Attendees who met with Scartel at WiMAX World in Chicago this fall already have the inside scoop on this device since the operator flashed the device around to a number of insiders at the show. The subsequent buzz around the imminent handset launch has been humming ever since.

The HTC MAX 4G looks to be the first integrated GSM/WiMAX handset, and the gadget blogs are pointing out that the phone cribs a lot of tech from HTC’s Touch HD. Scartel has equipped the phone to run on its WiMAX network Yota as VoIP but also includes an unlocked SIM slot for use on another carrier’s GSM network. The MAX 4G boasts a 3.8-inch WVGA touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro with the TouchFLO 3D GUI.

Yota’s services include: on-demand online films, video/TV, online games, maps, messaging and file exchange apps. The TV service included 14 free channels at launch and should include 23 channels by year-end.

More Industry News:

• Scartel officially unveils HTC WiMAX device for Yota
• FCC: VZW gets 700 MHz without stricter open access rules
• Clearwire one step closer: iPCS agreement reached

Operating under the brand name Yota, Scartel has carried out trials, using Samsung infrastructure, in the two major cities, and says it will go commercial by year end, having built out 1,600 base stations at a cost of $200m by then. Emulating Sprint’s Xohm launch, it says it is essential to offer a range of mobile broadband terminals from day one, to encourage high value customers such as business travellers - and these will make roll-out of fixed services, especially in more rural areas, a more viable proposition.

As well as the HTC handset, Scartel will launch with USB modems from Samsung and Asus,  plus ExpressCards for PCs and, from early next year, it hopes to add support for multiple access WiMAX/Wi-Fi embedded laptops and dongles.
 
The handset is the star of the show, though, supporting wide area roaming on Russia’s extensive 2G network, not just on Wi-Fi hotspots, which are sketchy in coverage outside the metro areas. The phone, called Max 4G, will automatically switch to a VoIP-over-WiMAX connection, at low rates, when two Yota subscribers are connected to one another within the 802.16e coverage zones.

The handset is a good example of how WiMAX operators in emerging but high growth markets need to balance their appeal to two key constituencies - the bulk of the target base will require low ARPUs and basic access services, but there is a sizeable and growing population of business travellers and other high value subscribers. The latter will want not just basic cellphones, but devices with all the features expected by smartphone users in the developed mobile economies. Hence, the Max 4G will feature a 3.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen display, integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, an accelerometer, a 5-megapixel camera and will use the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.

Yota’s basic subscription allows customers to access online games, maps, messaging and file exchange applications while on the move, and there will be add-on services for accessing films, video and TV programmes online.

The non-branded version of the device, which is basically a variant of the popular HTC Touch midrange smartphone, with WiMAX added, is called HTC T8290 and will be offered to other WiMAX operators. A CDMA model is expected by many to be developed, so that it could be targeted at Sprint/Xohm and Japan’s KDDI/UQ venture. There is also much speculation that HTC will create an Android handset for WiMAX, similar to its G1 phone for T-Mobile’s 3G network. Android, once better established, is likely to prove a more mainstream option for developing economies than Windows Mobile, which remains largely the preserve of the mobile enterprise user.

And there is a large potential market for GSM/WiMAX combinations, with some chipmakers, like Comsys, already heavily focused on this sector. In recent research by Rethink Technology, a significant base of operators was identified, holding only 2G networks, but needing to increase their revenues and customer retention over the next few years by adding data, internet and multimedia services. The research calculated that, in the global base of 2G-only carriers, almost 200 will be using WiMAX in some portion of their footprint by 2013, in a multimode system combined with GSM/EDGE and sometimes 3G. In capex terms, mobile operators will account for about one-third of Mobile WiMAX spending by 2012 and the cellular/WiMAX base is the largest market for 802.16e terminals by 2012, and the second largest market (after DSL alternative and fixed operator convergence) for infrastructure.

From HTC’s point of view, creating handsets for operators in this situation, as well as for carriers in developed economies like Xohm, would be in line with its strategy of stealing a march on larger players by supporting minority technologies at an early stage. It was the first cellphone manufacturer outside the pure ODM community to create Windows handsets, using them to establish a high end range under its own brand, rather than focusing entirely on white label devices, its original business model. It remains willing to submerge its brand in order to gain early presence in a new and promising market, ahead of the competition, as it has done with T-Mobile G1.

