Broadband Reports rehashes the WiMAX vrs LTE question:
The general consensus seems to be that Sprint’s service could easily be a disruptive force in the short term, given that 4Mbps device-agnostic wireless service would appeal to many users of slower, restrictive 3G services. Customers may also find Sprint’s promise of no long term contracts or early termination fees very appealing.
Ultimately though Sprint, who’s in the midst of layoffs and a management shakeup, may not be able to survive competitively against LTE and the collective industry muscle of both Verizon & AT&T. Many analysts think it won’t be long before Xohm is spunoff.
Anyone care to speculate on Sprint’s Xohm plans?
A partnership with SK Telecom and a media company, such as MSN, Fox, Satellite or even Yahoo might make sense. My hunch is that Clearwire dropped out of the spectrum sharing deal with Sprint for a reason — perhaps they got an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Like from Google or Echostar.
Google Apps will be used by Clearwire. But “free” or cheap service (with advertising) might not make sense to Sprint which has a cell phone business to run.
Google also has a partnership with EchoStar to sell advertisements on the Dish satellite network while Clearwire and EchoStar have a partnership for broadband access.
Triple play.
In other news, WiMAX Forum chief Ron Resnick is miffed about all the loose talk about FDD plans for WiMAX (see DailyWireless: WiMAX Uncloaks FDD).
“Contrary to any of the unofficial statements made recently, the WiMAX Forum has not made any Board-approved policy or determination of when FDD mobile WiMAX system or certification profiles will be created,” said the WiMAX Forum boss.
Paul Senior, CTO of Airspan and founding member of the WiMAX Forum, was quoted as saying, “The WiMAX forum will have an FDD profile for Mobile WiMAX inside six months. We’ve been working on it for the last 12 months.”
According to Resnick, the WiMAX Forum has been only exploring profiles for FDD certification. “No decision has yet been made when to propose an FDD evolution of the WiMAX IMT-2000 air interface to the ITU.”
Oh. Right. Thanks for clearing that up, Ron.
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