Qualcomm: WiMax isn't magic  But it's creeping up  3GSM Qualcomm
rarely needs an invitation to comment on the WiMax bandwagon,
and when we met Senior VP Jeff Belk Wednesday, it so happened he
had a presentation ready.  His timeline slide compares the
maturity of UMTS and CDMA EV-DO to 802.11, .16 and .20, and what
do you know? UMTS and EV-DO are here and work, and WiMax is
somewhere in the smoke and mirrors phase. Belk joked that he
used to use a similar slide for comparing GSM and CDMA, only
that used to have "issue press release" as the first entry.
"WiMax is being presented as a Magic Wand solution," he said,
"but it isn't". While the technology holds great promise for
reducing backhaul costs, he said, as a voice/data replacement
carriers aren't convinced.  "WiFi and WiMax will be
complementary," he said, warning carriers not to be caught in
the middle.  "You can never discount Intel," he said, noting
that the Santa Clara giant has struggled to gain much traction
with its own 3G offerings.  With 3G speeds