RIP Wimax?

[EMP]

"Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel’s embattled chief executive, stepped down on Monday after the board started searching for a replacement amid investor concerns about the mobile carrier’s loss of subscribers and dismal financial performance."

"More recently Mr Forsee pledged to spend up to $5bn building a new nationwide wireless broadband network based on a relatively new technology called WiMax. The future of that project could now be in doubt."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/480b35e6-75e7-11dc-b7cb-0000779fd2ac.html

[Jo]

better not or motorola who had puts its hopes in 4G on wimax again would be wasting money...

[EMP]

better not or motorola who had puts its hopes in 4G on wimax again would be wasting money...

I got a 7,2Mbps 3G turbo USB-moden for free in june.

If someone gave me a Wimax-modem for free, I would say no.
Why would I? When I can surf the net for 10€/month flatrate
on a 7,2Mbps 3G turbo USB-moden.

[EMP]

better not or motorola who had puts its hopes in 4G on wimax again would be wasting money...


If Motorola still have hopes for Wimax, I think they are in trouble.

1. "AT&T, en av Ericssons viktigaste kunder i USA, har köpt licensspektrum i 700 MHz-bandet för 16 miljarder kronor. Frekvenserna omfattar motsvarande 200 miljoner invånare i USA och ska användas för 3G och mobilt bredband. Analytiker betecknar affären som ett kap."
http://www.etn.se/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22588&Itemid=126
Translated:
AT&T one of Ericssons most imported customers in USA, has bought
licens for 700Mhz spectrum for 16B SEK(2,5B$). These frequeces can reach 200 million citizens in USA and will be used for 3G and mobile broadband.
Analysts says its a bargin deal.

2."Wall Street analysts and investors say Sprint's WiMax dreams are an unnecessary and dangerous diversion for the company,"
"They should stop the WiMax rollout immediately," said Patrick Comack, an equities analyst with Zachary Research."
"Since Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005, the company's stock has declined roughly 27 percent. And as competitors such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless add revenue and subscribers, Sprint has steadily been losing customers."
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6212618.html



Rumors says that Sprint has already dumped Wimax and instead uses the
2,6Ghz spectrum for 3G, and they buys the equipment from Ericsson.

3. "Ericsson tänker ta fram produkter för frekvensbandet 2,6 GHz, det band som ska användas för mobilt Wimax i USA.
"2,6 GHz råkar vara det band som Sprint och Clearwire bygger sina Wimaxnät på i USA"
"Enligt Ericsson har intresset även ökat från tillverkare av mobil utrustning för att lansera HSPA-produkter i 2,6 GHz-bandet."
"Ericssons tekniske direktör Håkan Eriksson kallat Wimax för "en historisk parentes"."
http://www.etn.se/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22573&Itemid=126
Translated:
Ericsson will launch equipment for 2,6Ghz, the freq for mobile Wimax
in USA.
2,6Ghz happends to be the freq that Sprint abd Clearwire builds their Wimaxnets in USA.
Ericsson says that the interest has increased for makers of mobile equipment
to launch HSPA-products in 2,6Ghz freq.
Ericssons tech boss Håkan Eriksson says Wimax "will be short lived".

[chlettn]

If someone gave me a Wimax-modem for free, I would say no.
Why would I? When I can surf the net for 10€/month flatrate
on a 7,2Mbps 3G turbo USB-moden.

Yeah, why would anybody want a faster, lower-latency connection for the same price? Truly stupid...

But of course our Ericsson poster boy thinks WIMAX is DOA as Ericsson thinks so...

:eyes:

[neutral]

WiMax is good. But not on mobile phones because I think it suffers from the same flaws of WiFi.. Requires lots of power just to run. It has been a problem ever since the first WiFi PDA or phone was launced and no one seems to be working on a solution. Rather relying on bigger more powerful batteries.

But Wifi was good in that if you do get a connection, its faster and more stable than say 3G or EDGE. WiMax? Well its WiFi on a much much bigger scale? It like WiFi is more suited to say PC networking but PC networks don't really like WiFi because the security protocols are way weaker. For one, you can't actually close the network physically. Its radio frequency unlike traditional cable network.

That said, WiMax is a good thing. Just not for mobile phones... Yet... As with everything and anything tech related. If there is demand, the engineers will find a way to make it happen. Just look at GPS, battery technology, wafer thin screens, etc..

[EMP]

WiMax is good....

Wimax is not good. The business case is zero. Lets do some reality check.
Many companys that have tried Wimax is close to/or has gone Bankrupt.
Sörmlandsnätet has fired almost 90% of all personel, stopped almost all business and Wimax equipment is sold as junk.

Some examples:
1. "Sörmlandsnätet, ett av Sveriges största wimax-nät, är akut konkurshotat och har i princip redan lagt ner hela sin verksamhet."
http://www.nyteknik.se/art/52768
Translated:
Sörmlandsnätet, one of Swedens largest Wimax nets is very close to bankrupcy and has already almost stopped all business.

2. "Det var tur att vi avbröt projektet"
Vetlanda Energi var på väg att skaffa wimax 2005, men avbröt upphandlingen när licenserna försenades. I stället valde Vetlanda att samarbeta med mobiloperatören Tre, som placerat ut 40 basstationer i området för att erbjuda mobilt bredband.
-Det var tur det. Jag har förstått att många wimax-byggare underskattat den småländska granskogen, säger Christer Löfberg, chef för bredband på Vet*landa Energi.
Translated:
It was lucky that we cancelled the project.
Vetlanda energy was close to buy Wimax 2005, but stopped the deal when licens was delayed. Instead did Vetlanda choose to cooperate with mobile company 3,
that has delivered 40 sites in the area to provide mobile broadband.
It was luck, I have heard the many has underestimated the Smålänska forrets, says Chiste Löfberg, boss for broadband on Vetlanda energy.

3. "Våra krav uppfylldes inte"
2005 slöt Ljungby Energinät ett avtal med Nowire för att kunna erbjuda bredband med wimax till cirka 2000 hushåll. En pilotinstallation uppfördes.
-Men våra krav uppfylldes inte. Granskogen gjorde att signalerna inte gick fram. Tack vare ett avtal kunde vi backa ur hela projektet.
Translated:
Our demands was not met.
2005 did Ljungby energinät close a deal with Nowire to get Wimax broadband to 2000 households. A pilot project was launched.
But our demands was not met. The forrest did that the coverage was very bad. Because a good deal we could stop the whole project.

[EMP]

Wimax is in free fall.
5 Billion$ Wimax investment is going down the drain.


"Sprint Nextel, Clearwire Drop Plans for Joint WiMax Network"

"Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. are scrapping their agreement to
jointly build a nationwide high-speed wireless network based on WiMax technology, people familiar with the matter say."
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119457536653487513.html