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The WCA Operators .... Perspectives from the June WCA Show in Washington D.C. By PBMnetworks I had the privilege of attending the June 2005 WCA show this summer with my "operator's hat" on. This is my natural perspective, since I have been working for, or consulting to, operators for many years now.
PBMnetworks presenting to the WCA Operator Expert's Group in Washington DC, June 2005
So from that perspective here is a feeling of what operators were thinking... Operators in general are interested in expansions of market or service offerings or new revenue streams. Smaller operators are looking both at their local markets and their local experience for opportunities, and they are looking to the bigger operators to see how to offer compatible services or technology to take advantage of the coming volumes associated with the potential bigger deployments of the larger networks. The bigger operators at the show had the following to say.
Mr. Perry Satterleee, COO of Clearwire offered the following. What is important is customer service. Customers want broadband where they want it, when they want it. We need sustainable differentiation. Clearwire found experts in broadband wireless, took 9 to 12 months to understand the environment and set out to deploy markets. And in the last thirty days they have launched over six markets, which doubles the number of markets in their company – this is just the beginning. Customers want no truck rolls, no software downloads, and no damage to homes. Clearwire has 10 US markets and two international markets on line. Clearwire brings portability, great customer service, and simplicity to the business. Best buy has spent lots of money on the geek squad because technology is intimidating. Clearwire must show customers clearly how to get started with pictures showing how to plug the units into wall, into the Ethernet port, etc. “So simple even an adult can do it.” Some of the markets they have deployed include Abilene, Odessa, Daytona, St Cloud, and Jacksonville.
Mr. Atish Gude, VP Strategic Planning for Nextel, indicated there has been a history of 40 years of "failure" in this band (probably too strong a term he said but close)…spectrum played a role in this failure, spectrum issues, interleaved channels, no single audience, lack of standards, and bad business models all contributed. Wi-Fi is a success, but some lessons learned include, the technology must be plug and play. Unlicensed spectrum has some issues, but at least it is the same everywhere you go, and it works pretty good everywhere. Nextel performed a market service trial in Raleigh Durham, some of it was a technology trial but mostly it was a sales and marketing trial, how do users consume the service. In Raleigh, they learned three things: 1) a technology network and ecosystem is important – we need an entire ecosystem, not just a radio interface. We need applications, delivery, back office capability that highlights customer service and business completeness, 2) We need lots of cards, devices, embedded systems, not just laptops. We need robust devices and chipsets for multiple services, and 3) innovative services and applications – Access is king for broadband since the Internet is so robust, but also there are lots of applications and services that portability and mobility suggest are relevant, key and important. Broadband speed - cable / DSL is the benchmark for what broadband really is, so wireless broadband must approach the perception of cable / DSL like speed. Coverage - we must have it almost everywhere. Cellular adoption kicked in only when it was everywhere. Access is important, devices are important, but also a seamless experience between content, applications, and devices is critical, and simplicity. It’s an ecosystem we need to bring to market to drive up the adoption curve. We need distribution strength. Also customers want to trial it, if they are going to pay for it. Competitive pricing, differentiation, cable DSL is where broadband is, we need to go beyond that, incremental utility to cable DSL, portability is the way to compete, provide them the content they know exists, and with good applications. To be un-tethered is a life changing event. Users can now go with their children to watch them play sports, and still be connected to work -- now that's a life changing event, for that individual customer. Construction, remote locations, entire mobile offices are now possible, instead of waiting for a connection back at the office, workers do it seamlessly using a VoIP box, connected to the Internet, and can set up a whole mobile office, with saved time, increased productivity, these are more examples of life changing events. Portability is the one utility beyond DSL / cable that will make wireless broadband competitive. The remaining issues are, the applications, services, and devices (a laptop is important, but we need more devices enabled, we need ease of use. Technology