GROUP INVESTS $3.5M IN ACCESS AT HOME RESIDENTIAL NETWORK

HIGH SPEED RELIABLE PRIVATE CONNECTIONS
Coastweek - - AccessKenya Group, Kenya's first ICT company to publicly list and the leading corporate ISP today announced that it has invested $3.5 million to build out the largest WiMax network in Kenya with an initial deployment of 35 base stations.

This network will form the backbone of its Access@Home guaranteed high speed broadband residential service.

At the same time, AccessKenya has offered its existing corporate customers a special offer of completely free equipment and a 20 per cent discount on the price of the service.

An AccessKenya Group spokesperson explained:

"We have tested numerous different vendors including a number of WiMax equipment vendors over the last six months and selected Alvarion's WiMax solution as our preferred supplier and technology. "

Alvarion is the world's leading provider of WiMAX with an impressive track record in Africa that includes leading telcos such as Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA and MTN Uganda.

"We are initially deploying a total of 35 base stations in Nairobi and Mombasa, making our WiMax network the largest in Nairobi and Mombasa.

"The benefit of such a large network is that we will be able to provide guaranteed high speed services to almost all potential customers in the main residential areas of both Nairobi and Mombasa."

Group Managing Director Jonathan Somen commented:

"We are very excited about this new step in our Group's expansion strategy as this decision is the culmination of over one year of work to find the right solution for residential users.

"We really believe the new service will offer a quality of internet connection in the home that has simply not been available in Kenya until now." Added Somen.

"Following on from our special offer to our 30,000 shareholders, we are delighted to be able to offer the employees of all our corporate customers a ground breaking offer to use Access @ Home - completely free equipment and a 20 per cent discount on the retail price of the solution - a rate of 6,000 shillings per month.

"We now have approximately 2,200 corporate leased line customers and it is only right that these customers and their employees should benefit from the most generous of offers in recognition of their support of, and loyalty to, AccessKenya over the years.

"We will also be offering our customers the opportunity to have high speed reliable Virtual Private Network connections to access their offices from home." continued Somen.

Global Telecommunications Industry Executive Appointed to Tranzeo Board

Pitt Meadows, Canada, May 03, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc. (TSX:TZT), a leading producer of high-performance wireless broadband and WiMAX communication systems, announces the appointment of Martin Harriman to the board of directors.

Mr. Harriman is the founding director of a London-based company dedicated to using leading-edge, emerging communication technologies to deliver wireless broadband internet service around the globe. Initial networks have already been launched in Russia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Previously, Mr. Harriman was the senior vice president of sales, marketing, strategy and business development at Ericsson, based in Stockholm, Sweden. During the period Mr. Harriman held this position, Ericsson developed more than $3.5 billion in new business, led the formation of the company’s new multimedia business and drove $5 billion in acquisitions, including Tandberg Television, Redback Networks, and LHS Group. Mr. Harriman also served on the board of directors for Sony Ericsson, the joint venture of Sony and Ericsson.

“We are pleased to welcome Martin to the Tranzeo Board of Directors. His extensive experience with Marconi leading the Asia Pacific and Middle East divisions and his experience marketing to carriers will be tremendous assets,” commented Tranzeo President and CEO Jim Tocher.

As the president of Asia Pacific and Marconi Middle East, he was responsible for the complete restructuring of the company which led to the sale of the business to Ericsson. Previously Mr. Harriman was the chief marketing officer for Marconi Corporation where he led global marketing efforts.

Mr. Harriman has degrees in psychology, history and business administration. He is a trustee of the Outward Bound Charity.

Also announced today is the resignation of Mr. Doug Howes from the board of directors.

Mr. Howes was originally appointed to the board in June 2007 to fill the vacancy created by a deceased board member until an independent board member could be found. Mr. Harriman now replaces Mr. Howes on the board. Mr. Howes will continue with the company in his role as chief financial officer.

About Tranzeo
Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc. (TSX:TZT) leads the wireless broadband industry as a premier manufacturer of high-performance wireless network equipment that allows communities and businesses to communicate without boundaries. Tranzeo’s optimum cost effectiveness, premium quality and responsive support have attracted a growing and devoted worldwide following of more than 2,465 dealers and 20 distributors. Tranzeo’s full spectrum of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint radios, WiMAX equipment, and mesh network solutions are designed for wireless internet service providers, governments, campuses, military, carriers, enterprise customers, and systems integrators around the globe. Headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, Tranzeo also has offices in San Diego, California and Shannon, Ireland. Visit www.tranzeo.com or phone 1.866.872.6936 for more information.

