The mobile technology marketplace is certainly never dull and often full of surprises. IT giant Cisco confirmed during the first week of March 2010 that the company would no longer be constructing new WiMAX mobile technology stations. In a return to its core businesses, Cisco has decided to devote its focus on the edge and core of the network.
While no longer playing in the base station market, the company is assuring customers that they will continue to support customer networks as well as ship all equipment that exists. Cisco stepped into the WiMAX world in 2007 when it purchased Navini Networks, an early start up in the industry. Navini was known for debuting what is called beanforming technology, which proved to add signal strength by focusing radio signals in the receiver’s direction. Cisco was one of the few vendors that had commercial beanforming equipment for sale.
While playing on the WiMAX RAN field, Cisco has always been known as a stronger force in the network edge and IP core sectors. Cisco owns Starent Networks, a company who has a sterling list of customers who depend on their expertise in providing mobile gateway solutions for a whole host of technologies like CDMA, Wi-Fi and LTE, as well as many others. The who’s who of these customers are firms like Verizon, Sprint and even China Unicom.
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NEW LINKSYS CISCO E3000 w/ DD-WRT MEGA Gigabit Dual Band 600Mbps Wireless Router $99.95 |
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CISCO LINKSYS E1000 AE1000 WIRELESS N ROUTER BUNDLE $39.99 |
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CISCO LINKSYS E1000 WIRELESS N ROUTER $23.99 |
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Cisco Linksys Valet M10 Ultra Fast 300Mbps 802.11n LAN 4port Wireless N Router $39.99 |
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Linksys Cisco WRT54G2 54 Mbps 4-Port 10/100 Wireless G Router $19.99 |
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WiFi Omni Antenna Replaces Cisco AIR-CAP3502E-E-K9 AIRCAP3502E Wireless Router $12.99 |
Cisco did reassure customers that they are not abandoning the WiMAX market, just refining their focus within it. They fully intend to be a significant contributor but simply not in network access anymore. This is becoming a trend in the WiMAX industry, as the base stations are becoming less and less expensive and a far smaller portion of overall capital budgets.
Cisco has plans to continue to delve into the smaller side of radio access including femtocells. Femtocells are a crucial ingredient for WiMAX mobile technology as they are used by mobile providers to improve network coverage and take data off a client’s network. Cisco is leaving all options open for future ventures in the WiMAX marketplace.
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