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Will soon-to-be President Obama put WiMAX on top?
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During the Consumer Electronics show earlier this month, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said his company would be advising soon-to-be President Barack Obama to focus on wireless broadband and WiMAX as a way to get broadband access to every community in America. And I have to ask: Will it be Obama who makes mobile WiMAX become the widespread technology Intel has been trying to make it be for the last few years?
Reports indicate the president-elect is considering a broadband plan funded from of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation's wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation technologies and new tax and loan incentives. Business Week recently reported the new Obama administration wants to put $20 billion to $30 billion into broadband buildout initiatives through these tax incentives.
The stakes are high for Intel and its quest to see mobile WiMAX succeed. It has invested $1 billion in the new Clearwire (the largest single investment Intel Capital has made), led standards bodies, built chips, funded early network development and pumped a lot of money into WiMAX vendors and operators to make sure this technology has a global footprint.
The hope is that computer manufacturers will see WiMAX is big enough to incorporate the technology into laptops, thus increasing the demand for its chipsets. But first, Intel needs to see a widespread interest in mobile WiMAX to drive interest in WiMAX-enabled laptops and other devices. So far, Intel has made a lot of investments and spoken of many ambitious plans, but has had difficulty driving the vast deployments it seeks.
Clearwire is supposed to be the operator that accelerates WiMAX and drives demand for Intel-powered chips. But things are off to a rocky start. Commercial networks are available so far in Baltimore and Portland, Ore., and Intel has already taken a $950 million write down from its investment in the operator. And the economy may slow down Clearwire's rollouts this year. Meanwhile, LTE, which has been adopted by the world's major mobile operators, is gaining ground.
That leaves Intel to do some heavy lobbying on Capitol Hill. If WiMAX found a home in every community in the U.S., that would be a major coup for the technology.--Lynnette
Comments
Posted by Jim A | January 15, 2009 - 10:50am
Still leaning towards the big Carriers I see.
Would like to see a serious technical review of LTE, what it can really deliver in 2010/2011 vs future technical enhancements, and spefically the Marketing spin Verizon Wireless is putting on deploying its 700Mhz LTE network by end of 2009.
I do have issues with WiMAX as designed, specifically Clears dependence on the 2.5Ghz spectrum for a real Mobile network-This is more like a serious Fixed and Portable Broadband Service with select mobile coverage where Foliage is involved.
WiMAX will rule when someone figures out that they need the 700Mhz (30Mhz minimum)and or the new White Space spectrum to effectively provide a robust Broadband Wireless network. The CellCO lobby made sure the FCC kept the 700Mhz auction spectrum at a lame 12Mhz which effectively relgated the service to a very limited coverage area focused primarily on Data Services.
LTE-What about the issue of the various vendors and their Base Station designs and the professed Interoperability of same, not to mention what do the Data/Voice handsets makers focus on anyway?
Just watch what Google does with the new White Space spectrum and how Intel switches over to these Sub 400Mhz channels.
This is a very interesting market and you have a great pulpit to challenge all these marketers to come clean.
Jim A.
Posted by JA | January 15, 2009 - 11:10am
Mobile operators have been ripping us for many years; just like VoIp took over traditional telco, so should WiMax win the day over Mobile folks..
Posted by katurcot | January 15, 2009 - 12:18pm
I think it would be great to see WiMax in wide use and would help the millions that don't live in major metro areas to get on line. Its hard to imagine anyone still using dial-up but the gap in capability is real. The question is will the idea get bogged down by lobbyists crying, "wait for LTE it will be better". (Of course LTE might be better. And when LTE is available there will be something else that will be better too.) Lets get going!
Posted by John Hunter | January 15, 2009 - 12:45pm
Katurcot,
I concur! With the exponential growth in broadband services over the past 3-5 yrs., what constrains exist on the carrier backbone infrastructures? Sprint/Clearwire has essentially paved the way by "betting the farm" on WiMAX with their spectrum acquisitions (holding X > 100 MHz in most markets nationwide). Granted LTE may eventually meet and/or exceed all broadband wireless expectations but, why wait till 2010 or beyond to realize it? It will be interesting to analyze the results of initial deployments in Baltimore and Portland.
Posted by Anonymous | January 15, 2009 - 9:56pm
Things always look better on paper, which is the current status of LTE (standard not finalized, no ecosystem, no certification, etc.) Wireless is the cheapest way to bring broadband to rural areas now and WiMAX is readily available.
Posted by Alex Alexander | January 15, 2009 - 11:11pm
LTE doesn't exist yet. Obama's plan is not going to help LTE 2 years from now. It is going to help WiMAX 2 months from now.
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