Wireless Broadband
The Economist writes about WiMax alternatives:
Both IPWireless and Flarion technologies combine fast, Wi-Fi-like internet access with the wide-area “works anywhere” coverage of mobile phones. Slot a suitable card into your laptop and you have a broadband connection you can carry around. Hitherto, such technologies have been used in a few regional networks and small-scale trials. Now they have made the crucial breakthrough to deployment in large-scale, national networks.
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Does this mean that WiMax will be squeezed out by the other technologies it has unwittingly boosted? In fact, it looks as though there is room for a mix of technologies, each with its own strengths, depending on the availability of spectrum, the regulatory regime, and the needs of various types of operators.
Determining What You Want To Do
Dave Pollard writes about Neil Crofts' book Authentic Business:
Here are the questions he suggests you ask to determine What you want to do:
* When do you feel at your most motivated?
* When do you get lost in activity or thought and lose all track of time?
* When do you feel alive, focused and engaged?
* What is the common thread between smiling at the rain, enjoying the earth in your hands, playing a sumptuous feast and playing with your child?
* What is the focus of all your 'flow' activities, the pivot around which they turn, the outcome to which they all drive?
* What is your non-negotiable dream, so precious that so far you have told no one about it for fear it will be compromised?
He says you should write this down, and discuss it with as many people as possible, starting with those you trust, until it is crafted into a repeatable catch phrase, Your Purpose. Then whenever anyone asks What You Do, you instead tell them Your Purpose. And you build from there, using the advice in the book until Your Purpose becomes your successful, 'authentic' business.
The topic of "wireless broadband" will continue to be confusing as long as we try to talk about technologies without considering the market applications.
WiMAX can operate in licensed and unlicensed spectrum, and it also appears to have fixed and mobile applications. A fixed solution for a business market will be altogether different than a mobile WiMAX solution designed for a consumer market. The mobile consumer application will depend largely on the implementation of standards (e.g. Wi-Fi, lather, rinse, repeat), but a fixed wireless broadband service for businesses does not have the same price sensitivity or client-based requirement for a standards-based solution.
Beyond markets, another variable is the service providers themselves. A recent InfoWorld article outlined what some leading wireless operators are doing with regards to WiMAX and their current and planned 3G offerings. Clearly, these wireless operators must make any WiMAX offerings complementary to 3G services - which may include a fair amount of fixed wireless solutions. Since WiMAX does operate in unlicensed spectrum, a number of other types of companies will be able to get into the WiMAX business, and their offers will most likely different from those delivered by existing wireless operators.
Posted by Daniel Taylor