Xohm Blog

Lots of Frustrations with Cellular, and WiMAX can be part of the Solution

thehereweb — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:38:15 GMT

There's an increasing chorus of frustration with the state of the market for wireless products and services, with some notable examples of this including:

Walt Mossberg, Wall St. Journal \\"Free My Phone\\"
Tim Wu, Columbia Law School \\"Wireless Carterphone\\" (pdf)

Well I'd like to point out many of the complaints raised Tim, Walt and consumers in general are being addressed by WiMAX both as a standard and as an emerging market, not to mention also by our own plans for XOHM.

Don't just take my word for it; consider Kevin Fitchard, Editor for Telephony magazine and Telephony Online, who IMHO gets what were trying to do with his Open Letter to Sprint: Don't Give Up on WiMAX.

Wimax Love

Sam — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:14:31 GMT

Credits to Golden Earring for the tunes, and of course Sean Maloney for the vid.

Stay the Course

rick — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:04:30 GMT

That's Barry West down there on the lower balcony, in the blue shirt (sorry for picture quality). Barry is Xohm's president and Sprint's CTO, for those who don't know. He addressed Xohm staffers today reminding all that in spite of the larger organizational changes we are still on track to roll out our nextgen network and services, and that all should stay the course.

So far so good.

Then again I'm not sure what else he could say. That is, Sprint's future arguably rests on his shoulders and the collective shoulders of all Sprint employees who are pulling for this effort. Where else can we go? Slow down on wireless broadband - the mobilized Internet of Xohm - to focus on the handset business? Might be a tad short-sighted.

Update: Yeah, it's becoming more clear around here (based on what we're hearing in the halls) that the company would de-emphasize WiMAX at its own peril. Questions remain about execution and whether the core (Sprint Proper) would take more control over daily operations but that, too, is starting to look silly. And executives are grasping the reasons why. Will the board and new leaders be as astute? Dunno.

Forsee's Foresight

rick — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:00:32 GMT

Dear Sprint Board of Directors,

We're sorry to see Gary go, primarily because he was a supporter of our plans over here at Xohm. One can only hope you, the Board, our interim CEO and Sprint's eventual new leader will share Gary's enthusiasm for all the potential bound up in WiMAX.

Some of you might recall watching AOL (a neighbor of ours in Virginia) go through a struggle similar to Sprint's as they realized, just a bit too late, that the world was going broadband while they were drunk on dialup subscriber dollars. Would be wise to learn from that and try staying one step ahead of our customers' desires by laying out a future that anticipates their needs rather than following them.

I have a feeling they'll thank us in all the right ways.

Sincerely,

1 Xohmer

Update: Washington Post's take (might require login); kansascity.com's take

Sprint's Xohm on GigaOM

Marielle — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:04:12 GMT

Just want to share this article which was posted on GigaOM today. Includes a brief interview with Motorola's CTO and features a video about Sprint's WiMAX plans with Barry West and some footage from Chicago:

http://gigaom.com/2007/10/03/for-motorola-wimax-promise-of-a-comeback/

Making the "Here" Web a Reality @ XOHM

thehereweb — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:10:49 GMT

In setting up my blogging account, I chose the ID 'thehereweb' for very specific reasons. Before working at Sprint, I worked for 7 years at Sun, and was lucky enough to hear Bill Joy speak in person several times. In particular he has spoken about six different variations of the Web, the most significant of which for most people he termed the Here Web.

IMHO, this "Here Web" is exactly what we're building here (ahem) at XOHM, only we're doing it the right way as compared to what has preceded it. Specifically XOHM will be

Internet Centric. XOHM uses WiMAX which is inherently designed for IP data services and wide-area coverage. Other cellular networking technologies were designed for voice first, with data as an added feature. Sure WiFi is also data centric, but was never intended for wide-area coverage so has issues scaling up to cover larger areas.
Open. WiMAX is an open, both as a standard and as a carrier network. WiMAX chipsets and devices are certified independently by the WiMAXForum . Once a device is certified, it will be allowed onto XOHM's network (and onto any other WiMAX network); in other words there should be no such thing as a WiMAX device 'locked' to a particular carrier's network.
Leveraging a more rational business model. WiMAX devices will follow the business model already proven in WiFi. One major example - no device subsidies! The cost of a cellular handset, especially the cool new ones, is subsidized by the carrier to lower the upfront cost. But the initial savings comes at the price of long-term service contracts, cancellation penalties, and locked handsets.
Ready for Mobile Device Diversity. Because of the reasons above, we expect WiMAX to become embedded into a lot more things than just handsets and laptops in the long run.
Context-aware. One key value in mobility is the ability to have some context about one's circumstances. Of course Location is a key component in which Sprint already is a market leader, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned ...

So if you can't already tell, we @ XOHM are excited about the future, and we think we have good reason to be.

No. Way. (Actually, yes way - the United Way)

rick — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:56:53 GMT

So, I try to dress appropriately most days here at Xohm: Pants. A trimmed shirt. Unsensible shoes. Sometimes those pants are actually jeans - I'll call them dungarees because that's a funnier word. Dungarees.

