4G Now

IDG Ventures Invest in a Korean WiBro Company

IDG Ventures Korea, Hanmi Venture Capital and Tongyang Venture Capital invest $4 million in Xronet, a South Korean Mobile WiMAX solution provider which has developed core WiBro chips since September 2005.

IDG Ventures says, "We considered growth potential of Mobile WiMAX and Xronet's technology and human resources before making the final decision." 

The investment decision indicates Xronet's technology prowess and potential, according to the chip maker which is planning to make bold steps toward foreign markets.

Meanwhile, Xronet developed XRO7100, a single chip combining XRO3000 RF chipset for radio communication, XRO7000 that serves as a base-band, and XRO3300 integrating the functions of a power amp, a switch and an LNA(Low Noise Amp).

XRO7100 satisfies the power-saving requirement which is important for a mobile modem chip and supports a number of frequency bands so that it can be used in North America, Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia as well as in Korea. Unlike a power amp module used in Mobile WiMAX, XRO3300 is embedded with a switch and an LNA, which is expected to result in smaller size of the final products and lower production cost.

Without CDMA, KTF Gets Stronger in 4G Era

KTF, a South Korean mobile carrier on the right rack from CDMA to WCDMA, is likely to have the upper hand in the 4G competition with SK Telecom.

SK Securities says in a recent report KTF smoothly migrating from CDMA to WCDMA will enjoy even further growth in high-end product sales and healthy customer basis with the advent of 4G.

According to the report, as prospective 4G standards are IP-based wireless data technologies and carriers are not likely to make a radical move toward mobile VoIP which will eat into their revenue, voice communications will be dominated by WCDMA for coming years. Under these circumstances, KTF which has gone bold steps toward WCDMA will gain a competitive edge over other carriers in cell phone procurement for WCDMA and 4G data (LTE or Mobile WiMAX) service which will be common in the 4G era, the securities firm remarks.

The report also says both LTE and WiBro are based on OFDM or Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing and talks about common chipsets are going on. Therefore, the report continues, it is meaningless to distinguish LTE from WiBro and “WCDMA+WiBro” cell phones such as Google Phone will come out next year.

SK Securities forecasts KTF will be affected by 3G impact which actually involves the establishment of 4G and the proportion of marketing cost and CAPEX to service revenue will go down to 26.2% and 10.2%, respectively, by 2010. Dismissing the concern about cannibalization of data revenue as a result of KTF’s using KT WiBro network, the report insists overlap between WCDMA wireless data service focusing on functional applications and WiBro centering on web access will hardly become an issue and the impact, if any, on revenue will be insignificant.

KT Develops M2M Services to Boost WiBro

KT, the South Korean WiBro service provider is developing M2M or Machine-to-Machine services in an attempt to boost WiBro service market. M2M services are based on communications between machines and used for remote measurement systems for gas or electricity and onboard video advertising on the bus and the subway.

Quoting a number of market research reports, KT says the world M2M service market will grow over 31% by 2012. The telecom operator expects M2M will open up new market opportunities for WiBro, the IP-based wireless braodband service.

Meanwhile, KT announced the launch of KT WiBro Biz Alliance aimed at creating business opportunities through collaboration between WiBro and other industries. The Biz Alliance Center run by KT will facilitate the whole process of collaboration from finding new business models across different areas to brining the ideas into profit-making businesses.

KT will enlist cooperation from partner companies not only for module- and service-development but also for service customization and channel distribution, and thereby broaden the horizon for WiBro service. 

Qualcomm Joining LTE in Search of Practicality

While competition for 4G technology development is getting heated, Qualcomm, which offers OFDM/OFDMA patent portfolio, recently decided to join the LTE group. As Qualcomm had developed its own Ultra Mobile Broadband 4G service, the decision is expected to send a ripple effect across the industry.
 
Qualcomm’s decision is thought as a choice for practicality because LTE has increasingly been the mega trend while UMB has lost steam thanks to the global economic crisis.
 