Given Xohm’s devotion to open access, a WiMAX Android phone would not only enable HTC to be a first mover again, but also to launch an Android product under its own name in the future. Android products for Xohm are widely expected for mid-2009, given that Google and Sprint Nextel have collaborated closely on the software platform and user experience, and Google is a major supporter of the open access web services model on which Xohm is pinning its hopes. HTC will surely be positioning itself for that opportunity, as well as for the higher volumes promised by the GSM world.

AT&T scooped T-Mobile USA for the coveted Starbucks WiFi deal and just now sealed the deal with McDonald’s through its Wayport acquisition. Two of the most ubiquitous eateries in the U.S. have AT&T-powered WiFi. So, why all the recent momentum for AT&T’s WiFi business?

Industry pundit Andy Abramson positions the operator’s latest acquisition as a competitive move against Clearwire’s WiMAX rollout, which launched commercially in late September. “AT&T can now offer WiFi access in more places,” Abramson writes. “XOHM [can't] say that just yet and not for some time… [the acquisition] gives the AT&T Enterprise sales team a huge new offer to make and sell in to their very wide and deep customer base.” Abramson closes by characterizing the buyout as a very “Machiavellian move” by AT&T: “Well done.”

Abramson is certainly right that acquisition is a boon to AT&T’s enterprise offerings–as ABI Research VP Stan Schatt pointed out in a research note:

“Wayport has moved beyond simply providing WiFi service to actively supporting key enterprise applications,” Schatt wrote. “The bottome line is that AT&T Mobility’s growth on the business side will come from being so deeply tied to customers’ business applications that companies won’t easily be able to extract themselves and embrace a competitor such as Verizon. Whether it’s instant check-in at a Wyndham resort of location tracking of expensive equipment at hospitals, applications will place business customers in golden handcuffs that they won’t really want to remove even if a competitor offers a less expensive subscription rate.”

Clearly, the mobile enterprise customers AT&T services will greatly benefit from the acquisition–as well as iPhone and BlackBerry Bold users who can now enjoy free WiFi at all the new WiFi hotspots.

Abramson’s other point, however, that AT&T’s Wayport acquisition was a competitive strike against Clearwire was perhaps a bit too heavy-handed. Sure, Wayport’s footprint puts AT&T’s WiFi coverage map at a saturation level Clearwire’s early adopters can only dream about for now, but there’s more to it.

As Yankee Group Research Fellow Roberta Wiggins writes in an upcoming research note the down economy was a big influence in making the acquisition. Perhaps AT&T stood to lose its key WiFi partner to a competitor if it didn’t act fast:

“By taking over control of Wayport, AT&T avoids losing the company to a competitor,” Wiggins writes. “While Wayport remained independent it was increasingly attractive with the integration of WiMAX, WiFi, and 3G in client devices to competing service providers including WiMAX challenger Clearwire, or cable MSOs like Cablevision or Comcast.”

Other industry news:

• Dell to make white space laptops
• Economy, iPhone to blame for Sprint’s complications?
• Alvarion expands Altitude’s WiMAX network in France
• AT&T bought Wayport to stave off WiMAX competition?
• Venture capitalist: WiMAX–Game on?
• Analyst: What U.S. elections outcome means for telecoms
• Comparing WiFi, LTE and WiMAX for mobile workers
• Airspan’s Q3 WiMAX revenues were $12.1 million

Packing more and more radios on to a single chip is one approach, as pursued by Qualcomm (though no support for WiMAX yet). A stage beyond that comes the software programmable processor, which can be tweaked in software, by the handset maker or operator, to support a flexible combination of network connections. Sandbridge Technologies this week announced its contribution to this nascent market, with its SB3500, a 65nm reprogrammable software-based baseband processor, which can be adapted to LTE, HSPA, WiMAX, W-CDMA, Wi-Fi, GPS and the mobile TV standard DVB-H.

The processor is entirely software-based, and points to the vision of a fully cognitive radio in future - a single radio that can move intelligently between different networks, according to parameters such as cost or signal strength.

Because the platform is programmable, cellphone makers can use a single architecture to support phones with different combinations of radios, reducing their costs. Sandbridge’s technology will also reduce the number of chips needed in a phone, which should cut cost, time to market and complexity. The company claims the cost savings can amount to 15% across design and production, and the figure could grow as consumers look for more and more functions to be packed into one low power unit.

