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What issues does the emergence of a mobile WiMAX network service from Sprint Nextel, slated for commercial operation in 2008, unmask for mobile business customers?
As noted in last week’s coverage, some highly mobile vertical enterprises worry about continued backward compatibility between their existing handsets and the low-speed cellular data services they currently use. For example, by pouring investments into a mobile WiMAX infrastructure and continuing to invest in its EV-DO 3G cellular network, might Sprint phase out support for its older 1XRTT data network services - which represent the connections now in user handsets?
Other enterprises have expressed hope that mobile WiMAX might be a unifying technology that enables them to nationally use a single handset with one 802.16e-2005 radio that works across different providers’ networks. Today, many large field service, shipping and transportation companies do zip-code matches of GSM vs. CDMA coverage. Drivers, technicians, and so forth get signed up with the carrier with the best coverage in their region and receive a handset with the associated network connection type.
The downside: they get neither the aggregate coverage of multiple mobile networks nor the volume discount they would otherwise enjoy by lumping all the subscriptions under one contract.
Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research, advises not to hold out much hope that mobile WiMAX will be the magic bullet for crossing provider boundaries and getting aggregate coverage. “That Sprint and Verizon CDMA networks don't interoperate today isn’t about technology. It’s because they have no roaming agreements,” he points out.
Since the merger of Sprint and Nextel, the combined company says it owns 2.5GHz spectrum that covers more than 85% of the top U.S. markets. For these highly mobile vertical applications, this coverage may not be enough. Speculation is that Sprint Nextel might sign a roaming agreement with Clearwire, which offers WiMAX-based wireless broadband Internet services in 27 metropolitan markets covering 200 cities. Clearwire secured $900 million in financing last month.
One technology approach to achieving cross-carrier coverage, says Golvin, lies in the progress of software defined radios, or SDRs. Such radios are smart enough to dynamically choose the “best network available,” based on strongest signal, cheapest route or other variable - whether it’s a GSM, CDMA, or mobile WiMAX-based network.
Such services aren’t available now primarily because of a lack of business relationships between carriers, who have little incentive to enable subscribers to roam off their networks for a “better” connection.
“Making this happen would require an independent operator; perhaps an MNVO [mobile virtual network operator] that would commission handsets to be built to do this intelligent selection,” Golvin says.
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