WiMAX devices will be cheaper than 3G devices because of significantly cheaper chipsets, according to Motorola head of technology for South and East Asia, Dr Ray Owen. As a result, WiMAX chipsets are as likely to be embedded in cameras and MP3 players as they are in handsets.

Giving the keynote address at last week’s WiMAX Strategies Asia conference in Bangkok, Owen said the cost issue and the breadth of devices embedded with wireless access capability will be significant factors in WiMAX take-up.

“The chipset costs will be lower, even without volume, than some of the 3G chipsets out there,” he noted. “It’s not just about the handsets, it’s about embedded connectivity in the future.”

The comments come at a time when there is an escalating war of words on the issue of network costs between supporters of 3G and WiMAX backers. At around the same time at another conference in the US, Qualcomm executive vice president Len Lauer was saying that WiMAX has a cost disadvantage compared to WCDMA or CDMA2000. Interestingly, Lauer was an executive at Sprint when it decided to rollout WiMAX.

According to Owen, however, WiMAX is comparable to GSM technologies in terms of standardisation, spectrum availability and volume and scale, with the advantage that its lack of heritage means it doesn’t have to worry about backwards-compatibility issues – something the GSM camp is forced to consider when moving to higher bandwidth upgrades such as LTE.

Other speakers at the WiMAX Strategies Asia were more circumspect. Maurie Dobbin, Managing Director of TeleResources Australia, noted that the analyst community “has no clear view” on which technology is the cheaper to deploy or holds a technical advantage.

Martin Venzky-Stalling, managing director of Ovum Consulting, noted that governments in Asia are keen on WiMAX in their efforts to bridge the digital divide, but he also noted that deployment costs will depend on the network configuration. “WiMAX could be more expensive to deploy because bandwidth drops dramatically as you move away from the base station,” he suggested.

Amrish Kacker, head of wireless and multimedia, Asia, Analysys Consulting, also suggested that deployment costs would depend on network configuration. “If you want performance like a cellular network, then the investment will be the same, but you don’t need to do that,” he said, noting that WiMAX operators could opt for more gradual growth, particularly if they are not offering voice service.

Kacker also agreed that personal electronics devices would start to ship with embedded WiMAX and suggested that so-called “personal broadband” would be the next stage of broadband growth.

“The proliferation of personal devices with connectivity has only just begun,” he said. “The delivery of voice in emerging markets is wireless and it will be for the Internet as well.” He added that portable personal broadband is a logical next service in saturating broadband markets

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