Its been quite along time and no, this time the reason is thankfully not laziness but for a change its lack of time !! Never knew life would become so hectic even in Kerala, the Gods own country. The Title of this article might sound a bit scary but no it wasn't meant to create a sensation. I'm no cheap sensation hunter. The Companies in question (or should I say, the dead ones) are Xohm & Pivot. Two very high profile ventures (although Xohm is primarily a brand of Sprint), a seemingly sound business model, a lot of potential promise, investments from a number of big companies, but both going down faster than their rise.
Lets start with Pivot. Pivot was once thought of as way through which Sprint and the other cable companies can compete with the likes of ATT, Verizon etc in the lucrative bundled services market. But there were inherent complications with this business. The Most important one is surely how to communicate the value of you bundled service to your customer without confusing him/her. The Pivot venture was a messy concoction with different partners planning different priorities out of their investments in the venture. This followed the financial problems that Sprint started finding itself in. The Final nail in the "Pivot" coffin was ready before the end of last year when Sprint called off its nationwide network roll out. Current Pivot subscribers are being given the option to either transfer to a standard Sprint service plan, or terminate without any penalties.
If that was about Pivot, the whole Xohm investment looked a bit more compelling. The amazing thing about Xohm is that it was a brand that never even had a product and it died before it made its commercial debut. Sprint's financial worries seem to be the reason behind Xohm's death with the board always wanting to share the business risk. After two sour experiences of Clearwire and Pivot, Sprint never found that elusive third big partner it was always looking for. That forced Sprint to float Xohm. Another example of how business ideas backed by desperation alone can be harmful. Both Pivot and Xohm were also victims to the edginess of Sprint's investors. This edginess again had its roots in ever decreasing customer numbers, high churn and quarter after quarter of poor financial results.
Although nothing has been officially announced about the future of Xohm but a formal death knell was sounded for it when the formation of a new Sprint-Clearwire Joint Venture was announced. The new company will be called as Clearwire. The Announcement just about saved the WiMAX lobby from further embarrassments and gave them a much needed boost. It must be said that in the short term, this JV has helped WiMAX from going into extinction. Being a critic that I am, I just cannot help but doubt this latest effort. One Messy concoction to replace another ?? A JV including Intel, Google, Comcast, TW Cable etc. No doubt that they really big names in the world of technology but will a hodgepodge of powerful players be able to pull off such a complex deal. What about the openness of the network?? Google, a long term "Open" backer joining hands with the likes of Clearwire & Comcast who have a history of blocking traffic in the name of traffic shaping(VoIP & P2P respectively). Intel has put in money to save the investments that it has already made in WiMAX (again one cover up so that the other doesn't get exposed). The Venture smacks of nothing but desperation. Desperation to hit the market before LTE does. Agreed that for WiMAX to be successful, time to market will be one of the key aspects but that definitely is not the only aspect. If unsuccessful, i think its goodbye for WiMAX (at least in North America).
The dead have gone!! But they have left us some important lessons which some of us are not ready to accept knowingly or unknowingly. There is no doubt that the new JV is well on its way to the graveyard. However, it will be interesting to see who else will follow the JV to the graveyard. Looks like Sprint (along with North America's WiMAX dream) is rushing to reach there first.
1 comment:
Very good article santy baba..Looks like in north america after the xohm and pivot case wimax might die an early death however if u look at the other parts of the globe than there are good chances for the wimax.....actually i feel its not LTE v/s Wimax but in the long term it might turned out to be LTE and Wimax or may be "LMAX" ( I think i should file for the copyright .)
LTE is a technology based on existing mobile networks and has broad support from many mobile bodies like Alcatel-Lucent ,LG Electronics ,FranceTelecom/Orange ,T-Mobile ,China Mobile etc but somewhere down the line they are even waiting for the Wimax to get unfold....
As we all know that Intel is the biggest supporter of Wimax and it is looking forward to harmonize the two technologies , LTE and Wimax ...even Nokia is backing up both LTE and Wimax.
LTE is proving popular with handset manufacturers and mobile carriers because it is seen as an evolution to existing 3G networks. By contrast,Wimax has won favors in the computer industry because its roots lie with wi-fi and now with Intel re entry into mobile equipment manufacturing , the market may witness a revolution.
Both technologies have supporters who are in the two camps. For instance Vodafone is currently trialing Wimax in Greece and Malta and its US subsidiary Verizon is trying out LTE. The two systems are non-line of sight, and offer "optimal" broadband performance in a cell network between three to five kilometers in size . LTE is also expected to offer higher speeds than Wimax, peaking at 100 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload however 802.16m that would be ratified in 2009 is fairly similar in speeds.
It is also said tht the two technologies are about 80% similar". Motorola has already said that 85% of the work and technology for Wimax equipment will be re-used in its designs for LTE equipment . It is technically possible that the chipset Intel is introducing later this year to cover wi-fi and Wimax, could also be used for LTE . Also WiMax equipment is standard and therefore cheaper to buy — sometimes half the cost and sometimes even less. Depending on the spectrum allotted for WiMax deployments and how the network is configured, this can mean a WiMax network is cheaper to build and this could be an important factor for the harmonization .
I feel Harmonization makes sense as if it doesn’t happen than it can led to a situation where where different parts of the world will have different technologies and it would do no good to any entity in the value chain .
As of now LTE is not expected to reach mass adoption until 2012 while the first Wimax networks have already been rolled out in the US and Japan. Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel, said 10 million people would be using Wimax by the end of 2008, rising to "hundreds of millions two years after that". It is said that Wimax will be the wi-fi for the 21st century. It would give the same great experience anywhere in the world which we have at home,and that to without having to stay close to the hotspot.
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