Teyew Sin Siew, head of telecoms research at Frost & Sullivan, expects high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) to delay WiMax’s adoption in Asia. The market analyst ascribed the scenario to the massive investment and commitment to nationwide 3G coverage as companies will acquire fewer costs when they upgrade to HSDPA, otherwise known as 3.5G. Whereas HSDPA-enabled devices could soon hit the market in view of commitments from hardware makers like Intel, Lenovo and Samsung, portable devices with WiMax connectivity will not be available until 2009, and they may not come cheap. WiMax handsets are also unlikely to run applications similar to those on 3G devices like mobile video streaming and conferencing, according to Teyew. Other obstacles to WiMax development include the technology’s inability to meet the demands of broadband users and regulatory issues. Nevertheless, Teyew believes WiMax will have a great following in India, where there is a dearth of competing wireline and 3G technologies, and South Korea, which has embraced WiBro, considered “a testbed for the viability of WiMax.”
Via [news.zdnet.co.uk]
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