Zune phone and LTE 4G wireless broadband
The gadget world is getting excited over the prospect of a Zune Phone (Phune? Zhone?) now that Microsoft has submitted an wireless device to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Will it be an iPhone competitor capable of cellular calls, or a VoIP product that's used for "talk over the Internet"? Furthermore, Mobile WiMAX isn't a carrier-favoured technology. Cell phone carriers don't much like Intel and would rather continue down the UMTS route. It's a known technology unlike Mobile WiMAX, handset OEMs know it and it's optimised for voice calls. A Mobile WiMAX Phune-Zhone would be hard for Microsoft to sell into carriers without solid proof that it works and is much cheaper in the long run to operate and support.
Flash-OFDM which Sprint is said to be trialling already is one possibility, but there's more exciting stuff coming up this year, including the Long Term Evolution or LTE technology that Ericsson intends to show off in Barcelona at the 3GSM World Congress expo there next week.
LTE, sometimes referred to as HSOPA or High-Speed OFDM Packet Access (crazy acronym!) is due to be released this year, and is capable of 144Mbit/s using 20MHz carriers. It seems Ericsson will demonstrate LTE in the 2.6GHz band to get that speed, but the technology looks reasonably flexible as it can accommodate channel widths all the way down to 1.25MHz. Paired and unpaired spectrum are both supported, and those cool MIMO (multiple-in, multiple-out) aerials provide that wideband performance boost.
Most importantly, LTE is a 3GPP standard, meaning it will see widespread adoption in the GSM world. If Microsoft has any sense it will look beyond US carriers when developing the Zhone-Phune, and aim to make it as global as possible.
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Comment by Russ, on 11-FEB-2007 06:32
I don't really have any insight into the Zune phone, but did want to provide a bit of an update. You mention that Sprint is trialing Flash-OFDM. Nextel did trial the Flarion technology prior to their merger with Sprint and prior to Flarion being acquired by Qualcomm. More significantly, Sprint Nextel announced their selection of 4G technology mid-year last year and it is Mobile WiMax, not Flash OFDM, so maybe carriers aren't as opposed to 802.16e as you thought...
Here's my most recent analysis on this move.
As I'm sure you know, Sprint has traditionally relied on Qualcomm's CDMA technology and is running EVDO nationwide. There were pretty open hints around the time of the WiMax choice that a key driver was Qualcomm's licensing scheme. Don't know if that's any indicator for which direction Telecom might move...
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Comment by freitasm, on 10-FEB-2007 16:17
Sense doesn't seem to be in the dictionary for some Microsoft groups though. Just look on how the Zune is not available anywhere else but in the U.S. at this time. And knowing that the U.S. is only a tiny part of the world in terms of consumer market, I think Apple still got the advantage of having a worldwide penetration.