While the big tech blogs fawn over the latest reason why LTE has killed Wimax long before the first LTE device is even deployed, Sprint has sold over 300,000 of it’s HTC Wimax handset in the last few days.

Although the company has not released specific figures from its June 4 debut, analyst David Dixon with FBR Capital Markets said the figure is likely close to 320,000 devices and that the carrier may have gained 100,000 new customers and 220,000 upgrades.  Sprint claims the launch marked the largest quantity of a single phone it has ever sold in one day, with the Evo 4G beating the previous records the carrier held with the Samsung Instinct and the Palm Pre. (Wimax.com)

Had this device been logoed with a half eaten fruit a talked up by its cult leader, it would have sold millions. Never the less, 300K is not a shabby number for a 2 year contract on a “dead technology”. Silence from big media on something a big as  4G handset selling big numbers is very telling.

The LTE camp hasn’t chosen to park piles of pay for opinion dollars here, so I’ll call it the way I see it unfettered. Am I a Wimax fanboy? Not a chance! I just don’t believe in declaring victory for a player who has yet to enter the arena, especially when it’s rival is actually delivering product and service. If there are currently two wireless standards coexisting in the 3G world, what is so different about 4G that changes he benefit of competing technologies in marketplace?

Congrats to Sprint for scoring a first, and a success. Maybe another player can delivery a lower priced, less crippled 4G handset? We’re watching and waiting.

The FCC’s broadband plan called for wireless to provide broadband competition. Many of us see that as a duopoly ruse to get the FCC to make more spectrum available on auction. Auction virtually guarantees only the very deep pockets of the telcos would be able to place a winning bid.

Not so fast says an investment group and owners of satellite spectrum. By consolidating under utilized spectrum held by satellite operators, it becomes possible to free a big enough swath of bandwidth to provide a competitive service.

A New York private equity firm plans to build a multibillion-dollar 4G wireless network that will cover most of the country by 2015. The ambitious plan by Harbinger Capital Partners relies on deploying a Long Term Evolution network over spectrum owned by a few satellite companies — and would create an open wholesale wireless network available to retail companies, PC manufacturers or anyone who wants to offer mobile broadband. Last November I wrote that certain satellite companies were visiting Washington hoping to somehow cash in on the 100 MHz of spectrum they collectively have. After reading the FCC order and Harbinger’s plans filed with the FCC on Friday night, it looks like those satellite firms may have found a way thanks to the FCC’s faith in mobile broadband as a means of promoting innovation and competition. (Gigaom)

Will this bring new broadband competition? Maybe. The incumbent wireless cartel will certainly protest. The armies of telco lwyers are probably already flooding the feds with reams of legal  fodder while the lobbyists unleash new favors and cash. We’ll see plenty of new paid for placement hit pieces in the media just like the assault on Wimax and Clearwire we’ve witnessed over the last couple of years.

One thing is certain. Mobile broadband will be an explosive market in the coming years, and it can’t be built out fast enough. A new player in the game will certainly accelerate availability, improve performance, and lower prices. That’s all good.

The big caveat is that wireless cannot take the place of ultra fast fixed line service. Any competent technologist understands this. This is more proof that  the competition through wireless concept the FCC is selling is a  ruse to protect the telcos last mile monopoly.

From Consumerist –

Sprint lost 148,000 customers after contract-subscriber defections more than offset prepaid gains. Sprint introduced new phones last year, including an exclusive deal to sell the Palm Pre, to keep more customers.

The company said it expects subscriber losses to slow this year. Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse said he will roll out more fourth-generation devices this year, which give customers high-speed wireless Internet access.

Consumerist is even running a poll to figure out why. I’ll save them some trouble. Its the contract. Sprint’s contract has not kept up with the times. Tho they have MTM plans, their post paid contracts are probably the least consumer friendly of any of the major carriers.

I would also suspect that the network is part of the problem as well. Being in the DFW area, its one of Sprints oldest territories. Yet all these years later they still have dead spots around the DFW airport area as well as other areas of the metroplex.

If you are a Sprint customer, follow the link and take their poll.

Linky.

If you are a major carrier that wants maximum distance between towers and total control of a national network based on old technology, maybe. When it comes to wireless, I think we have been and continue to take the wrong approach. We are currently supporting a big government / wireless cartel solution. There could be a better way. After all, the airwaves belong to all of us, not the FCC and a few corporations.

In a speech last year, Michael Calabrese proposed an alternative worthy of consideration.

