RSS
Home
Comcast and partners double down on WiMAX
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Access to high-speed data was once the holy grail of geeks, internet gamers, and hackers. The ability to pull down huge amounts of information, equivalent to feature films, fully functioning desktop applications, or libraries of music, images, and documents used to be beyond the abilities of normal people with normal, store-bought computers. Today, most mobile devices are capable of doing what would have been unthinkable with a tricked-out computer less than a decade ago.
However, while the hardware gets the applause, it is the underlying network that determines just how cool your cool new gizmo really is. While media conglomerates brag about how much 4G they have to offer in every second of air time they can beg, borrow, and steal before the holiday shopping season really buckles down, there is precious little discussion about the systems that deliver this magical new technology. Lately, Verizon has been going for the jugular over AT&T's sparse 3G coverage as the new Droid goes up against the wildly popular iPhone but when Comcast and their partners enter the war over whose high-speed data network is the best, what will they bring to the battle?
It is a battle with high stakes, especially in Michigan as Comcast Cablevision is one of the first and largest supporters of the states' telecommunications industry. Also, as Comcast is a huge regional employer for Michigan, so there are numerous households that rely on the company's dominance in the industry. It is for this reason that their latest gambit is being closely watched by competitors and compatriots alike.
Comcast and their partners have taken to the network wars as aggressively as either AT&T or Verizon, currently slugging it out for holiday sales with their mobile offerings. However, while Comcast has the edge in the video and internet markets (images and sounds travel more efficiently through cable than through telephone lines), conventional wisdom says that the cable giant will need a nationwide high-speed network to compete with what either AT&T or Verizon can offer their customers. However, Comcast has been successful with a business model based on connecting smaller, neighborhood-wide networks and it looks like they intend on carrying that business model into the next-generation network arena. While their competitors struggle to maintain vast, cross-country data networks and the costs associated with them, Comcast has always opted for the most cost-effective method and when they do make the jump to a new technology, it is first and foremost, a proven one.
However WiMAX, the technology that Comcast and their partners are investing in, is widely regarded as obsolete when compared to the tech that Verizon and AT&T are utilizing. LTE or Long Term Evolution is all but universally recognized as the last stage of third-generation wireless technology and its continued development will result in an internationally recognized wireless standard. In terms of deployment and stability though, WiMAX is already the next-generation standard in Korea and 144 other countries where high-speed data access is widely and readily available so the cable providers "safe bet" isn't without merit.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
