WiMAX World USA is this week in Chicago, Illinois - September 30th - October 2nd.
I wish I was attending. Big conferences like this are total immersion, totally fascinating learning experiences. In years past when I was actively attending such conferences, at best I did an adequate job of capturing and conveying all I learned. But now the tools, and my techniques, have vastly improved, such as the iPhone, and portable recorders that could convert an rough interview to a polished podcast with an absolute minimum of processing.
Anyone looking for an eclectic Analyst to cover (Broadband) Wireless Internet Access that, among other things, would attend conferences such as WiMAX World and report back, in depth (either for public consumption or private analysis)?
There used to be a number of conferences relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access, but the BWIA industry has largely consolidated down to WiMAX as the dominant technology. With travel / education funds very precious for attendees, and marketing dollars even more precious for exhibitors, both have inevitably gravitated toward the conference that does the best job of covering WiMAX and away from the more general conferences like Wireless Communications Association's two annual conferences.
WiMAX World hasn't always been that good. In the first few years, it was almost entirely cheerleading and supposition and empty posturing. But with real WiMAX / Mobile WiMAX hardware shipping for several years now, numerous rounds of interoperability testing completed, and most importantly - real world deployments, now WiMAX World is a "real", solid conference that's easily justified in attending. To their credit, two things that WiMAX World did very well was to 1) form a solid relationship with the relevant trade association (WiMAX Forum) and 2) have WiMAX World conferences in other parts of the world closer to the most rapid deployments.
The only real competition for WiMAX World are the various "mega" wireless conferences such as CTIA Wireless in the US, and other regional conferences in other parts of the world focused on wireless telephony technology. While there's clearly momentum in wireless telephony technology...
I think that Mobile WiMAX is positioned to be "disruptive technology" in the end, ultimately supplanting the legacy wireless telephony systems as "voice as a cash cow" is ultimately subsumed into "just another type of service delivered via the Internet".
Mobile WiMAX is fundamentally better than the legacy wireless telephony technologies at providing Broadband Internet Access - best quality, best speed, best cost-effectiveness, best coverage (the technology's capabilities, not the current coverage), best spectrum efficiency... etc.
And I think that getting people... and devices... connected to the Internet is the primary requirement in this half of the 21st century.
One of the strongest predictors of this trend is to watch what technologies are being adapted for new portions of spectrum. In the US, the wireless telephony companies are so dominant that new bands such as AWS were snapped up and used for legacy wireless telephony. Yet even with that dominance, Mobile WiMAX is making inroads in the US. The problematic Wireless Communications Service (WCS) band at 2.3 GHz, interleaved with the Digital Audio Radio Service (satellite - Sirius / XM) with its high-powered terrestrial "repeaters" is being used for Mobile WiMAX. But more telling of how adaptable Mobile WiMAX is the 3.65 GHz band now being used by many service providers large and small with a large choice of systems and vendors. And in my reading, I'm seeing this happen as portions of spectrum are continuously being repurposed all over the world - Mobile WiMAX seems to be the preferred technology.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh except for
specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly
permitted (and encouraged).
This article was written and posted via Broadband Wireless Internet
Access (BWIA); Sprint Mobile
Broadband service using a Sierra Wireless 595U USB modem - 1xEV-DO Rev.
A on a MacBook Pro laptop.