Transcript of the ICC & FUSF conference call on the FCC NPRM

2011-02-25T17:57:24Z

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Who You Calling "Droid"

2011-01-03T15:24:23Z

This week the eyes of the wireless world turn to CES to see what will be in hands and hearts for the next 6 months. Of course we will also keep and eye on Cupertino. However, The Wall Street Journal has pointed out that Verizon is going to have an LTE phone announcement in Las Vegas this week (see http://on.wsj.com/f6tk69 ) As technologists we will be curious to see if this is UTRAN / VoLTE or something else.

I suspect it will keep the volce separate. Its hard to imagine that the migration to a totally evolved packet core is going to be done by VZW in the first year of deployment.

We live with two year cycles and keeping it simple to deploy is a good move.

More important than the way the transport works though will be the signaling. Verizon wants apps that integrate into the network and this would be a great opportunity to move beyond the Skype Mobile handoff.

At 4GWE http://www.4gwe.com we have the benefit of Anton Wahlman speaking who is one of the best trackers of this space. He suggested last year that the discussion at CES would dominated by tablets.

One company that looks like it needs to make a boost is RIM, Their tablet has long been discussed, but others such as Vizio maybe stealing the thunder http://on.wsj.com/gQfMjV .

Additionally, the divide and Conquer model of Google is expanding with their tablet / ereader strategy called Newstand http://on.wsj.com/hmJf82 . Here is an interesting question to think about, when you want to read an article do you go to a newsstand or a tunes place?

I think the familiar model has been captured by Google, now lets see the ease of use.

Shameless Promotion When it Comes to White Space

2010-12-28T18:47:00Z

FCC Chairman Genachowski called the opening of TV White Space as SuperWiFI.

We are the first to do a spot check on whether the superWiFi is just around the corner or too hard to implement.

You can see the event here http://bit.ly/fZoxVt but coming to the event is probably the smartest move you can make. If you think about WiFI it started with a small amount of spectrum.

For SuperWiFi the spread of spectrum is a lot better once the open spectrum is mapped.

The discussion will bring device developers together with service providers.

This has all the markings of the beginning of a different eco system.

An ecosystem that I think could be something disruptive to home service and integrated into the strategies of our wireless future.

Join us

Streaming (& Archiving) 4GWE.

2010-10-02T16:21:15Z

The last three years have been pretty amazing. Thanks to Apple's iPhone we finally got to see what its like to have "full" access to the Internet. The iPhone shifted everyone's strategies, and where LTE looked like it would be slow to develop we now have initial implementations in scattered areas around the world.

However, this is no longer about the transport; it's about the application demand. Having verified the insatiable appetite the carriers are now racing to find ways to expand the coverage and recover the cost.

The question is can Wireless have parity with the customer's Internet experience at home and at work.

While many will tell you that the Web is dead, the reality is the Internet evolves. From a research project, to a modem extended email system, to the web , to music, to movies and now to mobile.

This week, we are in LA looking at what it takes to give us mobile parity. If you have ever been around me at an event, you know I love the content and community interaction.

Mobile Video is an increasing part of our future, so we have set up a streaming feed at www.4GWE.TV with an archive available as well.

As a matter of fact, I have looked at this event more as TV show then a conference. The delegates are the studio audience. We are charging $20.00 to watch and have access to all the slides. More than you pay for an iTune, but an incredible deal when you consider you are getting over 20 hours of content.

If you have ever been with me at event in the past, I think you will find we have taken it up a notch here.

I hope you join us.

Over the Top - Money

2010-09-30T15:53:50Z

Who cares if you carriers billing system is working right? when you have all these options to pay from the web. Once again the mobile Internet is really just the Internet.

Watching a panel of companies at Gigaom's Mobilize of companies successful in mobile payments. But it is all over the top.

The companies include Boku, Groupe Hi-Media, Mastercard, Paypal, Zong

Interesting Geoff of Mastercard, has not brought up Smart Cards.

