Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ:ALVR), the world’s leading provider of WiMAX™ and wireless broadband solutions, and Italian telecommunications company Linkem today announced that they will provide wireless broadband coverage for the 13th annual world swimming championship in Rome from July 17th through August 2nd.

Linkem was recently choose by the championship’s organizing committee to create a wireless network using WiMAX and Wi-Fi technologies in both the indoor and outdoor areas of Rome’s Olympic Village. The network will provide coverage to an area of roughly 70,000 m². About 400,000 visitors, including over 1,800 journalists, from over 180 countries are expected to attend the championship at the Foro Italico stadium and enjoy a true 4G services.

Alvarion and Linkem will hold an exclusive press cocktail event at the championship hospitality booth during the evening of July 22nd. The joint event will be located inside the Foro Italico, hospitality village in the American Bar.

“This network built in cooperation with Alvarion will provide a glimpse of advanced wireless services we are bringing throughout Italy using the cutting edge capabilities of WiMAX technology,” said Davide Rota, CEO for Linkem. “The network will provide high-speed wireless communication to journalists, event organizers and visitors. Journalists will have the ability to report from the event in real-time, without delay.”

“This innovative application of 4G WiMAX technology presents seamless wireless connectivity for journalists from around the world covering and attending the event providing them with stable and reliable communication,” said Berge Ayvazian, 4G industry analyst from Yankee Group. “This project also showcases Linkem’s expansion of 4G services in Italy, providing mobile broadband connectivity everywhere it is needed, even at sporting events.”

The primary end user devices used for accessing the WiMAX service will include Alvarion’s recently launched BreezeMAX® USB device and indoor CPE. BreezeMAX USB is a compact wireless modem designed for fixed and mobile subscribers and enables plug-and-play operation with easy-to-install and self-provisioning capabilities. This product is suitable for laptop and desktop users and will allow them a continuous broadband connectivity from any location, any time.

“As Italy opens up to the benefits of WiMAX technology, consumers will demand ever increasing bandwidth irrespective of where they are located,” said Tzvika Friedman, president and CEO of Alvarion. “Linkem’s network at the world championship will showcase the latest broadband wireless applications available in the market today.  Through our end-to-end turnkey WiMAX solutions, we can address all the connectivity requirements for the event, and ultimately provide a very good user experience for the event’s visitors.”

Alvarion will also enable TV coverage in the Hospitality Village booth through an outdoor CPE and camera on WiMAX feed.

Information Sources: Alvarion.com, Linkem.com

“By delivering broadband connectivity to people, and not just places, we now offer Atlantans the freedom to enjoy super-fast Internet access wherever they go in our coverage area,” said Marc Brachman, General Manager of Atlanta market for Clearwire. “Whether it’s a busy parent who wants full Internet connectivity in the back of the family minivan, a small business owner looking to conduct online video chats with customers from the field, a person looking to access entertainment sites like Hulu without being tied to a fixed-location, or a college student simply looking for one Internet service provider to meet their needs at home and on-the-go, CLEAR delivers. We’re providing a valuable, new kind of Internet service designed to make our customers’ lives more enjoyable and more productive, wherever they happen to be in our coverage area.”

A CLEAR Difference
Unlike other wireless services, CLEAR delivers a mobile broadband Internet experience on par with speeds typically experienced only on fixed residential and commercial connections, like DSL. For example, some of today’s 3G wireless networks typically deliver download speeds of between 1.0 and 1.7 Mbps. CLEAR customers, however, can expect to see download speeds of 4 to 6 Mbps with bursts exceeding 15 Mbps, far surpassing even the peak theoretical speeds of 7.2 Mbps in upcoming 3G upgrades. In Atlanta, the CLEAR network utilizes an area-wide WiMAX radio system from Motorola. CLEAR’s simple and innovative pricing gives customers ultimate flexibility. CLEAR’s mobile and residential plans can be purchased by the day or by the month, and do not require long-term service contracts. Home Internet service plans start at $20 per month, while mobile Internet plans start at $40 per month, or customers can purchase a convenient day pass for $10. Additional savings are available for customers purchasing both home and mobile Internet services or signing up for a two-year service agreement. Full details about pricing options and business plans are available at www.clear.com.

