* Offload, backhaul-boost announcements expected next week
4G World is set for next week in Chicago, and the event will focus on tools that desperate mobile operators can use to fill their wireless WAN capacity deficits.
As we’ve always said in networking, “The bottleneck just continually moves around.” Sometimes computers can’t keep up with networks; then the situation flip-flops.
Bottleneck-wise, when it comes to 3G and even new 4G mobile networks, the mobile devices have the upper hand. They can generate, collectively, more than mobile networks can handle. So next week’s event should kick off efforts by the entire mobile ecosystem to work doggedly and creatively to boost wireless WAN capacity.
Sprint shows off 4G video apps
In the wireless access network, supplemental technologies like unlicensed Wi-Fi offload and smaller base station equipment such as microcells, picocells and femtocells will be front and center. Sprint is already giving away femtos, which communicate across a range of approximately 10 meters, to consumers for use with its 3G EV-DO network.
But WiMAX femtos are coming, too. In June, the WiMAX Forum and the Femto Forum published the first WiMAX femto specifications that vendors could use to develop standard WiMAX femtos. The WiMAX Forum hopes to start certifying compatible products in early 2011.
And it’s not all about the access network: Expect plenty of robust backhaul announcements for beefing up bandwidth between cell towers and core networks, too.
In the meantime, some 4G services are already arriving. WiMAX has been first to market: Sprint WiMAX service covers about 52 U.S. markets and more than 50 million people. The operator plans to expand the service to over 100 markets by the end of this year. So far, Sprint offers two WiMAX handsets, made by Samsung and HTC.
On the LTE front, Verizon Wireless plans to cover 38 markets and 110 million subscribers by year-end. From there, the carrier says it will reach 200 million subscribers in 2012 and 285 million in 2013. An HTC-made LTE handset is expected for use with the network in 2011.
AT&T has announced that it is going to start offering LTE service in mid-2011 and intends to offer LTE service to between 70 and 75 million people by late next year.