4G chipset to provide multiple broadband options

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The Odyssey 8500 chipset will be adapted to support the XG-PHS standard and Willcom's advanced requirements for the Japanese marketplace.

Willcom and Wavesat are to collaborate on XG-PHS technology with the goal to accelerate the development, adoption and deployment of XG-PHS based broadband wireless solutions in Japan The collaboration between the two companies will leverage Wavesat's revolutionary multimode Odyssey 8500 4G chipset, providing access to multiple broadband wireless technologies including XG-PHS, WiMAX Wave2, Wi-Fi and seamless migration to LTE

The joint development effort will enable Willcom to deploy the ground breaking XG-PHS network on schedule, offering high performance including 256 QAM operations.

XG-PHS is an OFDMA standard providing advanced network services and enhanced data speeds.
Further reading

Mini-PCI card hosts WiMAX CPE development
Mini-PCI board provides advanced WiMAX features such as support for UL subchannelisation which significantly improves performance for indoor modems.

Chipset enables nomadic WiMAX Express Card
Card also offers backward compatibility with IEEE802.16-2004 fixed WiMAX systems, enabling these devices to be seamlessly introduced into existing networks.

It will be initially deployed in Japan by Willcom.

"We decided to work with Wavesat to develop XG-PHS chipset and solutions because of their unique multimode architecture", said Yoshioki Chika, Executive Vice President, Willcom.

"This strategic partnership highlights Willcom's commitment to providing the most innovative and world-class broadband wireless technology, and we look forward to a long term relationship with Wavesat".

"We are honoured to collaborate with Willcom towards accelerating XG-PHS deployment in Japan", added Raj Singh, Wavesat's President and CEO.

"We are excited to bring to market solutions that offer multimode capabilities which can easily be adapted to support today's Broadband Wireless technologies, and offer a seamless migration path to future 4G standards".

"Wavesat's ability to support multiple OFDMA protocols is very promising".

"The XG-PHS standard being implemented by Willcom is an innovative example in one of the most sophisticated telecommunications marketplaces in the world", said Adlane Fellah, CEO and founder of Maravedis, a leading wireless broadband analyst firm.

"This design win further validates Wavesat's multimode strategy and should contribute to position them for leadership in the 4G semiconductor market".

The Odyssey 8500 chipset from Wavesat is powered by a unique 4G multicore architecture incorporating multiple ultra low power DSPs, offering flexibility, high performance and low power consumption, without any tradeoff.

The SoC manufactured using advanced embedded DRAM technology requires no external memory, thus saving customers valuable real estate, cost and power consumption for very small-form-factor portable and mobile applications such as wireless USB dongle, mobile handsets and other consumer electronic devices.

Asia-Pacific to Lead the Global WiMAX Market by 2010, Says RNCOS

With completion of its standardization, global WiMAX market is observing rapid growth in its subscriber base, with Asia-Pacific expected to emerge as the largest subscriber base by 2010, says RNCOS.

Delhi, India, May 24, 2008 --(PR.com)-- A new market research report, “Global WiMAX Market Analysis,” by the leading market research firm RNCOS, says due to the completion of WiMAX standardization, a rapid growth is being witnessed in the WiMAX market globally over the past year. With this, the number of WiMAX subscribers worldwide is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 102.75% from 2007 to 2010.

According to the report, North America is likely to have more subscribers in comparison to other regions in the early phase of the forecasted period, while Asia-Pacific is expected to outnumber the WiMAX subscribers of North America by the end of the period.

The RNCOS research cites the combination of WiMAX cellular services and WiMAX fixed services as important factor for the expansion of WiMAX subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region. WiMAX mobile services will extend their reach from South Korea to other developed economies like Japan and Australia, while fixed services will continue to see deployment in key developing countries like China and India.

Moreover, the RNCOS report identifies the unavailability of wired infrastructure for accessing Internet as a major growth driver for WiMAX in the Asia-Pacific region. Also, government support and initiatives undertaken by the service providers to provide Internet services in remote areas are playing significant role in the growth of WiMAX penetration in this region.

