WiMAX.Pk – WiMAX portal for Pakistan

These are tough times for everyone and Wimax is no exception. Nokia has stopped making their only Wimax-enabled device, the Nokia N810 tablet, only 9 months after it was unveiled. Though it hasn’t ruled out Wimax support in future handsets, this is a temporary setback for the technology
(link).

In addition to that and on a related note, Intel has lost significant amounts of money in acquiring Clearwire which depends on devices like the N810 for the success of its service.

Despite these setbacks, there is hope for Wimax. Ari Zoldan has an interesting article on why the predictions of the death of Wimax are premature (link). We’ll need to wait it out and see where we are in a year’s time when hopefully, the economy will be in a better position.

The next manufacturer to be jumping on the Wimax bandwagon  is Samsung Electronics. Samsung is developing Wimax and LTE (Long Term Evolution) chipsets as part of a strategy that lowers costs and protects them from patent issues.

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Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is planning on its own Wimax implementation which will get underway in 2009. This was announced by Engkos Koswara, an adviser to the government, at an IGOS (Indonesia Goes Open Source) event in Medan.

Given that this technology is currently being adopted by some of the most populated countries on the planet, we will likely see prices fall and more options available, in terms of both the service providers, as well as devices.

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Wateen Telecom, once lauded as having established the world’s largest WiMAX network, has been facing a lot of bad press and technical issues lately.

Firstly, their WiMAX service has become even less reliable. Their customer database has been reset quite a few times in the last year and as of now, I can’t even connect to their network despite having great signal quality.

Secondly, they have been accused of hiring writers to post comment spam on prominent blogs and use shady tactics to promote their service. There is an interesting discussion about it on Green & White.

This could be quite a setback for Wateen which was considered Pakistan’s first consumer-level Wimax service provider. Though Mobilink Infinity is limited to Karachi as of now, it must be eating into Wateen’s share in Pakistan’s biggest market.

Looking at Wi-Tribe’s success in other countries and the amount of investment they are putting in to their operations, they could very well give Wateen a run for its money. It’s time for Wateen to buck up or prepare to lose it all.

Though WiMAX has been getting a lot of coverage and will reach mass market very soon, it could be a victim of its own success. The explosive growth is causing a shortage of WiMAX-enabled devices which could stop the spread of this technology in its tracks.

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