BCS Edinburgh Branch

Introduction to WiMAX, LTE and 4G Mobile Services

Wednesday 30th January 2008, 6:30 pm

Speaker: Colin Bendall, Motorola

Venue: The Royal Scots Club Hepburn Suite, 30 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh EH3 6QE - map and direction.

This talk is free of charge and no reservation is required. Non members are most welcome. Refreshments available from 6:10 pm.

Synopsis

As governments across Europe gear up for another round of spectrum auctions for both the 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz bands targeted at delivering next-generation 4G Wireless services, the question arises "Will the technology finally deliver the Mobile Internet experience that was promised previously by 3G?" In this presentation I will describe the key features of the two leading 4G wireless technologies that are currently going though the standards process, WiMAX and LTE and the likelihood that, this time, they will indeed be capable of delivering that truly ubiquitous mobile internet experience. I will examine how we can expect them each to perform both in terms of data speeds & network bandwidth compared with existing GSM and 3G technologies, and whether one will supplant the other and become the sole standard for 4G.

I'll follow this with an overview of expected deployment timescales and provide some current day examples of where this work is already underway. Finally, I'll take a look at the benefits to the end consumer of this step forward in the capability of the wireless network, and the kinds of devices we can expect to see coming to the market in the next 18 to 24 months.

About the speaker

Colin Bendall is originally from the Edinburgh area and graduated with BSc (Hons) in Electronic & Electrical Engineering from Edinburgh University in 1981. He worked in a number of product development roles for various companies in the early 1980’s joining Motorola in 1987. He now heads up the European Sales organisation for Motorola’s Public Networks business. He was previously responsible for the Business Development function for networks in EMEA and for the introduction of new technologies to Motorola’s portfolio such as WiMAX, IP Core, IMS and UMA (Unlicenced Mobile Access) networks. Prior to that he held a number of different Sales and Operations roles including responsibility for major GSM network rollouts in Belgium and Czech Republic, where he lived for 4 years before returning to the UK in 2000. A Chartered Engineer (C.Eng.) and Member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET, formally IEE), he toured UK as a Faraday Lecturer for the IEE during 1994/5 presenting the “Making Waves” lecture (a history of communications from the days of Faraday to today’s cellular networks). He is currently based at Motorola’s European HQ in Basingstoke, Hants and lives with his wife and family in Edinburgh. .