An experienced blogger like Intel's Gregory Ofili should know that sometimes it's a good idea to take a step back and count to ten before hitting "publish." But sometimes that doesn't happen -- and thats a risk for unfiltered corporate blogging.
Yesterday, Ofili blogged about a recently released report by Gartner which said businesses shouldn't invest in WiMAX yet. Ofili, who is marketing manager for Intel's WiMAX Program Office, responded very passionately to the report, claiming it was "thoroughly devoid of reality," a "drive-by kneecapping" and suggesting that the analysis "should be supplied with a warning: 'not intended to inform strategic business decisions.'"
What got Ofili so riled up? In the report, Gartner suggested customers should wait at least until Wimax technology is deployed more widely across the US and dual-mode cellular/WiMAX handsets are available.
Sounds logical enough, right? Not to Intel, which took issue with Gartner's claim that WiMAX will remain a "niche technology" and won't be able to provide nationwide coverage for years. But there's more: Ofili suggests Gartner is biased toward a rival wireless technology, LTE. "The LTE gang must really fear WiMAX. Otherwise, why all the attention and erroneous analyses?" he says.
Geez Greg, its one thing to disagree with someone, but maybe they hit a nerve? Take a deep breath next time -- you won't come off so defensive -- or worried that they might be right.
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Comments
I have to agree with Greg on this one! As long as Intel sticks with Vista they will do very well!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
So if I "attack" someone for claiming 2 + 2 = 5 you would tell me to not get so defensive? Or maybe suggest that I'm just afraid that they might be right. Give me a break. You contribute nothing to the argument by trivializing it.
The Gartner report as are many others are excessively focused on the U.S. Wimax market and the "mobility" sector of Wimax. The reality is that Wimax is a rapidly growing market principally outside the U.
S. where infrastructure is not as readily available nor as high quality. The two leading pure Wimax network equipm,ent companies, Alvarion and Airspan have less than 10% of their total revenues in the North American market. The report and in fact most reports and commentaries focus on mobile wimax which is just now being deployed in the very initial phase and nearly totally ignores the fixed and nomadic Wimax sector which is huge and estimated at about $4 billion by 2012. It should also be realized that although important as a validation of the technology, sprint/Clearwire is just one network provider. There are many network providers worldwide and in the U.S. which are presently rolling out Wimax. The Wimax industry should be viewed as a global market and the fact is that most businesses should be looked at on a global basis because we are accelerating toward a global economy in many respects.
Gunther Karger
www.guntherkarger.com
Discovery Group
Interesting that Gartner focuses on warning about WiMAX while indirectly implying that LTE, a technology that has yet to be set as a standard, is 3-4 years away from deployment in any major market, and is primarily focused on maintain the carriers Mobile Voice markets is the one we need to focus on.
The 2 issues WiMAX really needs to focus on and fix are:
1. They are using the wrong Spectrum for a true Carrier Grade Multi Market MOBILE Wireless Network (Urban and Rural). Just because they have 100+Mhz of the 2.5Ghz spectrum does not mean they can provide serious broadband coverage into buildings and in any area with significant Foliage. Physics is physics. They will work well in Urban markets but will struggle in Suburb and die in Canopied Rural markets.
Solution:
For them to have a chance in these new 4G Networks they (the new Clearwire team) will need to focus on getting the MSO to free up their Nationwide AWS (1700Mhz & 2100Mhz) spectrum and have the WiMAX Forum speed up the release of a FDD based design and move on to deploy a serious Broadband Network.
2. Intel needs to figure out how to deal with the recent success of Qualcomm with its new Gobi Software Defined Radio and Chipset. It appears to be getting Laptop providers to incorporate its WCDMA-HSDPA , EV-DO and possible LTE and WiFi features into their systems. This could be a show stopper unless they (Qualcomm) decides to allow a 700Mhz or AWS based WiMAX product to be included.
I would predict Gobi will ultimately be deployed with LTE (700Mhz based) for voice/data, a MediaFlo (Brodcast Video system) and a 802.11n (dual radio) WiFi/WLAN system. Both Verizon Wireless and AT&T are committed to 700Mhz LTE and they both are deploying a MediaFLo Video solution. Everyone is deploying WLAN and will be using 802.11n exclusively nationwide.
Jim A
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