Curtain Rises On Wimax
Filed Under Country Curtain | Posted on September 29, 2008
Baltimore usually isn’t considered a technology mecca. But many people in Silicon Valley, and other high-tech centers, will be watching closely to see what happens after Sprint Nextel Corp. flips the switch on a new wireless network Monday.
The service is a milestone in the gestation of WiMax, a technology that chip giant Intel Corp. and its allies have spent six years developing. Baltimore residents will be the first in the U.S. to be offered a version of WiMax that both provides wireless Internet access to home users and allows laptop users with special modems to stay connected around town at speeds comparable with wired broadband services.
Companies with 3G services expect to add faster variants soon, but WiMax backers believe they have a sustainable edge in cost. Clearwire’s Mr. Wolff estimates that his company will be able to transmit a bit of data for about a tenth the cost of 3G networks.
Others aren’t so sure, since 3G services have a head start and can use larger volumes to drive costs down. The WiMax launch “is a good thing for the marketplace, but I think it’s going to be a very challenging business model and AT&T and Verizon will be able to respond,” Mr. Belk says.
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