Second biggest WiMAX network switches to LTE Russia's Yota network, which connects 300,000 people over WiMAX technology, is switching to LTE as the tide firmly turns in favour of the latter technology. Back in 2008 Yota (also known as "Nuf", which is "Fun" backwards, see?) deployed the world's first WiMAX handset, and since then has been busy signing up customers to its …
Another UScentric view being questionably applied on an iternational scale, (I suppose this is part of the very definition of 'UScentric' so we shouldn't be surprised!)
Although LTE could well get the larger share of the global cake, there are many significant WiMAX networks already in place (e.g. Dubai rail / retail network) and even larger scale networks planned for the near future (e.g. the whole of the Irish Republic) which will, imo, ensure that WiMAX, (for good or ill), remains firmly entrenched in many significant, (if not to the US, at least to the millions of people who live there), regions.
Ha ha ha.
What spectrum will they use? There is no National Spectrum on offer till MMDS closes. LTE is the main contender.
The existing Imagine setup is giving WiMax a bad name. So much that people selling FIXED WiMax only mention specs, not that it's WiMax.
This is also where the Government pretends that 3G phone Network can provide Broadband with a max ping of 120ms, min speed of 1.2Mbps and Always On and < 20:1 content. None of these can be Guaranteed on 3G, even if it is got iHSPA+ In fact you can't g'tee these on Mobile WiMax either.
WiMax simply offers broadband and customers have expectations for broadband charging which is basically flat rate for near unlimited use. This is very different from traditional mobile charging, where every action encurs a charge. So what WiMax offered as a standard was the opertunity for non-telco providers to get into a global market, with very low infrastructure costs (compared to mobile) they could offer a voip service with broadband style charging, and so completely undercut the encumbents.
With the exception of Intel, all the the other companies that were involved in the WiMax standard are primarily equipement suppliers to the existing telcos. When the telcos saw the early demonstrations, they recognised the business consequences and put pressure on the suppliers to get out of this market, reminding them that if they encouraged the take up of WiMax, they would, in effect, be putting their biggest customers out of business and replacing them with much smaller customers, with much smaller budgets and much smaller hardware requirements. The suppliers have since been quietly trying to forget that WiMax ever existed.
Sure smaller carriers have smaller budgets, more money can be made off of them. There are some pieces of the network that a carrier only needs two of; primary and secondary. These are not given away; more carriers = more of them sold. Also, larger carrier get much larger discounts. Smaller carriers get smaller discounts.
WiMax is losing because it was viewed as a stop gap measure; Yota proves just that.
I have 3G on my phone and it is flat rate. So what is your point? The carriers offers both tiered and flat rate plans.
If you ever go to Moscow, even for a few days, I highly recommend Yota.
After beeing fleeced by most hotels which charge RUB 900 (GBP 20!) per day for Internet access I now use Yota. It is great, mobile, 3 mbps in real life and only cost RUB 50 (GBP 1.10) per day. SIP and Skype works fine.
The Wimax dongle, which can be found in most shoppng centres, only costs RUB 2000. So compared to paying extreme hotel rates you are saving money during day 3.
English info is here: http://www.yota.ru/en/
Enjoy Moscow!
Fixed WiMax (Aerials and even LOS) is OK. But Mobile WiMax was always a non-runner and over hyped. As is LTE.
100Mbps LTE or 42Mbps iHSPA (3G/W-CDMA) or 10Mbps Mobile WiMax are all pretty much figures ignoring the realities of multiple users, streaming video and inverse square law reducing speed to 1/4 or less everytime you double distance to mast.
Maybe in a while Shareholders will ask why Intel did this?
Here is an example of Mobile WiMax going bad. Problem is that it's 3.5GHz (poor mobile / Nomadic band) and people are NOT using it as a short bursts of use Mobile Product but as an alternative to Fixed real Broadband. When Imagine 1st started Migrating users from Ripwave to WiMax people saw improvements. As user base grows to normal performance plummets to 2.5G EDGE standards at "busy hours".
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055709982
What Imagine needed was FIXED WiMax, with Outdoor Aerials. But Intel wasn't going to foot the bill for that, even though on 3.5GHz the capacity/performance would be x16 better approx than Mobile / Nomadic with Indoor aerials. They are using some fixed outdoor aerials where the signal is poor, but unless ALL aerials are such and the parameters/ Protocol is Fixed WiMax you overall get Mobile/Nomadic 3.5GHz performance.
WiMax does have some advantages over LTE. It is really good at giving reliable predictable bandwidth. This means utilities and such like it much more than LTE. LTE is better at efficiently getting lots of bandwidth out of the radio spectrum available, and is hence more suitable for broadband users who just do transfers occasionally, and just want speed but isn't latency critical.
Canada has reserved a band for WiMax for utility use (probably accessing smart meters, monitoring the grid, etc.). So for their own private wireless network links with predictable bandwidth, the utilities love the idea WiMax. But no, for consumers, WiMax really does appear to be dead, and probably for good reasons.
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