Alternative wireless broadband startup
Flarion Technologies has strengthened speculation it is engaged in a major Flash-OFDM trial in Europe.
Industry scuttlebutt has long suggested that the vendor’s cash injection nearly twelve months ago from
T-Mobile Venture Fund was a prelude to a likely trial with one of the carrier’s European subsidiaries (see
Flarion Hushes on Slush Fund).
Flarion itself remains tight-lipped on the possibility of such a deal but the company says that it expects some Euro action soon. “European [trial] news is likely this year,” Flarion’s VP of global marketing and communications, Ronny Haraldsvik, tells
Unstrung.
But Analysts believe T-Mobile is top of the carrier candidate list for any future European trial announcement. “If I was a gambling man I’d put my money on T-Mobile,” says
Gartner Inc.’s Jason Chapman. “It seems the most likely choice.”
A T-Mobile deal would be Flarion’s sixth publicly announced trial deployment, following rollouts with
Nextel Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTL),
Vodafone K.K.,
KT Corp.,
Hanaro Telecom Inc., and
SK Telecom (Nasdaq: SKM). (See
Nextel Steps Up Data Race,
Flarion Wins Voodoo Trial,
KT Joins the Flash-OFDM Band,
Flarion Doubles Down in Korea, and
Flarion Cookin' Up Seoul Food.)
T-Mobile was unable to comment by press time.
OFDM is a modulation scheme that can support an average data rate of around 1.5 Mbit/s for users in a standard, PCS-sized cell site, while using only 1.25 MHz of spectrum. This makes it approximately four or five times more spectrally efficient than comparable 3G technologies, such as CDMA2000 or UMTS --
and cheaper to implement. [Ed. note: Does it remove ground-in stains, too?]
— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe,
Unstrung
