Comments on: Sprint's WiMax efforts doomed to failure?

The company's new 4G network shows early signs of performing well, but it could be headed down the same road as EarthLink's citywide Wi-Fi.

[michialt]

For what it's worth y'all mention how many laptop users would be sitting in coffee shops and parked cars where WiFi is already available.

I am one of those Laptop users, and for 4 years I was a T-Mobile subscriber, and about a year ago I purchased a wireless card from Sprint for Internet Access. Initially I kept my T-Mobile subscription active, but once the card proved reliable I discontinued the T-Mobile account, and now use Sprint for all my mobile needs. The freedom to chose where I wanted to work was worth the extra $40 that I pay to sprint for the card. Now I am not limited to just coffee shops etc.

I think that as more business travelers realize this type of freedom the wireless networks like sprint are offering will increase in popularity, and pricing will be less of an issue, and reliability will increase in importance.

My only complaint about my EVDO card is that speeds are inconsistent, and something on their network seems to prevent the transfer of medium to large files.

[wperry1]

I work in the IT department of a medium sized company and we have seen the same thing. We have about a 50/50 split of users with/without air-cards. The users with them use them in hotels and other locations with WiFi available mostly because they don't have to deal with the issues that come up every time you connect to a different WiFi system. It may be slower, sometimes, but it always works and always connects with one click and that has value.

That said, if they want penetration into the home broadband market they are going to have to come up with some better incentives... I can get Comcast Triple play and pay only $33/mo with free cable modem and install. I'm not going to shell out $80 for a proprietary WiMax modem for a slower, less reliable service that might not be there in a year to save $8/mo.

[rmva]

Duh! WiMax is a failure because it is only available in one city and will soon be overtaken by AT&T's service which isn't available in any cities.

[thelemurking]

I love the commercials for AT&T how they seem to keep spotlighting the fact that you will have signal in Europe. Big f'n deal! How many of us actually travel to Europe on a regular basis? I want speed and reliability in my own back yard and do not care about whether or not I would have service on other continents.

You cannot claim WiMax to be a failure 2 days after going live. It's in a test market right now, but once they go live in other major cities and we start to see 4g phones, then you will see much more interest in WiMax.

I'm currently a Sprint customer and own an Instinct, well actually as of this week, I am now on my 3rd Instinct because of how often they crash, lock up, freeze and reset. If anything is doomed to fail with Sprint, it will be Sprint itself. They are horrible at customer service, they don't care about the customer experience, they are horribly slow at releasing updates and fixes, they have no idea how to communicate information back to the customer. It's no wonder they are in last place in nearly every category. The one big thing they have going for them are the Simply Everything Plans. Those are fantastic and kill any plan on any other carrier.

[nreddyk]

This article is a hit piece. Nothing but pure FUD! Shame on you Marguerite Reardon.

[jefferyrlsmith]

I agree completely - any one under the age of 22 or 23 is growing up in a world surrounded by internet and any technology that makes that connection more seamless is going to win out. WiMAX is here now and has been in use in Europe and Asia for the past year or more- I don't buy into these dotes at AT&T or Verizon who want me to wait 3 or 4 years for LTE. For shame Margie...

[rmva]

I'm sure there was wise pundit in Scandinavia who said many of the same things about Nokia's first cell towers.

[i_am_still_wade]

Oh course it is doomed to failure! This is Sprint you are talking about, a company that is struggling with 1G! Now if this was Verizon or T-Mobile or Alltel or AT&T or anyone else, it would work. Well maybe with AT&T. You have to learn to crawl before you walk. Sprint should first fix the dropped calls and poor customer service first.

[chishmishdeez]

Cut the BS Sprint's EVDO is way faster than ATT Crap........ You are one of those people who do not want to change ...

[Rawnchie14]

What dropped calls and bad coverage do you speak of? This isn't AT&T and the iPhone we're talking about, it's Sprint.

Quit the Sprint hate train you misinformed bandwagoner. I love when people are unable to formulate their own opinions these days.

