The Trouble With XOHM

A lot of people, including industry leaders, such as Intel and Sprint, think that WiMax is the future. Or at least the near future. There's no doubt that WiMax will be replaced in 2011 once all of the major carriers start rolling out their 4G wireless technologies, such as LTE (Long Term Evolution), but can it work for now as a sort of 3.5G wireless technology?

I certainly don't think so. The problem with WiMax is that, first of all, it's only got one major carrier actually deploying it, and there are very, very, very few devices that have built-in support for it. Second, by the time Sprint gets it deployed in most major cities, other carriers will be deploying their 4th Generation wireless technologies that will be much faster and more widely deployed and accepted. Third, if we're going to put into place a wireless technology to bridge the gap between 3G technologies and future 4G technologies, why not use something that's already supported by many devices; something like municipal Wi-Fi. Finally, municipal Wi-Fi, which uses a technology that is widely supported now, has failed in many major cities already. Why would the response from a technology that requires an external adapter, which doesn't work with many portable devices, and will only be available in a very limited number of cities (hardly the nation-wide access available with current widespread 3G technologies or what will be available with 4G cellular data technologies in a few years), be any different?

WiMax is a great technology, but it's coming too late. Had it arrived as it is today, two or three years ago, it would have had wonderful potential and would have knocked competitors like EV-DO out of the game, but now with better technologies only about three years away and very little widespread adoption, it has no chance. Sorry all you WiMax fans out there.