BOCC covers 4G wireless
I’m pretty excited about making it to two BOCC events in a row. They are fun and interesting. This weeks’s topic was wireless, and Brian Coughlin from Sprint gave a great overview of what the company is doing around 4g. Brian covered way more than I could capture in my notes. There are pictures and video (see below) too. Here are some nuggets of goodness:
- 4G is really WiMax, for Sprint at least. Other carriers may not agree, especially if they are not going to adopt WiMax as their 4G standard. Brian noted that Sprint’s use of 4G as shorthand for WiMax is a bit of a misnomer since it will run concurrent with the 3G CDMA network for a long time. (see next point)
- Sprint’s 4G strategy is to have it coexist with 3G. 3G is designed for voice and ubiquity (coverage), whereas 4G is for mobile data where voice would be VoIP. Seems a bit redundant at first but makes sense. 4G will have higher bandwidth and thus be able to support a whole new generation of services. Device types will have overlap but could be different as well.
- In case you are thinking…”um, 3G isn’t even fully rolled out yet, what’s this noise about 4G”, Brian and Sprint see them both running together and reiterated that 4G is going to take years to roll out and there is still lots to figure out like upstream bandwidth from the towers, etc.
- Sprint believes 4G/WiMax ecosystem should be more “open” and the network provider should be viewed as a value-add onramp or ISP rather than traditional lock-in carrier.
- Further to the point about openness, I think the more interesting news here is that Sprint is bucking the trend and leading innovation in the mobile space by embracing more of an Internet service model with 4G. Acting and thinking more like an ISP is part of their philosophy around 4G, which is pretty cool. Check out this interview with Sprint VP Atish Gude, where he talks about building the “mobile Internet” and how they are following the open model of the Internet. I hope this means goodness for us consumers, and that when my 2009 iPhone which of course has WiMax support sees a sprint network, I can hop on just like I do at a WiFi hotspot. (No lock-in between device and network or 2 year contract to get online)
- The chipset for 4G is lower cost and higher bandwidth than 3G. Good for consumers! I heard 1Mbps upstream mentioned.
- Sprint has a number of public 4G partnerships in place including deals with Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Intel. Intel is working on adding WiMax to the next gen Centrino chipset. Check out their presentation on it here. It’s pretty clear from what Brian said, and what you can find on the Sprint site that they are really encouraging device manufacturers to start adopting WiMax and take a leadership role for the broader market of independent hardware producers and mobile app developers.
- Talk of next-gen location based apps also. There are three ways to do mobile location based services currently; single cell-tower location, cell-tower triangulation, and GPS. GPS is the most precise but also the most expensive and only works outdoors. Some interesting discussion around privacy issues came up when we started talking about location based services. The specter of a legal subpoena for cell network records to verify someone’s physical location at a point in time came up. Scary…How do you know who’s holding the phone?
Brian also mentioned the Sprint Innovations Portal and the Sprint Developers Portal as a places to learn more and share application ideas with Sprint. BTW, I’m sure I missed some good stuff so feel free to add comments or send in corrections. Uploading some video now.
Google Video of Brian talking about 4G bandwidth here
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