A recent study done by In-Stat has revealed that when given a choice between WiMax, WiFi and 3G, majority of consumers showed a “significant preference" for the long distance WiMAX protocol. This market looks set to intensify with the world expecting more than 133 million users to adopt WiMax by 2012.
SDA Asia had the rare chance to catch up with Mr. Tang XinHong, vice president of the CDMA &WiMAX Product Line at Huawei Technologies to find out the hype surrounding WiMax, future trends the Asian market can expect and the pressing question on everyone’s mind -- will the emergence of WiMax spell the eventual demise of other 3G data technologies?
At the WiMax Forum held in April, it was announced that more than 133 million users are expected to adopt by WiMax by 2012. The same statistics also revealed that an estimated 70% of the 133 million users are expected to utilize mobile and portable WiMax devices to access broadband Internet services.
Do you see the competitive challenge for WiMax coming more from laptops and other consumer electronics than in phone handsets? Why?
Tang Xinhong (TX): Yes, we expect the first step to be laptops embedded with WiMax, or via USB/PCMCIA WiMax data cards, and then progress to WiMax VoIP, before moving to broadband phone users.
The reason is that in the initial stage, most network operators that deploy WiMax would not be offering wide coverage and hence limited in offering full mobility WiMax service to users. Later, as the WiMax coverage becomes wider, users would then be able to enjoy greater mobility.
What are the WiMax trends you expect to see in the coming year?
TX: WiMAX is the main stream of wireless and mobile broadband and TDD (time division duplex) based WiMAX can complement 2G/3G/LTE-FDD/DSALM to provide broadband access anytime, anywhere and therefore we would expect to see greater scale deployments worldwide.
With Asia being a keen adopter of WiMax, what are the opportunities and challenges ahead for this technology in this region?
TX: WiMax is currently the best choice for wireless broadband in terms of its time-to-market factor, and we foresee that it will be one of the leading mainstream technologies in mobile broadband in the future.
Challenges can be summarized under three categories:
1. What would be the business case for using WiMax? Operators would want to know if WiMax can provide diversified business cases to cater to different operators' requirement.
2. Availability of terminal devices The challenge would be for vendors to come out with competitive WiMax terminals that are popular and appeal to users. In addition, the availability of a dual-mode handset, combining WiMax and CDMA or GSM, will also expedite the adoption progress.
3. Deployment and operation strategy Operators would want to know how WiMax can be quickly deployed with lower costs. And from the operators' point of view, how can WiMax be positioned to trigger an effective wireless broadband marketing?
4.Convergence and evolution How can WiMax converge with existing network resources and what are the possibilities for a seamless evolution to 4G in the future?
Which countries in Asia do you regard as early adopters and why?
TX: As early adopters of WiMax in Asia we see countries which have high mobile-voice penetration but low broadband usage yet - such as Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines or India.
Which countries do you think have yet to catch up and why do you think they are lagging behind?
TX: One country to name would be Malaysia. Since February 2007, a total of 4 WiMax licenses have been issued there, but there has been no roll out of commercial services yet.
What is Huawei’s WiMax Business Strategy?
TX: Huawei's WiMax business strategy is focused on helping operators become successful in the following ways:
1. Achieve Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings: Deploying distributed BTS (base transceiver station) quickly with lower costs.
2. Increase Total Value of Ownership (TVO) for operators: First is wireless broadband for residential and enterprise VPNs, followed by VoIP and personal broadband, lastly would be multimedia services.
3. Evolution: To ensure a smooth and seamless evolution to 16m or LTE-TDD.
Could you let me in on your recent WiMax deployments in Asia?
TX: By the end of the first quarter of 2008, Huawei had won 17 commercial WiMax contracts in Europe, Asia, North America, CIS, Middle East and Africa, and had established over 35 trials worldwide.
Huawei currently has more than 10 commercial network trials in Asia Pacific region. We expect commercial network deployment in Asia to begin in the middle of this year.
As WiMax continues to gather pace, everyone seems to be announcing their respective WiMax strategies—is this platform just commercial hype or will it become a commercial reality?
TX: It is becoming a commercial reality.
How do you plan to set yourselves apart from your competition?
TX: WiMax, being an all-IP-based FMC (Fixed-Mobile Convergence) network communication technology, requires a comprehensive and thorough understanding in the areas of IP, wireless and fixed networks.
Huawei is currently the only telecom solutions provider that is able to provide its partners & customers with a genuinely end-to-end mobile WiMAX solution as a result of its extensive expertise and rich experience in covering all these three areas.
That is why more and more operators are choosing Huawei for their mobile WIMAX end-to-end needs, as we are able to provide our customers with the latest and most complete solutions. Covering all essential elements in the network chain, Huawei offers everything from base stations and access network gateways to core network elements, management systems, and terminals. As a result, operators can easily provide their subscribers with services such as voice, video, games, instant messaging and conference calls.
At Huawei, our aim is to enable users to enjoy a seamless convergent experience anytime, anywhere - and, most importantly of all - via any terminal. Leveraging our mobile WiMAX end-to-end solution’s convergence of NGN/IMS, CDMA/GSM networks and our excellent programming ability in the wireless and IP field, we will continue to construct leading mobile broadband networks.
Our ultimate aim is to further enhance our proven track record of creating substantial growth opportunities for our partners.
There are currently 2 schools of thoughts concerning WiMax;
a) Any gain by WiMAX comes at the expense of other 3G data technologies
b) Others see a world where multiple mobile wireless broadband technologies will co-exist.
Where does Huawei stand on this? Why?
TX: Huawei does not view WiMax as a competing technology with others such as HSPA, but rather complementary as each technology can make up for the other's weaknesses. For example, HSPA offers broader coverage compared to WiMax, because it operates on a lower frequency band and therefore can stretch across longer distances.
However, WiMax's higher frequency allows for a higher throughput, resulting in a higher transfer capacity for applications such as video streaming, which require a more reliable and faster service. |
