BellSouth Says They'll Offer (Sorta) WiMax To The Home

from the wait-and-see... dept

Over the last few months, it seemed that more companies were coming to the realization that WiMax technology, for all the hype would make for decent backhaul technology, but was unlikely to be a real threat to cable and DSL in the short-term. However, WiMax number one fan Intel, keeps saying that WiMax is perfectly positioned to compete with DSL and cable, and they finally found a guinea pig willing to test it out for them. BellSouth has announced that it will be offering WiMax to the home service using Navini equipment. Initially it will just be offered in Athens, Georgia, with a few more cities in Florida added by the end of the year. There are several things about this announcement... First, WiMax equipment still doesn't exist, so despite the announcement, BellSouth isn't really offering WiMax. They're offering proprietary equipment that they hope will be WiMax when the certification process happens, but which may require updating. Second, they don't announce pricing at all, but they do say that the offering will be focused on college kids who will be more willing to try out the new service (and, they hope, more willing to accept any problems it has). Part of the plan is to let college kids suspend service while they're home in the summer time, and be able to start it up again when they come back in the fall. Finally, of course, despite the fact that this is "wireless" it's fixed wireless technology, so it's not as if the kids using this will be able to plop a WiMax card in their laptop and surf from anywhere. Instead, it will be just like any other fixed wireless solution from the past decade or so, where a box is stuck to the side of the house, and there will be a modem (and most likely a WiFi access point) inside the house.