WiMax Woes
After another frustratingly slow session of “Mobile Internet” using one of them USB data sticks, my thoughts drifted towards WiMax, which seems to be sliding downhill after a prolonged stay at the peak of the hype cycle:
I remember attending a live WiMax demo in Delhi as far back as 2004, though it turned out to be quite comical. The company had invited the tech press and some officials including the Wireless Advisor to the DoT. The latter was furious when he heard that the transmitter had been placed on the terrace of a building across the road and insisted that he had given permission only to place it on the terrace of the same hotel! The red-faced execs had to literally scamper after him with profuse apologies and eventually cooled him down with some hot chai!
Gartner (yup, the same guys who came up with the term ‘hype cycle’) has just come out with a report titled “Beware of WiMAX Hype in
“In the near-term, the Indian WiMAX market is not very promising. Gartner advises carriers to focus on the enterprise market and high end residential subscribers. At the present time, it is not clear if vendors would benefit from risk-sharing models with Indian operators. Overall, the long term potential of the Indian WiMAX market heavily relies on spectrum allocation, WiMAX ecosystem maturation, and the timeliness of WiMAX and 3G licenses.” more (Press Release)
Well, BSNL (which along with MTNL will get automatic allocation of spectrum unlike the private guys who will have to bid) seems to have massive plans for WiMax, but given its current state of connectivity offerings, it’s tough to be optimistic.
I wonder if anyone from BSNL attended the recent WiMax conference in Bangkok, where the CEO of Australia’s first WiMax deployer Buzz Broadband, slammed the technology in front of a global audience. Quick Summary:
“disaster… miserable failure… mired in opportunistic hype”
Tags: bsnl, fraudband, gartner, hype cycle, mobile internet, wimax
March 31st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
has MTNL and BSNL launched it in india?? i havent heard it any where not even in news paper
March 31st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
well i stay in a suburb jus outside mumbai and we have jus started seeing ads for reliance broadband on cable tv. the ad says wirless internet using latest wimax technology and all….i dont know how far its true as when i spoke to the guy whose contact info was given in the ad….his knowledge regarding the possible speeds thru it wasnt satisfying at all!! plus being something new not many have tried it yet and not many r even willing to try it!! so all we have is ??????? !!!
March 31st, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Reliance has decent Wi-Max services in Bangalore
Couple of my friends are using it and it’s ok ….
Good for people who aren’t able to get Airtel / BSNL ADSL lines
Not too good speeds and support by Reliance at the moment . Known cases of ppl being extremely unhappy with it
March 31st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
not heard in mumbai yet
eagerly waiting to test one
March 31st, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I wouldn’t go for it at all. 90% of European customers who have 3G say it’s something they never use. While the whole idea of having broadband-level Net access on the move is actually kind of neat, it’s something I can’t see a real need for. And unless we see an exponential growth in network infrastructure, it’s not gonna work very well; just look at the pathetic condition of GPRS etc.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I know a few people who are using reliance’s wimax. They say speeds and stuff are great but pings are bad which makes it a bad option for gamers.
Reliance everywhere offers only wimax i think.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Is Wimax same as Evdo?
April 4th, 2008 at 2:10 am
@ tech
EV-DO or EVDO and often EV, is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. It uses multiplexing techniques including Code division multiple access (CDMA) as well as Time division multiple access (TDMA) to maximize both individual user’s throughput and the overall system throughput.
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access.
WiMAX is a possible replacement candidate for cellular phone technologies such as GSM and CDMA, or can be used as a layover to increase capacity. It has also been considered as a wireless backhaul technology for 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in both developed and developing nations.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:11 am
i hav heard wimax is capable of giving speeds of upto 70 mbps
thats mind blowing!!!!!!!
whereas 3.5G with best supported phones & network can give max 7.2 mbps
April 4th, 2008 at 2:12 am
70mbps? :-O
April 4th, 2008 at 2:12 am
boss first let’s try to get at least a 3-4 Mbps home broadband service..which actually works at that kinda speeds. Then let’s look at 3G, WiMax and the like.Let’s not run before we can walk.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:18 am
anyone knows when 3g is starting?
i read its starting this month/next month in telegraph
April 7th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Let’s forget 3G etc. for the moment and focus on the actual comm infrastructure itself, shall we? Broadband at home bfore mobile. You can’t even get a 5-6 Mbps unlimited plan while in many countries, 50+ Mbps is considered average. Right now I consider myself fortunate if a simple voice call goes through on my mobile on the first try (Vodafone, Hyderabad, 2100 hrs).
April 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
As per the Gartner release, 3G has better infratructure in India than WiMAX right now and is expected to be in use by end of 2008. Now lets just wait and watch…