WiMAX should offer simple solutions to avoid confusion

Those venturing into the world of WiMAX don’t want to further confuse consumers with yet another choice in technology. They want to simplify it, and by that they mean enabling people to access their personal content (and content that lives online) from anywhere on any device.
The vision is refreshing and rather new for an industry accustomed to building walled gardens. Indeed, the Internet is the largest garden ever planted.
“It’s about all the content and documentation of human existence. That’s how big it is,” said Atish Gude, senior VP of mobile broadband operations at Xohm, Sprint-Nextel Corp.’s WiMAX brand.
“For all of us in this space . I think we need to break the paradigm of the wireless space,” he said. “I don’t think that we need to think about the grandiose vision” of descriptions de jure like content aggregation.
“When we talk about the mobile Internet, first and foremost, it’s not something different,” Gude said.
“It’s about as simple as taking the Internet as it exists today and delivering it to the customer,” he added. “It’s not about taking cellular to the Internet; it’s really about taking the Internet to a new place.”
Sprint Nextel has bet big on WiMAX because of this vision. It’s looking beyond its own cellular-centric base and imagining a world where WiMAX is as prevalent as Wi-Fi.
Cisco Systems Inc., a company that has found exceptional success in a variety of technologies, would like WiMAX to be compatible with existing technologies, such as Wi-Fi, that already exist in most laptop computers, said Cisco’s Larry Lang.
The experience that Sprint Nexterl is hoping to deliver with Xohm could include broadband wireless Internet, voice, gaming and connectivity with portable consumer electronic devices, Gude said. Sprint Nextel doesn’t appear concerned that such an approach could eat away from its cellular business. It would rather let the pieces fall as they will.
“I have no hesitation in offering voice over our platform,” Gude said. “I would never restrict that application.”
That said, he does think there will be an elevated price point for consumers looking to further enhance the quality of services they use. “Inherently, mobile networks are going to be congested somewhere, and therefore you need quality of service,” Gude said.
For all of this to be realized, a vibrant ecosystem will have to flourish around WiMAX. From affordable chipsets and infrastructure to easy-to-deploy networks, the success of WiMAX will be determined by the commitments and range of its early backers.
Challenges that stand in the way include backhaul, real estate, regulation and in-building penetration.