WiMax It!

The name is called XOHM and many of you may still not know who that is BUT you should. XOHM is supplying the U.S. with WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) a wireless data system and Baltimore city (my hometown) became the 1st city in the US to launch this service. Check out the video interview with Sprint CEO Dan Hesse as he talks about WiMax and betting the Sprint farm on it.

I picked up one of the express cards the 1st day it was available and have been running tests the past couple of weeks. My BOTTOM LINE? Blazing fast man! I was getting speeds on the download like 4-5Mbit/sec and in the same spot on my EVDO broadband card I was getting like 1.5Mbit/sec. No lie in some spots I got download speeds of 7 Mbit/sec. Now, I recognize alot of people may not be on the service just yet and that it’s prob not realistic to get 7Mbit/sec continually, XOHM is advertising speeds between 3-5Mbit/sec. I was able to pull up The Office episode on HULU, play a youtube video and broadcast on Ustream at the same time without a glitch. Ohhh and I took it in the car too for a drive to see if the connection would hop from tower to tower that was pretty seamless too.

For the techie in you the difference between WiFi and WiMax is that WiMax broadcasts on the 2.5-GHz portion of the radio frequency spectrum, which is a higher frequency than the 2.4 GHz that WiFi (the 802.11b/g/n standards) runs on. It’s also different because it has a longer range, one WiMax enabled tower can reach 30 or so miles as opposed to several hundred feet from WiFi. To really compare this you should think of a home DSL or cable broadband connection while you’re mobile! That’s what this is like. I know this is a “Want it Wednesday” post but you can only get it right now in Baltimore. Why Baltimore? Because we are the geek capital? NOT! Sprint/XOHM engineers said they needed a test bed that wasn’t too large but dense and an urban environment that would have alot of frequency challenges with buildings etc…They are doing a national rollout of XOHM WiMax check their site to see when service is coming your way www.XOHM.com. Upcoming cities are: DC, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia and others. When it comes to your area it’s worth a look for sure, especially if you are in a city with 3 or fewer options right now for broadband.