Sprint to Shut Down Wimax by End of 2015 (Was Wimax network shut-off date?)

[markjcc]

Damnit....

 

you mean i gotta track down a new ISP service for my mom AGAIN???

 

bah, it was a pain before....freaking century link still only had 768 to her house     i know i know...

 

and they had an issue with comcast back a few years (they cancelled but comcast never did and then wanted to charge them for 3 mths, and my dad said piss off)

 

the one wireless carrier, wont work because of the trees around there house.....no line of site...

 

SOB.....looks like i am going to have to work the comcast thing out      

There could be other WImax providers in your area Clearwire isn't the only Wimax provider

[floorguy]

uhh nope.....limited out here on isp...

[The Dave]

Did you try Netzero and Freedompop? Hate to suggest it, but you could look into satellite broadband.

[AcctDeleted_ArcFlash]

I can't believe it, but I got WiMax on my EVO 4G today here in downtown Fresno.  We barely had a 3G signal. and now have speeds faster than what I have at my home WIFI.

[The Dave]

I can't believe it, but I got WiMax on my EVO 4G today here in downtown Fresno.  We barely had a 3G signal. and now have speeds faster than what I have at my home WIFI.

Welcome to 2010.

[S4GRU]

I can't believe it, but I got WiMax on my EVO 4G today here in downtown Fresno.  We barely had a 3G signal. and now have speeds faster than what I have at my home WIFI.

 

I used WiMax on that site in Fresno back in Spring 2011.  It's been active for years.  But it is just one Protection Site there.  That is all.

 

Robert

[jamesinclair]

I used WiMax on that site in Fresno back in Spring 2011.  It's been active for years.  But it is just one Protection Site there.  That is all.

 

Robert

 

Its also very, very fickle.

[shockerengr]

Its also very, very fickle.

sounds like wimax on mobile....

[Tom_in_Delaware]

I was an early adopter of the Clear Wimax network. I use it for my home ISP as well as for mobile internet. I use a Clear hotspot with my IPod Touch and avoid paying extra for a mobile data plan. I was thrilled to find a wireless ISP to provide me with fast internet service for both home and mobile use. I have both a home modem and a mobile hotspot- two devices and I pay only $55 a month.

 

And the best part is this is truly unlimited service. I use Netflix at home and I have streamed as much as 90 GB of data per month with no throttling. When I heard they were phasing out WiMAX in favor of LTE I accepted it as the will of the market place. But now as I shop around in light of Clear being sold, I see that LTE 4G is being marketed much the same as 3G. With all the caps and throttling that plagued 3G service.

 

LTE may be a superior technology to Wimax. That has yet to be proven. But the marketing practices of the big telecoms is business as usual. The going rate for mobile hotspot service seems to be $50 for 5 GB. About the same as 3G only faster. With more sparse coverage. Is this progress?

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

LTE may be a superior technology to Wimax. That has yet to be proven. But the marketing practices of the big telecoms is business as usual. The going rate for mobile hotspot service seems to be $50 for 5 GB. About the same as 3G only faster. With more sparse coverage. Is this progress?

 

Under current circumstances, unlimited WiMAX or LTE for both home and mobile usage just is not sustainable.  You cannot have your cake and eat it, too.  Home users sucking down 90 GB (or more) per month would limit capacity for mobile users, who would then complain about data speeds, as so many do now.

 

AJ

[Tom_in_Delaware]

The Clear Wimax Network was setup and marketed primarily as a home service network. While at the same time selling mobile hotspot service. As well as being the 4G data network for Sprint mobile phone customers and MVNOs. And it delivered on that promise. Truly unlimited service. So it has been proven that the bandwidth is there to deliver both the kind of heavy usage required for home service as well as the unique demands of mobile users.

