Fight for the 4G dominance

Although GSM & CDMA still rule the roost in most parts of the world & 3G n/w deployments have just begun to yield returns, the fight for the nextGen n/w has already begun. Its called the "4G War".

The 3 contenders are WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), LTE (Long Term Evolution) & UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband). In this article, I'm analyzing the potentials of each of technology from various perspectives.

From technology point of view, all use OFDMA air interface with IP for data (and voice as VOIP) transmission. But UMB is supposed to provide the best bandwidth, with upto 260 MBPS (Fwd Link).

From backward compatibility with existing n/w's perspective, LTE with a strong evolution from UMTS-HSPA & UMB evolving from 1x EVDO, prove to be favorites among the Service Providers (SP) cos due to lesser deployment costs.

But from a 1st entrant perspective, WiMax had a clear lead over the other 2. Its already been deployed in some developing countries such as India, Egypt & Indonesia. In a sense, these countries have taken a leap above 3G & have embraced 4G technologies, making 3G to restricted mainly to North America & Europe.
LTE is nearing initial development & could be installed for trail runs very soon. UMB has got a long catching up to do here.

Regarding getting SP providers patrons, Sprint has already announced that it'll deploy WiMax for its 4G costomers, while Verizon has pledged to spend a few billion dollars on LTE upgradation of its current UMTS n/ws. But after its Alltel acquisition, will there be enough money for this venture remains to be seen.
UMB seems to have lost here also. Until now none of the SP's have announced that it would install UMB.

So, with two large disadvantages but being the best technology, can UMB still make it? Can Qualcomm, its sole evangelist right now, find good customers to support its development work?
But right now, it seems that only LTE with a strong customer backing & a logical evolution path from UMTS, can provide some competition for WiMax.

Note added on 6/7/8:
Chinese CDMA giant, China Mobile has also announced that it favors LTE for its 4G evolution. Can this be a death blow to UMB?

hey..

Dear friend,
Another weekend draws to a close. So less time, so much to do..
Mind is full of ideas to write, but not getting time to think abt them put them here. Since I'm planning to go to Dharmastala next weekend, not sure if I'll get time next weekend also.
Anywayz, please be assured that I'm doing the best I can to maintain this relationship.. :)

Blackberry & DoT locking horns

It happens only in India!!
The executives of RIM must have realized this in a nasty way. Nowhere else in the world have any governments asked the Blackberry to reduce encryption levels so that the government can spy on what their citizens are mailing each other & to the outside world.

The DoT (Department of Telecom) officials seem to have realized bit late how their supercilious demand will impact the entire E-Commerce industry. For an economy that has risen to power on the back of information technology industry, such a move will for sure send wrong signals to the rest of the world. Hence they have started a backing off action such that the government's face is not lost.

We need to wait & watch what these babus are going to do. The Canadian High Commission backing RIM is not doing any good to them.

On the other hand, RIM, well aware of the fact that India is the world's fastest growing mobile market & already having half a million customers, is discussing with Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) the various possible solutions for the encryption issue & for setting up a Blackberry server within India.

I'll be tracking this story & post updates as & when they arrive.

some respite atlast..

So, after eventually getting the education loan sanction letter, I for the Canadian Visa on 06/06/08 ( 6th of June in either American or English style :) ). So now the waiting starts. Hope everything goes fine & I get my Visa before July 28th, 6 PM, the time for my flight.

After running from pillar to post during the past few weeks, I certainly deserved a break. So I headed off with Vinay & Raj to one our friend's brother's marriage in Tiptur. I had armed myself with the Canon S5 IS & wanted to try something myself after seeing so many mesmerizing pics in BWS.
Here's a link to some of the better 1's:
http://picasaweb.google.com/raghu.ramu/TipturTrip
The quantity is low coz of the high battery consumption of this cam. But thanks to the cam, I made an effort to explore this small town, somewhere in the middle of southern Karnataka & got to learn a few things about this place:
There were umpteen number of British style old buildings, many dating back to early 1900's. This showed that this town was well developed even during pre-Independence era & was of importance to the British Raj. The is in quite a contrast to other similar towns I had been to, such as Kolar, Chintamani, Chikkaballapur, etc. These towns must have gained importance and prosperity more recently due to proximity to the capital, Bangalore & even more recently due to the real estate boom.
So, this begs the question, what does Tiptur have that the other latter towns lack?
I guess I should be the coconut trade that happens here. Apparently, this place is supposed to be having one of the largest coconut godowns in India. That's the answer in a nutshell.. :)
Speaking of godowns, I have suddenly realized even I need to shelve myself off into my godown now till morning.
Good bye..