[AppleSuxLeo]

More FUD from the BS experts at Cnet ;)

[chishmishdeez]

I agree with AppleLeo

[gerrrg]

Commerical, citywide WiFi was doomed because it has limited coverage. I'd be outside, a block away from a WiFi commercial antenna, and I'd still barely see it show up on my handheld, and it took forever to connect. At home I'd see a couple of them show up, but could never connect to them.

Now just think about the amount of infrastructure required to bring that citywide WiFi online. Every three blocks an antenna. Compare that to WiMax and we're talking a lot fewer antennae to maintain, on the order of 100x less.

In comparison to 3G, WiMax has better throughput, and is priced similarly. Cricket Wireless has similarly priced plans with lower throughput for wireless broadband.

Those fixed broadband prices are limited to initial pricing, and all require package deals. I can not understand the reason why people duplicate service with their landline phone and cell phone service. Likewise that so-called triple-play from Comcast is a pure waste of money. The DSL pricing also requires phone service - a big drawback for someone like me that has given up both cable and landline phones for an all-wireless lifestyle.

Incidentally, if Clearwire doesn't get WiMax operating soon, I'll probably end up going with Cricket's HSDPA without contracts.

[Randy549]

I live in a semi-rural area just outside the reach of DSL. Currently, satellite is my only broadband option (and at 512kbps it technically doesn't even qualify as 'broadband' but it definitely beats dial-up). Satellite is more expensive than Sprint's WiMax offering and the latency is between 1 and 2 seconds (signal has to travel 72,000 miles round trip to the satellite), which has bad effects on https and other encrypted traffic. So I would jump at the chance to get on Sprint's offering if I could. Too bad they seem to be targeting only the areas with extremely high population density -- which are exactly the areas already served by cable, DSL and FIOS. If they instead focused on areas *just outside* zones with high population density (whose current options are dialup and satellite only), they would have a very receptive market.

[TV James]

The biggest problem with this offering is Sprint. They couldn't produce useful mud if you gave them water, dirt, a mixing bowl and spoon and unlimited access to a mud-creating expert.

@Randy549 - isn't that kind of a duh? Rural might be receptive, but the per subscriber acquisition costs are going to be much higher, not to mention build-to-use ratios. Economies of scale. Go where the people are.

[rtuinenburg]

Compelling devices will drive demand for this service. One device that will cause a real stir would be a device that is as small as a cell phone and is capable of using skype and uses wimax for its access. That phone should be bundled with the service, I realize that would kill your cellular business, but that is inevitable.

[jacomo]

Sprint WiMAX and Earthlink's Mesh networks=apples & oranges.
Earthlink was doomed from the start because it committed to deploy the network using a Tropos Mesh product, that out of the box was limited to dual radios that could not provide the Broadcast and Backhaul functions cost effectively in any true Broadband Wireless network. In short in order to provide the coverage needed in the Philly market the provider had to deploy 3 to 4 times as many Mesh Nodes/sq mile as planned in the business model. In addition it proposed an unrealistic Free type service offering to some subscribers, attempting to appease Digital Divide advocates.
Whereas Sprint has a solid cost model in place, has extensive experience in modeling a Service and is able to deliver serious broadband services in designated coverage areas, they will succeed as set providers begin releasing new handheld and portable devices. They will use these new networks to test the various vendors Base & Customer devices and eventually standardize on one or 2 sources.
The only limitation I see in Sprint and Clearwires long term plans is their dependance upon the 2.5Ghz spectrum which will show its limitations when these folks try and extend these network into distant suburbs and rural markets-Foliage and select structures will kill this spectrum.
What these folks and WiMAX needs to be competitive with future 700Mhz LTE networks, is a means to deploy either AWS-1, 700Mhz or the new White Space (Unlicensed) spectrum networks.


Jim A

[scottbuster]

The service is up and running in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Dallas as well. i found directions for connecting in those cities yesterday as well as speed test results from Chicago area.

