Airspan Defends WiMAX

The negative comments shared by Garth Freeman, CEO at Buzz Broadband, in regards to WiMAX technology have spurred Airspan, the WiMAX equipment supplier to retaliate and defend its technology.

The negative comments shared by Garth Freeman, CEO at Buzz Broadband, in regards to WiMAX technology have spurred Airspan, the WiMAX equipment supplier to retaliate and defend its technology. According to Airspan, Buzz Broadband lacked the technical and financial resources required to operate a performing network. In regards to Freeman’s specific qualm concerning the short distance that the WiMAX network was able to operate successfully in, Airspan blamed Buzz Broadband’s decision to purchase less-expensive micro-cell base stations. Cheaper base stations resulted in a trade off of range performance.

The future of WiMAX is still to be discovered and will continue to stir debate but I find the most insightful observations concerning the Buzz Broadband/Airspan situation was made by Nordic Nowire CEO Michael Blomqvist. Blomqvist acknowledges the mistakes made by Buzz Broadband. However, he also notes that such mistakes are typical and therefore Airspan and other WiMAX vendors need to take greater responsibility when it comes to educating carriers.

As far as Blomqvist’s opinion of WiMAX, he feels that “vendors have over-hyped WiMAX, promising features and then not delivering. At the same time, WiMAX does offer a better price/performance ratio compared to competing mobile broadband technologies—when done right.”

Ari Zoldan

Launch 3 Communications

Monday, March 31, 2008 in Business  | Permalink |  Comments (1)