Michael Calabrese argues that the FCC’s depicted apportioning of the airwave spectrum gives a false impression of scarcity, especially as it fails to consider the real use of each frequency assignment and the full capabilities of digital transmitters and receivers today. The government can do more to assure the wireless future offers pervasive, ubiquitous, and affordable connectivity.

By considering the two general concepts of underlay (increasing use of a particular frequency, such as in a time-sharing condition) and overlay (filling unoccupied frequencies), he means to show how much more can be done with the airwave spectrum, taking into account possibilities for frequency sharing and the adjacencies now possible without interference. He gives an example of “cognitive radio,” which operates at low power and searches out the most appropriate frequency in a given condition. (IT Conversations)

Audio link follows:

 

 IT Conversations [21:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

All of the chatter about  4G wireless in the big tech media is really beginning to annoy me.  The wireless broadband world as of right now is 100% Wimax, and it works. In fact this post comes to you tonight via a Wimax connection that outperforms AT&T’s best DSL offering in my neighborhood, and lags behind Time Warner’s pricey 15MBPS service a bit. So, 4G wireless is here, working and destined to improve.  Today it is 100% Wimax. You’d never know that from reading posts in the big tech media. They keep telling us that something called LTE is what I’ve been waiting for. Well, excuse me, I’m not waiting, I’m using. So why is it we keep reading FUD like this in GigaOM? I think it’s pretty simple. Lots of bloggers are following the lame stream media and recycling press releases and talking points as news. Sorry to single you out Om, I really do like your blog and you’re far from  the worst offender.

Let me spell my bias out for you, and I think it’s pretty much the same as the average broadband consumer. IF an LTE based carrier  shows up with a better deal I’m a customer. But, that’s based on if and when. Today, I’m writing about what I can buy now.

I do wish we’d get past discussion of technology. It’s a no brainer that LTE has a commitment from the major cell phone operators. It’s also a fact no one really has a clear idea of what LTE will be beyond the results of preliminary lab stats. The idea behind LTE is to make an easy transition form current cell phone technology for the nickel and dime you to death cellular carriers. Wimax was never designed to do that. So far, Wimax has been deployed as a big open pipe. Try getting that from the cell phone guys. By the time LTE is expected to be available in major markets, next gen Wimax will be available and an upgrade. I see a coming 4G war not only between two technologies, but also between two business models.

Bottom line: I can promise you we’re getting no largess from either the LTE or Wimax camp. We’re based in Texas, so I’ll use a little local analogy. Today Wimax is the only horse in town, and it’s pricier than we would like and slower than we would like. At the same time, as of today, the LTE camp is all hat and no cattle. Contrary to all of the tech media propaganda, both are likely to be with us for some time to come. In fact, I doubt one will be an clear winner over the other. There’s plenty of evidence for how that could work in today’s two competing cell phone standards.

It’s extremely irresponsible to call one a clear winner over the other before both players even take the field, and we’re not going to do that.

For those of the geeky variety, and not so, starting today McDonalds open up its WiFi to all comers. Free. With some catches.

Access is free. So general surfing will be available. According to McD’s web page (here) certain services and particular access needs may still require paying for the privilege. But I am fine with that. It is a step in the right direction.

McD’s being altruistic? Not totally. Their heart is in the right place, but their core reason is profit of course. You see McD’s has been in a battle Royale with StarBucks in the morning fast food segment going on 5 years now. Both players have toyed with the idea of going free on WiFi. Fact in some segments I believe StarBucks has already done so. Why do it? Draw customers in. Once they have you inside you might just buy a cup of coffee at a minimum or pop for a whole meal in the best of cases. Least thats the thinking.

This won’t go unnoticed of course. Figure StarBucks to counter across the board very quickly.

The real question becomes does WiFi stay viable for very long? In a strong parallel, WiFi hotspots are the 21st Century equivalent of the pay phone. Useful sure. But you are ‘parked’ till you finish your communications. Yet the growth of smartphones are anathema to that model as the CPE are tied to metrowide cellular/3g/4g services unrelated to specific locale. So WiFi services that McD’s is providing will fade just like the wall payphone at the local tavern did.

I usually avoid perpetuating rumors, but this one is too interesting to resist. Imagine you are Clearwire and you sign a single contract that gives you a massive number of tower sites. Not only to you solve a siting problem, you  get an “anchor customer” for your backhaul network in the process.  In fact, putting a tower on every single Wal Mart could bring more broadband to rural America before the first one of President Obama’s very pricey broadband availability maps are completed.

