Sidecut Reports

While not quite as silly as the Verizon ads, the new “make your iPhone 4G” ads from Sprint are sort-of clever, showing a couple dudes using the Sprint Overdrive Pocketspot (aka portable WiMAX/Wi-Fi router) to bring a speedy signal to an otherwise 3G-bound iPhone.

But talking about it just kills the vibe, eh? Why not just watch fer yerself:

Want to try Clearwire’s WiMAX wireless broadband service while you’re in Vegas for CTIA? Move now and reserve yourself a modem or modem-and-pocketspot combo from local provider Cheetah, which is teaming up with Clearwire to offer WiMAX rentals for as little as $13.99 a day, or $34 for 3 days, a program that lots of folks took advantage of during CES.

So instead of paying exorbitant hotel fees for slow, shared DSL or clogged Wi-Fi — or taking a crapshoot on what will likely be mega-crowded 3G airwaves — you can instead have a mobile connection of between 3 to 6 Mbps on the download side, pretty much anywhere in Las Vegas.

In addition to renting both USB modems (for laptops and netbooks) and desktop modems, Cheetah will also be renting a combo of a modem and Clearwire’s Clear Spot portable WiMAX/Wi-Fi router, which will let you connect a small workgroup of Wi-Fi devices.

Single-day prices, according to the Cheetah site, are $12.50 a day for a USB WiMAX modem, $18.99 a day for a desktop modem, and $18.99 for a modem/portable router combo. Costs per day go down with multiple days, with a 4-day basic modem total hitting $44.59, about $11.15 a day for fast broadband access.

We haven’t seen the rumored WiMAX smartphone that will reportedly be announced by Sprint next week at CTIA, but someone who has told us recently that it’s a beauty, with a big screen tailored for on-the-go video. “It’s the new trophy phone,” our informant gushed. “Pretty darn amazing.”

It’s also probably not going to be available until sometime later this summer, so don’t go flushing those iPhones and Droids down the loo just yet. If you are looking for new wireless devices that might actually be closer to shipment at CTIA, you can join us in a hunt for end-user devices that do a better job of pulling in a WiMAX signal than your standard, naked USB dongle.

We’ve already shown you pictures of Cradlepoint’s version of a portable WiMAX/Wi-Fi router that fits into a home dock with big rabbit-ear antennas to boost signal strength; expect to hear more about that home modem as well as some others from new suppliers that try to improve a problem all wireless networks face: Getting through walls. We’ll be on the lookout for one Clearwire-ready device we’ve heard is in development that is designed for businesses, with strong outdoor antennas to grab the WiMAX signal and a built-in Wi-Fi router to run the LAN inside. Any guesses to the supplier? We should know more next week.

In our recent network report on Clearwire, the company’s chief technical officer Dr. John Saw told us that Clearwire was seeing most of its network use coming from folks who were sitting inside a building, rather than on the go. And in an interview for the same report, Motorola’s WiMAX/LTE guru Bruce Brda predicted that 2010 would see multiple new entrants in the Clearwire CPE game, as the company’s open network started to attract more players than the initial contracted suppliers. Another good guess is more home modems that include integrated support for VoIP, as Clearwire and its partners look to increase the value proposition by adding services.

With a big Sprint event scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, and a joint Sprint/Clearwire keynote on the schedule for Wednesday morning, it could be a big week for WiMAX in Las Vegas, so much different than the scene just two short years ago. Stay tuned here for more news and analysis before, at and after the show.

We’re just starting to scratch the surface of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, but from our limited-view vantage points we’ve already identified a few flash points that will no doubt be the center of much discussion at next week’s big wireless trade show in Las Vegas — including a call for freeing up 300 MHz of wireless spectrum by 2015, with 120 MHz coming from over-the-air broadcasters; and a huge move toward gathering and exposing more data about spectrum license holdings and actual wireless-service metrics, which with any hope will put a welcome end to stupid Map Wars TV ads that mess up our sports viewing.

