Sprint Sets an Ambitious WiMax Agenda for Itself - Caller IP

It's Dejavu all over again

I was involved in a 3rd party fashion with the original rollout of Sprints Hybrid wireless Internet services in the late '90's. It was a bloody mess. At that time Sprint was still thinking purely as a voice telecom company and just didn't get ISP services and what it took to be a professional provider. It was a great idea in concept absolutely horribly executed. They stopped taking new subscribers, cleaned up the mess as best they could, and have been treading water ever since.

Now we have WiMax technology being adopted by Sprint with much hullabaloo. There's no question Sprint has grown into a much more intelligent provider, and WiMax certainly promises significantly better performance than the old Hybrid system. Unfortunately I think Sprint is still overselling what for many of us will be just one more wireless option. For many of us it will provide no benefit. Having said that, for those outside Cable or Telecom DSL service areas, it will be a lifesaver. But Sprint isn't concentrating it's rollout in those areas. It wants to reach the high population areas first, which makes sense, but isn't where the bulk of the customers reside. Understandable from a PR standpoint, but not good business in the long run. You must to where your customers are. Not just population.

We'll have to see how this works for Sprint. I think it's being over hyped big time. Reminds me of Bluetooth in 1998. How many years after that did you have a Bluetooth device that mattered to you? And how long after that before it worked?
Dr Dave