Wireless Broadband

Vern Fotheringham is the Managing Director of IP Broadband Ltd and is an internationally recognized leader and entrepreneur in wireless broadband communications. He is widely credited with launching several landmark broadband ventures worldwide.Chetan Sharma is President of Chetan Sharma Consulting and a leading strategist in the wireless industry. He has served as an advisor to senior executive management of several Fortune 100 companies in the wireless space and has authored five books.

"[The authors] provide an interesting historical perspective of the telecoms industry looking at how it has developed since the break-up of the Bell monopoly in 1956 … .An extremely informative, insightful and thought-provoking volume." (Engineering and Technology, February 2009)

• Foreword xiiiAcknowledgments xviiList of Figures xxiINTRODUCTION 11 WHERE WE ARE—WIRELESS MEETS THE BROADBAND INTERNET 5Where We Are 5How We Got Here: Reintegration of the Telecom Oligopoly and Cracks in the Walled Gardens 6Flexibility Comes to Wireless Spectrum 22The Wireless Technology Diaspora 23Cellular Carriers: Stuck on Stickiness 26Managed Network Services: The Outsourced Network 30Enhanced Broadband Voice 31Fixed Mobile Convergence 33Boundary Blurring 34References 352 BROADBAND AND THE INFORMATION SOCIETY 37Impact of Telecommunications on the Economy 39Wireless Versus Wired Network Economics 40Broadband Matters 42So What of Broadband Wireless in All This? 42How Does the United States Rank Against the Rest of the World? 44Expansion of the DOI 47References 493 GLOBAL WIRELESS MARKET ANALYSIS 51Macro Trends 52The Era of ‘‘Mass Specialization’’ 61Review of Major Markets 68The Developing World is Catching Up Rapidly 75References 764 THE VIRTUAL DISPLACES THE PHYSICAL 77From Circuits to Packets 78‘‘Lies, Damn Lies and Statistical Access Networks’’ 79Moore’s Law Finally Reaches Telecom 80The ‘‘New Broadband’’ Eclipses ‘‘Neo Broadband’’ 82Regulatory and Public Policy Collide with Technology Shifts 83References 875 CONVERGENCE FINALLY ARRIVES 89The Quad Play: Voice, Data, Video, and Mobility 89The Quad-Play Advantage 90Fixed Mobile Convergence and Unlicensed Mobile Access 93Broadband Market Overview 1006 DRIVERS OF BROADBAND CONSUMPTION 105Trends in Mobile and Converged Content Markets 105User Interface 105Handset Display Graphics 107Mobile Video Content 109Music 109Audio 110GPS/Location-Based Services 110Messaging and Hosting 113Internet 2/Web 2.0 Social Networking 115User Device Form Factors 116Processing Power 117Data Management 117Camera/Video Management 117Mobile Advertising 118Voice 119Video 122Video Compression Technologies 123Fixed Digital Video Services 127Traditional Data Services 131SCADA (Supervision, Control, and Data Acquisition) 131Gaming 132Sensor Networks 1327 THE EMERGING INFLUENCE OF THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY 135Wireless Local Area Networks Grow Up and Out:Municipal WiFi 135Organic WiFi Networks 138Public Safety WiFi Derivative 140License-Exempt Spectrum 140The Coordinated ‘‘Shared Commons’’ 141The WiFi Alliance 142WiMAX Forum 1438 ALWAYS BEST CONNECTED 145Product Definition for Broadband Wireless Systems 145Technology Drivers 146Evolving Wireless Broadband Market Segments 150Open Systems and Intelligence at the Edge 152Radio Network System Engineering 153References 1549 BROADBAND IP CORE NETWORKS 155User Authentication and Log-In 155Provisioning 156Fixed- and Mobile-Converged Services Over a Unified Packet Network 157Fixed Broadband Wireless Networks 15910 WIDEBAND 3G TO BROADBAND 4G—COLLISION AND CONVERGENCE OF STANDARDS 167Collision of 3G and WiMAX Standards 1683GPP and Long-Term Evolution 169WiMAX and Mobile WiMAX 17511 RADIO TECHNOLOGY—MOVING THE GOAL POSTS 191Enabling Technologies 191Generic Radio Devices 19512 CONTENTION AND CONFLICT—REGULATORY, POLITICAL, FINANCIAL, AND STANDARDS BATTLES 199Regulatory Drivers 200Radio Spectrum Allocations 202Radio Spectrum Auctions: A Failed Policy? 203Financial Realities 205The Standards Wars: Proprietary Versus Open Standards 207The Many Faces of the Standards Process 20813 CONCLUSION 213Economic Growth 214Public Policy 215A WIRELESS BROADBAND GLOSSARY 217B A SCENARIO OF A BROADBAND WIRELESS CUSTOMER, CIRCA 2012 2312012 Scenario 231C SPECTRUM TABLES—WIRELESS BROADBAND 235Mobile Network Spectrum Allocations 235Index 237About the Authors 251