Can you believe it? It has been almost a year since I wrote about TowerStream, a tiny Rhode Island company that proved that if you use enough common sense you can make fixed wireless work, and that you don’t need to raise billions from the stock market to build entirely stupid networks like WinStar and Teligent did! Anyway today there is news that they are launching a service in Los Angeles. Nice going boys. LA is the latest addition for the company which sells big fat wireless pipes to corporations in New York City, Chicago, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. They use pre-standard 802.16, technology. TowerStream is a living, thriving proof that despite all the F-U-D Intel is trying to spread, Fixed Wireless in all shapes and forms is a great back-haul technology – nothing less and nothing more.WiSense yes, WiMAX no, no?
Uh, yeah, but they are a big proponent of WiMax and say they will roll it out as soon as it becomes commercially available – so aren’t they proof that they’ll use whatever is available until a standard appears?
Well, exactly. why worry about WiMAX and how it will revolutionize the world when whatever is available right now works. what happens happens. I think after mixed success with WiFi, Intel is trying desperately to mkae WiMAX its own standard. well ain’t gonna work. i am doing a panel this coming week on WiMAX in Palo Alto. I will report after that!
Well – that depends on what the need is – if Intel does start sticking WiMax chips into laptops as a chip set ala WiFi, then a company like TowerStream may be able to go direct to consumer rather than be focused on business – I don’t think they would, but they could. WiMax is, in my view, more interesting for the general consumer than the business that has loads of connectivity options. The consumer right now has two – WiMax could provide a third. I’m still hoping that Flarion kicks it’s ass….