Intel Declares Game Over: Non-Existent WiMax Is Already A Success

from the seems-a-wee-bit-premature dept

Intel's ability to overhype WiMax or rewrite history to support WiMax has been discussed in the past, but now they've invented some sort of time machine going forward. They've announced that WiMax is a "success" despite the fact that the technology doesn't even exist yet, and plenty of companies who should be the early supporters of the technology are not that impressed. While they admit that WiMax doesn't yet exist, the spin is that it's a success because the "promise of WiMax -- high-speed, cost-effective wireless broadband access" has been delivered before the technology has even launched. Of course, some may point out that the hype machine has "promised" a lot more from WiMax, and plenty of wireless broadband options have been around for years that have nothing to do with WiMax. We certainly do hope that WiMax does fulfill its promise, but it seems just a bit premature to crown the technology as king when no WiMax certified equipment even exists, and plenty of other wireless broadband technologies seem to be way ahead of WiMax in proving themselves in real world deployments.
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  1. identicon
    Michael, 10 Nov 2005 @ 5:54pm

    Trying to make up for loosing to AMD...

    They are trying to get people to forget about them loosing ground to AMD's Athlon 64 processor and the fact that they don't offer an X86 compatible 64-bit chip themselves. Its just smoke and mirrors, an atempt at distraction that isn't working.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Nov 2005 @ 6:01pm

    Re: Trying to make up for loosing to AMD...

    Dude, they do have x86 x64 chips already... (based on the AMD specs).

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Ping, 10 Nov 2005 @ 6:41pm

    No Subject Given


    according to this article (in German, sorry) http://www.vdi-nachrichten.com/vdi_nachrichten/aktuelle_ausgabe/akt_ausg_detail.asp?source=rss&cat=2 &id=24567
    there are already wimax base station in service in Austria, Ireland and Spain.

    I'm not in this business, so that means I wil believe anything the media tells me but I thought it'll be nice to find out the truth.

    anyone?
    thanks a bunch!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Mike (profile), 10 Nov 2005 @ 6:57pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    They're not WiMax. The press is either wrong (calling anything that's "wireless broadband" as WiMax) or it may be "pre-WiMax" which is not what it sounds like.

    There are a lot of companies who plan to make WiMax equipment, and lots of them had existing solutions. So many of them started calling their offerings pre-WiMax to pick up on the hype, even if they'll have to make major changes to the equipment to make them really WiMax. Some of these pre-WiMax systems aren't even close to the actual WiMax standard.

    As it stands right now, the process of certifying WiMax equipment began only recently. It would be nice to see some certified WiMax equipment soon, but there simply is none now. Anyone who says they have WiMax running now is lying.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    D31337, 10 Nov 2005 @ 7:32pm

    WiMAX does excist....

    WiMAX does because I am using WiMAX right now. It is a success because without WiMAX, I would not have broadband access at all.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Alaric, 10 Nov 2005 @ 7:44pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Intel believes that its chipset (the 5000 something or another) is WiMAX.

    Thus because the vendors have deployed a fixed solution with an intel 802.16 compliant chipset, then WiMAX exists.

    On some levels, you can't blame them. a lot of vendors will use that intel chipset and it is being tested for certification right now. On the other hand a bit of arrogance is showing. Intel is pretty much saying look we are wimax. So tell me if you are a carrier do you dig this supreme arrogance and deception?

    Intel needs hype because intel and wimax don't have anything else right now. They don't have product and they will not have mobile product that actually works for a good 2 years if not more.

    Thus intel is making noise. It is smoke and mirrors to compensate for no product. You'll notice that flarion, qualcomm, IP Wireless (UMTS TDD guy) don't have to do that. Its because they have real product.

    As I've said before, this Intel approach works great on PC fanboy types but the carrier's network engineers are educated and they will test test test.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Nov 2005 @ 8:55pm

    Re: WiMAX does excist....

    No, you're not. See the above comment.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    jdragon, 10 Nov 2005 @ 9:20pm

    Re: WiMAX does excist....

    These days, you can find Intel scrambling to be part of every hype. For example, they're now a supporter of open source software when they've never innovated any useful software themself. Oh, it's so they could sell more commodity boxes with intel inside, but too bad AMD has them beat in the market.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Andy, 11 Nov 2005 @ 9:22am

    Re: WiMAX does excist....

    I wrote a paper for a class on WiMax about a year ago but never got any technical feedback on it. If anyone reading this is *very* bored or *very* interested in WiMAX-related information, I have a paper online in PDF that you could read and I would love to receive feedback or critiques to 'andyatkinson [at] gmail.com'. Thanks.
    http://www.tc.umn.edu/~atki0071/

    link to this | view in thread ]


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