More Lightweight WiMax Takes from Techcrunch
While it’s good to see “mainstream” tech blogs like TechCrunch paying attention to the new Clearwire WiMax deal, you can’t help but wonder why the blogger following the story doesn’t do some basic research first. It’s great and fine to be objective and skeptical, but ignoring simple, easy to find facts makes it seem like the writer is only interested in material that supports his initial negative take. I guess it drives traffic and lets them run the funny picture over and over. But I don’t see how it helps readers to keep getting some obvious points wrong.
In the course of interviewing lots of folks in and around the WiMax world for our recent report on the state of WiMax deployment in the U.S., I found some real facts that seem to oppose the points in the most recent TechCrunch post.
– While I don’t think there is any question that Clearwire hasn’t been a raging success yet, do we really have anything to compare it to? Seems to me like all the wireless data options are businesses-in-the-making. And Clearwire has been very straightforward about its intentions to move to a mobile WiMax base, with PC cards for local mobility, and ad hoc billing plans. In questioning them (and Sprint) about mobility, both claimed that local, not national mobility, is a bigger market. Sure, that’s something they have to prove. But to ding Clearwire about its past implementations when talking about the future seems to be an apples to oranges thing.
– To say WiMax isn’t an international standard and hasn’t proven itself elsewhere seems wrong; the standard allows for use at different spectrums, and some manufacturers are working on software-switchable chips that would allow for economies of scale. And big announced deals in Taiwan, Pakistan, Russia and Brazil seem to suggest some interesting experiments at the very least. Saying WiMax “hasn’t proven itself elsewhere” is like saying an NFL draft pick is a bust even before he plays his first game.
At the risk of being labeled a WiMax fanboy, I do think there are many questions to be raised about the deal — the most valid one in the latest post is questioning Clearwire’s mindset as a mobile data company (they do seem deeply rooted in telco-type talk and strategies). But I’ve never believed that naysaying is a replacement for actual research. It’s one thing to be skeptical and have reasons why, it’s another just to do rip jobs that sound right but fall apart under closer examination. Research like our reports does take significant time and effort and that is why we are charging for our services. TechCrunch, of course, is free.
