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News You Could Do Without

by Derek Kerton


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Filed Under:
wibro, wimax, wimax forum

Companies:
kt, telecoms korea


WiMAX Supporters Try To Suppress Case Study About WiBRO Troubles

from the and-we-thought-they-would-just-go-away dept

Tempers flared at the WiMAX show in Singapore last week when the WiMAX Forum apparently moved to suppress a report issued by one of their media sponsors, Telecoms Korea. The Telecoms Korea report, prepared with the expectation of distribution at the event, apparently included a case study regarding KT's deployment of WiBRO in South Korea, including relevant facts about the rocky start the service has had. Well, apparently "rocky start" isn't on the agenda at the WiMAX Congress, since the Forum blocked distribution of the report. Telecoms Korea is accusing KT of being behind the cover-up, and it is specifically singling out Ron Resnick, the Intel executive who currently sits as President and Chairman of the WiMAX Forum as being the ax-man. The publication is furious at the alleged censorship, and says it degraded to a shouting match at the Congress with Resnick saying, "Get out of here, now!" several times. That's too bad, because as an occasional subscriber to Telecoms Korea, I have seen that their editorial position on WiBRO has been one part national pride mixed with one part realism. If they have had any bias, it has been a hope to see WiBRO succeed. The publication argues that by turning a blind eye to the simple realities of KT's difficult launch, the WiMAX community is setting itself up for repeat disappointment rather than being able to learn from it.

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

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  1. Short-termism

    by Lawrence D'Oliveiro - Apr 14th, 2008 @ 4:40pm

    I suppose by delaying the spread of bad news, it gives them a chance to sell off their shares before the bottom completely falls out of the market.

    See, it's just Capitalism in action after all!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. by Joe Schmoe - Apr 14th, 2008 @ 5:35pm

    Ha ha ha

    Dont Wi me Bro

    Are these the same folks who caused a ruckus on this blog not too long ago ?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Intel - WiMAX - hype gone wild

    by Alaric - Apr 14th, 2008 @ 6:06pm

    WiMAX has really degenerated into pure BS. No offense but its a terrible mobile technology and its living entirely off of media hype fomented by intel.

    This is apparently the intel way. There was a good article regarding Nvidia's President going off about Intel's lies regarding video cards that kind of shows the same thing they're doing with WiMAX.

    They are truly incredible because when one of their "concepts" gets called they come up with a bigger one. Example. Intel: "wimax will be in laptops and mobile in 2006." Didn't happen

    So what does intel do? They make up a bigger one. Intel: "WiMAX will be in consumer devices like digital cameras and MP3 players. It'll be huge."

    This is going to bite them in the rear soon. 3G was hyped but after a while they just shut put and put up (as in subscribers and results). Intel acts like the US administration. Intel's cure for hype gone bad more hype. Its insane and its like water torture.

    Want to know why nokia and ericsson have restrained from the kind of cdma vs gsm battles of the past. Remember ericsson used to say CDMA couldn't work, etc.

    They've refrained because WiMAX is that bad.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Re:

    by Anonymous Coward - Apr 14th, 2008 @ 7:57pm

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. by Nick - Apr 14th, 2008 @ 10:57pm

    WiMAX is a false prophet. It'll never be what it claims. I've talked to equipment vendors about all sorts of products. The range is TERRIBLE and the cost is HUGE.

    WiMAX is a complete waste of the wireless industries time.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. In Fairness to Intel

    by Alaric - Apr 15th, 2008 @ 6:03am

    You probably have to yell pretty loud to get heard over the entrenched cellular industry.

    But Its interesting Intel could've pushed for greater improvements to 802.16e to make it actually better than WCDMA/CDMA. They didn't they just rushed to get 802.16e out and i assume they figure they'll make up for the poor 802.16e performance via chip level integration of MIMO.

    But that approach is deeply flawed. Its wastes rare and expensive spectrum.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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