BOF: The New 4G: the FCC decision and use of White Spaces

2010-09-30T13:44:35Z

On one of the mail lists I participate in the conversation has been intriguing about what technology is the right technology for TV White Space. WiMAX, WiFi and LTE advocates which can normally find detante' showing different ecosystems. The opportunity with White Space represents a different kind of opportunity, because it is unlicensed Spectrum.

On Wednesday at the Conference we are running a BOF about the White Space where we look at it not from the technology alone but from the business model.

Does the concept of a service provider matter, or will we get a wider ability to mesh as end users?

Where and When should we expect solutions in the market place?

You can join us remotely by clicking here http://www.zipdx.com/event/ws6oct2010.php.

Barlow Keener will moderate.

Jack Unger
President of Ask-Wi.Com, Inc.

Jack Unger founded the company in 1993 after working for 14 years in the Silicon Valley telecom industry for ROLM, IBM, Siemens and NEC. Ask-Wi.com has been serving the broadband wireless community for the past 17 years. Mr. Unger deployed one of the world's first wireless ISPs (WISPs) in Silicon Valley 1995. He has personally has trained over 3500 wireless personnel and he wrote the first handbook for the WISP industry, "Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks", which was published by Cisco Press in 2003. Mr. Unger is serving his 4^th-term as a Director on the Board of the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA) and is serving his third term as Chair of WISPA's FCC Committee, which guides WISPA's advocacy and lobbying efforts on TV White Space and other FCC issues of importance to the WISP industry.

Fanny Mlinarsky

Fanny Mlinarsky is the founder of octoScope. She brings a powerful combination of in-depth technical knowledge and business acumen. With 26 years of experience in progressively influential technology roles with companies including Agilent and Teradyne, she has developed hardware and software, managed R&D teams and founded Azimuth Systems, a successful VC funded wireless test equipment company. Fanny has a BS/EE and BA/CS from Columbia University with some graduate work at MIT. She holds 5 patents. In 2004, Fanny received a Woman to Watch award from Mass High Tech.

Fanny Mlinarsky is the founder of octoScope.

In 2001 she founded Azimuth, the leading provider of Wi-Fi, WiMAX and LTE test equipment, and served as the company's Chief Technology Officer for five years.

Before founding Azimuth, she managed the Agilent Handheld Tester business unit formed through the acquisition of Scope Communications. Prior to that, she was VP of Engineering at Scope, where she led the development of the technology that was acquired by HP/Agilent.

Brough Turner

Brough Turner is the founder of netBlazr Inc., a radically new form of wireless ISP. Our motto: Free your broadband! Check us out. Previously he was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Natural MicroSystems and NMS Communications. After NMS was split up and sold off, Brough consulted to Dialogic as their Chief Strategy Officer for most of 2009.

Brough has a long history with telecom and the Internet, beyond what's mentioned in his LinkedIn bio. He entered the telecom industry when some friends and I started Natural MicroSystems in 1983.

Barlow Keener

Barlow Keener has been specializing in communications law and its development for over 15 years. Barlow represents competing telecommunications providers (including firms using wired and wireless technologies) in state and federal regulatory matters. He negotiates interconnection agreements and handles issues involving universal service, pricing, tariffs, and other matters, as well as representing various Internet-related entities in regulatory matters and issues relating to rights management, privacy, and internet video. Barlow also handles matters related to inter-carrier compensation, providing advice and analysis regarding compliance with the Carrier Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and CNPI rules, interpreting court orders, FCC orders, and tariffs to determine precise costs of network configuration, and negotiating interconnection agreements. In addition, Barlow works on matters related to start-up firms in the telecom, wireless, and internet sectors including incorporation and general corporate governance.

Barlow was the legal counsel and CEO of a facilities-based voice and data CLEC, General Counsel at CSA, Inc., a video advertising-focused consumer products company, and General Attorney at BellSouth Telecommunications. He is a member of the Massachusetts, Georgia, and Florida bar associations.

