3G netbooks, iPhone modems and Wayport: WiMAX has more to worry about than LTE
When searching for a competitive threat to Sprint and Clearwire’s WiMax services, most observers end up looking at Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next-generation cellular technology publicly favored by AT&T and Verizon. But as recent news has shown, the big telcos aren’t waiting for LTE to start heating up the competition. Instead, they’re pushing harder on 3G-based options and greater Wi-Fi access as perhaps a way to keep customers from ever finding out what the WiMax consumer experience can be.
While laptop manufacturers like Lenovo have told us that WiMax chips are easier and cheaper to embed into notebook PCs than cellular chips, recent reports have HP talking to carriers about subsidizing netbooks with 3G connectivity built in, perhaps at price points as low as $99 (with the obligatory two-year contract). In all our analysis of WiMax’s chances in the U.S., we have always noted that the big carriers might elect to lose money in order to gain or keep market share. Since AT&T has just shown that it’s not afraid to spend almost a billion bucks to be the exclusive iPhone provider, we shouldn’t be surprised if the telcos spend a lot of cash on 3G-equipped netbooks to win or keep wireless data users in their stable.
And speaking of the iPhone, reports from the Web 2.0 confab have AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega promising that iPhone users will “soon” be able to use their device as a modem — while some of course are questioning both the cost and performance of such an option, at least trying it would probably be a more attractive first option for iPhone users than the idea of adding a WiMax plan on top of your iPhone bill.
Then came last week’s news of AT&T buying hotspot provider Wayport, a $275 million deal that nets Ma Bell some 20,000 hotspots, where connectivity is most likely just as fast (but not as mobile) as any WiMax competitor in the area. While Google execs at the WCAI conference were publicly scratching their heads at the cost, savvy industry insiders like our pal Andy Abramson see AT&T’s move as both strategic and smart, especially as a hedge against Xohm rollouts. Says Andy:
“AT&T now can offer WiFi access in more places. XOHM can say that just yet and not for some time. Lastly, it gives the AT&T Enterprise sales team a huge new offer to make and sell in to their very wide and deep customer base. Overall, this is a vary Machiavellian move by using territory to establish greater control by AT&T…Well done.”
So sure, WiMax has a running start over LTE… but as the big carriers are showing, when it comes to winning the 4G wireless title, it’s more than a two-horse race.
Need to know more about WiMax? Order our recently updated WiMax report, with full analysis of the “new” Clearwire deal and the motivations for investors Comcast, Google, Intel and others.
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It’s true, WiMAX will have a lot of challenges before will become a main stream wireless technology but WiMAX it’s already here and it’s commercially available and I believe people will realize very quickly the advantage of 4G. Not to forget that there are also some big players involved too, like Google and Intel.
— http://www.WiMAXED.com
[...] 3G netbooks, iPhone modems and Wayport: WiMAX has more to worry …When searching for a competitive threat to Sprint and Clearwire’s WiMax services, most observers end up looking at Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next-generation cellular technology publicly favored by AT&T and Verizon. … [...]