maturity must continue, we must address the spectrum issues – the WCA is working to clean it up, and to put a workable economic model behind it. The Sprint-Nextel merger will offer financial strength, brand strength, and be uniquely positioned to drive the market, but a larger group of people is needed to drive it: suppliers, competition, standards, and others for market adoption. Wireless interactive multimedia Services - WIMS - is coming. We are a very visual culture; we want information now, in a broadband portable form. WIMS, portable access, online gaming, document collaboration, video conferencing, and multimedia services have highlighted the need for broadband instant connectivity, and the need for "interactive-ness" delivered with simplicity. A wireless portable broadband service will bring more utility, so bring out the portable applications to help compete. Nextel keeps looking at the technology. Nextel will do a new trial in 3Q04, with TD-CDMA by IP Wireless in Washington DC. (This was big news at the show, Nextel frist trialed Flarion and now are trying IP Wireles - neither were WiMax technology) It is the next evolution in how Nextel will evaluate technology and service delivery models. Nextel thinks WiMAX shows lots of promise and operators should continue to trial it. Nextel will still invest time in testing that technology. The BRS 2.5 GHz band transition must continue to happen quickly. The FCC should modify the MEA requirements and make them a BTA requirement only. If done, Nextel will deploy Austin, Boston, and Washington DC right away. We need applications and devices, ease of use, technical maturity, and spectrum issues resolved. More commentary per company... Intel says broadband can be as a simple as just Internet access, or can be complex high speed mobile personal broadband -- both are different, but devices should address both types of network as they both will come. Clearwire says we will go through the same metamorphosis as PCS/cellular: first coverage, then capacity, then applications, services, and content. Nextel, customers like portability and portability will make this sector a lot bigger than a niche market. Intel - as for spectrum -- likes 2.3, 2.5 and 3.6 and will see deployments emerge in ASIA more quickly than here. 700 will come about in time. Nextel says 3G UMTS, EV-DO, 1xRTT is coming so 4G needs to be more in the range of expectations of cable DSL and must be IP based. Intel says 4G is 10 Mbps or beyond probably available in 2010, "beyond 3G" is a 1 Mbit service and that is what we are discussing today. Nextel says that a proven and practical delivery model is based on having a robust ecosystem. Nextel is not trying to push any technology. They took spectrum and made it work, they bet on differentiation even though scale was a problem, they are in discovery, to understand what are the full capabilities and all the important factors. They will try IP Wireless now, and will trial WiMAX next, most likely. This is an opportunity for vendors now.
Mr. Oliver Valente, CTO & VP Technology Development spoke at the Thursday noon keynote and had the following information to impart. In his role, he leads all new and emerging technologies for Sprint’s global, converged, wireless and wireline networks. He is focused on features and functions of technology that compete and differentiate Sprint's service. He has been with Sprint for 15 years and serves as President of the CDMA Development Group, and is on the board of The Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solutions. He will assume a new and expanded role of SVP Product and Strategy Development with the new Sprint-Nextel company. Sprint is a Fortune 50 Company has $43 B in assets, 26 M customers, $27 B in revenue in 2004, has top scores for wireless network performance quality and operation. Its wireless network had the fewest FCC reported outages for 9 years in a row. In the pending merger with Nextel, Sprint wants to create America’s premier wireless company. When combined Sprint/Nextel (S/N) will have 40 M customers, 40 K cell sites, 29 K retail outlets and $40 B in annual revenue. S/N will be able to complete a national footprint in the 2.5 BRS band with 220 M pop covered, 85% of the US population in the top 100 markets. Sprint is still the only company with an all digital CDMA network 85% of the US is covered, with 25 M customers. Their innovations include the first digital wireless footprint, the first wireless data network, the first 3G services in 2002, the first voice recognition capability, and they launched the largest broadband wireless network in the US using their 2.5 GHz assets. Sprint is very focused on deploying an EV-DO network. The plan is to cover 130 M pops by the end of this year and 150 M by 1Q06. Sprint wants to bring and integrate applications from premium content providers through key media alliances, using differentiated devices, with and a focus on, usability and simplicity. Customers and Sprint are not focused