Another advantage that Sandbridge claims for its technology is that handset makers can respond more quickly to standards changes - such as the next wave of 802.16e, or even the shift to 802.16m - testing and adding new functions rapidly in software rather than waiting for the chipmaker to deliver upgraded hardware. Changes in standards can also be easily accommodated, so operators could move to new networks even before standards are finalized, with reduced risk.

As for competition, there are other start-ups, such as Sweden’s Coresonic, in this field, and ST-NXP Wireless has some advanced software defined technology, from the NXP side of the group, but most of the majors are nowhere near to market readiness with programmable basebands yet.

As for more conventional multimode devices, ABI Research, contrary to many market assumptions, believes many carriers will adopt a mixture of the two OFDM-based systems, which share many similarities. The company forecasts that ­2009 will see the introduction of dual-mode WiMAX/LTE chipsets for devices.

“Some mobile operators are showing interest in dual-mode chipsets,” said ABI principal analyst Philip Solis. “And they are backing it with cash. Vodafone, for example, has a foot in both WiMAX and LTE camps. They will use LTE in industrialized regions, and WiMAX in developing nations. In Japan, KDDI may deploy LTE on its own, but as an investor (along with Intel and others) in WiMAX operator UQ Communications, KDDI has an interest in both standards.”

Looking ahead to full cognitive radios - which actually sense wireless traffic to make intelligent decisions about using spectrum - Intel hosted a workshop last week in conjunction with European research institute IMEC. The chip giant believes the FCC’s recent decision to open up the white spaces in broadcast spectrum will light a new fire under cognitive radio work and offer WiMAX a new opportunity. Some early work on interference avoidance in the spaces was undertaken by 802.16 study groups.

Among companies represented at the workshop were Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Marvell, Motorola, Nokia and Qualcomm and IMEC aims to build prototype hardware soon, geared to next generation WiMAX and LTE networks in licensed bands, as well as to various technologies for license-exempt white spaces.

Cognitive radios would “have more direct pay-off to the incumbent operators and some form of this probably will begin to appear in next generation broadband standards such as WiMAX 2 [802.16m] and LTE,” said Kevin Kahn, director of Intel’s communications technology lab. He also believes the white spaces will be a good area to test the new technology at relatively low cost and risk.

The first major decision is whether or not to greenlight Verizon Wireless’ acquisition of Alltel, which would make the carrier the largest operator in North America–any way you look at it. Analysts say the carrier is looking for a decision ahead of the national election results to ensure the pricetag remains the same–a Democrat in the White House and chairing the FCC could lead to higher regulatory fees associated with the deal, some policy analysts say.

The second major vote will be on Sprint and Clearwire’s WiMAX merger. The $14.5 billion deal sees Sprint pooling all of its 2.5 GHz spectrum and its WiMAX assets into the new Clearwire.

The open access lobbying wars also recently picked up where they left off earlier in the year: Google has been lobbying the FCC to clarify in what ways Verizon Wireless must abide by the open access rules that were part of its winning bid on the upper C Block of spectrum in the 700 MHz auction this time last year. The FCC looks poised to offer a clearer picture of how open Verizon Wireless’ future network must be. Google has worried that Verizon “may exclude its handsets from the open access condition.”

It’s a big day for votes in the U.S. so tune in next week to find out what happens next and gain a deeper insight into the FCC meeting today by reading our weekly columnist, Rethink Research’s Caroline Gabriel’s column below.

In industry news:

• Can WiMAX make the case to the enterprise?
• Is India WiMAX’s new hub?
• Clearwire CEO confident in merger going through
• Canada’s Look Communications begin mobile WiMAX tests
• Analyst: Multimode WiMAX/LTE chips to hit in 2009
• iPCS files injunction against Sprint-Clearwire merger
• ERF Wireless now licensed for WiMAX in TX
• ADC’s holdings change WiMAX/LTE IPR game

Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff said last week that he was confident that the FCC vote would go in favour of the Sprint venture, with no significant conditions. “Everyone understands it’s a pro-competitive deal,” Wolff said. “It creates a new nationwide broadband network. It’s not a partisan issue. It’s just good policy.” If the FCC votes yes, Clearwire shareholders will vote on November 19, the last major hurdle to cross, and the transaction could then be completed by year end as planned. The main objections have come from AT&T, and some other telcos, which argue the deal, and especially the huge spectrum base it concentrates in the hands of one operator, should be scrutinized more closely. However, the FCC has been keen to foster new services in wireless broadband and is likely to see the enlarged Clearwire as a new entrant bringing new consumer choice - and so will favour the merger that will strengthen its chances of undertaking its roll-out and being commercially viable. The deal involves a $3.2bn capital injection from Intel, Google and three cablecos (Comcast, Time Warner Cable and New House). Both halves of the deal, Xohm and Clearwire, are rolling out Mobile WiMAX networks, but clearly their business model hardly makes sense without the increased capital of the new stakeholders. While legal requirements mean they have to appear to be acting very separately, Wolff said in his interview that they were coordinating as closely as the law allowed, so as to gain maximum efficiencies once they become a single entity. He said: “If we have this deal closed by the end of the year, it would clearly make sense for us to have everything from back office preparation to branding and marketing on the same page.” Wolff will remain CEO of Clearwire after the deal closes, while Xohm chief Barry West will become president. Despite the new investors, the company is expected to seek to raise an additional $2bn-$2.3bn in funding fairly quickly, global markets allowing - the $3.2bn infusion will take it through to 2010. One huge problem for any wireless business model is the difficulty of making a profit from rural networks, built in areas of sparse population - especially when the carrier is working in 2.5GHz, a high frequency geared to small cells and urban build-out, not the long ranges required for rural networks to be cost effective. The problems of delivering data and broadband services to far-flung regions has created an opportunity over the years for mobile satellite providers, but they have their own profitability challenges, because of the high cost of their infrastructure, devices and services. Combining the relatively low costs of wireless networks and standardized handsets with the huge reach of satellite seems like an ideal solution, and one supported by the FCC when it awarded spectrum two years ago to several operators specifically to support hybrid services. One of these is ICO, which is controlled by Craig McCaw, the founder of Clearwire, so a partnership between these two entities - which are already trialling equipment - is certainly a possibility on the US WiMAX horizon. Also bringing WiMAX to this satellite/terrestrial landscape is Globalstar, which had been fighting for the right to support ATC (Advanced Terrestrial Component), the key technology underpinning hybrid services. This was previously only permitted in the special spectrum granted to the ATC operators ICO, MSV and Terrestar, but Globalstar can now support the system in its own frequencies. This, said the operator, will enable it to offer WiMAX to over 500 underserved rural communities in the US, working with its spectrum lessee Open Range Communications. Globalstar and Open Range, as well as having their license terms modified to allow the WiMAX build-out, will also gain a $267m loan from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Utilities Program (contingent on FCC conditions and government approval). “We are very pleased that the FCC has authorized Globalstar and our WiMAX partner to proceed with adding WiMAX service to our mobile satellite service in rural communities throughout America beginning next year,” said Jay Monroe, CEO of Globalstar. “Today’s FCC action is an important step in closing the digital divide in America. We expect our partner to initially deploy infrastructure in more than 500 rural communities with the ability to expand the relationship over the next six years to additional markets covering 50m people or about 15% of the US population.” Globalstar said it plans to pursue discussions with other possible wireless partners in the US and other countries.

So among telcos, the operator that can combine the two must-haves, the mobile phone and the broadband link, and reduce the user’s overall spend at the same time, will have the best chance of withstanding a market squeeze. This means wireless carriers can target a major wave of fixed line abandonment, but support the massive upsurge in fixed/mobile broadband usage over a wireless connection, an operator must have invested in the most advanced new networks, that can not just support the volumes of true broadband traffic, but also do this at affordable cost of delivery to the operator, and therefore competitive rates for the consumer. WiMAX could well be the first beneficiary, offering as it does a broadband network with low operating costs and low cost per Mbps to deliver services, but still sufficiently powerful to replace fixed lines.

This is certainly the view of Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel, which recently went live with its first Xohm WiMAX network in Baltimore, ahead of the merger with Clearwire that will see a national mobile broadband system roll out across the US. Hesse expects this service to cover 140m potential customers by 2010, recession notwithstanding. Hesse told a conference last week: “Now consumers are beginning to cut the cord. In the economic slowdown we are going to see this potentially accelerate. Today, the majority will say the luxury is wireline. Wireline carriers will be impacted more than wireless.” Such viewpoints clearly strike fear into the hearts of wireline-only operators, notably the cablecos, and they need to counter the converged wireless trend by offering affordable fixed/mobile bundles of their own, spreading the load across cable and wireless capacity and supporting the full quad play.

