Not necessarily true. Take for example, the Maxis WiMAX trial -- running at 2.5GHz, its coverage footprint is going to be pretty pathetic. Don't expect anything wider than 2km radius, especially in highly urban areas like KL city.

Well, according to the news reports, they're trialing Mobile WiMAX, which should be 802.16e. So it's not a "backhaul" (point-to-point) solution. My expectation of a "mobile" WiMAX access device would be a USB or PC Card interface at least -- no external power or battery packs required. I consider anything other than those form-factors to be inferior. I'd love to see what their access device looks like.

iBurst is not WiMAX. In fact, iBurst is not even OFDM-based, which WiMAX is.

This post has been edited by husagi: Feb 2 2007, 01:22 AM

TheEdgeDaily: Green Packet, YTL, REDTone-linked firms front-runners for WiMAX 2.3GHz

Article dated 27 Feb 2007.

Got money, can lock 'n loll! Resources can be hired, as long as they have the mulah. But I'm doubtful about Redtone. They're having such a tough time right now.

Haih.. Now that you've mentioned the clowns whom I was ready to forget... I guess, besides money, they need less ego and less dung slinging in the boardroom too. (Pssst! I'm not talking about the existing 3G ops who have already rolled out some HSDPA infra. )

theedge is referring to GreenPacket's SONMetro wireless solution. Not to be confused with Metro Ethernet.

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Added on March 3, 2007, 8:23 pmhttp://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/3/3/technology/20070303140657&sec=technology

Bagging the WiMax licences

BY next week, the Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik is likely to announce the winners of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) licences, industry players say. ...


This post has been edited by husagi: Mar 3 2007, 08:23 PM

Because... there's only 100MHz of spectrum available for use. This 100MHz is divided into 5MHz slices. Why 5MHz, you ask? That's because a typical carrier bandwidth for a IEEE802.16e (WiMAX) system is 5MHz. So that makes 20 blocks of 5MHz spectrum available for bidding. If divided equally, then each of the 4 successful bidders will get 5 blocks. My take on this is that, each succcessful bidder will NOT get equal share, because 5 is quite an odd number for deploying a sensible radio network, especially if an operator were to use paired spectrum. Of course, whether or not a bidder chooses to use paired spectrum (FDD) is entirely up to the system they choose to deploy. Some may opt for TDD (i.e., not paired spectrum). But I think most would opt for FDD, unless they're not aware of the difference.....

Im Wirefree, apparently.

Really? IIRC, OFDM doesn't need inter-carrier guardband regardless of whether it's FDD or TDD. If it does, it's quite a small slice and the 5MHz bandwidth is inclusive of the guardband. Likewise, inter-operator guardband shouldn't be a concern, unless the adjacent operator(s) are not using OFDM-based technology.

This post has been edited by husagi: Mar 5 2007, 10:46 PM

Interesting point. Probably have something to do with quantity and price of CPE.

But using 2.5GHz is no better than 2.3GHz though, in terms of coverage footprint.

WiMAX will save the day, so they thought
But alas, February has come to nought
We wait and we wait, for Unker Lim to speak
Industry pundits say this week! This week! He shall squeak!

But squeaketh, he yet has

Redtone! YTL! Green Packet!
The "experts" betted
We too, can place our bets, for 'tis not too late
Come one, come all, let's choose your WiMAX mate!

For all men, Malaysian time awaits
Unker Lim, some of us may hate
When he drops the WiMAX bomb
Oh, what farce we make aplomb

Quite different from what I heard today. Apparently, take-up rate of WiBro is very slow there because of limited availability of the access device. So the Korean operators have resorted to 3.5G......

I knew it! They lied! They lied!!

Oh noes.... less than 1km??????????? Might as well deploy WiFi with extended antenna then. Makes no sense.

On a relevant note, TheEdgeDaily announced today that WiMAX tender results could be announced as early as tomorrow, since it's being tabled today at the Cabinet meeting. We shall see.....

http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.js...ce0000-566753e4

Never wait for the cows to come home. I remember a conversation I overheard about 2 years ago, when Telekom came to my Taman -- new residential area -- to sign up new users for phone line & Streamyx. This neighbor of mine said to his wife, "Don't bother with Streamyx. Let's wait for [name of some wireless broadband company]." Well... that particular wireless broadband service never reached my neighborhood. Ever. And now, Streamyx ports in my area is full. I wonder if this neighbor ever got his broadband fix.

