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February 4, 2005

Frost and Sullivan Gets it Wrong

By Nancy Gohring

I always debate whether to post items about stories or announcements that are just plain wrong, but it’s hard to ignore this one because it comes from such a large, worldwide analyst firm: Actually, it’s hard to tell whether this piece was issued directly from Frost and Sullivan or if it’s meant to be a news story written by a third party. Regardless, there are enough inaccuracies in quotes to wonder how long the analyst has been covering this space. He points out here that one of the big issues facing WiMax will be that it operates in unlicensed spectrum and thus has a chance of lowered quality due to interference. Perhaps he’s unaware that there is also licensed WiMax gear in the works, specifically that which will operate in the 3.5 GHz band which is licensed to operators in Europe.

This piece also includes a confusing description of an “emerging trend” toward combining Wi-Fi and WiMax in cell phones, laptops, and PDAs. The reason for such a combination, the piece notes, is to provide access through Wi-Fi and backhaul over WiMax. There are a couple things wrong with this description. First, the idea of using WiMax to backhaul hotspots is hardly an emerging trend and in fact was one of the earliest ideas for using WiMax. Also, to use WiMax to backhaul hotspots, customers don’t need combined Wi-Fi and WiMax devices. They’ll just need a Wi-Fi-enabled device for access.

There are a few other slightly off statements in this piece. It just seems odd to see an analyst from a big firm having such a tenuous grip on a market segment that it appears is his job to follow.

Posted by nancyg at February 4, 2005 3:16 PM

Categories: research

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