Our source tells us that the effort to grow the nationwide WiMax network includes placing place WiMax towers on the top of all Walmart locations.  According to them, they were advised to consider how many stores overlap each other in a 30-50 mile radius.  Essentially, this would be enough to cover a good chunk of the United States. Plus, this would not cost nearly as much as erecting towers and dealing with hassles like zoning permissions. (Andriod Guys)

I keep reading that WiMax is a fringe technology that will surely die in the shadow of LTE. Apparently, US mobile WiMax carrier Clearwire isn’t listening. While the big,  authoritative talk coming from the LTE camp’s minions in the blogosphere make it sound like Clearwire’s technology does not work, there are plenty of users whose experience indicate otherwise. In fact, if you compare raw carrying capacity, Clearwire curently has the rights to a much broader swath of spectrum than any of its LTE based competitors. That means if a speed race evolves in the wireless space, Clearwire should be the winner. Then there’s the technology itself. While LTE is in the testing phase the current version of WiMax is mature. In fact, by the time LTE is out of the test phase, second generation WiMax could be on its way. Plus, if you want 4G service today, WiMax is the only game in town. I’m not putting down, LTE. When it’s actually ready, I’ll give it an equally objective review.

With the new service Chicago and Dallas Fort Worth DSL and cable users will have a new competitive option to existing service. It will be interesting to see if a third option for those users is enough to start a price war. In the mobile space, this new pipe is a game changer. Initially, users will find themselves limited to access via traditional laptops, netbooks  and a very pricey new hand held device. In 2010, we’ll see new mobile devices entering the market that will signal the end of traditional cell service by enabling enabling VoIP as a feature on any device rather than the primary function.

For the Third Pipe readers that are lucky enough to be in Clearwire’s coverage area, our new sponsor Tucanae Services is accepting reservations for Clearwire service to be activated after November 1. Look for Tucanae’s ad here after the launch date.

In re-opening the so called net neutrality debate with a focus on wireless the FCC may have opened a can of worms for itself. The call for impartial transfer of bits over increasingly scarce spectrum creates a situation where the carriers can push the regs right back to the FCC demanding more airwaves.  That’s just what is happening. Now the FCC “is open for comments”.

“We seek additional comment on the fundamental question of whether current spectrum allocations … are adequate to support near- and longer-term demands of wireless broadband,” the agency said in a call for public comment Wednesday.

The agency is asking questions about wireless airwaves as it puts together its national broadband plan by next February.

The spectrum issue ties into a debate on net neutrality. The bandwidth on wireless airwaves isn’t as robust as the pipes that lead into homes, they argue, and that’s why they should not be subject to rules that would bar them from discriminating against applications or services. Capacity constraints require them to manage traffic, they say.

The wireless industry’s head lobbyist for the FCC hammered the point on spectrum scarcity over lunch Thursday, saying there was “a crisis brewing” if companies couldn’t get their hands on more of that airwave gold.

We need to rethink how we manage spectrum. The current process of entrusting five revolving door bureaucrats in a agency that was barely competent to manage land line telephone service is broken. The reallocation of frequencies and auction of that spectrum to a single entity is not the path to open networks or lower prices. The recent 700 mHZ auction / DTV transition is proof we’re headed in the wrong direction. In that  case we simply ended up collecting big money for a bureaucracy for the rights to public property.  We should be able to use freely that property without Verizon as our gate keeper. We need a system where all comers can have equal access, including carriers. What we have now is a protection racket.

Fourth place US wireless carrier T Mobile was conspicuously absent when the FCC auctioned off spectrum for new wireless broadband services. Left without the bandwidth necessary to provide true broadband to its entire customer base, the company has needed a survival strategy as traditional cellular begins to decline.

There have been abundant rumors about T Mobile’s parent acquiring Sprint, who is the majority owner in Clearwire. That move does make sense, but there may be a better way. If DT were to invest a little less money in Clearwire, it could solve its bandwidth problem and give Clearwire badly needed cash for faster expansion.

Bloomberg News is now reporting that Deutsche Telekom might decide to pay Sprint, Clearwire and/or MetroPCS for access to the their U.S. wireless spectrum. Such a deal would infuse Clearwire with $2 billion in much-needed cash for network upgrades, while giving Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile access to wireless spectrum that would help with T-Mobile’s 4G plans. (DSL Reports)