Behind the WiMAX Scene
Though WiMAX is shaping up to be the next big frontier in the global wireless markets, it’s facing an array of challenges that threaten to impede its growth. Bryan Wang, research director at Springboard Research offers his opinion on the WiMAX status, in an exclusive interview to My Techbox Online. Excerpts:

How will WiMAX market grow when even its predecessor Wi-Fi is taking time to take off particularly in the emerging markets? 

Wi-Fi started from a different business model. Many corporate and consumer customers use Wi-Fi for indoor wireless coverage, without service cost. Therefore the perception for paying for Wi-Fi service has been very different from normal telecom services. WiMAX started from a telecom service point of view, a service provided by telecom service providers. We also found consumers are willing to pay for a higher-speed seamless wireless broadband service.

 Do you think Wi-Fi and WiMAX will coexist or will Wi-Fi be phased out? 

We believe Wi-Fi will still coexist with WiMAX. In some countries, operators use WiMAX as backhaul and Wi-Fi as access technology, as the availability of WiMAX CPEs are still very low and pricing being on the higher side too. 

How will WiMAX compete with other emerging technologies like Ultra Mobile  Broadband (UMB) or Long Term Evolution (LTE)?

UMB is not well-perceived by any major telecom operator in the world so far. LTE will only start commercial launch in 2010 or 2011 in Japan, and much later for other countries. So we think there is still a role for WiMAX to play, and it will coexist for LTE too – WiMAX comes more from a wireless data point of view, while LTE is for both voice and data.

Don’t you think issues like CPE pricing and regulatory framework are still among the bottlenecks for WiMAX projects?

CPE has been an issue. But we will expect sub-$100 CPE to be in the market by end of 2008 or early 2009. If we compared CPE price for WiMAX and HSPA (USB modems), WiMAX CPEs are actually lower priced. Regulatory issue applies for some countries. However, we do see positive direction for countries like India and Vietnam.

How would WiMAX-capable mobile PC platform promote WiMAX adoption in the region?               

Big time. But we do not expect WiMAX built-in laptops or UMPC / MID as popular as Wi-Fi enabled Centrino or similar. It will only be available to certain countries with WiMAX services.  But it will surely help the issue about CPE.

What will be the consumer and enterprise applications that will help WiMAX market grow?

There will be some specific applications developed on WiMAX platform – such as healthcare solutions developed in Taiwan. However, WiMAX is still a platform – it can run most applications for consumer and corporate use. The key issue is about the operator’s focus area, and ISVs. At this stage, the development of WiMAX specified solution is still at the beginning stage, as we are still at the stage for building infrastructures.

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