Is Sprint Ready for WiMax Offerings?

Business means keeping everyone busy. While 3G is struggling to roll out across the global, many companies shifted their business focus from 3G to other wireless technologies. WiMax is one of the hotttest candidates since 2003. WiMax is a good technology, and comprises the most advanced technologies into the wireless domain, and should be able to have a bright future if the business model is right on track.

I have been working on broadband wireless mobile since 1992, first on wireless ATM with ATM Forum, then evolved to wireless mobile ATM (wmATM), and HyperAccess and HyperLAN projects in EU. In March 1999, we started IEEE802.16 on LMDS, late expanded to MMDS. After taking a short break in 2002, we started WiMax in 2003 with a complete new busness strategy. Everyone agreed that wireless, broadband and mobility will converge together and provide users a truly service-oriented multimedia delivery infrastructure.

If you looked at the ABC News on June 2nd, 1998, the headline news was that Sprint would be the first to bring up the wireless ATM (ION Service) to EVERYONE in America. Sprint repeated same mission several years later with IEEE802.16 MMDS. Now, Sprint will be kicking off again the WiMax servive (called Xohm) nationwide in Amarica. Is Sprint Ready for WiMax Xohm offering?

The answer is of course "Yes" by Sprint and its partners. But it is really depending on how you define the "Ready".

From my 15 years experiences exactly in this broadband wireless and mobility business, I need to consider the following issues before it is really "Ready":

1. Cost-Effective - Cost is the most important issue for WiMax success. How to deliver a cost-effective and flat-rate service plan to enable users or partners to access the wireless broadband networks unlimittedly and easily is the critical issue for WiMax movement, otherwise it may repeat the history again. The new business model will detail how to low down the cost for end users or partners. But the conclution is clear: low cost will be the life for WiMax success.

2. Lessons We Learned - Every technology was great for that time period and that time of technology development. What we had learned from history is broadband wireless is not our principal communication need, but our value-added service, meaning that it is not the water for people, but the milk or jiuce, and users can select other drinks if they want. Therefore, carriers need lots of marketing work to try to convince the users to buy their products, otherwise the customers may simply forget it and get the required nutritions from other sources (meaning they can get broadband wireline services back to office or home, and no need to get it over the air).

3. Mobility - How much seamless mobility WiMax can support is still a big question. Without seamless mobility (vs. limited mobility), there is not much difference between broadband wireline and broadbnad wireless services for end-users. While I believe mobile WiMax (IEEE802.16m) can solve this issue well, there is still lots of issues dealing with traditional mobile roaming management, handover and spectrum allocation, etc. Frankly, mobile industry is very political, and the world is now much more diversified than that of 20 years ago when we only had GSM global standard at that time.

4. Regulations - The US mobile market is very closed compared to other world. In 1998, China law did not allow operators to lock the mobile phone of any user. As the world is going for more open markets of mobile communications, it is just a matter of time when the US market will be open too in this business.

5. Convergence - As one single wireless standard can not compromise both broadband high-speed transmission and seamless mobility, more and more operators go the converged platform to support multiple air interfaces within the converged networks infrastructure, such as T-Mobile, China Mobile and NTT, etc. How to converge WiMax with other wireless standards (WiFi, CDMA, GSM, etc) is a big challenge for operators.

I believe Sprint management has already considered these issues, and been comfortably ready for this historic movement.

Exclusively by Willie W. Lu, Director of USCWC, Palo Alto (cwc.us)