WiMax edges closer to city

The future of the Internet was supposed to arrive in Chicago by the end of 2008. Instead, WiMax landed in Baltimore and is heading to Portland.

So when will the powerful, high-speed wireless network arrive here?

It looks like late in 2009, although the newly merged company rolling it out has yet to confirm plans.
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"Chicago is very high on our list," said Todd Rowley, vice president for Sprint's WiMax network, which the carrier calls 4G. "We have many hundreds of cell sites operating already in the area. I hope it will be available in the latter half of the year."

The network already is in place, stretching from Gary to Rockford, but isn't ready to go live.

Sprint Nextel Corp. completed its wireless network merger with Clearwire Corp. in December. In addition, the $3.2 billion transaction includes investments by Comcast Corp., Intel Corp., Google Inc. and Time Warner Cable.

Why did Baltimore get the nod over Chicago?

Sprint and Clearwire wanted to see how well the wireless signals would traverse older homes with thick walls and how it would travel over hills and a harbor. Also, Baltimore's compact footprint was more appealing than Chicago's sprawl.

WiMax has the muscle to compete against the high-speed, land-based home Web connections provided by AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. Yet it also doubles as a cellular network for Sprint, making it accessible from home or the road.

"I was getting 5-megabit-plus download speeds on my laptop throughout Baltimore," said Jeff Thompson, president and chief executive of Towerstream, which offers a commercial WiMax network in Chicago. "To do that on a mobile device, it was amazing."

Launched in September, Sprint conservatively promotes average data download speeds between 2 and 4 megabits per second.

By comparison, for home use, AT&T offers high-speed connections between 1.5 and 6 megabits, depending on price, while Comcast offers speeds as high as 12 megabits.

The next market to get WiMax will be Portland, Ore., expected to be announced next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

A number of WiMax-capable products will be introduced at the show, including some from Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. The strength of WiMax is illustrated by the fact that nearly 500 WiMax devices are in development, according to a recent talk by Ron Resnick, an Intel executive and president of the WiMax Forum, an industry group.

So far, the most common WiMax product being used in Baltimore is a laptop access card. That's what Towerstream's Thompson used to get on the city's WiMax network during his visit.

Sprint also introduced in December a dual-mode modem that plugs into a USB port to access either the carrier's 3G or 4G networks.

By the end of this year, there will be at least one mobile phone, perhaps more, that can access either network, Rowley said. "It's a laptop service mostly today."

Accessing the network costs $80 a month, he said, noting that mostly singles and apartment dwellers in Baltimore are replacing their land-based Internet service with WiMax.

Some Chicago companies are receiving a WiMax signal thanks to Towerstream.

The Providence, R.I., company has offered a version of "fixed wireless" broadband for about 8 years and has been a pioneer in pushing for WiMax standards.

"We have about 1,300 customer connections," Thompson said, with "more than 100 in Chicago."

Those customers receive a WiMax signal to their building, where the signal is then distributed via wires to individual desktops, much like any other business-type IT infrastructure.

But as WiMax networks get more robust, Towerstream will be able to offer customers other services, like roaming with portable devices. "When WiMax starts getting advertised like Wi-Fi did, and I think you'll start seeing that late in 2009, that will really help the market," Thompson said.

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BY Eric Benderoff, Tribune reporter - ebenderoff@tribune.com
Source：Chicago Tribune