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April 21, 2005

WiMax's Local Angle in Minneapolis

By Glenn Fleishman

Terrific article on the local impact of pre-WiMax in Minneapolis: The Star-Tribune scores on the technical side with this excellent mainstream business analysis of WiMax. The writer even beats most of the folks in the trade publications by perfectly describing the status of WiMax. The element that’s not fully developed is that fixed WiMax can’t compete against clouds of Wi-Fi and that Wi-Fi can be used for long-distance links, too. But pre-WiMax and related technology is designed for point-to-multipoint while Wi-Fi has to be coerced into it.

In the Minneapolis area, local companies StoneBridge and Implex.net are using broadband wireless to compete with local carriers: the former has 650 customers; the latter says several hundred.

Interestingly, no prices are quoted for higher-than-T-1 speeds. Broadband wireless often can’t compete for business-class 1.5 Mbps service, but as soon as you rise above that level, it’s much cheaper. To install two T-1 lines generally costs twice as much in equipment and for monthly fees. But switching from 1.5 to 3 Mbps using wireless is typically more like a 50 percent increase and doesn’t change out the equipment. Even better, you can often make that switch through a phone call—not by bringing in more wire and equipment.

Posted by Glennf at April 21, 2005 5:48 PM

Categories: mainstream press

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