I find it interesting that Comcast says they’ll be offering the service, when really they’re doing no such thing. They’re offering Clearwire’s service and splitting the bill. At any rate, if you have Clearwire in your area, chances are you’ll soon be able to get it through Comcast and bundle it with your TV and stuff for a better price. Portland will be the first to see the service, so you Oregonians can do your little victory dance. I’ll wait.

The service, called “Comcast High-Speed 2go Metro” because someone thought that was a good idea, will run you $73 a month, but call now and you can get it for $50, a savings of $23(RIP Billy Mays)! You can also throw down an extra $20 to get access to Sprint’s 3G network. Not my style, though. For a blogger, the internet is his leash, and if you’re carrying it around with you, you’re never off. That’s assuming we’re ever really even on.

The first thought that popped into my head after reading the headline “Kabul Goes Wimax” was, “Wow, Kabul has Wimax, and my T-Mobile BlackBerry can’t even get EDGE.” (Note: I’m about an hour north of New York City, also known as “upstate.”) The embedded video has all you need to know.

The great thing about this is, it shows the Internet being used for what it should always have been used for: spreading knowledge and ideas for he betterment of society. Sure, tweeting what you had for breakfast is fun and all, but you can’t help but feel that it is such a misuse of the technology.

But what do I know; I’m a noted cynic.

Photo: Wikipedia

Chances are that most users will not take advantage of the option for a while, but Sprint is slowly rolling out the fast wireless Internet access across the Nation to more subscribers. Besides WiMax though, Dell is also considering implementing LTE access to its notebooks, which makes all of us AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile subs a bit happier.

What else would he do? It’s his stuff. You didn’t expect him to talk about Sprint’s major woes and how the wireless carrier is losing subs left and right? Hells no. WiMAX for life, playa!

The device – called the U300 – is made by Franklin wireless and will cost $149 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in-rebate. It’ll also be available in Baltimore-area Best Buy stores early next year. Customers will be able to purchase a $79.99 per month data plan that includes both 3G and 4G access – 4G, of course, only being available in Baltimore at the moment.

Seems like it might not be a bad idea to roll this thing out in markets OTHER than just Baltimore so that people signing up for a 3G data plan don’t blow a fuse once 4G rolls out in their city and they have to go buy yet another device.

Remember, though, this new Sprint WiMax initiative is contract-less so if you’re planning to go 4G-only, you might want to just wait until it’s fully available in your area since adding 3G to the mix requires a two-year contract.

Full press release:

Sprint Extends 4G Leadership with Nation’s First 3G/4G Dual-Mode Mobile Broadband Service

The ultimate wireless broadband device delivers both 3G and 4G, revolutionizing mobile broadband and giving customers the best of both worlds

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 17, 2008–Sprint (NYSE: S) is about to make wireless history again by bringing the mobile broadband future to its customers now. The 4G leader announced it will make the first 3G/4G dual-mode device, which operates on both the Sprint 3G and 4G networks, available in retail stores Dec. 21.

The Sprint 3G/4G USB Modem U300 delivers the power of the Now Network(TM), the nation’s largest and most dependable mobile broadband 3G network*, while also harnessing the turbocharged speeds of WiMAX on the new Sprint 4G network. Sprint launched 4G in Baltimore in September and plans to launch in other markets across the country throughout 2009. This versatile device will enable customers to experience blazing fast Internet access, greater productivity and enhanced multimedia quality throughout 4G markets, and offer access to the dependable Sprint 3G network virtually everywhere else. The 3G/4G USB modem represents another major development in truly un-tethered broadband access.

"Sprint intends to be the leader in 4G and bring the wireless Internet to life," said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. "This first-of-its-kind device allows our customers to take the Internet with them essentially wherever they go by gaining enhanced speed and capability in 4G markets and the nationwide coverage of our 3G network across the rest of the country."

Sprint 4G represents a shift in the way people will use mobile broadband. Businesses, consumers and governments will be able to extend their Internet experience beyond home or office use. For the business customer, a typical user experience might be the ability to participate in a video conference from anywhere within the coverage area in a Sprint 4G city while sharing and retrieving large data files in just seconds. For consumers, it might be the ability to download a song in several seconds or a movie in significantly less than an hour while in the park or moving through the city, three to five times faster than 3G networks. The Sprint 3G/4G USB modem will access mobile multimedia applications at average downlink speeds of 2-4 Mbps within Baltimore Sprint 4G service areas. Where Sprint 4G service has yet to launch, the dual-mode device will operate on the Nationwide Sprint Mobile Broadband 3G Network at average downlink speeds of 600 Kbps – 1.4 Mbps.

