• Open Range Selects Alvarion® for Largest RUS-funded, Rural Broadband 4G Mobile WiMAX Network Deployment Across 17 States Valued at $100 Million
• Will Nokia and Intel strategic relationship bring further certainty to the mobile Internet?
• Open Patent Alliance creates WiMAX pool, eyes LTE

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Open Range Communications announced last week that it has selected Alvarion to provide radio access equipment, customer devices (CPE) and systems integration services over the next five years for the largest Rural Utilities Service (RUS) funded broadband wireless deployment spanning 17 states, 546 rural communities, and reaching up to 6 million people. In addition to selecting Alvarion WiMAX Forum® Certified™ 802.16e BreezeMax WiMAX base stations, Open Range will rely on Alvarion’s global experience for the end-to-end integration of its 4G network solution for rural America. Alvarion is not well known for its network integration services in the US, and may need to rely on third party support for the Open Range contract which is expected to be worth more than US$100 million to Alvarion over a five-year implementation period.  

Alvarion offers OPEN WiMAX solutions for a wide range of frequency bands supporting a variety of business cases.  While many of its larger competitors are now refocusing their 4G efforts on LTE, Alvarion is the largest pure-play WiMAX vendor, with overall cumulative WiMAX shipments of more than $500 million and the most extensive WiMAX customer base with over 250 commercial deployments around the globe.  Alvarion was the first WiMAX equipment supplier to receive USDA acceptance as well as “Buy American” status from the USDA RUS for two of its BreezeMAX base stations in July 2008. Both RUS and "Buy American" designations are required for operators requesting federal funds from the Rural Broadband Access Loan program for the purpose of purchasing and deploying broadband systems. This is the second major contract funded by the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS). At CTIA Wireless, Alvarion announced a similar rural deployment in southern Georgia and northern Florida with Main Street Broadband, which has secured $34 million in RUS loan funding.  However, Open Range’s project may be ten-times larger and both projects could potentially grow if the operators secure additional broadband stimulus funding later this year.

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By Andrew Mitchell

Yesterday’s announcement of a strategic relationship between Nokia and Intel has the potential to be the “shot in the arm” that the mobile Internet has been waiting for.  Unto themselves the two companies have undeniably, but not without trials and tribulations, mastered their respective markets.  The underlying question however, is whether or not the relationship will prove beneficial to the broader mobile Internet ecosystem.

Nokia’s EVP of Devices, Kai Öistämö stated, “We will explore new ideas in designs, materials and displays that will go far beyond devices and services on the market today. This collaboration will be compelling not only for our companies, but also for our industries, our partners and, of course, for consumers.” The partners announced that they will be collaborating to produce as a new class of mobile computing device that will be based upon Intel’s chipset architectures.

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By Caroline Gabriel

The Open Patent Alliance (OPA), formed last year to create an IPR framework for 4G technologies, initially WiMAX, has delivered the details of its plan as promised. It used the occasion to highlight its headstart, in licensing terms, on LTE, making a veiled bid to set the pattern for that technology too.

The OPA has issued a call for patents and will create a patent pool, choosing Via Licensing to manage the process, which aims to establish a transparent system for the essential IPR in WiMAX, and to support the WiMAX Forum’s stated principles of reasonable and non-discriminatory patent fees. The WiMAX community has consistently upheld low licensing fees and an open process as a key differentiator from the cellular technologies, especially as it bids to create an ecosystem of low cost, standards-based devices on the PC industry model.

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