HSDPA Modem prices

Frikkenator said:
No it is WAAAAAY too much, for sure.
Click to expand...

Here's an idea for you. Why not design and build HSDPA modems at a much lower cost? Your immediate market in SA alone will be around half a million units and world-wide many millions.

I hereby place my first personal order with you. ;) Let's aim for a retail price of around R1K.

I'm sure Vodacom will take a few hundred thousand, say at a R800 per modem!
 
The biggest problem with trying to build your own HSDPA card would be sourcing the components from Qualcomm. It is very unlikely that they would supply you with small quantities of chips - typically you would need to order them in quantities of around 100 000 to get them at a reasonable price. You would really need to sink in a lot of capital if you wanted to make a profit out of this. Huawei presumably also use these chips in their 3G phones. You could try to ask for a sample of the MSM6275 though. The easiest product to reverse engineer would probably be the Easy Box! The other components would probably be easier to obtain from companies like Avnet.

The only way that prices will come down is if other manufacturers can start producing chipsets without having to pay huge royalties to Qualcomm. The small physical size of the device doesn't really increase the cost substantially. Vodafone also supply a larger USB HSDPA device called an Easy Box which is roughly the same price as the E220.

See http://autosurf2u.byethost9.com/ for example.

If you want to read about the real costs of supplying data via HSDPA take a look at Martin Sauter's website. He is somewhat of an expert regarding HSDPA costs around the world. There's lots of information regarding the relationship between 3G license fees and data costs and why data costs are so high in France (even though ADSL is very cheap) which has a very similar cell phone market to South Africa i.e. 2 dominant players with 1 much smaller provider. If you search around in his Archives there is also information there about how MVNO's transformed the German cell phone market overnight and why they have failed to make a dent in markets like ours. A very interesting read ...

http://mobilesociety.typepad.com/mobile_life/2007/02/index.html

http://mobilesociety.typepad.com/mobile_life/2006/10/do_cheap_3g_lic.html
 
Yotch said:
The biggest problem with trying to build your own HSDPA card would be sourcing the components from Qualcomm. It is very unlikely that they would supply you with small quantities of chips - typically you would need to order them in quantities of around 100 000 to get them at a reasonable price. You would really need to sink in a lot of capital if you wanted to make a profit out of this. Huawei presumably also use these chips in their 3G phones. You could try to ask for a sample of the MSM6275 though. The easiest product to reverse engineer would probably be the Easy Box! The other components would probably be easier to obtain from companies like Avnet.

The only way that prices will come down is if other manufacturers can start producing chipsets without having to pay huge royalties to Qualcomm. The small physical size of the device doesn't really increase the cost substantially. Vodafone also supply a larger USB HSDPA device called an Easy Box which is roughly the same price as the E220.

See http://autosurf2u.byethost9.com/ for example.

If you want to read about the real costs of supplying data via HSDPA take a look at Martin Sauter's website. He is somewhat of an expert regarding HSDPA costs around the world. There's lots of information regarding the relationship between 3G license fees and data costs and why data costs are so high in France (even though ADSL is very cheap) which has a very similar cell phone market to South Africa i.e. 2 dominant players with 1 much smaller provider. If you search around in his Archives there is also information there about how MVNO's transformed the German cell phone market overnight and why they have failed to make a dent in markets like ours. A very interesting read ...

http://mobilesociety.typepad.com/mobile_life/2007/02/index.html

http://mobilesociety.typepad.com/mobile_life/2006/10/do_cheap_3g_lic.html
Click to expand...

Yep, to manufacture the stuff is surprisingly cheap. My girlfriend's dad owns a factory producing electronic equipment. Mainly just assebling the circuit boards and stuff, and he also says that his part of the process is dirt cheap, it's getting the components that is the problem.
 
vodacom3g said:
Here's an idea for you. Why not design and build HSDPA modems at a much lower cost? Your immediate market in SA alone will be around half a million units and world-wide many millions.

I hereby place my first personal order with you. ;) Let's aim for a retail price of around R1K.

I'm sure Vodacom will take a few hundred thousand, say at a R800 per modem!
Click to expand...
Is that ~R1000 with or witout GPRS & EDGE?

Maybe simpler & less expensive if local HSPA modem manufacturers start with a 3.xG-only prototype, and consider whether there is really a market for EDGE & GPRS internationally, when the 3.xG-only prototype is working...
Frikkenator said:
Here's a good start. An IC you can use for the 3G/HSDPA part:
http://www.sony.net/Products/SC-HP/new_tec/w_cdma/index.html
Click to expand...
:( I feel used and abused.
 
ic said:
Is that ~R1000 with or witout GPRS & EDGE?

Maybe simpler & less expensive if local HSPA modem manufacturers start with a 3.xG-only prototype, and consider whether there is really a market for EDGE & GPRS internationally, when the 3.xG-only prototype is working...:( I feel used and abused.
Click to expand...

My bad :p
 
ic said:
Is that ~R1000 with or witout GPRS & EDGE?

Maybe simpler & less expensive if local HSPA modem manufacturers start with a 3.xG-only prototype, and consider whether there is really a market for EDGE & GPRS internationally, when the 3.xG-only prototype is working...:( I feel used and abused.
Click to expand...

As you know, I've been on a drive for a few years to find a very low cost (~R300) GPRS/EDGE modem to try and bring the dial-up community onto 2G. So I speak a lot of local and offshore manufacturers. The price barriers are substantial.

Yotch makes a few valid points, the Quallcomm factor is for sure there. But remember these are always leading, often bleeding edge technologies. The amount of real estate is for sure a factor. Look how long it took for the PCMCIA cards to be reduced to Express. We waited more than a year. The same technology suddenly had to fit into a fraction of the space. This requires brand new electronics, driving the costs up.

No would like to see lower modem priced than the operators. It'll bring more subscribers on-line.

Also, if we could embed 3G into every laptop (ala WiFi) the costs will come down substantially. This is Intel's master plan for WiMax, BTW.
 
@vodacom3g says. I like ic's idea; if these are simple devices just build your own ;)
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No make it 3.
Much easier said than done. Anybody take a soldering iron and try to solder those tiny legs and you have one blob of solder & no components. You need a magnifying glass to see the gaps between the tracks.
 
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