Barlow has spoken at numerous telecommunications conferences on the regulatory and legal issues related to femtocells and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FCM) issues.

Clearwire Saved by LTE? Its not the Technology its the Spectrum.

2010-08-09T15:17:58Z

Refering to the Forbes article. reference http://bit.ly/cuB6Bb.

Andrew,

Respectfully you are missing the point. WiMAX and LTE are both connected to the WiFi standards. The migration to these technologies is an admission by the wireless carriers that they have to be better at delivering the Internet.

The Internet motivates all of the 4G decisions being made by Apple, ATT, Cablevision, Clearwire, Comcast, Google, etc.

The spectrum asset is the "Clear" value of Clearwire. As the use of Wireless broadband increases the concept of a phone will become less and less relevant.

The WiMAX standard is already completed its IMT 2000 compliance meaning it is in lying in wait for the LTE - Advanced to catch up.

Clearwire can support the end points of dungles with superior service for the next few years and still be ahead of LTE roll outs.

Additionally, your point about standards ignores the fact that LTE interoperability is more than a year away.

So we have a window of opportunity for the WiMAX to work and a migration plan for when LTE catches up.

To me means the future is strong for CLWR.

If you want to hear more join me at my event at 4GWE. http://bit.ly/aHnwbs

4G is in the Stars: Satelite to Terresterial

2010-06-11T13:14:29Z

As LTE networks begin the testing phase, one mobile phone competitor, SkyTerra Communication, is planning to build a nationwide wholesale mobile network using a combination of Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) and an ATC (ancillary terrestrial component) network to deliver 4G mobile capability.

I plan to bring in three industry visionaries to discuss this bold and very interesting strategy. The discussion, in the form of an audiocast, will take place on June 15^th at 11:00 a.m. and you can register here. The audio cast will be a panel discussion, moderated by myself and three very astute industry visionaries see their bios below.

The mobile satellite business plan is the Holy Grail for those with the vision that satellites can provide "universal" 4G mobile service to the typical consumer. The MSS strategy has been unsuccessfully attempted in the past. But now, better chips, better phones, and bigger satellite dishes are pushing more power than ever to smaller handsets - making the business case for MSS more likely.

The satellite plan is of great interest in both urban and rural areas as the network could deliver the ubiquitous and redundant mobile service for public safety and first responders. The SkyTerra business model became newsworthy when on March 26, 2010, the FCC issued an order approving the merger of SkyTerra Communications and Harbinger Capital Partners. The Commission included controversial requirements and conditions that would potentially limit the use of Verizon Wireless and AT&T wireless networks by SkyTerra.

Aside from the contentious issues imposed in the merger order, there are other matters which are of interest for industry vendors, regulators and mobile users. The SkyTerra business plan, filed shortly after the March 2010 merger order, would give public safety much of what was sought in the D-Block 700Mhz auction - that is a provider of a single, nationwide, redundant mobile network using a low cost handset. SkyTerra is potentially in a much better position than FrontLine Wireless was to build out a nationwide network that would allow public safety to communicate from across departments. The loss of cell towers would not limit public safety from communicating. Also, the ability to deliver broadband mobile capacity to rural areas would provide an alternative to expensive special access.

Some issues that we will discuss on this call include:

1. Will the SkyTerra project change the FCC's position on the 700Mhz D-Block?

2. What is the FCC's current D-Block plan?

3. Has the Commission initiated a policy of supporting more wireless competition by limiting the largest providers from participating in future spectrum auctions?

4. Will the Commission conduct such thorough competitive reviews with stringent conditions of future mobile mergers as it did with SkyTerra and Harbinger?

5. Could such future Commission orders increase mobile competition in the U.S. but further erode slowing user growth and ARPU for the largest mobile providers?

