The game’s out there, and it’s play or get played. That simple. - The Wire
After what seems like an eternity of delays, XOHM is Live in Baltimore. Baltimore may not be the first city to experience next generation mobile broadband (Idaho Falls, might claim that), but it’s the first from XOHM, Sprint’s WiMAX unit.
Sprint has updated their web site with coverage maps, XOHM ready devices, and service options. According to the Baltimore Sun, Sprint’s network in the city is more than half complete and available now to the public, with coverage in large sections of the city and some parts of Baltimore County (map). Sprint is providing the service with 180 mobile WiMax 802.16e base stations dotted around Baltimore, reports Unstung. “We’re adding more every week,” says Sprint spokesman John Polvika.
“This is truly an historic day with the birth of a completely new Internet-based business model that alters the dynamics of the traditional telecom industry,” explained Barry West, president of Sprint’s XOHM business unit. “Wireless consumers will experience WiMAX device and XOHM service innovation on multiple levels as the computer, Internet, telecom and consumer electronics industries converge to redefine wireless mobility.”
Sprint says it will provide download speeds of 2 to 4 megabits per second, about twice as fast as the current cellular broadband networks of Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, for half the cost.
The Xohm service is available with no long-term contracts. XOHM Service Options include:
- Home: a wireless alternative to basic DSL and Cable Modems. It’s $25/mo for the first 6 months, after that $35/month.
- On-the-Go: Mobile broadband service, works as fast around town as it does at home. It costs $30/month for the first 6 months, after that, $45/month
- Pick 2: Choose 2 different device types and get online for a single monthly fee. A mobile alternative to basic DSL. It costs $50/month as long as you’re a member. (You save $15 off the regular price of $65/month).
- Daily On-the-Go: A no-commitment mobile broadband service with 24 continuous hours of internet service. It costs $10/day.
Apparently, a VoIP option that allows you to plug ordinary phones into a WiMAX terminal jack, and mobile voice are still in the works.
XOHM Mobile WiMAX modems include the ZyXEL MAX-206m2 ($79), a stand alone device with 2 Ethernet RJ45 ports and 2 RJ11 analog VoIP ATA ports (inactive, for future use), the XOHM ExpressCard by Samsung and the XOHM USB dongle (coming soon).
Laptops & Mobile Devices being promoted with the Xohm service include the Nokia Internet Tablet and Intel Centrino 2 laptops.
Sprint and Samsung declared Mobile WiMax ready for commercial service earlier this year. Before the end of the year, Sprint says it will launch a dual-mode client that can roam between its 3G and WiMAX networks. That should be helpful in the first few years, when users can easily fall off the end of the WiMAX earth. Phones may appear next year. Google phones, too.
Intel will begin shipping its WiMAX/Wi-Fi 5050 PCI card ($50) later this year, which will enable WiMAX on Centrino 2 laptops. The Echo Peak module (left) shares MIMO antennas embedded in a laptop lid for both WiFi and WiMAX.
In Centrino 2 laptops, two versions of “Echo Peak” are available: 1×2 and 3×3 MIMO configurations. A 1×2 configuration in the 5150 (Echo Peak) module means one antenna is used for uploading, while two are used for downloading. Three antennas are utilized with the 5350 Echo Peak module for faster speed with longer range (but requiring more power).
At launch, XOHM portal will offer location-based content from:
- uLocate, the primary partner in building XOHM’s location enabled mobile experience, is providing its WHERE platform and Buddy Beacon. Through WHERE, XOHM users will have access to local information including restaurant reviews, news, events, weather and much more. By the end of the year, Sprint also hopes to integrate uLocate’s Buddy Beacon friend-finding service. Sprint will discover subscribers’ locations using information from its WiMax base stations.
- Yelp, the leading Web site for local business reviews, provides relevant user reviews and ratings for anything local, from restaurants to doctors and more. The reviews can be searched and sorted by category or shown in a map view, with access to Yelp.com for details on any of the three million local reviews.
- Eventful will provide users with listings of local events displayed in a map view. Customers can select sub-categories of interest, search for events and click through to Eventful.com to get more event information and purchase tickets.
Topix will provide local news based on current location as a summary, with an option to read full stories and others at its site.
- NAVTEQ will offer XOHM customers NAVTEQ Traffic™ real-time local traffic and commuter updates with links to the Traffic.com® Web site for additional detailed construction, incident and drive time information.
- AccuWeather will provide three-day forecasts based on users’ current locations. An easy link to AccuWeather.com mobile Web site gives more forecast details, radar/satellite images, and more.
- Google will contribute industry-leading Local Search capability along with additional features and functionality from Google Maps.
- Openwave Systems will provide the location platform that enables XOHM partners to use location to provide valuable services.
