Broadband war
“Industry watchers love nothing more than a good old technology war. In the past, we’ve had Token Ring versus Ethernet, GSM versus CDMA and DECT versus CT2. Now, a new technology debate is brewing between HSPA and WiMAX for dominance in the emerging mobile broadband market. But such battles are rarely just about technology, and the mobile broadband debate is no exception” says Ulf Ewaldsson, vice president and head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson So if the technology war is not about dominance, what is it about? Every second article one reads claims that WiMAX is ahead of the race, the next article says that HSPA is the forerunner.
Current releases of HSPA radio networks support download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps – more than a match for most fixed-broadband connections – and they are set to become even faster with the promise of LTE (long term evolution).
The performance of HSPA and Mobile WiMAX technologies is comparable. Both technologies offer similar peak data rates, spectral efficiency and network complexity. However, Mobile WiMAX requires more cell sites to offer the same coverage and capacity as HSPA. A major hurdle for WiMAX operators will be to overcome the initial high capital expenditure of the radio access network. So argue the proponents of HSPA.
WiMAX proponents disagree with that, they say WIMAX will ultimately be less expense because its offers more bandwidth and that after all is what we are all after! “WiMAX becomes the real differentiator enabling operators to offer real broadband at a lower cost. At 12 Giga Byte per (user per) month Motorola’s Noel Kirkaldy puts the cost differential of ownership between WiMAX and HSDPA at $47 versus $144 per month.
Ericsson sees HSPA and HSPA Evolved, with downlink speeds of 42Mbps and uplink speeds of 12Mbps, as the natural mobile-broadband technology choice for the near future, with LTE just around the corner to bring new levels of performance. Technology choices made today will influence operations for many years to come, so while it remains to be seen if WiMAX can offer a viable business case, building on existing HSPA networks represents the fastest way to deliver mobile broadband to the masses.
The debate is between Ericsson and Motorola. Ericsson has put all its efforts in the HSPA while Motorola is more focused on WiMAX. The question we should ask is will HSPA be able to handle the tremendous growth in data throughput? Will LTE make it to market ahead of WiMAX developments? The discussion will continue and time will tell. There also those who believe there is space for both? What do you think will happen?
Broadband technology discussion
Loading ...