on the technology, rather on the applications that help users save time, save money, have fun and be more productive. Some of the popular applications are messaging, gaming, ring tones, picture mail, and screen savers. In 2003 customers downloaded and used 7 M games, 20 M ringers, shared 90 M pictures, and uploaded 120 M pictures to share with others. There is a robust demand for wireless data services. Premium content providers provide “always on” entertainment, information, and communications services. They have provided 1000 ring tones, 300 screen saves, first to offer master recording ring tones, and clips of songs. Recently artist Sean Paul’s song “Just Give Me the Light” was downloaded as a ringer more times that the actual hit single. This is a telling point in the industry about how people want to use digital services. There are 200 games in the Sprint catalogue. Messaging partners include AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and EarthLink for access to email and instant messaging applications. People want convergence – wireless, wireline, consumer, business, service sets are coming together. S/N will differentiate based on a converged experience. It will be customer access to applications whether using wireline broadband, dialup, WiFi, or broadband wireless at 1.9 and 2.5 in the future. Sprint is well positioned to take advantage of wireless data. 70% of the market has not yet purchased mobile content. This is a really exciting opportunity for the wireless industry to take advantage of. This is the fastest growing segment in wireless – data. The Yankee Group is projecting a 250% increase in data from 2005 to 2009. Wireless high speed data users will outnumber HS fixed data broadband users by 2007. Sprint’s data mix ARPU is 10% of overall wireless, and that’s higher than others, so there is lots of room to grow. When you net it out, Sprint is looking at several applications at broadband wireless, wireline, interactive multimedia services; wireless video broadcast services, backhaul services, and the ability to have T1 replacement services. They are exploring these services with different applications and devices. In wireless data leadership, Sprint has deployed 14 markets of 2.5 GHz broadband, the EV-DO deployment in progress, leadership in the BRS rules changes, and 2.5 GHz trials to refine knowledge and test concepts. In terms of the new BRS rules leadership, Mr. Todd Rowley is chair of the WCA Government Relations committee. Sprint is interested in “spectrum grooming” and to expand the spectrum positions in markets they don’t have. They are interested in standards development, and to form an ecosystem for the 2.5 GHz market. They are working in the 802.16 WiMAX space with the chip vendors of Intel, Motorola, Fujitsu, TI, and with equipment vendors such as Lucent, Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola. The key needs at 2.5 GHz are, the need for open standards, for a world wide ecosystem, and harmonized spectrum policies around the world. For mobile systems, we need to change the cost curve and gain a 10x cost advantage. The 3G space will be a strong growth space for data, but Sprint wants to offer a completely different service at 2.5 GHz, not totally mobile centric. Sprint is partnering with Motorola to further the development of 802.16e by testing new radios, antennas, and multimedia devices for customers. That collaboration will spur 16e growth. Nextel announced a trial with IP Wireless in DC. S/N is interested in multiple technologies facilitating the business case for wireless broadband services for a converged world. Sprint will maintain leadership in wireless data, and combined with Nextel their network will be good for a powerful portfolio of services for content providers, system integrators, MVNO operators, and other new telecom entrants for voice, video, and data, all converged, integrated, and differentiated. Sprint is exploring a dual mode 1.9 and 2.5 unit, but has reached no conclusion yet. It may be useful in the near term, but not further out. Sprint is very focused on growing the EV-DO network. 70% of the market has not yet purchased mobile content. Mobile on 2.5 is 2 to 3 years away yet, so Sprint can do some fixed and portable things at 2.5 GHz soon, but a broad and ubiquitous deployment at 2.5 is still in the future, maybe 2008. But there is still a large demand now for data services, so Sprint will keep rolling out new advanced mobile services on their PCS network as fast as possible. It will be complementary when they converge, and customers don’t care anyway. So they will do mobile now, and then provide totally new services, in 2008. How will Sprint and Nextel combine their networks? Coverage and quality are “table stakes”, so we will aggressively expand and fill in our footprint.... The operators at the WCA show this year were optimistic regarding WiMAX and other standardized broadband wireless technologies.
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