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State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has chosen the US-based SOMA Networks to deploy the world’s largest mobile WiMax network in India.The project is on a private- public partnership model wherein SOMA will also invest in providing the technology to BSNL. The revenue will be shared between the two companies.

As per the deal SOMA will roll out mobile WiMax across three States — Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh — to provide wireless broadband coverage to nearly 200 million people over the next 3 years. Prior to this, the largest mobile WiMax project was the one announced by Sprint-Nextel, aimed at providing coverage to 100 million people in the US. This will be the first deployment of mobile WiMax version based on standard 802.16e in India.

Mr Jatinder Ahuja, Managing Director, SOMA Networks India, told Business Line, “Once the service is commercially launched, consumers will be able to get wireless broadband access at a minimum speed of 256 kbps. The advantage of wireless broadband is that it allows subscribers to get access to the Internet wherever they are within a State as long as they carry the modem with them. While initially the service is being launched for PC and laptop owners, SOMA is planning to make it available on mobile handsets by early next year.”

The wireless technology will also allow BSNL to roll out its broadband services faster. However, since WiMax modems are still on the expensive side, subscribers may find it more cost-effective to rent the modem from BSNL. The service is expected to be launched in the third quarter this year. While the tariffs are yet to be decided, Mr Ahuja said that it will be comparable to fixed line DSL-based broadband services which is available for as low as Rs 200 a month at present.

Mobile WiMax is being touted as the technology that will give a big boost to broadband in India. The Government is yet to announce the guidelines for WiMax services.

“This project confirms our view that the potential for WiMAX is mainly in emerging countries where wired infrastructure is poor or even non-existent, and where fixed broadband penetration is consequently very low. In such markets, wireless solutions represent the only economic alternative to deliver broadband services to the mass market. This explains our forecast that 46 per cent of WiMAX users in 2011 will be located in the Asia-Pacific region,” said an analyst’s report from OVUM.

State-owned BSNL is all set to invite bids for 8 million Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), also called DSL modems. Sources said global majors Alcatel, Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, ZTE, Huawei and others have already expressed interest to bid for the BSNL contract, expected to be worth several hundred million dollars. India has about 3.24 million broadband connections and the BSNL tender is more than twice the existing broadband subscriber of all operators combined.

BSNL plans to offer not only high speed internet access, but also carry content services such as IPTV, internet telephony and VoD (Video on Demand systems allow users to select and watch video and clip content over a network as part of an interactive TV system). It should also offer enterprise services such as Virtual Private Network over broadband.

It is also learnt that BSNL has called a meeting of all chip set vendors who manufacture DSLs to understand what the PSU terms ‘latest developments in DSL.’ “The meeting is scheduled in the next few days and the tender conditions will be finalised only after that,’’ sources close to the development added.

While the DSLs will cater to broadband services via fixedline, BSNL is also pushing for high speed internet through WiMAX services. WiMAX paves the way for high-speed wireless internet on laptops and high-end mobile handsets. The PSU has already earmarked Rs 3,000 crore for it and has decided to follow a franchisee model for its wireless broadband services.

The company has also floated an expression of interest to select the franchisees through a two-stage bidding process. As reported by ET first, BSNL has tied up with US-based WiMAX solutions firm Soma Networks through the franchisee model for what is considered the largest WiMAX deployment in the country covering four states in three circles — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.

BSNL had earlier received some spectrum in the 2.5 GHz frequency band for its WiMAX rollout. It plans to roll out WiMax services in 70 cities across the country by the second half of 2008 and set up 50,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) — ICT-enabled kiosks — across the country using WiMAX. The government has set itself a target of 20 million broadband lines in service by 2010 and BSNL is targeting a market share of about 60% of this figure.

Solectek Corporation announced that it is forming an operating unit within India which will manage sales, marketing, customer support and local assembly operations. Solectek made the announcement at the Broadband Wireless World & Interop tradeshow in Las Vegas, where it is displaying its SkyWay-MAX platform with Fujitsu.

“We are pleased to announce our plans for India, which we believe represents an excellent opportunity for both our WiMax system and our other long-range wireless broadband products,” said Dr. Eric Lee, President & CEO of Solectek Corporation. “The combination of high demand for our products and India’s highly skilled and cost-effective technical resources present an unparalleled opportunity for Solectek to enhance our market position while also ensuring customer-driven product design, optimum delivery times and competitive price points.”

Solectek currently manufactures broadband products in the U.S. at its own factory, and also has contract manufacturing relationships in Taiwan. Those operations will continue and complement Solectek’s pursuit of the India market.