The main US cablecos have all decided that a resale or MVNO deal with a cellco - like the failed Pivot venture the big four had with Sprint - is not enough and they need to have a level of ownership and control of their wireless networks, despite the heavy capex investment needed, and bucking the general worldwide trend for operators to pool spectrum and RAN resources in new markets. So Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House will take stakes in the Clearwire WiMAX-based venture, and look to use this to add mobile broadband and media services from late 2009 under their own brands, increasing customer control through mechanisms like femtocells. But the fourth member of the former Pivot group, Cox Communications, is ploughing its own furrow and looks set to keep pace with Clearwire with a 3G build-out in its AWS spectrum, and plans for LTE in its 700MHz holdings. Cox opted out of the ‘new Clearwire’ and invested heavily in the recent 700MHz auction. It spent about $304m on 14 Block A and eight Block B licenses then, and also invested $248.3m, as part of the SpectrumCo cable consortium, on AWS licenses in an earlier auction. It has now outlined its plans, which involve building a CDMA2000 3G network starting next year, with a view to moving to LTE at the mobile broadband stage, likely around 2011. It will initially roll out CDMA EV-DO, reportedly with equipment from Huawei, in the AWS band, and will keep most of the 700MHz assets for rural coverage and for future LTE.

The CDMA/LTE combination, with the latter focused mainly on data and mobile content services, is becoming a popular strategy for north American operators - notably Verizon and Canada’s Bell and Telus - and this should create some economies in the LTE market, as well as driving early trials (though another LTE adopter, AT&T, does not believe the system will be deployed in volume until 2013). It also creates a north American 4G map that is clearly divided between LTE - Verizon/Alltel, AT&T, Cox, T-Mobile and Bell/Telus - and WiMAX (Sprint, the Clearwire cablecos, Rogers/Inukshuk). Before Cox’ CDMA infrastructure is in place, it will address the immediate demand for cable/wireless bundles more conventionally, via a resale deal with Sprint that kicks off in the first quarter of 2009. “Wireless service will be a key driver to Cox’s future growth,” said president Pat Esser in a statement. “We’ve already invested more than $500m to acquire wireless spectrum and to develop the infrastructure and human resources needed to architect our own advanced wireless service.”

KT, which - like most east Asian operators - takes a significant role in the development and design of the devices for its networks, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Apple to work together on mobile broadband enabled products. These would initially be for the current WiBro network, but since this will be upgraded to fully standard wave two Mobile WiMAX, as used by Xohm, as it expands, it should be a small step for Apple to create standards-based gadgets. WiBro would initially be embedded in lightweight MacBook laptops, reinforcing the notion that Apple is looking to push web optimized ‘netbooks’ through new operator channels, as its PC rivals are doing. KT and Apple would sell WiBro MacBooks bundled with broadband services through both companies’ outlets. While this would break the dominance of Windows PCs, PDAs and smartphones on the WiBro network, appealing to a new group of users - especially younger, media-oriented consumers - it also shows KT following the traditional cellco model of subsidizing devices in order to tie in customers and lure subscribers to high end data and broadband plans. By contrast, Xohm has been vocal in supporting the role of WiMAX in breaking that model and enabling operators, through the IP economics of the new standard, to support open access from any user device, and to move away from subsidies. Apple is also looking to put WiMAX into the iPod media player, as it has already done with Wi-Fi, and this could pave the way for a future iPhone. Meanwhile, the other hot phonemaker in the US is currently Taiwan’s HTC, thanks to being the first company to roll out and Android smartphone, the T-Mobile G1. This should prove a major revenue boost for the company, and its first serious move away from Windows devices, the mainstay of its well regarded Touch range of smartphones. Now HTC, insiders say, is planning a Windows Touch device for WiMAX, targeting Xohm and Russia’s Scartel, and aims to produce an Android/WiMAX product next year. From HTC’s point of view, these two moves would be in line with its strategy of stealing a march on larger players by supporting minority technologies at an early stage - it was the first cellphone manufacturer outside the pure ODM community to create Windows handsets, using them to establish a high end range under its own brand, rather than focusing entirely on white label devices, its original business model. But it is still ready to submerge its brand in order to gain early presence in a new and promising market, ahead of the competition, as it has done with G1. Given Xohm’s devotion to open access, a WiMAX Android phone would not only enable HTC to be a first mover again, but also to launch an Android product under its own name. Android products for Xohm are widely expected for mid-2009, given that Google and Sprint Nextel have collaborated closely on the software platform and user experience, and Google is a major supporter of the open access web services model on which Xohm is pinning its hopes. On the Windows front, the WiMAX Touch is reported in various leaks to be called the HTC T8290 and to come with a large 800×480, 3.8-inch touchscreen, a five megapixel camera, built- in GPS and accelerometer, and triple-mode support for WiMAX, Wi-Fi and GSM. If the GSM element is correct, this would clearly be a handset targeted to more operators than Xohm, whose wide area roaming would naturally be to Sprint’s CDMA network (and, with Sprint promising CDMA/WiMAX devices some time next year, surely HTC would create a CDMA version too?) Indeed, the first customer for the HTC product is slated to be Russia’s Scartel, which is rolling out WiMAX in Moscow and St Petersburg under the Yota brand.

