back to article Sprint fails to explain XOHM nonsense

Sprint has confirmed that the name of its new broadband wireless service is not a typo. But it also admits that XOHM means absolutely nothing. Speaking yesterday at CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment, a mammoth mobile-centric tradeshow, Sprint bigwig Atish Gude said the company chose the XOHM name because a marketing company …

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  1. frank denton

    I don't believe it! lol

    "We contracted with a company to come up with a very cool, cutting-edge name that really reflects what we're trying to do - which is mobilize the internet,"

    Whatever that company charged them, I could have done it for less than half the cost, lol.

    Also I'd have thought that XOHM would be better interpreted as 'unknown resistance' if you want to get pedantic in the physics/maths arena.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    obviously

    The OHM stands for Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping (just google it), and the X stands for eXtreme like Xtreme sports.

    So that gives us Xtreme Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping, which, given the fact that its a broadband wireless service, means... ?...absolutely nothing. Nope, cant figure it out. I'll my get my coat.

  3. Anton Ivanov
    Paris Hilton

    That is the speed now, what is it at the expected contention?

    That is the speed now. What is the speed when the network is saturated to the expected contention ratio (and what is that ratio anyway).

  4. Morely Dotes
    Thumb Down

    Full of sound and fury...

    '"We contracted with a company to come up with a very cool, cutting-edge name that really reflects what we're trying to do - which is mobilize the internet," said Gude'

    Well, then they have failed to convey that message. What they *have* conveyed is that XOHM is meaningless, promises nothing, has no content, and no value.

    Good job, that.

  5. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Mars

    In for a penny, in for a pound .......FailSafe2, the Second Helping and ITs Coming.

    I say, chaps, what an absolute wheeze. Roger that, HMGCC. Stealth @ ITs Manic Best.

    Which is also to say, that if it is not so, it can be..... and obviously should be.

    Ok, now that the important message is sent, I must say that XOHM and the explanations given for it are top notch and all have a most definitive relevance and resonance to the Field in which IT is deployed.

    It doesn't get much further offshore than the gravy train airwaves of CyberSpace for Powerful Currency Generation and Distribution of Ideas. Nice One, Jesus Puncher.

    And given the plausibly deniable Stealth in there being no Raised Royal Standard, and yet a recognition of "There are forces at work in this country of which we have no knowledge.", XOHM as "unknown resistance" would work admirably well too and complement and/or neutralise that hoary old classic RumsFeldism "known unknowns" .........<<< Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know >>> .... for of course, there are so many of them.

    Which would also for the Growth of the a Sprint into a Colossus of AIMarathon of QuITe Unnatural Duration with XXXXOHM Special IntelAIgents Services......for Generations of Servers with Forward Looking Futures with Derivatives and Options to Spread the Risk and Hedge the Bets.

    Hmmm .....I wonder if that would ring Lloyd's bell ..... caress Clara's Cheek....... Light MI Fire?

  6. Brett Brennan

    Let's see how this plays in Peoria...

    (reporting from rural Columbus, Ohio)

    I've been waiting for Sprint WiMax for some time now, ever since the Sprint-Nextel merger was announced. Living full-time in a caravan (motor home for the Yanks), our only internet is wireless. Usually Sprint EVDO, sometimes WiFi if the RV park has the infrastructure installed.

    WiMax has made the promise of rates relatively close to base DSL available over the air. Even with contention, rates of 500KBps downlink should be possible. While not the speed of a wireline connection, for a couple of PCs doing mail, browsing and some VPN work, this would be fantastic.

    Currently we're on EVDO. Repeating the speed test Cade performed at the Sprint booth I'm getting 1025Kbps downlink and 125Kbps uplink - about what I normally expect with EVDO. Translate this to (roughly) 100KBps down and 12.5KBps up. (The uplink is a bit low - normally I see about 35KBps there.)

    My concern is the numbers reported here: if the link is really running at 600/500 Kbps (read: 60/50 KBps), then WiMax is a big step BACKWARDS from current wireless data. Hopefully, Cade, you just have a typo in the speed test: "B" instead of "b" for the speeds...

    But, as they say, we'll see how this plays "in Peoria" - how the nation-wide roll-out of XOHM actually gets established. I'm anxiously waiting for the hardware and service to be made available sometime in 2Q08.

  7. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Mars

    Licensed to Thrill.

    00ps......Sorry. The penultimate paragraph in "In for a penny, in for a pound .......FailSafe2, the Second Helping and ITs Coming. " should start .....Which would also Allow for the Growth of a Sprint into a Colossus......

    Sometimes, as I'm sure you know, the brain runs on quicker than the fingers can type. :-)

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