 

4G WiMAX can provide competition to the home cable and DSL providers as well as in the mobile market. I'm sure LTE has similar technical capability. 4G capping and throttling is a holdover from the old 3G technology and the service providers do it cause they know they can get away with it.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[Fraydog]

The Clear Wimax Network was setup and marketed primarily as a home service network. While at the same time selling mobile hotspot service. As well as being the 4G data network for Sprint mobile phone customers and MVNOs. And it delivered on that promise. Truly unlimited service. 

 

4G WiMAX can provide competition to the home cable and DSL providers as well as in the mobile market. I'm sure LTE has similar technical capability.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

Most of the Clear experience has proven otherwise. I feel sympathy for those who can't get anything but capped Verizon or AT&T LTE, but most places Clear was strong, so was Comcast or some other cable provider. Why not use that instead?

[iansltx]

I'll just say this again: maybe Sprint won't do unlimited LTE, even TD-LTE only, for a fixed base station. But for a fixed modem with 8x8 and 3x20 CA, we're talking about more capacity for broadband than any currently deployed cable system in the US. And 8x8 is significantly more efficient than the 2x2 you'll bee in standard phones. Between that and higher-gain antennas, I wouldn't be surprised if Sprint came out with a fixed LTE solution two or three years from now with 5-10x the data allotment per dollar of their mobile broadband product, at a relatively high price point (e.g. $80/mo rather than competing with DSL, becuase speeds would be comparable to cable anyway). It won't be unlimited, but it will outshine competitors whose networks don't have the capacity density.

[Tom_in_Delaware]

As I read the comments here it seems there are a lot of mobile users hungry for a better mobile broadband experience than they have had in the past with either 3G or now with 4G. They have been capped and throttled to death. And I have friends who pay $70-120 for a single smartphone and have several such phones in their family. And then in turn pay for home Internet and cable TV on top if that. It's outrageous what some people pay to get connected. In my market, 20 miles outside of Philadelphia, Comcast has a stronghold. You can get Comcast and that's about it. Most people have not had a positive experience with cable companies. Until recently, Clear offered consumers an alternative. And I paid one bill of $55 a month for both home and mobile internet. And that's it. No caps. Just wireless internet. Everywhere I go. No data plans. If I visit another city I take my iPod touch and my hotspot and I have service wherever I go. I can see why Clear customers are wary of going back to capped service. It's a giant step backwards. And it's not what they signed up for. Unlimited wireless 4g Internet is sustainable for both home and mobile use. And it's a healthy alternative and competition to the cable companies. Let's hope it continues to be available in the future. As LTE. As Wimax. Whatever the marketplace will offer.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[Nickel]

Unlimited wireless 4g Internet is sustainable for both home and mobile use.

No, it really isn't. Especially when you have people like that bandwithhog guy. While I absolutely feel bad for those people out in the middle of nowhere (I can say that because I used to live there too) who have no better option, It just doesn't work well. Also, one thing I'm confused on is how you had coverage everywhere you went. Clearwire's coverage wasn't exactly idealistic in most cases.

[Tom_in_Delaware]

Thanks for your comments. You are right. Clear's coverage is spotty in some areas. My experience was in Atlanta, Kansas City and now here in the Philadelphia area. All big cities. But I live 20 miles outside of Philly. In Wilmington, DE. And Clear has good coverage here. So it depends on where you live. But all the places I go, Clear is there. If Clear had the go ahead to continue building out their network, their coverage would have only gotten better. I don't see the need to convert to LTE. I don't see it as all that different than WiMAX. ATT and Verizon made a big marketing push for LTE and the customers bought it. Now they have to live with the caps and limited bandwidth that seems to be inherent in the technology. The money that was spent replacing Wimax with LTE could have been spent on building out the WiMAX network.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[Tom_in_Delaware]

As far as bandwidth hog, his name says it all. He's the guy who averages 329 GB a month right? You are always gonna have some people who abuse the privilege. And as I recall, he lived somewhere remote so maybe his tower could sustain that kind of abuse. The one month I used 92 GB, I was sick in bed and streamed several seasons of Breaking Bad while I was recovering. But you'd have to do a lot of streaming to exceed 100 GB. That would be a reasonable limit. After that I can see paying more. Even the cable company has a limit of 300 GB according to some people here. But 5 GB is not a reasonable limit. And $10 per GB is highway robbery. So long as the telcos get away with it they will continue marketing this way.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

Unlimited wireless 4g Internet is sustainable for both home and mobile use.

