WiMAX equipment

Sunday, May 25, 2008

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

Request your FREE weekly copy of the Electronicstalk email newsletter. News about Communications ICs (Wireless) and more every issue. Click here for details.
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.