The Sprint 3G/4G USB Modem U300, manufactured by Franklin Wireless, is a sleek, easy-to-use data card which connects to a standard USB port. The device is priced at $149.99 with a two-year subscriber agreement, after a $50 mail-in-rebate. Beginning Dec. 21, customers can purchase the USB data card via the Sprint direct business sales force, at most Baltimore-area Sprint stores and at select Baltimore-area retailers. Starting in January, the device will also be available in Baltimore-area Best Buy stores. With the Sprint 3G/4G USB Modem, customers living in and traveling to Baltimore will be able to work even faster while on-the-go. For $79.99 – just a $20 premium on any mobile broadband connection plan – customers will have simple-to-use access to the best possible mobile broadband connection: 3G or 4G. The Sprint Connection Manager recognizes and connects to the fastest connection available. For more information, visit www.sprint.com/4g

"The availability of this first dual-mode mobile broadband device further demonstrates Sprint’s leadership in 3G and 4G services," said Todd Rowley, vice president of Sprint 4G. "Our future device portfolio of single-mode 4G devices, embedded 4G laptops and dual- mode 3G/4G devices will continue to demonstrate our commitment to WiMAX."

Sprint is the first and only national wireless carrier to offer customers its 4G network and 3G network on one device. As 4G service continues to roll out in other cities, Sprint customers with dual-mode devices will be ready to take advantage of its super-fast speeds and will ultimately experience new forms of interactive communications, high- speed mobile Internet browsing, social-networking tools, local and location-centric products and services and city-wide broadband access to multimedia services including music, video, mobile TV and on-demand products.

[via eCoustics]

Wireless provider Korean Telecom reportedly signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Apple to combine “WiBro, a third generation-based communications technology, with Apple’s hit products such as the MacBook laptops and iPod media players,” according to Unwired View.

WiBro is similar to the WiMax and LTE technologies currently being deployed here in the US except that WiBro has been available to consumers in Korea since mid-2006 and many mobile devices contain WiBro-capable chipsets already. So it’s not huge news that Apple Korea would want to add WiBro connections to the products it sells there.

What is interesting, though, is Unwired View’s theory that Apple might be using the WiBro standard as a test market for later deploying its devices on, say, WiMax or LTE networks later.

“[T]ake a closer look at what kind of technology WiBro actually is. It’s an early version 802.16e standard, which today stands for a thing called Mobile WiMax. Yes, the very thing that Sprint and hundreds of companies around the world are busy deploying right now. Many of them are not wireless carriers and have  big plans to compete with them. Including the voice services via VoIP.

But while a lot of Mobile WiMax deployments are coming around the world, the things will take time to ramp up. WiMax carriers need to build out their networks and services, get the devices for them, educate markets and make users comfortable with new offerings. Sure, in a few years we might have millions of WiMAx subscribers. But not now and not next year.

Meanwhile we already have one, and only one, market in the world with developed Mobile Wimax infrastructure, services, and hundreds of thousands and soon millions of users. Korea. And the biggest WiBro carrier there is KT.

So what better place to test and try new products for a new emerging standard? E.g. just put a Wimax chipset into an iPod touch, add a microphone and speaker, plus VoiP client software – and you’ve got all the iPhone functionality for Mobile Wimax. I’m not even talking  about MacBooks, where Intel already has hybrid Mobile Wimax/Wi-Fi chipsets on sale.”

Now it’d be foolish for Apple to not eventually offer WiMax/LTE devices here in the US in 3-5 years once widespread adoption has taken place. The VoIP angle, though, is of particular interest. If these wide-area networks become ubiquitous enough, what would Apple need AT&T for? It may still offer some sort of iPhone for people in areas without WiMAX or LTE coverage, but it may be that we eventually witness the iPhone and iPod Touch slowly merge together into one device – either literally or figuratively.

It seems like Apple would rather go it alone anyway. Sure, it currently needs AT&T as a wireless partner in order for the iPhone to be successful but if we had inexpensive, near-ubiquitous broadband connections (what WiMAX and LTE promise) and the iPod Touch could do VoIP, how many iPhones do you think would be sold at $70 per month?

Right now you can really only hit up the WiMax in Baltimore, but Sprint is working on dropping another $5bn into the rollout of a nation-wide network. Deep pockets! Maybe Sprint can help with the national debt.