 

Your assertion does not make it true.  Unlimited wireless broadband is not sustainable for both home and mobile use.  Maybe it was about four years ago when Sprint started offering Clear WiMAX as its 4G solution, but circumstances have changed.

 

At that time, smartphone penetration, especially 4G capable smartphone penetration, was much lower.  Not to mention, peak speed expectations were also much lower.  At 10 Mbps, Clear was thought to be blazingly fast.  Now, 10 Mbps is considered to be on the slow end of the spectrum.  On the home broadband side, cutting the cord to use streaming video was not nearly as prevalent as it is today.  All of that adds up to a practically untenable situation.

 

Like it or not, the big money is in mobile, not home broadband.  Even VZ and AT&T -- if they get their way with regulators -- want to exit the slow growth home broadband business.  So, when forced to choose, Sprint will side with mobile.

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

I'll just say this again: maybe Sprint won't do unlimited LTE, even TD-LTE only, for a fixed base station. But for a fixed modem with 8x8 and 3x20 CA, we're talking about more capacity for broadband than any currently deployed cable system in the US. And 8x8 is significantly more efficient than the 2x2 you'll bee in standard phones.

 

I would like to see some performance stats on 8x8 MIMO.  I am betting that, with higher order MIMO, the throughput gains start to get more and more marginal.  Those spatial channels have to remain as orthogonal as possible; otherwise, they interfere with one another.

 

The other consideration to remember is that 20 MHz TDD is basically the equivalent of 10 MHz FDD.  So, even if Sprint has three 20 MHz TDD carriers, that 60 MHz bandwidth equates to about 30 MHz FDD.  Soon enough, VZW and AT&T, maybe T-Mobile, too, will each have at least 30 MHz FDD total among their Upper/Lower 700 MHz, AWS, PCS, Cellular, possibly even WCS holdings.

 

Sprint cannot afford to be the slowpoke again by having similar bandwidth to that of the other operators but letting unlimited home broadband users siphon off capacity with their usage.  Sprint needs to regain the perception of having faster data than at least one of the other big three mobile operators.  If not, the outlook is grim.

 

AJ

[scubajwd]

or...said another way more simplistic: "there weren't 50 million smart phones,tablets, & iPads all wanting to see the Final of Breaking Bad at the same time"  lots has changed as AJ said above; and the saturation continues with Skype & Netflix and Facebook video more & more; to say that this is sustainable w/o caps  or throttling belies one's understanding of the current state of the art..my

guess is that the cable operators are going to move forward with caps & throttling as well as HD video now is being streamed like crazy thru those glass pipes..

[iansltx]

I would like to see some performance stats on 8x8 MIMO.  I am betting that, with higher order MIMO, the throughput gains start to get more and more marginal.  Those spatial channels have to remain as orthogonal as possible; otherwise, they interfere with one another.

 

The other consideration to remember is that 20 MHz TDD is basically the equivalent of 10 MHz FDD.  So, even if Sprint has three 20 MHz TDD carriers, that 60 MHz bandwidth equates to about 30 MHz FDD.  Soon enough, VZW and AT&T, maybe T-Mobile, too, will each have at least 30 MHz FDD total among their Upper/Lower 700 MHz, AWS, PCS, Cellular, possibly even WCS holdings.

 

Sprint cannot afford to be the slowpoke again by having similar bandwidth to that of the other operators but letting unlimited home broadband users siphon off capacity with their usage.  Sprint needs to regain the perception of having faster data than at least one of the other big three mobile operators.  If not, the outlook is grim.

