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September 29, 2008

Sprint Xohm Launches in Baltimore

By Glenn Fleishman

At last, WiMax: The first real market saturated with WiMax anywhere in the world for general consumer home and mobile use is out. Yes, Seoul has WiBro, compatible with mobile WiMax, but they have very few users because—the last I’ve heard about the network—deployment is focused in limited areas. Baltimore is a real production market, where Sprint will actively push the service as a home broadband replacement ($25 per month), a mobile option ($30 per month), and even an a la carte option (the egregious $10 per day). Subsidized laptop cards are $60; home receivers $80. The company also offers a two device, $50 per month plan; I expect those deals will become cheaper over time because the WiMax promise is an ecosystem of devices owned by one person. That’s not going to happen with a high monthly price tag attached to every device. Two more markets have been in preparation for a while, and are expected soon. The Clearwire joint venture could complete in fourth quarter.

Posted by Glennf at 2:45 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2008

Motorola Announces WiMax Dongle for Laptops

By Glenn Fleishman

Motorola will offer the USBw 100 for multiple bands: The dongle, expect to ship in 2008’s fourth quarter, will allow laptop users to access WiMax networks in the most popular bands: 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, and 3.5 GHz. The MIMO USB adapter doesn’t have an announced price. A dongle extends the practical utility of WiMax networks, because the vast majority of laptops won’t have WiMax built in or available as an internal option until sometime in 2009. PC Cards and ExpressCards are another option—Motorola already has a PC Card—but an increasing number of laptops eschew card-expansion slots for size, cost, and practical reasons. Few people need them these days. A dongle is not a thing of beauty, but it’s a great way to get an antenna out of a case and at an extension from a laptop.

Posted by Glennf at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)