The Curious Case of the Missing WiMAX
Mobile WiMax has yet to show that it can live up to expectations
Mobile WiMax has yet to show that it can live up to expectations
-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Mobile WiMAX
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
km2
Expert Member
WiMAX must have really pi$$ed in BMI-T's cornflakes for this many negative articles. One is fine, but this must be the fourth or fifth where BMI-T gives WiMAX a totally one-sided beat down. We could sum them all up as:
- LTE is great.
- WiMAX is for idiots.
- If you give spectrum to WiMAX you're an idiot.
- Stay in the abusive relationship you have with your incumbent mobile phone companies. They know how to look after you.
- We must make sure that independent people don't get a foothold into holding/using spectrum that will be needed by the major operators when they finally join the party with LTE. Looking at you Screamer Telecoms.
Can't we have something that rather looks at the many failings of WiMAX from a more balanced perspective? Maybe focusing on how WiMAX's decentralised and simple to setup nature is more suited to having many smaller regional players that interconnect, vs LTE's compatibility with existing systems, good central management, full protocol suite for voice/data and more. That South Africa's current regulatory environment makes WiMAX a non-starter because it's nigh impossible to get chunks of spectrum for a particular area, as well as the corresponding license to use it to provide ECN services.
WiMAX's main target market = "I want to start a small ISP servicing a particular area quickly, cheaply and easily, and then I'll interconnect with other ISPs over an IP network".
ICASA's philosophy = "You can't get licenses for spectrum for just small areas. We aren't interested in regional players. We want huge organizations that can commit to a country wide rollout and have a 50.1% BEE stake. We're so incredibly slow that even when government wants something, we can't give Infraco a license in any kind of timely manner."
Unless ICASA's approach moves closer to WiMAX's strong points, then WiMAX is dead in the water. Do we really need industry shills telling us though?
- LTE is great.
- WiMAX is for idiots.
- If you give spectrum to WiMAX you're an idiot.
- Stay in the abusive relationship you have with your incumbent mobile phone companies. They know how to look after you.
- We must make sure that independent people don't get a foothold into holding/using spectrum that will be needed by the major operators when they finally join the party with LTE. Looking at you Screamer Telecoms.
Can't we have something that rather looks at the many failings of WiMAX from a more balanced perspective? Maybe focusing on how WiMAX's decentralised and simple to setup nature is more suited to having many smaller regional players that interconnect, vs LTE's compatibility with existing systems, good central management, full protocol suite for voice/data and more. That South Africa's current regulatory environment makes WiMAX a non-starter because it's nigh impossible to get chunks of spectrum for a particular area, as well as the corresponding license to use it to provide ECN services.
WiMAX's main target market = "I want to start a small ISP servicing a particular area quickly, cheaply and easily, and then I'll interconnect with other ISPs over an IP network".
ICASA's philosophy = "You can't get licenses for spectrum for just small areas. We aren't interested in regional players. We want huge organizations that can commit to a country wide rollout and have a 50.1% BEE stake. We're so incredibly slow that even when government wants something, we can't give Infraco a license in any kind of timely manner."
Unless ICASA's approach moves closer to WiMAX's strong points, then WiMAX is dead in the water. Do we really need industry shills telling us though?