the standard for the next generation of WiMax, which may deliver downstream speeds of more than 300M bps (bits per second).

IEEE 802.16m, also known as WirelessMAN-Advanced or WiMax-2, was developed as the next step after 802.16e, the first global standard for mobile WiMax. The new standard was more than four years in the making, according to the IEEE, but it arrives as WiMax appears surrounded and outnumbered in the mobile world. A significant majority of carriers that have committed to building so-called 4G (fourth-generation) networks have chosen LTE (Long-Term Evolution), which shares some underlying characteristics with WiMax but comes from a different standards body.

At the CEATAC trade show in Tokyo last year, Samsung demonstrated a pre-standard 802.16m network that achieved a speed of 330M bps. The standard is designed to provide speeds of about 100M bps to end users. It can use several techniques to surpass the performance of current WiMax technology, including MIMO (multiple-in, multiple out) technology for sending more than one stream of data. It can also be used with small base stations called femtocells and with self-organizing networks, according to the IEEE. The new standard is backward compatible with the current WiMax.

Last year, 802.16m achieved the distinction of being recognized as a true 4G technology by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). It stood alongside LTE-Advanced, a future version of LTE that likewise was not commercially available, in a definition that clashed with the widespread use of 4G to describe current WiMax and LTE. But the ITU later relaxed its definition of the term so much that it even opened the door to carriers such as T-Mobile USA describing variants of 3G technology as 4G.

WiMax is used for stationary or nomadic wireless broadband in many parts of the world. The 802.16e mobile WiMax standard was approved in the middle of the past decade, well before LTE, and powered the first national network in the U.S. using a next-generation technology. But a large equipment and device ecosystem is now growing up around LTE, and even Clearwire, the world’s largest mobile WiMax provider, has tested that technology.

Sprint Nextel, majority owner of Clearwire, indicated last year it was interested in 802.16m, which it said might offer 128M bps to 360M bps. But with Clearwire strapped for cash to further expand its network, many observers have raised questions about the future technology directions of both companies.

Earlier this year, representatives of many of the world’s biggest handset makers endorsed a final version of LTE-Advanced, which they said would increase transfer speeds to 1G bps.

IDG News Service – A faster, more secure and energy-efficient update to the WiMax wireless Internet standard will get final approval and see commercialization within a year, industry officials said on Monday.

An international committee tasked with WiMax development will finalize the standard’s IEEE 802.16m version in March following technical meetings in Taipei this week. It would be put into use at the end of this year or the beginning of 2012.

Final approval of 802.16m will let manufacturers pre-install the not-quite-4G standard that can operate at a frequency of 20 Mhz, twice that of the existing 802.16e, developers said in Taipei. That would enable signals to carry double the amount of network traffic, which has increased with the use of iPhones and other handheld devices.

“By doubling the bandwidth, of course you can work at much higher data rates,” said Rakesh Taori, vice chair of the professional association IEEE’s 802.16 working group.

The updated standard, which has been under development for five years, will increase security for users, including protecting the privacy of their locations, Taori added. It will also help smartphones conserve more power when in idle or sleep mode, he said.

Smartphones and any kind of computer, tablets included, can use 802.16m. The update will still be compatible with 802.16e, which came about in 2005, he said. The latest standard should not raise wireless subscription rates on common users as carriers will want it to speed up their networks anyway, he said.

Taiwan’s government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute is working on ways to extend 802.16m to the 10 local companies with WiMax interest, said Song Ting-chen, an engineer with the institute. Possible takers are Acer, HTC and Foxconn, Song said.

“That way we’ll be able to exercise our competitiveness in terms of patents or our manufacturing,” Song said. “Some of our contributions have already been accepted by the international community.”

WiMAX might have gotten a head start when it comes to the next generation wireless broadband sweepstakes, but the technology is beginning to feel the heat from its rival, Long Term Evolution aka LTE. New data from research firm Telegeography shows that by 2015, LTE will have seven times as many users as WiMAX.

That trend has many early WiMAX backers worried, and even Clearwire isn’t immune to the idea of experimenting with a new flavor of LTE. Telegeography says that by the end of 2010 there will 11 million WiMAX subscribers around the world. But going is to get a lot tougher for WiMAX. In next two years, LTE networks would be launched by carriers in 55 countries and that should jumpstart the growth for LTE-related services. In comparison, WiMAX is going to be relegated to fixed and nomadic applications, instead of being a mainstream mobile offering, Telegeography argues.

