xenophon
join:2007-09-17
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
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WiMAX is not just about performance, it is a different business model. WiMAX could be available on any type of consumer electonics device, whether gps device that auto downloads maps/POI, IP radio, refrigerator, PSP/gameboy, cameras, DVD player, anything that could benefit from the net. You can't buy a laptop w/out WiFi today. In a few years, you won't be able to buy a laptop w/out Wifi/WiMAX.
WiMAX has no royalties and doesn't need certification with carriers, meaning it's very easy for consumer electronic makers to just pop in the WiMAX/WiFi chip and release. There are no contracts involved. You see a signal present and use if you want to or not. People will be buying WiMAX devices at Best Buy and not even know it. It's self-marketing. You could have a dozen devices on one account. The WiMAX forum is not doing a very good job explaining that this model is the advantage, not performance.
HSDPA/LTE/EVDO will be limited to cellphone and laptops. They will likely not make it to consumer devices because of royalties, certifications and too much carrier control. It's not the pro-consumer business model that WiMAX has. You have to sign up and then select devices, likely buying direct from carrier. It's also not as spectrally efficient. LTE needs 20mhz for 100Mbps while WiMAX only needs 10Mhz for the same.
But this isn't about performance. There's too much focus on that. It's like the Ghz issue for a business laptop. No one needs 4Ghz for spreadsheets and email. No one needs 10Mbps for web browsing and email. 2-4Mbps will be good enough for 90% of mobile device uses. Latency and QoS will be good enough for VoIP. It's about the internet on any device, not just cellphones and laptops. |
