The United States government is poised to spend $7.2 billion in stimulus funds on the expansion of broadband technology. Unsurprisingly, the WiMax industry wants a slice. And why not? It’s the perfect opportunity for them. The government has allocated funds for broadband, and WiMax presents many advantages in that regard. They’d also like to snap up those funds now, as they have an inherent advantage over rival LTE technology: WiMax already exists in many markets around the world. Portland, Oregon, and Baltimore, Maryland, are the only markets currently operational in the U.S., but Clearwire plans nine more markets in 2009. So should the WiMax industry receive these stimulus funds?
Of course, if you ask those in the industry you’ll get a positive and enthusiastic response. They think they have many solutions to current broadband issues, like last mile connectivity. In other words, they would serve the exact purpose of the stimulus: to increase broadband capacity and extend it to rural areas. Yet there are plenty who think that WiMax simply won’t catch on in a wide-ranging sense.
“There is a place for WiMax but it will be very niche as a global mobility access technology,” said Gartner analyst Sylvain Fabre. “WiMax will be a minor mobile technology compared to LTE which is going to be the next dominant access technology worldwide.”
Why, then, invest in a minor technology? Because while more than one analyst believes that it will be a minor player, with the right funding it could be a major player. Mobile broadband from cellular carriers is greatly limited. Who says LTE won’t be more of the same? Low data caps, limitations on application usage, high overage penalties, etc. WiMax has a chance to be something completely different.
That’s not to say that the technology will evolve that way. But it’s worth a shot. Unfortunately, sound bytes like this won’t go over too well:
“They are spending it to get us out of the recession, so logically you would think some of that money would end up with WiMax,” said Barry West, president of wireless high-speed services provider Clearwire
Logically? Perhaps. But you have to do more than just say it for it to be true.
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