WiMax seems to some investors like a mirage. Out there in the future there will be a broadband signal that can blanket entires cities. Wide pipe for everyone. Democracy at work.Well, if you stop into South Korea, it is really going on. Samsung has just released a device that can act as a computer and a phone, using a WiMax signal to feed it. The new gadget can even get TV. Of course, Samsung is not some wacky start-up that is trying to peddle new technology to the world. And, it is headquartered in a market where the government plans to offer WiMax throughout Seoul by the end of next year.Samsung is one of the big backers of WiMax, along with Intel and Motorola. All three companies think there are big bucks in selling WiMax-enable handsets and infrastructure hardware to make WiMax systems work.All of this is hopeful news for Sprint, the gang-that-couldn’t-shot-straight cellular company that competes with Verizon Wireless and Cingular in the US market. Sprint’s integration with NexTel has not gone well. The combined company’s subscriber growth has been poor compared to its rivals.But, Sprint is investing $3 billion to have a WiMax network in the US to handle its next-generation phones. This will put it on a different footing that its rivals who will continue to use the Qualcomm standard.There is hope for Sprint, even if it is an ocean away.Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
Real WiMax: Sprint’s Last Stand (S)(VZ)
Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
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