In the brightest days of WiMAX, Samsung established an uncontested leadership position. The company succeeded in scoring impressive wins and imposing itself as the first supplier for Mobile WiMAX RAN infrastructure. This achievement could have been leveraged into leadership in the global 4G space if WiMAX wasn't to show signs of weakness in front of the dynamism of the LTE camp. While some of the majors in the RAN infrastructure market were reluctant to heavily invest in 4G, Samsung believed in Mobile WiMAX right from the beginning, and above all believed in its chances to become the market leader.

Obviously market conditions at the time were extremely favorable for Samsung’s emergence as one of the majors, while others remained hesitant. Ericsson simply dismissed the technology and preferred to focus on 3G and HSPA before putting all its weight behind LTE; Nokia Siemens had an unclear position despite inheriting Siemens’ 16d business. Alcatel-Lucent, who was still busy digesting its merger, missed the beginning of the WiMAX wave and came into the game rather late. Nortel was struggling with its dire financial condition. Motorola was keener to stick with its proprietary BWA technology than to hastily change guns to WiMAX, and Alvarion and other BWA companies were busy rolling out 16d networks.

The timing was perfect for Samsung to leverage Korean 4G market fermentation to gain a global presence in the 4G and BWA infrastructure market.

Samsung’s record is indeed unequaled. It all started with the contract to provide WiBro infrastructure to Korea Telecom, and then the Sprint deal came in. The degree of maturity and quality of Samsung’s WiMAX solutions assured its position as the main supplier for Sprint’s first roll out. Russia’s Yota and Japan’s UQ Communications followed suit, selecting Samsung as their main base station supplier. Samsung was simply way ahead of competitors, and its solutions were far better. Samsung owned the four largest accounts and established itself as the uncontested leader, effectively enabling every sizable deployment worldwide.

When looking at today's picture, it is hard not to be a little fatalist when observing how the winds turned from head to tail. First, the Clearwire-Sprint merger deprived Samsung of the largest slice of the pie and consigned it to a secondary role while benefiting Motorola. The breakthrough of Huawei in the WiMAX market in general, and with Clearwire in particular, didn't help things for Samsung either. 

The meager subscriber uptake for Wibro in Korea and the current merger between KT and KTFT compounded the situation by slowing down infrastructure building in Korea. UQ Communication has also faced delays and a slow subscriber ramp up, and now its parent company KDDI, along with NTT DoCoMo, is going full steam ahead with plans for LTE.

Samsung Russian’s client, Yota, who is adding about 50k subscribers a monthdoes provide some solace for Samsung. Yota is expected to reach the cap of 200,000 subscribers by year’s end, and to rollout WiMAX infrastrcuture in 180 cities and towns by 2011.

So what about LTE? Samsung has not yet made clear any concrete plans to develop LTE base stations. Surprisingly, it is non-Korean vendors who are likely to provide LTE infrastructure to Korean operators. The latest release from SKT and Alcatel-Lucent regarding their joint effort to contribute to LTE-Advanced underlines the fact that Korean LTE operators, unlike their Japanese counterparts, might not rely on local suppliers. Indeed, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI gave priority to local vendors such as Fujitsu and NEC. In Korea, more than in any other place in the world, the battle between LTE and WiMAX still rages on. Paradoxically, this could hurt Samsung more than it might benefit the company.

Despite WiMAX’s decline, which is jeopardizing its chances of breaking through as one of the industry majors, Samsung continues to be committed to the technology while other vendors’ support is waning. Samsung remains at the forefront of the battle to save WiMAX.

For more information you can contact the author at bilel@maravedis-bwa.com

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