Scott Berry

WiMax Empire Poses Continual Threat to the AT&T Network

Everyone here seems to be missing a critical distinction. While there have been some modest successes in WiMax so far, they've all been fixed wireless. No one has (to my knowledge) deployed a successful *mobile* WiMax network--successful in the sense of operation or profitability. There is no 3-year head start over LTE here.

As for Sprint/Clearwire, the latter has mostly been focused on slower 1-2 Mb/s fixed and nomadic deployments, to decidedly mixed customer reviews. Sprint is 8-12 months behind their initial WiMax deployment plans, and that's before the distraction that is being caused by the joint venture.

I suspect both technologies will coexist eventually and perhaps complement each other in some ways. But it's not a slam dunk for WiMax by ANY indication.

Nationwide WiMAX: Who Benefits?

Wow. Who ever thought sacred cow tipping could be such fun. Good thing Tony Stark lent me one one of his spare suits over the weekend.

@Vlad has this mostly right. Do I think WiMax would be bad for consumers? Hell no, I frankly hope CLWR succeeds, there's a huge demand for what it promises. I'll be first in line.

Do I think the technology itself will fail? No, not at all. I do question whether this implies that everyone who deploys it will succeed, or even has a winning business plan. But I'm happy to be educated.

Can someone point to an existing WiMax deployment that consistently delivers high bandwidth service--fixed or mobile--to an appreciable portion of the local consumer population? (Trials don't count, the ability to scale is important here.) And is the operator solvent? If WiMax is truly "available today" this should be easy.

A good portion of the advantage WiMax has over WiFi is in the higher power allowed in licensed vs. unlicensed spectrum. What is the additional battery drain on your laptop due to the higher power required to achieve this advantage? How much longer will you spend charging your batteries (keeping you wired)?

WiFi has had some successes and some (big) failures in both small muni and larger metro settings. Maybe it will take WiMax many such tries to get it right. How do we know CLWR isn't another WiFi Philadelphia? Plenty of smart people dumped money into that one. For that matter, how do we know it isn't another Metricom?

Finally, @Pullease--"shill for the legacy companies"? Them's fightin' words, mister.