It’s been said that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but the PR folks at Clearwire must be scratching their heads in wonder at how a big newspaper like the Chicago Tribune could do such a poor job of reporting on the WiMax service that is coming to that city soon.
In a story published Jan. 3 that is getting wide recognition across the Web — multiple diggs, prominence on TechMeme and callouts from blogs like GigaOM — the Tribune gets a few things right but is guilty of some serious errors of omission in its report about WiMax services coming soon from Clearwire. The main problem seems to stem from the reporter’s using a Sprint exec as the main source for the story, and confusing Sprint’s plan to resell Clearwire services with the actual Clear WiMax service from Clearwire proper.
UPDATE, 1/5/09: According to a Clearwire spokesperson, the ad was part of a national “run of network” buy and not specifically directed at the Tribune or Chicago, where the company hasn’t yet announced launch plans. Oh well! No official announcement from the company yet, but from an advertising perspective it looks like Clearwire is getting ready to launch its service in Chicago, one of the markets Sprint had hoped to launch with its Xohm service in 2008. Checking out the Chicago Tribune home page today, you can “clearly” see the Clearwire ads running front and center:
We tried typing in some Chicago addresses into the Clear service-finder page, but didn’t get a positive result for service being available in Chicago. Still, if the ads are starting to run, can the service launch be far behind?
Not that a quick debut of Chicago would be a surprise — after all, the network has been ready to go for several months now, with Motorola folks telling us at WiMax World in October that the towers and back-end were all but finished. Take a ride along with us and see what kind of speeds Clearwire might be able to deliver in the Windy City:
It made sense to us that small-to-medium-size businesses might be some of the early adopters of mobile WiMax services in the U.S., especially companies with “local nomads,” workers who roam a lot but in a somewhat local region (which could be covered by a single metro-area WiMax service). Seems like the Clearwire folks are thinking the same way, as evidenced by this new page touting business-specific service plans for their Portland, Ore., network.
While the in-office broadband prices seem competitive — unlimited usage with 6 Mbps/1 Mbps download/upload speeds for $75 a month — the more-compelling offer may be the “mobile shared” services which, allow for both in-office and local-roaming use. The mobile plans (which are advertised under a “coming soon” banner) will let small offices support teams of users on the same billing plan, starting at $75 a month for a shared 15 Gbytes of mobile data. According to the plan page, each additional device is $25, which theoretically makes such a service much cheaper than cellular data plans, which average about $60 a month per user for much slower speed links.
As Sidecut Reports celebrates its one-year birthday, we have some exciting plans to announce for 2009: The introduction of the Sidecut Reports WiMax Focus, a monthly research service that will deliver deep insight on selected industry and business topics at the forefront of the U.S. WiMax marketplace.
Like our 2008 WiMax market report, the monthly WiMax Focus reports will provide the kind of deep-dive analysis and reporting that typically isn’t available from shorter blog posts. And our ability to quickly report and analyze topics brings a delivery schedule that is much faster than most traditional long-form analysis, giving readers of our reports a time-to-market advantage that is well worth the reasonable subscription fees.
We’ll have more information about the WiMax Focus service the first week in January, with our first monthly report scheduled for mid-January delivery. But we do have a holiday gift for those who sign up now: A free copy of our 2008 WiMax market report (A $299.95 value), which will be emailed to everyone who signs up for the WiMax Focus service before Jan. 12, 2009. So if you have some 2008 budget dollars around, sign up for the WiMax Focus service and get caught up on the U.S. market by reading our comprehensive 2008 WiMax report over the holiday break.
We’ll be blogging lightly the next couple weeks while we finish up yet another report and get ready for the Clearwire service launch in Portland, Ore., Jan. 6, the start of what should be a very exciting year for WiMax in the U.S. marketplace. And there’s no better place to stay in touch with what’s going on in that market than right here at Sidecut Reports.
It was truly a pleasure to work with Chris Murphy, Art Wittman and the great team of editing folks over at InformationWeek for a nice long look at the WiMax vs. LTE question. While solo blogging is fun it’s also a refreshing experience to work with a whole group of committed professionals who question, fact-check and tease out story lines you might not have realized yourself. Kudos to InformationWeek for giving their readers the time and space necessary to understand all the angles on the developing 4G wireless market, and how that affects the enterprise IT shop’s strategic and tactical communications decisions.
The question about how WiMax provider Clearwire would answer the national-roaming question got a little bit clearer Wednesday, when Sprint officially announced its long-promised 3G/4G hybrid device, a USB dongle that lets a laptop user connect to both Clearwire’s WiMax and Sprint’s 3G cellular networks.
For right now, that former option means one city — Baltimore — where the service previously known as Xohm has been running since September. But Todd Rowley, vice president of Sprint’s 4G business unit, told us Wednesday that the new device will work in all the networks being readied by the new Clearwire, starting with Portland, Ore., sometime “by the end of Q1.”
Just in time to stuff the stockings of those who want 3G cellular and WiMax access, Sprint announced availability of its 3G/4G card today. So far the WiMax coverage is limited to Baltimore. More on this later…
I still don’t think we’ve heard the last of the Google/Wall Street Journal dustup over the dazed and confused story the Journal put out Monday that supposedly detailed Google’s departure from its net neutrality ideals but in reality didn’t seem to understand what topic it was even talking about.
My late-night takeaway is that while Google seems to have won the overall perception battle on this one, the swell of derisive swipes at Google from many corners shows there’s a lot of latent Google-hate out there that may have very little to do with network neutrality and a lot more to do with a simple distaste for the actions of the at-times overly proud and overly preachy Googlers.
Such are the trappings of being the big dog: Everyone wants to nip at your heels. More on this topic later.
For now, two good reads that capture the main points of the day’s discussion: Karl Bode at DSL Reports paints a very good picture of how and why the WSJ got things so wrong; and Harold Feld on why net neutrality isn’t simple, why it’s not all about Google, and why all that matters — a lot.
Looks like the Clearwire folks will officially take the wraps off their Portland, Ore., mobile WiMax network on Jan. 6, according to the invite we just got from Clearwire and Intel. Clearwire, which had reportedly already been taking consumer signups for the network, looks like it isn’t going to waste time in 2009 launching its new form of wireless broadband.
And that’s a good thing for Clearwire and its investors, since it’s clear (hah) that the big telcos like AT&T and Verizon will be racheting up the marketing pressure, trying to convince customers to wait for the promised land of LTE.
More launch details as we learn more. In the meantime you can catch up on WiMax specifics by downloading our Consumer Guide to WiMax for no charge at all.
If you are as confused about network neutrality as the Wall Street Journal, there is an easy way to get up to speed on the issue: Order yourself our recent report, titled Net Neutrality Phase II: The Battle of 2009, where we examine all the technical and political parts of the debate, and how proponents and their opponents will position themselves for the expected tussles of 2009.
Is this a sales pitch? You bet. But selling reports is how we keep this editorial operation going, independent of influence from any vendor or lobbying group. Show your support for deep, analytical reporting on complex issues while also educating yourself — it’s a gift that gives both ways!
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4G, WiMAX | Tagged: 3G, 4G, Chicago Tribune, Clear, Clearwire, Paul Kapustka, Portland, Sidecut Reports, Sprint, WiMAX | 
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