Thus, by 2012, Asia-Pacific is expected to have about 49% of the total subscriber base, making it the world’s largest WiMAX subscriber base, says the report.

Apart from subscribers in Asia-Pacific, the report also provides forecast on global subscriber base, WiMAX equipment & service revenue, WiMAX infrastructure spending, mobile broadband subscribers by technology, etc.

“Global WiMAX Market Analysis” is a detailed overview of WiMAX technology, like IEEE 802.16 Standard, spectrum issues, spectral efficiency, current market scenario, and future development. The report gives regional account of the WiMAX market, covering major markets like North America, Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Western Europe, among other. It examines worldwide deployment of WiMAX and also emphasizes on operators and initiatives taken by them for WiMAX development.

About RNCOS:

RNCOS, incorporated in the year 2002, is an industry research firm. It has a team of industry experts who analyze data collected from credible sources. They provide industry insights and analysis that helps corporations to take timely and accurate business decision in today's globally competitive environment.

Wimax equipment - Elecoteq and WiMax

Elecoteq and WiMax
By Carsten Barth
May 23, 2008

WiMAX is one of the fastest-growing wireless broadband technologies. According to the data released by research firm Maravedis, the global Broadband Wireless Access/WiMAX subscriber base has reached nearly 1.8 million during Q4/2007.

The findings reported that, WiMAX service revenues have reached USD 1 billion in 2007. WiMAX investments by
operators are expected to rise, especially in developing markets. Cisco Systems also ventured into the WiMAX market towards the end of 2007 by acquiring Navini Networks. As in previous years, a major factor driving growth in the market for wireline networks was demand for broad band services.

In the market for communications network equipment in general, Cisco Systems and others held on to their market leadership in their segments. Huawei also saw very strong growth. Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks had to focus on the integration of merged or acquired businesses in the early part of the year.

According to the timetable provided by WiMAX Forum, Mobile WiMAX profiles should continue to be enhanced in the next three years as the technology addresses alternative frequency bands and channel bandwidths, and has the flexibility to comply with various local requirements. Morgan Stanley anticipated that the potential applications for WiMAX will be the fixed-broadband extension to suburban and rural areas. It's an application most likely to be undertaken by governments and public bodies to expand highspeed internet access.

Elcoteq's Communications Networks products cover wireless and wireline infrastructure products and equipment for enterprise networks. For wireless infrastructure, the range includes cellular base stations, microwave systems, plug-in units for mobile base stations and antennas, and for wireline infrastructure ADSL multiplexers and other broadband network products. Typical enterprise network products are switches for data networks. As the communications networks market grows, Elcoteq strengthened its position in 2007 as a supplier to the WiMAX wireless broadband market and started business with WiMAX -based product suppliers such as Redline and Telsima.

The WiMAX product mix manufactured by Elcoteq ranges from CPEs (customer premises equipment) to RRHs (remote radio heads) and complete WiMAX base stations. As there is global demand for WiMAX equipment, Elcoteq is building up its WiMAX manufacturing competences in India, Europe and the Americas.

India has increased its importance as a new market for the Communications Networks business area. Most of the long-term customers as well as new customers require manufacturing and localization in India. Elcoteq has thus, for example, ramped up volume manufacturing of plug-in units and box-build solutions for mobile base stations and broadened supply chain management in India.

In Romania, Elcoteq continued with the development of its competencies to establish a solid base for future businesses. In the future, Romania will be a very attractive and cost competitive manufacturing location for communications networks clients, and there Elcoteq can offer a wide range of services we now offer from all other European locations.

Getting ready to support the customers in the growing market, Elcoteq has expanded its service offering to system integration, box build, logistics and supply chain management, and increased the geographical coverage. The company is moving increasingly from producing individual modules and plug-in units to providing entire network elements such as complete base stations, transmission systems, remote radio heads, switches and customer premises equipment. Alongside manufacturing, Elcoteq is also closely involved in product development, new product introduction, sourcing of components and mechanical parts, and supply chain management. Elcoteq thus offers its customers a wide range of services tailored to their needs throughout the product's lifecycle. Elcoteq continues targeting to forge even closer coopera¬tion with its customers and key suppliers, especially in providing turnkey manufacturing, system integration and logistics services. This will enable customers to focus even more on their core areas such as marketing, end-customers, services and new technologies while trusting Elcoteq to manage the daily deliveries of their products.

