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the role of voip for wimax

IN-STAT FORECASTS THAT BY 2009 ONLY 3 percent of total broadband subscribers, or 8.5 million subscribers worldwide, will be using WiMAX. More than half of those also will subscribe to voice-over-WiMAX services, the firm predicts, since support for VoIP with quality of service is built into the standard.

In the most likely deployment scenario, voice over WiMAX represents a way to reach the underserved. “There are interesting opportunities now in the local loop in developing countries where there’s not a lot of built-out infrastructure, period — wireless or wireline,” says Sanjay Jhawar, senior vice president of marketing and business development for BridgePort Networks Inc., which has demonstrated live roaming between GSM and fixed wireless networks as part of a joint project between several companies, including IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and VeriSign Inc. “There, VoIP over WiMAX is cheaper than doing cellular outside of the urban areas.”

VoIP is a key for WiMAX success in other areas, too. “In order for service providers to get everything they can from WiMAX, the best strategy is to bundle it with a bring-your-own-access VoIP offer,” says In-Stat senior analyst Eric Mantion. “There are 1,500 to 1,800 WISPs out there, guys that have been using proprietary [broadband wireless access equipment] to carve out their niche with businesses and people in isolated circumstances. The vast majority believe WiMAX will help them become more profitable as the cost of equipment goes down.”

The problem, says Mantion, is in pricing. “They’ll keep the same prices, but inherently this limits success because without a drop in pricing, penetration rates won’t necessarily grow,” he notes. “There needs to be a national rollout to convert the dialup and long-distance market for consumers and businesses. WiMAX and VoIP together could be directly on par with what consumers pay for local and long-distance alone, for instance. On a $40 to $60 package, the consumer can save money overall and upgrade to broadband. And someone like an AOL can grow revenue figures.”

Mobile VoIP over WiMAX also offers a way for service providers to go “triple play plus.” “WiMAX and VoIP is a marriage made in heaven,” says Sayed-Amr El-Hamamsy, president and CEO at Wi-LAN Inc., which has partnered with Quintum Technologies Inc. to deliver a VoIP over fixed wireless solution, including WiMAX. “A data-alone answer is weak. ... But wireless ... offers the possibility of mobility, which cable and DSL never can because of physics.”

Indeed, many say the endgame with voice over WiMAX is mobility. WiMAX mobile equipment is expected in the 2006-2007 timeframe. “WiMAX will be in every computer and every laptop now that Intel is incorporating it,” says Jon Morgan, vice president of marketing for Tatara Systems Inc., maker of the network-agnostic Mobile Services Convergence Platform, which allows carriers to provide a roaming data service over multiple technologies under a single brand. “The question, when you get to mobility, is whether a chipset for a smart phone can work economically across multiple networks. If so, it’s not inconceivable to have four or five technologies in a handset that chooses the appropriate network based on least-cost routing and signal strength.”

A user can start a GSM call and roam onto a Wi-Fi network now, and other convergence points are sure to follow, says Jeff Orr, senior product marketing manager for the broadband wireless product line at Proxim Corp. Working closely with Motorola Inc. and Avaya Inc., Proxim will help deliver a dual-network wireless infrastructure to support handsets that roam seamlessly between the public cellular network to company VoIP over Wi-Fi, with enterprise-class phone features like consolidated mailboxes and mobile access to e-mail, calendars and corporate directories. The system will be available via Avaya’s distribution channel of VARs and is dubbed Motorola’s Enterprise Seamless Mobility solution.

In the future, the market will see a common user type with the ability to connect to cellular, Wi-Fi or WiMAX networks depending on the best connection available, he says. However, for it to work seamlessly requires a smart infrastructure that can offload and route nonvoice traffic to a different network to avoid capacity overloads, Orr adds. Without that capability, capacity concerns could prove an impediment to WiMAX’s mobile voice fortunes.

But despite any success VoIP over WiMAX might have, it is unlikely to supersede existing cellular service in dense urban areas, Jhawar says. “WiMAX has data capabilities cellular networks don’t have yet,” he notes. “But for voice, the cell network is engineered to be optimized for capacity, and it’s more efficient and effective in large volumes. Carriers need to look to the right technology for the right purpose.”

John Krzywicki, president of TMNG Strategy for The Management Network Group Inc., also is a bit skeptical about WiMAX’s ability to upset the cellular applecart. Integrating WiMAX into the mobile landscape is more difficult than it sounds, particularly when it comes to smart devices that choose the appropriate network depending on what’s available. “Do you design the system to [do] least-cost routing, and if so, how? What about the strongest signal?” he says, noting that a problem lies in getting providers to sign up to swap and carry traffic, an expensive endeavor.

Then there’s the question of timing. “It will take two years for WiMAX to become mobile. But in the interim, 3G will ratchet itself up as much as possible. An $80 per month charge for 3G needs to be closer to $50. But the carriers already have customers,” says Krzywicki.

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