Crumbs
Rich T finds some tasty titbits you might have missed in the week's news
Tuesday 26 June 2007, 6:37 PM
Wimax rollout costs breed concern
Just as the prospects of wireless broadband were looking up, there's some bad news.
Recent news that Ofcom would allow increased power in Wi-Fi basestations and Vodafone's supposed Wimax testbed in Malta had increased the prospect of some decent networks being rolled out in the UK.
But it looks like it's not going to be a cheap business. Sprint, the US operator, is going to spend some $3bn, or £1.5bn, on its Wimax network. That's a lot of dough, and its investors are worried.
Some have started questionning its strategy, and Sprint may now have to seek an infusion of cash for the network.
Even if the full $3bn rollout goes ahead, Sprint still has to get this money back in revenues from someone.
And Sprint has the advantage of scale, which can't be harnessed to the same extent in the UK.
Pipex Wireless has made a brave first move this side of The Pond, following where many others have failed.
Let's hope our early optimism was justified.
Recent news that Ofcom would allow increased power in Wi-Fi basestations and Vodafone's supposed Wimax testbed in Malta had increased the prospect of some decent networks being rolled out in the UK.
But it looks like it's not going to be a cheap business. Sprint, the US operator, is going to spend some $3bn, or £1.5bn, on its Wimax network. That's a lot of dough, and its investors are worried.
Some have started questionning its strategy, and Sprint may now have to seek an infusion of cash for the network.
Even if the full $3bn rollout goes ahead, Sprint still has to get this money back in revenues from someone.
And Sprint has the advantage of scale, which can't be harnessed to the same extent in the UK.
Pipex Wireless has made a brave first move this side of The Pond, following where many others have failed.
Let's hope our early optimism was justified.
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