Good News from Japan for Alvarion, Orckit
Shlomi Cohen submits:
Intel (INTC) announced a further investment of $43 million through Intel Capital, in the mobile WiMAX venture in Japan, UQ, that it is promoting jointly with telephony company KDDI (KDDIF.PK), which is supplying the network infrastructure, and another four Japanese companies. After a five-month trial period, the service will have its commercial launch on July 1, and by 2012 it will reach coverage of 90% of Japan. With the launch of the service, several companies will introduce new notebook computers on the Japanese market, equipped with embedded WiMAX-enabled chipsets.
In the Israeli context, and despite the fact that it has no share in the project, this is very good news for Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR). Without Intel’s backing, the WiMAX vision would long ago have been buried, and LTE, a technology that is gathering momentum from day to day, would be unchallenged. A first LTE-based project is due to be launched in the US next year by Verizon (VZ). For Orckit Communications (Nasdaq: ORCT) too, the Japanese venture is very good news, in an even more concrete way, for KDDI’s entire network is based on its technology, and any expansion for the purposes of providing WiMAX services means larger procurement from Orckit. I believe that this will happen very soon, because, apart from the new service, KDDI’s network is coming to the end of five years with the same equipment, and in telecommunications it is normal to renew equipment at the end of five years or even less.
Related Topics: embedded, Intel, Japan, telecom, telecommunications, VAR, Verizon, WiMax