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52 Comments
- OperatorNo9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Wireless Internet? Fantastic! It's amazing what they can do with tube technology these days.
- Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22I wonder how far this will go before Big Telecom starts lobbying to make it illegal. After all, terrorists might.. use the internet. Wirelessly. We wouldn't even know where they are!
- joseph93, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21Now I can check digg no matter where I am =)
- jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Isn't this the wireless solution that reaches for miles and will be able to hold a speed of 108mbps?
- FuzzyBunny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11There certainly is a lot of potential and Hype surrounding WiMax. I think the real hurdle will be how long it takes for companies to role out acceptable coverage. After all, cellular networks have been building up for decades and I still can't get good reception in a lot of places.
- zirtbow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Yea you could.. that is unless the providers that run it rip us off the way current broadband providers do.
- lcohiomatty86, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8i believe that both of you guys have it wrong here... first off.. why would IT give a crap? as long as these computers are not connected to the corporate network.....
also.. if these computers are on a public internet connection the IT guys cant do anything.. except mayby jamming the frequencies these connections use...
also.. about freaking out.. i'd think the managers/people in charge of productivity would be more worried.. - SuperOmegaSlack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I work for a wireless ISP, we are planning to go WiMax as well...WiMax is the best of both worlds, you have broadband speeds and instead of having to have line-of-sight (point to point radios) like current technology, it broadcasts like wifi. You could blanket a city with a lot less equipment. I can't wait until there are more WiMax compliant vendors, so far there are only a few.
- thebassman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is already being done in Canada, and has been done in Mexico City on a smaller scale. Check out Canada's network: www.inukshuk.ca - live in over 20 major cities already. Very cool technology, though. Speeds upto, I believe, 8Mbps, and a connectivity radius of about 4.5 kilometres (about 3 miles) from the base station.
- gcube9x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4So now we'll have tubes in the air instead of the ground :D.
- Pciber, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I live in Kennewick, WA, and we have Clearwire available. It sucks.
First off, it isn't as mobile as they claim - Yes, it is wireless, but only to your house. Then you need a Clearwire modem that is a little bit bigger than your standard home router or such... hardly portable pull-out-on-a-train size like they are claiming. I've only seen one person pull out a clearwire modem and connect it to his laptop while on the go.. and he looked rediculous. At the same time I was surfing the internet on a random conventional wifi signal next to him.
Next, In most places around here, the modem has to be placed in a window facing a certain direction to get signal.
Third, the speed and quality isn't great. At this point, in this area, I believe it is because it is oversaturated. Clearwire managed to get tons of people in this area signed up, and now they don't have enough back-end support to provide them with excellent service. It is not uncommon to get 1/8th of the advertised speed on a clearwire modem around here, even with full signal strength.
And lastly, the cost and contracts associated with Clearwire versus the speed are not worth it compared to other services in the area. Clearwire here is $36.99/month, plus $5 for modem lease, for 1.5mbit/256kbit service.. including a 2-year contract. Charter in this area has 3mbit/256kbit service for $41.99 a month.. with no contract, and a free modem after MIR when you sign up at a retail store. Verizon is around $25 a month for 1.5mbit/384kbit service, with a $20 up-front cost modem, and a 1 year contract. So why would you sign yourself up for something that has half the speed for the same cost, and requires a 2-year contract? Charter is debatably just as mobile as clearwire - plug your charter modem in somewhere else there is charter service, and it will work just the same.
Don't believe the clearwire hype. - JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7"Wireless Internet? Fantastic! It's amazing what they can do with tube technology these days."
Ahh yes. But won't we all look a little odd on the morning metro carrying plungers to unclog all of those tubes. - madhouseradio, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"'...you'll be able to do all that...' WTF is all that?"
Having your Wireless Broadband go live in less than 3 years....
:-/ - diggmaddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3But what use will it be if net neutrality is not preserved?
- Seidoger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2https://www.highspeedunplugged.sympatico.ca/CustomerPreSales/Landing/HowItWorks.aspx
Bell Sympatico offers a new service called Unplugged at certain locations in Canada,
It's WiMAX but I guess it's not the portability as referred to in the article, you actually need the WiMAX box (modem) and plug it into an outlet.
Sure a nice step forward though! - JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Won't we all look funny prodding the air with plungers and throwing lottery balls in arbitrary directions :-P
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"as long as these computers are not connected to the corporate network....."
If it wasn't connected to the network, then yeah they wouldn't care. If it's a laptop owned by the company, then that would fall under IT's jurisdiction. - ZaNkY, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I personally don't like WiMAX.
Why: http://digg.com/tech_news/Sweden_to_close_WiMAX_citing_health_risk
It's a little old, but you'll get the idea. WiMAX is too powerful, and can have some nasty health side effects. I LOVE the idea, but not the implementation. - Mrkamikaze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Now they just need to come up with a reliable long term power source so i can be trully mobile.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'll believe it when I see it. But dugg for giving me something to daydream and salivate about for five minutes at work.