A higher share of Communications Networks' operations in Elcoteq's net sales of 2007 was accounted for by system integration services and final configuration. This trend is expected to continue. It clearly shows that customers are simplifying their supply chain and require a higher level of integration from their manufacturing partners.

WiMAX Market Status

Though in an embryonic stage at present, the mobile technology WiMAX is gradually picking up steam and is poised to become part of your personal gadgets like digital cameras, personal media players, and eventually mobile phones.

One indication for the WiMAX growth is the development in the WiMAX semiconductor market and the arrival of some new mobile platforms. According to tech market research firm IDC, WiMAX is entering its seminal year with more than 200 infrastructure deployments underway and a WiMAX-capable mobile PC platform expected from Intel in the second quarter.

With these developments in place and additional devices on the horizon, IDC expects worldwide WiMAX semiconductor revenue to reach nearly $480 million this year, growing to $1.2 billion in 2012.

The market is expected to gain further momentum with the release of Montevina platform, which is Intel’s first Centrino processor technology for notebooks to offer the option of integrated Wi-Fi and WiMAX wireless technologies for greater wireless broadband access.

Single-Chip, 2.3 To 2.7 GHz, WiMAX MIMO RF Transceiver Launched

Sunnyvale, CA - Maxim Integrated Products introduced the MAX2839, the company's first single-chip, 2.3 to 2.7 GHz, WiMAX MIMO RF transceiver in high-volume production. This device uses a dual-receiver architecture to mitigate RF channel fading, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by as much as 10 dB compared to a single-receiver architecture. This improved performance maximizes the data throughput and radio-link range of nomadic and mobile WiMAX subscriber applications in notebook computers, express/PC cards, smartphones, and in-home desktop CPE modems. Currently shipping in volume to customers worldwide, the MAX2839 is ideal for mobile WiMAX, Korean WiBro, and other OFDM-based wireless broadband systems.

Designed using Maxim's in-house, high-performance SiGe BiCMOS process, the MAX2839 provides the industry's best receiver noise performance. Both of the two receivers feature the industry's lowest noise figure at 2.3dB, -81dBm sensitivity for a 64-QAM signal at 5MHz channel bandwidth, and a 95dB gain control range that is digitally controlled in 1dB steps. Factory calibrated to achieve better than -35dB EVM, -45dBc of sideband suppression, and carrier leakage of -40dBc without DC-offset correction, the receivers significantly simplify integration with the digital MAC/baseband IC.

On the transmitter, the MAX2839 features a 62dB gain control range, digitally controlled in 1dB steps. It delivers a 0dBm linear output with a 64-QAM signal, greater than -45dBc of sideband suppression, and more than -36dB EVM, while meeting a -70dBr spectral mask.

The MAX2839 operates from a 2.7V to 3.6V supply. A low-power shutdown mode reduces current consumption to 10 microamps to save power in system-sleep/standby mode. This transceiver is available in a small, 8mm x 8mm, leadless, 56-pin TQFN package. An evaluation kit is available to speed designs. Contact the factory for the radio reference design or the complete RF and MAC/baseband reference design.

SOURCE: Maxim Integrated Products

Buy Nokia N810 WiMax Edition at $432

The cost of the Nokia N810 WiMax Edition is $432.

Nokia first demonstrated the wide-area wireless broadband service-enabled version of the N810 at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas earlier this month. The mobile phone giant said the device would ship in the U.S. this summer, with distribution first focused on areas where WiMax is available.

The N810 with WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is compatible with Sprint's XOHM WiMAX service.

WiMax is considered a 4G technology for mobile operators. It is much faster than today's wireless networks and offers a range of support that's much broader than Wi-Fi. A WiMax network is made of base stations, each with a radius of two to three miles, that interconnect to provide service over a large area.

Other than the addition of WiMax, the upcoming version of the N810 will be very similar to the current version of the Internet tablet.

It runs on Linux and includes integrated Bluetooth with support for A2DP, which means you can use wireless stereo headphones to enjoy the N810's multimedia features.

There's also full hardware-based QWERTY thumb-keyboard that slides out from underneath the display and a global positioning system (GPS) chip to support location-based services.

