Software utilities

Buzz Broadband CEO closed down its WiMAX network, labeling it as a miserable failure. Garth Freeman spoke to an astonished audience at the International WiMax Conference in Bangkok: his main concerns are that non-LOS (line of sight) connection vanishes after 2 kilometers only, indoor coverage falls after 400 m and jitter can be as high as 1 second, which would make this technology difficult for services that need a lower latency, such as VOIP.

One year ago, at the same conference, Buzz CEO was enthusiastic about WiMAX, which increased company shares value of about 25%. He had reported a few indoor problems, as other operators from India, but none could imagine this. The company abandoned WiMAX in favor of more consolidated technologies, such as TD-CDMA standard at 1.9GHz—used by operators such as wireless DOCSIS, which operates at up to 38Mbps in the 3.5GHz spectrum, and also more conventional wireless mesh platforms at 2.4GHz.

Not all WiMAX operators are unhappy, maybe for concerns about companies shares, but maybe Freeman’s words were too hasty.