Two weeks ago I attended the WCA International Symposium and Business Expo in San Jose, California. Organizationally, this is the best WCA event I've ever attended. The service and support functions were absolutely seamless; check-in lines were very short and went very fast. The many WCA staffers were easily accessible for any issues. My only issue, voiced gently, was that the Press/Analyst room wasn't nearly large enough to accommodate the crush of Press and Analysts trying to meet up there for briefings.
For me, WCA was mostly a blur of meetings; I'm chagrined to admit that because I overbooked those meetings I attended very few sessions, including the keynotes. Note to self- next time map out the entire conference in 30 minute blocks, fill in the "should attend" sessions, and book meetings around those. That I had this many meetings reflects a profound change; when I attended this conference a year ago, I had perhaps a total of eight meetings scheduled.
I'm waxing nostalgic when I recall that when I first starting coming to this conference, for me it was really nice that it was mostly a technical conference - papers being presented and such. Generally there were very few PR staffers present. The booths were generally small and populated by the same technical people that did the technical presentations. I'm not griping about PR folks - all of them that I've dealt with in setting up this dizzying round of meetings have been unfailingly polite and competent... but "something" is lost when you have to work your way through the PR to get to talk to the tech guys. Not to mention that the analysts are out in force... I'm really dating myself when I recall that one year during the depths of the telecom downturn I was one of only a handful of people who attended that were Press OR Analysts. No more... Per my colleague Ken DiPietro, apparently the Broadband Wireless Techies have migrated to two IWPC events (1, 2) the week following WCA, which were not on my personal BWIA RADAR until Ken informed me of them.
The dominant theme of WCA was absolutely breathless coverage of every conceivable nuance of the WiMAX market - "past", "pre-", present, future, real, imaginary, expensive, cheap, content, devices, chipsets, mobile, portable, airborne (well, maybe not airborne... yet).
My primary "takeaway" from WCA is startling to me - Mobile WiMAX will start by mid-2006. I started to explain the background. but I simply can't take the time to commit all of that to text; I'm distilling hours of meetings with many vendors into that conclusion and a few supporting points:
- The Mobile WiMAX ecosystem seems to have its act very together; it is on a very aggressive timetable.
- There is an enormous, very impatient market for Mobile WiMAX. There is ample business now, in advance of Mobile WiMAX interoperability testing and certification.
- Mobile WiMAX interoperability testing and certification will likely proceed in parallel with, not after, Fixed WiMAX interoperability testing and certification.
- The first stage of Mobile WiMAX interoperability is essentially equivalent to the Korean WiBro system - which is in operation now. Mobile WiMAX CPE need only to show up in Korea to prove WiBro interoperability to prospective buyers.
- There does not appear to be any real movement to offer Mobile WiMAX in the US. The Mobile WiMAX industry is focused LASER-like on products for 3.5 GHz; 2.3 GHz (other than Korea for WiBro) and 2.5 GHz is a distant second and third consideration for Mobile WiMAX . Despite the rhetoric from NTIA, I found no interest whatsoever for Mobile WiMAX in the US 700 MHz band.
- The combination of technologies inherent in Mobile WiMAX - use of OFDMA (subchannelization), beamforming, and MIMO on both the base station and the client devices argues that Mobile WiMAX will likely be able to achieve the stated goal of delivering 5-20 Mbps (downstream) while mobile.
- The first WiMAX Certifications! (previously blogged)
- Earthlink and Motorola partnering for the Philadelphia Wi-Fi network (previously blogged)
- Trango Broadband Wireless announces a new price point for BWIA CPE - $149!!! (press release)
- Azonic Systems - new vendor of WiMAX Products targets Wireless ISPs as initial market (press release)
- Although it wasn't launched at WCA, I was given an extensive briefing by Marconi on their new AXR System, and I was impressed. (Press Release)
One tip - If you're going to meet someone at WCA and you settle comfortably into the lounge area of the Fairmont Hotel lobby and you're feeling a little thirsty, you might want to go find the gift shop and pay their relatively reasonable price for a bottled soft drink. If you order up a soft drink in the lobby, those six ounces or so of soft drink will set you back almost $4.00! I know the real estate is expensive in Silicon Valley, but sheesh!
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2006 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)
Categories:
- Broadband Wireless Internet Access / Broadband Wireless Access / Wireless Broadband / Wireless Access / Fixed Wireless
- WiMAX / 802.16a / 802.16-2004 / Mobile WiMAX / 802.16e / 802.20
- Events / Conferences
- New Products
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