Wimax Dead In The US?

But no one will admit it. Asking about it is like asking an embarrassing personal question.

Some people muttered about Sprint which has been building a Wimax network but stopped after CEO Gary Forsee left. There has been little sign since that it’s keen on Wimax and some signs like it isn’t. Like winding up its agreement with Clearwire.

Clearwire is the other hope for Wimax in the US but it hasn’t got the money to build a national network and is unlikely to get it. The defection of Sprint has clobbered its plans.

Neither Sprint nor Clearwire showed up at the recent 700MHz spectrum auction which shows they either have no money to buy spectrum or aren’t interested.

There were mutterings, in San Francsico, that Intel might put another billion dollars into Clearwire or into a joint venture of Clearwire and Sprint’s Wimax assets. But it seems a long shot, and a billion won’t see the job done.

But Intel is a backer of Clearwire, is a champion of Wimax, and has Wimax chip-sets on the market. Which is why, apparently, no one can quite say: Wimax is dead in the US.
“No one wants to say that for fear of upsetting Intel”, one CEO told me.

That’s a bit pathetic, but is probably a fact of life in the US.

But it’s also a fact of life that’s Intel’s backing for Wimax has probably been to its disadvantage. Like Qualcomm pushing UMB.

No one wants to commit to a technology where one company can come along and screw you for ever after.