6. Is 4G mobile satellite a reality or just a long shot?

June 15^th audiocast participants:

Barlow Keener, Attorney, Keener Law Group

Barlow Keener has been specializing in communications law and development for over 15 years and is an authority on wireless and wired matters related to telecommunications, CALEA, femtocells, WiFi mesh networks, and fiber optic networks. He represents telecommunications providers in state and federal regulatory matters. He has served as lead telecom regulatory counsel in connection with numerous RBOC, VoIP, CLEC, conference calling, voicemail, and collocation projects. Barlow delivers guidance to communications providers and systems integrators related to defining telecommunications and non-telecommunications services. He also provides strategic and policy advice to telecommunications, information technology and media firms in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Brough Turner, Founder and CTO, Ashtonbrooke Corporation, soon to be doing business as BigBroadband.Net

Brough Turner is an engineer and entrepreneur focused on communications in the broadest sense. Previous to Ashtonbrooke, Brough was co-founder of Natural MicroSystems and co-founder and CTO of its successor, NMS Communications, where he focused on business strategy, product architecture and new market development. He speaks and writes widely on communications topics and gives tutorials on 3G and 4G wireless technology and markets. In addition, he serves on advisory boards for several startup companies in telecom and Internet markets and occasionally consults on related topics. More at http://broughturner.com

Lyman Chapin is co-founder and partner at Interisle Consulting Group,

Lyman advises companies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies on Internet technology, policy, and governance; telecommunications network security and resilience; and critical infrastructure protection. Before starting Interisle in 2002 he was Chief Scientist at BBN Technologies. Mr. Chapin is a Fellow of the IEEE, and was a founding trustee of the Internet Society. He has served as a Director of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), where he currently chairs the Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel and the DNS Stability Panel, and as chairman of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM), and the ANSI and ISO standards groups responsible for Network and Transport layer networking standards. Mr. Chapin was a principal architect of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model and protocols, and is the co-author of Open Systems Networking--TCP/IP and OSI. He currently serves as the USA/ACM representative to the International Federation for Information Processing Technical Committee on Communication Systems (IFIP TC6) and recently completed a five-year term as the USA representative to the NATO Science Committee networking panel.

Please remember to pre-register for this call here: http://www.zipdx.com/event/sat15jun.php to ensure you spot on the call

Not the Usual Suspects: The Road Block Ahead Audiocast

2010-05-10T12:49:24Z

Audiocast: Come join the Conference Call

The Roadblock Ahead: FCC vs. Comcast What's Next.
   May 25, 2010 From 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

powered by

Abstract: As the US looks to redefine its National Broadband Policy the FCC finds itself be questioned about its authority. Access and Over the Top services are both desired in the future
markets, but the role of the FCC is now in question.
   - Does the FCC have jurisdiction to manage the interaction between access and applications?
   - How much of the old rules can be applied when the model is no longer based on carrier interaction but theinternetworking that goes beyond the distance the of a single provider?
   - What concerns do applications and services like peer to Peer have about the control by access providers?
   - Should the rules be the same regardless of wireline and wireless?

To Participate email me. Carl Ford cford@4gwe.com or sign up here

Glenn S. Richards Partner Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Glenn is a partner in Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman's communications group. He represents VoIP providers, wireline and wireless communications carriers, satellite companies, equipment manufacturers and large users of telecommunications services in transactional and litigation matters, and in regulatory matters before the FCC, state public utility commissions and international regulatory agencies.
Glenn has been active with the Voice on the Net Coalition since its inception, serving as primary outside counsel from 1997-2006 and Executive Director since September 2009.
He has also served as a member of US delegations for International Telecommunication Union radio conferences, including the 1995 and 1997 World Radiocommunication Conferences, and CITEL conferences in 1992 and 1995. He has also served on the North American Numbering Council.

