April 9, 2008 11:28 AM

Sequans Communications one of a few who will showcase newly certified Mobile WiMAX products at WiMAX World EMEA 2008 to be held at the ICM, May 19- 21, 2008 Munich, Germany:
http://europe.wimaxworld.com/

Register before April 25th and save up to $500 off full conference fees to attend WiMAX World EMEA 2008. Use priority code WMXMS1 go to:
http://europe.wimaxworld.com/register/

Sequans Communications' announcement today of certification of their SQN1110 SoC and SQN2130 ASIC marked a claim for an industry first for Mobile WiMAX. The announcement signals the arrival of the first certified end-to-end Mobile WiMAX solution. Dr. Georges Karam, President and CEO of Sequans Communications, offered WiMAX Trends some insight into today's announcement as well as some of his own thoughts and opinions on recent announcements in the WiMAX ecosystem.

When asked about the significance of the announcement to Sequans Communications, Dr. Karam stated that it "shows the commitment of Sequans to the industry - the bottom line is that this is of big value for WiMAX; it's a guarantee of interoperability and performance." He went on to explain that key to Sequans' customers is "certifying reference designs - when using these designs 99% of the work of certification for our customers is already done with a 100% guarantee."

Last week's industry first news from Sprint and Nokia announced the first commercially available Mobile WiMAX device in the USA. Nokia's N810 Internet Tablet - WiMAX Edition incorporates Intel's "Baxter Peak" chipset. Asked to comment on the news, Dr. Karam offered that it is "positive" and shows that both are "going in the right direction.  Making it flat is in the best interest of the consumer - offering better service at better cost." Dr. Karam also acknowledged the importance of Nokia in "moving toward Sprint's vision" as well as their commitment to the WiMAX market.

Dr. Karam, acknowledging Intel as a key player for Nokia and the industry, added that Intel is still "late in the game." There is still much on paper, with no IOT - they're not there yet." Responding to a question regarding Beceem's announcement of the "World's First Single-Chip 65 Nanometer Mobile WiMAX Solution", Dr. Karam countered that in fact this solution really represents "3 dies in a 65 nm chip." He explained that the integration of the "baseband, RF and memory is really an MCM." While not yet announced, Sequans is already underway with testing of an innovative single-die design which incorporates both RF and baseband elements. The SQN1210, he went on to say, will be a "big advantage" and is expected to be available toward the end of 2008.

In differentiating Sequans from competitors in the base station market, such as picoChip, Dr. Karam replied that he didn't see them as "head to head competition. Their designs are not optimized for power and cost."  Sequans focuses on designs that are "optimized for PHY and MAC WiMAX with lower cost and power consumption." Sequans' position would thus appear to be in stark contrast to recent announcements by industry heavyweights Motorola and Nortel.

Both heavyweights have recently announced a rather agnostic position on the raging debate of WiMAX versus LTE. When asked to comment on this agnostic position Dr. Karam suggested that these positions are "marketing positions which no one can argue. Which base station can be upgraded from 2G to 3G, 3G to LTE? Using DSP and FPGA (technology) doesn't mean it's upgradeable, there's lots of hardware to be optimized. In a base station with a macro form factor that may be possible, but we're talking about hundreds of thousands of small form factor base stations - at a cost of less than $2000 - it's no miracle." He went on to say that those proponents of LTE "don't want to do anything today - at the end of the day there can be two standards with the same service provider." In Karam's terms, "the technology is easy for LTE and WiMAX. The challenges are the ecosystem and go to market approach."

Responding to the significance of the postponement of Sprint's Xohm WiMAX service, Dr. Karam offered support for WiMAX. "Guaranteed, that WiMAX technology is ready - 99.9% there - Sprint has done exhaustive testing."  Karam speculates that the delays may be associated with the readiness of a billing platform, backbone connectivity and financing. He went on to say that, "from what we read, things are going well and going in the right order." Sequans itself has been impacted by this announcement. As the chipset provider to Zyxel, the CPE modem and router product selected for Xohm, Dr. Karam expressed his disappointment in the announcement. "It is bad news but it's minor for us." Sequans' strategy he explained is "not only with big players like Sprint but also in nomadic solutions, in developing markets such as India."

Asked to comment on the future of Sequans and WiMAX, Dr. Karam stated that he will continue to look for "other legs for Sequans." While identifying the obvious lack of an LTE standard, Karam did suggest that Sequans would be carefully examining how it will diversify its 4G position over the next three years, including seriously exploring LTE options during the latter half of 2008. Karam feels that Sequans has "executed well, is growing well and continues to be well positioned in both fixed and mobile solutions." Sequans he says "is ready to go public with an IPO."

The first of what WiMAX Forum predicts as over 950 products to be certified for Mobile WiMAX by 2011, Sequans has fulfilled at least some of its obligation to the WiMAX ecosystem and its evolution. With more that 133 million WiMAX users forecasted globally by 2012, there is still much work to be done. Key to this growth will be the adoption of the technology in Asia Pacific and the Americas.

The first 8 Mobile WiMAX Certified Products:
The products certified include USB modems and base station devices from POSDATA; the RNU200CPE Mobile WiMAX UT based on the RNA200ASIC and the RNU2000N Mobile WiMAX Stand-alone Base Station Unit from Runcom; a mobile WiMAX base station and PCMCIA card from Samsung, and the Sequans' SQN1110 SOC for Mobile WiMAX mobile stations and SQN2130 ASIC for Mobile WiMAX base stations.

Sequans will have on display this and their other WiMAX Forum Certified™ products at WiMAX World EMEA 2008, you can visit Sequans at booth 411 on the tradeshow floor.

Register before April 25th and save up to $500 off full conference fees to attend WiMAX World EMEA 2008. Use priority code WMXMS1 go to:
http://europe.wimaxworld.com/register/

 

Peter Mitchell, Contributing Editor, WiMAX Trends

Kate Walsh, Editor, WiMAX Trends
Sr. Director Marketing, Trendsmedia
Ph: +1 617-259-2320
E-Mail: kwalsh@yankeegroup.com