The current N810 model weighs 7.9 ounces and measures 5.0 x 2.83 x 0.55 inches.

Additional features include a VGA webcam, an ambient light sensor, stereo speakers, a microphone, integrated desk stand, a hardware lock key, 3.5mm headphone jack, and the same size 4.13-inch and WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resolution touch display.

The N810 runs on a 400MHz processor, 128MB or RAM, and 256MB ROM. Although it includes 2GB of internal memory, you can greatly increase its storage capacity through both miniSD and microSD cards.

Tata is rolling out Telsima WiMAX gear in 110 cities

Tata is rolling out Telsima WiMAX gear in 110 cities, including some of the world’s largest metropolitan markets: Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi and Chennai. Unlike BSNL’s rollout of Soma gear in January, the WiMAX rollout will focus on enterprise services rather than residential, but in the 15 largest markets, Tata will also offer residential broadband services. The deployment also differs in spectrum used. While Soma is using the global 2.5 GHz band used by Sprint and Clearwire, Tata’s deployment is in 3.3 GHz, close to the 3.5 GHz bands identified for WiMAX in Europe, but in 12-MHz channels.

Tatas to invest $500 mn for WiMax equipment

5 Mar, 2008
NEW DELHI: Tata Communications on Tuesday said that the company will investment $500 million dollars for its wireless broadband venture or WiMax services over the next three years. The company has also said that it has given the contract to Telsima of Sunnyvale, California for supply of WiMax equipment.

“The company will invest 500 million dollars by 2010 in Wimax technology and is in talks with investors to sell minority stake in retail business,” Tata Communications retail business unit president Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

Tata Communications’s plan is to connect 200,000 retail customers using WiMax by March 2009 and also rollout wireless high-speed internet services in 110 cities for its enterprise customers and 15 cities for retail customers this year, the company said.
Tata Communications was the first company to launch broadband services on the WiMax platform on a large scale for retail consumers in India. In the initial phase, the company’s WiMax network will offer broadband internet access and content services to enterprises and residential customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Kolkata.

In fact, as per data provided by the company, Tata Communications currently serves over 5,000 enterprise and retail customers across ten cities where it offers this service.

While India’s telecom (read mobile) is booming, its braodband sector is witnessing rather slow growth and is way behind the targets set by the Department of Telecom. India has just under 3.5 million braodband users as of January end according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

While WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is still an evolving technology, it is still considered a threat to third generation mobile services. As per global industry experience, WiMax offers data speeds that are 10-30 times faster than 3G. To put this in perspective, the data speeds of 3G networks are over five times faster than those offered by 2G cellular networks that telcos in India currently use.

WiMAX equipment market up 46% in 2007, forecast to hit $7.7B in 2011

The WiMAX market sequentially grew 11% for the quarter and 46% for the year, with worldwide sales of fixed and mobile WiMAX equipment hitting just under $800 million in 2007, says Infonetics Research in its latest "WiMAX and Mesh Network Equipment and Devices" report.

WiMAX has been deployed in more than 80 countries worldwide and commercial networks will continue to grow in number and size in 2008, the report shows. Infonetics forecasts the WiMAX market to grow to $7.7 billion in 2011.

"Several recent developments are giving a boost to the WiMAX market," said Richard Webb, wireless analyst for Infonetics Research. "Among the most significant developments: Cisco's acquisition of mobile WiMAX vendor Navini Networks, the market entrance of specialist ASN gateway vendor WiChorus, the launch of WiMAX phones and Ultra Mobile PCs, and the new Open WiMAX initiative, which promotes disruptive, all-IP open WiMAX architecture, and should lead to best-of-breed solutions with inter-vendor interoperability."

Other highlights from the report:

-- Mobile WiMAX equipment grew in high double-digit percents every
quarter of 2007
-- Worldwide sales of ASN gateways, which aggregate traffic from mobile
WiMAX base stations, grew nearly 10-fold from 2006 to 2007
-- The number of worldwide WiMAX subscribers (fixed and mobile) topped
2.2 million in 2007, led by the Asia Pacific region; the majority are fixed
WiMAX subscribers
-- Alvarion maintains its lead in worldwide fixed WiMAX equipment revenue
share in 2007, followed by Airspan
-- Motorola is the leader in worldwide mobile WiMAX equipment revenue
share in 2007, followed by Samsung