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Stardate 20021005.2128 (On Screen): As I think many of my readers know, I used to work for Qualcomm designing cell phones. Qualcomm is the company which invented CDMA, and made it practical, and made it into a market success, and it now dominates the American market, where Verizon and Sprint both use it. There are two other nationwide cellular systems: AT&T currently uses IS-136 TDMA, which is obsolete and has no upgrade path. Cingular uses GSM, a more sophisticated form of TDMA from Europe. And right now I'm basking in the evil glow of a major case of schadenfreude. The...

Sprint hopes to complete the deal in the same timeframe the Softbank deal is wrapped up The department that handles acquisitions and mergers at Sprint has been very busy lately. Sprint announced that it would be selling a majority stake to Softbank for $20 billion in October. Sprint has also long coveted the wireless spectrum that partner Clearwire holds and uses for wireless internet service. Sprint has made no secret of the fact that it wants to own all of Clearwire. CNBC reports that that Sprint and Clearwire are moving closer to a deal that would see Sprint acquire the reamaining 49%...

Last week, President-elect Barack Obama's call for a delay in the Digital TV transition, long scheduled for February, sent tech and telecom firms into a tizzy. Both Verizon and the Consumer Electronics Association have been pushing back hard against any postponement of the move from analog to digital broadcasting, while AT&T has joined the Consumers Union and several prominent Democratic legislators in supporting the call to give the troubled transition more time. Among those with a vested interest in the debate over a DTV delay is Clearwire, which has been racing to deploy its 4G WiMAX networks ahead of competitors...

The long-rumored national mobile WiMAX partnership between Sprint and Clearwire is finally official, both companies said today. Sprint will own 51% of the new company, which will be called Clearwire. Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks combined are investing $3.2 billion, based on a $20 estimated per-share price when Clearwire opens on the NASDAQ after the deal’s expected completion later this year. “We’ve made an excellent start developing XOHM WiMAX services. Contributing those advances to a strongly backed new company – in which we’ll hold the largest interest – provides Sprint with additional financial flexibility and...

LAS VEGAS (MarketWatch) - Intel Corp. demonstrated that its commitment to WiMax, a next generation wireless technology, has not wavered even after the collapse of a important partnership between Sprint and Clearwire - two of the technology's strongest proponents - in November. At the Consumer Electronics Show, the Santa Clara chip maker used a small fleet of cars to drive the press and other guests around to demonstrate the power of the wide-ranging wireless technology. WiMax, which has a much larger range than the popular Wi-Fi standard, can be used in rural environments, congested cities with skyscrapers, and mountainous regions....

Mexico's Communications and Transport Secretary Luis Téllez (SCT.gob.mx) told Federal Communications (COFETEL.gob.mx) members and industry representatives that greater competition (in the telecommunications sector) would allow more Mexicans access to opportunities provided by new technologies. "Letting this new technology remain in just a few selective hands is something we do not want and are not going to allow," Téllez said. Teléfonos de México SA, or Telmex, owned by the world´s second-richest man, billionaire Carlos Slim, controls more than 90 percent of the nation´s fixed phone lines, while his América Móvil SA provides about 70 percent of cell-phone service in Mexico. Telmex...

The Mexico City government signed an agreement Monday with a Chinese telecommunications firm, ZTE, that is intended to provide free wireless internet throughout the city in 2008...The idea is that ZTE will now establish a subsidiary in Mexico City that will in turn create jobs. The agreement provides for the creation of a wireless network that can be accessed free of charge from anywhere in the capital city.

The mass market for WiMax technology faces a number of challenges, but will probably reach its potential within five years. "Now that the certification of WiMax equipment has started and coverage areas have begun to expand beyond basic trials, WiMax equipment suppliers and chip makers face a much less uncertain future," said Stephen Entwistle, vice president of the strategic technologies practice at Strategy Analytics. "Even so, most remain cautious."

I live in the mountains, in a bowl. We don't have cable, no line of sight wireless communication, no DSL, etc. just standard phone lines. It seems that satellites might be the best option, but I have heard a lot of bad things about satellite connections, poor upload and download times especially as more people use the system, latency (lag time) problems, relatively high costs. Radio communication seems touchy and slow. I might be able to put in a tower on the mountain between me and civilization. Should I work on getting WiMax here? What is the best solution? I...

A GMC Yukon Denali motors down the road, while the passengers inside simultaneously receive mobile calls over the Internet, and streaming video at up to 2.5 Mbps, on a variety of devices. Cutting-edge? You bet, but that technology demonstration took place just last week in Vancouver, and it was designed by engineers to show the potential of the newest mobile-phone technology: mobile WiMax. WiMax -- a nerdy acronym for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access -- in the coming years may become the new mobile-phone standard, experts told UPI's Wireless World.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imagine a wireless hotspot the size of Philadelphia or a rural community in the American heartland. U.S. cities and companies are eyeing an emerging technology known as WiMax as a way to make high-speed wireless Internet services available in areas much larger that a typical Wi-Fi coffee bar or the local McDonald's. But it may prove difficult to make such services commercially viable, analysts say. WiMax -- touted as a potential spoiler for cable modems and other traditional Internet connections -- was developed to beam the Internet across cities using radio networks with much wider ranges...

In a rare twist, a broadband technology may be launched out in the sticks before it reaches urbanites BT may launch WiMax in rural areas ahead of cities following the success of its trials of the high-speed wireless technology.

Chicago, IL, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The latest wireless mobile computing technology, called WiMax, is gaining momentum at a rapid clip. WiMax will help bridge the gap between wireless fidelity and wireless telecom networks, giving mobile computer users free, or cheap, wireless access across many miles of terrain, not just inside the office or at a WiFi hot spot, such as a Starbucks or a Kinko's store.Major companies, including Lucent Technologies, Nortel, Cisco and Huawei Technologies, are moving forward with projects in the WiMax market -- known formally as Metropolitan Broadband Fixed, Portable and Mobile Applications -- and new commercial...

By Robert X. Cringely The world has gone crazy for wireless data. In the dismal days since the dot-com meltdown of 2001, almost the only happy business news has been in the wireless sector, whether it is WiFi, Bluetooth, SMS messaging, you name it. WiFi hotspots are everywhere, 3G mobile data is slowly coming, and next year, we'll see the first 802.16 WiMax products -- the first of these initiatives to cause real concern for the telephone companies. WiMax, which promises fixed wireless 70 megabit-per-second data service over a distance up to 50 kilometers, scares the phone companies because it...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An emerging wireless communications technology called WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet connections, will rival DSL and cable as the preferred way to connect homes and businesses to the Internet, Intel Corp. said on Tuesday. "I think that WiMAX could be to DSL and cable what cellular was to landline (phones) not too long ago," Intel President Paul Otellini said at a technical conference hosted by the Santa Clara, California-based company. Intel has begun shipping samples of WiMAX chips to customers and has committed to building WiMAX into its Centrino notebook computer chips...