Sprint to Release WiMAX Android Phone This Year. Who Cares?

Comment

Comment by Angel on July 2, 2009 at 7:16pm

Spotty coverage is not a technology problem, it's a deployment issue and it may come from different sources.

For starters, we can think of a poor network design. If your assumptions were weak or incorrect, if your databases are not accurate enough, if you "cut some corners", then you're going to experience spotty coverage.

We can also think the operator simply didn't want to provide deep indoor coverage so you get bad or no signal 50 feet inside a building but then you move forward and probably you're closer to a window or have less losses than in another spot inside the same building.

Then you can think of a mix of the above mentioned situations, which is probably what's happening.

Please remember that all new networks (you pick the technology) start the same way, gray areas, lack of coverage and so on. It improves over time but it's never perfect. In some cities it is almost impossible to find the perfect site location so operators do what they can to work with whatever site is available.

WiMAX can cover as much as you want to (or the operator in this case), it's just a matter of how much money you put in building your network. Better coverage requires more sites which means more money. Blame the CFO, not the CTO for your spotty coverage.

Comment by Alan J Weissberger on July 2, 2009 at 6:14pm

From an anonymous source:

Even if mobile WiMAX service came to Santa Clara, I would not buy it until there were a variety of mobile WiMAX phones/MIDs and service plans available, e.g. from Clearwire, Comcast, and SPRINT. Even then, I would have to see a tangible benefit over competing technologies, e.g. a 3G iPhone that my friend uses all the time.

Finally, roaming would be necessary. My metro PCS mobile phone doesn't work in certain areas of CA, because VZW has a monopoly on cell phone service there. Even if a mobile WiMAX device only supported Internet access, I would want it to work when I'm outside of my service provider's coverage area. So roaming amongst WiMAX carriers would be critical. WiMAX -to-3G interworking would also be nice in areas where WiMAX service wasn't available, but 3G was.

I've been reading articles about mobile WiMAX since early 2004, but it still is not widely available in the U.S. and not available at all in CA. That's over five years of smoke and mirrors to me. What good is a standard if it's not widely implemented?

Comment by Alan J Weissberger on June 30, 2009 at 8:53pm

Sprint is way behind the curve as a WiMAX MVNO. They should be embarassed by Comcasts agressive plans to resell the CLEAR service and offer laptop cards.