Posted on Jan 19, 2008 - 10:27pm by Mark Spearman in Technology
Pronounced like home. Sprint has new wireless technology coming called Xohm. The technology sounds promising, but as you can tell from the website, there’s too much hype, but not much on the details.
Like most new technologies, the advertising and press releases try to touch on Pavlov’s Hierarchy of Needs -
1.Self actualization – need to grow and use abilities to the fullest; highest need
2.Esteem – need for respect, prestige, and recognition from others as well as self esteem and personal sense of competence
3.Social – need for love, affection, and belongingness in one’s relationships with others
4.Safety – need for security, protection, and stability in the personal events of everyday life
5.Physiological – most basic of human needs; need for food, water, and sustenance
Check the site out and it’s all in there, just without any detailed useful information. The problem is that they don’t tell you details about where the coverage will work or how much it will cost, the two most important facts for most truck drivers. The service is supposed to launch sometime in 2008, but it is unclear where you will be able to get it. The only mention is that that it will start in Chicago because Sprint likes Chicago.
Judging from the tech industries new product awards and previews, I would guess that this technology will be the next wave of the Internet’s future. This could explain the lack in other high-speed wireless services. Those in the know, would not be developing products they know could not compete with Sprint’s service.
I’m no expert, but I do know that there is limited ranges for broadcasting. Sprint has bought the rights to the best frequency for super high speed mobile service, therefore limiting competition in this market. They’re teaming up with Intel and others and they’ve created the buzzword “Wimax Ecosystem” to describe their business partners.
The most interesting thing I see is that there will be no contract model. You will be able to purchase the service on an as-needed basis. This combined with super high speed could revolutionize all Internet service. Imagine how a budget minded person could take advantage of this. They could cancel their cable and phone services altogether and just pay for the Internet service they need to get their phone calls made and download the entertainment and news they need. A trucker could use the same service for his home and away devices if the coverage was extensive enough.
It will be interesting to watch this technology emerge. We can cross our fingers and hope that this replaces some of the aging and sluggish services we currently use.
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WiMax is certainly an interesting technology and seems promising; but with Verizon dumping its WiMax plans in favor of Long Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution (LTE/SAE), it won’t be without competition. I wonder, though, if Verizon scrapped its plans because Sprint and Clearwire already own most of the 2.5GHz band which, as you point out, is the best in the licensed spectrum.
Clearwire is already in operation and, as it happens, available here in Anchorage. Up until early November, 2007, Sprint was loosely partnered with Clearwire (they had a Letter of Intent) and it seems they’ll continue with cooperation in the form of spectrum swaps, roaming agreements, etc. Clearwire will focus on bringing service to more rural areas while Sprint develops the more urban markets. Assuming (always a dangerous thing to do) continued cooperation between Sprint and Clearwire, the roaming agreements and spectrum control could be a big benefit for truckers choosing their service.
As far as pricing goes, service here in Anchorage is available for about $80 per month if you subscribe to both the home and mobile services. If you choose to go with a fixed only or mobile only service it’s about $50. Considering the Clearwire/Sprint ties I’ve got to assume that Sprint pricing will be comparative.
I don’t know what you mean, for sure, when you’re talking about purchasing service on an “as needed basis” but, from what I understand, service is purchased on a monthly basis with contracts of varying length. Clearwire isn’t Sprint so I’m not sure I can use their proposal to me as a guideline but, had I chosen to sign up with them, it was a year to year contract with no penalty for early termination; much better than similar cellular proposals.
The possibilities offered by WiMax technology are wide and many and it should be really interesting to see how everything plays out.
By the way, just a little nit pick, while both Ivan Pavlov and Abraham Maslow were psychologists, it was Maslow that developed the Hierarchy of Needs. Pavlov was responsible for the study of conditional reflexes; hence: Pavlov’s dog.
From what I read, you will be able to purchase small units of Xohm service, kind of like the cell phones that let you prepay. That’s what I meant by an as needed basis.
As for the Hierarchy Of Needs, I was taught that it was Pavlov that conjured it up. No matter, it’s wrong in my opinion anyhow. I’m just tired of seeing them used in every ad I see. It’s good to know what they are so you no when you’re being BS’ed.
Buying blocks of service would definitely be a great option, especially since it’s highly likely that laptop manufacturers will be including WiMax hardware in much the same way that they currently offer WiFi radios, dial-up modems and Ethernet ports. I know that Sprint is estimating its WiMax investment at $5 billion so it makes a lot of sense that they’d try to expand the market to the maximum.
As far as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is concerned, I think it’s pretty accurate. People seek to meet their basic needs, they then seek to secure them, and so on, until, finally, they reach a point at which they’re able to contemplate meeting the more esoteric needs that hadn’t even occurred to them when they were spending all their time scrounging for food and shelter.
What I find interesting, though, is how you’ve correlated Maslow’s theory with advertising. It’s a connection that seems to escape me but I’d really like to explore it further. Since a philosophical discussion of this nature is way off the focus of the blog we shouldn’t carry it on via the comments section but, if you’re interested, you can email me directly at ephaley at gci dot net.
Hah! I was also a bit confused with the Pavlov + Hierarchy of Needs. I studied the famous Maslow theory in school, and it was during a course in consumer psychology. The theory is used in marketing and product development a lot. Marketers would hope that we never become self-actualized - keep that in mind!
I had high hopes for WiMax, but the roll out seems to be taking forever.