Not WiMAX Announcement Followed By Lots Of Fine Print

from the the-non-story dept

We've trashed companies and reporters recently over their infatuation with calling non-WiMAX wireless broadband deployments WiMAX. Apparently, the message that it's not good to call non-standard pre-standard non-WiMAX equipment WiMAX is starting to get through to the business folks, but the PR people simply can't resist. That's about the only explanation that makes sense for this article concerning a not really WiMAX wireless broadband offering in Argentina. The first paragraph is about how Millicom will be launching "the first WiMax network in Latin America" using equipment from Alvarion. The rest of the article is a series of quotes from Alvarion's VP of marketing explaining why it's not really good to call this stuff WiMAX, but the PR people from the carriers just can't help themselves. He wishes that the announcements were much clearer in pointing out that this isn't really WiMAX and he worries about confusion in the industry. In other words, the article is basically stating "look at this WiMAX deployment!!!" in bold type, followed by lots and lots of fine print about how it isn't WiMAX at all. If Alvarion really didn't want to hype up non-WiMAX as WiMAX they, themselves, should be clear to their partners and customers that what they're offering is not WiMAX. It's fine to say you will offer WiMAX, once certification of WiMAX begins, but claiming "pre-WiMAX" on non-WiMAX equipment just leads to confusion.

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