Hank Hultquist - Vice President, Federal Regulatory, AT&T
Hank joined AT&T (then SBC) in 2004. He represents AT&T at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on a number of issues including broadband and Internet policy, video and media policy, intercarrier compensation, and universal service. He is a member of the Board of Directors and of the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) and serves on the North American Numbering Council (NANC). Prior to joining AT&T, he was with MCI for eight years. Hank is a graduate of the George Mason University School of Law and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Bram Cohen , Chief Scientist and Co-founder. BitTorrrent
Bram Cohen is the Chief Scientist and co-founder of BitTorrent, Inc. and the creator of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution protocol. Bram is also the co-founder of CodeCon and the co-author of Codeville. Prior to the creation of BitTorrent, Bram worked at MojoNation. MojoNation allowed people to break up confidential files into encrypted chunks and distribute those pieces to other computers running MojoNations software. This concept served as the inspiration for Bram's development of BitTorrent. Before MojoNation, Bram was a quintessential dot-commer, working for several Internet companies through the mid-to-late 90s. Bram grew up in New York City, graduated from Stuyvesant High School and attended the University of Buffalo.

David, Farber, Former CTO of the FCC.
Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science and Public Policy in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University holding secondary appointments in the Heinz College and the Engineering Public Policy Group.

In January 17, 2000, he was appointed to be Chief Technologist at the US Federal Communications Commission while on leave from UPenn for one year ending in early June 2001. While at UPenn, he co-directed The Penn Initiative on Markets, Technology and Policy. He was also Director of the Distributed Systems Laboratory - DSL where he managed leading edge research in Ultra High Speed Networking. Research papers of the DSL are available in its electronic library.

His early academic research work was focused at creating the worlds first operational Distributed Computer System -- DCS while at the ICS Department at the University of California at Irvine. After that, while with the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Delaware, he helped conceive and organize CSNet, NSFNet and the NREN.

Carl Ford, Co Founder Crossfire Media.
Carl Ford has been exploring internetworking issues his entire career. From the development of custom networks from SONET Rings and fiber optics to special AIN features, Carl's 20+ years have always focused on satisfying customers needs. This focus has given him a unique grasp on the impact that cost, regulatory and marketing issues have in rolling out new services.
While working on Verizon's Internet strategy, Carl focused on the internetworking side of the business service for and billing technologies. Carl utilized this experience when he joined Telcordia to manage billing solutions for the first Class 5 Softswitch.

As an integral part of the IP Communications community, Carl has been instrumental in helping develop various trade organizations and has advised many companies on both strategic and technical issues to satisfy the needs of these company's customers.

Brough Stops the Show

2010-02-08T11:30:06Z

We have been buzzing around the discussion of WiFi that Brough Turner shared with us at the 4GWE.

Wi-Fi Opportunities In A 4G World

View more presentations from Brough Turner.

Suzanne Bowen's interview is a good commentary to go with the slides. And of course, you can read the man himself

Google vs. Apple

2010-01-05T19:58:13Z

Google and Apple are vying for your attention today.

If you are a carrier, your bed fellows are not staying the night! Google with the Nexus One announcement that is all about the Android operating system and not a carrier. And strangely enough the Apple iTablet maybe the same thing. The rumors on the iTablet seem to indicate it may be devoid of 3G / 4G wireless interfaces and only support WiFi. While that will be a major plus for ATT who has already worked with Apple on the dual mode functionality of the iPhone, I should point out that Verizon has been the better company at supporting the use of USB 'sticks' (dongels?). It will be interesting to see if a bundle comes from either of the two carriers with the iTablet.

Clearwire Goes Live with WiMAX in Dallas, Chicago, Charlotte

2009-11-06T02:34:01Z

The long wait for WiMAX in the Windy City as well as the DFW Metroplex is over -- as we expected, Clearwire is now selling services in both cities, keeping with the company's strategy of "soft launching" markets online before staging an "official" market opening with all the attendant hoopla.

Since it's Nov. 1, time for a new map -- and the one on the Clear.com website now shows Chicago "in the green" of Clearwire services, while adding Dallas/Fort Worth to the list of cities with service in Texas.

