WiMAX War in JAPAN

WiMAX War in Japan

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 4th, 2009

Residents in three Japanese cities will get free access to a trial WiMax service that goes into operation later this month, reports PC World.

UQ Communications, the operator building the network will provide broadband wireless services to users in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki for free starting on Feb. 26.

The operator expects to see its network expand to include Osaka and Nagoya by the end of June, promising to post coverage updates on its Web site.

It will be one of the most closely watched Mobile WiMAX launches in the world.

That’s because there’s great speculation whether or not WiMAX can make an impact in the 2nd largest economy in the world, a country dominated by the most powerful 3G operators in the world, a country where broadband penetration is already among the highest in the world.

UQ, a joint venture led by KDDI and Intel, won one of the two 2.5GHz licenses awarded last year. The other license went to Willcom, which operates the country’s PHS network for low cost voice, and is likely to use its license mainly for that.

The UQ Communications venture was formed to bid for the 30MHz of 2.5GHz spectrum. It consists of KDDI, Intel Capital, East Japan Railway Company, Kyocera, Daiwa Securities Group and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. The group plans to spend $1.3bn on its network and to achieve near-national coverage in five years.

It is using equipment from Fujitsu Networks and its partner Airspan, as well as Samsung.

For WiMAZ clients, UQ will use Taiwan vendors. Taiwanese WiMAX vendors include Gemtek, Zyxel, Accton, USI and Quanta.

Beceem Communications says its 65nm single chip Mobile WiMAX solution is used in a number of the devices adopted by UQ Communications.

Japanese cellular operator E-mobile (wikipedia), using HSPA, offers netbook PCs at little or no cost to customers signing up for a year or more of service. Cellular market leader NTT DoCoMo (wikipedia) also recently announced its own HSPA flat-rate plan for PC users while number three player Softbank (wikipedia), is also planning to start its own flat-rate service by leasing capacity on the E-mobile network. KDDI (wikipedia) provides CDMA-based Rev A data services. NTT DoCoMo, the first mobile operator anywhere to offer 3G, is pushing LTE.

NTT Communications says it will offer Wi-Fi service on high speed rail between Tokyo and Osaka starting in March 2009. The service will be an extension of the company’s HotSpot service, which already offers access in shops, restaurants, hotels and other locations across Japan.

The service was delayed due to late arrival of their new N700-type trains that offer the fastest rail link between Japan’s two biggest cities of Tokyo and Osaka. The 2M bps service will be provided by a “leaky coax” — a wire traveling alongside the bullet train track. At the same time, NTT will also launch access in waiting lounges on all 17 stations along the route. The service will cost from ¥500 per day to ¥1,680 (US$5.73 to $19.25) for a monthly subscription.

Meanwhile, UQ’s Mobile WiMAX subscribers will eventually pay ¥4,480 (US$50) per month for unlimited access, slightly less than the cost of a comparable service offered by E-Mobile.

As part of the trial, UQ will send each registered user a WiMax card that can plug into a laptop, enabling them to access the service. That addresses one of the main challenges facing WiMax operators: a lack of equipment that supports the technology. Users who cancel the service will have to return the cards to the operator.

Japan has 110.395 million mobile subscribers, with a 86.45% penetration rate (December 2008), one of the highest mobile user rates in the world.

Intel Capital also is investing 386 M Taiwan dollars (11.5 million U.S. dollars) in the Taiwanese provider VMAX to deploy the first mobile network in Taiwan, scheduled for the first half of 2009.

Speaking of trains, Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT), Corning and ZyXEL are developing a Mobile WiMAX system for their high speed train.

As far as Mobile WiMAX in the United States goes, ThinkEquity believes Clearwire will launch in nine markets this year. Clearwire, which currently offers Mobile WiMAX in Portland, Oregon, has hinted it will offer WiMax service in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Chicago (See Unstrung: Clearwire Will Launch Nine in ‘09).

Sprint’s Xohm branded Mobile WiMAX launched in Baltimore last October. Sprint is expected to use Samsung WiMAX gear in New York and Dallas/Ft Worth, along with Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Providence, Rhode Island. A Time Warner Cable WiMax deployment in Dallas is also among the ‘09 possibilities. That’s ten.

There are some 4 billion wireless users on Earth and 1 billion broadband subscribers in the world. DSL has 65% of that number while cable modem users have a 22% share. FTTx is just under 11% of the global market. The WiMAX Forum projects more than 133 million WiMAX users globally by 2012.

Intel says Mobile WiMAX is the most cost/effective way to deliver broadband. Cellular operators say LTE will prevail as the defacto wireless broadband solution.

The broadband wireless war has begun.

source : dailywireless.org