On the spectrum front — hey we told you this stuff was important! — the battle for licensed airwaves is likely to make any past wrangling over tedious topics like net neutrality look like a preschool playground when you forsee a lobbying smackdown between the big telcos (who want more spectrum) and the broadcasters (who will fight to not give their airwaves up). Attention recent law school graduates! Best to bone up on spectral-rights history, because your billable hours will soon be needed.

More importantly for the rest of us is the plan’s welcome focus on a topic we’ve long been sore about, the fudging and obfuscating that is the norm when it comes to wireless service plans. Our quick summation of the FCC’s well-reasoned quest to standardize, collect and expose wireless service parameters: When you buy a gallon of gas, you are somewhat assured you are getting the octanes you paid for thanks to government regulations and standards on weights, measurement and quality of fuels. Consumers can choose their provider based on standardized data and pricing, market forces at their best.

In the current iteration of wireless services, we are at the stage of Put a Tiger in your tank. Cloudy descriptions of “peak” service levels and confusing data/minutes/messaging plans purposely make it almost impossible for consumers to compare services or providers. Under the Plan, the FCC would change that by establishing “technical broadband measurement standards” and by publishing actual broadband delivery data — maybe even a label (see below), like the ones that tell us how many calories are in that “healthy” toaster pastry — make it so, make it so!

We also like the bit in Chapter 5 of the report where the FCC calls for the establishment of an online spectrum license search tool (unauthorized PDF grab below) that would make our lives, and the lives of telecom researchers everywhere easier by actually letting the public know who is in control of those most precious of national assets, our electromagnetic airwaves. For this bit alone, hell yes we like the plan. As Eric Schmidt says, Onward!

(image of a proposed FCC “label” for accurate broadband service data. Slap that on yer iPhone!)

(bad fuzzy image of the proposed online spectrum license search tool)

“I believe that the biggest threat to the future of mobile in America is the looming spectrum crisis.”
– FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, October 2009

Is the wireless world running out of available airwaves? From a certain perspective, it might seem that way. The struggles of AT&T’s attempts to keep its iPhone customers happy have become a national news story, and government officials are already working on plans to free up more wireless spectrum for use by mobile broadband providers, anticipating an industry-wide need in the near future.

And though Verizon Wireless is quick to tout its network’s strengths over that of its main competitor, even Verizon’s chief technology officer is already talking publicly about how scarce network resources may soon put an end to all-you-can-eat wireless data pricing. At the center of these concerns is wireless spectrum, specifically the licensed, regulated airwaves over which wireless providers send their signals — and what will happen if the largest wireless networks run out of room.

This week, the FCC is expected to announce a National Broadband Plan that will in part include some provisions for freeing up more spectrum — but even the most optimistic projections don’t see any new spectrum coming on the commercial marketplace anytime soon, given the years-long legal wranglings that any spectrum switches will entail. So for many providers and their potential users, the spectrum crisis is looming and real.

Standing aside from this quandry, however, is nascent national WiMAX provider Clearwire Corp. (Nasdaq: CLWR), which is now in its second full year of mobile-WiMAX market launches. Unlike the country’s cellular giants, Clearwire actually possesses a wealth of spectrum riches. In many major population markets in the U.S., Clearwire has at least two to three times as much spectrum “depth” as AT&T and Verizon, holdings that will allow Clearwire to provide high-speed data to millions and millions of new customers, without having to rely on the government or industry to re-allocate airwaves anytime soon.

In our latest report, titled Clearwire’s Spectrum: The 4G Advantage, we cover in detail the historic underpinnings of the 2.5 GHz band that Clearwire uses, the business decisions and events that put the company in control of the spectrum, and how its breadth and depth give Clearwire a market advantage over its wireless-provider competitors. In a nation facing a “spectrum crisis,” Clearwire stands alone in having enough available airwaves to build a “network of networks,” both now and as far into the future as its builders can see. Download our free report and learn why.