LTE, which launched in late 2009, will take about six years to garner about three percent of the total wireless market, Telegeography posits. A lot of that has to do with the availability of phones that support LTE and other devices that can leverage the wireless broadband technology.

While TeleGeography predicts that WiMAX subscriber growth will continue apace, by the end of 2015 LTE subscribers will outnumber WiMAX subscribers by a factor of more than seven to one. “If you forget all the past hype about WiMAX and focus just on the next five years, it actually has a bright future” said TeleGeography’s Pete Bell. ‘You can expect to see WiMAX achieving average annual growth in excess of 30 percent over that period. Within the next 24 months LTE networks will have been launched by major cellular service providers in some 55 countries, with most other countries following suit over the subsequent three years, he added.

Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) or long term evolution (LTE) — the choice of technology for local telecom operators has the experts divided.

Broadband wireless access spectrum of 2.3 GHz — won recently by seven operators including the two public sector telcos Bharat Sachar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam — allows deployment of both WiMAX and LTE for speeds as high as 8-50 Mbps. While Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, is considered a big proponent of WiMAX technology, mobile chipmaker Qualcomm is said to be siding with long term evolution time division duplex, or TD-LTE.

For the telcos, the choice between the two technologies is important as they have got only 5 MHz of 3G spectrum, which is inadequate given the burgeoning mobile Internet usage. The problem is multiplied by the fact that most of them will use the 3G spectrum to route voice calls to ease their existing networks, implying even 3G networks would get choked soon.

In what may have tilted the balance somewhat, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is rolling out mobile WiMAX in the urban areas of Kerala and Punjab. Infotel, now owned by Reliance Industries, has also reported trials of WiMAX recently.
But the proponents of LTE would still have us believe it is the better technology of the two, though not quite as mature.
DNA spoke to two experts for a lowdown on both sides of the issue. Here’s what they had to say:

POINT
‘WiMAX it is, for now’

Sridhar Pai
Founder, Bangalore-based research firm Tonse Telecom

Adrian Scrase, head of 3GPP Mobile Competence Centre, said in June that LTE is ready for deployment in India. But you say the deployment will take up to two and a half years. Why?
Because it isn’t there —- where do you see it? How many commercial LTE deployments are there with even say 20,000 subscribers live on the network? Everyone is saying it will come soon, but nobody is shipping products. I am not saying TD-LTE will never ship. But it will take time… at least 2.5 years. Why should Indian subscribers have to be made to wait further and why should Indian operators having paid Rs 35,000 crore sit and wait for the great day when finally something will magically drop from the sky… when a current solution is available to deploy and meet the demands of this bandwidth-starved nation?

Is there a compatibility issue in laying WiMAX on 3G?
There is a possibility of using WiMAX P2P backhaul links for a 3G network supplementation. This can also be done between far-flung 3GPP BTS (base transceiver station) linking in case there is shortage of fibre.

What about the cost of laying WiMAX and then ultimately moving to LTE? What could make for better economics, for the telcos?
This will depend on the level of progress made by WiMAX infrastructure vendors. For example, Samsung, Motorola and Huawei have announced that they can migrate from WiMAX infrastructure to LTE, but not all others. Economics of investing in LTE-upgradable WiMAX infrastructure today is far superior to doing nothing today and waiting for LTE infrastructure, hoping it will come in magically by December this year. If some vendor was to magically offer TD-LTE infrastructure today and say — “Look I am giving it to you today at prices comparable to WiMAX,” then sure everyone must take it. But where is the LTE infrastructure? When will it be ready to deploy, in the scale needed in India, and at Indian prices?

In terms of BTS cost, which would be higher — WiMAX or LTE?
It is difficult to say by how much WiMAX will be cheaper. But common sense and history of silicon industry tells us that the pricing difference will be significant in the short term . A complete WiMAX eco-system is ready with USB dongles in the $30-40 range and CPEs with voice support for $50-60, and an equally broad array of core network infrastructure. But the LTE ecosystem has not yet matured. Only trials have been done. There are no devices yet and in all likelihood, an LTE device is going to be an expensive one. We expect LTE to mature for commercial deployments in about 2.5 years. Till such time, operators can deploy mobile WiMAX to offer faster speeds to customers and later move to LTE.