Once coverage is as good as the 3G networks this is going to be a great option for anyone traveling or rural areas with no wired broadband.

speed tests and info on using XOHM in other cities:
http://www.4ginfo.com/

[mgof18]

First, Xohm is not going to be a Sprint company anymore. It will be a separate company called Clearwire once the FCC approves the merger (said to be in the 4th quarter). So, if you are in an area with Wi-Max services, you will essentially be able to buy it through Clearwire directly, probably through Sprint, and possbily through your cable company. xohm is essentially the testing grounds to see what is going to work in the real world (pricing strategy, customer, network, etc). Clearwire will be the fully baked goods.. Comparing citi wide wi-fi to Wi-Max is laughable! Ask anyone who is tech savy if they would like to have a card that allows them to serf the internet unlimited for 30 dollars! No contract, and you can share that with other devices!

[rfergusoct]

In reporting that devices are not available to access the Wimax networks, the commentators miss the oint eintities other than Sprint are pushing Wimax technology. Intel is perhaps the biggest advocate. Within 12 months probably all laptops will be Wimax enabled. Intel and others with a stake inthe success of Wimax are providing the basic financing for the Sprint/Clearwire deployment. Also, this technology is already deployed elsewhere in the world, particularly Asia. World-wide demand rather than American demand may be the driving force for the development and deployment of this technology.

I don't think the Earthlink analogy applies to Wimax.

[johnmiloo]

I believe this article is BS. Read the following from paragraph from HowStuffWork website:
"In practical terms, WiMAX would operate similar to WiFi but at higher speeds, over greater distances and for a greater number of users. WiMAX could potentially erase the suburban and rural blackout areas that currently have no broadband Internet access because phone and cable companies have not yet run the necessary wires to those remote locations. "
ALSO:
A WiMAX tower, similar in concept to a cell-phone tower - A single WiMAX tower can provide coverage to a very large area -- as big as 3,000 square miles (~8,000 square km)
Even if the cost of each Antenna around $10m ( I have no idea how much each cost, just a number), covering 100 Big cities will only cost $1B which is not bad. Sprint already has the fibers running and owns the towers. So the cost should not be that bad.
Also do not forget that people will like the mobility of this device because they will save money by not paying to two provider for the home service and their Star bucks (T-mobile) service.

[johnmiloo]

I believe this article is BS and wrong. Read the following paragraph from HowStuffWork website:
"In practical terms, WiMAX would operate similar to WiFi but at higher speeds, over greater distances and for a greater number of users. WiMAX could potentially erase the suburban and rural blackout areas that currently have no broadband Internet access because phone and cable companies have not yet run the necessary wires to those remote locations. "
ALSO:
A WiMAX tower, similar in concept to a cell-phone tower - A single WiMAX tower can provide coverage to a very large area -- as big as 3,000 square miles (~8,000 square km)
Even if the cost of each Antenna around $10m ( I have no idea how much each cost, just a number), covering 100 Big cities will only cost $1B which is not bad. Sprint already has the fibers running and owns the towers. So the cost should not be that bad.
Also do not forget that people will like the mobility of this device because they will save money by not paying to two provider for the home service and their Star bucks (T-mobile) service.

[thirdpipe]

Explain to me how $50 a month for both fixed and mobile service is not competitive? Sure, larger coverage is needed,and is coming. Also coming - Wimax VoIP handsets. Me thinks the author of this piece is either naive or in the tank for a WiMax competitor.

[digitanomad]

I too think you have missed the mark with this article. WiMAX will succeed because it will be deployed worldwide, and because it is backed by companies like Intel. It should be interesting to watch you back peddle in the months and years to come.

It may take some time to catch on in the over-regulated duopoly that exists in North America, but no way WiMAX will fail as a standard in the marketplace. Have you missed all the emerging world markets where wireless will be the norm? Do some research and read between the lines and you will see that this is Intel's next big play for the new term future.

Everything, from "Atom" on is geared for this push for ubiquitous computing. Google also backs this
technology, and Craig McCaw is behind it with Clearwire and a host of other industry leaders as investors in WMAX.

[jamworks]

As 3G cell phone users gradually die of brain cancer, or automobile accidents, WiMax will play a major role in the home.