Publisher's Note:  Improved job listings and free listings for employers

We at FierceMarkets are constantly seeking ways to make our publications more valuable to you. One of the most frequent requests we get is for more and better job resources.

So, as a service to both job seekers and hiring companies, we recently launched an improved version of our job boards. To make this as valuable as possible for you, we're now allowing employers to post job opportunities for free. (HR departments, take note!) Our goal is to make our job boards the No. 1 destination for elite executives and recruiters in the wireless and telecom industries. 

To view current opportunities or to start posting jobs, click here.
To receive a bi-weekly update highlighting new job postings, sign up for our job alert.

As you can see from the site, our new job board is already taking off. So check it out, and let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

Jeff Giesea
Publisher
jeff@fiercemarkets.com

P.S. For those of you seeking even greater visibility for your recruitment effort, email Kristen Hostetter or call 202-628-8778 x 11 for more information on how we can help you get the word out.

The WiMAX hype hit an all-time high in 2007, and now we sit on the edge of our seats waiting for it all to come to fruition next year. Sprint, the technology's primary evangelist in the operator community, was just the catalyst the technology needed to move forward in 2007 as the operator helped move the ecosystem along.

Meanwhile, the muni-WiFi market, which hit the upper curve of the hype cycle in 2006, came crashing to reality as providers realized there isn't much of a business case in offering free access to residents. The technology's limitations became apparent. WiFi isn't meant to be a high-scale network, and the cost to blanket a city is more than what was ever anticipated.

Will WiMAX go down the same path as the muni-WiFi market in terms of market expectations? 2008 should be an interesting year.--Lynnette

P.S. FierceBroadbandWireless will take a publishing break until Jan. 3. Enjoy the holidays!

WiMAX was all the rage in 2007, that is until Sprint Nextel fell on hard times and ended its buildout partnership with Clearwire. Sprint has been the chief evangelist of of mobile WiMAX, setting the pace for development and pushing interoperability. Today, speculation remains as to whether Sprint will spin the business off entirely or severely curtail its nationwide rollout. That is for newly appointed CEO Dan Hesse to decide. One thing is for sure, WiMAX's chief evangelist, Barry West, head of Sprint's WiMAX initiative, is eerily quiet these days. This summer he banged the drum around open access and the fact that WiMAX will usher in a new paradigm shift for the wireless industry. But those working with Sprint say West and team are moving at full speed despite the uncertainty surrounding the business.

Meanwhile, vendors say WiMAX doesn't need Sprint to build momentum and gain economies of scale as several countries around the world auction spectrum and operators begin detailing their intentions to deploy the technology. For instance, Motorola has 15 commercial contracts globally and 44 active trials. According to Fred Wright, senior vice president with Motorola, the vendor has already shipped tens of thousands of CPE units and more than 2,000 base stations.

The WiMAX Forum yesterday announced the opening of its first certification lab for WiMAX equipment. The forum is expected hundreds of devices to go through certification in 2008.

Related articles:
Motorola shows off mobile WiMAX handoffs Report 
Hesse to take helm at Sprint Report 
Reassessing WiMAX Report

Headlines across the country announced the implosion of the muni-WiFi market as EarthLink, one of the service's largest cheerleaders, pulled back on its initiatives and some cities scrapped their WiFi plans. EarthLink is now looking for strategic alternatives for the business, aka sale, and several municipalities have canceled planned projects. The problems: Usage is low in many cases, scalability has been a challenge, devices and capabilities have been found to be wanting and business models promising free community access have proven not to be be viable, for the most part.

Is this a sign that the muni WiFi market has failed or is the industry settling into a more rational period of deployment based on securing cities as anchor tenants rather than free WiFi access for the masses? We are seeing examples of muni-WiFi done right when the service is used to better municipal services.

Related articles:
Earthlink may bow out of WiFi altogether Report 
Will Earthlink continue to chase the WiFi consumer? Report 
Who would buy Earthlink's business? Report

Google started the movement and Verizon Wireless, once a staunch opponent of the concept, is now embracing it. Open access means operators open up their networks to enable any device and application to run on it. Sprint has been touting the concept for its WiMAX network, saying it will let any WiMAX-certified device on the network (no need for Sprint to certify them) and the company envisions embedded WiMAX chips being included in all types of devices--cars, laptops, cameras, etc. The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that a certain portion of the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum have open-access stipulations attached to it.

Yes, open access is coming, but operators will be experimenting with the concept. The model has the opportunity to provide more innovative services, but operators will have to grapple with the end of device subsidies and finding ways to keep customers loyal.

Related articles:
Verizon Wireless president explains open access Report 
Does open access spell doom for BREW? Report 
AT&T: Open access doesn't apply to iPhone Report

The hype surrounding femtocells reached a fever pitch in 2007. These router-sized mobile home base stations promise to solve the many shortcomings faced by existing WiFi/cellular fixed-mobile convergence services and enable operators to offer consumers high-speed data, VoIP and voice services in the home with reduced infrastructure costs. Operators had begun talking about their trial plans, while Sprint launched commercial services in two markets.

