RCOM to launch WiMax in Pune, Bangalore in June

Courtesy: Economictimes

Reliance Communications (RCOM) will soon launch its wireless broadband technology commonly known as WiMax in Pune and Bangalore in June. After assessing the market response, the company will extend the WiMax service to other cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Delhi.

The move that targets the three million wireless internet users in the country, is expected to give first-mover advantage to the company. Bharti Airtel, VSNL and BSNL have also tested the new technology and planning to roll out in the near future, said sources familiar with the situation. In India, WiMax has been launched by Aircel Cellular in Chennai for business customers. “Unlike wireless fidelity (wi-fi), where radio waves can cover up to 30 meters, WiMax services are accessible for over 10 miles in theory. WiMax is offering better mobility to the users without being connected by a wire to a service operator. Indian wireless market, which is growing rapidly by 40%, is expected to react positively to the new technology,” said an industry expert.

“RCOM can launch the unlicensed version of WiMax service anytime as it has completed all the tests. The initial launch will be in Pune and Bangalore and later move to other cities. BSNL is also looking to launch its WiMax service in Pune,” said a sources close to the development. But RCOM spokesperson refused to comment on the development.

Motorola bets on mobile WiMAX

Mobile communications firm Motorola has high hopes for the mobile version of WiMAX broadband, the company’s technology head said in a newspaper interview.Motorola Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior expects WiMAX mobile wireless broadband, which should be available within a year or two, to be a similar success to the established GSM technology, she told Finnish business daily Kauppalehti.”Downloading a song into a handset would take three seconds using WiMAX. The user experience is completely different to current technologies,” she said.”Markets for WiMAX will open earlier than for Super-3G or 3G LTE, the extension for 3G technology,” she added. But the success of WiMAX requires strong backing from mobile and semiconductor industry players, which Motorola is pursuing, she said, adding that Motorola’s Finnish based rival Nokia is “firmly with WiMAX”.

Warrior said she believes WCDMA, the third generation (3G) extension of GSM, faces problems in terms of speed and cost. The Motorola executive also said the company would soon launch a GSM version of its Moto Q enterprise handset, which currently only supports the CDMA standard, she was quoted as telling Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat. The paper said Warrior saw mobile phone power consumption as the hottest question for the industry at the moment. Results for developing new fuel cells to ensure better battery life have been poor, she said, adding: “It will be just as important to develop components, software and applications that consume less power.”

Samsung to Demonstrate 4G Mobile Technology

   

    Samsung Electronics announced its plan to demonstrate 4th Generation (4G) mobile technology at the annual Samsung 4G Forum in Jeju Island, Korea for the first time in the world. Demonstration will take place at the specially designed bus in mobile circumstances reaching 100 Mbps data transmission as well as at the display area inside forum venue to show speeds of 1Gbps of data transmission.

The bus demonstration will give participants a first-hand experience of this latest technology. A demonstration bus will be moving at speeds of 60 km/h to show multi-cell Handover* with data speed of 100Mbps. A live broadcast of the Forum, VOD, and internet access will be shown simultaneously in a demonstration bus allowing delegates to experience the stability and speed of 4G connectivity of 100Mbps data speed.

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