- ohnnyj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I hope to see this mobile WiMAX soon as I have always thought it would be wonderful to be able to connect anywhere. Plus it really helps those less fortunate people in rural areas without broadband access (like my Dad) who have to resort to expensive satellite (with bad upload speeds) or *gasp* dial-up.
Maybe this will finally get the cable companies to kick it in gear and get us some much higher speed connections at much cheaper prices.
Competition is wonderful. - JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1BetaBatt?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2WiMax is generally only used as a backhaul line. To set up a wireless mesh, there's a limit to the number of routers a signal can traverse before you have to run to a backhaul line. WiMax was put in place to provide a wireless method of doing so.
I don't believe WiMax was intended for direct access by clients, nor is it meant as a replacement for WiFi. It's meant to work in tandem with WiFi mesh networks as a backhaul. - wayjer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I should hope that within 3 years after they are done Beta testing in your area they have all those issues fixed or are getting close.
- thebassman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The portability w/ Bell (& Rogers - it's a 50/50 combined effort between the 2 companies) is coming. ;)
- FlyboyP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Beyond the data security issues there is the question of what employees are doing during work hours, wasting company time.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Real world tests of WiMax only provide for 3-5 miles radius access rarely going above 2 Mbps according to this article - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/27/wimax_world_att_trial/
Have things improved since October of last year? If not, I don't think you're gonig to get many subscribers unless you price it comperable to a 2M downstream DSL. - mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I am guilty of not reading the article, but whats the big difference between this and EvDO?
- robdavy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ skyshock21
Based on experience, I'd say you're wrong on the backhaul front.
WiMAX is used for the direct access for the customers. Here in Canada, there's a pre-wimax-standard technology in use pitched as "Mobile Broadband" - Moscube717, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We have clearwire where I live, and it really isn't all that great. First, it's not like a huge wifi hotspot. You have to have the clearwire modem in your house. This could change, and they could use some sort of authentication for subscribers and their laptops. Right now though if you want wireless in your house, you have to have their hardware hooked to a wireless router.
Also, the signal strength is also quite weak, unless the modem is exactly in that right spot. It is akin to trying to get an XM signal indoors. Even when the modem shows a full signal, the connection speed varies immensely depending on the load on the network. Don't even think about a decent speed from 5:30 to about 8 at night. I don't even live in a major metro area, just about a hundred thousand in our town.
So, yes the service is nice, due to fairly inexpensive infrastructure, but they still have a lot of progress to make. - Zero82z, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Too bad they don't give the locations of the base stations. I live in Montreal(one of the cities listed), and yet I don't know any locations that have this service.
- jmann, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1WiMax already covers my county in Indiana, just a matter of time before it covers the whole USA.
http://digg.com/tech_news/Wireless_broadband_covers_entire_county_ - thebassman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Call Rogers or Bell and ask them where they are in the city. ;)
- CitizenKamb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use Clearwire right now, as it's the only broadband that's available in my area. I still only get about half of the reception though, and at times I can't even connect. We'll see how it is in three years.
If they want this to get off the ground, though, they're gonna need to get rid of their receivers. I have to have the black box up in a window in my attic, which is the only place it gets reception. There's no way I'm taking that thing with me on a laptop. Get the internal card receiving this signal.
- FlyboyP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Craig McCaw is legendary in telecom history - he basically founded the cable TV and cellphone industries. But he did screw up on satellite broadband, which was too expensive and too late, because cable and DSL had penetrated the market already.
So here he goes again with this WiMax thing... give him credit for persistence. I think the only way it'll succeed though is to vastly undersell the established providers, which in the mobile arena are cellphone companies, and in fixed is cable and telco again. I personally don't believe he can pull it off. Wireless data is just too flaky. - kloud213, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1EVDO is only in certain areas.... I live in a rural community and its not availible here.
- danielcole, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ skyshock21 & robdavy
You may be thinking that WiMax is used for back hauls probably because in the U.S. it has been cleared for use only in the 5Ghz frequency range (I seem to remember a licensed 3Ghz, but I could be wrong). 5Ghz products are used frequently in back hauls because of their high capacity for large amounts of data. Problem with 5Ghz however is that it's almost totally line-of-sight. In that idyllic first paragraph of the BusinessWeek article lets hope that they've installed access points at every corner of every building, kiosk, lamp pole and tall tree. As soon as you put anything more solid than a large tree between you and the access point your connection is shot.
In other countries WiMax has been certified for lower frequencies (1.8Ghz, 900mhz, 700mhz, etc). While the data rate isn't quite the same at this range you have the added benefit of being able to pass the signal thru trees, and have it propagate over a *much* larger distance. - dark_helmet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1EvDO works over existic cellular networks, its designed for wireless data to cell phones, where as WiMAX is designed purely for wireless data, theres more bandwidth available etc.
