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Lumberjack
Premium
join:2003-01-18
Newport News, VA
| reply to DaveNJ
Re: Another Minority tech
And don't think that the same tech will allow a device to roam between them. SIM provides that now with many carriers but phones can still be locked and who know what the next gen phones will do in terms of locking (maybe perm like current sprint/verizon cdma phones).
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»www.fairtax.org | |
xenophon
join:2007-09-17
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| WiMAX is about IEEE specs, not carrier lockdowns. Like WiFi, a consumer electronics maker just needs to drop in a WiMAX-compliant chipset. No need to involve the carrier in the development cycle or testing just as you don't see them dealing with WiFi providers. We'll be able to see WiMAX in any kind of device that could benefit from being on the Net. This simply won't happen with LTE. | |
Luker3
@vt.edu
| Exactly, the idea behind WiMAX is the same as Wi-Fi, you aren't lock to a single service, you go to a hotspot and it is either free or you have to buy service at the counter. With WiMAX you could just login and be connected at much farther distances.
And I thought it was going to be set up so that if you have WiMAX service you could roam into Wi-Fi service area and get the faster Wi-Fi. | |
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| said by Luker3 :
Exactly, the idea behind WiMAX is the same as Wi-Fi, you aren't lock to a single service, you go to a hotspot and it is either free or you have to buy service at the counter. With WiMAX you could just login and be connected at much farther distances.
And I thought it was going to be set up so that if you have WiMAX service you could roam into Wi-Fi service area and get the faster Wi-Fi.
And why is this being deployed by an existing cellphone company? Why does WIMAX require frequency licenses from the govt? Why is Wimax a national network? Why is there a monthly fee? Why isn't it free?
Keep drinking your Koolaid. Wimax is just a cellphone network standard like any other, except it will be force bundled with Intel laptops, and not initially carrier locked. | |
xenophon
join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Actually WiMAX is planned for unlicensed spectrum too but it will show up in licensed first. In the US, Sprint and Clearwire own the bulk of 2.5Ghz spectrum but there are other smaller players already deploying in that range in Madison, MO, TX and other smaller areas. But WiMAX is also targeted at other spectrums. WiMAX also has profiles for 2.3 and 3.5Ghz. 700mhz may be added. And then unlicensed may eventually come.
Sprint/Clearwire don't control WiMAX in the US, they just control 2.5Ghz spectrum in some markets. WiMAX isn't just about 2.5Ghz so isn't just about Sprint/Clearwire.
There will likely be other WiMAX providers in the US down the road even if the major carriers don't go for it.
The challenge will be to get WiMAX chipsets that support all possible spectrums. | |
jay_rm
join:2002-04-12
Netville
·Fox Valley Internet
 ·ViaTalk
| reply to patcat88
said by patcat88  :Keep drinking your Koolaid. Wimax is just a cellphone network standard like any other, except it will be force bundled with Intel laptops, and not initially carrier locked. Actually....
WiMAX was ORIGINALLY designed as a broadband internet access standard. As subscriber 'telephone' devices started to morph into do-all, end-all, bell and whistle boxes, they became more like access modems with telephone call (VoIP ?) like features.
Nextel was desperately behind in 3G+ capability and, with the addition of Sprint, decided to try and end-run the competition by pledging to deploy a broadband access network instead of "just another cell system" (JACS ??  ) The result was that big dollars bought out the original implementers of WiMAX (anybody remember a company called NextNet ?) and the competitors stepped in with UMTS & LTE because they too saw the writing on the wall. Now, WiMAX is in danger of being hijacked for what you called 'just a cellphone network standard'.
You don't happen to work for someone deploying UMTS or LTE, do you ? I, for one, hope WiMAX retains a lot of it's broadband access feel - I have need for rural high speed access - the original plan for the standard.