“Over the past year Solectek has experienced unprecedented demand for our products in India, especially for WiMax base stations, customer premise equipment and software control systems,” Dr. Lee added. “The demand is now at a level where Solectek must form a local presence, with the assistance of strategic partners. Over the past few months we have coordinated with several parties interested in participating with us in India, from investors to manufacturers to distributors and end-customers desiring a close relationship with a vendor to ensure low prices and specific product features.”

The company has embarked on a multi-pronged strategy for operations in India: Appointment of a Managing Director for India. Completion of an Advisory Board for India, consisting of leading business and technology leaders. Completion of a team of employees and partners within India to ensure success in the areas of local assembly, distribution, customer service, sales and marketing.

Dr. Lee added that companies or individuals interested in learning more about Solectek’s plans in India are encouraged to contact him at Solectek’s headquarters in San Diego, California.

Wireless carriers and banks are increasingly offering the ability to do more than just check account balances on your handsets.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and BancorpSouth are a few of the banks in the United States either with a mobile banking service or planning one. Similar to online banking, mobile banking allows customers to check balances and transactions, as well as pay bills and transfer funds.

Online banking itself hasn’t taken off, and there is some question how popular mobile banking might be. According to the research company comScore, online banking grew 9.5% last year after two years of double-digit growth. But comScore also said fewer than one-fourth of those who do bank online are interested in mobile banking, apparently because they didn’t want to pay higher cell phone bills. However, among those interested in mobile banking, comScore says, the leading service was checking account balances.

ComScore also said banks see online and mobile services as a competitive differentiator and a distinct reason more banks have started to offer these services.

source:wirelessweek.com

The most widely used wireless standards are 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a.
The standard 802.11n is still under draft version, though companies have
developed devices based on the draft specifications. 802.11b and 802.11g
wireless standards work in 2.4HGz band, where as 802.11a (relatively new
standard compared with 802.11b and 802.11g) operate in 5GHz band. The new
standard 802.11n is said to be operable in either of the frequency bands, and
backward compatible.

The important specifications for the 802.11n are given below:

Frequency of Operation: 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands

Data rate (Typical): 200Mbits/sec

Data rate (Maximum): 540Mbits/sec

Range (indoors): 50 meters

Range (outdoors): 125 meters

An 802.11 access point may operate in one of three modes 1. Legacy (only
802.11a, b, or g) 2. Mixed (both 802.11a, b, g, and n) or 3. Greenfield (only
802.11n) - high performance

Resources:
networking.anandsoft.com

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM - News), recently announced the single-chip connectivity solution that combines the company’s market-leading Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth® and FM receiver technologies onto a single silicon die. This combination of popular radio capabilities in a new ultra-low power 65 nanometer CMOS system-on-a-chip (SoC) allows OEMs to provide the richest connectivity features without a prohibitive impact on product cost, size or battery life.

Mobile handsets, media players and handheld wireless systems have made recent leaps in sophistication, enabling service providers to offer compelling applications such as web browsing, instant messaging, e-mail, advanced multimedia, VoIP phone calls, photo sharing, as well as innovative connected services like weather and personal navigation. Critical to the success of these advanced handheld devices (which are now appearing in the market) are ultra-low power solutions for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other radio technologies that enable an array of connectivity options. Adding multiple additional chips to mobile devices, however, impedes the trend toward increasing compact, low-power products. Until now, integrating these technologies in a single product was challenging since multiple radios in the same band can lead to self-interference. Broadcom has effectively attended to these issues with today’s product introduction.

Cingular Wireless continues to push the superiority of its GSM network to consumers, but some customers remain tied to their analog or TDMA phones. In an effort to give customers a little extra push to make the switch to GSM, the carrier plans to impose a $4.99 a month fee to use the older phones.

The lion’s share of Cingular’s customers (92 percent) have made the switch to GSM, but the new surcharge could affect as many as 4.7 million Cingular subscribers who either use TDMA or analog handsets.

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Wavecom SA (NASDAQ: WVCM; Euronext Eurolist compartment B: AVM - ISIN: FR0000073066), a leader in embedded wireless communication platforms for automotive, industrial (machine-to-machine) and mobile professional applications, today announced the launch of the first in a family of powerful Wireless Microprocessors with built-in wireless communications capability.             

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That’s the sound of my 2.4GHz Siemens Gigaset phone system when my 802.11b wireless network is nearby, especially in some parts of the house. I actually don’t notice it so much, but people I talk to complain…

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Microsoft’s Mobile and Embedded Devices division is moving toward more of an annual refresh schedule for its operating system releases. According to a recent Microsoft executive’s presentation, Microsoft is readying the next two releases, code-named Crossbow and Photon, of its Windows Mobile operating system.

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