WiMax 'muscular' data pipe starts its workout

A different pricing model
Sprint is making it relatively painless to use its WiMax service, called Xohm. There are no sales people to deal with and no long-term contracts.

“This is an Internet model, not the telecom model,” said Polivka.

Launch pricing is $25 a month for home Internet service and $30 a month for “on-the-go” service, using either a WiMax PC card or USB dongle. The company is also offering a $50-a-month “Pick 2 for Life,” option for those who want to have both a WiMax modem and card.

The only upfront costs are for the devices. The coffeemaker-like modem, made by ZyXEL, is $79.99. The ExpressCard, made by Samsung, is $59.99. A USB dongle is coming, but is not out yet. (The Xohm modem works with Macs, but the ExpressCard does not yet.)

“We’re trying to make Internet access available and affordable in places other than the home and office,” Polivka said. “In short, Sprint is thinking beyond the cell phone.”

Initial users of the service give it a thumbs up.

“So far we love Xohm. The file transfer speeds are far superior to 3G,” wrote Todd Haselton in a blog for Laptop magazine.

Information Week writer J.Nicholas Hoover, who lives in Baltimore, wrote that, “So far, service has been pretty good using the home modem … According to Speedtest.net, I’m getting (a) 3.4 megabits per second download, and 1.2Mbps upload,” which compares favorably with his cable Internet connection.

He also used the WiMax card on his laptop to watch “The Simpsons” in the car while his wife drove. That experience was not quite as smooth, he wrote, with the connection sometimes getting dropped.

Competing technology
WiMax, which stands for “Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access,” is one type of 4G technology. Competitors AT&T and Verizon Wireless are backing a different technology called Long Term Evolution, which is at least two years from reality.

“There’s a several-years advantage with WiMax, because it’s here now,” said Polivka.

Not everyone sees it that way. Analysys Mason, a London-based telecommunications research firm, says 3G technologies will continue to dominate until the year 2015, and that Long Term Evolution will be the victor over WiMax by that year.

“Abroad, there is some wide movement, particularly in Europe, to adopt LTE,” said Ho of Current Analysis. Still, he said, “Sprint has a good chance” at succeeding with WiMax in the United States and other developing countries.

Clearwire deal is key
A major portion of Xohm’s success in the United States will hinge on whether Sprint can complete its agreement with Clearwire, a key player in the WiMax arena based in Kirkland, Wash., and founded by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw.

That agreement is being reviewed at the federal regulatory level. If approved, the two companies would join forces in a new company that would use the Clearwire name. The goal would be a WiMax network that could reach up to 140 million people in the United States by the end of 2010.

“When competitors come in four, five, six years from now using a technology for Long Term Evolution, WiMax will have laid the groundwork, priming the pump for more consumer adoption,” said Ho.

“Because by that time, everyone will be saying, ‘Hey, I have a lot of opportunities to buy this big, fat, wireless pipe.’ Obviously it’s in Sprint’s interest to bring this to market, because they’re building the buzz, and people will want it.”

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