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WiMAX will soon emerge in several northeast U.S. cities, thanks to efforts by Horizon Wi-Com. The company announced plans to launch a wireless broadband service in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Buffalo, Washington, D.C., Richmond, and Cincinnati.

“Our objective is to provide wireless last-mile access to residential, business, and emergency restoration markets,” said Horizon’s Ron Olexa, in a statement. “We will start building the network in the first quarter of this year, with a view to ongoing expansion and additional network deployments in the latter part of 2007.”

The networks will utilize 802.16e equipment from Navini Networks, including Navini’s Ripwave MX8 platform and its Smart WiMAX solution. Smart WiMAX doubles the data throughput of WiMAX transmissions through the combination of Smart Beamforming with beamformed MIMO (Multiple Input/Multiple Output).

[tags]WiMAX[/tags]

WiMAX is about to get a major shot in the arm on U.S. soil thanks to efforts led by Sprint Nextel, which recently announced that Nokia would be providing key components to Sprint’s upcoming mobile WiMAX network.

Sprint had previously announced that Motorola and Samsung would be partnering with the company to help with the network, and now the Nokia news completes the company’s partner announcements. The network is expected to launch first in Chicago and Washington, D.C., with plans for Motorola to oversee the Chicago area and Samsung overseeing Washington.

Nokia is expected to provide its Flexi WiMAX base transceiver stations, as well as develop mobile devices (such as phones and Internet tablets) and mobility-focused services and applications. Considering that Motorola and Samsung are also on board with the network, experts say that consumers will eventually see plenty of devices that support Sprint’s WiMAX network.

Sprint is spending plenty to get its mobile WiMAX network moving, including up to $800 million in 2007 and up to a whopping $2 billion in 2008, with estimates pointing to 100 million potential subscribers by the end of next year.

[tags]WiMax[/tags]

Though WiMax (Wi-Fi combined with the universal signal of cellular) has been slow to gain traction, Sprint Nextel for one has now chosen it as the basis for a “4G” network. The company plans to launch on a trial basis by 2007 with download speeds of up to 4 megabits per second, and to give service to 100 million people by 2008.

In late 2007 , Sprint/Nextel will roll out mobile WiMax service (a highspeed wireless technology) in test markets, with the goal of serving as many as 100 million people in 2008. The “4G” service, which will coexist with the company’s current 3G cellular network, will provide 2-megabitsper-second to 4-mbps downstream speed, with 500 kilobits per second to 1 mbps upstream.

Peter Cannistra, director of broadband strategy and planning for Sprint/Nextel, says that the 4G network will be faster than any previous mobile service, and that its speed may be suffi cient for use both on the road and at home.

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Sri Lanka telecom will partner with chipmaker Intel to launch WiMAX in Sri Lanka. WiMAX is a broadband wireless network that is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard which can give greater coverage than Wi-Fi technology. SLT is planning to deploy the WiMAX network across the island within a year once it gets regulatory approval. The WiMAX network will be launched in phases and the first phase will cover metropolitan areas including Colombo, Galle and Kandy and is estimated to cost about US $1 million.

[tags]WiMax[/tags]

There’s never a good time to tell investors that you plan to spend about $3 billion on a new technology platform, but it’s really bad timing after a sisappointing quarter. That’s the take-away from Sprint Nextel’s Aug. 8 announcement that it will build a WiMax network with help from Intel, Samsung and Motorola. While Sprint Nextel’s announcement was big news in technology circles, those following the money had mixed reviews.

Among the do’s and don’ts cited by observers:

• Do undertake a big effort with major players riding shotgun. Wall Street analysts said Intel, Motorola and Samsung are high-quality partners that can lend credibility to Sprint’s attempts to build a new network, dubbed 4G, for those following the industry. Why does Sprint need big names behind it? “Sprint is currently being criticized for failure to establish the quality of its network in consumers’ minds and poor handset selection,” said Jeffrey Halpern, an analyst at New York-based Sanford Bernstein, in a research report.
• Do tell industry watchers about how WiMax can leapfrog the competition. That’s no small issue given doubts that Sprint Nextel can hang tough with the likes of Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless.

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Beceem Communications has achieved first-pass silicon success on a multimillion-gate, low-power Mobile WiMAX design using Blast Create, Blast Fusion , Blast Plan Pro, Blast Power and Blast Noise electronic design automation software. Beceem cellular carrier customers are already testing samples of Mobile WiMAX ICs in their next-generation systems.

Magma’s software concurrently address timing, power, area and noise and incorporates key capabilities, such as design-for-test (DFT) insertion and a sign-off-quality timing, into a single environment. With its integrated RTL-to-GDSII flow, Beceem was able to implement and sign-off on the design 30 percent faster.

Source EFYTimes.com

[tags]WiMAX[/tags]