Comcast's New 4G Wireless Broadband Service and the Jamaican Equivalent

WiMAX Antenna installation
Originally uploaded by koolb

Comcast the, largest cable operator in the USA, is now offering 4G wireless service.

It will bundle this service with its existing broadband products and will use Clearwire's 2.5 GHz spectrum to operate the 4G service.

[Clearwire and Sprint Nextel formed a joint venture company in 2008 which combined both companies' WiMax network to provide the USA with its first nationwide broadband network. Other investors in the network include Intel and Google.

WiMax offers faster speeds than current 3G technologies but offers wider coverage than other high-speed wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi.

Transmission (sending and receipt of data, video and audio) occurs via antenna set up on buildings (or via the antenna in the WiMax data card that is plugged into a relevant slot on a laptop/notebook) that are in direct line of sight of a satellite in the sky - similar to how transmission occurs via a satellite dish].

Picture of Motorola WiMax PC card

The Clearwire WiMax service permits 4 Mbit/s download and 500 kbit/s upload speeds.

Clearwire is up and running in Atlanta, Baltimore and Portland, Oregon, but plans are afoot to roll the service out to 80 markets nationwide, by year end, in cities like Las Vegas, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas/Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia, and Seattle.

New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston, and the San Francisco Bay Area, will get the service in 2010.

According to article,"Comcast to offer 4G wireless broadband service":

"New customers signing up for Comcast's triple play bundle of TV, phone, and Internet can add the 4G wireless component for $30 extra a month. So with the introductory price of $99 a month for the first year, the total would be $130 a month. After the first year, that bundle increases to $130 per month, so it would cost subscribers with the 4G wireless service $160 a month.

For subscribers who want more ubiquitous coverage, Comcast is offering a 3G/4G service that provides wireless connectivity on the Clearwire 4G network when it is available and on Sprint Nextel's 3G wireless service in other areas where 4G is not available. The cost of this service is an additional $20 per month".

This is an interesting contrast to current mobile and wireless service being offered in Jamaica:

Digicel has decided to use WiMax (go the wireless route) to offer its broadband service while both LIME and Claro have chosen to go the mobile route and migrate up from GPRS and 2.5G (EDGE) to 3G.

LIME is boasting download speeds of 7 Mbit/s for its 3G network, while Claro is boasting download speeds of up to 1.5 Mbit/s. 

[All this for between JMD $2,000-$3,500 (US $22-$40) per month for Claro and between JMD $2,550-$4,500 (US $29-50) per month, for LIME].

What subscribers need to mindful of, however, is that the  "as advertised" upload and download speeds actually degrade when these providers implement the service, due to degraded signal quality due to distance from main transmission facilities, the terrain and the condition of transmission equipment.

Digicel has been using WiMax technology since 2006 and is said to be offering 4G service soon.

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Well, all this competition is great for the Jamaican consumer...greater bandwidth, means increasing use of mobile/wireless video and audio...not just for business, but for personal use...

Which is a definite winner among the youth and baby boomer market who will want to play multi-user games, upload and download pictures and videos on filesharing sites and keep in touch with friends and loved ones on social network sites like Twitter and Facebook.

So let the wireless/mobile games begin!

Jamaican and American subscribers surely do need the break!

Gillian

Sources Include

1) Article, "Comcast to offer 4G wireless broadband service", by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News, June 29,2009

2) Report - Bank of Jamaica's Foreign Exchange Trading Summary (FULL REPORT), June 29,2009

3) Article, "LIME 3G hits the market - Roll-out starts in the capital, islandwide coverage to be phased in", Jamaica Gleaner News, June 24,2009

4) Claro, LIME ads on Television Jamaica, CVM Television and their respective websites.

5) Article, "Sprint Nextel to spin off Wimax network" by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News Blog, May 6,2008

Comments

[Gillian Campbell]

Hi Wireless Broadband Antenna,

I agree, let's hope that the Jamaican government sees it this way and will allow greater wireless broadband competition, in Jamaica. :)

Gillian

[Wireless broadband antenna]

After reading the post on "Comcast's New 4G Wireless Broadband Service and the Jamaican Equivalent" i feel that it's a good news for customer and also for a new company.