Last week Maravedis attended the 4G World conference in full force. I had the pleasure of meeting many of our readers both in face-to-face meetings and at our booth. Maravedis had the privilege of chairing the WiMAX Business Model track, and moderating the 4G Deployments in Asia session with leading Taiwanese and Malaysian operators.
My take-aways from the conference include:
- Attendance seemed lower than last year despite a broader coverage in terms of technologies. The breadth of topics covered was overwhelming, with 6 tracks competing for the audience. I believe the show will continue to grow and expand its reach into the cellular ecosystem.
- There was no groundbreaking announcement at the show. I am still puzzled by the figures released by Beecem regarding their silicon shipments in Q3 2009, and wonder how much backlog of embedded devices will be piling up (mostly USB dongles for now), made available to the market by leading operators such as Clearwire and UQ. Beceem’s reported shipment figures surely place the company in the lead of WiMAX chipset suppliers.
- The 4G Deployments in Asia session was heavily geared towards WiMAX, with early adopters VMAX and Packet 1 sharing their experience and plans. Packet 1 is quickly filling in the holes left by the national DSL provider, while VMAX, which enjoys an investment from Intel, hopes to become a leading mobile broadband provider in the island.
- Kris Rinne, Senior Vice President of architecture and planning for AT&T, gave the audience at 4G World a look at the status of the carrier’s network and how the company plans to make the transition to LTE. Data usage has grown by nearly 5,000 percent over the past 12 quarters, driven not only by iPhones, but also by a plethora of new smartphones, netbooks and the like. AT&T has invested US$38 billion in its wired and wireless networks over the past two years. This year, the company plans to invest an additional US$17 to US$18 billion in its wireless networks, almost equal to Verizon…
- Coinciding with the release of our report, “Sizing Up the Competitive Opportunities for Verizon and Clearwire,” Clearwire Chief Executive Bill Morrow said he would be open to switching to fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless technologies down the road if it would benefit the company. Obviously that message was tailored to concerned current investors, and more importantly, to future investors who want to be reassured that Clearwire has an exit strategy if WiMAX fails to take off. Clearwire needs an additional US$2 billion to fund its network rollout, and I can’t help but wonder why its CAPEX figure remains so low compared to what AT&T is investing in a single year. Morrow reiterated that he sees a big part of Cleawire’s future in the wholesale business thanks to its massive spectrum footprint – would this business include competitors?
- And finally, according to a survey by the Yankee Group, 43% of users they have heard the term “4G” but don’t understand what it means – do you?
Enjoy!
Adlane Fellah
Maravedis CEO & Founder
For more information, contact the author at afellah@maravedis-bwa.com
Copyright © 2009 by Maravedis Inc. All Rights Reserved.
No reproduction without consent.
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