COUNTERPOINT
‘The world’s moving to LTE’

Alok Shende
Founder, Mumbai-based research firm Ascentius Consulting

Should telcos go for WiMAX or LTE deployment in India?
Bigger operators such as Bharti need not go for either WiMAX or LTE now, since they have not yet started on their 3G journey. Their existing spectrum, for instance Bharti Airtel with 8.2 MHz of existing spectrum and an additional 5 MHz for 3G, makes their network spectrally more efficient.

Newer operators with BWA spectrum have to decide on which way to go forward —- WiMAX or LTE. I believe they will have to look at compatibility, meaning whether the network they deploy is backward-compatible with their own and others’ 3G networks. LTE is backward integrated with 3G and that should be the way to go.

That is also necessary since new telcos will have to acquire subscribers through roaming agreements with 2G/3G telcos.

But LTE has not yet matured as a technology. So where is the business case?
It is not appropriate to say that LTE has not matured yet. China Mobile, for instance, is going ahead with LTE deployment. Clearwire in the US, which started off with WiMAX, has declared it will move over to LTE. We hear commercial deployments will happen in 2011.

KT will expand its WiBro service to five new cities in Korea
Second placed South Korean operator KT has expanded its collaboration with US vendor Intel to drive the adoption of the country’s homegrown WiMAX technology, known as WiBro. As part of the venture, Intel will stump up investment funds and help expand network rollout to five new cities.

In addition to availability in the metropolitan areas of Seoul, Inchon and Suwon, KT will expand its WiBro service to five new cities – Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon and Ulsan- and the expressways of Gyeongbu, Jungbu, Honam and Yeongdong. Service will be switched on in these areas from October 1.

Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organisation, will sink $20m into WiBro Infra Co. (WIC), a joint venture with KT, Samsung and KBIC (Kulacom Broadband Investment Company), to help accelerate KT’s infrastructure build out.

KT aims to provide nationwide WiMAX coverage by March 2011, serving 85 per cent of the Korean population. As part of this drive the operator is also migrating its WiBro network onto the standard of 10MHz WiMAX channel width that will allow interoperability and roaming with WiMAX networks worldwide. Coupled with better radio planning, this migration is expected to improve the quality of service by up to two times as well as better integration with its WCDMA network and wifi infrastructure.

From this week, Korean customers are able to purchase a selection of Intel-based, WiMAX ready laptops and netbooks from Samsung, LG and Acer, featuring the embedded Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 network adapter.

T-Mobile and Clearwire’s possible tie-up for 4G is back in the news, this time spurred by Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow telling a Goldman Sachs investor conference that T-Mobile is considering a possible equity stake in the 4G-only operator. Both sides stand to benefit considerably as Clearwire would get part of the cash infusion it needs for complete its nationwide rollout after this year, and T-Mobile would get access to an immediate 4G network, rather than be forced to carve out space in its PCS frequencies for a future long-term evolution (LTE) deployment.

But is WiMax really the best fit for T-Mobile? First off, there’s the issue of raw speed. If you recall, T-Mobile has raised quite a few hackles among competitors by claiming its new 3G high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+) delivers 4G speeds. The point of reference T-Mobile uses to justify those claims is Clearwire’s WiMax network. According to Clearwire average download speeds between 3 Mb/s and 6 MB/s, a very respectable mobile broadband connection, but T-Mobile claims HSPA+ blows those numbers out of the water delivering average download speeds between 5 Mb/s and 8 Mb/s. By incorporating WiMax into its network, T-Mobile could wind up offering customers a slower 4G experience than it delivers over 3G.

Of course that’s a simplistic way of looking at the issue. T-Mobile would have a marketing problem to sort out for the public, but there’s little doubt that operationally T-Mobile would benefit from a deal with Clearwire. It could move data card, tablet and other high-consumption devices on to WiMax, which would allow it deliver bulk data at a much lower cost. Those operational efficiencies might even allow T-Mobile to offer unlimited laptop card and smartphone data plans while many of its competitors are still wrestling with data caps and tiered pricing models. If the few megabits of throughput difference between WiMax and HSPA+ really becomes an issue for its customers, Clearwire and T-Mobile have an obvious solution. Clearwire can launch larger data carriers on its networks. A 20 MHz or even 40 MHz carrier—compared to the 10 MHz carriers Clearwire supports today–for mobile broadband-intensive applications isn’t unreasonable considering Clearwire has 70 MHz to spare in most of its markets.