The biggest advantage for joining LTE group is that world’s leading mobile operators, Verizon, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo and China Mobile have opted for LTE thus offering foundation for the economy of scale. Mobile WiMax was already commercialized and more mobile operators are launching the service. But, general consensus is that the service will be for niche markets.
 
Another cannot-miss opportunity for Qualcomm is that the LTE group is rushing to offer trial 4G service. China Mobile allegedly plans to focus much of its R&D capacity on LTE by opening a lab in early next year and launching a trial service at the end of next year.
 
DoCoMo is also ambitious to be the first 4G service provider around the world. DoCoMo offers beta test opportunities to service providers interested in LTE service. Samsung Electronics, which focuses on mobile WiMax for now, also said that it is in full gear to begin the service when the time is right. 
 

KTF, Huawei Partnering to Develop Femtocell

KTF, the country’s leading WCDMA provider, teams up with Huawei, a Chinese telecoms equipment maker to develop next generation technologies including femtocell.
 
KTF said that it signed up an MOU on joint research and cooperation for next generation networks with Huawei at GSMA Asia conference in Macau, China.
 
KTF said that the technologies they will develop could reduce the use of outside base stations and cables which can lead to resource and cost saving, and “green IT.” KTF said that it would consider commercializing femtocell technology depending on the results of the joint research. 
 
KTF said, “Joint R&D with Huawei for femtocell and next generation networks will be providing foundations for cost saving and technical progress, which will give the momentum for more advanced fixed mobile convergence services.”

Posdata Supplies a Kazakh Operator with WiBro Solution

Posdata provides ARNA, a Kazakh telecom operator with over 100 WiBro Wave2 bas-stations, control stations, network management systems and terminals. There will be follow-up talks for additional orders in accordance with the possible expansion of service coverage, the Korean company says.

ARNA is a privately owned telecom operator providing fixedline telephony (local, long-distance and international call), internet access (ISP) and leased-line service. The operator has WiBro frequency bands (2.3~2.4GHz, 2.5~2.7GHz) in 36 cities in Kazakhstan.

Using equipment from Posdata, ARNA will construct WiBro network to start commercial service in major cities including Almaty, the nation's biggest city, and Astana, the capital in next year and then expand the service coverage into other areas.

Agreement with ARNA for WiBro commercial service is a part of Posdata's campaign to achieve strong presence in Central Asia, the market of great growth potential, which started with Super iMax in Uzbekistan. Posdata says it will gradually increase customer basis in the area. 

Mobile WiMAX Opens up New Opportunities for Minor Companies

Mobile WiMAX is giving latecomers which have been overwhelmed by major companies in the telecom industry great chances to expand market share.

One of the latecomers is Samsung Electronics. The world-class manufacturer of semiconductors and cell phones has been struggling in the telecom equipment market. However, the company is rapidly gaining power by providing Mobile WiMAX equipment for a growing number of operators including KT and Sprint which has recently started commercial service.

Instead of LTE, the strongest candidate for 4G, Samsung focuses on Mobile WiMAX in an attempt to take advantage of the absence of major players.

Woonsub Kim, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics said, "The LTE standards will be fixed in the latter half of 2009 at the earliest and the market will be developed in the remote future. Meanwhile, we will concentrate on Mobile WiMAX. If the market is there, we have no reason to avoid it." He also said, "Samsung is providing Mobile WiMAX solutions for over 11 operators including Sprint and preparing for service launching with over 30 operators. In particular, the US, Japan and Russia have the greatest potential for us to increase the market share."

Samsung's strategy seems to be paying off. ABI Research's report in March ranked Samsung first among WiMAX equipment providers including Motorola, Cisco, Nortel, and Fujitsu.

Posdata and SK Telesys are also producing successful outcomes in the world market. An SK Telesys official responsible for the company's global business said, "We will provide Mobile WiMAX solutions for 5 operators including one in the Middle East.  Mobile WiMAX is yielding better results than other items. The majority of operators interested in Mobile WiMAX are third-tier companies. They want to take their first step into mobile broadband service through Mobile WiMAX."