Last October, I blogged on my thoughts about WiMax and it should be no secret that I really thnk that WiMax has the potential to flip widescale high-speed internet access on its head.  Here’s quoting from my previous discussion on the importance and impact of WiMax:

“1. Momentum – WiMAX already has a huge amount of momentum and is gaining more andmore as WiMAX trials are actually proving that the technology is viable in terms of cost and throughput.  Major players like Intel have already bought in, and with a giant like Intel building WiMAX radio support into their chipsets, we’re more than halfway to WiMAX heaven.

 

2. Low cost — large capital cost to setup infrastructure, but end-user cost is low.  $15-$30 monthly fee, with $25 hardware cost.  Nearly the same pricing as current broadband offerings, and actually cheaper than my Comcast cable broadband (even after i factor in my Microsoft employee discount!).

 

3. Realistic multi-content transmission– Due to the high speeds, we can actually start about talking about realistic scenarios where it can carry more than internet traffic. We can piggyback voice and video (think IPTV!).  This instantly gives me wet dreams about suddenly divorcing myself from the nazi regime known as Comcast with their insane pricing structures (why is there no a la carte pricing?!).  With WiMAX carrying internet, voice and video, it opens up endless consumer scenarios — think of something as simple as being able to put your TV anywhere you want in your house instead of worrying about where the Coax connection is.  With voice carried over WiMAX it actually makes the Vonage Wifi Phone make a lot more sense

 

3. Market readiness — both consumers and businesses are ready for this type of technology and the scenarios it enables.  Consumers as a whole are more savvy than they were 5 years ago, mainly due to the proliferation of wifi in both homes and mass media coverage.  With the right price point, WiMAX will make a killing.

 

You may be saying to yourself “didn’t major telcos like AT&T and MCI try this in the past and fail?”.  You are correct, they did try something like this in the past and they did fail — miserably.  However, the biggest reason for their failures was due to the hardware and service costs (fixed cost was $500 per customer!).  To top it off, consumers weren’t ready and didn’t see the need for this in the late 90’s. 

 

Another question you may be asking is how is this really different from existing Wifi like 802.11?  The major difference between WiMAX and existing wifi solutions is that with Wifi, you still need a fixed broadband connection (cable or DSL).  With WiMAX we alleviate the need for this completely.“

At the end of my previous discussion, I stated that “the next 12 months will be very exciting for WiMAX”.   Last week, Intel announced a $600 million investment in the Clearwire Corporation which is a wireless broadband internet provider headquartered right here in Washington state.  Clearwire’s technology of choice is WiMax and plans on using the huge infusion of cash to build out infrastructure for WiMax.  Since they are headquartered right here in Washington state, here’s to hoping I can get on some test trial with free equipment and access

To add further heat to the space and fortifying my stance on WiMax, in a recent interview with Wired Magazine, Rupert Murdoch states that he is “looking very seriously at building out a WiMax network in the US”.  Murdoch usually puts his money where his mouth is as demonstrated by NewsCorp’s $580M acquisition of MySpace when Murdoch wanted to get into “New Media”.

With multiple high profile players makin big plays in investment and real-world trials, I can certainly see WiMax heaven in the the near future. I’m hoping it’ll be sooner than later.