WiMAX for the Masses?
Not unless companies can convince potential customers that it makes economic and technological sense, according to analysts.
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BOSTON -- Companies introducing WiMAX
Getting technology into place because it's new is difficult to justify without being able to present productivity increases, Dale Kutnick, a META Group research fellow, said.
"How are you going to get this into corporations that are already wired up?" Kutnick asked the audience. "They have Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Are they going to buy this new technology because it's nice to have?"
WiMAX could have several interesting applications. In addition to bringing broadband to rural areas, office parks and educational campuses, there are other early-adopter opportunities, Kutnick said.
For example, he said, oil companies could use WiMAX to provide large amounts of data about pipelines or rigs back to a maintenance center. If a problem arises, the company would the data needed to make a decision of how best to respond. Improving the speed of the response could save millions of dollars.
Also, WiMAX systems stationed around shipping and trucking hubs and tied
into RFID
In a more generic sense, vendors could sell against incumbent telecom
carriers on cost, comparing their services with T-1 and other
traditional business services.
"Don't expect that the telcos are going to roll over and let WiMAX, or
anything else, go in and blow it away," Kutnick said.
The proposition could become more palatable, however, as the price of
WiMAX networking gear drops over the next several years.
Others in the industry are more skeptical of WiMAX's chances of taking
off in the near future. At another industry conference this week,
Cisco
In addition to making a dollar and sense argument, WiMAX firms must do
a better job of educating potential customers, said Bob Egan,
president of the research firm Mobile Competency.
In a hotel elevator, a group of guests here for the John Kerry rally
that never was asked Egan if he was here for the Wi-Fi conference.
While the guests were not CIOs and there is a separate Wi-Fi
conference across town, Egan said the interaction hints at general
confusion between WiMAX, Wi-Fi, third-generation
"I implore you to educate [customers] about what WiMAX is and what it can
do," Egan said, who also suggested stressing security, integration and
mobility issues.
Egan also said WiMAX companies are doing a decent job of developing
standards, better, in fact, than the Wi-Fi industry did at a similar
stage in its development.
For example, chipmaking giant Intel
CTO Charlie Giancarlo said WiMAX lacks a compelling application
that would drive demand.
recently partnered
with Clearwire, a Kirkland, Wash.-based wireless broadband services
company, to advance the WiMAX standard and to support the upcoming
IEEE 802.16e version.