AT&T chief technology officer Hossein Eslambolchi says Ma Bell will start testing WiMAX later this year to see “If it can be used to replace traditional data lines to businesses.” The emphasis being, “if it can be used.” He added that “if the technology, known as WiMax, lives up to expectations, AT&T Chief Technology Officer Hossein Eslambolchi said, it could be used as early as next year to replace expensive data lines AT&T now leases from local telephone companies to connect to its network.” I am assuming that this is going to be in non SBC regions. Eslambolchi said the tests will use two varieties of WiMax, one that requires a receiver that has a line of sight to an antenna and another that does not.

Why have I heard this before – oh wait, back in the day AT&T was pushing something similar called Project Angel. At that time WinStar and Teligent, the fixed wireless companies were stock market darlings! I am surprised by the ifs and buts because T and Intel were supposed to be working together to develop chips that would eventually be used in WiMAX networks. Something, doesn’t add up. Very suspicious. Some in the industry worried about the delays , are trying to backtrack and do damage control due to delays. More on AT&T experimenting with WiMAX in September 2004.