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3500/512 5.7 GHz Motorola Canopy Wireless; FoxValley.net
"Peace through superior firepower" | |
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| reply to xenophon
said by xenophon :The challenge will be to get WiMAX chipsets that support all possible spectrums. If Intel's first Wimax laptops don't have support for unlicensed spectrum, you can kiss this being a free standard good bye. There will be no installed base of unlicensed spectrum client adapters. Something tells me Intel won't add unlicensed support until a couple revisions, and by then, the existing base of adapters out there will kill any chance unlicensed has. I am very very very worried about what frequencies Intel's chips will support. Since the determines what happens with Wimax market wise. If it only does 2.5ghz, you can be sure Wimax will become a synonym for Sprint like EVDO is for Sprint and Verizon (I don't trust Clearwire in going semi-national). Strategic business decisions already have laptops coming with EVDO and HSDPA cards locked to carriers inside them. Each card that goes out with a laptop, will be highly likely to be activated by Joe Six Pack out of convenience if he decides to get a mobile broadband service.
Sure one day Wimax maybe used by small indie WISPs on unlicensed spectrum, but that will be non-Intel chipsets, and might as well be declared proprietary equipment (and it basically is), since a consumer will have to purchase it, and it might be difficult/impossible to find another provider for 10s/100s of miles that uses the same frequency band. And due to low volumes of unlicensed spectrum Wimax equipment, vendors are going to come out with proprietary "high speed modes" like wifi does today. Indie WISPs will require you buy a card that supports the mode so they can get more data over the same channels/their tower, and nobody will complain either, since its a special purchase anyways like any non-wifi fixed wireless product today.
Obviously Best Buy won't carry these special frequency/non-Intel wimax cards, and thats the market deathknell. Remember, businessmen control all technology rollouts, not geeks. So regardless of what the geeks that made the standard, say, want, try to force, it will be the CEOs who sign off on exactly what to do. Lots of/many features in standards that would be really nice, never get implemented, like SIM cards (called R-UIM) for CDMA (Verizon/Sprint/Alltel) phones. Its no technical reason, all CDMA providers outside North America use those cards, its a business reason why no North America provider uses them.
Time will tell what happens, I've tried to Google up what frequencies Intel will support, but since "use anywhere" Wimax is still vapor ware, I wasn't able to find anything. Pretty pathetic for a standard is supposed to come out 2 years ago, last, this, next year? Googling just now says »download.intel.com/network/conne···2250.pdf
quote:
When combined with the Intel® WiMAX Multi-Band Radio or thirdparty
RFICs, the Intel WiMAX Connection 2250 enables manufacturers
to create a broad range of WiMAX modems and residential
gateways.
Yep, we are going to run into a frequency war, and laptops are going to come with the frequency of the carrier who subsidized/co-branded the Wimax chip. Google doesn't say anything about this radio.
quote:
21. What frequencies will WiMAX technology operate on?
The WiMAX Forum operates in 2.3 – 2.7, 3.4- 6 and 5.8 GHz bands. The WiMAX Forum is working with operators and equipment manufacturers to expand the frequency allocation to cover all the key spectrum bands that our member companies identify as interesting to potential WiMAX service providers such as 700 MHz. For mobile applications, initial profiles have been developed for 2.3, 2.5, and 3.5 GHz. These are to address the current market demands. The WiMAX Forum has the ability to respond rapidly to development of additional profiles as additional spectrum is auctioned or markets change.
»www.wimaxforum.org/technology/faq/
Ok, thats it. My guesses are fact. 5.8 ghz is crap. Try wifi on it. Barly goes through anything, and I don't see why Wimax would be allowed higher transmit power than wifi. And since Intel isn't saying was frequencies, I can guess the Wimax Forum will be the defining body, since IEEE doesn't comment on frequency I belive. Unlicensed Wimax won't exist except as a intra-home WLAN standard competitor to wifi. | |
xenophon
join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | Those are good points and it's possible that Intel could pull a power play and only support 2.5Ghz, which would favor Sprint/Clearwire and cut out many other players in same markets. But if someone wants to do WiMAX in 700mhz or other spectrum, Intel would be foolish to limit themselves to just 2.5Ghz. I don't see them limiting themselves.
Intel also needs global support and 2.5Ghz isn't the only spectrum in play globally.
So there's a chance some power playing will go on. That's common in all areas of the telcom industry. But there will still be opportunities for more WiMAX players in same markets and competition beyond Sprint/Clearwire in the US. Those two are just simply first in US.
Unlicensed spectrum could turn out to be niche like you said. It has interference issues with other devices, which they are still working on, so may have to be limited to smaller range.
So while you could say that licensed spectrum isn't as open as unlicensed, the WiMAX ecosystem targeting consumer products is clearly more open than the traditional telcom product controls. | |
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