The company has always preached the importance of building a broad ecosystem around WiMAX at an early stage, in order to differentiate it from other networks through a well differentiated choice of devices and applications. Now it is stretching the ecosystem concept so far as to rely on a third party - Alvarion - even for the RAN infrastructure itself, but still insists it can play a pivotal role as integrator and as the hub for an innovative line-up of partners.

The Nortel WiMAX ecosystem was expanded last week to include such diverse partners as IBM, core networking specialist WiChorus, Quanta Computer and Accton Wireless Broadband.

Between them, and with the addition of a group of device makers, Nortel says it will offer an end-to-end platform, and that this best of breed approach - with the key supplier not actually providing the hardware - represents a blueprint for next generation networks, that many will emulate. Logically, this would mean that infrastructure would become increasingly commoditized and the preserve of a few vendors, either with the scale to thrive in the hardware game, or with specialist expertise in an emerging air interface technology - and vendors would gain value and differentiation from providing software, services and integration. This is a trend that has already been clearly seen in the enterprise computing and networking fields, with even hardware majors like IBM now primarily focused on services.

Nortel has OEMd Airspan gear for fixed WiMAX for some years and earlier this year abandoned its own Mobile WiMAX development plans for a similar agreement with Alvarion for 802.16e. This was widely seen as a downgrading of WiMAX’ importance in the Nortel strategy, which had initially rested on stealing a march in 4G - having exited W-CDMA - by creating a unified OFDMA platform for WiMAX and LTE. LTE then moved to the center of the Nortel roadmap, though even this was put in doubt last month when CEO Mike Zafirovski announced his intention to sell off various units, possibly including wireless, and focus on areas where Nortel can still lead the market, like enterprise unified communications and carrier VoIP.

“For Nortel, our sweet spot is the integration of a complete solution,” said Scott Wickware, WiMAX general manager at Nortel.  “Backhaul, applications like VoIP, professional services, devices and enterprise offerings are all part of a WiMAX build and where Nortel excels.”

One of the most strategic areas of Nortel’s portfolio is unified communications, and particularly its alliances with IBM and Microsoft. Now it is extending its UC strategy to new networks, including WiMAX, and is working with IBM to deliver Lotus Notes capabilities over 802.16e. This will support a range of services including IP telephony, instant messaging, web conferencing, video chat and unified messaging, regardless of location and device. 

Other new partners include WiChorus, for its Home Agent, which provides operators with subscriber and content management. On the device front - where Nortel was an early mover in terms of attracting Taiwanese ODMs into the WiMAX fold to boost the economics - the vendor is working with Quanta and Accton in Taiwan to deliver Nortel-branded 802.16e devices including PCMCIA cards, USB adapters, indoor gateways, window mount antennas and outdoor gateways working in the 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz bands.

