Tipping in WiMAX favor

It appears that there are two things that tip the balance in WiMAX’s favor,


1. Internet’s open-standards approach - This will allow them to address a sizeable internet ready market instantly.

2. Popularity with Infrastructure vendors - Intel – Montevina chips (also called Centrino Duo) to get to the next billion users, Motorola offering WiMAX modems, PC Cards, and multimode phones. And am sure there are other vendors with similar intentions. It is the investment by the vendors that drives the next round of infrastructure upgrade.

The game changer for WiMAX could be Google since Sprint has its own problems and Clearwire may not have the deep pockets to go on their own. Google is using negotiating tactics to get to the wireless operators who do not want to open up their network (and making it difficult for Google to make money). By bidding for the wireless spectrum Google’s motivation would be either to

1. Increase the price of spectrum for the wireless providers. This would surely be an aggravation for the mobile operators, OR

2. If they win spectrum, then use that to provide WiMAX to promote the mobile Internet and other service plans they may have based on the Android platform. In this case, Google will monetize the mobile internet the way they did it with the wire-line internet.

Clearwire will need a partner and for a really win-win situation, this partner could be any of the Internet companies with deep pockets - Google is what comes to my mind.