Information Sources: Clearwire.com
Image Sources: Clearwire.com

for the nation’s largest Rural Utilities Service (RUS) funded deployment spanning 17 states, 546 rural communities, and reaching up to 6 million people. With this new broadband wireless network, Open Range will begin offering state-of-the-art 4G services to un-served and underserved customers across rural America in the fourth quarter of this year.

Open Range Communications Coverage - 4gsoft.com

As part of this contract, expected to be more than US$100 million over a five-year implementation, Alvarion will provide radio access equipment, customer devices (CPE) and systems integration for Open Range’s broadband wireless network. In addition to selecting Alvarion for its market-leading WiMAX platform, Open Range will rely on Alvarion’s industry leadership and experience for the end-to-end integration of the Open Range network solution, creating a best-of-breed 4G network in rural America.

Open Range will offer Simply EasierSM wireless communications to subscribers that will enable not only a hyper-connected Internet lifestyle, but also new economic opportunities not possible before because of the lack of infrastructure. Some of the unique attributes available through this “always on” wireless broadband network include:
• Simple and instant service activation
• Voice and data capabilities
• WiFi for connectivity to existing PCs
• Highly secure network communication

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Open Range as they make history building 4G broadband infrastructure in a large footprint to provide personalized broadband services to consumers in un-served and underserved parts of the country,” said Tzvika Friedman, president and CEO of Alvarion. “Open Range’s vision to connect rural America will stimulate local development for many rural communities across the US. Alvarion has a longstanding role enabling the delivery of broadband services to consumers here in the US and abroad. With our full portfolio of end-to-end, turnkey WiMAX solutions and extensive network deployment experience, we are enabling operators around the globe to deliver affordable broadband services to subscribers wherever they may reside.”

The new Open Range 4G network, based on Alvarion’s WiMAX Forum® Certified™ 802.16e BreezeMAX® solution, will be built with an all-IP architecture leveraging the latest 4G technology.  This solution will give millions of rural Americans the ability to enjoy wireless broadband services across the communities where they live and work.

“Open Range’s unique business model focuses on delivering wireless high-speed Internet and voice services to un-served and underserved communities,” said Open Range founder and CEO, Bill Beans Jr. “These communities require an innovative partner with experience in delivering a wide array of simple, high quality, cost effective, robust solutions that are scalable and sustainable. Alvarion’s passion and heritage in deploying wireless broadband globally with its expanded advanced capabilities make them an ideal partner for Open Range.”

Alvarion was the first WiMAX equipment supplier to receive USDA acceptance as well as “Buy American” status from the USDA RUS for two of its BreezeMAX base stations in July 2008. Both RUS and “Buy American” designations are required for operators requesting federal funds from the Rural Broadband Access Loan program for the purpose of purchasing and deploying broadband systems.

Information Sources: Alvarion.com, Openrangecomm.com
Image Sources: Alvarion.com, Openrangecomm.com

More Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G

For More Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution

Mr. August Baumann President of Netcom (subsidiary of TeliaSonera in Norway) says: “We appreciate the professional implementation from Huawei and we are very pleased to make this world’ s first LTE session in Norway. It is a significant step bringing our customers much closer to real fourth generation mobile broadband service. It is also a milestone in the cooperation between TeliaSonera and Huawei.”

“We are proud and excited to support TeliaSonera in completing its mobile broadband connection over the world’ s first live LTE network”, says James Chen, Managing Director of Huawei Nordic Office, “The first LTE session reflects Huawei’ s leadership in the most cutting-edge of technologies and its ability to build LTE networks. We are well positioned to deliver a high quality network that will enable leading operators like TeliaSonera to achieve business success.”

The first showcase on the live LTE network in Oslo, between a Laptop PC with a 4G modem and public Internet/Intranet included downloading of high resolution photos, music, movies and mobile business applications, at a speed much quicker than most available fixed internet accesses of today.

By adopting the LTE MIMO and OFDM technologies (Multiple Input Multiple Output and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex, key radio technologies of LTE), the download peak data rate can reach 150 Mbps in one LTE cell with multiple terminals.

Information Sources:  Huawei.com, TeliaSonera.com
Image & Video Sources: Huawei.com