Sidecut Reports

Just a pointer to some WiMAX-love hitting the interwebs: First up a New York Times piece about the wonder of WiMAX connectivity in Baltimore (remember Xohm?). One great point raised by the article is the problem of how Windows — namely the time, often several minutes or more that it takes for a PC to boot up — keeps WiMAX from being an “instant-on” mobile technology.

Second is Om’s take on some WiMAX number-crunching from the fine folks at Infonetics, who are keeping score and are finding growing WiMAX subscriber numbers in India, Brazil, Russia and other places where WiMAX doesn’t simply translate into Clearwire.

What’s good for WiMAX proponents is that both bits concentrate on real data and analysis, and not conjecture over promised theoretical speeds that may never materialize. With each commercial deployment, WiMAX becomes less a mystery and more just another technology judged on its merits. For a lot of providers in the right situation, WiMAX is looking more and more like a viable choice.

So much for holding onto its recent stock-price bump — WiMAX gear maker Alvarion took a big hit Wednesday, after its CEO announced his intentions to quit, and after a quarter filled more with promises than revenues.

Tzvika Friedman, president and CEO of Alvarion, said today he didn’t want to lead the company anymore, never good news no matter which way it gets spun. Lumped on top of a $4 million loss for the second quarter of 2009, the bad news was enough to send Alvarion stock down 78 cents a share to $3.96, a 16 percent dive.

Though Alvarion seems poised to take advantage of an apparent building momentum for WiMAX infrastructure spending, it’s not a sign of strength or good strategy when the CEO position is in a state of flux. (As opposed to Clearwire, which handled its CEO change fairly seamlessly this spring.) More as we hear more — or please feel free to add your views to the comments thread.

UPDATE: To clarify our earlier headline, it should be noted that CEO Friedman is not leaving until a replacement is found — the word we are hearing from inside is that “in Israel, everything leaks” so the company wanted to announce the search publicly instead of having to deal with rumors of the CEO leaving. Is this way better?

Novatel Wireless, makers of the MiFi portable hotspot — AKA a PocketSpot — have announced a version of their device for GSM-flavored data networks, meaning T-Mobile and AT&T users should soon be able to participate in the unwired router fun that Verizon, Sprint and Clearwire now offer for on-the-go use.

Only problem with the latest version of the MiFi — no carrier has the high-speed HSPA networks running yet to support the higher speeds. Just like those wanting to use the “S” on their new iPhone 3Gs, you will have to wait for Ma Bell to get them towers up and running. (No announcement from either carrier yet about availability, but start the clock now.) As the guys at JKontherun note, this new version might be more appealing to corporate IT departments since it contains some on-board processing and storage to allow for custom applications, or integration with corporate communications policy. Good thinking, there.