You not my neighbor la. Absolutely positively sure.

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Added on March 15, 2007, 11:52 amWait? Who's willing to wait? 2 years of zero versus lousy broadband service? Which one is better?

Now, at least, you got other alternatives to WiMAX besides HSDPA or 3G. Good thing, no?

This post has been edited by husagi: Mar 15 2007, 11:52 AM

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_bus...s.php?id=251377

"Govt To Announce WiMax Licence Recipients Tomorrow"

Interoperability? Last I heard, Green Packet's SONMetro is not even WiMAX... Wonder if that's what they're using to roll out their "WiMAX" network.

Asiaspace has been around in the telco biz for quite a while already. They've been renting out towers and telco infra to the telcos, I believe. In terms of the number of sites that they already own, they probably won't have much problem with their roll outs. Compare that to the other 3 players who will have to spend several months acquiring sites for their transmitters!

BTW, guys... read the second last paragraph in MCMC's press release.


So I'm thinking..... how much will it cost the end user to subscribe to a 1Mbps WiMAX service? I did some calculations. My assumption is that the bulk rate of leasing a 1Mbps Internet line per month is RM500 (dunno if it can be that cheap cuz basic 1Mbps leased line is already RM2k at least!). Then, I also assume that the Internet bandwidth oversubscription rate is 1:10. I.e., each user will share a 1Mbps line with 10 other users. In ISP terms, that's actually very oversubscribed. To get decent service, the ratio is usually 1:5 or 1:8 at most. So I came up with a basic cost of RM50 per user per month. At this point, I haven't even calculated the cost of operating the WiMAX network. Manpower can be costly. And don't forget CAPEX too!

So, if the operators can offer RM80 for a 1Mbps package, they're probably breaking even!

My next question: even if WiMAX can offer 5Mbps or 10Mbps or whatever... are we willing to pay thru the nose? It will definitely be more than RM100 for monthly access fees.

Triple/Quad play, anyone?

Oh noes... Here's what Green Packet's CEO said to TheStar:

Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...95&sec=business

Sorry la... I think we common folks will have to take the back seat. Corporate customers come first.

Furthermore, an analyst comment:
Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?f...21&sec=business

Interoperability, huh? Operator roaming is out of the question for now. Furthermore, customers cannot easily switch service. Open standard, my foot.

This post has been edited by husagi: Mar 17 2007, 02:13 PM

Very well said and to the point. We "urbanites" shouldn't underestimate the rural folks, though. They got more spending power than us urbanites, and I'm sure they already know about P2P and YouTube. With less financial commitments than the city folks and plenty of free time, they can afford broadband for all we know. Just give them broadband and they'll surely catch up sooner than we'd expect.

Too early to tell, and lack of info on which vendor they've opted for. So far, we only know that Green Packet is providing the technology for MIB Comm and it's not even WiMAX standard....

Unker Lim also said:Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=...1118&sec=nation

So I guess even if these companies bungkus early, they won't be penalized. Nice huh?

This post has been edited by husagi: Mar 18 2007, 01:02 PM

I wouldn't go to the extent of saying that MAL's essay was all crap. In fact, he's right to a certain degree, BUT I'd read what he's written with a pinch of salt, considering that Jaring was, after all, one of the 13 bidders who failed to clench the tender. Sour grapes, one may say.

Well, bysquashy isn't talking crap. Any wireless tech. will always have poorer network latency than copper wire. You can't defy the law of physics. Look at it this way: air < copper < fiber optic

~200ms is, IMO, the average latency for OFDM (i.e. WiMAX) to the next hop (i.e., base station), after considering user traffic and NLOS-ness (Non Line-of-Sight). It can be better than 200ms, but you'd have to be one of the handful number of users camping on the WiMAX base station AND be in LOS to it. Best case scenario should be about 50-100ms. BTW, network latency to the Internet is subject to the number of hops taken to its destination, so that may very well exceed 200ms on average.

[URL=http://www. packet-1.com]http://www. packet-1.com[/URL]
(prior to the WiMAX tender, I don't think anyone has ever heard of MIB Comm... ;P)

This post has been edited by husagi: Mar 24 2007, 11:50 PM