Samsung to launch WiMax handset
Korean electronics giant Samsung, will next year launch a phone that supports mobile WiMax, a company executive is reported to have said.
According to the IDG news network the company is planning a dual-mode handset that pairs WiMax with GSM. IDG quotes Hwan Woo Chung, vice president of Samsung’s Mobile WiMax Group saying: “The first model will come during the first half of 2007.”
Samsung is the first major brand to announce its support for WiMax on a handset, although other brands are expected to follow suit.
According to Samsung its mobile WiMax technology will achieve downlink speeds of nearly 40Mbps by the third quarter of 2007.
WiMax has yet to establish itself as a favourite among operators, principally because of muddled standards and a protracted development period. However, in March, analyst firm TelecomView raised a few eyebrows in the operator community with a report that argued the RoI from WiMax will be higher than that of 3G. “Our business case shows that the RoI for WiMAX is significantly better than 3G technologies,” said Bob Larribeau, principal analyst at TelecomView and co-author of the report, ‘Broadband Strategies for the Mobile Market’.
Ian Cox, Principal Analyst at TelecomView, said at the time: “We think that WiMAX will have 16 per cent of the subscribers and account for 16 per cent of capex in high-speed mobile networks in 2011.”
The technology has also been the subject of heated disputes between industry heavyweights Qualcomm and Motorola. In May, the pair battled it out over the wireless technology with Moto saying it will dominate the market in the future and Qualcomm saying it’s a non-starter.
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Tags: Samsung, Telecom services, WiMAX