 

AJ

 

 

Don't forget that Sprint can more aggressively push the TDD ratio in favor of downstream as they add more carriers (as much as I may not like that).

 

Also, we already know what 8x8 + 3x CA will do: 1.3 Gbps in lab conditions. Those aren't DOCSIS 3.1 speeds, but by way of comparison Comcast (the highest-end D3 operator in the US) has ~300 Mbps of download capacity and ~75 Mbps of upload capacity on their cable systems currently, extending to 900x100 or so some time next year.

[Tom_in_Delaware]

Clear provides sufficient bandwidth at a reasonable rate of speed to service both home and mobile users. They did it four years ago and they are still doing it today. The proof is in the pudding.

 

It's a matter of perspective. The mobile users see the home users as a nuisance "siphoning off bandwidth" from people with smartphones. It could be seen also from the other perspective. Home users could say those mobile users with their iPhones want to hog all the bandwidth. Can't we all just get along in the same network spectrum? It is well suited for both types of usage.

 

The big money may be is selling capped service to smartphone users at fifty bucks a pop for 5 GB of data. But the heavy demand will continue to be in home use. How much more data does a smartphone user need really? And how fast is fast enough? I'm getting 5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up now on my iPod touch and a bit faster on my home modem.

 

Sprint was forced to dump Wimax cause it wasn't fast enough compared to LTE. But it was certainly fast enough for the needs of any home or mobile user. It's a fickle marketplace. The consumer buys what the advertisers say they need. Sprint is a phone company first and foremost. They have acquired Clear outright and will no doubt leave the home customers high and dry and use that spectrum to service their preferred and most profitable customers.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[lilotimz]

Clear provides sufficient bandwidth at a reasonable rate of speed to service both home and mobile users. They did it four years ago and they are still doing it today. The proof is in the pudding.

 

It's a matter of perspective. The mobile users see the home users as a nuisance "siphoning off bandwidth" from people with smartphones. It could be seen also from the other perspective. Home users could say those mobile users with their iPhones want to hog all the bandwidth. Can't we all just get along in the same network spectrum? It is well suited for both types of usage.

 

The big money may be is selling capped service to smartphone users at fifty bucks a pop for 5 GB of data. But the heavy demand will continue to be in home use. How much more data does a smartphone user need really? And how fast is fast enough? I'm getting 5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up now on my iPod touch and a bit faster on my home modem.

 

Sprint was forced to dump Wimax cause it wasn't fast enough compared to LTE. But it was certainly fast enough for the needs of any home or mobile user. It's a fickle marketplace. The consumer buys what the advertisers say they need. Sprint is a phone company first and foremost. They have acquired Clear outright and will no doubt leave the home customers high and dry and use that spectrum to service their preferred and most profitable customers.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

Sprint dumped wimax because they were forced to use it because LTE was not ready in 2007-2008. Wimax was always an interim step to LTE especially once the rest of the world choose LTE as he standard. Wimax has no large economy of scale for device and equipment like LTE and in this day and age being the odd one out is the worst.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710

 

 

[Nickel]

As Tim said if you compare WiMAX's top speeds with LTE's it's actaully pretty similar. They were forced into choosing WiMAX and when the rest of the world choose LTE, that put a nail in Sprint/Clearwire's WiMAX network.

[bandwithhog]

No, it really isn't. Especially when you have people like that bandwithhog guy. While I absolutely feel bad for those people out in the middle of nowhere (I can say that because I used to live there too) who have no better option, It just doesn't work well. Also, one thing I'm confused on is how you had coverage everywhere you went. Clearwire's coverage wasn't exactly idealistic in most cases.

 

Well, the business model would work because you have other users that don't use even 2GB per month and heavy users make up the difference. We should get away from the thought that these poor companies do us a favor and we should be blessed to pay an arm and a leg for their service. Have you ever looked at Japan? They pay less and have higher speeds too. They offered a service for a price and their calculation includes heavy users like myself but there is no alternative if you have no DSL, Cable etc available