Motorola to score with Wimax
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 28 November 2006, 18:30 IST
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Mumbai: Motorola is in talks with telecom operators to provide network and equipment for offering Wimax (high-speed Internet access over a wireless connection). According to a report in The Economic Times, Motorola plans to cash in on the demand for wireless broadband (high speed Internet) in the country after rolling out the first Made-in-India mobile. “Motorola will design networks and provide customer premises equipment (CPEs) and handhelds. Our end-to-end solutions will be deployed by operators beginning next October,” said Amit Sharma, vice-president, strategy and business development, Motorola Asia Pacific. The world’s second largest maker of mobiles is keen into to scope a share in the annual broadband wireless equipment market that is expected to reach around $4.5 billion by 2012 and increase the current base of 2 million in India to 30 million broadband (high speed Internet) users by 2010. The most difficult part of providing broadband access is last mile, the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer, as it requires fanning out of wires and cable. This is where Wimax scores as it doesn’t require a direct line of sight between the source and endpoint. With a service range of 50 km, Wimax supports peak data rates of 23 Mbps. “It’s much easier to deploy Wimax access points and power requirements are also less (compared to wireline networks). We don’t think this is a replacement for mobiles. Wimax will be used for data applications while cellular networks will continue to be used for voice services,” said Sharma adding that Motorola is already setting up a mobiles manufacturing facility at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. He further added that Intel was the technology partner with Motorola and will be the chip suppliers.

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