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Mobile
Betting Billions On WiMax
It is tough to bet against Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner, Clearwire, and Sprint, which today announced they are putting together a deal that some value at around $12 billion to build a nationwide, high-speed wireless network. Intel, in addition to its dominating position in the chip market, also was the company that introduced Wi-Fi to the world by adding it to every new PC chipset and certifying wireless hotspots in cafes, hotels, and other public locations. If Intel is involved, that's a good reason to be optimistic. The company plans to add WiMax technology to laptops and other mobile Internet devices. The cable TV companies are looking for a wireless service to add to their TV-voice-Internet bundle to better compete against Verizon and AT&T, so it's obvious why they're participating and investing $3.2 billion, according to the Sprint announcement. And GoogIe sees this as another avenue for selling ads. Sprint and Clearwire have been big promoters of WiMax, but their on-again, off-again, partnership didn't have money or the clout to make it happen themselves. Now, this new coalition can provide the cash and the distribution channels to ensure this effort has a decent chance of success. But wait a minute. Does WiMax really work? Can it provide the faster speeds and broader coverage to make it the new and improved Wi-Fi? That is still unclear. One of the first operators of a WiMax network calls it a "disaster" and says it "failed miserably" in Australia, according to a report by our Eric Zeman. Buzz Broadband CEO Garth Freeman told a conference recently that "WiMax may not work." His complaints: non-line of sight performance was "nonexistent" beyond just 2 kilometers from the base station; indoor performance decayed at just 400 meters; latency rates reached as high as 1,000 milliseconds; and the high latency and network jitters made WiMax unusable for many Internet applications, including VoIP. Critics say Freeman's had problems because he built a network on the cheap. A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald says Freeman under-provisioned his network and that's the reason for its poor performance. The new company being formed will go by the name Clearwire and will be run by Craig McCaw, a guy with a pretty long track record of success in the wireless industry. The combination of Intel and McCaw makes me think that WiMax will eventually work and the long-promised wireless Web will appear. But deployment of new technology never happens as quickly as promised, as we've seen time and time again. I hope that WiMax is real and does what it promises. As a professional skeptic and cynic, I have my doubts. But I now think it has a fighting chance to develop into something really useful -- and perhaps even important. « 3G iPhone All But Confirmed. Launch Imminent? | Main | Savvy CIOs Market Their Successes » |
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