Anyway, dungaree-wearing people are looked upon with a smidge of suspicion 'round SprintVille (Xohm's motherland). Imagine my delight seeing the below flyer telling me that for just $10 I can not only wear dungarees but i can pair that with my favorite football team jersey. These truly are the salad days...

Wonder what will happen if I wear my team's colors on the 3rd?

Oh, check out this blogger's take on last week's WiMAX World. I hope we don't screw it up.

Winning Before Beginning

rick — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:23:27 GMT

So it's a little odd, perhaps, to be named the best of anything in the WiMAX arena even before a commercial network is out there for consumers to hammer on. But hey, we're not giving it back either!

Xohm won the "Industry Innovation award" at WiMAX World, rounding out a pretty good week of announcements and demonstrations.

Barry West: "Rock Star"?

Stubing Approved...

rick — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:26:55 GMT

(from Gizmodo)

OK, we couldn't resist. When Love Boat Captain Merrill Stubing salutes your successful trial it's time to salute back: thanks Cap'n!

At What Price, Internet?

rick — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:46:14 GMT

...well, whatever you can afford, sort of...

We're starting to communicate our intentions around pricing for the Xohm service with plans for monthly and daily access - with no stuffy contracts. Use us as you like and move on if you want. But we hope people will stay

Chicago is Our Kind of Town

rick — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:42:14 GMT

Now this is cool...

The dream of true untethered broadband connectivity is nearly upon us dear US-American readers. Last night, Sprint and Motorola teamed up to do a live demonstration of Sprint's Xohm-branded, mobile WiMax service on the Chicago River. Fortunately Ars Technica was there to take all the 4G action in for the benefit of mankind. An impromptu benchmark courtesy of Speedtest.net clocked the 802.16e WWAN network at more than twice the speed (in both directions) of Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A network. In fact, Ars called their Xohm experience "far superior" to Verizon's speedy EV-DO service...

Check out engadget's report here.

Telecom and Internet and Wireless - Oh My

rick — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:07:36 GMT

Thanks to Telco 2.0 for it's friendly funnin' about our little blog. All I can say is I suppose I'm glad I was not at Earthlink either (though plenty of cool things came out of that group).

Now back to our program: The angst continues here at Xohm as we continue to press together extremely smart people primarily from one of two backgrounds that will build our foreground (ok, weak analogy): telecom wireless and internet.

There's not only a fundamentally different way of looking at the business, there are different methods being defended of getting to point b from point a on the product development front. If that weren't enough, there's also the lingering disagreement over who knows best about the wireless network side: Sprint or Nextel. All this makes for a mighty interesting time around the office.

And while we know capturing interest around "local" (content, LBS, utility apps, etc.) is an obvious target for next year's Xohm members, we're not all sold on how to feature media content. That is, streaming movies and television are cogent tools to employ in showcasing the possibilities of a mobile internet network. It's cool. It fires the imagination. It brings life to PMPs and the like. But if the network is not "everywhere" at the get-go, leaving consumers with an experience that is fixed and portable - I have to wonder how people will react to an absence of that kind of media experience in some spots within their city (feel free to comment on this in the blog). Obviously something we're all focused on and the network team is working hard to tackle.

At least that's one place where it's irrelevant if you're from Sprint or Nextel, telecom or internet.

It's Going to Rain Bits

rick — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:13:06 GMT

This is so not right... (in fairness to ths Verizon guys, I admire their self control - even tho some of you were holding shovels and other pain-causing intsruments)

Heavn help us to overwhelm our members with a tempest of invisible broadband goodness.

Consumers Should Be Empowered

rick — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:57:14 GMT

As I'm discovering, RF is perhaps just as much an art as a science (yes, I'm from the Internet world not the wireless telecom domain) so at least one of the items here is possibly unrealistic. Most of the others are likely logical to a typical consumer.

The Enemy Within (?)

rick — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:49:21 GMT

You might recall me pointing out Ross Rubin's column for Engadget about WiMAX recently - it covered his perspective on Xohm's presentation of the technology. Rubin followed up with Part 2 and pointed out some of the potential pitfalls, none of which is a surprise but interesting to observe nevertheless.

Rubin points out:

Xohm can help its own cause. If it can breathe new life into existing devices or help spur new popular ones (say, a wireless, portable DVR / video viewer), it will drive demand and differentiation from the cell phone. However, as Sprint embraces retail consumer electronics, it will see that -- on some level -- the enemy is itself, a familiar position for a company that has juggled hosting the wireless networks of Helio, Disney Mobile, its cable joint venture Pivot and its own Boost.

True, perhaps, but he also writes:

Finally, while WiMAX is all about speed, Sprint's competitors are saying "Not so fast." Both the CDMA and GSM camps will be turning up the volume on their next generation technologies UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) as WiMAX hits its stride in 2009 or 2010. AT&T and Verizon will benefit from the scale of focusing on one kind of wide-area wireless network and one kind of access device that trumps the volumes of any other.

I have to take issue with the premise "we're all about speed." There's so much more, actually - certainly speed will be a noticeable differentiator but look for that combined with location, low latency, high capacity, mobility and price (as a whole package) being what it's all about. Great, now I sound like a flak... time to stop typing.

Anyway, the column is here.