- punkrockscks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1man ***** clearwire, I have it and hate it. If you're just gonna check your email and surf eBay, its just fine, but anything else- good luck, port blockage from hell.
I tried to cancel it and was told I was in a two year contract, which was never expressed to me when I signed up. - l1wulf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ariven:
If the employees are not allowed to bring in other devices like cameras, etc. Wouldn't personal laptops fall under that jurisdiction? I fail to see where WiMax has any bearing on your concerns here since it seems that your security policy would bar any personal computer regardless of whether or not it is on its own network or not. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand where you are coming from regarding security, but WiMax isn't the issue for your situation.
Going off on an ever further tangent, with the proliferation of USB drives, I would think that they would pose more of a threat than a user having a personal laptop/PDA/etc running at their workspace. Drag and drop to a USB drive is where my concern would be regarding theft as a result of convenience. I know, just because you failed to mention it in your remarks doesn't mean you guys don't already have a policy covering this. :) - smoothly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://wimax-coverage.com had an article about qualcomm making $35per 3g handset they supply chips for. So wimax with intel chips would be very bad for qualcomm.
- ariven, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"i believe that both of you guys have it wrong here... first off.. why would IT give a crap? as long as these computers are not connected to the corporate network....."
"If it wasn't connected to the network, then yeah they wouldn't care. If it's a laptop owned by the company, then that would fall under IT's jurisdiction."
Why would IT care? and would it fall under IT's jurisdiction? well, speaking as the IT department where I work, I would definately care.. and so would my boss... more so than most of our employees supervisors prolly. We would care because we have 10-15 years of customer data, including contact information, SSNs, Tax IDs, credit card info, bank info... etc. Even though it was not part of our network direct, it would make it easier for them to transfer that data out of the property in a timely manner.
sure, they could write it down.. but they cant put it to floppy (if the systems they work on have floppy drives (and only half do), they have a floppy lock that only two people have a key to), they cant burn it to cd rom, they cant email it.. we want to make it a burden to steal that type of information as an employee.. to help reduce the chance of becoming a crook by convenience.
it isnt a 100% guarantee by a long shot, but every little bit helps.
As for not in my jurisdiction? Due to our desire for security of this data it definately IS part of my jurisdiction.. we dont let unauthorised computer equpment to be established here.. and since we are a small enough company I can keep a direct eye out for violations.. heck, we dont even allow cameras on property. Again, every little bit helps. - ariven, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ l1wulf
"If the employees are not allowed to bring in other devices like cameras, etc. Wouldn't personal laptops fall under that jurisdiction? I fail to see where WiMax has any bearing on your concerns here since it seems that your security policy would bar any personal computer regardless of whether or not it is on its own network or not."
Yup, I don't let them set up anything along those lines. And the few things we do give exemptions for are typically printers and the like for people who dont have access to the database and dont want to use a general workgroup printer, and those we document and get S/N on so that we can be sure there is no hassles with security when they want to leave with their property.
"Going off on an ever further tangent, with the proliferation of USB drives, I would think that they would pose more of a threat than a user having a personal laptop/PDA/etc running at their workspace. Drag and drop to a USB drive is where my concern would be regarding theft as a result of convenience. I know, just because you failed to mention it in your remarks doesn't mean you guys don't already have a policy covering this. :)"
Oh yeah, USB drives are definately a no, but at least on most of our systems they wont work at all, and the users dont have the capacity to install the sofware to make them work. Sadly we are reduced to sneakernet for moving files at times, but at least it isnt often that we have to cross networks. But on the upside of all the security, we dont have issues with virii/trojans/etc on our customer service network, since nothing can get in from the outside.. - BobbyOnions, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Wow, really? I live in Iceland, I've not seen any news confirming this.
You did say "nationwide". - ashbrahma, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Sprint is excellently positioned in both the broadband cards and wimax. I am happy to be a sprint customer.
- killdashnine, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4The best part is to watch the IT Departments of all our workplaces freak when they realize that people can surf the web freely all day long with their own internet connections. All the more reason to throw Linux and a WiMax card on an aging home PC and bring it into your cube at work ;)
- Daniel591992, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5That last part seems like something Bush would say. :P
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Uh, I don't think they'll be "freaking" over this. Youv'e never managed a LAN have you? Disabling such devices is a pretty trivial thing to do.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Thats sooo fast what do they have to do... get the ***** outa of here......
The United States of America is lazy as hell!
We all want money for nothing this is an example.
If we can get by with screwing each other lets do it. (buddy *****)
TELCO'S SUCK ASS!
United States Special Forces! - miken32, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Why can't people learn to write their own summaries instead of copying and pasting out-of-context sentences from the article?
"...you'll be able to do all that..." WTF is all that? -
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