WiMax and innovations
We have often noted that big, industry-leading companies are often poor at generating major innovations, ones that are not simply an improvement on an existing product or technology but rather one that has the potential to disrupt an industry. But WiMax looks like an exception to that principle.
WiMax is a wireless networking protocol, sort of like Wi-Fi on steroids. While Wi-Fi networks extend to at most a few hundred yards from the source, WiMax technology can carry for 20 miles or more, using microwave frequencies. In fact, for broadband access the effective range is far shorter (two to six miles). Its big advantage is that it does not require the very expensive "gardening", the running of optic cables to each house.
Should this technology gain acceptance, it may change not only the provision of wireless Internet, but also the telephone and cable television industries. In yet another shift in the already complex world of broadband-telephone-TV services, WiMax may be the worst nightmare for mortal enemies AT&T and Time-Warner Cable, Verizon and Comcast, all of which are major layers of cable. WiMax has the potential too outflank them all.
And most of the innovations in WiMax technology, the proving of concept, are a result of the efforts of four well-established very global companies: m Intel (which makes the networking equipment); Nokia, which make the phone and related equipment; Samsung, which is developing other consumer uses; and Sprint Nextel, which is doing the actually installation of WiMax towers.
The story is told in an excellent BusinessWeek story ("The Road to WiMax", 11/3/07). As the story points out, it was a small group in Intel, in spite of wenormous financial and technical hurdles and profound skepticism from analysts that adopted WiMax at a very early stage, developed it, built partnerships, and is now about to see WiMax become a significant force in the communications business.
Intel executive Sean Maloney, teh story notes, "led an industrywide effort to develop and market what was in 2002 an obscure wireless broadband technology only a few hundred engineers had heard of. Indeed, after logging hundreds of thousands of air miles, he has rounded up a remarkable coalition of chip, PC, consumer electronics, networking, and software companies in an effort to radically reshape the future of broadband."
The point is that this kind of breakthrough usually happens in a small firm that manages against all logic to champion a new technology the fat cat big boys won't touch. Then after the concept is proven, some smart larger company sees the threat and opportunity, and steps in.
And how serious is WiMax?. Several recent events seem to indicate that it is moving fast. Last week the ITU (International Telecommunications Union), the standards making body for the global telecom industry, just added the technology to its list of accepted wireless standards. An article from eWeek magazine ("ITU Approves WiMax as Global Standard", 10/19/07) quoted one experts as saying ""This is a very special and unique milestone for WiMax technology."This is the first time that a new air interface has been added to the IMT-2000 set of standards since the original technologies were selected nearly a decade ago." The move signals that WiMax now a globally recognized standard.
Also this week, Cisco Systems, the telecommunications equipment company that has been a little late into the WiMax game, bought into the game with the purchase of privately-held Navini Networks, in a deal worth $330 million. Navini, founded in 2006, develops technology that improves WiMax performance, Cisco has clearly decided that WiMax is going to make it.
The big test will be in 2008, when Sprint Nextel rolls out a 19 city US WiMax network. Users will sign up for the services, as they now subscribe to DSL or cable modem service. Whatever happens, give Intel for true innovative thinking.
6:05:44 PM 
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