The battle between the cellular carriers and the WLAN providers over municipal wireless networks is continuing. A recent report in The Oregonian lays out the current status, including the legislative efforts happening behind the scenes. Intel is coming out as a major proponent of municipal networks and they are being very matter-of-fact about their motivation. They expect to sell a lot of WIMAX gear if these networks are popular, and if city governments are interested in setting them up they certainly don’t want to discourage that interest.

Ultimately the issue goes beyond just city governments. WIMAX is a real threat to the cellular carriers no matter who deploys it. The carriers have a tight web of patents that makes theirs a very closed club, and WIMAX threatens their very existence. If they can strangle this baby in the crib they will do so any way they can. Look out for an attempt to tie up any spectrum that can be used for WIMAX as the next phase of this conflict.

What is at stake for embedded systems is open access to ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Cellular networks are notoriously difficult to access by non-sanctioned devices, and the costs for setting up access can far outstrip the cost of the device itself. We once tried to get a developer’s kit from Qualcomm for CDMA. Our call asking for information was returned by a lawyer threatening us with a patent infringement lawsuit. We foolishly expected that Qualcomm would want devices using their networks, but we weren’t in the club.

Larry Mittag