In North Carolina, the cities of Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro are also now listed as "live," so it looks like Clearwire should be able to make good on its promise to step up subscriber numbers in Q4, simply by having lots more markets selling services.

The big ones, however, are Chicago and Dallas -- two huge metro areas where Clearwire will see how it fares against existing service providers. In Chicago, Clearwire also has its first true "commuter" city, since thousands there ride the rails every day, to and from work, play, school and in just general getting-aroundness.

Will WiMAX's ability to connect while mobile make a big impression? We are only now just going to find out. We'll have some more thinking on Clearwire market launches later this week. And yes, the launches mean that Sprint's 4G services are available there too. Meanwhile, more detail from the Chicago maps below.

May I have your Attention, Please about Smartphones

2009-10-28T12:09:23Z

The smartphone marketplace is heating up and its not just because Apple has the iTablet on the way.

The carriers are working hard to find the right device to catch the growing market, but I am not sure that anyone knows how to catch our attention.

Palm has the Pre being marketed with and without Sprint, but last years CES darling is not exactly looking to build a ground swell of community. Which is a shame since they still have a lot of loyal palm customers.

Likewise HTC is making an effort to support their customers with commercials.

The reality is that social networks maybe the best way to communicate to the most likely customers.

The Fan Clubs of the devices on Facebook maybe the best place to reach early adopters.

Its clear the carriers are anxious to avoid another breakout by rivals.

Report Excerpt: Market Launches Keep Clearwire on Target

2009-10-20T23:25:13Z

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from our latest quarterly report on all things Clearwire, the CLEARWIRE NTK OCTOBER 2009 (need to know) report, available now for the low low price of $4.95. In this excerpt we talk about how Clearwire's on-time, on-target market launches in Atlanta and Las Vegas, as well as a host of smaller cities, have kept the company on target with its ambitious 2009 rollout plans. For the full report, order online here. Report excerpt follows:

Vegas, Atlanta and Silicon Valley - but where is Chicago?

Easily the most positive sign for Clearwire during the hot months was its on-schedule rollout of services in Atlanta and Las Vegas, the two bigger markets Clearwire had said it would launch during the summer -- and did. Perhaps catching many WiMAX watchers by surprise was Clearwire's August/September launch of an additional 10 markets for its new, mobile WiMAX services -- a list that included several small Texas towns like Lubbock and Abilene, as well as Boise, Idaho, and Bellingham, Wash.

The quick addition of the smaller markets was a pretty easy strategy to figure out if (like us) you had studied Clearwire closely. Since Clearwire has said many times that the hardest and longest task of launching any new market is getting its towers sited, approved and constructed, it stands to reason that any market where the company already had a tower position could be converted to the newer mobile WiMAX service pretty simply, with maybe an antenna change and some new networking gear on the back end.

At the end of September 2009 there were already reports surfacing about Clearwire quickly upgrading pre-WiMAX customers in some of its remaining 40 old-school markets, and on Oct. 1 the company "lit" two smaller markets (Milledgeville, Ga., and Salem, Ore.), while also making services available in Philadelphia.

Not as meaningful from a subscriber number but worth its weight in market influence was Clearwire's quick launch of its planned "testbed" network for developers in Silicon Valley, with separate clouds covering the campuses of Google, Cisco and Stanford University. Though some saw the testbed launch (which was announced back in May) as a public-relations stunt, from a business standpoint it seems to make perfect sense to put the service in front of folks who make up what is still arguably the world's foremost center of technological innovation and investment.

According to Clearwire, it will offer select subscriptions in Silicon Valley for free, while allowing any other developers in the area to sign up by joining the company's developer program, and then purchasing approved client gear for $50.

In commercial markets, Sidecut Reports was fortunate enough to be on hand, in person, for the "official" launch of services July 21 in Las Vegas, where we learned the following lessons: 1) Clearwire is going to be intensely local with its promotions going forward, which means that national roaming is not going to be a big selling point; 2) The company seems to be putting value ahead of mobility, which we think is a smart move since without a smartphone device,WiMAX isn't as sexy as, say, an iPhone 3GS or a Palm Pre; and 3) the company is going to enlist as many resellers as possible, from the very big (like Comcast and Sprint) to the very small (single-owner shops and mall kiosks) to help get the word out.

