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One of the speakers mentioned that only Verizon at this time has plans to offer fiber to the home. However, I suspect Comcast has other plans. Here is a S&P research headline pulled from business news.
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"Unconfirmed WSJ report says Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House may respectively provide $1B, $500M, and $100-$200M funding for national WiMax network led by Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. With the 3 cable operators also part of winning group in '06 spectrum auction, we think [the] news casts more doubt on wireless convergence strategy, even as Cox, also part of '06 win, also bid successfully in '08 700MHz auction. Still, we view this as potentially offensive and defensive move for cablers, despite financial risks of unproven WiMax."
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WiMax (802.16 I believe) is a new wireless technology, not mentioned in today's radio broadcast. It seems like it cannot compete with fiber's capacity and speed today, but it is way faster that 802.11 (WiFi) and can be a central point for multiple subscribers, with high upload and download speeds. In a small town or municipality where the local telco has not put in DSL, and where the cable company has gone missing in action, I've wondered if WiMax technology could fill the gap. It seems well suited to small-scale operators and public projects.

So what is this article above saying? Is the cable operator Comcast going to offer wireless broadband service to rural areas? Will they offer TV services over "the last mile" wirelessly? Or is Comcast just using this as an entre' into the phone business? Or offering video (content) and internet to cell phone users? Could a few years of technology development bring WiMax up to compete with Fiber? Whatever you think of Comcast, I think WiMax could offer some of the "digital divide" outsiders in rural or small population centers a new option, and a way to leapfrog around the sluggish rural telcos.

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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