2005-06-13/Nokia insists WiMax will not kill 3G

ic

ic

MyBroadband
Super Moderator
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Messages
14,812
Reaction score
268
Location
A nearby event horizon
Nokia insists WiMax will not kill 3G

Handset giant says technologies will coexist
Iain Thomson said:
Nokia has stressed that its recent decision to back WiMax wide area wireless broadband networking will not diminish its commitment to 3G mobile technology.

"When we made the WiMax announcement on Friday I was asked by many people if this means that Nokia is no longer as keen on 3G as it once was," said Simon Beresford-Wylie, executive vice president of Nokia networks.

"In fact 3G is very complementary to WiMax and will not form a replacement service."

Beresford-Wylie explained that Nokia sees WiMax as essentially a data-only transfer medium that would be used primarily in metropolitan areas with 3G services handling voice traffic.

Nokia has also been detailing its plans to speed up mobile data traffic to at least 14Mbps.
...
High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) can provide general data speeds of up to 8-10Mbps and will use the same network as 3G services, albeit at the 5MHz spectrum only. There are currently 21 HSDPA sites in operation around the world.

In March Nokia also launched High Speed Uplink Packet Access, which has uplink speeds of up to 5.7Mbps and is designed for online gamers. This will be offered at the end of this year or beginning of 2006.

These standards will be merged into a larger standard, known as 3.9G, or Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network Long Term Evolution.

The 3.9G standard is to be finalised in mid-2007 and peak data rates are targeted to reach up to 100Mbps in the downlink and 50Mbps in the uplink.
Click to expand...
 
Beresford-Wylie explained that Nokia sees WiMax as essentially a data-only transfer medium that would be used primarily in metropolitan areas with 3G services handling voice traffic
Click to expand...

Eh? What kinds of Voice Traffic? Is he talking about Video-conferencing? Regardless, since i think 3G in SA is primarily for DATA usage at this stage [well thats my perception anyway] it is indeed a 3G killer, unless someone can tell me what kinds of "voice-traffic" would be cheaper on 3G than regular GSM.
 
Don't jump the gun just yet. WiMax has been severely overhyped and hasn't even been properly tested in a high contention commercial environment whereas 3G has. I'd rather wait until there is a fully implemented WiMax network before drawing any conclusions.
 
Here is Om Malik's take on Nokia's WiMax "support".

Enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or that seems to be the logic behind today’s news announcement that Nokia will work with Intel to promote WiMAX, the much marketed but still not for sale technology. Nokia is in mortal combat with Qualcomm which is using its chips and WCDMA/CDMA business to beat the established mobile guard on the head. Intel is trying to beat Qualcomm in the chip game. Qualcomm ridicules WiMAX and everything that is not CDMA mint. Hence, Intel+Nokia are playing nice and have promised to work together on cooking-up mobile WiMAX.

Incidentally, Nokia was a founding member of the WiMAX forum, but quit in a huff when it figured that WiMAX was nothing but a fancy term for fixed wireless backhaul. Mobile WiMAX (if and when it happens) is all about avoiding the Qualcomm tax on the next generaton wireless technologies. “There is interest from operators. It’s still too early to tell who and what, but we (Intel and Nokia) are making sure it is working,” Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s chief strategy officer, told Reuters. I don’t know if I buy that line at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X