Doug Nielson's List: WiMax Sites

• Talking to Clearwire and Sprint executives here, I heard the mantra of "open networks" and "open devices" many times.
• Samsung has just completed its first Android phone, the Galaxy. And rumors have already been flying in wireless circles that Sprint has been testing a Samsung 4G smartphone

• By contrast, Huawei was initially reported back in March, by The Wall Street Journal, to be bidding for the next phase of Clearwire's build-out. Any breakthrough in the US is important to the Chinese giant
• On the second quarter results call, CEO Bill Morrow also predicted the tipping point in the second half of this year - one that will be critical to achieve, to instil real confidence that Clearwire can survive the fierce waters of US telecoms. The well respected former Vodafone executive has brought a good dose of that confidence with him, but results will speak even louder, and he said that "fourth quarter net subscriber additions will be higher than all 2009 quarters combined."
• In Q2 figures, Clearwire reported a net loss of $73.4m, or 38 cents a share, on revenue of $63.6m, up 9% on a year ago. Wall Street was expecting a loss of 39 cents a share on revenue of $65.2m.

1 more annotation...

• Bluetooth technology will work up to a distance of about 30 feet. A Wi-Fi signal will work up to a distance of about 300 feet. Now get ready for this. WiMax will work up to a distance of 3 miles from a mobile base and up to 30 miles from a stationary base! Did you get that? 30 MILES !!!
• 30 miles of Wi-Max today but it'll be 300 miles of something else in a year to two. That's just what technology does. Especially when there's no one around to look out for the safety of all those who will be blanketed by this giant Wi-Max cloud. Where are you, FDA?
  

• Before Apple's smooth-talker, portable broadband didn't look juicy enough to chase—cellular data usage was slim. But the typical iPhone owner uses five times more data than the average cell user. "It took Apple and its ecosystem of apps and interactivity to prove the pent-up demand for ubiquitous broadband," Vellody says.
• Both WiMax and LTE will offer about the same DSL-ish speed (5-6 Mbps), but bitrates could grow to 15 Mbps by 2012.