This morning, the Denver Post picks up a Washington Post story and headlines – WiMax technology promises faster wireless service. Why is this important? The news about the Clearwire/Sprint/Intel/Google/Comcast/Time Warner/Bright House deal started its life last week in the Wall Street Journal and quickly moved to the tech blogs like GigaOm and TechCrunch. For the remainder of the week and through the weekend it bounced around the tech and policy blogs with everyone revising opinions and emphasizing different angles. On Monday morning it is now a headline in a big city daily, with the bulk of the tech and policy implications cleansed and the story promising users all the neat things they will be able to do within two years as the service rolls out.
Clearly, the fact that this story has such legs is a big win for the stakeholders. A few weeks ago, Sprint and Clearwire were getting the media raspberry for playing coy on the rollout of the then titled Xohm service at CTIA. LTE was all the news with ATT and Verizon promising LTE networks coming soon. Now with CTIA in the rearview mirror, WiMax is dominating the wireless news and garnering prominent mentions in the mainstream media. The goal for the WiMax Gang of Six of course, is to have people asking, “That’s great, when can I get it?” That goal appears to be well on its way. While perhaps not the best technology available, WiMax now is off life support and breathing while LTE and other 4G tech is still riding around on Big Wheels. I’m guessing the gang planned their timing this way.