The second issue is one of devices. There’s a clear WiMax-CDMA ecosystem developing in the US, driven by Sprint but one into which other wholesale partners like Best Buy, Comcast and Time Warner are tapping. Clearwire has already benefitted from Sprint’s relationship with HTC and Samsung, which created the EVO 4G and Epic 4G smartphones for the Sprint’s 3G-4G service. Clearwire will launch its own versions of the devices later this year. T-Mobile, though, would be out on its lonesome as the only GSM-HSPA-WiMax operator on the market. T-Mobile clearly has shown it has the clout to get vendors to build devices for its own unique frequency circumstances (it’s HSPA+ network is built on AWS spectrum rather than PCS), but adding WiMax would force a vendor to support not just another band but another radio technology entirely in a device. I’m sure T-Mobile will have no problem getting the dual-mode laptop dongles and broadband routers it would need to support a WiMax service, but it won’t be getting the Apple iPhone.

But there is another angle to this technology morass. T-Mobile could choose to follow Sprint’s footsteps and wholesale its 3G network to Clearwire’s investors and other MVNOs. There’s no reason why the 3G component to any WiMax driven dual-mode broadband service has to be Sprint CDMA. Best Buy or Comcast might decide that a GSM-HSPA 3G pipe might be more useful in some or all of its markets than an EV-DO connection. If an service provider is looking to the enterprise space or internationally, the global networks of T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom could be an added incentive.

Sprint and Clearwire’s 4G WiMAX network has rolled out in dozens of cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle and Portland. But now the network is in testing in various neighborhoods in San Francisco and should be up in the coming months, just as Sprint and Clearwire promised.

I was able to get on to the 4G network for the first time today in downtown San Francisco on my EVO and got a solid 3 megabits per second down though only 80 kilobits per second up. Sprint is promising 3-6 megabits per second for downloads and 1 Mbps up. However, some people are already hitting speeds well above that.

The spread of WiMAX, to bigger cities like San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, is important for Sprint and Clearwire, to get more people to see what WiMAX can really do. It’s one thing to talk about cable modem-like speeds, but when consumers get their hands on it, that’s when they really start to understand the possibilities of fast mobile broadband. And it also keeps Sprint ahead of competitors like Verizon Wireless, which plans on rolling out LTE in 30 “football cities” this year.

Clearwire and Sprint have touted the depth of the WiMAX spectrum and how it should give them an advantage over other 4G networks. Clearwire, however, has been testing LTE and could make a switch at some point. But this major expansion will be a great demonstration of the next generation of fast mobile broadband, especially in a smartphone loving city like San Francisco that has proven to be tough on some mobile networks.

It’s also going to be good for local developers who may not have gotten a chance to test out WiMAX and get a feel for the next generation of fast mobile broadband. Sprint’s previous closest deployment was in places like Modesto, Stockton and Merced, Calif. It’ll be interesting to see how developers use the added speed boost, and what applications emerge. And at the very least, it’s nice for Sprint EVO and Epic users LIKE MYSELF, who have been paying an additional $10 for 4G access without the benefit of actual 4G access.

JAIPUR/NEW DELHI: The state-owned telecom major BSNL on Sunday became the first company in the country to start wireless broadband services and announced a tariff starting with Rs 140 per month for rural areas.

BSNL wireless broadband services, using WiMAX technology, was launched by Minister of State Sachin Pilot from his constituency Ajmer today. The service was launched at a function in Pisangan Telephone Exchange in Ajmer district.

“This unique technology has been deployed for the first time in our country. Through this BSNL will usher in a new era of growth in rural areas. This technology offers broadband speed of 7 Mbps at a distance of 15kms,” said Pilot.

The high speed wireless broadband connectivity will offer video conferencing, enabling tele-medicine and tele-education, besides providing other services like payment of utility bills, issue of birth certificates, land records, vehicle registration etc.

The minister further said this project will be associated with all the ‘common service centres’ in rural areas, which are associated with e-Governance projects started by the state governments.

In the first phase, BSNL would cover 1000 block headquarters across the country and the remaining block headquarters be connected through 50,000 common service centres in next phase.

The rural common service centres are part of the Bharat Nirman Programme of the UPA government.