Portland, Oregon, is targeted to get yet another new wireless offering. Clearwire announced it will beta-test its WiMAX offering there next year and, in a separate announcement, launched a WiMAX PC card designed to enable average laptop users to take advantage of its service. But don’t look to the pricey offering to make a big dent in Wi-Fi just yet.
Here’s why.Clearwire is continuing the roll-out of its national WiMAX network with plans to deploy it in Portland, Oregon, next year. That will add to the plentitude of wireless options in that city where MetroFi deployed a municipal wireless network earlier this year. Unlike the ad-supported free Wi-Fi service, Clearwire’s commercial WiMAX service is likely to bear a price tag that’s comparable to other commercial carriers’ cellular data services. That is to say, pricey.
Clearwire has already begun WiMAX trials in Beaverton and Hillsboro, Washington, according to a story in The Oregonian, and is using “a preliminary version of WiMAX in two other cities, Bend and Eugene, Oregon.
The company expects to cover 700 square miles, blanketing Portland and surrounding suburbs, in 2008. The Oregonian’s story reported that prices and speeds were not included in the Portland announcement but speculated that it would compare to DSL service.
Don’t count on that. In a separate announcement, reported by FierceBroadbandWireless this week, Clearwire launched its new WiMAX PC card, which is needed to enable today’s PCs to use the service. That announcement did include information on pricing and speed–$80 for the PC card (with a $75 mail-in rebate) and a lock-in on a two-year contract at $60 per month for downstream speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps. That’s quite a bit costlier than your average DSL service. It compares to Verizon’s EVDO service but it’s no comparison to Portland’s ad-supported Wi-Fi service which promises slower speed but is free.
Here comes the WiMAX hype. After having lived through the muni WiFi hype, this is all I need.
Several problems with Clearwire’s WiMAX service:
- my Mac Book Pro can’t use it as the PC card is for WinDOZE
- my iPhone can’t use it
In other words, as a mobility solution, totally freaking useless. The price is astoundingly high for yet another PC mobile card service.
Attention, WiMAX operators! Your “broadband” service is perfect for rural areas that are still on dial-up. Please deploy it there where people really need it and lower the price to $10 per month to serve rural residents.
But early adopters in urban areas are not waiting for your expensive anti-Mac, anti-iPhone solutions.
At Stephouse Networks, we’re already offering WiMAX utilizing proxim’s unlicense band platform “Tsunami MP.11a” in Portland, OR. We’re serving a number of customers with 3bit and 10Mbit synchronous and asynchronous solutions. We were here providing wireless long before MetroFi and we’ll be here long after they’re gone.