To get a feel for how this will roll out, consider the Clearwire sales footprint in the greater Las Vegas metro area: According to Clearwire, it only plans to operate five "branded" outlets in Vegas, including two storefront operations and three mall-based kiosks. The balance of the company's contracts will be sold by a list of 80-plus authorized resellers, including sales locations inside six Vegas-area Best Buy stores, 24 Radio Shack locations, and the rest independent resellers. The key for Clearwire is that all contracts will be with the parent company, and not resellers -- so no matter who signs a customer up, Clearwire will own the billing relationship.

For all the Clearwire knowledge you NEED TO KNOW for the latest quarter, order our CLEARWIRE NTK OCTOBER 2009 report today for just $4.95 -- that's right, less than five bucks for a lengthy take on Clearwire market launches, device plans, business news and more.

Report Excerpt: Why Dearth of Devices Hurts Clearwire

2009-10-14T00:11:10Z

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from our latest quarterly report on all things Clearwire, the CLEARWIRE NTK OCTOBER 2009 (need to know) report, available now for the low low price of $4.95.

In this excerpt we talk about why we think the lack of interesting WiMAX end-user devices (or the overpriced ones that did launch) have kept users from flocking to Clearwire's 4G wireless broadband offering. For the full report, order online here. Report excerpt follows:

Prices and Devices: Waiting for a reason 'Why' to try WiMAX
Without a doubt, the coolest thing about WiMAX is its ability to provide a true broadband connection with cellular mobility. One of Clearwire's biggest problems, however, is a lack of a compelling reason to take advantage of that mobile connection -- and the dearth of devices that would allow you to even try.

The growing popularity and use of smartphones points to another WiMAX weakness -- the lack of truly portable devices that can take advantage of the technology's superior connectivity. As Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow showed during his 4G World keynote speech in September, in a side-by-side download speed comparison WiMAX leaves 3G in the dust.

But even the (videotaped) demo itself showed a bit of the WiMAX underwear peeking out: To make the tricky demo -- it was a side-by-side screenshot of two iPhones in a car driving down the road -- all the "regular" iPhone had to do was connect via the 3G cellular network; the WiMAX powered iPhone had to connect via Wi-Fi to a Clear Spot router in the car, which was connected to the WiMAX network via a plug-in USB dongle.

So: The WiMAX iPhone was faster, yes, but its kit was also more expensive and in need of a stylish European man-bag to tote all the extra gear around. Though hybrid WiMAX smartphones do reportedly exist -- HTC claims to be selling one for the Yota WiMAX network in Russia -- Clearwire's customer base so far doesn't seem to be big enough to convince device makers that producing such a beast is worth it.

The one vendor that did launch a cool handheld WiMAX device -- Samsung's Mondi, unveiled at the Vegas Clearwire launch -- turned out an overly expensive, somewhat confusing form-factor machine that wasn't big enough to do "real" laptop work. It also doesn't contain an alternate cellular link to make voice calls an easy proposition.

To top it off, Samsung and Clearwire couldn't even get their pricing message straight -- in Las Vegas, a Samsung PR representative told us that the device would sell at $450 unlocked, or $350 with a two-year Clearwire contract. But a few weeks later when Clearwire started offering the Mondi, the subsidy discount was nowhere in sight -- the device would be $450 to all users, contract or no contract. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3GS sells for $199 with a two-year contract. Any questions?

For all the Clearwire knowledge you NEED TO KNOW for the latest quarter, order our CLEARWIRE NTK OCTOBER 2009 report today for just $4.95 -- that's right, less than five bucks for a lengthy take on Clearwire market launches, device plans, business news and more.

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