Boy, with all these laptops sucking up the signal, they might want to put those WiMAX points on higher ground!

Pricing and plans vary with four different offerings. A daily pass will set you back $10 while home service is $25. $30 will get you a month of ‘on-the-go’ service and $50 will allow service to two different devices.

Oh, and it looks like Washington D.C. and Chicago are up next. Do we have any Baltimore residents in the audience?

The WiMAX rollout should be right ’round the corner and Motorola is here with the USBw 100 adapter just in time. The companies first WiMAX device is coming in three tasty flavors – 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5 GHz – to ensure a compatible version is available for your network’s frequency range. Thanks to multiple antenna technology and some Motorola wizardry, the USBw should provide seamless WiMAX network access. Pricing wasn’t announced, but Motorola at least let us know that it’s coming before the end 2008’s fourth quarter.

The biggest issue with 4G networks is handover. When you’re speeding down the highway, your cellphone and wireless devices constantly hop from station to station, picking up connectivity as you go along. In a perfect world, this handover is seamless but, as we all know, in the real world it isn’t poifect.

Nortel just tested their LTE standard with vehicles moving between coverage sites at about 60 miles an hour, a fairly large breakthroug in the 4G LTE spae. When will you get to use your own LTE dongle? Not in a while, sadly, but keep dreaming.

According to Twice.com, Chrysler’s parts division will begin selling “a Mopar car cellular/Wi-Fi hot spot, expected to be the first of many Internet offerings from the car companies” starting August 25th.

The hotspot device will be compatible with all 2009 Chrysler vehicles and certain earlier-year models. Customers will be able to order new cars with the device installed or bring compatible cars into Chrysler dealerships to have it retrofitted.

The router will cost $499 and will grab EVDO signals as well as WiMAX signals. The CEO of Autonet Mobile, the company that supplies the device to Chrysler, says that the router can be converted for use on all cellular networks. I’m assuming since Chrysler’s pushing EVDO, this will either be a Sprint or Verizon affair.

Interestingly, the monthly service charge will only be $29. That actually seems reasonable. Again, the device itself costs half a grand and you’ll need to fork over $35 to $50 for installation, followed by a $35 activation fee. The service will be sold by Chrysler as “Uconnect Web” starting at the end of the month.

The service will be offered to consumers in Baltimore starting in September. It’s been tested in Chicago and the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area but September will be the first month that XOHM will be commercially available to everyone.

Chicago and Washington D.C. will get the service officially as well, likely not long after Baltimore. Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse said that the two cities would get XOHM later this year, according to InfoWorld. It’d stand to reason that a more widespread rollout would ensue early next year.

Sprint claims speeds of 2-4Mbps per user on the XOHM network. I’ll be most interested to see how it’s priced. If the monthly fees are aggressive enough, we might just see people ditching their cable and DSL connections altogether.

They’re saying WiMAX is the future, and it may well be, and many are gambling thusly. Flyvo is doing just that with this WiMAX-enabled handheld gaming system, the G100.

Featuring a 4-inch touchscreen and powered Windows CE (!?) Pro 5, the machine’s outfitted to play many games already available at sites like PocketGear.

It has WiFi and Bluetooth as well for multiplayer gaming and 4GB internal memory, not bad at all. It’s hitting SoKo first, but we should see it here by next spring. If it takes off, it could be the first mass market casual gaming device that could take on the coming iPhone wave.

Intel is previewing the chipset in an Asus laptop and showing the WiMAX networking as it applies to gamers. Intel’s hoping to ship the chipsets at the end of summer.

WiMAX is the future of connectivity, and Intel know it. With service already available from companies like Clearwire, and others like Sprint promising nation-wide networks this year, Centrino 2 is going to be a hot seller for Intel.

An older technology, InspiAir was supposed to be the Wi-Fi of its day. It cost less than Wi-Fi and offered a 1 mile signal radius and considerably lower power at about 1MBps. A Dutch company, KMC Systems, bought the rights to the technology, renamed it Max-Fi, and could be rolling it out in the next few months in Europe.

Max-Fi gear was recently chosen by the Port of Antwerp, which has covered 30 square kilometers with just 14 access points. The network, which is currently in test, will support CCTV cameras for harbor control, voice-over-IP for port operations, and Internet access for visiting ships.

Interesting… is WiMax dead in the water? There have been quite a few moves to avoid WiMax in urban situations and even if Xohm takes off, that leaves plenty of room for some sort of Wi-Fi — after all T-Mobile and AT&T bet on the technology over even 3G cellular in most markets.