Motorola Shows WiMAX, LTE Verve
Just a few hours after Motorola announced they’re going to try to split into two companies, the firm’s Networks division - that’s the part investor Carl Icahn likes - announced a range of new products to cement their position in upcoming WiMAX and LTE networks.
WiMAX and LTE are the new, fourth-generation networks that Sprint , Verizon Wireless and AT&T will be launching over the next few years. Sprint’s XOHM WiMAX network will launch this year, and Verizon and AT&T will be bringing LTE on line in 2009 or 2010.
Motorola’s new WiMAX equipment will bring broadband to cars and homes, marketing director Hossein Parandeh said. At next week’s CTIA trade show, Motorola will demonstrate WiMAX-powered cars which can stream TV channels into seatback video screens, make voice-over-IP calls and update their navigation systems on the fly. The company’s i150 home modem will offer easy, plug-and-play WiMAX for the home, as well.
“The applications that [users] used to do only at home, in the office or at a hotspot are now available anywhere, any time,” Parandeh said.
LTE’s strengths will be in transmitting video and in multiplayer gaming, said global marketing manager Stephane Daeuble. Motorola will demonstrate streaming, high-def video at the show, he said. They’re also releasing network units which can hand off between CDMA and LTE. That’s critical for Verizon’s rollout, as the company will need a smooth transition between their existing CDMA and future LTE networks.
“Some of the early chipsets will effectively be dual mode, providing global roaming capability,” he said.
Further promoting Motorola’s position in 4G networks, Daeuble also said Motorola has developed equipment which can be re-used between WiMAX and LTE, lowering prices and making it easier to standardize equipment.
The odd gadget out was Motorola’s DH02 mobile TV. The DH02 is a handheld, mobile television with a high-res 4.8-inch, WQVGA display. It has several neat features, such as a touch screen, TiVo-style program recording and built in GPS navigation. But it’s unlikely to ever appear in the US because it’s dependent on the DVB-H mobile TV system, which has largely been rejected by US operators. DVB-H is popular in Europe, and Motorola senior marketing manager Venkat Eswara said that Motorola is looking at other mobile TV standards, but didn’t specify any of the standards that have been used so far in the U.S.
The quiet elephant on the conference call, of course, was Motorola’s announcement this morning that they’re separating their mobile phone business from the rest of the company. Motorola execs on this conference call wouldn’t talk about that topic, but today’s announcements show that the non-cell-phone part of Motorola is plugging along into the future.
