Maurice:
I read the article - very interesting. I am still struggling to understand the business model, but this helps a little. Appearantly (if I read this article correctly) the use of Wi-Max will be to get huge bandwidth to households and businesses, and fix the last mile issue. This too would imply point to point service - replacing the small bandwidth copper wire that runs from the current tele-hub (w/ blazing speed and capacity) to your home w/ a Wi-Max system. Then use Wi-Fi (point to multi-point) to get the signals from this device to the 300 ft area around your home.
Mis-Leading - Based on my undertanding of the technology, however, this article is significantly misleading. The article implies that ther wil be greatly faster Wi-Fi connections than 3G, and even implies a 70 Mbps, and 30 miles range to compare to both 3G networks, and the current 802.11.
My understanding is that the 70 Mbps/30 Mile technology is point to point, not point to mult-point. If this is true, you can not honestly compare it to either 802.11 or 3G, which are both point to multi-point concepts.
The author makes these comparisons, which would lead the reader to wonder if Wi-Max, Wi-Fi or 3G will prevail. In reality, we are talking about three seperate (possibly complimentary, but not competitive) applications.
I would certainly be the first customer for Wi-Max as described above (binging 70 Mbps pipe to my home for HDTV and internet, etc, etc). I am already a Wi-Fi user. But I also want the EV-DO device for my phone/palm device for anytime anywhere access as well. |