It remains unclear whether Nortel will stay in the wireless infrastructure market long term, or seek to expand its partnership with IBM and become a wireless integrator for enterprises and operators. So far, it insists it still plans its own LTE products, and Danny Locklear, VP of marketing for carrier networks, said LTE gear is already being trialled with Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile Germany. “We see a huge global opportunity with LTE,” he said. “WiMAX is a good opportunity as well, although not as large.” However, he said in an interview that there could be several ways forward with LTE, including a partnership similar to those with Alvarion and Airspan. There will be fewer choices in LTE of a hardware partner sufficiently small for Nortel to hold the upper hand - LTE is likely to be the preserve of the big five manufacturers from an early stage and they will have their own eyes on building an integration business. The Canadian company is likely to look to Asia for its alliances - it is hinting at a “go-to-market” deal with an Asian network firm, and its LG Nortel joint venture is already working on LTE devices. Whatever its decisions on making infrastructure, Nortel knows that, to hold a major position in LTE, it will have to offer a strong choice of devices, avoiding the mistake it made in WiMAX, where early adopters like Sprint were looking only at suppliers that could offer terminals as well as networks.

Despite the clear competitive advantages of the compact, modular and multi-network Flexi - which could be a breakthrough product for NSN in the usually problematic US, with T-Mobile USA choosing it for 3G - NSN’s commitment to WiMAX remained under question, especially as Nokia is such a fervent champion of, and likely beneficiary from, LTE. It would surprise very few people if the Texas change is the first step in a quiet exit from Mobile WiMAX for NSN, especially as its Finnish parent will still be able to pursue the primary agenda, gaining increased US market share for its handsets. Participation in Xohm was seen as a possible weapon in this fight, but in reality, as Verizon and AT&T move towards LTE, Nokia is likely to see those operators, and the direct channel, as the most important vehicles for pushing its devices across the Atlantic. In a research note when Nokia won the Dallas deal, analysts at Dresdner Kleinwort wrote: “Nokia, we infer, views the WiMAX experiment mainly as a vehicle to regain handset share. A recovery of the North American mobile device operations has long stood, and continues to stand, on the top of Nokia’s strategic agenda. Whether Sprint Nextel constitutes the right vehicle to effect a positive change is more debatable [given low volumes in the early years].” All NSN would officially say about the Xohm decision in Dallas was that it understood the reasons for the change, given that the city’s launch was ahead of schedule (though no date has been given). “Xohm’s Dallas market was ready for deployment ahead of schedule, so it made sense that they would use existing inventory to accelerate the deployment,” said Chantal Boeckman, NSN communications manager. She insisted that Flexi is performing well in Xohm trials and has embarked on the certification process. “We continue to be an active member of the WiMAX ecosystem,” she said. “We’re confident Nokia Siemens will be part of the new Clearwire deployments moving forward.” This week sees the official launch of Xohm in Baltimore, though some users gained early access to the service a week ago. There was real excitement surrounding a relatively small launch that could, nonetheless, be the starting point for an important roll-out, in terms of bringing true mobile broadband and open access to the US, and shaking up the traditional telecoms landscape, so dominated by AT&T and Verizon. There is even talk of Android devices making it on to Xohm as early as mid-2009, which would be logical, given Google’s work with Sprint on the user experience for the network, and its planned investment in the new Clearwire. A WiMAX Android device would, however, carry symbolic and marketing weight, emphasizing that Xohm aims to accelerate, and grab the reins of, the move towards a fully open mobile internet, where any terminal and application can run on the network, and a wholesale model can support small and innovative services. Nonetheless, Baltimore is a game changer with very modest beginnings. It is offering DSL-class fixed or mobile broadband services on a month-by-month, not contract basis, with speeds and prices that are comparable to many of the emerging HSPA or EV-DO offerings from other cellcos. It is available in Maryland’s largest city and the surrounding county, via, initially, just two devices, a $60 Samsung laptop aircard and an $80 ZyXel USB modem. More famous early WiMAX devices, the Nokia internet tablet and the Intel WiMAX/Wi-Fi Centrino for embedded laptop wireless, should follow soon once they are through WiMAX Forum, FCC and carrier certification. Other Xohm markets will follow later this year and early in 2009, led by Boston, Chicago, Dallas Fort-Worth, Providence, Philadelphia and Washington DC. Service plans for Xohm, which do not require a long term contract, include a $10 day pass, a $25 monthly home internet service and a $30 monthly mobile service, with rates of 2Mbps-4Mbps. More details of the devices and services plans will be announced at the official launch. Sprint has been an early cheerleader for the fundamentals of the mobile web vision - open access, flat rate tariffs, unfettered roaming, freedom to go beyond a carrier’s portal. But so have many other companies, large and small - the difference is that Sprint now has a network on which to demonstrate that this vision actually works in reality, and is actually usable and attractive to consumers and businesses.