Clearwire Network Build Faces Delays Still faces $2 billion funding gap and tight credit market... Sure, Clearwire and Sprint only just crossed the t's and dotted the i's on their shiny new mobile WiMax joint venture, but it's never too soon to announce (or just hint at) delays! Last December Clearwire CEO Benjamin Wolff said the company might have to slow the deployment speed of the new network if credit markets didn't improve, and this week it's looking like they haven't. Clearwire has told anyone who'll listen they hope to reach 140 million users by 2010 -- but the company needs an additional $2 billion to $2.3 billion to build the network, and Clearwire's saying tight credit could push some markets scheduled for a 2009 launch into 2010.
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 rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | Is this for real? Will it scale? I still have questions as to whether or not this technology will scale to handle 100,000 users per metro area who are all trying to watch simultaneous streaming video. Does it have the negotiation skills to handle the upstream channel contention and downstream bandwidth or will peak periods feel like a 56k modem?
What about packet loss. Most wireless links (even a 20ft distant 802.11a/b/g) have packet loss. In my opinion, packet loss is one of the worst issues on any link. It reduces the experience on even a fast connection to "quirky", at best.
Will WiMax ever be a competitor to Telco and Cable last-mile providers? Is this a pipe dream? | |
|  |  funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5
1 edit | Re: Is this for real? Will it scale? said by rradina:Will WiMax ever be a competitor to Telco and Cable last-mile providers? Is this a pipe dream? I think it is a competitor ... in its current few markets ... and only today ... and maybe that's all it can be: It's far better than 3 Mbps DSL.
Wimax needs to grow (in size) and it needs to grow (in speed). DOCSIS3 is not a threat as long as it remains capped and mis-"managed." Fiber, however, blows the doors off of WiMax and there's just no solving that -- but you can't take fiber with you.
Clear has two things that the other so-called 3G carriers lack: (1) real 4G deployments and (2) wireless spectrum in amazing quantities. As WiMax gets popular, it will need to (and can) grow in network nodes otherwise it will suffer. That's the double-edge to the sword -- Clear has to ensure that WiMax lights up other cities but it has to keep up a lower contention ratio in its deployed cities. Otherwise, customers will reject it. That costs money.
I'd buy a bond if Clear was offering -- this technology is worth it.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon -- KJ7RL
... Do something! ... | |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | wimax is dead Wimax is dead. Its going to be as popular as another limited use proprietary standard called iDEN.
The CDMA/GSM worlds are going to merge because of LTE. Wimax will be the outsider standard that everyone will hate.
And so much for being quicker to market than LTE. Lets hope clearwire can lobby congress to put off the DTV transistion for a few years, and stop LTE for a few years, to give wimax a head start  | |
| |  MooJohn
join:2005-12-18
Milledgeville, GA
1 edit | Re: wimax is dead Wimax is deployed while LTE is still on the horizon, yet LTE has already won?
Wimax is somehow going to have trouble scaling where LTE will be immune?
People always complain about a lack of choice but they're quick to bash something they have never experienced. Of course it will take time and money to roll out an entire infrastructure!
This topic seems to come up on BBR every few days. This funding issue is still on the front page from last Wednesday Thursday and I'll bet it's been mentioned at least one other time already. I guess they were somehow supposed to have predicted the collapse of the economy when making their rollout plans.
edit: After correcting the date above, I also noticed the same article from last Thursday was linked to on Jan 19th. Outlook = murky; we get it. What company doesn't have a murky outlook these days?
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John M - Cranky network guy | |
| | | | | Re: wimax is dead said by MooJohn:Wimax is deployed while LTE is still on the horizon, yet LTE has already won? As much as I would like to see Wimax succeed it seems like it's just going to stay as a niche mobile broadband technology unless the investors of Clear start pumping in money to build a serious network. At his pace Wimax will be in a few cities by the time LTE comes around (in a year or so with Verizon?). Given the immense backing that LTE has its difficult to see how Wimax is going to be significant at all in the future. | |
| | |  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Yes the economy is going to slow down all rollouts that depend on massive expenditures of capital dollars. The money just isn't there and the stimulus pkg isn't going to change that very much. Too bad Wimax will lose their big headstart, but that is the way it goes. Wimax will probably always be a niche player anyway as long as the AT&T's and Verizon's decide to do something else.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page | |
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| bac522
join:2003-08-04
Manchester, NH | "Proprietary standard"...huh...it's not proprietary at all, it's a open standard define by the IEEE 802.16 spec and there are quite few companies making WiMax products. But where WiMax will fail is in the the mobility arena. Where WiMax will win is in the last mile arena. | |
| | | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | Re: wimax is dead said by bac522:"Proprietary standard"...huh...it's not proprietary at all, it's a open standard define by the IEEE 802.16 spec and there are quite few companies making WiMax products. But where WiMax will fail is in the the mobility arena. Where WiMax will win is in the last mile arena. Sorta how an MP3 encoder is a open standard.
[Pre-Wimax, Fixed Wimax, Mobile Wimax, Wibro, Wimax 20**]*[each country's own wimax frequency bands]*[a particular provider's frequency bands]
Sure its an open standard. | |
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 DaveDudeNo Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey
kudos:1 | Sprint Just go LTE now Sprint needs to realize that wimax is a dud, just like iden. Sprint also had the first GSM network in Washington dc, however they sold it. Just join the rest already and maybe there will have some customers. | |
| | | Wimax & LTE: different markets LTE is just the carriers' "mobile broadband" with faster speeds--in other words it will have the small, 5 GB/month or so caps that EVDO does--or maybe they will increase it to 10 GB/month.
Wimax is a third pipe into the home--with unlimited caps or caps at least 10 times larger.
Thus an LTE user is probably just going to use LTE for limited mobile use--while have DSL, cable or fiber at home. A Wimax user won't need to have a separate DSl/cable/fiber connection. | |
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