- Autodesk will provide a standards-based interface and geospatial services, such as addresses, ZIP code and city/state information, to enhance location within the XOHM network.
Samsung’s ASN Gateway is a main controller for the Baltimore Mobile WiMAX network. It controls and manages a number of Base Stations and centralized mobility management for mobile devices.
Samsung has various Base Stations from high to low capacity and from dense urban to rural/in-building. Sprint is using Samsung basestations in Baltimore and Washington DC. Washington, Baltimore and Chicago have been in a “soft rollout”, in which Sprint workers use and test the technology. Sprint wants to cover 15 million people by the end of this year. Chicago is using Motorola basestations as is Clearwire in Portland.
Clearwire expects to go commercial in the fourth quarter. The Portland, Oregon network, covering some 1.2 million people, will be followed by Atlanta, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Las Vegas. Clearwire is using Motorola gear in Portland so client devices are more likely to be Motorola PCMw 200 Cards, USB Dongles and Motorola CPEi 150 Modems.
Clearwire plans to add Portland and Grand Rapids this year (pending merger approval), with Atlanta and Las Vegas next year, with a total of 60 million to 80 million “points of presence” by the end of 2009, according to Susan Johnston, a Clearwire spokesperson. The big unknown at this point may be the role of Comcast and Time/Warner Cable. They may be waiting for voice.
Mobile WiMAX gear, like Wi-Fi, is designed to be interoperable, so mixing and matching should be possible.
Dailywireless runs through the technical merits of Mobile WiMax in WiMAX: Cheap, Fast and Out of Control (right) and the benefits of Wave 2 CPE and WiMAX architecture.
Maravedis forecasts WiMAX subscribers to exceed 100 million by 2014. Some 27 million people world-wide subscribed to 3G data services this month, up from 11 million last September, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, a London-based research firm. There were just 2.4 million WiMax users, the firm estimates. WiMax backers expect the picture to change quickly.
Meanwhile, there are more than 45 million cellular-based HSPA users worldwide, delivering consistent data rates in the range of 500 kbit/s to 1.5 Mbit/s, reports Unstrung. The GSM family will account for fully 89% of the global market in 2011, according to Gartner Inc. In the U.S., AT&T is a GSM provider, along with T-Mobile, which many believe will eventually announce intentions to support LTE and has launched AWS service in New York City.
Next up for Xohm this year are Washington D.C. and Chicago, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia next year. Other cities that Sprint or Clearwire expect to launch over the next year include Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New York City, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and Seattle.
DragonWave’s Horizon Compact and Horizon Duo products will be deployed initially in the Baltimore/Washington and Chicago markets for backhaul.
Sprint and Clearwire plan to create a $14.5 billion joint venture to provide a national WiMax network. They project 120 million to 140 million people would have WiMax access by the end of 2010, although admittedly it is an aggressive prediction. By comparison, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are supporting Long Term Evolution for fast wireless connections they believe could reach a mass market in 2011 to 2012.
J. Nicholas Hoover, at Information Week, became one the first customers in Baltimore. So far (after a few easy-to-fix bumps), so good. Laptop Magazine performed some Speed Tests with the XOHM ExpressCard and found it about twice as fast as EVDO.
Related WiMax stories on Dailywireless include; Cisco & Fujitsu Beamform Live Video, Motorola: People Get Ready, Barry West Talks, Intel + India’s BSNL = 100m WiMaxers, XOHM to Launch with Location Services, Denver Gets Fixed WiMAX, Clearwire: Retrofits Come First, Moscow WiMAXed, WiMAX Gets Cheaper - Theoretically, Clearwire: Anytime Now, WiMAX Roundup, Mobile WiMAX: Live in Idaho Falls, WiMAX: September in Baltimore, WiMAX Forum Certifies 2.5GHz Gear: Good to Go, Clearwire: We’re Gonna Be Big, Sprint: We’re the “3rd Pipe”, WiMax: East Meets West, Sprint: Samsung WiMAX Ready to Go, Battle of the (Muni) Bands, WiMAX: Cheap, Fast and Out of Control, It’s Official: Sprint, Cable & Google Building WiMAX Network, Mobile WiMAX Cooking- But Still in the Kitchen, WiMAX Roundup, Australia Unwired, Australian Blowup, BT’s European WiMAX Plan, Backhaul Delays Xohm Rollout, Hesse on WiMAX, Sprint’s WiMAX Rollout?, Sprint-Clearwire Deal Dead, Sprint Considering WiMAX Spinoff?, Sprint Forces Forsee Out, WiMAX Demoed on Chicago River, The Launch, ICO Wants Its Mobile TV - via DVB-SH, Google Apps for Clearwire, Sprint WiMAX: It’s Called “Xohm”, Xohm “Partners”?, Death to WiMAX?, Verizon: It’s LTE, and Sprint: It’s WiMAX!.
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