Looks like Sprint has finally managed to get the Xohm/WiMax service off the ground, about a year later than they planned. It launched in Baltimore (???) today and is expected to show up in Chicago and Washington, DC in the near future.

I'm interested in trying the service out, but not so much that I plan on buying a WiMax modem or going to Baltimore to do so.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/travel...-in-baltimore/

It is being reported that Wimax by Sprint is now available in major cities. Sprint has been saying that Baltimore was going to be the first but they are saying it is up and running in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, DC.


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Some light reading for you...

Australian WiMAX pioneer trashes technology as "miserable failure"

Australian WiMAX pioneer trashes technology as "miserable failure"

March 20th, 2008 in CommsDay Australasia

Australia’s first WiMAX operator, Hervey Bay’s Buzz Broadband, has closed its network, with the CEO labeling the technology as a “disaster” that “failed miserably.”

(Edited to note - this was not meant to be counter to the OP, just to add some interesting perspective based on experiences here in Queensland)

I wonder if the equipment they were using was not ripe yet? The Xohm stuff seems to be pretty stable. I'll be taking it for a test run next week.

I'm doing some testing for a large government agency with WiMAX. We have similar equipment as the XOHM rollout (ZyXEL client access products etc). Thus far the performance is poor....quite ugly and slow.

I'm headed to B'more later this week with our testing rig....hope we get better results on the XOHM network, but I'm beginning to think that the real world performance of WiMAX isn't as going to match the hype.

There are a number of different equipment sets out there. Clearwire had been using Motorola's Expedience equipment for a few years now and they have past the million user level in the U.S. I think that gets pretty good thru put.

http://www.clearwire.com/index.php
http://www.motorola.com/statichtml/E...008406b00aRCRD

The Motorola Expedience equipment sets are considered pre-WiMAX and are proprietary. Clearwire and Sprint Xohm are still planning to merge later this year and migrate to the true WiMAX equipment set.

http://investors.clearwire.com/phoen...103&highlight=

While WiMAX is widely supported, it uses lower power and rely on closer basestation spacing. The older, higher power Motorola Expedience equipment had proven to work in rural longer distance use. Bell Canada is using it now. I am not quite sure what the technical issues are with the Buzz Broadband/Airspan system.

Here is a Xohm, EVDO comparison.

http://blog.laptopmag.com/xohm-wimax...hm-expresscard

This in my opinion is a silly apples and oranges comparison. WiMAX is not designed to compete with EVDO...and it does not take into account network congestion that may exist on the air and in the backbone.

The XOHM network is true mobile WiMAX -- 802.16e-2005. XOHM is using Samsung base stations.

I am testing with Alcatel-Lucent base stations and ZyXEL client access adapters.

I don't know what you mean. The end user doesn't care whether it is EVDO, HSDPA , LTE or WiMAX. They want fast, cheap and reliable internet connection.

The Clearwire Portland system is also true WiMAX but majority of their installations prior to 2008 are Motorola Expedience.

What I mean is that WiMAX and EVDO have different characteristics (latency, max bandwidth, ability to support VOIP, QoS etc.). EVDO is more expensive and slower, yet coverage is outstanding.

I expect to most current EVDO users will stick with it and WIMAX to be adopted by the home user who is tired of Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, etc. XOHM will start to offer VOIP server with their home router and severely undercut the LECs.

I disagree. When EVDO was first launched it was just as sparse as WiMAX. if the standard can be proven effective I will guarantee that you will see it expand and I would not be surprised if you have more users who drop their home ISP, especially business users who just have a laptop that they already have their WiMAX card for anyways. The largest advantage of WIMAX against older 3G networks, from an end-user prospective is that it is much quick and the handoffs are handled much more smoothly.

We have Wimax in Canada too, although it may not be a true Wimax.

I've been using it for almost 2 years at home. We live in the boonie land and we've been using Hughes satellite but since Wimax was available, this is the only way to get reasonable broadband access.

I think the Bell Canada and some smaller systems are pre-WiMAX and likely the Motorola Expedience equipment. They have a longer range (10-20km) than WiMAX and well suited for rural area and smaller municipalities. I don't think true WiMAX works well in this kind of environment.

When I was in New Brunswick in the summer, it was in the news that they are putting in a system. I doubt it is true WiMAX either since distance to basestation will be long and population density is low.

There are quite a few pre-WiMAX systems such as Motorola, Airspan, Alvarion, Cisco/Navini and a much larger WiMAX "eco-system" as Barry West of Sprint/Nextel calls it.

I see your point, but offer this thought: EVDO Rev. 0 was sparse at its launch, but only because existing infrastructure was not yet upgraded. If I remember the specs correctly, it takes approximately four WiMAX sectors to cover the same area as one CDMA sector, thus calling for additional BSC equipment which isn't exactly cheap. Also, handoffs aren't such an issue with EVDO anymore with the advent of CMDA2000; IS95 was prone to that issue, though.

I've been involved with WiMAX testing in Venezuela and from a third party prospective in Korea. All of the infrastrucutre providers are constantly patching their gear to prepare for a launch as the technology evolves, but we aren't there yet. I think WiMAX will be a player but it will not replace CDMA-based technologies like EVDO and the evolution of LTE.

WiMAX was not really designed with the mobile user in mind and so it will be interesting to see how it rolls out in North America.