The Femto Forum, an industry group advocating femtocell technology, was born this summer with a handful of smaller vendors, but closed out the year with some 40 members that include Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks, Motorola, and ZTE. Operators have also joined the ranks: Bharti Airtel in India, Bouygues Telecom, Carphone Warehouse Networks, Orsacom Telecom and Telefonica 02.

Still, there's much work to be done before femtocells can become a widespread reality. Chief among them are lack of standards, network integration and cost assumptions.

Related articles:
BT evaluating femtocells Report 
Ericsson bows home femtocell Report

The International Telecommunication Union hasn't officially sanctioned 4G standards yet but chances are they will be based on OFDMA technology and they'll be Long Term Evolution (LTE), the migration path for W-CDMA, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), CDMA2000's path, and an advanced form of WiMAX since WiMAX was officially sanctioned as a 3G technology.

Verizon Wireless nailed its stake in the ground, committing to LTE to align itself with partner Vodafone. The operator's breakaway from its CDMA2000 path puts UMB in jeopardy since Sprint is committed to WiMAX. Since LTE is a 2009 story what type of momentum will WiMAX gain in the interim?

Related articles:
Nokia Siemens in joint LTE development with DoCoMo Report 
LTE could bridge Verizon wireless, wireline Report

The last of the beach front spectrum property comes up for auction in January, and much of 2007 was spent fighting over auctions rules. Google lobbied for open access, while Verizon Wireless and other telcos lobbied against. In the end, the FCC designated 22 megahertz of spectrum for open access, and Verizon Wireless is now embracing the concept. Google intends to bid in the auction. The question is: How aggressive will it be? Barron's handicaps the race.

Top headlines from 2007

> Cisco buys Navini for $330M

> Verizon says it backs LTE, what's in store for UMB?

> It's official: Google to bid in 700 MHz auction

> Verizon Wireless embraces open access

> Aruba jumps on 802.11n bandwagon

> China continues to hedge on 3G

> AT&T makes $2.5B deal for 700 MHz spectrum

> FCC to continue white space testing

> Sprint launches femtocell service in two markets

> NextWave ships WiMAX chipset samples

> AirCell teams with American Airlines for in-flight WiFi

> Earthlink struggling with wireless initiatives

> Google pledges $4.6B if 700 MHz is open

> Amp'd Mobile to shut down service

> Muni-WiFi hit with delays and snags in several cities

AT&T made two big announcements this week regarding its video plans: CFO Rick Lindner said the service provider will stop reselling DirecTV television services during the first quarter of 2008, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that by 2010 the company will have expanded its U-verse IPTV service to 30 million customer locations, including the southeast region served by its BellSouth acquisition. By the end of this year AT&T's U-Verse service will top one million subscribers, far more than the 126,000 subs it had at the end of September.

"We will expand U-verse to 30 million customer locations including the southeast region by the year 2010," Stephenson said. "We know how to scale networks. We started a little wireless business in the '80s, from scratch, and we now have 67 million subscribers. In the '90s, we started a broadband business from scratch--today it's the largest in the U.S., with 14 million subscribers. This decade it's TV. We know how to do this. It will scale just like broadband, just like wireless. Our video build will be more efficient than either our wireless or broadband builds--that's the power of IP."

AT&T also announced that it has expanded its networking capacity to 40 Gbs capacity on more than 50,000 miles of its IP/MPLS national network. The company said the build out is partly to meet the growing demand for bandwidth for online video and other IP services.

For more on the U-Verse plans:
- read this article from Multichannel News

Related articles:
AT&T to bundle U-verse, VoIP Report 
U-verse ups spending, lowers goals Report

According to a report from Telephony Online, Qwest will invest an additional $300 million in capital to roll out fiber to the node networks that will cover 1.5 million homes in 20 markets, however, the service provider does not plan to offer IPTV services over the FTTN networks. Qwest chairman and CEO Ed Mueller said the company will release more details about the FTTN rollout in late February during its analyst day.

"Our fiber-to-the-node network is not intended to deploy of IPTV," Mueller said. "We do not believe the scale and current capital and labor requirements of this type of product support this approach."

Mueller said that Qwest will continue to resell DirecTV satellite video services. It seems like Qwest's decision to forgo building a network for IPTV services, like rivals Verizon and AT&T have done, could pave the way for a rumor we reported on in March. Qwest's CEO at the time, Dick Notebaert, was mulling whether to offer its own video on demand service and simply continue to resell DirecTV for the live feed. Looks like the March rumor is looking more and more likely.

For more on Qwest's FTTN plans:
- read this report from Telephony

Relates articles:
Qwest loses state-wide franchise bill in CO Report 
Qwest future still under review Report